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skidmarkgn

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There's already an official 2014 MLB thread out there but that's 2014.  Seems like we need just a regular baseball thread we can use year after year that (hopefully) won't get buried and disappear, so here it is.

 

Anyways, Mariners fan here, which isn't easy.  Now that the Bills have made the playoffs I'm pretty sure the M's are now the owners of the longest playoff drought in all of the major sports.  Hopefully this year they can at least grab a wild card spot.  I mean, they definitely have the lineup, they also have the bullpen, it's the rotation that worries me.  Oh yeah, turns out being in the AL West doesn't help either.

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I'm looking forward to the Indians getting themselves together and actually finishing what they started. I know they historically start out slow, but when they hit their stride, they're a great team. Here's hoping they stay healthy and catch fire at the right time! #GoTribe!!

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2 hours ago, skidmarkgn said:

There's already an official 2014 MLB thread out there but that's 2014.  Seems like we need just a regular baseball thread we can use year after year that (hopefully) won't get buried and disappear, so here it is.

 

Anyways, Mariners fan here, which isn't easy.  Now that the Bills have made the playoffs I'm pretty sure the M's are now the owners of the longest playoff drought in all of the major sports.  Hopefully this year they can at least grab a wild card spot.  I mean, they definitely have the lineup, they also have the bullpen, it's the rotation that worries me.  Oh yeah, turns out being in the AL West doesn't help either.

Wow... Even worse than the Browns. That's rough. I think the Mariners have a good shot this year. The AL Central is down (laughably at this point) and the Yankees and Red Sox will beat down the rest of their division.

 

Assuming that the Yankees and Red Sox are still there in September. You'd have to think that one of them will get a wild card. Which just leaves a game of musical chairs for the Angels, Astros, and Mariners. I'm not sold on the Mariners quite yet, but I'm not sold on the Angels either. I think either one could grab it as much as they could fall on their face. Though, I think it'll come down to the division record for the Mariners. Beat the teams in your division and your in. Like you said, it's a tough division and each game against a divisional opponent can make a difference.

 

I'm a Cardinals fan, so you can say I've been spoiled the past decade. Though, they have not looked good offensively the past few years. I was hoping Osuna could help turn it around, but it has not been promising. He's clutch, but not consistent. It's early in the season though, so hopefully, we can get something going. If the cards are still in it at the deadline, I hope they go after Machado. We have the pitching to win now, but we need to score more than 2-3 runs a game to win. I think he's exactly what the cards need now.

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2 hours ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

Wow... Even worse than the Browns. That's rough. I think the Mariners have a good shot this year. The AL Central is down (laughably at this point) and the Yankees and Red Sox will beat down the rest of their division.

 

Assuming that the Yankees and Red Sox are still there in September. You'd have to think that one of them will get a wild card. Which just leaves a game of musical chairs for the Angels, Astros, and Mariners. I'm not sold on the Mariners quite yet, but I'm not sold on the Angels either. I think either one could grab it as much as they could fall on their face. Though, I think it'll come down to the division record for the Mariners. Beat the teams in your division and your in. Like you said, it's a tough division and each game against a divisional opponent can make a difference.

 

 

 

Welp, so far the only series' that they've lost were to the Astros (lost 3 outta 4) and Angels Trouts (lost 2 outta 3).  It's still pretty much a given that Houston will eventually take the division and either the Evil Empire Yanks or Red Sox will be the 1st wild card so that leaves one spot, unless of course injuries or something derail one of the three teams previously mentioned.  

 

Also, congrats to Pax.  Dude really deserved that one yesterday after his last start.  7 innings, 16 K's and the bullpen immediately blows the lead while the offense goes silent, all I could think was "welcome to Felix's world".  He must have thought the same so he goes out and pitches a no hitter against Toronto, which felt just a little bit better knowing it was against the team whos fans take over Safeco every year when they come to town.  Oh yeah, and because he's Canadian I guess 

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So I'm sitting here watching the M's blow another 8th inning lead against Detroit.  This time however, the guy that got the 2 RBI hit shouldn't have ever had the chance.  The previous batter got a gifted walk when the home plate ump called a blatant strike (which would have been strike 3 with 2 outs) a ball 4.  This BS walk loaded the bases and the next guy up gets a hit, 2 runs score. 

All night long the M's pitchers have been denied good strikes and the Tigers have been getting the benefit of every boarder-line or blatantly off the plate throw.  Home plate umps basically have one job and it doesn't seem like any of them can do it properly.  Either personal bias, be it a single player or entire team, or complete ineptitude seem to be showing up in every game and I'm done with it.  We have the technology to eliminate the need for humans calling balls and strikes and the time has come to put it in motion.  I don't care at all about the guys losing their jobs.  Pretty much any industry eliminates incompetent employees and I don't see why baseball should be any different.  I've always been an advocate for anything that improves the "get it right" aspect of a sport and what could be more effective than always knowing a ball was indeed a ball and a strike was indeed a strike.  Tradition be damned, just Get.  It.  Right.

