MLB 2014 season thread

It's raining like crazy in Chicago. Not sure they're going to get any baseball in.

 

Watching that video it did occur to me that they didn't have enough guys pulling the tarp.

And Mother Nature apparently hates the Giants. Raining like hell in Chicago right now. Always fun to play 1.5 on getaway day.

 

Angels ace Garrett Richards has a torn patellar tendon. Surgery upcoming, recovery 6-9 months.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2014&month=0&season1=2014&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=21,d

According to this version of WAR, the best player in baseball is Alex Gordon. Of course, the statheads are already rambling one with one excuse or another. Gotta love it.

 

For the Red Sox. Should be quite the series between the Angels and Athletics.

 

Zobrist and Heyward also way high on that list.

 

Defense is a huge part of it. I don't watch Gordon much, but I can vouch that Heyward is ridiculously good on defense.

 

The reason the Cubs didn't want to pay for "overages" for its grounds crew is so they wouldn't have to pay for health insurance for their employees.

http://www.suntimes.com/29402267-761/cubs-cut-grounds-crews-hours-to-avoid-paying-health-benefits-sources.html

That way, the Ricketts family has more money to spend on anti-Obama attack ads.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-17/news/chi-emanuel-antiobama-ads-would-be-insult-to-nation-20120517_1_ricketts-family-joe-ricketts-rahm-emanuel

You'd think an organization trying to weasel out some extra public money (wait -- aren't they against government handouts?) would be savvier about pissing off the hot-tempered former Obama chief of staff in the mayor's office, especially when that strategy of financing the attack ad went over so well the first time around.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/rahm-emanuel-not-returning-calls-from-ricketts-family/2012/05/17/gIQAb8WcWU_blog.html

 

Also, interesting piece here on why Wrigley attendance is declining. The short version: the Ricketts family is selling the steak (the dry, flimsy steak), while Trib Co sold the sizzle.

http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/articles/why-wrigley-field-is-suddenly-so-empty-1408578101

I wonder, too, if post-Bartman, Cubs fans saw their team less as lovable losers. I remember covering the 2007 division series, and Cubs fans booed EVERY TIME something didn't go their way. Someone would swing and miss and a pitch, something that happens a zillion times every game, and people would boo. Friendly confines, my ass -- I never felt a vibe so hostile to the home team, though to be fair I've only attended a few games in Philly in my lifetime. At the extreme major-league prices the Cubs have you pay, it's not enough to have a lovely time at the ol' ballyard. Especially when your owners to cheap to have enough people to put out a tarp.

 

Red Sox sign 27-year-old Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo for 6 years, $72 million:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/08/22/cuban-outfielder-rusney-castillo-to-sign-with-the-red-sox-for-72-million/

Given the success of recent elite Cuban hitters (Cespedes, Puig, Abreu), Boston could be really loaded in 2015.

 

What's happened to my fellow Nats fanbois on this thread? It seems like a 10-game winning streak should be worthy of mention.