the Official Baseball thread

[YelseyKing]

The terrible losing steak ends :')

They certainly made a valiant attempt to keep it alive, though... yeesh.

[pholtos]

I may be the only one who thinks this but I despise home runs.

[InsaneIntentions1]

My team wouldn't win games without the long ball >:

[pholtos]

I don't know whether to be impressed or facepalm at this. It happened today.

[Bean]

Cards on a roll at home, winning six of seven. Adam Wainwright on the mound against the last place Phillies to start the new road trip... and loses. Agh!

[InsaneIntentions1]

The Braves are hunting for one of those WC spots since the Nats won't lose

[YelseyKing]

Cards on a roll at home, winning six of seven. Adam Wainwright on the mound against the last place Phillies to start the new road trip... and loses. Agh!

For a last place team, the Phillies have... certainly not *acted* it of late. An incredibly difficult-looking schedule where they had to face the Cardinals, Mariners, and Nationals -- all *very* good teams -- and... somehow they won all three series. Including *sweeping* the first place Nationals. Crazy.

[Bean]

Washington and Baltimore wrapped up their divisions, LAnaheim is about to do the same with theirs, Dodgers and Giants duking it out for the NL West, and Cards took the NL Central lead but are struggling to hold it with a surging Pirates team on their tail... Going to be an interesting final two weeks.

[InsaneIntentions1]

We've all but been eliminated at this point

[RedMageSusie]

There's always next year...and the year after that...and the year after that...

[pholtos]

Being honest here. Been annoyed for months about this whole Jeter fairwell tour. Yeah he's a good player and he's an icon in a way but I'm honestly thankful this season is almost over just to have all this nonsense stop.

[Bean]

You know ESPN and other networks will run with it because it's a New York player. I wish it was more like the NFL and how they'll talk about actually relevant teams (The Cards and Orioles are barely getting any attention right now), but no, we must talk for 10-20 minutes a night about a player that was great and is getting ready to retire now. Oh well.

Oh, and the Cardinals have clinched a playoff spot for the fourth straight season. First time in franchise history.

[YelseyKing]

Sigh. Not one of my five teams looks to be making the postseason this year, barring an end-of-season miracle rally by the Mariners. Que sera sera, I guess. I suppose I'll root for the Orioles or the Pirates or some other underdog team I rarely see have success. Or maybe the Nationals, because their manager is former Diamondbacks star Matt Williams. Or perhaps the Tigers, who have several players I like. Well, at least I have *choices*. Just as long as it's not the Cardinals or Giants again. I've quite thoroughly had my fill of seeing those two teams in the World Series.

As for Derek Jeter... I saw an article about him on Facebook not too long ago about how for all the praise he gets about being a "selfless team player", there's a lot more to suggest that he's more about his "icon" status than about the good of the *team*. For starters, the Yankees trade for Alex Rodriguez years back, at the time considered the best shortstop in the game (i.e. before the guy devolved into a parody of himself). Does Jeter move to a different position to accommodate their new superstar acquisition? Hell no. He stays at short, where he's defensively quite average, while A-Rod has to learn a new position; something which may have, now that I think of it, been at least partially to blame for the sharp decline in his overall productivity.

Moreover, Jeter has had a remarkably lackluster performance this season, but he insists on playing every day (or at least the manager/GM/owner insists on playing him every day), and always in the number two spot in the lineup. If he was a true "team player", he'd acknowledge his slump and "take one for the team", letting himself get moved lower in the batting order, or even sitting out a game here or there, so that younger players having better seasons can, you know, actually *help the team win*.

It's strange to say about the Yankees I so hate, but in many ways, this feels like a throwaway season for them; one where they care more about an iconic player's final hurrah than they do about actually getting to the postseason. They still technically have a *chance*, but as they surely should have discovered over the last few years, their making the postseason is no longer an automatic thing they can just take for granted.

[RedMageSusie]

Sigh. Not one of my five teams looks to be making the postseason this year, barring an end-of-season miracle rally by the Mariners. Que sera sera, I guess. I suppose I'll root for the Orioles or the Pirates or some other underdog team I rarely see have success. Or maybe the Nationals, because their manager is former Diamondbacks star Matt Williams. Or perhaps the Tigers, who have several players I like. Well, at least I have *choices*. Just as long as it's not the Cardinals or Giants again. I've quite thoroughly had my fill of seeing those two teams in the World Series.

