MLB '24 Regular Season Thread

[Della9250]

Just out of curiosity, what would have happened to the two games if the Braves were in and the Mets needed just one of two to advance? Say if the Padres put a real team out today (I'm assuming because they had nothing to play for) or if the D'Backs dropped another game over the last week. If that second half wasn't needed, would they have played it?

I think that is correct -- they would have played the first game, seen the result and if it was necessary would have been played. It'd be like the recent games that are supposed to be make up but don't if they don't affect the standings.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Just out of curiosity, what would have happened to the two games if the Braves were in and the Mets needed just one of two to advance? Say if the Padres put a real team out today (I'm assuming because they had nothing to play for) or if the D'Backs dropped another game over the last week. If that second half wasn't needed, would they have played it?

if, you mean, the three teams all ended Sunday with 88 wins? From what I heard on the Braves TV today, I think there was a scenario in which at least one of the two -- and possibly both -- would have been canceled.

 

[Della9250]

Honestly, that might be Mize's last appearance in a Tigers uniform. For a 1-1 pick, he's been underwhelming at best. In between a myriad of injuries, he's been prone to the long ball, can't put anyone away with two strikes and certainly ruffled the feathers of President Scott Harris when he took the team to arbitration over $20,000 -- after missing the entire 2023 season. He'll be 28 in May and is 9-19 with a 4.32 ERA in 59 career starts.

I think they'll give him one more year -- they have a team option for a little more than 3 million and I don't know how much you could expect for a guy who made two starts the previous two seasons. I'd be afraid to deal him before the season, especially since he's arbitration eligibile, when he'll be in an actual full MLB season for the first time in four years

 

[tapintoamerica]

I think it was Bob Nightingale who posted that the Padres were the real winners by losing today because their loss ensured that San Diego's first playoff competitor would be playing with no off days and might be required to fly cross country.

 

[HanSenSE]

There was a similar situation in 1973 when the Mets had a makeup doubleheader at Chicago to decide the NL East. Mets won the first game an immediately popped the corks, forgetting there was a second game scheduled while getting totally sloshed. To make a long story short, instead of sending a bunch of drunk players on the field for Game 2, the umpires declared the field unplayable and the season was over.

 

[UPChip]

And pity poor Twins fans. How does Minnesota completely collapse like that? Tigers and Royals both in, playing the weekend to decide who goes to Baltimore and who goes to Houston.

Being that I'm in Minnesota, I've been thinking about this question for a week. I can tell you that the Twins' fanbase is out for blood. It's a little odd because the Twins are the only men's sports team that has ever won a title in Minnesota, but it's hard to get mad at the Wild and Wolves, who have never won anything, whereas Vikings fans overwhelmingly just hate the Packers and haven't really blamed their front office for anything since maybe the Herschel Walker trade. However, potentially because his Dad tried to kill the team for the proverbial insurance money and he cut payroll $30M on a winning team because they lost revenue on the Bally Sports fiasco, about 75% of the blame for what happened to the Twins is being targeted at ownership, about 15% at the front office, and most of the rest at mangement. I've seen very little on the players even though Correa got busted loafing on a ground ball during the 13-inning Marlins clusterfork last week.

As some of the Minnesota sports scribes have noted, it seems very convenient that Cal Pohlad and Derek Falvey suddenly started taking questions on the exact day the Vikings were in Lambeau (meaning beat writers only) and barely 24 hours after one of the most famous athletes in town got traded. What Pohlad said does not inspire confidence.



I read that as, "I want to win but I'm not willing to do it at a loss." I guess that's a position. And it's not like they aren't paying Correa $33M a year.

The Twins are 19th in MLB in payroll, and it just so happens that the next four teams (KC, MIL, BAL, CLE) all made the playoffs. The Tigers are 26th. Meanwhile, Texas and Toronto are running 150% of the Twins figures and both had bad seasons. The White Sox, Angels and Rockies are ahead of them and were unmitigated disasters.

I keep jumping back to 2009. The Tigers led the AL Central by 7 games at close of play on Sept. 6 and finished 11-15. Meanwhile, the Twins, who fell to the .500 mark on that very day and were below .500 the following weekend, won 15 of their last 19 games. The final weekend was particularly debauched, including Miguel Cabrera going 0-for-4 on Friday night, getting tanked, coming home and having a physical domestic with his wife, then going out there Saturday and going 0-for-4 again. Meanwhile, the Tigers had to do a bullpen game on the penultimate day of the season because they were out of pitching. After losing the first two games of the series to an out-of-it White Sox team by a combined 13-1, Verlander and a four-out save from Fernando Rodney bailed their asses out, but only as far as a Game 163 in my favorite pit of heck, the Metrodome. I think you all know how that went.

Besides Cabrera's actions (ones that were conveniently absent from the many hagiographies written about him late in his career), they just ran out of pitching. Several attempts to bolster the rotation beyond three starters failed miserably, like a trade for Jarrod Washburn that bombed and the beginning of the derailing of the D-Train and the last Tigers appearance for my favorite at the time, Nate Robertson.

The Twins similarly bombed. Joe Ryan went down in August and never returned, attempts to improve their pitching depth by rolling the dice on oft-injured guys like Chris Paddack and Anthony DeSclafani failed miserably and the front office made no meaningful moves at the deadline (they said they got outbid for Yusei Kikuchi, and the only pitcher they did acquire was DFAed quickly). That meant they had to get length out of the likes of Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa and Zebby Matthews and they just didn't.

Meanwhile, Correa missed two months with plantar fasciitis, Royce Lewis pulled up lame on Opening Day and missed two months, Max Kepler got shut down after Labor Day, and though Byron Buxton actually played 100 games in the field this season, he had two IL stints, including a month-long one in the late summer.

I think they just ran out of gas and they got caught by a Tigers team that caught a flyer. I'm not sure if there's a bigger picture reason than that. It drives me nuts when teams I follow screw up and no one gets held accountable, so I think I would have fired the manager, Rocco Baldelli, if for no other reason than to send a message, but I can see why he wasn't the sacrificial lamb. This is a team that believes it can't afford a safety net, and they fell off the wire.

So reading between the Lions, Skubal gets the ball in Game 1 against Houston. Then Hinch has to decide how to cobble something together. I would guess Olson (who hasn't thrown more than 70 pitches after coming off the IL) paired with Jobe in Game 2, then an opener/Madden if there's a Game 3.

I'll wait until the playoff thread to tell you why the Tigers are going two-and-que against the Astros.

I'll probably consider this more tomorrow, but I'd rather not face Burnes again, especially if we're going to potentially go for a pitcher's duel with Skubal, and though it's not like Framber Valdez is a better matchup, I also like the idea of going up against a team that they haven't seen repeatedly since they've gotten good. Mostly, I'm curious if the Tigers will get to experience getting violated by Justin Verlander in a high-stakes playoff game like so much of the rest of the American League.

 

[goalmouth]

Mutual forfeits between Mets and Braves.

Problen solved, see ya Arizona!

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[HanSenSE]

Too soon to start the Hot Stove thread?

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

So … if the Braves and Mets split tomorrow, who gets in with a three-way tie?

The Braves and Mets.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

That said, it'd be peak weird forking baseball for someone to sweep. And very Mets for that team to be the Braves!

I'm asking for space and privacy today.

 

[brn623cl]

Flashback to my youth because I'm in the blackout zone. In the 1970's it was the transistor radio and ear phone to listen to baseball playoffs. Fast forward to 2024 it's the iPhone and Atr Pods to listen to the almost playoff games today.