MFY 2K18

[Centerfield]

Ceetar wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Maybe they did, but didn't offer any compensation up to the Mesoraco level. Or maybe they did offer talent that was just as good or better, but the Mets were hesitant, thinking that if Harvey found his way back to his north star, they didn't want him doing it cross-town. I'm sure they'd've overpaid for top shelf Matt Harvey. Anyhow, the Mets needed a catcher and got one. well sure, but this is the Yankees thread and I wanted to throw out a little ribbing. It'd be really fun to see them go on a 20-40 slide where they lose a bunch of games 9-6.

In other words, you'd like to see them play at a slightly better pace than the Mets have been over their last 53 games?

[Ceetar]

sure.

[Frayed Knot]

This just in: David Price suxx vs the Yanquis.
Or, should I say, he STILL suxx vs the Yanquis because he always has, whether with the Rays, Tigers, Tononto, or now the Sox.
Career = 39 starts; 15-12; 4.67 ERA (vs 3.24 overall); 1.39 WHiP (1.15); 9.64 H/9 (0.89)
Tonight: [crossout]4 runs in the 1st inning incl. 2 HRs and a 2B[/crossout] [crossout]on edit: 6 runs / 2 innings / 3 HRs[/crossout] =#0000FF]on re-edit: 8 Runs / 3.1 IP / 5 HR


So now, after looking forward to this game all week, ESPN can't wait to dump out of it in order to get to their endless LeBron discussions.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: This just in: David Price suxx vs the Yanquis. Or, should I say, he STILL suxx vs the Yanquis because he always has, whether with the Rays, Tigers, Tononto, or now the Sox. Career = 39 starts; 15-12; 4.67 ERA (vs 3.24 overall); 1.39 WHiP (1.15); 9.64 H/9 (0.89) Tonight: [crossout]4 runs in the 1st inning incl. 2 HRs and a 2B[/crossout] [crossout]on edit: 6 runs / 2 innings / 3 HRs[/crossout] =#0000FF]on re-edit: 8 Runs / 3.1 IP / 5 HR So now, after looking forward to this game all week, ESPN can't wait to dump out of it in order to get to their endless LeBron discussions.

Joe Beningo (WFAN) was joking about this before the series. He wondered what "minor injury" (hangnail?) Price would claim so he wouldn't have to face the MFYs. Maybe Price should have done that.

Later

[MFS62]

They really are easy to root against.
https://sports.yahoo.com/m/6170ef1a-d636-340c-9f09-0ab5e52c4f8a/ss_new-york-yankees-are-set-to.html

Later

[Guest d'Kong76]

J A Happ, another victim of the hoof and mouth disease in NYC thing.

[Edgy MD]

Maybe that's how the world ends. We all catch a dose of some new super-virulent strain and die laughing at the word "coxsackie."

[HahnSolo]

O’s knock off Sonny Gray today.

Stuff that (probably) only I find fascinating: Baltimore has only won 13 games away from Camden Yards all season. 6 of those have come within the New York City limits.

[bmfc1]

Gray to the bullpen. How about Vargas for Gray?

[Guest d'Kong76]

I'm ok with Sterls, it's the other one that drives me bananas. A friend of mine
when he gets on a roll does a funny impersonation/over-characterization of her
proclaiming on-the-air that Roger Clemens is in George Steinbrenner's box.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I thought I was responding to a post that has now disappeared.

[metirish]

So, last night I tuned into YES to watch some of this, when I first tuned in the MFY were winning, then tuned back later they were getting hammered. Kay, Cone and O'Neill in the booth....have to say Kay was quite good , especially in questioning Boone's moves....he was let down by Cone and O'Neill who never jumped in when he brought up these "questions" Boone would need to answer after the game.

[Lefty Specialist]

Yeah, I actually tuned in just in time to see that 8-run inning. It was quite refreshing to see a team playing winning baseball (and beating the crap out of the Yankees).

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

It's rapidly gone all wrong for the MFYs, not only missing Judge & Sanchez, but their trade deadline moves have blown up spectacularly. They arrogantly swapped Warren for International Bonus Money, but IBM was unable to provide middle-relief last night. And the same day they banish Gray to the bullpen looks like they need to re-activate him to start.

Beyond that they are fielding indifferently and Severino has pitched like Steven Matz lately. Rooting for them to miss the playoffs entirely.

