Major League Baseball: 2017 Season

[JohnBM01]

Matt Barnes got suspended for four games for intentionally pitching to the head of Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles back on Sunday. Barnes, though, is appealing.

Miguel Sano of the Minnesota Twins was suspended for one game for the bench-clearing brawl between his Twins and the Detroit Tigers. In that game, Matt Boyd and Miguel Sano both got ejected.


Here is a discussion question in case you want to keep this thread buzzing... what do you think is the coolest feat in baseball? Is it... a Perfect Game? A No-Hitter? Hitting for the cycle? Inside-the-park home runs? Triple plays? What do you think is the best feat in baseball?


My Houston Astros have the day off, but we're in Cleveland for a three-game set starting tomorrow night. Unless I decide to muse about tonight's games, congratulations to everyone who won today's and tonight's games.

 

[Barra333]

Here is a discussion question in case you want to keep this thread buzzing... what do you think is the coolest feat in baseball? Is it... a Perfect Game? A No-Hitter? Hitting for the cycle? Inside-the-park home runs? Triple plays? What do you think is the best feat in baseball?

Perfect game or hitting for the cycle. While inside-the-park HRs are exciting I'm yet to see one that does not involve a defensive screw up, which takes a little off it.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

The umps missed on ejecting James McCann. He had a glove to his face which started that whole scuffle after Boyd threw behind Sano.

 

[The Bman]

Crazy stat of the night; the Pittsburgh Pirates are now 0-11 on weekday games and 8-1 on weekends.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

I cannot stand Joe West. The guy has got to be the worst ump in the MLB by a mile.

 

[JohnBM01]

Meanwhile in Cleveland...

We took down the Cleveland Indians 4-2. Dallas Keuchel becomes the first pitcher to 4 wins so far this season by going the distance in this one winning for the Houston Astros. Yep- a complete game by Kid Keuchy. The Indians, meanwhile, saw Josh Tomlin take the loss.

Elsewhere, and speaking of the Detroit Tigers... man. What got into you guys smashing Seattle like they're a Little League team? Detroit put a 19-9 smashing on the Mariners tonight in Detroit. Winning for the MoTown boys was Jordan Zimmerman, as they dethroned "King" Felix Hernandez, SEA's losing pitcher.


Congratulations to all other Tuesday winners.

 

[JohnBM01]

Recently wrapped up in Cleveland...

Astros fell 7-6 to the Cleveland Indians. We got a Rubber Game tomorrow to decide this series. Now on to winners and losers. Trevor Bauer was CLE's winner and gets a save from Cody Allen. For HOU, Lance McCullers was the loser.


Congratulations to all of the other winners from Wednesday up to and beyond the time of this post.

 

[Dolph Drago]

Reds' pitching has been getting knocked around lately. Unfortunately these were more of the expectations of most of us Redlegs fans at the beginning of the season.

 

[Silver Arrows]

Calling it now, James Paxton is gonna win the Cy Young in the AL. He is by far the best young Canadian ballplayer right now and the best Canadian pitcher since that one year of Jeff Francis.

 

[JohnBM01]

An omission from my latest post is that there was a cool story I saw on MLB Network. A fellow named Gift Ngoepe is from South Africa and plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates. G. Ngoepe is a 27-year old who is the first African-born player in Major League Baseball. We hear a lot in basketball about the international diversity in basketball. Nice to see that international diversity find its way into baseball.

Another point I wanted to make was from the discussion question I asked. I would say that either a Perfect Game (or a No-Hitter) or hitting for the cycle are two of the coolest feats in baseball. It really depends on if you fancy pitching or hitting more. What would be awesome is if a pitcher pitches a perfect game AND hits for the cycle. I have a feeling it's probably been done by a pitcher before considering how much history baseball has. But if it hasn't happened yet, it would surely be cool to follow! For the uninitiated, Hitting for the Cycle is when one player scores a single, a double, a triple, and a Home Run all in the same game.

As for the AL Cy Young race, James Paxton will in the AL Cy Young... unless other AL pitchers like Dallas Keuchel and company have something to say about it. Still early in the season.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Rubber game of HOU at CLE went Cleveland's way. We lost 4-3 last night in Cleveland. Cleveland takes 2 out of 3 after our win on Tuesday.

On this final weekend of April 2017, we're back home to Minute Maid Park to host the Oakland Athletics starting tonight.


Enjoy the weekend series, and good luck to all of your favorite teams.

 

[JohnBM01]

It was 9-4 in Houston as we ended our back-to-back losses by defeating the Oakland Athletics. Oakland hammered in three runs to start things off. The two teams exchanged runs until the Astros eventually pulled away.


Congratulations to Friday's other winners, including both the New York Yankees winning an offensive firestorm that went to ten innings with a walk-off three-run jack, and the New York Mets ending their six-game losing streak.

