The Baseball Book Club discussion
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2024 Regular Season- First Half
Brina wrote: "I’ll be offline the next two days for Passover and will try to check in on Thursday. Hopefully I don’t miss too much action. Wishing a wonderful festival to all who celebrate and the rest of you ca..."Brina; Peace to you, your family and friends during Passover!
Thanks Ashley. I'm amazed about the Guardians. I don't know how they are doing it. I don't know their pitching staff. PS. My Philies are now 15- 8. Our pitching is the best in the NL and second best in all baseball.
Harold wrote: "Thanks Ashley. I'm amazed about the Guardians. I don't know how they are doing it. I don't know their pitching staff. PS. My Philies are now 15- 8. Our pitching is the best in the NL and second bes..."Go Phillies!!
Once again, I think it really comes down to Cleveland's bullpen picking up any slack when the starters don't get deep into games, but the thing that's new for me is the bats being so awake this early in the season. I dunno if it's Valaika (hitting coach) finally breaking through to them or what. Steven Kwan did say the other day that he thinks it comes down to experience - for guys like him who came up in 2022, they rolled into 2023 thinking they could... idk maybe coast, and things would just happen as they had the year before? And then they didn't. But this year it sounds like everyone is putting in the work and really learning to not try to do too much because they know they can trust each other.
TLDR: Solid bullpen, and experience for the newer guys is helping things click :)
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As amazing the start is for the Guardians, it’s as much amazing at how bad the Astros have been. Who would have thought that even now, the A’s would be ahead of the Astros in the standings?
Card Corner today is Damaso Garcia. Another name I recognize, and I do remember him burning his uniform.https://baseballhall.org/discover/car...
Ashley Marie wrote: "Harold wrote: "Thanks Ashley. I'm amazed about the Guardians. I don't know how they are doing it. I don't know their pitching staff. PS. My Philies are now 15- 8. Our pitching is the best in the NL..."Thanks for the observations. Continued success!
Lance wrote: "I hate to say crucial games in late April, but if the Twins are going to right the ship, they have to do so in the next 10 games - 4 at home vs the White Sox, 3 in Anaheim, then 3 on the South Side..."The Astros are 1st, second or third in all offensive categories. Pitching has been their Achilles heel, but that's because Valdez, Javier, and Urquidy are on the IL. They will come around. They have a much easier schedule the second half.
I recall that at one time the two leagues both had divisions made up of an odd number of teams. Thus one team from the AL East spent the end of the season playing the AL West, which was considered an easier division. so they were thought to have an easier schedule than their rivals.
Lance, can we also talk about how bad the White Sox are? 8 shutouts already on the season is insane in a horrible way.
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Was it ever that way for the NL? Didn’t the three divisions start when Colorado and Florida joined the NL? But yes, I recall that for the AL. Once year I think it was the Royals were complaining about having to play mostly East teams in September in the middle of a pennant race
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IKR? Not just the offense - their solid pitching rotation from just a couple years ago is gone, their closer coughed it up last night against the Twins (no complaints) and their farm system hasn’t been able to give good replacements. I’m already seeing social media posts about their “Mets watch” - meaning their comparison to the 1962 Mets and 120 losses.
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There are actually two type of attendance, paid and peronal. Paid attendance is always higher than personal due to people buying a ticket and then not going. Often it is a season ticket holder who opts not to use their ticket for a particular game. I'd suggest you ask Harold Ballard about that but none of us are going to end up in a place that is that hot.
An item on Montreal's The Big Owe, otherwise known as the Olympic Stadium where Les Expos use to play (and that is close to the extent of my French), courtesy of the CBC.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...
Harold; You're Phillies at San Diego next 3 days. Should be a "fun" series with the pitching matchups! Although realistically Padres will have to be aggressive to put up some runs :)
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Peggy, I'm glad we have a little momentum with a 5-0 win today. Unfortunately, the games are too late for me. It should be good series
Phillies pirching has me nervous!
Brina wrote: "The Cubs top prospect just got his first major league home run. The announcers were so excited for him."Is always so exciting when young players to get that first Major league HR!
Brina; Watched the replay clip. Crow-Armstrong is from Southern California. Cool!
