Pandemic Baseball 2020

[dr. b 492]

Today is Opening Day, let's get ready to play ball!

 

Since all the sports went away in March, I almost completely stopped caring about or consuming sports media. Haven't listened to a podcast or read a blog post; I think I've only used my Athletic account like two or three times in the last 3-4 months. And I'm definitely not sitting around at home watching archived games, old highlights, etc. But this morning I read a primer on the Jays' roster for this summer, and all of a sudden I'm feeling kinda excited and hopeful to see what these kids can do. I guess tomorrow I will officially end my sports diet to start watching Jays games.

 

Who else is going to be watching Opening Day? Did you check out the Opening Night games last night? What teams / players are you looking forward to seeing this summer?

[Garlic Junior 136]

First game being called off due to rain just sums up 2020

 

Caused a lot of contention in my Fantasy leagues as the SPs technically got Complete Game points

 

Don't remember a lot of the Dodgers game, except once again regretting drafting Joc Pederson

 

Mets game was typical Mets fare

[dr. b 492]

Mets gonna Mets, that's just how it goes.

 

The Jays are up 6-3 late in the game now, but their 8th inning guy has pitched himself into a bit of a jam. This team has talent but wins are not going to come easy. They could be "scrappy and surprising" good, but they're not going to be "we're obviously better than you" good. (Or they could just turn out to be bad )

[dr. b 492]

And the Jays are 1-0!

[Garlic Junior 136]

Got some interesting bets on random teams to win the WS. If ever there was a year for a nonsense team to win it at high odds, it would be this year.

[Eizan 126]

Outbreak already starting. Marlins have quite a number of players testing positive. 

[dr. b 492]

The Jays should have gone 2-1 over the weekend, maybe even 3-0, but the bullpen let them down Giles looks like he's going to be out for a while, which kinda sucks. I'm not a huge fan of Giles, but when he's pitching well he does get pretty good results. Who knows, maybe none of it matters. The Marlins have 8 players and 2 coaches (according to the report I read) that have tested positive and have had to cancel their home opener. Is this the beginning of the end already..?  

[dr. b 492]

This Marlins thing isn't good. Two games postponed today. I'm not sure how the Marlins can go back to playing games any time soon... I wonder if they will have to start forfeiting games? I guess the Phillies are on hold until tests come back for all their players and staff as well. I assume they will require double negative tests.

[Eizan 126]

Yeah, I don't know how they would do it. 

 

They do play the same teams a lot, so maybe figure in double headers?

[dr. b 492]

The amount of time they might to quarantine before that though... That's a lot of double headers! It would be like old school baseball. 

 

Too bad the players union and league couldn't agree on playing in a bubble without travel. I'm sure they could have gotten something together in Florida or Arizona with all the club's spring training facilities. 

[dr. b 492]

The Jays' weekend series with the Phillies is cancelled. The Marlins of course still aren't playing. Just saw an article about the Cards on The Athletic:

 

Quote

The Brewers’ home opener, originally set for Friday afternoon, against the Cardinals was postponed because an unknown number of Cardinals players tested positive for COVID-19, according to various reports and confirmed by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

 

Another team down Apparently they're planning to play the games Saturday/Sunday as long as the rest of the Cards test negative. A negative test isn't really worth much though. Players could still start exhibiting symptoms and test positive just a few days later. A negative test today is don't mean much when they've recently been in contact with teammates who had the virus. The league ought to know better than this.

 

It's getting harder and harder to imagine this shortened season actually getting finished.

[Rulkster 47]

I honestly would be surprised if we got another 2 weeks.

[dr. b 492]

I wonder if they will try to finish the season with fewer teams if COVID issues persist with e.g. The Marlins. Can't help but feel like it's all going to fall apart soon though. 

[Rulkster 47]

They're scrambling to try and hold it all together. Sounds like they plan to just do tons of double headers when the teams heathy

[MDSup3rDup3 12]

Confirmed positives in 2 of the 3 playing groups (East & Central), oddly enough all in the National League. I give it 2 weeks before they are forced to shut it down.

[Eizan 126]

The A's benefit the most from a late start. They just completely skipped the slow pre-All Star break start and just picked up where they usually start winning. 

 

Only to probably blow it against the Yankees or something again in the playoffs. 

