AL playoff picture

[rm5678]

9 hours ago, ShoelesJoe said:

Royals lose, now 3 games back of us in the loss column. 
Twins lose, now 5 games back of us in the loss column. 

It's looking more & more likely that it will be O's vs. Royals in the wild card series.

[Just Regular]

Marcus Stroman joined Nestor Cortes and Cole Irvin with a Save as Clubs start putting to bed the 5-man rotation necessary for 162 and shift towards amoeba pitching staffs.

Albert Suarez looks tired to me.   There's nothing that can happen from here to undo the great success of his 2024, but I hope the hook is very fast if his next turn doesn't go all the way to being a pre-planned bullpen game.    

The Tigers somehow beat Cole Ragans in Kansas City on a Casey Mize day because you can't predict baseball - they have Skubal going for the road sweep in the finale

[Brooks The Great]

On 9/15/2024 at 10:38 AM, gtman55 said:

I agree with this and totally feel like they often bring guys up and let them rot on the bench as opposed to letting them develop as big league hitters. Although regarding your list I wouldn't include Westburg or Cowser. 

Cowser and Westburg were both platooned for mediocre vets, so I definitely include them. Cowser and Westburg played more compared to Ortiz, Norby, Mayo, and Kjerstad, but all those young players: 

1. Didn't play every day when they were first called up (when all - except for Stowers - should have and could have)

2. Were benched/blocked more than they should have been in favor of mediocre/awful vets, which is the underlying developmental and roster management flaw that Elias and Hyde have caused and enforced

Edited 22 hours ago by Brooks The Great

[Brooks The Great]

On 9/15/2024 at 11:39 AM, eddie83 said:

You don’t take proven players out of a lineup so a kid can play. On a 70 win team you do that. Not with a contender. 
 

Can’t play everyone. 

Yes you can. When those "proven" players have proven that they are terrible hitters - as Eloy, Slater, and Rivera clearly are this season, and before them Jorge Mateo and Adam Frazier - you can absolutely play a rookie who's an elite prospect over them. 

[Just Regular]

Just saw the SEA-NYY highlights from last night, and if you were opposing Luis Gil and he was wild to the tune of loading the bases on walks and a HBP and had run a 3-0 count 25 pitches deep in the 1st inning, is that the moment you would pick to try and steal home?

That's what Victor Robles did.      

A baseball game of "A lot to a little" quickly ensued.

Edited 21 hours ago by Just Regular

[Spy Fox]

5 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Just saw the SEA-NYY highlights from last night, and if you were opposing Luis Gil and he was wild to the tune of loading the bases on walks and a HBP and had run a 3-0 count 25 pitches deep in the 1st inning, is that the moment you would pick to try and steal home?

That's what Victor Robles did.      

A baseball game of "A lot to a little" quickly ensued.

What surprised me about the clip was that Robles arguably "should" have made it. He was watching Gil the whole time, and if he started his dash like a half second earlier when Gil picked up the rosin bag, instead of right when he was about to drop it, it probably would have worked. 

Still, horrendous situational awareness. 

[Just Regular]

Hopefully the deep and abiding friendship between Victor Robles and Justin Turner won't be too strained by the incident.

The Astros played a thrilling game out West last night too.

Now is kind of a digging in Zen moment because a lot of wonderful baseball is being played, and the Orioles still get to participate as best they can.

The Rangers 2024 results kind of make 2023 look like more of a blip, and the long term principle the Astros are the AL's best team until proven otherwise look more sound.     Sure, Corey Seager beat Alex Bregman in one Game 7 and had other good stuff happen so he could win that "Everybody said what was gonna happen...I guess we'll never know" exchange.

Now Bregman can say we know what happens if the Rangers lose 200 runs year over year, and wait to see if the Rubenstein budget lets the Orioles bid higher than Dana Brown.    Just in case, you know, Elias feels like Robinson Chirinos, Adam Frazier and Corbin Burnes' teaching "how to win" hasn't been enough.

[LookitsPuck]

Tigers on their way to a W. Guardians do the O’s a fav and beat the Twins in extras.

[Wavetrapper]

2 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

Tigers on their way to a W. Guardians do the O’s a fav and beat the Twins in extras.

It doesn’t look like Minn, KC, or Orioles have much interest in October baseball 

[bpilktree67]

We now have the same magic number vs the Tigers and Twins at 6.  We have the tie breaker officially on the Twins because the best they can do is 3-3 vs us and then it goes to each teams record in their division which at the worst it can be another tie and then the intra division of your record vs the other teams division and compare those two which gives us a tie breaker on them.  The Twins have the harder schedule as well, so even though they have advantage over the Tigers we already have the advantage over them but not Tigers.  

[Warehouse]

8 hours ago, bpilktree67 said:

We now have the same magic number vs the Tigers and Twins at 6.  We have the tie breaker officially on the Twins because the best they can do is 3-3 vs us and then it goes to each teams record in their division which at the worst it can be another tie and then the intra division of your record vs the other teams division and compare those two which gives us a tie breaker on them.  The Twins have the harder schedule as well, so even though they have advantage over the Tigers we already have the advantage over them but not Tigers.  

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-playoff-tiebreaker-rules

This says third tiebreaker is effectively intra-league league, which we can still lose to the Twins.

[Just Regular]

More baserunning hijinks by Seattle late on the West Coast.    They really have livened up the first cup of coffee the past couple days.

I won't describe the play so as not to spoil easily available highlight videos.     On Mariners Hangout, the fan base has already been granted the manager change...what do they do now?

[Hey now]

I hate it say, but with the way the O's are playing right now...they'll be out in the wild card round.  Freaking unbelievable that they can't get it together.  

[Tony-OH]

13 minutes ago, Hey now said:

I hate it say, but with the way the O's are playing right now...they'll be out in the wild card round.  Freaking unbelievable that they can't get it together.  

First off, welcome to the Hangout.

It's hard to see this team doing anything in the playoffs as they've pretty much imploded this September when we hoped they would turn it back on.

I mean, we never know, but unless a miracle turn around occurs, whoever gets the Orioles in the first round is going to have it fairly easy.

[Fiver6565]

11 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

First off, welcome to the Hangout.

It's hard to see this team doing anything in the playoffs as they've pretty much imploded this September when we hoped they would turn it back on.

I mean, we never know, but unless a miracle turn around occurs, whoever gets the Orioles in the first round is going to have it fairly easy.

They still need to win a few games to get there. I still don’t understand why people are acting like that is so certain (quoting you but not referring to you, per se). 
 

3-8 in the last 11. 11 games left. In all seriousness, what makes anyone think we can even go 3-8 in the next 11?  We are bad in every single phase of the game and we’re playing against teams who have everything to play for (other than SF today, and they’ve pretty easily handled us this week already). 
 

These last two games against SF, especially last night, have convinced me they’re going to fully blow this. We’ve already shown that Detroit can handle us. Probably going to lose to Webb today. Then it’s NY in NY. When is the last time we beat the Yanks in a late season series that mattered to both teams?  Ever? This team certainly isn’t the one to do it. And then it’s do or die in MIN. Anybody believe we can take 2/3 there?  I just don’t see a path to more than three wins, and even getting three doesn’t seem remotely certain. I think we’ll be lucky to win one game each of these last three series. Maybe that’s enough, but I’m far from sure they can even do that. 
 

What’s the counterpoint to this?  Injury returns?  Too late for that IMO. Just start playing better?  What would make anyone believe that’s going to happen after 3.5 months of bad baseball? For real, someone tell me what they’re seeing that makes them think even 3-8 is going to happen in the next 11.