It’s Opening Day! The notoriously fickle April weather means it’s going to be quite a chilly one in some cities but the limited fans in attendance are still going to have a great time. The wealthy Dodgers and Yankees are both loaded with talent this year, so fans definitely have a villain in both leagues.
I figured we’d stick with the monthly threads. Baseball seems to have enough interest still on the SDMB.
1:05 PM Toronto at Yanks. It will be a grey day from the looks of it.
5 minutes later Indians at Tigers
Rest of schedule here:
Orioles/Red Sox already rained out. MLB has done the very thin schedule for tomorrow to allow for make ups. Only the warmer weather and west coast teams have regularly scheduled games for tomorrow
This year I resolve to wait until at least the second game before I start calling for Gary Sanchez to be benched. I’m hopeful that between them, Stanton and Judge miss less than 100 games due to injury.
Ah, a bit of normalcy. Some fans in the stands. No more cardboard cutout people.
Yankees start season down two of the lefties in the bullpen. Britton will be out for an extended time and Justin Wilson for a short time.
Rotation: Cole, Kluber, German, Montgomery & Taillon. Tailon is a probable placeholder until Severino returns. I have high hopes of Monty putting together a very good year and using his newish cutter to help him.
Stanton & Judge only missing 100 games between them would be very welcomed.
Some quick predictions:
AL West: LA Angels
AL Central: Minnesota Twins
AL East: Toronto Blue Jays
AL Wild Card 1: NY Yankees
AL Wild Card 2: Houston Astros
AL Champs: Toronto
NL West: San Diego Padres
NL Central: Cincinnati Reds
NL East: Atlanta Braves
NL Wild Card 1: LA Dodgers
NL Wild Card 2: NY Mets
NL Champs: Atlanta
World Series Champs: Atlanta Braves
It’s no fun to watch a team that sucks, but my lot as a Royals fan means I don’t get to have everything I want. The silver lining here is that they decided to not outright tank - they made a lot of moves this winter/spring. A LOT of moves. They’re going to put on the most competitive team they can manage, and they’re going to surprise a lot of people (for very limited levels of “surprise”). I think they have a good chance to finish close to .500, depending on how well their young pitching develops, and how well their geriatric bullpen reunion tour holds up. Their lineup isn’t an embarrassment - it tails off at the back end, but the first 6-7 hitters are legitimate.
5 unnamed Nationals will miss today’s game due to possible Covid exposure.
I’m not a sports gambler but wouldn’t it be nice to know who they are?
Merry Opening Day, everyone!
I had somehow missed that the Rangers are allowing full capacity for their home opener next week. Suffice to say “Go, Blue Jays!”
Nationals/Mets postponed and I don’t agree. Make the teams play, if they can’t field 9 men, forfeit.
Due to stupid blackout rules I don’t get to watch my Dodgers kick the Rockies around Coors Field until tomorrow so my opening day is delayed a bit.
Hopefully the Padres don’t choke again they have a lot of good young talent again and I’d like to see a race for the NL west penant. The Dodgers should repeat for the 9th time in a row and hopefully make a deep playoff rub. I’m a bit worried about Kershaw this season, he hasn’t looked good in his last two spring ball starts but the rest of the starters look amazing.
I’d listen to the Jays game on the radio, but this year, ownership has decided to save a few bucks by not having any radio announcers. They’re just broadcasting the audio of the TV feed. The problem with this is that their TV announcers generally don’t bother to actually say out loud in words what’s happening (Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler are terrible) and you can go a few innings and not even know someone scored.
[emphasis added]
You puzzle me, my friend. I can’t really root for a tight race. The more I care about the outcome, the more I want a blowout, be it in the individual game or the overall standings. Life is stressful enough as is. Unfortunately, though, I suspect you’re going to get your wish.
What sort of blackout rules do you have in Canada for using the MLB At-Bat app? They make both home and away radio broadcasts available. Sucks that you won’t have your usual home broadcasting team - that’s part of the fun.
I’d rather have tough competition and win then walk over them. I think that having decent competition last year helped the Dodgers they were used to playing tough games and weren’t shocked when they got behind.
Of course, I’d rather win by 30 games then lose but if both paths end in a penant I’ll take a close one. Three years ago (?) When the d bags were decent made for a fun end to the season.
Yeah, a real weird kick in the Nuts here in Detroit. Winter really ended about Feb 10th, and it has been nice and 50-70 pretty much constantly since then. But it dropped to 20s with snow just for opening day, before heading back to spring the rest of the week.
Love the Blue Jays power blue uniforms!
Not only is the Nats/Mets game canceled today, it won’t be made up tomorrow.
Why did teams ever stop using powder blue?
The Phillies in recent years deserve some credit, but they get it wrong. Once in a while they wear their throwback powder blue uniforms with maroon numbers and helmets, but they only wear them at home. Those were their road uniforms back in the day!
There didn’t used to be blackouts in Canada, but Rogers didn’t let that last. They are now blacked out across the entire country.
Oh shit, they’re doing the “Free runner in extra innings” thing again.
I think if you start with a guy at second, you shouldn’t be allowed to pinch run for him. The Jays started the top of the tenth with Rowdy Tellez going to second; Tellez runs exactly as well as you’d expect from a guy named “Rowdy.” So of course he was replaced by Jonathan Davis, who scored the winning run (though Tellez would have scored anyway.)
Today’s game featured 26 strikeouts, so that problem hasn’t gone away.