is there a single other person here who likes baseball

[brinstar]

or is it just me and finny?

[Kaemon]

Huge fan of baseball.

Yankee fan here. But also rooting for the Met's for this WS. Fuck KC.

[Jay]

I'm a White Sox fan so right now I fucking hate baseball.

[Arlos]

I find baseball to be pretty boring, especially to watch on TV. (it's a perfect game to listen to on radio, though.) So, I just root for the local team and follow them in the news.

So, KC should enjoy the win, but next year is the 2016 season. An even year, which means the Giants will win it all again...

[brinstar]

giants will contend yeah. cards are always a threat. pirates should be in a good place to stay in the hunt.

i'm less familiar with the AL since i grew up a pitcher who loved to bat, but i think KC's run might be done - they've still got a decent core but they added a lot of big dollar talent in the last 14 months and some of that will evaporate on the free agent market. texas, minnesota, detroit, baltimore, toronto all had great years.

my cubbies are geared to be a power for at least the rest of the decade with all the young homegrown talent they have. the downside of that is the lack of experience, but a couple years in the big leagues will develop those kids' nerves. as long as the front office keeps forking over big bucks for good pitching i predict a northsider championship by the end of President Sanders' first term

[Jay]

The Scrubbies will not win a World Series in your lifetime sorry bro.

Arlos, I personally find baseball to be a "situational sport". I love stats and comparisons so there's that, and I love watching baseball when I'm in the middle of doing other things like chores, cooking, playing a video game etc. It's a fun sport if you can have it in the background and stop when highlight moments happen. Also, great drinking sport, specifically when you're at the ballpark.

[Drem]

Since the Tigers lost Leyland I haven't really followed baseball. They're at the bottom of the division now

[Lyion]

Huge fan of baseball.

Yankee fan here. But also rooting for the Met's for this WS. Fuck KC.

I'm a huge fan of baseball, too. Watching a game on TV relaxes me, and I still love going to the ballpark.

However, it's so much different being in Ohio than San Diego. Football here seems right. Baseball makes me want to move back home.

[brinstar]

The Scrubbies will not win a World Series in your lifetime sorry bro.

spoken like a true chisox tool hahaha

i've a running theory that you guys hate the cubs more than you love your own team, thanks for reinforcing it

I love watching baseball when I'm in the middle of doing other things like chores, cooking, playing a video game etc. It's a fun sport if you can have it in the background and stop when highlight moments happen. Also, great drinking sport, specifically when you're at the ballpark.

all of this is extremely true

i love it when people complain about the length of time it takes to play a game, yet are huge football fans; the ny times did a study over a large number of games

NFL

• average length of television broadcast for a complete game (no overtime): 3.5 hrs
• game clock: 60 mins
• actual live ball time: 11.5 mins
• time that ticks off the clock between plays: 48.5 minutes
• assuming balanced time-of-possession, this means NFL stars only spend an average of 5m45s actually playing football per game
• length of regular season: 16 games
• actual live ball time per season: 3h4m

MLB

• average length of television broadcast for a 9-inning game (no extra innings): 3.5 hrs
• game clock: invalid question
• actual live ball time: 11.5 mins
• time that ticks off the clock between plays: invalid question
• assuming balanced time-of-possession, MLB stars spend an average of... 9 innings actually playing baseball per game
• length of regular season: 162 games
• actual live ball time per season: 301h3m

welp cya later sportlords

[Drem]

Wow that's crazy. I always thought football players got it easy with so few games per year, never realized they spent so little time actually playing. The action is more intense in football, sure, but I'll still take the strategy and human element of baseball over football any day

[Jay]

The Scrubbies will not win a World Series in your lifetime sorry bro.

spoken like a true chisox tool hahaha

i've a running theory that you guys hate the cubs more than you love your own team, thanks for reinforcing it

I love watching baseball when I'm in the middle of doing other things like chores, cooking, playing a video game etc. It's a fun sport if you can have it in the background and stop when highlight moments happen. Also, great drinking sport, specifically when you're at the ballpark.

all of this is extremely true

i love it when people complain about the length of time it takes to play a game, yet are huge football fans; the ny times did a study over a large number of games

NFL

• average length of television broadcast for a complete game (no overtime): 3.5 hrs
• game clock: 60 mins
• actual live ball time: 11.5 mins
• time that ticks off the clock between plays: 48.5 minutes
• assuming balanced time-of-possession, this means NFL stars only spend an average of 5m45s actually playing football per game
• length of regular season: 16 games
• actual live ball time per season: 3h4m

MLB

• average length of television broadcast for a 9-inning game (no extra innings): 3.5 hrs
• game clock: invalid question
• actual live ball time: 11.5 mins
• time that ticks off the clock between plays: invalid question
• assuming balanced time-of-possession, MLB stars spend an average of... 9 innings actually playing baseball per game
• length of regular season: 162 games
• actual live ball time per season: 301h3m

welp cya later sportlords

Guilty lolol

[brinstar]

zanchief has re-whine-ded us that there is a baseball thread and that we are not to besmirch the sanctity of the boring-ass basketball thread with so much as a mention of other sports

so yeah jay about those cubs lol

AL postseason is basically unknowable at this point; texas will get in and cleveland looks good, but there's a five-way cluster of toronto, boston, baltimore, detroit, and houston gunning for both the east/central titles and the wild card game. my prediction is detroit sprints past cleveland for the central title and toronto hangs on in the east, while houston beats boston in the WC game to face texas.

predictions:
AL Central goes to detroit in the final week of the season
AL East goes to toronto by a game or two
AL West already wrapped up by texas
AL Wildcard game houston beats boston
ALDS texas over houston in 4
ALDS detroit over toronto in 3
ALCS texas over detroit in 7

NL is a little cleaner - washington (east) and chicago (central) would require historic meltdowns to lose their divisions at this point. dodgers/giants race in the west could go either way, but i think whoever comes up short will get smoked by the cards in the wild card game. pittsburgh is in striking distance, but won't make it happen.

