The MLB Thread

Well, we'll get a sneak preview of one of the intending contender teams (see what I did there? ) tonight, when the Astros and Rangers open the season (on Easter Sunday, no less).

That would be the Seattle Mariners. They look like they'll at least be better than last year, but that's not saying much.

Ah, that's my closest team geographically (I'm in the Tri-Cities until next month), so I sometimes listen to them lose on the radio.

I have it both ways. I fully expect my Cardinals to contend for a playoff spot again this year, but I think I'd be happy with the Twins if they just managed to stay out of the AL Central cellar.

And in a shocking twist, the season opens with the Astros pounding the Rangers 8-2. If that's a harbinger of what's to come, it's going to be a very interesting season.

That was an exciting game.

Yeah, nice win for the Astros. I'm not sure I'm ready to declare them frontrunning contenders in the AL West after just one game, but it might be fun to see them make a little more noise than expected in the division after the huge change over from the National League.

Well, here we go. There was the one game last night, but today's the day for the rest of the league.

Time to guarantee that I'll look silly come October—behold my 2013 predictions:

NL East 1. Nationals 2. Braves (WC) 3. Phillies 4. Marlins 5. Mets

NL Central 1. Reds 2. Brewers (WC) 3. Cardinals 4. Pirates 5. Cubs

NL West 1. Giants 2. Diamondbacks 3. Dodgers 4. Rockies 5. Padres

AL East 1. Yankees 2. Blue Jays (WC) 3. Rays 4. Red Sox 5. Orioles

AL Central 1. Tigers 2. Indians 3. White Sox 4. Royals 5. Twins

AL West 1. Angels 2. Rangers (WC) 3. Athletics 4. Mariners 5. Astros

So, Yu Darvish just went 8 2/3rds perfect innings before giving up a hit. So close.

I know, right? Kind of a shame. Still, I suppose the Astros didn't want to just completely lie down and let the Darvish Dervish walk all over them. (Yes, I made that up just now.)

Man, why didn't the Rangers use Darvish as the opening day starter? Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

The M's look primed for 2-0.

Thus matching my expected win total for the season.

Move over, Scott Boras, the new agent to broker sports deals is...Jay-Z?

I guess...Robinson Cano has 99 problems but a pitch ain't one?

First week's over. (Well, almost; at the time of posting, the Dodgers-Pirates game is still on, but that's it.)

So far, the NL West is upside down of what most people expected, while the NL East is being completely predictable (Braves and Nationals tied for division lead). We will see what next week brings.

Is it too early to call the Twins a surprise team yet? Seems like everyone picked them to finish last in the AL Central, but they've already taken two of three from the defending AL champion Tigers and the Orioles, who were also a playoff team last year.

I think it's far too soon.

Still a lot of baseball to go.

Yeah, about the only thing we know is that Chris Davis of the Orioles is going to be a player to watch, as this could be the start of a huge breakout year for him. (Stat line: .556/.591/1.389, 4 HR, 17 RBI, 5 games played)

edited 7th Apr '13 4:48:53 PM by TotemicHero

Alright, it's only a week's worth of games, but I had heard of some preseason predictions that went as far as to say the Twins wouldn't be above .500 at all this year. Hoping this is at least a very early sign that they won't be cellar dwellers yet again.

Looks like my other favorite team performed impressively today too, although the Cards are sitting right at .500 at the moment.

I hope I'm not opening too much of a can of worms bringing this up, but I'm curious what this thread thinks. I keep reading these articles around about how now that there's interleague games pretty much all season, it's now inevitable that both leagues will soon need to adopt the same rules regarding the designated hitter. I can understand the logistics behind making such a move, but I don't know, I actually kind of enjoy the differences between the leagues, especially since I follow teams in both the National and American Leagues. It's one more thing that makes Major League Baseball unique compared to the other four major North American sports leagues.

I guess though if I had to pick one way or the other to go, I'd really prefer the AL to drop the DH since I've followed NL teams for longer and I suppose I'm more of a purist, but realistically, they'll probably make the NL use the DH because there's more benefit in that for the league and players.

I'm not exactly a huge fan of the DH either, mainly because it effectively limits your roster flexibility (without the DH, you have an extra bench slot you can play with, allowing for more platooning at different positions).

Also, SI Power Rankings. (I'll probably be posting these every time they get updated.)

Another thing they could do is add two expansion teams and even out the number of teams in each league. The only thing is I can't think of what cities would get those expansion teams and how they would realign the divisions in a way that would make sense geographically and competitively. Obviously it would be 4 divisions per league and 4 teams per division like the NFL, but besides that I just don't know. It might be fun to speculate however.

Hmmmm...I think I can do it with only one team having to move cities. (A bunch of league and divisions swaps do follow, though.)

NL South:
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
Houston Astros
Expansion Team 1 (Alabama)

NL Northeast:
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates

NL Central:
Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs

NL West:
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Los Angeles Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks

AL South:
Tampa Bay Rays
Texas Rangers
New Orleans Pelicans (formerly the Minnesota Twins, come up with your own name if you don't like this one)
Expansion Team 2 (Virginia or Tennessee)

AL Northeast:
New York Yankees
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox

AL Central:
Kansas City Royals
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers

AL West:
Seattle Mariners
Oakland Athletics
Los Angeles Angels
Colorado Rockies

Sounds okay? (Sorry for the long post, space-wise.)

edited 12th Apr '13 5:21:19 PM by TotemicHero

With the Twins as my favorite American League team, I'm not sure I like them moving to New Orleans (and realistically, Target Field is pretty new; maybe if they were still struggling to get out of the Metrodome). Maybe I'll take a stab at it without changing any existing locations or league alignments.

NL West
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres
Arizona Diamondbacks

NL Central
St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee Brewers
Colorado Rockies

NL South
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
Cincinnati Reds
Expansion Team 1 (Tennessee, Carolina, or New Orleans)

NL East
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Washington Nationals

AL West
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Expansion Team 2 (Vancouver or Portland)

AL Central
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers
Cleveland Indians

AL South
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
Tampa Bay Rays

AL East
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays

The only thing I'm wondering here is if putting Tampa in the hypothetical AL South might spread it out a little too much. Possibly the same with the Rockies in the NL Central. The current NL West is well distributed, and considering all three California NL teams would likely stay together, it seems likely that Arizona or Colorado would have to be shoehorned into a division farther east if they went down to four teams.

edited 12th Apr '13 6:01:36 PM by CombatC122

I think the fact that you stuck a team based out of Ohio (the Reds) in a South division kind of already spreads it out a bit much.