Major League Baseball 2017

Go Dodgers

Can't believe how clutch JT is. I'm cracking under the pressure and I'm just watching!

It was a pleasure to see a well played game in under 2.5 hours.

Well this one wasn't 2.5 hours but it got exciting! Go Astros!

This was an epic game (and no I left it after nine innings), the kind of game that can turn a series around. The immediate comparison is the 75 series between the Reds and Red Sox when Cincy won game two in Boston from behind in the ninth to tie the series. The Reds ultimately won it in seven games, so we will see what happens here.

my favorite part of the game is seeing the first pitch thrown out by the likes of the Robinson family, Vin Scully and Fernando Valenzuela.
Now in Houston, it could be Biggio, Nolan Ryan, or someone like that.
If they get back to LA, maybe Koufax or Tommy Lasorda.

Totally agree on the first pitch ceremony. Has it really been 36 years since Fernandomania?

Girardi out. I liked Joe.

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleD:
Girardi out. I liked Joe.

Yup. And the Nationals could use a skipper. Hmmm... I wonder if the Lerners will find a way to blow this. Probably the best option out there for the Nats.

PH

Sorry to see this. Starting pitchers might like it though.

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleD:
Girardi out. I liked Joe.

He will manage next year if he would like.

quote:

Originally posted by wine+art:
He will manage next year if he would like.

No doubt, but a cushy broadcasting gig might appeal. He's young enough that I'm guessing he'll stay in the dugout for now. I give the Nats an 80% chance of landing him unless the Lerners stay irresponsibly frugal. We'll see.

PH

Red sox manager fired after two consecutive seasons finishing first. Both years they were 24 games over .500
Girardi fired by Yankees. Three first place finishes. This year the wild card, and went to game 7 of the ALCS.
Dusty Baker fired by Nationals. Two seasons and finished 1st both times.

I am not sure I understand this.

quote:

Originally posted by irwin:
Red sox manager fired after two consecutive seasons finishing first. Both years they were 24 games over .500
Girardi fired by Yankees. Three first place finishes. This year the wild card, and went to game 7 of the ALCS.
Dusty Baker fired by Nationals. Two seasons and finished 1st both times.

I am not sure I understand this.

Me neither. I have no idea who the Yankees will go to.

quote:

Originally posted by PurpleHaze:

quote:

Originally posted by wine+art:
He will manage next year if he would like.

No doubt, but a cushy broadcasting gig might appeal. He's young enough that I'm guessing he'll stay in the dugout for now. I give the Nats an 80% chance of landing him unless the Lerners stay irresponsibly frugal. We'll see.

PH

I heard his son is an excellent athlete in high school and he may choose to take a couple of years off to better enjoy this time in his life.

http://www.houstonchronicle.co...sh-eyes-12313171.php

With all the talented young players on the team and a couple more coming up this Spring, I wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees went with their AAA manager.

quote:

Originally posted by g-man:
http://www.houstonchronicle.co...sh-eyes-12313171.php

Pretty awful. I'm no fan of the Dodgers, but the behavior of the Astros is making it tough for me to root for them either. If you hit a home run, act like you've done it before.

What a jerk! What happened to sportsmanship and the belief that ridiculing your opponent was not proper? When Jimmy Brown scored a touchdown, he let the ball drop in the endzone and ran back to the sideline. Mickey Mantle put his head down and ran around the bases. Julius Erving and Bill Russell never rubbed it in.

I know I have been spoiled with Scully and the rest of the Dodgers TV crew but Buck and Smotlz are terrible.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:
What a jerk! What happened to sportsmanship and the belief that ridiculing your opponent was not proper? When Jimmy Brown scored a touchdown, he let the ball drop in the endzone and ran back to the sideline. Mickey Mantle put his head down and ran around the bases. Julius Erving and Bill Russell never rubbed it in.

the only sport with sportsmanship is golf. Players call penalties on themselves. They congratulate each other for winning. It's not universal, but nearly so.

quote:

Originally posted by GlennK:
I know I have been spoiled with Scully and the rest of the Dodgers TV crew but Buck and Smotlz are terrible.

