Major League Baseball 2018 Season Thread

[The Whovian]

How are the Cubs getting along without Arrieta? By the by, he makes his Phillies debut on Sunday.

Our rotation is stacked. We have Lester (who pitched 6 shutout innings last night and is effectively our #4 now, maybe even our #5), Yu, Quintana, Hendricks and Chatwood.

[Joker]

Twins had their Home Opener yesterday and won 4-2 over Seattle.
But the highlight was the pregame show of an Eagle landing on the shoulder of the Mariners pitcher James Paxton.
Dude was calm and ended up pitching a good game in a lost.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2018/0...pitcher-twins/

That game was fucking bullshit. Servais left Paxton in too long, and the offense left too many runners on base. Ugh.

It's early, we have a lot of days off, and a pretty deep bullpen. I don't get why he's trying to run the starters out to 100 pitches. Pull 'em at 80-85, and use the bullpen. Especially if we're not wildly ahead.

[MRP]

Seven games in, and no Red Sox starter has given up more than 1 run in a start yet in their 6-1. The bullpen has been a little shaky (they gave up late runs opening night for their only loss) and the offense hasn't gotten on track yet, but no starter has gone less than 5 innings or given up more than 1 run in a start, so you can't really ask for more than that. One of their injured starters (Eduardo Rodriguez) returns Sunday after missing only 1 turn in the rotation and Drew Pomerantz should return the next time through the rotation, so hopefully they can carry on what the rotation has done so far. The streak can't last forever, but it's good to see the rotation dominant to start the season.

-M

[The Whovian]

Seven games in, and no Red Sox starter has given up more than 1 run in a start yet in their 6-1. The bullpen has been a little shaky (they gave up late runs opening night for their only loss) and the offense hasn't gotten on track yet, but no starter has gone less than 5 innings or given up more than 1 run in a start, so you can't really ask for more than that. One of their injured starters (Eduardo Rodriguez) returns Sunday after missing only 1 turn in the rotation and Drew Pomerantz should return the next time through the rotation, so hopefully they can carry on what the rotation has done so far. The streak can't last forever, but it's good to see the rotation dominant to start the season.

-M

The Red Sox are going to be very good this year, especially if Price can regain his form. I wish the Cubs had Betts. He would be perfect for us, leading off.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

My offensively inept Phillies have hung 17 on the Triple-A Marlins....in four innings, including grand slams by Maikel Franco and Aaron Altherr. Color me suitably impressed.

[The Whovian]

My Cubbies absolutely STOLE the game today. They were down 2-1 in the ninth against the Brewers and they committed two errors to allow us to score 4 runs. Now we just need to win tomorrow and we'll have taken 3/4 in the series.

Also, did anyone see that crazy end to the Astros game that just finished? I was like "What!? That did not just happen!". Runner on 2nd, two outs. Batter popped it up about 10 feet in front of the catcher up the first base line and Hosmer came running in to catch it but overran it and the catcher wasn't backing him up, so it just dropped and the Astros scored, winning 1-0 in the 10th inning. Crazy.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

My Cubbies absolutely STOLE the game today. They were down 2-1 in the ninth against the Brewers and they committed two errors to allow us to score 4 runs. Now we just need to win tomorrow and we'll have taken 3/4 in the series.

Also, did anyone see that crazy end to the Astros game that just finished? I was like "What!? That did not just happen!". Runner on 2nd, two outs. Batter popped it up about 10 feet in front of the catcher up the first base line and Hosmer came running in to catch it but overran it and the catcher wasn't backing him up, so it just dropped and the Astros scored, winning 1-0 in the 10th inning. Crazy.

Yeah, I watched that game on MLB Network. If any one play described why the Fathers are such sad sacks these days, that play was it.

Meanwhile, the Phillies wound up whuppin' Miami 20-1 last night. I hope the Phightins will have some runs left in their bats for Jake Arrieta who makes his debut this afternoon.

[Joker]

Mariners Twins game is snowed out. Took the Twins 11-4 yesterday. Nice to see the bats warming up, and not leaving a million runners stranded.

Every lineup will have bad days, but so far I really like our offense this year. I never feel like they can't score. It never feels like we're out of it, unlike previous years.

[Joker]

Aaaaaaaand Healy twisted his ankle in the weight room after the game last night. So that's 4 of the starting 9 down with injuries.

This season, I thought the Mariners stood a solid chance IF they could stay healthy. Not off to a great start. At least it's pretty minor.

[The Whovian]

Cubs shut out the Brewers 3-0 to take the series and 3 out of 4.

Quintana and the bullpen pitched a 3 hit shutout. Now on to Chicago to play the Pirates and whip them too.

[Joker]

I'm completely over the "Ohtani Hype is Real" narrative. It's April.

He may very well turn out to be the player he's projected to be, but a week into the season is a little early to start saying the hype is real.

I remember watching Mike Montomgery pitch two back to back complete game shut outs... then the league figured him out and his third start didn't go as well.

I remember Taylor Motter having a spectacular April last year... then the league figured out where he couldn't hit a pitch.

I get clickbait headlines, but let's remember that it's early April. No hype is real yet.

[Black Manta]

April baseball feels like we could get another month of sleep.

[The Whovian]

I'm completely over the "Ohtani Hype is Real" narrative. It's April.

Agreed. Pitchers will find out his weak spot and exploit it. Then he will either adjust to that or stink.

[The Whovian]

I don't know how to embed tweets here, so a link to the Molina brouhaha today that will surely get him suspended for some games (probably 5).

https://twitter.com/FSMidwest/status...ana-mlb-scores

[Hiromi]

So what's the over/under on how long it takes Gabe Kapler to lose all control of his team the way he's managing them?