[Frayed Knot]

With their pitching in flux the Yanx are taking a chance on Adams, that would be right-hander Chance Adams who'll be making his ML debut in Fenway on Saturday.

The 5th round/2015 draft pick was a back of the top-100 prospect prior to this season, but his 2018 has seen a step back for the 24 y/o (next week) from the 2017 stats that got his there [2.64 ERA in '17, 4.65 in '18]
so these aren't exactly the ideal circumstances the team would draw up for his first game.
But with the sun setting on Sonny Gray, and agent Syndergaard managing to secretly infect Jay Ay Happ after just one outing, and new pick-up Lancelot Lynn having to finish Gray's lone MFY start, and
Sabathia lasting just 3 innings (77! pitches) on Thursday, they don't really have a lot of options.

[MFS62]

Andujar's home run that broke up the no-hitter made at least one Rex Sox fan happy - $100 million worth of happy.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/yankees-third-baseman-miguel-andujar-163641357.html

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Much has been made of the Yanx & Sawx having two of their final four series against each other after this one concludes in Fenway tonight (currently scoreless in the 4th)
but much less has been made of the sked the Yanx have coming up over the remainder of August

CHW x 3 (currently 30 games below .500)
TEX x 4 (-14)
NYM x1 (rainout makeup) (-19)
TBR x 3 (right at .500)
TOR x 3 (-8)
MIA x 2 (-20)
BAL x 4 (-45)!!
CHW again x 3 (-30)
DET x 3 (-17)

Starting Sept 3rd (Labor Day) they then head to the west coast to see if they can muck up the West race by playing both Oakland & Seattle
But with that schedule for the next 26 games, the BoSox can't feel all that comfortable even as they're on pace for a 112 win season and will have either a 7.5 or 9.5 game lead in the East (depending on tonight's game)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Well that was a humiliating sweep: Chapman coughs up a 4-1 lead in the 9th and they loose it in the 10th.

They shant recover.

[Edgy MD]

It's the hand, foot, and mouth disease. One guy catches it, and it mutates into a virus of chumpism that sweeps the clubhouse.

[Lefty Specialist]

Boy, I'm reduced to cheering on the Red Sox to humiliate the Yankees. Guess it'll have to do this year.

Also root for the Mariners and A's to pass them in the wild card standings.

[MFS62]

I just sent a picture of a broom to a virulent YLDB who liked to tease me about the Mets when we worked together.
She has since moved to north-central Connecticut, right near the Mass. line. So I also asked her how much she likes watching sports news as covered by stations in Sawks country. I'll enjoy her answer.
Schadenfreude, baby.

Later

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

If the Yankees continue on their current pace and finish with 100+ wins, the single game Wild Card Playoff will be gone in the 2019 season. Forcing a 100+ win team to participate in a play-in game is dumb enough, but if it happens to one of MLB's preferred glamour franchises, it will never happen again.

[Ceetar]

Mets Willets Point wrote: If the Yankees continue on their current pace and finish with 100+ wins, the single game Wild Card Playoff will be gone in the 2019 season. Forcing a 100+ win team to participate in a play-in game is dumb enough, but if it happens to one of MLB's preferred glamour franchises, it will never happen again.

A. They won't.
B. It won't.
C. It's not.
D. It may not happen again anyway, just by dumb luck, plus expansion of teams/playoffs could render it even more unlikely.



It's a shame the Mariners are still 5 out and not that good (though getting Cano back) because that's still a lot of ground to make up. On the other hand, there's a lot of time left.

But that's the only possibility here unfortunately. the rest of the AL sucks.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Ceetar wrote: C. It's not

The way the Wild Card playoff is done now rewards mediocrity (giving a bye to one or two teams that "won" a weak division) while punishing excellence over the course of a 162-game season. How is that smart?

A smart way to fix the playoff system to reward excellence:
1. Seed the five teams by regular season record.
2. The #1 seed is given the pennant as an award for best record in the league much as was done prior to 1969.
3. The #1 seed gets a bye to the LCS.
4. The remaining 4 seeds play two qualifying rounds in best-of-3 series, hosted in the higher seed's ballpark.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Mariners overtaking MFYs would also indicate pressure on A's so the MFYs are pretty set, unless this shit pace continues and it well might. They don't have good starting pitching and their flaws (Andujar/Sanchez gloves, Judge health, Chapman was even shaky vs. us) keep getting exposed.

l am on Team Oakland, would be cool if they catch arrogant Houston, which may also have lost George Springer, so Houston would oppose the MFYs in the 1-gamer.