[dr. b 492]

I actually watched the Jays lose twice yesterday

[Eizan 126]

Hey, could be the Mariners. I mean I expected to team to be bad so I'm not disappointed or anything. 

 

But best thing this season so far...the Red Sox losing. 

[dr. b 492]

The Jays have won 5 games in 4 days  I didn't get to watch a second of any of the games  Caught a bit on the radio though. 

 

Also did I read the box scores wrong or are teams only playing 7 inning games for double-headers? 

[Eizan 126]

Yea, when it turned out that the Marlins and Phillies would be playing a lot of double headers, they agreed to have 7 innings on days teams played 2 games. Trying to make sure the teams don't burn out pitchers I think. 

[dr. b 492]

So many bullpen days this summer

 

I'm still excited that baseball is back, but I have to admit that I haven't _really_ enjoyed what I've watched. Not as much as I used to. It feels like the games have gotten even slower if that's possible. The pace of play rule changes don't appear to be working. Pitchers seem to be throwing fewer fastballs - lots of breaking stuff and other slop - and so many at bats go long, full counts, etc. I guess with all the homeruns these days, pitchers are not willing to give in and throw fastballs as much because the hitters will make them pay. They lean more on their breaking pitches. It really is a three true outcome game now. And with so many pitching changes every game, it feels like nobody - pitcher, hitter, or us fans watching at home - can get into the rhythm of the game. 

 

I dunno, maybe they need to deaden the balls a bit. I think they're juiced

[dr. b 492]

I wonder if they'll play games today. Apparently the Jays/BoSox had just taken the field yesterday when news started going around about the NBA strike. Other MLB games were walked out on, but the Jays game went ahead. They won, though it's hard to say how focused the players were on the game with all the stuff going on.

 

Also the Jays traded for Taijuan Walker today. If the season keeps going then they'll definitely need the pitching help. Sounds like the cost to acquire him wasn't very high either.

[Eizan 126]

I'm all in on the Padre train. I mean Dodgers still probably represent the NL, but lets go San Diego and Tampa Bay World Series. 

[dr. b 492]

I'll cheer for the Dads

 

The Jays made some moves at the deadline that might make them a bit more competitive. They are in on the Wild Card race. All the teams behind them are bad so their position seems fairly safe if they keep playing well. They probably won't get far in the postseason, but I'll be excited anyways!

[Eizan 126]

Brewers scored 19 Runs yesterday, Braves scored 29. Is this football? 

[dr. b 492]

29 runs is nuts, but I think the 19-0 shutout is perhaps more impressive. The Tigers only had 2 hits the whole game  

[dr. b 492]

The Blue Jays lost 18-1 tonight

[Garlic Junior 136]

Some of these scores have been insane lately. My fantasy team is so volatile.

[dr. b 492]

Maybe the balls are juiced. There has been a lot of speculation about the balls over the last two seasons. Some of the opposite field homeruns you see these days don't look like they're hit well enough to be homers, it's weird. The ball just kinda gets flung over the fence. 

[dr. b 492]

The Jays (26-20) are in second place a half-game ahead of the Yankees (26-21) in the division standings. Tomorrow they start a three game series @ NYY and then they have a four game series in Buffalo next week These are big games for both teams. Let's go Blue Jays!

[Eizan 126]

So how does the 16 teams work? I assuming top 2 teams in each division + 2 Wild Cards? 

[Garlic Junior 136]

19 hours ago, little birdy said:

The Jays (26-20) are in second place a half-game ahead of the Yankees (26-21) in the division standings. Tomorrow they start a three game series @ NYY and then they have a four game series in Buffalo next week These are big games for both teams. Let's go Blue Jays!

 

Might finally be the BJ's time.

[dr. b 492]

18 hours ago, Eizan said:

So how does the 16 teams work? I assuming top 2 teams in each division + 2 Wild Cards? 

Yep. From an ESPN article:

 

MLB is implementing an expanded 16-team playoff format for the 2020 postseason. The top two teams in each division, plus the two remaining teams with the best records in each league, will make up the eight-team fields in the American and National Leagues. The division winners will be the top three seeds in each league, with the second-place teams slotted as seeds four through six, and the remaining two qualifiers seeded Nos. 7 and 8.

 

The first-round matchups will follow a 1-vs.-8, 2-vs.-7 format and will be best-of-three series, giving things a March Madness feel.