As for Derek Jeter... I saw an article about him on Facebook not too long ago about how for all the praise he gets about being a "selfless team player", there's a lot more to suggest that he's more about his "icon" status than about the good of the *team*. For starters, the Yankees trade for Alex Rodriguez years back, at the time considered the best shortstop in the game (i.e. before the guy devolved into a parody of himself). Does Jeter move to a different position to accommodate their new superstar acquisition? Hell no. He stays at short, where he's defensively quite average, while A-Rod has to learn a new position; something which may have, now that I think of it, been at least partially to blame for the sharp decline in his overall productivity.

Moreover, Jeter has had a remarkably lackluster performance this season, but he insists on playing every day (or at least the manager/GM/owner insists on playing him every day), and always in the number two spot in the lineup. If he was a true "team player", he'd acknowledge his slump and "take one for the team", letting himself get moved lower in the batting order, or even sitting out a game here or there, so that younger players having better seasons can, you know, actually *help the team win*.

It's strange to say about the Yankees I so hate, but in many ways, this feels like a throwaway season for them; one where they care more about an iconic player's final hurrah than they do about actually getting to the postseason. They still technically have a *chance*, but as they surely should have discovered over the last few years, their making the postseason is no longer an automatic thing they can just take for granted.

You know, I believe I read that same article. But yeah, it seems kinda silly to have that retirement tour. Had he played for any other team, this wouldn't have happened. It just seems like a Yankees ego thing. Like, "we're the Yankees. We're baseball's most important team. You should care about us."

That said, he was still a good player and no one can take that away from him. But I've heard enough. The Jays v. Yankees broadcast was terrible last weekend. The broadcasters couldn't shut up about Jeter every second. (Essentially, this was the broadcast transcript: http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2014/9/20 ... they-would)

[InsaneIntentions1]

At least Chipper Jones was batting over 300 in his final season

[Bean]

The Pirates want the NL Central. Are you a bad enough team to stop the Pirates? Actually, it's kind of funny how things have worked out for them. Pittsburgh has been playing either teams in last place or falling apart all month outside of the Cards.

[YelseyKing]

The Pirates clinched the wild card tonight, at the least. Only time will tell if they can take the division.

Man, sucks so bad for the Brewers... they held first place for the entire season -- and looked unstoppable *doing* so -- before just crumbling into dust in late August and throughout September... now they're a distant *third*. Yikes.

Personally, I'd like to see some completely off-the-wall, unexpected World Series, like... Orioles and Pirates, or Tigers and Nationals. Angels and Dodgers is too cliche, and interleague "natural rivalry" series every flarking year has cheapened that one anyhow. Tigers and Cardinals... seen it already.

[YelseyKing]

Sorry about the double post, but on the topic of Derek Jeter... I just found this on Facebook... Ahahahahahaha. Love it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/2 ... 70860.html

[RedMageSusie]

XD That's brilliant!

[InsaneIntentions1]

That's a hell of a way for Jeter to end his Career as a Yankee

[YelseyKing]

That's a hell of a way for Jeter to end his Career as a Yankee

I gotta admit, that *was* pretty awesome.

Though, if I was Jeter, I'd have hung it up right then and there, bid farewell to the fans and the team, and basically said the hell with the last series. The Yankees are mathematically eliminated from the postseason in any capacity, so he'll neither be hurting nor helping his team by doing so. His walk-off hit tonight is a *much* better way of going out than should he, say, go hitless in the very last game of the season... which is at *Boston*, to boot.

[YelseyKing]

Amusing notes about this last day of the season:

In 2013, the Marlins threw a no hitter on the season's final day. This year, they *got* no hit on the last day of the season. (The first no hitter for the Washington Nationals, to boot.)

The Mariners Book Ended their season. They started it with a sweep of the Angels, and they ended it with a sweep of the Angels. Sadly, the A's also won today, which officially eliminated them from the postseason... sigh... So close... so very, very close... :(

[RedMageSusie]

Amusing notes about this last day of the season:

In 2013, the Marlins threw a no hitter on the season's final day. This year, they *got* no hit on the last day of the season. (The first no hitter for the Washington Nationals, to boot.)

The Mariners Book Ended their season. They started it with a sweep of the Angels, and they ended it with a sweep of the Angels. Sadly, the A's also won today, which officially eliminated them from the postseason... sigh... So close... so very, very close... :(

Yeah, it's quite unfortunately. I would've loved to see them and the Royals duke it out just so we'd have something new in the postseason. But there's still some really good teams left in there and it'll be interesting to see who goes all the way.

Just thought this might be an interesting read before it actually begins: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-p ... to-ignore/

[pholtos]

Congrats to all the teams the made the postseason this year.

I'm probably the only one hoping for this but a Cards - Royals WS would be nice to see in my lifetime.

[Bean]

At least they have replay now if it came down to it this time. I have the Orioles defeating the Cards in the World Series.