MLB Season 2015

[Danimal]

Is this the year for your hockey team, hahahaha

[wco81]

MLB isn't soccer.

Having a great regular season is a great achievement but it's about being lucky with injuries as much as talent.

But they do have playoffs and WS to award the champion, unlike the big soccer leagues in Europe where winning the league title is one of the major goals for a club.

Winning an NL or AL pennant without winning the WS is like the Buffalo Bills touting all those AFC Championships. It's a runner-up trophy. Still an achievement but not the ultimate achievement.

Regular season is a long grind but I think the main reason for that are economic, not because they determined that playing 162 games is the ultimate test. It used to be fewer games but they added more and more as the league grew.

A team which doesn't have the most talent on paper can get "hot" and win a WS. But on paper is meaningless without performing when it matters. Sure Kershaw will still be a hall of fame if he never wins a WS. Or Marino is one of the all-time greats despite never winning a SB. But people will remember the rings more than the MVP or Cy Young seasons.

[MizzouRah]

Is this the year for your hockey team, hahahaha

HA! Doubt it!

[Danimal]

In all seriousness, now that I know my outrageous (at the time) bet is not going to come in, I'm having a good time ribbing all my friends who are Cub's fan. It was so quiet last night at one point you could hear a meat head Cub's fan yell at Montero to block the ball. I mean the guy only blocked 20 pitches in the dirt before one bad bounce

After tonight's Met's sweep I'll be back to not caring about baseball.

[RobVarak]

MLB isn't soccer.

Having a great regular season is a great achievement but it's about being lucky with injuries as much as talent.

But they do have playoffs and WS to award the champion, unlike the big soccer leagues in Europe where winning the league title is one of the major goals for a club.

Winning an NL or AL pennant without winning the WS is like the Buffalo Bills touting all those AFC Championships. It's a runner-up trophy. Still an achievement but not the ultimate achievement.

Regular season is a long grind but I think the main reason for that are economic, not because they determined that playing 162 games is the ultimate test. It used to be fewer games but they added more and more as the league grew.

A team which doesn't have the most talent on paper can get "hot" and win a WS. But on paper is meaningless without performing when it matters. Sure Kershaw will still be a hall of fame if he never wins a WS. Or Marino is one of the all-time greats despite never winning a SB. But people will remember the rings more than the MVP or Cy Young seasons.

People may remember the WS winners, but no reasonable person should assume that winner is the best team. The only way one could rationalize such a conclusion is by applying a bunch of narrative voodoo like "character" and "clutch" to the analysis. We can do much better than that, especially in the information age.

There have been literally dozens of studies demonstrating that due to the nature of baseball, short series are truly awful at determining the best team. Here's one, but it's well-traveled territory. http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2013/0 ... ostseason/

Injuries have more impact on a short series than a season, btw. Over the course of 6 months, wins lost to injury will generally find a more equal distribution. OTOH, one star going down for one team in the postseason will have much more relative impact.

The fact that teams like the early '90's Bills or the entire Braves dynasty are generally viewed as disappointments rather than success stories is a reflection on those doing the recalling more than anything else.

They play 162 games largely because the original 154-game schedule allowed even scheduling in both 8-team leagues at the time and delivered a close to 6-month season. The extra games were a weak attempt at accounting for the expansion in the 60's. I'd have no problem with a somewhat shorter schedule, but every game less means that there's less correlation between a team's actual level of performance and their ultimate seasonal result.

As if the postseason variance weren't egregious enough on its own, the fact that MLB allows so many days off means that the teams playing the postseason are radically different from those that played in the regular season. You are essentially lopping off 2 of the starters and creating ultra-deep and very well-rested bullpens. In doing so you penalize pitching staffs built with a more equal distribution of starting pitching quality and rewarding those who are top-heavy.

I'd love to see them go back to a 9-game series with only 1 day off for travel. That's a personal eccentricity, though. And it would still be little more than just another contrived parlor game to crown a "champion."

---

edit: Of course none of this should be seen as an endorsement of being the best regular team and losing. Hell, I want the Cubs to win a world series more than just about anything that isn't directly related to my family. That said, I just think it would be wise of all baseball fans to pay a little more attention to who is actually the best baseball team of a given season.

[wco81]

Yeah all the metrics don't mean much if they don't go all the way.

Every team and every player strives to win the WS, not win their division or the pennant or best record in the regular season.

