2021 MLB Regular Season thread

"And he did well. Threw an inning and a third and didn't allow a hit or run."

And then ...

 

Ok Boomer

David Wells blasts MLB moving All-Star Game out of Atlanta, admits 'I don't watch baseball anymore'

 

Counting on washed-up old men backfiring on Tigers as Julio Teheran and Miguel Cabrera land on the IL.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...463dcc-7c3e-11eb-b3d1-9e5aa3d5220c_story.html

By Aram Goudsouzian
April 9 at 8:00 AM ET


In the history of American sports after World War II, two themes keep floating to the surface. The first is the commercial boom: more fans, more publicity, more money, more opportunities for creative entrepreneurs and ambitious players. The second is the sensational rise of the Black athlete, which drives larger conversations about race and rights.
These themes converge in “Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball,” an appealing history of the 1948 World Series champion Cleveland Indians. The author, Luke Epplin, conveys the on-field action with plenty of drama. But if this were just a baseball story, he might have focused more on Lou Boudreau, the beloved shortstop/manager who won the American League MVP award, or on Gene Bearden, an otherwise mediocre lefty knuckleballer who, for one magical season, was kissed by the baseball gods.
Instead, Epplin profiles four characters — Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, Larry Doby and Bill Veeck — who illustrate the forces that helped drive baseball into its modern age.

 

Rougned Odor looks a bit different now that he’s a Yankee

 

Yankees second and third with one out in the 10th.

Gleyber Torres a three-hopper to a drawn-in shortstop. Judge too slow to give Torres an RBI -- out at home.

Torres sucks.

 

And Odor with what will probably hold up as the winning hit in his first game as a Yankee.

 

Even with his aberrational MVP season, Bryce Harper is a .276 hitter. And without that season his OPS may be .500 at best. Very nice player. Not a generational talent.

 

The '48 Indians have also suspected in folklore of cheating in several ways:
-- sign stealing, by various persons holed up in the Municipal Stadium scoreboard;
-- fishy groundkeeping, with long grass and watered down infield turf used to benefit Boudreau and Joe Gordon,
-- and last, Veeck monkeying around with the outfield fence distances, bringing them in our out 20-30 feet depending on the power of the opponents.

 

That's sort of a trademark of Al Avila's general managership. Austin Romine and Ivan Nova in 2020. Tyson Ross, Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer in 2019. Cabrera in 2018. Francisco Rodriguez in 2017. And a whole lot of nothing from Jordan Zimmermann for a whole lot of money.

The Tigers are a 1951 Ford pickup truck being held together by rust and baling wire. To see them dropping like flies before the tax deadline has become an annual event in Motown.

 

.500?

His lowest OPS is .768 in a year he was injured.