MLB Off-Topic

[canes21]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Was Freeman up in 2009 or 2010?

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

If MLB expands, this is what I'd do (I realize some people here will hate my proposal):

Divisions

AL East: Baltimore, Boston, Chi White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, NY Yankees, Tampa Bay, Toronto
AL West: Houston, LA Angels, Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland, Portland, Seattle, Texas

NL East: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Montreal, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
NL West: Arizona, Chi Cubs, Colorado, LA Dodgers, Milwaukee, San Francisco, San Diego, St. Louis

Schedule

Vs own division: 7x12 = 84
Vs other division: 8x6 = 48
Interleague: 8x3 = 24 (AL fans see every NL club every 4 years, etc.)
Interleague rivals: 6 (Mets/Yankees, Expos/Jays, etc.)

Playoffs

6 teams per league make postseason
2 division winners: bye to LDS
4 wild cards (4 next best records in league, regardless of division)

Wild Card games (1 game): 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5
Lowest remaining seed plays division winner with best record in LDS

LDS, LCS, World Series remain unchanged

This minimizes playoff creep (10 teams to 12), maintains the importance of winning your division, and keeps traditional division rivalries more or less intact - in fact, the divisions are a bit of throwback to 1969-93 format. Not perfect by any means, but way better than 8 4-team divisions, 16-team playoffs, and an abandonment of AL/NL affiliations.

[LowerWolf]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Was Freeman up in 2009 or 2010?

September 2010.

[CBoller1331]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

If MLB expands, this is what I'd do (I realize some people here will hate my proposal):

Divisions

AL East: Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Montreal, NY Yankees, Tampa Bay, Toronto
AL West: Chi White Sox, Houston, LA Angels, Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland, Seattle, Texas

NL East: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Washington
NL West: Arizona, Chi Cubs, Colorado, LA Dodgers, Milwaukee, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego

My humble opinion:

1. Swap Houston and Milwaukee (easier travel schedule for both, Milwaukee can stay north in the AL West, Houston can stay south in NL West for most part). Both teams have been a member of each league already anyways....why not switch them back?

2. Swap Cubs and Cards. Would definitely be cool to keep them in the same division, but geographically based alignment would sort of prevent this....so might as well make it more convenient for each team. Cubs are further east anyways...plus would be cool to restore rivalries with the Phils and the Mets.

So divisions would look as follows:
AL East: Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Montreal, NY Yankees, Tampa Bay, Toronto
AL West: Chi White Sox, Milwaukee, LA Angels, Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland, Seattle, Texas

NL East: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chi Cubs, Washington
NL West: Arizona, St. Louis, Colorado, LA Dodgers, Houston, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego

3. I would also prefer a return of the Montreal Expos, but your idea for realignment would be more convenient travel wise if the two expansion teams were both from the west (Portland and Vegas/Salt Lake/San Antonio) or if one were from the Midwest (Nashville/Oklahoma City). This could ease the travel schedule for any Midwest teams placed in a western division, or even keep those teams in the eastern division

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

If MLB expands, this is what I'd do (I realize some people here will hate my proposal):

Or an even more unpopular/controversial one. No AL/NL anymore.

West = Mariners, Giants, A's, Dodgers, Angels, Padres, DBacks, Rockies
South = Rays, Marlins, Braves, Astros, Rangers, Cards, Royals, Reds
North = Jays, Twins, Brewers, White Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Indians
East = Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies, O's, Nats, Pirates, Expos

Other expansion team impacts this too. If it's Vegas, then Rockies move to south, Reds go to North. Division winners get BYE to 2nd round. Remaining 8 spots go to the next best teams.

[SPTO]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I guess J.A. Happ spent some time with Syndergaard. He's got foot hand and mouth disease now.

[Master Live 013]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I would go to 2 divisions per league. No interleague. 4 playoff teams per league.

[BatsareBugs]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Spinning off this, I have another MLB Network trivia question that appeared a few days ago:

Name the eleven active MLB position players who have played 10+ seasons for only one team their entire careers.

