2016 MLB Regular-Season Thread

You're right, I forgot about that. Looked it up and '17 is guaranteed unless he ends 2016 on the DL with a left arm injury, misses more than 45 gams with a left arm injury or makes more than six relief appearances because of a left arm injury.

 

I agree with OOP (wait, fuck that!) and Pern--Cashman has been flat-out awful the last few years. He's so bad he's actually making Joe Girardi into something resembling a sympathetic figure, at least until he went to Betances in the 8th inning tonight up 7-0. Horrific, but typical.

The Yankees are definitely hoping to tread water or just drown until Harper walks their way in 2019. But their fans are so spoiled--and the Yankees have napalmed so much goodwill with that suffocatingly unfriendly stadium--that I don't know if Harper will be enough to fill up the place again.

Speaking of post-2018 free agents, it'll be great when Boras makes Harper and Harvey a combo deal. Or when Harvey begs Boras to make them a combo deal.

 

Yes... it's possible.

I think opposing pitchers are not leaving as many fastballs up with two strikes to guys like Cain, Morales, Gordon and Perez. They golf at curves and sliders with two strikes.

Here's why I think it's a collective malady. A lot of their losses are ugly while quite a few of their wins this year were lucky. Defense is just not sharp and they're not doing as many of the little things - advancing runners, going deep into at bats to just put the ball into play.

Medlen got shelled yesterday but his defense did him no favors. First two Nats hitters got on base off infield grounders that should have been outs. Medlen was dead from that point. Royals played defense like they were hung over.

Ever achieve a major accomplishment in your career or land a huge client if you're in sales? The next month after doing that, did you do all of the little things that make the difference when you were victorious? It's human nature not to.

Ned eased off in spring training, which makes total sense given they played close to 200 games the past two years.

This is probably no different than the championship teams that we've all covered or watched in our careers. The 1986 Bears and 1997 Packers also won a ton of games a year after winning the Super Bowl but something was just a little...off. The Royals feel this way to me. They'll probably end up 87-75 or even win 90 but they'll have to sharpen their play.

 

I don't think the Royals have taken their feet off the pedal. There's just so long a car like that can speed along without sputtering. PECOTA isn't the be-all, end-all, but it's not so stupid to just randomly assign a 90-loss season to KC before 2015. Add into the workload exmediahack refers to and it makes sense they're not nearly as good this year. But flags fly forever.

 

I don't think they're waiting that long. I think their plan has been to get out from under the Teixeira, A-Rod and Sabathia contracts before they make any big splashes.

 

The Royals have exactly the same record they did after 27 games in 2014. They were three games better in 2015.

 

And because flags fly forever, I won't be upset or angry if they go 76-86 this year. I'm paid in full for life after what that franchise gave me the last two years.

 

Yeah, but they were still resting on their 1985 laurels early that season. You could tell.

 

Yeah but the next great class of FAs is 2018. So just hang on for two years and then empty the coffers for Bryce (and throw a million or so at the pitcher formerly known as the dark knight so he can glom on to some attention too).

I dont think Strasburg comes to NY. Hates attention. Not the kind of guy you invest huge resources in and then expect to handle the spotlight. (Caveat: He's a Boras guy so he might come here anyway)

 

When KC was 8-2 the natural reaction for us fans was "Hey hey hey hey, we're going roll right into the playoffs, win another World Series and be a dynasty!"

Then we got reminded teams have bad stretches over 162 games. I think they will wind up being good, if not great.

 

My concern is more how the games are going. KC could easily be on a nine-game losing streak today. They're lucky to be 14-13.

Only hope right now is for Alex Gordon to start bringing his kids around the clubhouse too much to free up some money for 2017.

 

They also very easily could have won two or three more over those nine.