 

[Blitz24]

Mets season looks to be doomed. Syndergaard is hurt and they got eviscerated by the Nationals today.

 

[JohnBM01]

Yeah, today had to be a nightmare for a New York Mets fan. Conversely, it's probably a dream come true for a Washington Nationals fan. I do hope Syndergaard gets better. Now on to my Astros...

The Houston Astros took two of three in our series with the Oakland Athletics. The 'Stros won today and Friday, but we failed on Saturday with a 2-1 loss. The series finale today ended up in a 7-2 victory for Houston.

Up next... we host the other Texas MLB team. The Battle for the Silver Boot continues as Sanji Himura's Texas Rangers come on down to H-Town for a four-game series starting tomorrow night. You probably know I said the AL West crown will come down to both Texas teams. Well, the Astros and Rangers will continue their rivalry.


Congratulations to all other winners from Sunday as well as series winners, including beat down home wins by Detroit, Cleveland, and Miami.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

I'm just happy that the Tigers' bullpen didn't choke for the first time in what feels like an eternity.

 

[Silver Arrows]

lol at that Mets-Nats game

Reminds me of that nationally televised massacre last year with the Angels and Red Sox, in Boston.

 

[Dolph Drago]

The Reds ended their losing skid by somehow coming back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Cards 5-4 today. And they didn't lose the series because yesterday's game was postponed to a later date due to weather. Woohoo!

 

[JohnBM01]

One month of Major League Baseball has been played for the 2017 season. So how is everybody doing so far? Let me provide this standings update...


--- AMERICAN LEAGUE ---
AL EAST: New York Yankees and Baltimore (15-8 each), BOS (13-11), TB (12-14), TOR (8-17)
AL CENTRAL: Cleveland (14-10), CHW (13-10), MIN (12-11), DET (12-12), KC (7-16)
AL WEST: Houston (16-9), LAA (14-13), OAK and TEX (11-14 each), SEA (11-15)

--- NATIONAL LEAGUE ---
NL EAST: Washington (17-8), PHI and MIA (11-12), ATL (10-13), NYM (10-14)
NL CENTRAL: Chicago Cubs (13-11), STL (12-12), MIL (13-13), PIT and CIN (11-13 each)
NL WEST: Colorado (16-10), ARI (16-11), LAD (14-12), SD (11-16), SF (9-17)


Remember, it's just April. It's too early to really overreach to anything or think certain teams will remain at the top or even at the bottom. Who knows? Maybe a current last-place division team ends up winning their division come September or early October. It's just one month. So keep battling hard!


Having said that, good luck to all of your favorite teams.

 

[JohnBM01]

The whole Adam Jones thing is atrocious. Totally poor conduct by fans whom hated on this guy with racial slurs and such against him. You know what I'm talking about if you've followed the latest baseball news. You all are free to share your thoughts on Adam Jones and how he's been treated.

As for my Houston Astros (and on a much lighter note), we won 6-2 against the Texas Rangers on Monday, and 8-7 in come-from-behind fashion last night (was down 5-3).


Congratulations to all other winners from Tuesday.

 

[Silver Arrows]

The whole Adam Jones thing is atrocious. Totally poor conduct by fans whom hated on this guy with racial slurs and such against him. You know what I'm talking about if you've followed the latest baseball news. You all are free to share your thoughts on Adam Jones and how he's been treated.

When pretty much every black major leaguer expects the n-word thrown at them in Boston no matter the circumstances then it's pretty obvious that your city is racist to the core, and the organization does NOTHING to stop it. But hey, Boston is a liberal bastion, amirite?! Then again, this is the team that named a street after super-racist owner Tom Yawkey, who didn't have them integrate until 1959. And the city that slobbers the knob of known Trump supporter Tom Brady.

And guess what? More great news for Boston! Manny Machado gets thrown at again in retaliation for his slide on Dustin Pedroia!

And he goes off (Seriously, NSFW warning, he carpet bombs the entire last portion)

 

[IforceV8]

When pretty much every black major leaguer expects the n-word thrown at them in Boston no matter the circumstances then it's pretty obvious that your city is racist to the core, and the organization does NOTHING to stop it. But hey, Boston is a liberal bastion, amirite?! Then again, this is the team that named a street after super-racist owner Tom Yawkey, who didn't have them integrate until 1959. And the city that slobbers the knob of known Trump supporter Tom Brady.

And guess what? More great news for Boston! Manny Machado gets thrown at again in retaliation for his slide on Dustin Pedroia!

And he goes off (Seriously, NSFW warning, he carpet bombs the entire last portion)

The trumpkins account for 34% of the voter in Mass, but that is still over 1.083 million people. As for Patriots fans, they are a "special" breed and lets leave it at that.