[Ceetar]

Mets Willets Point wrote: C. It's not The way the Wild Card playoff is done now rewards mediocrity (giving a bye to one or two teams that "won" a weak division) while punishing excellence over the course of a 162-game season. How is that smart? A smart way to fix the playoff system to reward excellence: 1. Seed the five teams by regular season record. 2. The #1 seed is given the pennant as an award for best record in the league much as was done prior to 1969. 3. The #1 seed gets a bye to the LCS. 4. The remaining 4 seeds play two qualifying rounds in best-of-3 series, hosted in the higher seed's ballpark.

I think you're math is off, but either way that's too much time off for the best teams.

There is no 'best' way to do the playoffs. There's not even a great way to decide who's the "best" team given there's so much variation from April to September and there isn't a balanced schedule and even if everyone played the same teams you'd still have the unbalanced aspect of how different an opponent could be if you play them in April versus September. Or one team could end up facing 1-2-3 in the rotation but their main competition could end up facing 3-4-5.

So you have to make a decision. MLB decided 'win the division' is what we're going for, so regardless of how many wins you rack up, if you don't that you're not the best. This system doesn't punish the best team, and that's good with me.

[smg58]

It wasn't that long ago that teams could win 100 games and not have any postseason. Divisions are perceived as building rivalries, which is perceived as being good for fan interest, so I don't see that changing. The current wildcard format was put in so that winning the division became more meaningful (i.e., the Sox sweeping the Yankees would be a lot less of a big deal in the previous format than it currently is). I didn't think anybody who isn't a Yankee fan thinks the current system is unfair, and of course Yankee fans wouldn't feel that way at all if they were the ones pulling away. At any rate, it would serve the best interests of competitive balance (and, of course, humanity in general) if the Yankees played only one playoff game.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm not a Yankee fan and I don't like the current system. I don't like that it potentially rewards a mediocre team.

You can have a third-place team that had 83 wins win one game over a 100-win team and end up in the World Series.

I understand rewarding a division winner. But I'd have the Wild Card game become a best-of-three series. And you can play those games in two days. Using 2016 as an example, Game 1 could have been in San Francisco on Tuesday and Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) as part of a day-night doubleheader at Citi Field. Is that a grueling schedule? Sure, but it's equally grueling for both teams and it makes it all the more onerous for the teams that didn't win the division.

[Centerfield]

smg58 wrote: It wasn't that long ago that teams could win 100 games and not have any postseason. Divisions are perceived as building rivalries, which is perceived as being good for fan interest, so I don't see that changing. The current wildcard format was put in so that winning the division became more meaningful (i.e., the Sox sweeping the Yankees would be a lot less of a big deal in the previous format than it currently is). I didn't think anybody who isn't a Yankee fan thinks the current system is unfair, and of course Yankee fans wouldn't feel that way at all if they were the ones pulling away. At any rate, it would serve the best interests of competitive balance (and, of course, humanity in general) if the Yankees played only one playoff game.

I'm on board with this too. I think winning your division has been and always should be the central aim of the regular season, and this current system fosters it. Don't want to play a 1 game playoff? Then win your division.

That being said, I do understand where the Red Sox fan feels shafted. In the past 20 seasons, Boston has won 90+ games 14 times, and has only 5 division titles to show for it.

People talk about re-alignment. And let me say, thank god these two teams play in the AL. If the Mets shared a division with these two teams they would never win it. I mean, they don't win very often now as it is, but with these two powerhouses, I think you could kiss any wildcard goodbye as well.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm not a Yankee fan and I don't like the current system. I don't like that it potentially rewards a mediocre team. You can have a third-place team that had 83 wins win one game over a 100-win team and end up in the World Series. I understand rewarding a division winner. But I'd have the Wild Card game become a best-of-three series. And you can play those games in two days. Using 2016 as an example, Game 1 could have been in San Francisco on Tuesday and Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) as part of a day-night doubleheader at Citi Field. Is that a grueling schedule? Sure, but it's equally grueling for both teams and it makes it all the more onerous for the teams that didn't win the division.

So an 83 win team winning TWO games over a 100 win team makes it better?

the 2018 Mets, pitching Syndergaard and deGrom, could easily win a best of three against anyone.