bkzwhitestrican

MLB just approved a 16 team playoff bracket for this season. That basically means that hardly any teams will be sellers at the deadline since everyone except the O's will have a shot at the last seed.

Looks like Juan Soto will miss the series after testing positive with COVID today. The bad part about that is the test was administered on Tuesday morning, then he played a game against the O's and hung around his teammates for the next 36 hours. So it could be possible that he infected a number of players during that lag time between testing and results.

Yes. But ultimately he's doing it out of safety for his own family, so I can understand.

My gf watches all of that stuff, plus started watching Indian Matchmaker on Netflix. I can only stomach one of those shows at a time so I've been watching the regular 90DF, and I have to say that there must be something wrong with all of these people.

Not sure about that. He had a hot start last year (10 HRs, .967 OPS through first 27 games) but then was pretty below average the rest of the season (only 8 HRs during the last 67 games, OPS at end of season was down to .766). Granted he was a rookie and one would expect him to improve, but I don't think he showed enough to say that he's off limits.

If the Sox are out of contention this season I could see them being open to trade any player on their roster outside of Devers. In the long run it would probably be better for them to have a bad season and just reset this year, otherwise they could end up like the Giants last year who ended up not trading away any of their baggage because they still had a slim chance at the playoffs.

Hopefully things get better healthwise around the country and they're able to play out all 60 games + playoffs. I'm a bit doubtful that happens, but we'll see. As for playing just 60 games, it basically makes every single game the equivalent of a 3 games series during a regular length season. Maybe the O's get on a hot streak and make the playoffs??!!

Well I guess my prediction is already wrong - the Yanks will be using an opener for game 3 rather than Montgomery.

Can it be Thursday already?? Too bad that's the one day this week I have to go into the office, so I'll probably miss the first few innings. Sucks that we have to open against Scherzer/Strasburg/Corbin but it should be a fun series. My guess is that we take the opener, lose against Strasburg in game 2, and the last game is a pitching duel between Montgomery and Corbin that goes into extra innings, Yanks score when Wade steals 3rd base and the throw from the catcher sails into the outfield. Nats then aren't even able to advance the runner from 2nd in the bottom of the 10th, Yanks win.

To make things easier all Cleveland franchises should be called the Browns

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Now that the season has been confirmed are you going to start this up?

The playoff format is fine for this weird shortened season. Good teams could be excluded or bad teams included if the format is left the same. Last year the Nats started the season off at 27-33, so they wouldn't even sniff the playoffs if a 60-game season had last year's playoff format. Not only that, but by having a lot more teams eligible for the playoffs we will see more competitive baseball at the end of the regular season (as opposed to September just being a wasted month for half the teams in the league). And who knows, maybe there'll be some 14th seed Cinderella story that goes on to win the WS, like the White Sox or some s***. Would be cool.

Hopefully he stays healthy. If so I can see his bat carrying him to the bigs within two or three years. Unless he sucks.

Was hoping the Packers would draft a WR with one of their first two picks, but they ended up not getting any WR at all. Jordan Love could end up being a good QB in the future but he doesn't help the team now, which was 13-3 last season and came within a game of the Super Bowl. Their 2nd rounder was used on a RB even though they already have Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams. I like AJ Dillon but barring injury he probably won't get a lot of use this season, and could have been had in later rounds from the sound of it. There were a couple of late round picks I liked, but what are the odds anyone past the 4th round provides any meaningful snaps this year. Overall I did not like their draft since it did not address any of the holes on this year's roster, and this may be the last year Rodgers has with a shot at the Super Bowl. But maybe this will all pay off in 2024.