Kershaw may end up being the best pitcher of this generation, perhaps one of the all-time greats. He may compile all kinds of gaudy numbers. But would he be as satisfied if he never wins a WS? The media and fans could anoint him as the best pitcher in the regular season. That qualification would gnaw at him and his fans, because the competitive drive he had to excel would also make him conscious of the fact that he couldn't take his team to the highest prize in the game.

People are going to remember the teams which won the WS a lot more than teams which had the best regular season record but failed to win the WS. There have been a number of teams which won over a 100 games and didn't win the WS. People aren't going to recall those teams off the top of their heads.

[bulls23]

The pressure of not reaching the World Series for 70 years gets to another Cubs team. Stick a fork in 'em.

typical know nothing cards fan. didnt see any posts from him last series did we!

these players don't give a hoot about 70 years. if you are watching this series and think that's why they're losing then i prove my point about you. the reason they're losing is the mets pitching and ability to generate runs playoff style! mets showing the cubs how you win in the playoffs.

The Mets showing how you WIN in the playoffs? Where have you been? The Cardinals have been showing everyone how to win in the playoffs for the last decade. This will be the Mets first WS trip since 1986.

Plain and simple, the Cubs were extremely lucky to win the NLDS, they are being exposed now.

Cubs fans are the real "no-nothings" you referred to. They don't know baseball, seriously, Wrigley Field reminds me of a saloon.

Time for the fair-weather, beer-drinking, Wrigleyville party time fans to put their Cubs hats in storage for another decade or more.

[Rodster]

This will be the Mets first WS trip since 1986.

I think the Mets played the Yankees in the WS in 2000.

[Inuyasha]

this murphy guy is incredible. Taming dinosaurs in the day, hitting home runs for the Mets at night.

Cubs finished where they should have. 3rd in a good division. Enough to get a WC and I think that was at the level they were at this year. They overachieved by beating the Cards but they were not ready for prime time when it came to the NLCS. If it wasn't the Mets beating them, it would have been the dodgers. They played a dangerous game where you had to win the Arietta game to set you up the rest of the series. but when arietta lost, the whole plan went down the tubes.

The only thing they can take out of this is learning from the Mets how to play in the playoffs. You can't rely on the 3run hr this deep in the playoffs. Instead of trying to hit a 3 run homer with nobody on base, maybe try getting a hit to just get on base and advance the runner into scoring position for a chance to drive him in.

Can't blame Maddon either. Cubs got nobody on for him to try to generate runs. It's a good start but you never know w/ the cubs. I don't want to wait another 12 years for another chance.

[Inuyasha]

The pressure of not reaching the World Series for 70 years gets to another Cubs team. Stick a fork in 'em.

typical know nothing cards fan. didnt see any posts from him last series did we!

these players don't give a hoot about 70 years. if you are watching this series and think that's why they're losing then i prove my point about you. the reason they're losing is the mets pitching and ability to generate runs playoff style! mets showing the cubs how you win in the playoffs.

The Mets showing how you WIN in the playoffs? Where have you been? The Cardinals have been showing everyone how to win in the playoffs for the last decade. This will be the Mets first WS trip since 1986.

Plain and simple, the Cubs were extremely lucky to win the NLDS, they are being exposed now.

Cubs fans are the real "no-nothings" you referred to. They don't know baseball, seriously, Wrigley Field reminds me of a saloon.

Time for the fair-weather, beer-drinking, Wrigleyville party time fans to put their Cubs hats in storage for another decade or more.

wow. so your stereotyping all cubs fans since you see some drunks at wrigley??!??!??

what is up with cards fans these days. I use to remember way back in Wrigley and Busch you can sit down next to a cards fan and they were one of the nicest most intelligent fans in the world. but in the last 7=8 years when they've been winning their fans have just become ugly and disgraceful. I've even had experiences watching some giants/cards games after work at ATT where cards fans were harassing me since I wore a cubs hat. and it wasn't even like jokingly playful ribbing. it was very threatening with MF this MF that, and all other types of swear words. And while this was going on the guy was recording it on his phone.

I guess that is fandom now for all fans sadly. Maybe not just cards fans. With social media etc... you got to be out and about and try to make a name for yourself. I will stay the meek cubs fans w/ the ragged cubs hat, walking into a ballpark like a injured fawn. And sometimes you use to get people feeling sorry for you since you were a cubs fan. they gave you that 'aweeeee ' LOOK. if you're a cubs fan you know what I mean.

[Danimal]

This will be the Mets first WS trip since 1986.

I think the Mets played the Yankees in the WS in 2000.

Don't use facts on an irate St. Louis fan

[RobVarak]

Murphy might have set a record for consecutive games with a HR. I can invest in that. I just can't accept his lifestyle.

