2021 MLB Regular Season thread

Sweeet!!! Great games to attend.

 

Suck it Dodgers!

 

Good thing the Brewers traded Drew Rasmussen. Who needs more pitching? The Rays say thank you very much.

Unfortunately, they have plenty of commercials. Commercial-free Red Zone is such a breath of fresh air.

 

The Brewers and Willy Adames say you’re welcome very much.

 

I guess it worked out best for both teams. But the Brewers' pitching staff has been a trainwreck the last couple weeks and after watching Adames in last year's World Series I don't expect he'll become Mr. October this year either.

 

The Tigers finished with 77 victories, meaning they were 68-61 after a 9-24 start. At that time, it didn’t look like Al Avila could survive the season but he looks a lot better now. Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning form a promising rotation and Akil Baddoo was a find as a Rule 5 pick. Spencer Torkelson, who hit 30 homers in the minors, and Riley Greene, who hit .301 with 24 homers, should be in the lineup next season. Maybe Carlos Correa or Trevor Story will join them. Anyway, it’s time for Chris Ilitch to make his move and the Tigers to contend for the playoffs. One good sign is the Tigers will draft 12th

 

Bad Tiger trades stick with you forever.

Adames winding up in Milwaukee reminds me of trading Ben Oglivie to the Brewers for one year of Jim Slaton. Which then made me look up Eugenio Saurez (thanks, Alfredo Simon). Goodness gracious, has he ever plummeted to "less than nothing" status in just two seasons.

Watch Avila waste a trade on him instead of signing a free agent this offseason.

 

Today's lineup, featuring five guys with OPS under .600 and one under .500 is hopefully a sign that a team full of bad-fielding, banjo-hitting whiffers with no pitch recognition is a thing of the past. Guys like Nikko Goodrum, Willie Castro, Harold Castro, Zack Short, Isaac Paredes, Victor Reyes and Dustin Garneau are MLB versions of Flex Tape (useful only in an emergency), but Avila hoards them like gold. That'd better change, pronto.

You can't be giving 300-plus at-bats to the Derek Hills, Daz Camerons or Eric Haases and think you're competing with the White Sox on a nightly basis.

But Tork and Greene are the real deals. Kreidler is right behind them. Dingler is on a 2023 track. Everything's trending the right way for the first time what seems like ages.

 

The Brewers don’t win the NL Central and the 2 seed without that trade.

Aside from Devin Williams’ drywall work, I’ll withhold any concern about their recent pitching until they play meaningful games again.

 

Paredes is worth hanging on to but he’ll never be the key to that trade, as was claimed at the time
Candelerio has developed into a solid support player, one they should lock up for a couple of years
Daz might never be his dad but Akil Baddoo will need a platoon partner
I’m thinking they might give Grossman a Schoop-like deal
Robbie has a lot of Dan Gladden in him

 

That was from May 2 after I watched most of the Giants' 7-1 win at San Diego, making them 17-11 at that point.

Gausman pitched a gem and that's when it first felt like this was the Giants' year.

Congrats, SJ Giants for winning the West and snapping the Dodgers' 8-year streak of division titles.

From 60-under the last 3 years to 52 over this season and 107 wins. Pretty amazing.

Tied the '31 Philly A's and 1907 Cubs for 6th-most wins in a season.