7-3 in the past 10 games. Good stuff. Baby steps though. The first goal is getting back to .500 after a brutal start to the season.
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MLB 2019 Season Thread
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7-3 in the past 10 games. Good stuff. Baby steps though. The first goal is getting back to .500 after a brutal start to the season.
True. Although they have won 7 of their last 8, so I'm starting to feel a little more optimistic.
I love this Twins team - I haven't been into baseball since the Mauer/Morneau dynasty left, but this has been a fun season. The team philosophy seems to have changed drastically since, emphasizing power & offense over fundamentals & defense, and that's a good thing to see. I feel like while defense & fundamentals wins the regular season over a long stretch, the homerun and strikeout wins rings.
I see if differently. Home runs get you to the playoffs, but pitching and fundamentals win rings. Good pitching in the post season will negate home runs. This is where small ball has to be a focus. The Yankees bats have been silenced in the playoffs because good pitching takes away the long ball. It's the teams that can do it all that win championships. Look at last years Red Sox team. They were hitting home runs as well as good base running and bunting. Add in a great pitching staff and you have the formula for success.
In my opinion its analytics that are ruining the game. The book can only tell you so much but they can't predict hot streaks. The scheduled day off would have never given DiMaggio his 56 game hit streak or Gehrig and Ripkin their game streaks. It certainly would have stopped Nolan Ryan's perfect games and strike outs as he would have been taken out of the game in the 7th inning. Baseball is a game of feel, not nerds going by percentages.
I agree with you on your second point. I read a little bit into Reddit's baseball community and hated it. EVERYTHING that community believes in and writes about is statistics. Yes, statistics are fun, but they definitely aren't everything. I'd want a stat nerd to explain the 2006 Cardinals.
To your first point, I understand and agree with you to an extent, but still disagree. I watched a twins team for a decade and a half almost every year get into the playoffs based off of defense, baserunning, and fundamentals, with a little power thrown in there occasionally (Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau, etc.) I definitely don't think one-dimensional baseball is everything. You do need to do most things pretty well, so that's where I agree with you on. But I'd sure as hell rather have a team in the playoffs built around a solid core of strikeout pitchers and homerun hitters rather than a team that is solid all-around with contact hitters that hit 10 homeruns a season.
I feel like teams that have a very threatening 2-3-4 hitting power core can get away with a couple holes in their lineup because that solid core makes pitchers throw more strikes to the outside of the core, allowing them to hit a little bit better than they usually do.
For sure! I agree with that. I love those teams that have great two or three aces, even if the rest of the starting pitching is terrible.
Rockies 13-14, still a game below .500, but 8-2 in their last 10. Only the Yankees are playing as well.
C.C. Sabathia got his 3000 strikeout last night. Just the 17th pitcher and only the third lefty to reach that mark.
So who thought the Yankees would be tied for the most wins in the AL with people like Gio Urshela, Cameron Maybin, Mike Tauchman, and Luke Voit?
They are certainly playing well above expectations with the lineup they are starting every night. That said, this team is really good and fun to watch. The young guys are playing with no pressure and are just having fun.
Holy cow, the Rockies survive 24 strike outs including a MLB record 6 players with 3 strike outs to beat the Red Sox in 11 innings, 5-4!
And then they have a Dunkin Poll where Red Sox fans weighed in on whether or not they believe it is an unfair advantage for the Rockies to play home games at a high elevation.
To their credit, 81% of fans said NO. But still, dumbest question ever hahaha. I could see asking if the Rockies where consistent World Series winners or had even made it more than once (where Boston swept them), or maybe if the Rockies even consistently had the best home record, but they don't. 2018 Boston won 57 games at home, Colorado 47. Maybe the question should have been "Is it an unfair advantage for the Boston Red Sox to play Home Games at Fenway Park?" LOL
NESN really has turned into a joke of a network. A lot of gimmicks now.
The Yankees just have a knack for picking up has-beens and players who never quite turned out like they were supposed to and making them good ball players.
Twins are still playing well.
That’s like asking “is it unfair for the Yankees to play home games with a short porch in right field?” People always talk about “cheap” home runs, but both the Yankees and the away team are the beneficiaries of those cheap home runs. If anything, the Yankees have barely any lefties in their lineup so they don’t even take advantage of it that much.
Yeah, the one announcer in the video had it right. It may be unfair to the pitchers who play at that altitude. Otherwise both teams have to deal with it
Yeah, the one announcer in the video had it right. It may be unfair to the pitchers who play at that altitude. Otherwise both teams have to deal with it
Yes but... the Rockies get to hit there 81 games a year... Other teams 4-8 max.
For the record I don't think its an advantage, they can't control that the city they play in has that altitude... Just giving context to the reason why they would think it is over other teams.
Altitude should be more of a factor in just about all other team sports, where stamina is required. But, those teams from higher altitudes are not lighting up their sports either.
In all of the 81 games the Rockies play in Denver, their opponents have the same "thin air" advantage. It doesn't really matter that visiting teams play there less often.