From Mike Axisa, a biased Yankees writer, but I enjoyed it of course: "I wish I was surprised. Earlier this week commissioner Rob Manfred disciplined the Red Sox for their sign-stealing scandal and the punishment is incredibly weak. Here's the report (PDF link) and here's a recap of their punishment: Forfeit 2020 second round pick. Replay operator J.T. Watkins suspended for 2020 and banned from that job in 2021. That's it. Not even a token $5M slap on the wrist fine. In his report, Manfred made sure to clarify Alex Cora was suspended for 2020 for "his conduct as the bench coach of the Houston Astros in 2017," not for anything he did as Red Sox manager. We're supposed to believe Cora was the ringleader of a massive sign-stealing scandal with the 2017 Astros -- Manfred's own report identified him as a mastermind -- who then went to the Red Sox and was not involved in their extremely similar* sign-stealing scandal the very next season. It was just one giant coincidence and he was an innocent bystander? Come on now. Manfred also said he is "mindful that because the 2020 First-Year Player Draft may be as few as five rounds, (forfeiting the pick) may have a more significant impact on the Red Sox than in a normal year," which I guess is true, but it's still weak. The Yankees were punished more for signing Gerrit Cole (forfeited second and fifth round picks) than the Red Sox were punished for cheating after they told MLB they would stop cheating the last time they got caught cheating (forfeited second round pick). Remember when the Red Sox got busted for the Apple Watch scandal in 2017? When Manfred announced their fine, he said he received "absolute assurances from the Red Sox that there will be no future violations of this type." They did it the next season! The very next season. This is the timeline: The Red Sox got caught cheating in 2017. The Red Sox told Manfred they would not cheat again in the future. The Red Sox cheated again in 2018. The Red Sox are a repeat offender -- serial cheaters across multiple seasons and brazen enough to do it again even after they told the commissioner they would stop -- and that's the punishment? Seriously? Manfred put it all on Watkins, a relatively low level staffer, and said "unlike the Astros’ 2017 conduct, in which players communicated to the batter in real time the precise type of pitch about to be thrown, Watkins’s conduct, by its very nature, was far more limited in scope and impact." Manfred tried to downplay the scandal by saying the stolen signs were "only relevant when the Red Sox had a runner on second base (which was 19.7% of plate appearances league-wide in 2018)," or, you know, pretty much the 19.7% most important plate appearances. They stole signs, but it was only in high-leverage situations, so it's not a big deal. That's what we're being told. What the hell man? Between the Red Sox and the Astros, this much has been made clear: cheating is absolutely worth it. The punishment is a slap on the wrist and the potential reward is enormous. I'm not dumb enough to believe the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox won the World Series only because they stole signs, those were two very talented rosters, but the sign-stealing might've put them over the top. The Yankees lost two one-run games in the 2017 ALCS and two one-run games 2018 ALDS. The difference in each series could've been a stolen sign. What garbage. Steal signs. Who cares. If you get caught, you'll lose a draft pick and have to find a new manager, and that's about it. By the commissioner's own admission, two of the last three World Series winners cheated across multiple seasons, all while MLB gets into bed with casinos and legalized gambling. Nothing to see here folks. Baseball's doing great. All the rogue video replay guy's fault. * The Red Sox were found to have used the video room to decode signs during games so the runner at second base could look into the catcher and relay the sign to the hitter. Manfred's report says the Astros did exactly that before graduating to banging garbage cans and whatnot."

Slap on the wrist. Except for that poor video operator.

I spent 35 bucks last night on "Out of the Park 21", which is basically a comprehensive baseball franchise simulation game. It has partially scratched my baseball itch, I'd recommend it for anyone else who is in withdrawal.

If baseball does come back at some point this year, they should make up the lost games by expanding the postseason. Let 8 teams each from AL & NL into the playoffs, and it would only be for this season. Would be cool to see once.

If we don't care that some players took steroids then this would be my full team and lineup: 1. Mike Trout OF 2. Ken Griffey Jr OF 3. Alex Rodriguez SS 4. Barry Bonds DH 5. Albert Pujols 1B 6. Manny Ramirez OF 7. Miguel Cabrera 3B 8. Robinson Cano 2B 9. Mike Piazza C BNCH Chase Utley 2B/UTL BNCH Ivan Rodriguez C BNCH Chipper Jones 1B/3B BNCH Ichiro Suzuki OF/DH SP1. Pedro Martinez SP2. Roger Clemens SP3. Greg Maddux SP4. Randy Johnson SP5. Roy Halladay SP6. Justin Verlander RP Mariano Rivera RP Trevor Hoffman RP Aroldis Chapman RP Craig Kimbrel RP Billy Wagner RP Francisco Rodriguez RP Joe Nathan

I think we're just defining a super athlete differently. Brady is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in NFL history. But athletic prowess is something different in my mind.

I agree his throwing ability was a major athletic skill. Kind of like Kyle Korver's ability to hit 3 pointers is a major athletic skill. And Brady may be the best thrower of all time but OVERALL athletic he was not. At least not compared to the rest of the league. But then again our definitions of super athlete are probably different. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-cant-miss-plays/0ap3000000986814/Can-t-Miss-Play-Brady-catches-pass-on-trick-play

Brady was a great QB but I wouldn't call him a super athlete. When I think of top athletes in football I think Bo Jackson or Deion or currently Mahomes.

Since there's a good chance the season is going to be 25% shorter, I'd like to revise my answer to 66 or less

Well all of these injuries might not matter (excluding Severino) if the season doesn't start until May anyway. Tough break for guys like Frazier and Ford who would have had an opportunity to prove themselves.