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Netzer

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If only statcast had the technology to measure the launch angle and exit velocity of yankee balls that have been hit off of your chin.

Goo Punch
Goo Punch
Hank Chinaski
Hank Chinaski

Good fucking riddance. 

UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9790

Posted
Posted
Just one month ago, it looked like we could have potential chaos in the playoff race, but with a week and a half ago, would anyone bet against this:
AL WC: A’s @ Yankees
NL WC: Cardinals @ Brewers
ALDS: Wild Card vs Red Sox; Indians vs Astros
NLDS: Wild Card vs Cubs; Braves vs Dodgers

Stark is still rooting for chaos:

And now our secret confession: We root for chaos.

The best kind of chaos. October chaos.

We root for three-team ties. We root for four-team ties. We’d love a five-team or six-team tie one of these years, but let’s not get greedy.

We root for two, three, four days of October insanity. Travel insanity. Tie-breaker insanity. It has never happened. But it could happen this year. It’s not that hard to imagine. Is it?

Is it really that difficult to envision the Brewers, Cardinals, Dodgers and Rockies all finishing with the same record – say 90-72 or 89-73? Here’s what would have to take place for those four teams to end the season at 90-72:

Brewers 4-7
Cardinals 7-4
Dodgers 7-4
Rockies 8-4

OK, so the Brewers would have to go 4-7, and that seems unlikely. But wait. Is it really? They still play St. Louis, which has beaten them four of the last five times they’ve met. They still have a series in Pittsburgh, which swept them in a five-game series in the same ballpark right before the All-Star break.

So yes, it’s unlikely. But that’s not the same as impossible. So if you don’t care who wins and you root for chaos, we’re here to outline exactly what that chaos could look like. Sounds like fun – from the outside!

FOUR-WAY TIEBREAKER MADNESS

So what happens if the Brewers, Cardinals, Dodgers and Rockies finish tied – leaving the NL West and both wild-card spots in bedlam? Here is how they’d settle that:

MONDAY, OCT. 1: We’d get not one but two tiebreaker games. Woohoo! Rockies at Dodgers to decide the NL West, plus Cardinals-Brewers (site TBD) with the winner of that one clinching one spot in the wild card game.

TUESDAY, OCT. 2: The two losing teams play again for the second vacancy in the wild card game (which is currently scheduled for – of course! – Oct. 2, but would have to be bumped back by a day). The winner of this one lives to play in the wild card game. The loser heads for the fishing hole.

But that little summation makes this almost seem kind of simple. No, no, no, no, no. If you remember that these teams finish the season on a Sunday (Sept. 30) and the very next day, the survivors would then have to start pinballing along, from game to game and town to town, from tiebreakers to a wild card game and then a Division Series, there’s nothing simple about it. Here’s how that would affect all four of them:

POTENTIAL DODGERS CHAOS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Dodgers won the season series with the Rockies and Brewers – but not the Cardinals, thanks to that Adam Wainwright retro-masterpiece last Sunday. So the Dodgers would host tiebreakers (or a wild card game) against everyone but St. Louis.

WHERE THEY COULD TRAVEL: The Dodgers finish the regular season in San Francisco. So if the chaos planets align, they could wind up with this wacky itinerary:

SUNDAY: San Francisco (game 162).
MONDAY: Los Angeles (NL West tiebreaker).
TUESDAY: St. Louis (final wild card game tiebreaker)
WEDNESDAY: Milwaukee (wild card game)
THURSDAY: Chicago (NLDS opener)

So that’s five games in five cities … 2,345 miles of laid-back air travel … and two time-zone changes. But if you add in a flight back to L.A. on Saturday, now you’re up to 4,089 air miles – in a week. But you know what they say: It beats the alternative!

POTENTIAL ROCKIES CHAOS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Rockies’ loss Monday night in Los Angeles clinched that season series for L.A. So they would be on the road for all potential tiebreakers (and wild card game match-ups) unless they get paired up with the Brewers.

WHERE THEY COULD TRAVEL: Their last seven games of the regular season are at Coors, where they’re 30-13 since mid-June. But after that, this team could do some serious time-zone hopping if it gets swept up by the Chaos Express.

SUNDAY: Denver (game 162)
MONDAY: Los Angeles (NL West tiebreaker)
TUESDAY: St. Louis or Denver (final wild card game tiebreaker)
WEDNESDAY: Denver or St. Louis (wild card game)
THURSDAY: Chicago (NLDS opener)

So that looks pretty relaxing, huh? Don’t let that Tuesday/Wednesday “St. Louis or Denver” entry fool you. If the Rockies play on both of those days, there’s zero chance they can play in the same city two days in a row. So they’re facing not just five games in five days in five cities, but a time-zone change at least four days in a row – and as many as 4,089 miles in the air just in those four days!