 

Even if the Jays drop behind the Yanks in the AL East standings, they're in a good position to be one of the 7/8 seeds - unless they really fall apart down the stretch. I like Toronto's chances in a best-of-3 series. They don't have the starting pitching depth for a longer series, but they do have Ryu and a bunch of very solid arms in the bullpen. And the ability to score runs. I can see them stealing a first round series from a better team. If the next round goes to best-of-7, then it's a different story. In any case, it's all very exciting and I'll be happy even with a first round exit as long as the games are competitive.

 

1 hour ago, Garlic Junior said:

Might finally be the BJ's time.

2015 was supposed to be their time, stupid Royals The 2020 Jays team is very young. Lots of potential, but also quite a few holes that need to be plugged. If the young core keeps developing and they add some more complementary pieces to the team, then I think they could really be competitive in another year or two. This year expectations are lower and just making it into the postseason is a victory.

[Garlic Junior 136]

I've been enjoying following them. Had a few bets on them to win the WS so finger's crossed.

[dr. b 492]

Fingers and toes crossed! They're definitely not a favourite to win it, so I assume those bets would pay out pretty well if they do win it.

[Garlic Junior 136]

Yeah like 26* your stake

[dr. b 492]

Steve Cohen to buy the Mets

 

Congrats Mets fans, the franchise might finally turn around once the Wilpons are out of the picture.

 

Cohen will need approval from 23 MLB owners to acquire the team, and if they sign off on his purchase in November, he’ll own 95 percent of the franchise, according to

Tim Healey of Newsday.

 

Still one more hurdle to get over before it's actually final, but if there was any real concern about the other owners not approving of the sale then I doubt things would progressed this far.

[dr. b 492]

The Jays are down 20-3 in the bottom of the 8th and we've got a position player pitching  

[Garlic Junior 136]

I'm loving all this position player pitching and multiple days of double-headers. This season is nuts. I am also crushing Fantasy as I sussed out early on that just dumping your pitchers and picking up whoever is likely to go several innings is better than holding on to aces for 1/2 games a week maximum, and praying you don't get hit by COVID/weather delays.

[dr. b 492]

Yeah, this is definitely the summer of the bullpen. What I'd like to see when it comes to position players pitching, is the team on the other side of the blowout also putting a position player out on the mound. When the Yanks were were up like 19-3 last night and they pulled their starter, why even bother with a reliever from the bullpen? Especially if the guys in the 'pen need a bit of rest. Just put a backup infielder on the mound for a couple innings. The game was over.

[dr. b 492]

Another day, another blowout

[dr. b 492]

The Yankees really kicked the shit out of the Jays this week The scores were 20-6, 13-2, and 10-7. Lots of homeruns were hit against Jays pitching. Last night the Yanks hit 5 homers in a single inning! Ugh.

[Garlic Junior 136]

On 9/16/2020 at 9:41 PM, little birdy said:

Yeah, this is definitely the summer of the bullpen. What I'd like to see when it comes to position players pitching, is the team on the other side of the blowout also putting a position player out on the mound. When the Yanks were were up like 19-3 last night and they pulled their starter, why even bother with a reliever from the bullpen? Especially if the guys in the 'pen need a bit of rest. Just put a backup infielder on the mound for a couple innings. The game was over.

 

Exactly man, exactly. I suppose though imagine the headlines if the position play blows a 16 run lead?

[dr. b 492]

That 16 run lead was unblowable Their hitters still had time to pile on some more runs if they really needed to. 

[dr. b 492]

Now we're losing 7-0 to the Phils. Uuuuggghhhhhhh 

[dr. b 492]

They lost both games of the double-header yesterday  How will they lose tonight?

[dr. b 492]

It feels like everyday for the past week I've seen a new notification from the MLB app about teams clinching the Postseason. The Rays have clinched, the A's, the Twins, the Dads, the Yankees... meanwhile the Blue Jays just kept lose lose losing The finally won a game yesterday - phew - and are still looking fairly safe for a Wild Card spot. But they really can't afford another big losing streak

[Garlic Junior 136]

It's great how many "outsider" teams still have a shot right now. The Marlins could win it all ffs. 2020 is wild.

[Eizan 126]

Mariners postseason drought will still continue...

[dr. b 492]

14 minutes ago, Eizan said:

Mariners postseason drought will still continue...

It's comforting to know that some things are still normal in 2020