2021 MLB Regular Season thread

IS a train wreck.

 

Here's a good question asked on Facebook: If the Dodgers end up not winning the division but have the second best record in baseball would they still get home field in the World Series as a wild card team if they were playing a team with a worse record but had won their division?

I assume as the fourth seed in the NL if they win the wildcard game, if they beat they Giants, they will be the road team against Atlanta or Milwaukee. But what about the World Series? Does their better record give them home field despite being the WC? I'm guessing yes

 

He hung on for a while with the Pirates once they entered their 20-plus year run of not even trying. He also took over the team when it was terrible. He had one losing season with the Marlins, who had sold off most of the team that won the World Series the previous year. Then there was the one-year debacle in Colorado. That one, it's hard to put blame elsewhere, but most of his losing seasons came with teams that ownership wasn't even trying to win.

 

The only source I see on this is from USA Today who says best record but doesn't address Wild Card teams.

EDIT: MLB's schedule also just says "team with the better record"

 

Giants won't fucking lose.

 

It helps the teams the Giants are playing have serious flaws (Padres) or have packed it in (Cubs/Rockies). Much like the Dodgers (Diamondbacks).

 

I've been waiting for two months for the Giants to lose eight out of 10 and they won't even lose two out of 10. Best of 5 NLDS will be epic. Hoping for a better result than 1951 and 1962.

 

Will always be a train wreck.

 

I'm fine if he makes it, and he'd give a great speech, but I think he's just short and needed that second title. Williams had the two titles in Oakland to get him over the finish line even though the Padres "only" made the World Series in 1984. Likewise for Francona in Boston. Had some weird years in Miami and Colorado, though as OOP notes, the teams stopped trying there and in his final few years in Pittsburgh. He really did change a culture overnight in Detroit and they haven't been anywhere near as good since he left. His candidacy might be helped by the fact the job of a manager has been devalued so much and there is no one even remotely on the landscape as a potential HOF candidate beyond Francona and Maddon.

 

There was that brief stretch when they got smacked around by the Braves and Brewers but they rebounded going head-to-head to the Dodgers. Giants just don't lose series.

I've likewise been waiting for the Dodgers to hit a rough skid to give my blood pressure a rest. But they keep finding a way.

Giants best opponent remaining is the Braves. Dodgers best remaining is the Brewers. It's going to come down to who loses a couple in a row to teams they should be beating 2 of 3 or 3 of 4. But that Brewers-Dodgers series at the end should be fun unless the Dodgers fall on their faces.

 

Williams also has a pennant with the Impossible Dream Red Sox, so he's got 4 pennants and two titles.

Francona of course is an incomplete resume, assuming he does return after this recent surgery, but he's got three pennants, two titles and has 16 straight winning seasons (out of 21), a run that will most likely end this year.

The only other current managers you can put on the list with Francona and Maddon are Baker, who obviously has the big hole of no title, and Roberts, who only has seven years under his belt but has three pennants and a title already for a strong foundation.

 

It really is surprising it took Williams until 2008 to get in, though maybe that "was he walking a hotel hallway naked or not" thing as a Yankees scout delayed him. Regardless, Williams' wait isn't a great sign for Leyland. Baker probably needs a title. Roberts...meh. Could just be my general dissatisfaction with the way the game is going for managers, but I never feel like I'm watching him do anything other than whatever the front office told him to do four hours earlier. He's done a good job steering the car and keeping everyone on the same page in that market and with so many alpha males in that clubhouse (thankfully minus one in Bauer) and he'll probably cruise in if he ends up managing a dynasty.

The interesting guy to watch long (and I do mean long) term is Gabe Kapler. Following a very Francona-ian path by flaming out in Philly, getting another shot right away and doing much better while sort of building a case the standard for the modern manager who defers to players and "collaborates" well with the front office. And the 2020-21 Giants weren't nearly as built to win now as the 2004 Red Sox. It'll be interesting to see how Kapler fares once whatever magic carpet ride this team is on ends.