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  • 1 month later...
On ‎5‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 10:00 AM, kidson2004 said:

I'm looking forward to the Indians getting themselves together and actually finishing what they started. I know they historically start out slow, but when they hit their stride, they're a great team. Here's hoping they stay healthy and catch fire at the right time! #GoTribe!!

 

Also a tribe fan.

Always hopeful and our team has the best record after the last four years, but man the MLB is loaded right now with some great teams, especially the AL. It's going to be real tough. I like our chances if we can make the World Series though.

 

Fortunately our division sucks so we should end up with a post season spot plus missing the wild card team.

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Looking at Houston's schedule... it might be well after the all-star  break before they actually lose again.  Clevelands 22 game streak from last year could very possibly get shattered.  I know at any given time good teams have bad days and vice versa, especially in baseball, but damn, that schedule.

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What I would give for Scott Servais to learn to just put 4 fingers up.  When Stanton's up in the bottom of the 9th (at Yankees stadium where a stiff sneeze will put the ball over the wall) in a tie game, just walk him.  It's not freakin' brain surgery.  Same with Trout, that guy IS the Angels' entire team and he's burned the M's about 100x already this season.  Just swallow you're damn pride and walk him.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yankee fan here.  Sorry.

 

I am rooting for the Mariners though.  They have a good team between Segura/Gordon at the top and Cruz/Haniger driving them in.

 

Paxton having a great year and Marco Gonzales breaking out a bit.

 

But the Yankees are just so damn fun to watch.  Not sure they can be called "The Evil Empire" anymore especially in the same sentence the Red Sox are mentioned...  As the Yankees have more home grown players, a younger avg age, and a lower payroll then them.

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Im liking all the tribe love here.  I'm interested as to see what deadline details will be made.  I live in Cinci, so I see a lot of Reds games, and Iglasias would be a clutch pick up.  Get him, hopefully get a healthy Miller, and have Oliver Perez and Niel Rameriez continue what they are doing, then I can see them going deep in October

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On 7/6/2018 at 11:59 AM, ooga said:

and a lower payroll then them.

 

For now...?

 

I've been hearing they're gunning pretty hard for Happ, and I actually really hope they outbid the M's.  Happ was already here a year or two ago and he was a disaster.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

With the way the A's are gaining ground on the M's I have to admit, I'm worried, and I'm worried hard.  Although I guess it presents a chance for both the A's and the M's to go on a tear and just take the #1 and #2 wildcard spots and bounce the Yanks from the playoffs entirely... *checks the Yankee's remaining schedule*... dammit, nevermind.

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  • 1 month later...
9 hours ago, ooga said:

S'ok with the way the Yankees are playing you'll get a nice 2/3 or sweep here coming up.

 

Wouldn't bank on it, M's just got swept by the Padres, split with the A's and barely eeked out a series win against the Orioles.  Their offense is so pitiful that I don't expect them to beat anyone anymore, and you guys are facing Felix and Ramirez for games 2 and 3.   Yanks also have a lot more motivation, the difference between playing the wildcard at home, vs. away is huge for them.

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On 9/6/2018 at 0:52 PM, skidmarkgn said:

 

Wouldn't bank on it, M's just got swept by the Padres, split with the A's and barely eeked out a series win against the Orioles.  Their offense is so pitiful that I don't expect them to beat anyone anymore, and you guys are facing Felix and Ramirez for games 2 and 3.   Yanks also have a lot more motivation, the difference between playing the wildcard at home, vs. away is huge for them.

Well I guess we took 2/3 but we lost to Erasmo lol.

 

You'd think the Yankees had motivation but they're still playing on talent alone.  Maybe when (if? ?) Judge comes back they'll get hyped up a bit.

 

As much as I didn't like Girardi at least the team was always prepared to play... This is the best team I've ever seen that routinely makes stupid little mistakes that cost them games.

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Well i think its safe to barring a epic collapse by The Yankees, A's or Astros the American League playoff teams are set. Such a blow up job from Seattle to fall almost 10 games out, whilst Rays leaving there run too late and just unfortunately play in the wrong division xD 

 

Hey at least we have some close playoff races in the National League :P  apart from the NL east which the surprising Braves are streaking away with.

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5 hours ago, Conker said:

Such a blow up job from Seattle to fall almost 10 games out, 

 

 

Seattle's 4 highest paid players:

 

Felix - worst year of his career, wouldn't even have been in the rotation anymore if it wasn't for injuries.

Cano - 85 game suspension

Seager - disaster at the plate, .218 average, dude either struck out or hit into the shift 90% of the time and became error prone at 3rd base during the 2nd half of the season.

Nicassio - blowing 8th inning leads became his past-time, so much so that he also lost his job and they went out and got Colome.

