Major League Baseball 2018 Season Thread

[Hiromi]

Throwing the fastest fast ball of your career on the first pitch of the game squarely into the elbow of a player whose only "crime" was playing at an atrociously high level deserves a minimum of 10 games, never mind that he's almost certainly getting thrown at if he ever bats against the Braves again, or a former Braves pitcher, Baseball players have stupidly long memories for this kind of stuff. Just glad the Xray and CT Scan came up good and on a much lesser level that Baseball has said his streaks are still in tact because he didn't have an official at bat. And as the announcers noted the way you really know how messed up this was was that his catcher Realmuto made no move whatsoever to get in between Acuna and Urena and just kind of hung his head. The benches didn't just clear, Security was having to restrain fans from charging the field.

And Keith Hernandez? I kind of like you even though you're a Met, but you were completely wrong there and deserve to be called out on it by pretty much every other former Ball player like you are

Oh look he got 6 games, that MIGHT equal one start missed, MLB discipline is a joke, now the Braves are practically obligated to throw at him when they see him again, in good news though Acuna is in the lineup tonight so he won't miss any time

[Scott Taylor]

I wish he were forcibly retired from baseball indefinitely. Playing a game like this is a privilege. You do that on the street and its jailtime for you on assault charges.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Urena’s agent just tweeted that his client will appeal that slap on the wrist suspension. Yeah, six games is nothing to a starting pitcher. Pathetic.

Meanwhile, on the field, the bottom feeding Mets scored three touchdowns and a field goal in a 24-4 walloping of my Phillies in the first game of a day/night twinbill. The last seven or so runs were scored on position players (and youngsters) Roman Quinn and Scott Kingery who took the hit to save the bullpen.

[Hiromi]

Ronald Acuna now has a slash of .293/.367/.581 with 25 home runs in 92 games

only about 20 or so games remaining depending on the team, Braves enjoy a 4.5 game lead on the Phillies in the East after the Phillies have failed to win their 10th straight series.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Ronald Acuna now has a slash of .293/.367/.581 with 25 home runs in 92 games

only about 20 or so games remaining depending on the team, Braves enjoy a 4.5 game lead on the Phillies in the East after the Phillies have failed to win their 10th straight series.

It’s clear my Phillies have run out of gas. Going into the season, I predicted no better than 75 wins after last year’s kennel came close to 100 losses, so having been in contention for this long in 2018 was a pleasant surprise. I look at this as experience for 2019.

[The Whovian]

Ronald Acuna now has a slash of .293/.367/.581 with 25 home runs in 92 games

only about 20 or so games remaining depending on the team, Braves enjoy a 4.5 game lead on the Phillies in the East after the Phillies have failed to win their 10th straight series.

Looks like my preseason prediction of Acuna winning the NL rookie of the year award is spot on. But then I also predicted that Guerrero Jr. would win AL rookie of the year, so....

Actually, had Toronto brought him up he probably would have won it. But they wanted that extra year of service time.

[Iron_Leopard]

Any chance the Royals can still make the playoffs?

[Hiromi]

95 loss teams typically don't make the playoffs no, they've been mathematically eliminated for a while

[Iron_Leopard]

95 loss teams typically don't make the playoffs no, they've been mathematically eliminated for a while

Who's your team?

[MRP]

Red Sox become he first team to clinch a playoff spot with their win over the Blue Jays tonight.They are assured of at least a wild card spot, and their magic number to clinch the division is now 9. Their next win will be their 100th of the season. The Orioles already surpassed 100 losses, with 5 other teams still having a shot at 100 losses (though only 1-the Royals-have already lost 90+) though 4 have to lose double digit games in the final 15-17 games to achieve it. Astros and Yanks still have a shot at 100 wins too (Astros have to win 9 of their final 16 games and the Yanks 10 of their last 16 with six against the Red Sox among those 16 games). The A's could get to 100 if they play out of their minds (they need 12 of 16 to get there).

Indians have all but wrapped up the AL Central (no one else in the division is above .500 on the season), but all the remaining divisions are still mostly up for grabs (Sox have a 9 game lead on the Yanks but there are those 6 head to head match ups that could still swing things, and the Braves have opened up a 6 game lead on the Phils and 7.5 on the Nats). AL West, NL West and NL Central are still tight races.

It'll be a fun final stretch to watch.

-M

[Hiromi]

Who's your team?

Atlanta, which has been a completely unexpected treat this year

Indians should ice that magic number of 3 and then just sit everyone, they're essentially locked into the third seed at this point and stand no chance of improving it

[WestPhillyPunisher]

My Phillies continued their freefall with a twinbill loss to Washington last night. Once upon a time, they led NL East by a game and a half, now they trail Atlanta by six and a half, even more troubling is that the Phils are only a game and a half ahead of the third place Nats. Most frustrating.

[Scott Taylor]

The A's could get to 100 if they play out of their minds (they need 12 of 16 to get there).

Sure it could happen. But I'd rather they just win their division and not have to deal with a Wild Card game against the Yankees. And they'd get the Indians in the Division series, in all probability.

But getting ahead of Houston has proven elusive.

[MRP]

Sure it could happen. But I'd rather they just win their division and not have to deal with a Wild Card game against the Yankees. And they'd get the Indians in the Division series, in all probability.

But getting ahead of Houston has proven elusive.

Unfortunately for the A's, the way the Astros are playing recently, they might have to get to 100 wins to get ahead of the Astros.

-M

[DebkoX]

I just moved to Canada and wanted to ask, how does baseball work? I went by the Toronto jays and they have games over three days? lolwut