That makes them our official poster boys for October Chaos. But should we remind them now … that’s actually a good thing?

POTENTIAL BREWERS CHAOS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Brewers have already lost the season series to the Dodgers and Rockies. So their only shot to have home field in any tiebreaker comes down to their three-game series next week in St. Louis. Those teams have gone 8-8 in their first 16 games this season. So if the Brewers don’t take two of three, their chaos probability score could rise faster than Christian Yelich’s OPS.

WHERE THEY COULD TRAVEL: Most teams that finish the season at home get the entire final week at home. But not the Brewers. They already have to travel from Pittsburgh to St. Louis to Milwaukee in a 72-hour window next week. Then the travel fun could really kick in. Here’s where they could potentially wind up:

SUNDAY: Milwaukee (game 162)
MONDAY: St. Louis or Milwaukee (wild card tiebreaker)
TUESDAY: Denver or Los Angeles (final wild card game tiebreaker)
WEDNESDAY: St. Louis or Milwaukee (wild card game)
THURSDAY: Chicago (NLDS opener)

Maybe that doesn’t look too nutty on the surface. But trust us. Their travel-madness possibilities are still lurking. If their chaos options turn out all wrong (or right), they could change cities five days in a row … and six times in eight days (counting the end of the regular season) … with three potential time zones still in play (four if you count that late-September stop in Pittsburgh) … plus up to 3,900 miles in the skies in four days.

They should bring along some traveling salesmen to shower them with helpful travel tips!

POTENTIAL CARDINALS CHAOS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Cardinals could actually wind up winning the season series with all of these teams. They’ve already locked that up with the NL West half of the field. And as we’ve mentioned, they just have to win a series at home next week against the Brew Crew to sweep the home-field-advantage trifecta. We recommend that highly.

WHERE THEY COULD TRAVEL: If the Cardinals just take two of three from Milwaukee next week, they’re facing the least potential havoc in this group. But “least” would not be synonymous with “none.” They do have to finish the regular season at Wrigley Field. And if they lose that series with the Brewers, they could be looking at this scenario:

SUNDAY: Chicago (game 162)
MONDAY: Milwaukee (wild card tiebreaker)
TUESDAY: St. Louis (versus either L.A. or Colorado in final wild card tiebreaker)
WEDNESDAY: Milwaukee or St. Louis (wild card game)
THURSDAY: Chicago (NLDS opener)

The good news: No matter how this turns out, they can’t leave the Central time zone. The bad news: That’s still five games in five days, all five possibly in a different city than the day before.

So the Cardinals won’t lead the league in frequent-flier miles. But that’s still slightly more airplane snacks than 98 percent of America’s finest nutrition experts recommend.

MORE MAXIMUM-CHAOS POSSIBILITIES

To achieve absolute maximum chaos, we’d need five-way or six-way ties. And sadly, the odds of the Cubs careening back toward this pack, or of the Diamondbacks winning their last 11 in a row, are too remote even for us chaos fans to hang onto that hope.

But just a reminder: There’s no such thing, inside the MLB offices, as a tiebreaker plan in the event of five-team or six-team ties. So that’s max chaos on hyper-drive! Just not this year.

As you file that away, here are all your other NL tiebreaker options:

LA/COL/STL TIE: This would be a three-way tie for two spots (NL West, second wild card). So you’d have Rockies at Dodgers on Monday to decide the NL West, then the loser playing in St. Louis on Tuesday to set up Wednesday’s wild card game. See above for all the travel lunacy that would create.

LA/COL/MIL TIE: This will sound familiar. Rockies at Dodgers on Monday. Loser hosts the Brewers on Tuesday. The fun here is this: The Brewers would have to play one of these two teams Tuesday – but wouldn’t know where until the NL West tie-breaker game is over. For all you non-geography majors out there, Denver and Los Angeles are not that conveniently located to Milwaukee – or to each other!

DODGERS-ROCKIES TIE: They would play Monday at Dodger Stadium (to decide the NL West) if they tie. We know that. It’s possible the loser could be a wild card depending on developments in the Central. Stay tuned on that front.

BREWERS-CARDINALS TIE: If these teams tie for both wild-card spots, they don’t need to play Monday. The winner of the season series – which comes down to that series next week in St. Louis – hosts the wild card game against the other. But if they’re tied for only the second wild card, Monday becomes a win-or-go-home tie-breaker game.

DODGERS-CARDINALS TIE: If they tie for both wild-card spots, they’ll just play in the wild card game against each other, in St. Louis (based on the season series). If they tie for the second wild card, the Cardinals host L.A. in a win-or-else game. And only the winner advances to the wild card game.

ROCKIES-CARDINALS TIE: What we just said in the Dodgers-Cardinals rundown. Just substitute “Colorado” for “L.A.” and you’ve got it.

ROCKIES-BREWERS TIE: Ditto! Except that any Rockies-Brewers tie-breaker game would be in Colorado, not Milwaukee. Capice? Cool.