 

I'm honestly to the point where I hope they trade Diaz ASAP so he doesn't suffer the same fate as Felix and waste his career playing for the worst team in the four major sports.  Seems like no matter how talented a guy in the lineup is (cruz aside) as soon as that Mariners uniform goes on, they completely forget how to hit.  An offense with Haniger, Gordon, Segura, Cano, Cruz, Healy (a career .270 hitter), Gamel and span has no business being at the bottom of the league but somehow they found a way. Pitiful.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Welp, the regular season is now officially over and... yup.  Bloated payroll's are in (hello LA and Boston), the Indians somehow managed to win that division of amazing team after amazing team and the Yanks were able to exploit that matchbook of a ballpark enough to host the wildcard game.  Nothing in the AL was interesting at all, aside from the A's, which, of course came at the expense of the Mariners, the team that somehow found a way to blow a huge lead by taking a stacked lineup and making them the worst offense in baseball during the second half.

 

My balls are still hurtin' from the kick the M's gave 'em this year and now we get to most likely watch Cruz go to the Astros and hit 4 trillion home runs in 2019.  What a shitty year.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...
On 5/9/2018 at 7:43 AM, skidmarkgn said:

There's already an official 2014 MLB thread out there but that's 2014.  Seems like we need just a regular baseball thread we can use year after year that (hopefully) won't get buried and disappear, so here it is.

 

Anyways, Mariners fan here, which isn't easy.  Now that the Bills have made the playoffs I'm pretty sure the M's are now the owners of the longest playoff drought in all of the major sports.  Hopefully this year they can at least grab a wild card spot.  I mean, they definitely have the lineup, they also have the bullpen, it's the rotation that worries me.  Oh yeah, turns out being in the AL West doesn't help either.

 

As a Mariner fan of over 20 years, my confidence in the team has declined greatly in recent times.

 

There's an article worth reading for any Mariner fan, even though it's pretty old at this point, still says a lot about the team:

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/dysfunction-at-the-top-eric-wedge-others-point-to-trouble-in-marinersrsquo-front-office/

 

Here's a much more recent article that is an interesting read as well:

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/how-did-mariners-get-to-16-straight-unsweet-seasons-bad-management-poor-drafts-and-dysfunction/

 

The kicker is that Ichiro Suzuki, who was somewhat of a role model for me and will go down as one of the best hitters and outfielders of his generation and in history, only made one playoff appearance in his 10+ years with the Seattle Mariners. That was the 2001 baseball season where they won 116 games under Lou Pinella, the manager at that time.

 

Since then they have gone through a bunch of poor choices involving former GM Bill Bavasi and going through a circus of managers, which included Bob Melvin, Mike Hargrove, Don Wakamatsu and Eric Wedge.

 

Mike Hargrove left the team when the Mariners were on a winning streak. Chone Figgins fought with Don Wakamatsu on one occasion in the dugout during the 2010 baseball season. Eric Wedge, according to the first article, greatly hated Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong for their meddling.

 

If your birthday is correct (age 40 this year) then I assume you grew up during the Ken Griffey Jr/Edgar Martinez/Jamie Moyer/Randy Johnson/Dan Wilson heydays of the Seattle Mariner team. I would classify that team to have been an All-Star team on it's own. Cleveland and New York were the only other teams in the entire Majors I would of classified as being their own All Star teams, back in a time when steroids were running rampant in the game of baseball and everybody was smacking home runs.

 

Personally, I'm tired of this team. The suspension of Robinson Cano last year pretty much sealed the deal for me. I watched maybe 3 - 5 games this year before I gave up and watched the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox.

 

The Seattle Mariners are virtually unrecognizable to me. I understand times change, rosters change and ballplayers generally move at least 2 - 3 times over the course of 5 - 6 years on any team. But right now it's a mess.

 

It's always funny every single year during Spring Training somebody in the organization says "This is the year we make things right", something along those lines. Chone Figgins said something like this back in 2010. Turns out he didn't deliver on the team, Seattle barely got over 60 wins that year and the entire team was dysfunctional.

 

If Seattle is on top of their division trying to clinch the AL West pennant or has a chance of making the Wildcard, I will start watching. Until then I just can't be bothered to watch what used to be my favorite team lose year after year, making the 2001 season seem like times long ago.

 

I want this team to win and make the playoffs. Look what Detroit did. They made the 2012 World Series, a decade earlier they were a complete laughing stock. They turned their entire organization around with the help of Jim Leyland and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera.

 

Over 17 years is a long time to not make any playoff appearance.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Who'da thunk the '19 season was going to start like this?  I know we're about a millimeter of the way in and things will return to form soon enough, but seeing things start this way has been kind of fun.  The Mariners are 6 -1 (and possibly a closer injury away from being 7 - 0) while Boston's in last place in the East, where the Rays and Orioles are 1 and 2!?!?

 

Not gonna ride to high from the start that's happening because, like I said, we all know things will even out and the payroll teams will take their respective places on the top, but still, been fun so far.  My only complaint is the Harper obsession that's taken over the media.  I mean, he's not the king of baseball just because another team fell into the team killing contract trap but every national talking head can't go more than 30 seconds without bringing him up and licking his butt... meanwhile some scrub named Craig Yelish or some shit has been doing a thing or two over in Milwaukee.

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