Major League Baseball 2018 Season Thread

[The Whovian]

Welcome everyone to the 2018 season thread. The games have started and lots of cool things already happening. Share your thoughts on your team, other teams and players. You can give predictions for this year as well. Have fun and let the discussions begin!

[The Whovian]

My Cubs won today, 8-4. Lester didn't pitch very well, but the Cubs hitter showed up and pounded out 3 home runs and scored 8 runs. Happ, who has been on fire in the spring games, hit the first pitch of the game into the stands for a home run. First time that has happened since Jack Clark did it back in 1986.

Stanton just hit his second HR of the season and has 4 RBI's already. The Yankees are going to hit a ton of HR's and score a lot of runs. Should be fun to watch.

Here's my predictions for this season:

The two prospects that I'm eagerly awaiting to get to their respective major league teams, Ronald Acuna and Vlad Jr. will both be called up by the end of April and go on to win Rookie of the Year in the NL (Acuna) and AL (Vlad Jr.).

Stanton wins AL MVP, Kris Bryant wins NL MVP

Kluber wins AL CY award, Yu Darvish wins NL CY award.

AL East Champions - Yankees
AL Central Champions - Indians
AL West Champions - Houston

Two wild card teams - Boston and Minnesota (Boston wins WC)

Houston beats Boston, Yankees beat Indians. Houston beats Yankees and advance to World Series

NL East Champions - Washington
NL Central Champions - Cubs
NL West Champions - Dodgers

Two wild card teams - Diamondbacks and Rockies (Diamondbacks win WC)

Cubs beat Diamondbacks, Washington beats Dodgers. Cubs beat Nationals and advance to World Series.

Cubs beat Houston in World Series and are 2018 champions.

[The Whovian]

George Springer hit a lead off HR today (he hit one last year too). That's consecutive lead off HR's on opening day for Springer and something no other player has ever done. It's now a baseball record. I love little tidbits like this.

[The Whovian]

Nick Markakis just hit a walk off HR to beat the Phillies

[WestPhillyPunisher]

****! The Phillies were up 5-0! Aaron Nola threw less than 70 pitches and was cruising, but our rookie manager panicked in the sixth after allowing a baserunner and the flood gates opened as the bullpen coughed up that lead in losing to Atlanta.

[The Whovian]

****! The Phillies were up 5-0! Aaron Nola threw less than 70 pitches and was cruising, but our rookie manager panicked in the sixth after allowing a baserunner and the flood gates opened as the bullpen coughed up that lead in losing to Atlanta.

I didn't see the highlights yet except for the HR to end it. That would stink being up 5-0 and losing. Have to trust in your SP

[The Whovian]

The White Sox's Matt Davidson hit 3 HR's today, to help them win 14-7

[The Whovian]

Giants beat the Dodgers 1-0. Kershaw took the loss but deserved better. He only gave up one run, but the Dodgers failed to give him any run support.

[The Whovian]

Lot of good games last night. This season is going to be fun

[C_Miller]

Loved seeing the Yankees pull a defeat from the jaws of victory today. It's been a while since I've seen a grand slam live, so that was cool and having the Bombers blow a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the Eighth made for a very fun afternoon.

[The Whovian]

Loved seeing the Yankees pull a defeat from the jaws of victory today. It's been a while since I've seen a grand slam live, so that was cool and having the Bombers blow a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the Eighth made for a very fun afternoon.

I'm going to have to watch those highlights later. Sounds like you had fun.

My Cubs lost, split the series 2-2 with the Marlins. Disappointing.

[CaptCleghorn]

Loved seeing the Yankees pull a defeat from the jaws of victory today. It's been a while since I've seen a grand slam live, so that was cool and having the Bombers blow a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the Eighth made for a very fun afternoon.

Justin Smoak was awesome today. Not as cool as Kevin Pillar stealing home yesterday, but Grand Slams are still pretty cool as are Blue Jay wins.

[MRP]

Loved seeing the Yankees pull a defeat from the jaws of victory today. It's been a while since I've seen a grand slam live, so that was cool and having the Bombers blow a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the Eighth made for a very fun afternoon.

Yep, the Yanks got Smoaked today!

Sox had a good opening series taking 3 of 4 from the Rays. Through the entire series the Sox starting pitchers only gave up 2 runs, and Xander Boagarts opened the series with 3 games with multiple extra base hits in each game. If the bullpen hadn't melted down on opening day (mostly because Kimbrel missed most of spring training to be with his daughter who was having heart surgery and Cora didn't want to bring him in unless it was to start an inning so Kelly & Smith had to shoulder the load and neither could find the strike zone), they would have swept the series. I think the AL East is shaping up to be a battle of whose bullpen blows fewer games between the Sox and Yanks.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

While it’s early, Gabe Kapler’s opening series as a major league baseball manager has been an utter train wreck. Even though the Phillies left Atlanta 1-2 (they had off today), it was anything but pretty as pitchers took the mound 21 times over three days, a record for an opening series, and Saturday night was a complete **** up that was Kapler’s fault.

In the bottom of the third inning of what wound up being a 15-2 ass whuppin’ by the Braves, Kapler went to get starter Vince Velasquez with two out and replace him with reliever Hoby Milner, problem was, Milner hadn’t been notified to warm up and was allowed to do so on the mound, driving Braves manager Brian Snitker berserk who complained that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen, but the umpiring crew chief allowed it to save the pitcher from hunting himself, Snitker went ballistic and wound up tossed. In short, the whole situation was a colossal clusterfuck.

The Phils used up their relievers, forcing Kapler to use a position player to finish the game, also a first this early in a new season. Needless to say, Phillies fans watching at home weren’t happy, burning up Twitter to bitch while talking heads on ESPN had MLB Network roasted Kapler for his foolish handling of his pitchers. Again, sure, it’s early, suddenly I’m wondering if hiring Kapler was a mistake.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Here's something interesting that happened in Baltimore yesterday. In the bottom of the ninth with visiting Minnesota up 7-0 and one-hitting the Orioles, they put the shift on for catcher Chance Sisco who laid down a bunt to get on base, something that actually annoyed the Twins who still won the game handily. My thing is, if the Twins went out of their way to put the shift on for a batter, shouldn't the batter do all he can to beat it? Were the Twins butthurt because Sisco outsmarted them by bunting? Is NOT rolling over and playing dead when down so many runs late in games become another of baseball's stupid "unwritten rules"? For the record, I absolutely DESPISE the shift and think it's a hideous affront to the game, so I applaud Sisco for beating it. Opinions?