CUBS/MIL/STL TIE: Mathematically, this three-way tie for the NL Central (and potentially two wild-card spots) is all but impossible, unless the Cardinals sweep both the Cubs and Brewers in the final week. But humor us, OK? With all but the Cubs-Brewers season series still up in the air and all of this dependent on head-to-head records, we can’t predict who would play where or even when. But two of them would play Monday. The winner would host the third team Tuesday. The Tuesday winner would win the Central.

Ah, but they might not be done. It’s possible both losers could play in the wild card game (if they had the two best records in that race). But it’s also possible that just the Tuesday loser could be a wild-card team. We’d explain it, but as we mentioned, this whole scenario is way too remote to make that worth doing for now. Get back to us if it happens!

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TheFlagship

TheFlagship 466

Posted
Posted (edited)

Phillies/Braves play 1st of 7 games against each other over the last 11 days. Phils are 5.5 back so need to go at least 6-1 to have a chance. 

Conversely, Braves can clinch the division by winning 3 of 4 and the Nats don’t sweep the Mets, or by winning by all 4 this weekend.

What would really be interesting is if both the Phillies and Nats sweep, then the Braves would only be 1.5 ahead of Philly and 3 ahead of DC

Edited by TheFlagship
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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

Posted
Posted (edited)

Red Sox fans climb on roof of electric train leaving Yankee Stadium, one becomes fried meathead:

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/transit/2018/09/20/man-dies-metro-north-train/1365899002/?csp=chromepush

Spoiler

 

A man died less than an hour after leaving Yankee Stadium after climbing on top of a Connecticut-bound train and hitting overhead electrified wires in Westchester County on Wednesday night, officials said.

Metro-North officials said the victim was Michael Vigeant, 24, of Hudson, New Hampshire.

A conductor saved Vigeant's brother as the pair, decked out in Boston Red Sox gear, climbed up onto a train car, but Vigeant ended up getting to the top, said Michael Pellicci, a Stamford resident who was on the train.

"He saw the second brother and grabbed him," he said.

Then there was a "red flash," Pellicci said, after Vigeant hit the wires.

The incident happened around 11:30 p.m. between Larchmont and Mamaroneck and stranded passengers on a train packed with Yankees and Red Sox fans for more than two hours after leaving Wednesday night's Yankees game. New Haven Line service was delayed until about 3:20 a.m.

First responders who were passengers on the train rushed to perform CPR on Vigeant while people supported his brother, Pellicci said.

"I give those guys credit because they worked on his brother the whole time until those paramedics came," Pellicci said. "They didn't stop. There were doctors and nurses that were volunteering their help."

Metro-North Railroad officials said Vigeant died at a nearby hospital.

Pellicci said the brothers had climbed to the top of a train car earlier while the train was stopped, but that the train was moving the second time.

When Vigeant was struck, the train stopped because of a power issue, and the crew then found him after he had come into contact with the overhead catenary wires, Metro-North officials said.

MTA police are investigating. New Haven Line trains were delayed 30 to 55 minutes until about 3:20 a.m., officials said.

Metro-North officials said passengers were on that stopped train for about 45 minutes until they were transferred onto a different train, and that passengers reached their final destination in New Haven 105 minutes late. Passengers tweeted that they were stuck at that spot between Larchmont and Mamaroneck for more than two hours before moving again toward Connecticut.

On Twitter, people complained about the hot, humid conditions on the train, with some people asking Metro-North to open the doors so people could get fresh air. There was no air conditioning while the train was stopped because of the power problem, people tweeted.

 

Edited by clapclapclap
Don't Judge....
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TheFlagship

TheFlagship 466

Posted
Posted

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=sta&lg=nl&qual=0&type=8&season=2018&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0

This shocked me. In the NL, 9 of the top 10 pitchers by fWAR won’t be pitching in the playoffs in all likelihood. The lone one? Miles Mikolas of all people.

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 53356

Posted
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30 minutes ago, EuroHorn said:

https://content.jwplatform.com/previews/4T8L6KSI?exp=1537494240&sig=dba32eb3ca081f24ddfe03273a09fdcd

 

Not sure if already posted.  Orioles rookie’s first hit turns into a clown show. Check out the Braille jerseys. Explains the orioles season

Was it Mark Reynolds bobble head night at Camden yards?

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Helobious

Helobious 9780

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, dbecks said:

Go ahead and give Mookie the AL MVP while you’re at it.

Fucking hate that I agree with this. Makes me sick in fact.

Unrelated note: I don't care how good Trout is, he should be banned from winning another MVP until he wins at least 1 playoff game in his life. He's 27 years old already.  Give it to someone that actually does something for a good team in meaningful games. And yeah Trout's on the outside looking in for the MVP race anyway this year but still. 

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