[Inuyasha]

was listening to some chicago radio over the internet. f***in cub fans, get a f***in HOLD! s*** it's not the end of the world. it's not like the series went to game 7 and the 3rd out to win the pennant was a dropped fly out to Shwaber or however you spell his f'n name!

From a few years ago but still appropriate

[Diablo25]

Murphy might have set a record for consecutive games with a HR. I can invest in that. I just can't accept his lifestyle.

Agreed. He's unconscious but he's hard to take.

[Rodster]

Murphy might have set a record for consecutive games with a HR. I can invest in that. I just can't accept his lifestyle.

I don't follow Baseball much these days but what's so wrong with his lifestyle? The only thing I could dig up on ESPN is that he's a diehard christian.

[bulls23]

I admit to being wrong about the Mets not reaching WS since 1986, still 15 years is a long time and not a qualification for showing anyone "how to win".

Mr Inuysha (Cubs Fan) you started these insults by calling me "A no-nothing Cardinals fan". Saw no need for that.
Maybe you are different, but most of the fans I see around Wrigley Field are bleacher bums who throw souvenir baseballs on the field after a bad call. Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman said it best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky9Kso9q_Ws

If it wasn't for the gem of a ballpark the Cubs have in Wrigley Field, they would be playing in an empty ballpark that would resemble Tropicana Field. The quality of baseball the Cubs play is more often than not, horrible. Most Cubs fans I see aren't serious about baseball, it's just a good time to them. I guess 100 years of losing does that to you.

[Inuyasha]

I'm not aware either of his lifestyle choices. Maybe he is complaining about his Relationship with dinosaurs :

[bulls23]

This will be the Mets first WS trip since 1986.

I think the Mets played the Yankees in the WS in 2000.

Don't use facts on an irate St. Louis fan

Really sir, Like I'm supposed to remember that? Quite unremarkable series and I was out of the country during that time. I didn't miss much it appears.

[Inuyasha]

I admit to being wrong about the Mets not reaching WS since 1986, still 15 years is a long time and not a qualification for showing anyone "how to win".

Mr Inuysha (Cubs Fan) you started these insults by calling me "A no-nothing Cardinals fan". Saw no need for that.
Maybe you are different, but most of the fans I see around Wrigley Field are bleacher bums who throw souvenir baseballs on the field after a bad call. Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman said it best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky9Kso9q_Ws

If it wasn't for the gem of a ballpark the Cubs have in Wrigley Field, they would be playing in an empty ballpark that would resemble Tropicana Field. The quality of baseball the Cubs play is more often than not, horrible. Most Cubs fans I see aren't serious about baseball, it's just a good time to them. I guess 100 years of losing does that to you.

Your observations of Cubs fan and wrigley are so 1998.

Also u started this with your '70 years getting to the players' bs. Very ignorant posts by you that needed to be challenged.

[Aristo]

I feel bad for Cub fans having to deal with Inuyasha reorienting them. That's gotta suck.

Personally, I've found the Cards/Cubs rivalry to be among the nicest and most fun. Comparing it to the Chiefs/Raiders and Kansas/Mizzou make it seem more like lifelong pals. There are always some fans that make things uglier than they need to be. Not surprised that Inuyasha runs into that often.

For me, I'm rooting for KC because they are the most fun team to watch, other than Murphy's exploits, which are unreal. But mostly, it's hockey season.

[RobVarak]

Great, we've entered the wild-ass and stupid generalizations about fans phase of the conversation. Near as I can tell, most of the principals posting lately are ignorant not only about baseball, but about Cubs fans, Cards fans and life in general. Good work, fellas, way to elevate the conversation.

[Danimal]

Really sir, Like I'm supposed to remember that? Quite unremarkable series and I was out of the country during that time. I didn't miss much it appears.

All in good fun man. Not sure why you're so angry but I don't know I would call a cross town match up between two teams from the biggest sports market in the country an unremarkable series.

[Aristo]

[10spro]

Proud of the Jays. They fought hard to force a game 7 but at the end of the day, a bit of inexperience in the bullpen in young R. Osuna cost them the winning run after the rain delay. To hit that homer against a very good bullpen and tie the score up to 3 gave me enough hope that the series would go to 7 but in the end KC's bullpen was better. It was fun getting back to the playoffs, there's hope again next season.

[Rodster]

All I kept reading was how the Mets were supposed to win this series especially with their young pitching staff. They're now down 0-2. Sports can be soooo unpredictable.