Their initial question didn't state how many position players, and it was kind of vague as to whether or not the players could have played for other teams, so long as they served for one team for at least ten seasons. So when I was working on it with a pad and pen, I had made two separate lists, and it turns out the second list got a lot longer so I just assumed the initial idea only (they've only played for one team).

I got 9 out of the 11, and guessed incorrectly on 4 of them (I guess two of them are technically inactive). I should have gotten ten of them if I thought a little harder, but the eleventh may be really hard for you to guess.

No researching this time! Cumulatively, you all should be able to get them (if not separately).

My Guesses:

Spoiler

Albert Pujols (Cardinals)
Joe Mauer (Twins)
Joey Votto (Reds)
David Wright (Mets)
Ryan Braun (Brewers)
Yadier Molina (Cardinals)
Adrian Beltre (Rangers)
Matt Kemp (Dodgers)
Carlos Gonzalez (Rockies)
Dustin Pedroia (Red Sox)
Adam Jones (Orioles)

Missed on one. I'll take another crack at it:

Spoiler

Miguel Cabrera (Tigers)

[kehlis]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Or an even more unpopular/controversial one. No AL/NL anymore.

West = Mariners, Giants, A's, Dodgers, Angels, Padres, DBacks, Rockies
South = Rays, Marlins, Braves, Astros, Rangers, Cards, Royals, Reds
North = Jays, Twins, Brewers, White Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Indians
East = Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies, O's, Nats, Pirates, Expos

Other expansion team impacts this too. If it's Vegas, then Rockies move to south, Reds go to North. Division winners get BYE to 2nd round. Remaining 8 spots go to the next best teams.

You can't have 31 teams. With the basic scheduling structure of baseball (every team plays every Sunday for one) you have to have an even amount of teams.

[Sportsforever]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

September 2010.

I remember watching his first homer in Philly....off the late Doc Halladay.

[LowerWolf]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I remember watching his first homer in Philly....off the late Doc Halladay.

I remember that too. Really hard to believe it’s been nearly eight years ago.

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

You can't have 31 teams. With the basic scheduling structure of baseball (every team plays every Sunday for one) you have to have an even amount of teams.

I left a spot open depending on who that 32nd team would be. I said if Vegas is that 32nd team then Rockies move to south, Reds go to North. Just put 31 to give a rough idea, showing how things could change around depending where that final team comes from.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

To this trivia question...

Name the eleven active MLB position players who have played 10+ seasons for only one team their entire careers.

The answers were:

1) Yadier Molina
2) Dustin Pedroia
3) Joey Votto
4) Buster Posey
5) Ryan Zimmerman
6) Elvis Andrus
7) Michael Brantley
8) Brett Gardner
9) Ryan Braun
10) Joe Mauer
11) Alex Gordon

The one that I knew I wasn't going to get was Michael Brantley. Never would have come to mind for me. I also whiffed on Alex Gordon, because for some reason I thought he went to the Chicago White Sox at one point. Then I later realized that I was thinking of Gordon Beckham, and Alex has stayed right where he has been. Like others on here, I also guessed David Wright and Carlos Gonzalez. I guess Wright is considered inactive right now because of his long DL stint, and I didn't know that CarGo played for Oakland.

If we were talking about players who have served ten years on one team and played for another team, I had a much larger "potential" list brewing, none of which I can guarantee were correct answers but I had about 15-20 players on that list.

[Cubfan]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

JA Happ has hand foot mouth disease.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/yankees/2018/07/31/ny-yankees-ja-happ-hand-foot-mouth-disease/875594002/

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Osuna won't appear in court today, but will be represented by his lawyer. I'm sure at some point in the day we'll find out details about what went on in court.

JA Happ has hand foot mouth disease.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ase/875594002/

I know it's not something to joke about, but that sounds like something you'd make up on the fly to get out of something.

"Why weren't you in yesterday?"
"I had hand...foot....mouth disease"

In all seriousness though, is there something going around in NY? 2 guys from different NY teams getting this. Happ would've only gotten it through someone else because you know he was shaking everyones hands coming over to a new team.