 

[Silver Arrows]

The trumpkins account for 34% of the voter in Mass, but that is still over 1.083 million people. As for Patriots fans, they are a "special" breed and lets leave it at that.

No matter what, Boston has served itself as a flashpoint of racial tensions and disgusting history for years. And it comes through in sports most often.

 

[Joey D]

Every Boston fanbase is trash, it doesn't really surprise me they'd do something like this. And Sale, along with many of the other Red Sox, need to let the Machado thing go. Pedroia has even said that while Machado's slide was garbage it wasn't intentional. I'll be curious to see how it plays out tonight, I don't suspect Machado is going to let getting thrown at slide any more.

 

[IforceV8]

The managers and GM's were on a conference call with the commish and were told to drop it. It must have been a zero tolerance policy because Balt starter Gausman was tossed in the 2nd after hitting Bogaerts with a 77mph slider.

Sale will likely be fined for his stupidity.

 

[JohnBM01]

Houston Astros. Best record in baseball. Never thought you'd see both in the same sentence, eh? The Astros have had the best record in baseball... heading into today. The Texas Rangers roughed up the Astros 10-4 earlier today for the Astros to get their 10th loss of the season. Now, I think the Washington Nationals have the best record at 19-9 after their win at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks today.

So this is how the TEX at HOU series went...

* MON: 6-2. HOU
* TUE: 8-7, HOU
* WED: 10-1, HOU
* THU: 10-4, TEX

Next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... LATE GAMES! We're going to Anaheim to entertain the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a three-game weekend series.


Congratulations to Thursday's other winners up to and beyond the time of this post, including the Chicago Cubs needing 13 innings to defeat the Phillies at home and Dolph Drago's Reds sinking the Pittsburgh Pirates in Cincinnati. Not a good day for Pennsylvania's two MLB teams getting some Midwestern hospitality.

 

[JohnBM01]

The HOU at LAA series is complete. The margin of victory of all three games of this series was no more than two. We needed 10 innings to sink the Angels back on Cinco de Mayo. We fell to the Halos 2-1 thanks to walk-off magic by the Angels. So the game on Sunday is the Rubber Game of this series. And in that Rubber Game, we managed to take down the Angels 5-3. The Astros are now 21-11 on the 2017 season at this point.

Up next for the Houston Astros... we're back home, but only quickly for a two-game set against the Atlanta Braves starting on Tuesday before heading to the Bronx for Mother's Day weekend at the New York Yankees. So we got some Interleague action in H-Town coming up.

In a way, I kind of like covering teams by series rather by individual games. I do still want to keep the thread buzzing about my team.


Congratulations to all other winners from Sunday, including beat down road wins by teams like Boston (at Minnesota) and Miami (at New York Mets).

 

[AnthonyD1993]

And the Tigers' bullpen has returned to the dumpster fire that it usually is.

 

[Dolph Drago]

Somehow the Reds swept the Giants. After taking 3 of 4 to the Pirates, we throttled San Fran 13-3 and 14-2, followed by a gem of a pitching performance by Feldman going the distance in a 4-0 shutout. Today's win was against ex-Reds' ace Johnny Cueto.

If the Yankees don't blow it in the bottom of the 9th against the Cubs as of this writing, amazingly the Reds will be back in sole position of 1st place in the Central. Speaking of the Yanks, they're coming into Cincy for two games starting tomorrow.


Edit: Aaaand Chapman has blown the save. He's allowed 3 runs in the bottom of the inning, including the game tying one by hitting Rizzo with the bases loaded.

 

[Joey D]

And the Tigers' bullpen has returned to the dumpster fire that it usually is.

I hope to god they make Justin Wilson the closer, he's the only one they have I trust with a late inning lead. And since the chances of the Tigers making the playoffs this year are pretty much nil, I hope they sell and get some really good pitching prospects. I'll take some down years to get back to being at the top of the division.

 

[IforceV8]

Pirates SP Jameson Taiilon was placed on the DL 5/6 with "groin discomfort", then on 5/8 it was revealed he had surgery for testicular cancer. All reports seem to suggest that the surgery went well but there is no timetable for his recovery or return. He has dealt with TJ surgery and a hernia surgery and overall seems like a positive person so I expect him to make a full recovery.

It was a good run for the bucs as a team from 2013-2015 but their window to win has past. The should have been traded former MVP is hitting .221 with no bat speed in the off season but now they seem to be stuck with him and will either end up giving him away for some low level prospect or buying out his final year for 1M and letting him walk. I can see a salary dump coming in the next 2 months too with INF Freese, Harrison, Mercer, and C Cervelli all being traded. CP Tony Watson will be a FA and there is no way the bucs pay that contract in the off season. The Tiger should make that call now because Justin Wilson isnt their answer, he is a setup man.