NL Central already wrapped up by chicago
NL East already wrapped up by washington
NL West i think LA holds on
NL Wildcard st. louis over san francisco but it's close
NLDS cubs over cards in 5
NLDS washington over LA in 4
NLCS cubs sweep washington


world series: cubs over rangers in 6

obviously anything can happen and there's always a concern when a hot young team goes up against veterans but i think unless the pitching collapses this trophy is going home to wrigley

[Drem]

I'm at work so I'll talk details later but just wanted to say, I hadn't been to a local Class A game in almost 10 years and went the other week. Found out we're (The Emeralds) the Class A short-schedule associate of the Cubs. I thought we went to the Padres but I guess that changed recently. Anyways, I'll be back later with my predictions

[Drem]

"ALCS texas over detroit in 7"

No fuckin way. How things've been going we'll be lucky to even see the pennant. Keep in mind we're in the shit with the Royals, pining for number 2 behind the Indians. Going into a 3 game series tomorrow that could tie up the race or push us further ahead after we just cheesed the White Sox. Ausmus has done better this year but there's no way we'll see too many October games imo. The Leyland era is done, the Tigers aren't #1 in the AL Central every fucking year like they were for a decade. They still have to figure it out for another year or two. Yeah we have the best hitter in the entire game of baseball by stats, who is a carryover from the golden era, but that doesn't make up for weird management and the jaw-dropping mid-game relief calls for no fucking reason that end up making us lose so many games

The way this year feels tho, I see the Blue Jays v Cubs for the WS and the Cubs winning. I really hope so, anyway. I don't have predictions for all divisions because I don't follow all of them, sorry. I can't even believe I'm writing that the Cubs might win the WS but after the last couple years and the way this one's going, seems like a given

Edits: words and numbers and shit, a lil drunk at this point sorry

[Jay]

Cubs gonna have that meltdown. I will be praying for it.

Most definitely a chisox tool that hates the Cubs more than I love the White Sox, but I do love my White Sox very much.

[brinstar]

nah dude, no way they miss the postseason now. they cooled off a bit in early august but maddon has them humming along again, and they are 15.5 games up on the cards with 29 games to go

postseason is a different matter of course but as long as everyone stays healthy they're the easy favorite

[Arlos]

That Madison Bumgarner guy might be kinda good.

[brinstar]

yeah arlos this is gonna be one hell of an NLDS for pitching

• hendricks and lester hold the #1 and #2 ERA spots in the league for the season, and are both sub-2.00 since the all-star break
• bumgarner and cueto are #4 and #5 overall, but are both north of 3.00 since the break - plus bum won't pitch the opener
• SF has samardzija, but CHC has arrieta, hammel, and lackey

sooo i think if you don't take at least one game in chicago this weekend ya'll are toast because we're for sure getting one in SF


now to adjust my original predictions:

AL Central goes to detroit in the final week of the season - nope
AL East goes to toronto by a game or two - boston muscled it out but TOR still made it
AL West already wrapped up by texas - duh
AL Wildcard game houston beats boston - what happened to houston? lol
ALDS texas over houston in 4 - TEX over TOR in 4
ALDS detroit over toronto in 3 - CLE over BOS in 5
ALCS texas over detroit in 7 - CLE upsets TEX in 7

NL Central already wrapped up by chicago - duh
NL East already wrapped up by washington - duh
NL West i think LA holds on - yep
NL Wildcard st. louis over san francisco but it's close - mets from out of nowhere!
NLDS cubs over cards in 5 - cubs over giants in 4
NLDS washington over LA in 4 - sticking by this
NLCS cubs sweep washington - sticking by this


world series: cubs over rangers in 6 - cubs over indians in 5

[Arlos]

Local sportswriter I like with his thoughts about the series: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2 ... -see-nlds/

TL;DR version: The Giants are the one team the Cubs LEAST wanted to face. He agrees that taking 1 game in Chicago is essential. He feels that if the Giants can do that, they're probably taking the series, since Bochy can put in Bumgarner in relief in game 5 if necessary, on the same rest he had when he came in for Game 7 in 2014. If they take the series, there's no one else left in the postseason (outside of maybe Boston) who is likely to be able to stop them from taking the World Series this even year too. Does say the Cubs are the most talented team they've faced in the postseason in any of their even year runs, and are the most talented team in baseball.

[Jay]

EAT SHIT SCRUBBIES! GO GIANTS!

[brinstar]

^^^ hush child

fivethirtyeight says cubs have a 67% chance of winning NLDS, and that the giants' biggest weakness is the bullpen (so they might NEED bumgarner in relief). game 1 (cueto/lester) will be about who flinches first; i think we have the edge but unless we can chase cueto before the 6th it will be a very low-scoring contest. that first win will be critical for both teams, because game 2 i predict samardzija is gonna get lit up. game 3 will be like game 1 imho - yeah you will have bum on the mount but even though arrieta came back to earth this year he is still a top shelf talent, so it's a first-to-flinch thing. i don't know enough about moore (or lackey) to make a prediction on g4, but i know we'd rather put the series away than risk throwing lester against cueto/bum in a potential g5

tl;dr if we go to SF up 2-0 you can forget about it

[Jay]

Where's Xaiveir when you need him.

[brinstar]

yep called it

cueto flinched

now let's see if i was right about samardzija

[Drem]

ALDS texas over houston in 4 - TEX over TOR in 4

whoops

[brinstar]

yeh did NOT see tex getting railroaded by the jays haha

however i will point out that i totally predicted samardzija getting fuckin smoked in NLDSA g2