The MLB Thread

Pete Rose still has more professional hits due to his time in the minor leagues.

Brandon Crawford had seven hits against the Marlins tonight: 5 singles, a double, and a triple. This ties a NL record and is the first 7-hit game in 40 years.

edited 8th Aug '16 10:29:32 PM by Millardkillmoore

Jose Fernandez, the Marlin's ace pitcher, was killed in a boating accident early this morning. He was 24. He was scheduled to start in today's game against the Braves, which has been cancelled.

Fernandez was a genuinely great guy in addition to an amazing pitcher. His stats are among the highest in the league and he set club records with the Marlins, and he was always smiling and laughing on the field and in the dugout.

He will be missed.

Part of me thinks that it's such a shame to see young talent be extinguished.

Part of me wants to know who the hell thought that boating at 50+ MPH in the middle of the night was a good idea.

Oh well. That's going to torpedo (no puns intended) the Marlins' playoff odds for the next few years. You can't replace that kind of talent, not easily.

To twist the knife further: Fernadez's girlfriend is pregnant.

In more cheery news, barring miracles, we know who the division winners are.

AL East - Red Sox (magic number is 2)
AL Central - Indians (magic number is 1)
AL West - Rangers (clinched)
NL East - Nationals (clinched)
NL Central - Cubs (clinched)
NL West - Dodgers (clinched)

AL Wildcard slots are in the hands of the Orioles and Blue Jays, with the Tigers, Astros, and Mariners all lurking a little ways back. In the NL, it's a three-way race for the two slots between the Mets, Cardinals, and Giants.

edited 25th Sep '16 6:36:32 PM by TotemicHero

My Mets had a laugher of a win today, I'm crossing my fingers that the Cubs and the Padres can mess up the night of the Cardinals and the Giants.

The Mets probably have the easiest remaining schedule of the 3 teams, although their games are all on the road, (Mets are just over .500 on the road) and 3 of those games are against the Phillies, who would love nothing more than to trip them up in the last week.

Updated my above post, because the Dodgers have now clinched their division.

Edit: And because it had to be the perfect end to his career, it was the final home game that Vin Scully will ever cover.

edited 25th Sep '16 9:04:09 PM by TotemicHero

Well, Marlins had a good run this season, but we're out of the Wild Card running. At this point I'm hoping for a winning season, but I'm not optimistic — we're at 77-78 right now, with six games left... against the Mets and the Nats. Ugh.

The Fish can do pretty well when we have all our players on the field, but we lost Dee Gordon for half the season because the idiot was taking PEDs (though when he came back, his performance was somewhat lackluster, so...), and we lost Stanton for a few weeks due to injury during a critical part of the season. Now that we've lost Fernandez, we might be stuck with a rebuilding year next year. We needed another starting pitcher anyway, and talent like Fernandez doesn't come along every day.

Good to see him go out on a high note. For almost 70 years he's been one of the classiest guys in the game and never made it about himself. I hope his retired life treats him well.

There are many great baseball moments, but I think this one deserves to be remembered, no matter how many years go by.

Playoff teams are set. NL wild cards are Mets and Giants, AL wild cards are Blue Jays and Orioles,

Jays win the AL WC game.

Giants win the NL WC game.

And now the Cubs will face what could be their deadliest adversary this post-season: the relentless march of the even-year magic Giants.

Five^note Monopoly dollars says there's a goat being kept behind the bullpen at AT&T Park.

Bill Murray wants the world to know that he ain't afraid of no goat.

Which may have worked, as the Cubs won 1-0.

Blue Jays score off of an error in the 10th inning, winning 7-6 and sweeping their first post-season series in franchise history.

2-0 now. Starting to think this might just be the year of the Cubs. Since my Mets are out, I'll cross my fingers for them, it'll be nice to see them break the curse.

You do know that by 1-0, I meant the score of the game, right?

I read too fast. But regardless, I have a feeling it might be their year.

We might have multiple sweeps if the Cubs and Indians keep up their streaks, pretty strange year we've got going on.

Even if the Jays don't get past the Indians (or Boston if they pull a comeback), the beautiful Karmic justice of having Oder make an error that eliminated his team makes the entire year worth it.

And Cleveland just swept Boston.

Giants walk-off in the 13th to keep their season alive.

Came across this^note Slight mistake - Daniel Murphy was 2015 NLCS MVP while reading Wiki's article on the Goat Curse.

I feel kinda bad that part of me wants to see the Nationals win over the Cubs in the NLCS with Murphy being key again just so the Cubs' section in the Curse trope can be expanded.

edited 11th Oct '16 8:04:45 AM by megarockman

So the Cubs are victims of Murphy's Law?