MLB '24 Regular Season Thread

The White Sox are a very extreme example, but I've always found a certain peaceful poetry being at a September game of two teams playing out the string.

 

I'm going to try to hold out hope for the key pieces coming back ready to roll -- Westburg, Mountcastle, Kjerstad, Rodriguez -- but it's getting weaker and weaker.

Just like the lineup the O's turned out tonight. That ballclub is simply not giving itself a fair chance to win right now, and Brandon Hyde's lineup juggling is beginning to look desperate.

 

I always find myself a little sad watching baseball at the end of September and in the playoffs.

I started finding myself feeling like this after reading The Boys of Summer and how Roger Kahn got a ticket for his father to go to one of the ‘52 World Series games; then the next year, his father couldn’t go, and ended up dying a couple of days after the ‘53 Series ended.

The winding down of the season reminds me of my Dad, who’s 80 now, and how we love talking baseball with each other and how I hope that Dad will be around to see another season.

 

Baseball has marked the seasons, Ray.


Really every season in every sport does, but baseball is uniquely suited as a generational rite of passage.

The season itself is so long, there's a couple of months of buildup over the winter. By the time the playoffs and World Series arrive, kids are a full school year older than they were at the start of the whole thing.

 

You prick.
I go through a box of Kleenex every time I watch Field Of Dreams, and I bet I’ve watched it a dozen times.

 

I'd like to know what's happened to Rutschman.

Batted .327 in April, .265 in May, .290 in June then ....
.132 in July, .229 in August, .222 in September. He has four homers and 21 RBIs in those three months.

The whole lineup is ass right now, but you can't have your budding superstar disappear for three months.

You cannot discount the injuries, and I know you're not. Westburg, Mateo and Urias were all playing great when they got hurt. Mayo has shrunk from the moment. I don't even fucking know who Rivera and Soto are, scrapheap acquisitions. I see Kimbrel's back in there lighting himself on fire again too. Went to a friend's birthday dinner tonight so I'm not watching. But the O's got a pillowy soft schedule stretch with against the likes of the White Sox, Rays, Red Sox and Tigers and have gone 5-8 against it. The division is lost. Just have to hope to stay ahead of the Royals for home field in the WC series at this point. But they suck out fucking loud right now and will probably get swept no matter where that series is unless they can get some help here.

Fun fact: Baltimore has one winning streak of more than two games in the season's second half.

 

Kimbrel tonight, with his team maybe perhaps somewhat with a chance, only down 4-0 heading to the ninth.

34 pitches, 0.2 IP, three hits, six earned runs, two walks, two strikeouts, a wild pitch. That's fucking demoralizing. You can feel the entire stadium groan when Hyde calls for him to come into the game.

Giants now up 10-0.

Shoot him into the fucking sun.

 

Catchers get dinged up a lot -- a lot of minor bruises, sprains, taking fouls off their arms and legs; for security reasons the teams don't want to announce the little nagging injuries but they can knock 50 points off your BA for a month.

 

KC has left 9 on base through 6 tonight.
Gotta figure out a way.
Bunt, hr, something in between
Don’t care
Figure it out

 

If there’s an L that’s ok to take, getting it in a Snell start isn’t bad, even if Kimbrell embarrassed his family. The next two are where Baltimore should make hay. Birdsong is a great prospect but is trying to figure the big leagues out. Webb is Webb but he’s been Matt Cain’d of late. Giants are just too inconsistent. This will be a blip.

 

I never seen analytics suggest taking a 93 MPH fastball down the middle for strike 3.

 

You missed the point. If their analytics tell them to expect a slider or changeup in that situation, they're going to be fooled by a fastball. Why else would they take a medium-speed pitch down the middle?