Frayed Knot

Arenado = Yes, six Lindor = No. The actual SS leader has three times as many OD starts as does FL And, yes, Scherzer is one of the two pitchers with Three consecutive same-team/OD assignments

Lefty Specialist wrote: Oof. Anthony Fauci should NOT give up his day job. He was just showing America how to flatten the curve. Or maybe it was the slider, I dunno.

This will be Trout's eighth consecutive OD start in CF for the Angles after they left him down at AAA to start the 2012 season. POSPLAYERTEAMYrsAll-Time CYadier MolinaStL16Yadier Molina, StL, 16 1BJoey VottoCIN12Joe Judge, 17 WSH Senators 2BJose AltuveHOU9Lou Whitaker, 17, DET Tigers 3B——————Brooks Robinson, 20, BAL Orioles SS——————Cal Ripken, 14, BAL rioles LF——————Lou Brock, 13, StL Cardinals CFMike TroutLAA8Willie Mays, 19 SF Giants RF——————Roberto Clemente, 15 PIT Pirates P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies

Except that now, in addition to the shorter and more luck-determined outcome in the 1st round matchup, a dominating team now will have three opportunities to be eliminated before even getting to a WS instead of just two. The 'benefit' that top teams are getting is that they'll be the home team in each of those three games. But three home games instead of two is barely a factor in determining who wins the overall series and the real reason this is being done is to get Round One in with no travel days/no off-days. If you're going to have additional series I have no problem with fewer off days (the fewer the better IMO) it's just that the cited advantage isn't what it's made out to be. My fear is that they'll declare this experiment a success based on whatever 'evidence' they feel like citing ('Hey, wasn't that one mini-series exciting?!? .. we should do this every year!!') and continue to be duped into thinking that the more-is-better theory of playoff participants is the way to go.

Plus ARod says (on tonight's telecast) that he "Loves" the universal DH ... so his ownership candidacy is OVAH as far as I'm concerned.

I suppose I could just root for each team's pitching staff (and particularly their aces) to get their butts kicked back and forth as Adam Eaton joins Stanton as being on pace for Babe Ruth's best single season HR total.

Tomorrow will be Altuve's 9th consecutive OD start for the Astros. Tomorrow will be Robinson Cano's 15th straight start at 2nd base but that streak involves three different teams. POSPLAYERTEAMYrsAll-Time CYadier MolinaStL16Yadier Molina, StL, 16 1BJoey VottoCIN12Joe Judge, 17 WSH Senators 2BJose AltuveHOU9Lou Whitaker, 17, DET Tigers 3B——————Brooks Robinson, 20, BAL Orioles SS——————Cal Ripken, 14, BAL rioles LF——————Lou Brock, 13, StL Cardinals CF——————Willie Mays, 19 SF Giants RF——————Roberto Clemente, 15 PIT Pirates P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies

Yanx @ Nats, Scherzer vs Cole And I think, particularly given the shortened season, that we have to root for the Bronx in this one. Problem is, I'm pretty much incapable of doing so. Of course with 37 teams from each league making the playoffs, it might not matter as much. And Giancarlo has taken Scherzer deep w/2 outs in the top of the 1st for a 2-0 lead. Giants @ Dodgers later

=LWFS post_id=41348 time=1595545336 user_id=84]P: Kershaw?

Votto took the job from Scott 'Pickin Machine' Hatteberg in 2009 and, with a contract that runs through 2023 ('24 w/an option), he has time to pad his lead although will need a new deal after this one in order to entertain thoughts of catching the immortal Joe (no relation) Judge POSPLAYERTEAMYrsAll-Time CYadier MolinaStL16Yadier Molina, StL, 16 1BJoey VottoCIN12Joe Judge, 17 WSH Senators 2B——————Lou Whitaker, 17, DET Tigers 3B——————Brooks Robinson, 20, BAL Orioles SS——————Cal Ripken, 14, BAL rioles LF——————Lou Brock, 13, StL Cardinals CF——————Willie Mays, 19 SF Giants RF——————Roberto Clemente, 15 PIT Pirates P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm ... glad it's not happening in 2021. Yet!

I gave the All-Time leaders but what we're looking for here are the Active leaders in consecutive OD starts at one position for one team. And, yes, Molina is the answer at catcher in both categories as he will make his 16th start there when the Cardinals play their first 2020 game He had previously been in a tie with ChiSox backstop Ray Schalk (1913-27) at 15. Schalk was played by Gordon Clapp in the film EIGHT MEN OUT The last catcher other than Molina to start on OD for the Cards was Chad Moeller back in 2004 btw, no other current catcher has a streak of more than four now that Buster Posey is sitting out 2020 POSPLAYERTEAMYrsAll-Time CYadier MolinaStL16Yadier Molina, StL, 16 1B——————Joe Judge, 17 WSH Senators 2B——————Lou Whitaker, 17, DET Tigers 3B——————Brooks Robinson, 20, BAL Orioles SS——————Cal Ripken, 14, BAL rioles LF——————Lou Brock, 13, StL Cardinals CF——————Willie Mays, 19 SF Giants RF——————Roberto Clemente, 15 PIT Pirates P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies

What we're looking for here is the longest Consecutive and Active streak of starts On Opening Day for One Team at One Position This data includes projected starts that will be made tonight or tomorrow. The all-time leaders have been added on the right and as you can see the catcher owns both the current streak and the all-time mark. The pitcher's position is listed twice because there's a tie there. POSPLAYERTEAMYrsAll-Time C——————Same 1B——————Joe Judge, 17 WSH Senators 2B——————Lou Whitaker, 17, DET Tigers 3B——————Brooks Robinson, 20, BAL Orioles SS——————Cal Ripken, 14, BAL rioles LF——————Lou Brock, 13, StL Cardinals CF——————Willie Mays, 19 SF Giants RF——————Roberto Clemente, 15 PIT Pirates P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies P——————Robin Roberts, 12 PHI Phillies Go

NY Post is reporting not a 'strained' calf but a 'torn' one. Of course saying a muscle is "strained" is pretty much the same thing as saying it's a somewhat minor tear so part of that is just semantics. But they're also mentioning "several weeks" at a minimum and then he'd need time to ramp back up after that. And with a season that's less than ten weeks long to start with ...

I predict somewhere between 44-16 and 16-44 Going out on a limb I am.

Yeah, I don't get this move by Pennsylvania. Two teams is OK but no way are we allowing three!! Maybe it's some kind of payback thing for Canada not allowing baseball in the first place. 'So you won't take infections coming into your country and now you wanna dump them on us'?!?!? Yeah, FU Trudeau ... and the Royal Canadian Mountie you road in on!!

Betts is the same age (within days) as Bryce Harper; both turn 28 this October and both have an MVP under their belts. Harper owns the longer resume to date (full-timer at 19, Betts not until 22) and therefore some bigger career numbers and certainly more power. But that MVP year is his only one in the Top-10 while Betts has been better lately, he's on a four year run of 2nd, 6th, 1st, 8th I think he'd be the one I'd pick as the better bet to fill the contract going forward if I had to choose. This also bucks the trend (small as it may have been) of teams not wanting to commit to players as they approach the big 4-0 Neither figures to be as onerous as the Pujols or Miggy Cabrera deals look now (those both extend into the players' 40s) but, as Joaquin Andujar could tell you: yaneverno.

Tomorrow will be the first ML game(s) in 266 days, which makes today the last day without ML baseball until ... well until the next one whenever that is: maybe next week, maybe three-plus months from now. I make the gap from the strike on August 12 of '94 until the April 26th '95 restart at 257 days

https://nypost.com/2020/07/21/alex-rodriguez-jennifer-lopez-could-lose-control-of-mets-bid/A NYP article today has J-Rod still very much in the running, although if that group has any chance of winning it's going to take more cash than their money men, Vincent Viola and Mike Repole, have so far committed which is likely, should they win the bid, to take the lead chair away from Alex Rodriguez. All teams have a designated 'control person' in their ownership groups and that's usually the one with the largest investment. So J-Rod could conceivably win the team but lose control of their own group. Also: the Wilpons will start internal management meetings "by the end of July" with the four groups remaining in the buying process. And as no one group appears to want to make an offer which will blow away the remaining field and end the process now, there will likely be at least one more round of bidding, one which the 'Pons hope will jack the price up back over $2B* * Or not $2B ... that is the question. Whether it is nobler for your mind to suffer the slings and arrows of the Wilpons in order to hand them an outrageous fortune. Or to take up arms against a sea of debt and, by opposing, end them. To own, perchance to dream -- ay, there's the rub For from that steep a debt what dreams may come.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Not for nothing but the 2020 Mets suck so far. In each of the last two nights they've really started sukking right as I tuned in in mid-game ... so it's basically my fault.

I had no recollection that Matt Adams was even a spring NYM ... but he's kind of old-ish and one-dimensional anyway. Maybe someday his son, Matt Quincy Adams, will be a more rounded player.

My plan is to disguise myself as a cardboard cutout as a way to get in and watch the games live. I'll need to drop a few more pounds before I can pull this off but the cardboard shirt I'm going to wear is almost finished and I've already got the pattern for the pants.

One of the English soccer clubs did this ... and then apparently didn't notice (or noticed and thought it was OK) when someone submitted a cardboard cutout of Osama bin Laden

But ... but, I had just invited all these guys [FIMG=500]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/_uG1GThwmUgSxQB36nlfYyb5hyo8DW-M4p0L4d4jF4bnlmaFkPcEXOUKp_2UP6la8aaBk-1Guj9JH-xSY_4yTLJQYfJFx0ikUVm6zTVDXpdy9ax666rB1gA4qPIrrgBuMVVjXWbS6V5j_H2DlvsS30twsZoC8mQRzElpPCPZ3qsRCF7lan7CCNBbDet2C77mEx71[/FIMG]

And that #5 catcher is Brian McCann