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Benintendi has been awful this year. And yes, the Phillies starters have been marvelous. The pen has been mediocre.
Just got email reminding Padre fans that tomorrow is first "Beerfest" of season. Not like Cleveland 10 cent beer nite from 1970's but fans still get rowdy. It's only in what's called Gallagher Square where fans can watch game on huge outdoor screen and is only for a few hours until first pitch.
Thought Padres were going to win 3 out of 4 at Denver. Top of 8th Pads ahead 9 to 4. Bottom of 8th Matsui & Peralta give up 6 runs. Typical Denver game :(
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https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball..."
That is a bummer - the player nicknames was the best part of the weekend, IMO
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C. John wrote: "Players weekend is returning, but with some differences.https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball..."
If I remember correctly, one year on Players weekend Seattle Mariner's Kyle Seager's shirt said "Corey's brother"!
And I agree that this is a mistake on the part of MLB. It makes it a fun part of the game and that appeals to young fans.
See what sort of feedback MLB gets and from who. If they hear enough that the younger fans want the nicknames they may make a comeback. After all this is designed to appeal to younger fans.
This is a long but interesting story about the famous red seat home run by Ted Williams that today's physics and baseball metrics deem to have actually gone further than 502 feet.https://www.mlb.com/news/ted-williams...
Player nicknames are my favorite, nooooo 😢 On the bright side, Cleveland are due to get their City Connect jerseys in a few weeks!
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Lance wrote: "Twins will get theirs later in the summer. I’m mixed about them - some are great (Red Sox, White Sox) some are awful (Padres, Giants)"Hey, I like the Padres City Connect :)
After last nights loss to Phillies am a little concerned about Musgrove's control. Harold, Nola was awesome last night. Sure hope Padres don't have to face him when team is in Phillie in June!
Yeah I'm a bit nervous to see what they do with Cleveland; I wasn't thrilled with the Mets unis.
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Hey, I like the Padres City Connect :)"
To each their own…not impressed with the Padres ones. They wore them in their series vs my Twins last year and didn’t like them
Lance; even here is San Diego many weren't fond of the teams choice. And as you said : to each their own! Cheers!
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Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "After last nights loss to Phillies am a little concerned about Musgrove's control. Harold, Nola was awesome last night. Sure hope Padres don't have to face him when team is in Phillie in June!"
Peggy, Suarez was even better. The Phillies starters are ranked #1 in ERA. They have been terrific. Unfortunately, because they paid so much to sign Taijuan Walker, he will replace Spencer Turnbull in the rotation( Turnbull has the best ERA of all of them)> I have no doubt Walker will be hit hard and the Phillies will soon belosing games he pitches.
Thanks Lance! Bibee was on fire last night. I didn’t pay attention to the whole thing (distracted with a new book) but I was incredibly surprised to check in at the 8th and see it still scoreless. Of course, the stress just mounted from there but I’m proud they were able to take even one game in this Atlanta series.
And it looks like the Twins are rolling too! I’m always glad to see Santana doing well and yesterday was quite the rout.
Harold; MLB shows Walker pitching today. Maybe Padres can squeak out a win today although with our hot then cold offense not counting on it.
Apologizes to Atlanta fans but I'm always VERY pleased when Braves lose!
Peggyzbooksnmusic wrote: "Harold; MLB shows Walker pitching today. Maybe Padres can squeak out a win today although with our hot then cold offense not counting on it."Peggy, count on Walker giving up three walks and two home runs in the first 2 and 1/3rd innings. He will be gone after that.
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Well considering they are in a 10 game stretch where the opponents are the White Sox and Angels, they better do well. But going exactly as I had hoped and the offense is finally clicking. All without Lewis and Correa, too.
Ashley Marie wrote: "And it looks like the Twins are rolling too! I’m always glad to see Santana doing well and yesterday was quite the rout."And unlike a certain other Minnesota team the Twins can win at home and on the road.
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The Baseball Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness (other topics)Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments (other topics)
The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness (other topics)
The Baseball 100 (other topics)
The Complete Prophesies of Nostradamus (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Andy McCullough (other topics)Joe Posnanski (other topics)
Andy McCullough (other topics)
Joe Posnanski (other topics)
And the A's beat the Yankees today!