2016 MLB Regular-Season Thread

Even in the worst years, he was dominant in a quarter to a third of his starts.

 

Pirates were 33-34 two years ago.

 

I'm going to step out on a limb and suggest that teams with losing records this far into the season tend to end up out of the playoffs more often than they make it into the playoffs. Silly me.

Also, their pitching simply isn't as good as it was last year or two years ago.

 

I wouldn't wish Jon Niese on my worst enemy. I swear.

 

I haven't followed the Pirates closely, but if that's their biggest problem, they're likely in good shape and may have played this brilliantly, because there's a good chance that Taillon and Glasnow will be relegating Nicasio, Niese or Locke to a partial playoff share pretty soon. You take your chances that the magical pitching coach has another trick or two up his sleeve, and if the experiment fails, the kids are ready and won't waste a locked up year.

 

That's a lot of assumptions for two pitchres who have combined for two major-league starts.

Why is it so many folks refuse to acknowledge that ownership's penny-pinching hurt the Pirates this season?

 

Started looking at the Cubs' record, and it got me wondering when the last time they had a 100-win season was. It's been a while. So then I started looking at all the teams to see who has gone the longest without one. The answer was a little surprising, so I figured I'd throw it out as a trivia question:

Excluding the eight MLB teams (Blue Jays, Rays, Rangers, Nationals, Marlins, Brewers, Padres and Rockies) that have never had a 100-win season, which team has gone the longest without doing it?
For bonus points, when was the last time they did it?

 

And on the flip side, here's trivia time part two:

What are the only two MLB teams that have never had a 100-loss season?
Of the other 28 teams, who has the longest active streak of not losing 100? (Hint: It's actually two teams that did it the same year and haven't done it since)

 

I'm going to assume this is directed elsewhere, as I have no feelings at all about the Pirates. I will say, that if you're on a budget, which just about every team is these days, and you think that come summer, you have 2 SPs who will be regulars in if not headlining your rotation, it's a misuse of resources to invest heavily in 5 or even 4 SPs. They may have overestimated how good they'll be this year, but that's an error in forecasting, not a poor or cheap plan.

Perhaps part of the problem is that their 2 best players (mccutchen and Cole) have underperformed? How many teams have real quality at the bottom of their rotation? Considering the 2 kids, how many teams would you swap starting pitching staffs with just for the rest of the season? Again, I can't even name their starters, so I'm legitimately asking.

 

I'd wager the Dodgers have gone the longest without 100 wins.

 

I'm pretty sure the Cardinals haven't lost 100 games since expansion.

 

Actually, not since 1908.