Agree on Buck and Smoltz, but I never liked Scully. I thought he sounded like a robot. Best baseball broadcaster, IMO, is Jim Kaat. He blends experience with wit and intelligence.

Without a dog in this race, it's a very exciting series.

Kershaw has a 4 run and a 3 run lead and completely spits the bit, much less can’t even give your team 5 innings.

A great regular season pitcher. The conversation stops there.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:

quote:

Originally posted by GlennK:
I know I have been spoiled with Scully and the rest of the Dodgers TV crew but Buck and Smotlz are terrible.

Agree on Buck and Smoltz, but I never liked Scully. I thought he sounded like a robot. Best baseball broadcaster, IMO, is Jim Kaat. He blends experience with wit and intelligence.

Without a dog in this race, it's a very exciting series.

Up here in Canada we have Buck Martinez who covers the Blue Jays during the regular season. So far he's doing a great job with this World Series.

What an exciting game to watch, even though it took over 5 hours to play. Several times I thought the Astros were done in a must win game. Both teams were striping the ball, some of which was great hitting some due to poor pitching.

Go Astros!

quote:

Originally posted by wine+art:
Kershaw has a 4 run and a 3 run lead and completely spits the bit, much less can’t even give your team 5 innings.

A great regular season pitcher. The conversation stops there.

Except the first game against the Astros when he went 7, gave up only 3 hits and struck out 11 against the best offense in baseball. He has not matched his regular season highs in the playoffs for sure but the narrative that he hasn’t been effective at all in the playoffs is false.

Great series so far. The Astros lineup is so scary. Altuve is unreal.

Hoping we can force a game 7 tomorrow.

This series has been fun to watch.

quote:

Originally posted by GlennK:

quote:

Originally posted by wine+art:
Kershaw has a 4 run and a 3 run lead and completely spits the bit, much less can’t even give your team 5 innings.

A great regular season pitcher. The conversation stops there.

Except the first game against the Astros when he went 7, gave up only 3 hits and struck out 11 against the best offense in baseball. He has not matched his regular season highs in the playoffs for sure but the narrative that he hasn’t been effective at all in the playoffs is false.

Unfortunately, he has proven thus far to be nothing more than a career postseason .500 pitcher with a postseason ERA of 4.50.

Too pedestrian and too unreliable. Maybe he can help coming out of the bullpen since he failed to even get out of the 5th inning in his last start.

FUN series thus far!

I'll add Jansen to the list of underperformers that came in with a lot of hype and comparison to Mariano. He looks very hittable in his second inning of work.

Game 7 tonight. Last night was fun.

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleD:
Game 7 tonight. Last night was fun.

Not as fun as game 5! I hope for a little more action tonight

With no dog in this race, after Darvish gave up 2 in the first and had men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs in the second, I was yelling at the TV, "Why is Darvish still in this game?"

I'm rooting for the Astros but am curious how many people they're going to let McCullers hit before they pull him out. Sheesh.

Congrats to the Astros!

Was at the game tonight. The crowd was just out of their mind to start the game and then before you could blink it was 5-0 and our balloon was popped. Astros are a great young team and will be tough to beat if they can get some more pitching depth.

The future for the Dodgers is bright as well with lots of young guys and some nice prospects in the pipeline. Overall a great season that came up one game short. Congrats to Houston.

Congrats to the Astros. I know the feeling their fans must be experiencing today.

DoubleD- I think they are looking for you on the baseball site. Your turn to make a wine pick.

VM

Yay Astros! Good for Houston!

Thanks Vino Me.

About the game last night, I really thought the Dodgers would make a more exciting of it. They must have had a runner on base every inning and a few runners for several innings.

That was a great series between two fantastic teams. It turns out that game two was the pivotal game as it altered the Dodgers bullpen rotation.

Great 5 game series...not surprisingly, after the epic game 5, the final two were really dull...a reminder of why I don't watch any baseball from April through September anymore.

For the life me, though, I don't know why Roberts didn't start Kershaw...he had only pitched a total of 11 innings in the previous two starts...Bob Gibson pitched three complete games in the 1967 WS!