2019 MLB Thread

[OldTimeHockey]

The Wildcard games have been some of my favourite games to watch.

 

[Arn]

Would like to see Milwaukee and Tampa winning those WC games

 

[hockeyfan1]

Nationals take it.  Defeat the Brewers 4-3 in their N.L.WC game.
Now on to the (Best-of-five) NLDS vs LA Dodgers Thursday.

Hi-lites/story:
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/brewers-vs-nationals/2019/10/01/599336#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=599336

 

[hockeyfan1]

Rays are in.  Defeat the Athletics 5-1 in the A.L.WC game.
Move on to the (Best-of-five) ALDS vs Houston Astros Friday.

Hi-lites/story:
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/rays-vs-athletics/2019/10/02/599335#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=599335

 

[hockeyfan1]

Here are the matchups for each LDS:

ALDS
Minnesota Twins vs New York Yankees
Tampa Bay vs Houston Astros

NLDS
Washington Nationals vs Los Angeles Dodgers
St. Louis Cardinals bs Atlanta Braves

For complete schedule (date, times, etc.):
https://www.mlb.com/postseason

 

[hockeyfan1]

NY Yankees won their ALDS over the Minnesota Twins 3 games to 0.

New York awaits the winner of the Tampa Bay / Houston series, currently tied at 2 games apiece.  The decisive Game  5 goes Thursday in Tampa Bay.

 

[hockeyfan1]

The Astros are in!  Beat the Rays 6-1 in the decisive Game 5 to advance to the ALCS vs the NY Yankees.

 

[hockeyfan1]

The St. Louis Cardinals  set a MLB record scoring 10 runs all in the first inning enroute to a 13-1 shellacking of the Atlanta Braves in Game 5.

The Washington Nationals also advanced defeating among baseball?s best team the L.A. Dodgers 7-3 in Game 5.

The Cardinals will play the Nationals in the NLCS.

 

[hockeyfan1]

Matchups all set for the LCS:

NLCS  Cardinals vs Nationals begins Friday Oct. 11th.
ALCS  Astros vs Yankees begins Saturday October 12th.

Check out this page for more details:
https://www.mlb.com/postseason

 

[hockeyfan1]

It?s the Houston Astros vs the Washington Nationals for the World Series.

The Nationals long defeated the St.Louis Cardinals in 4 straight games in their NLCS, while the Astros recently dispensed of the NY Yankees 4 games to 2.

 

[hockeyfan1]

2019 World Series starts Tuesday October 22.

  vs

WS schedule:
https://www.mlb.com/postseason

 

[hockeyfan1]

What a way to go!

The Washington Nationals beat the defending WS Champion Houston Astros 6-2 last night to win the franchise?s first World Series Championship 4 games to 3.

[tweet]1189752814261690369[/tweet]

[tweet]1189779833351368704[/tweet]

[tweet]1189768523645669377[/tweet]

[tweet]1189751604515225600[/tweet]

Hi-lites & more:
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/nationals-vs-astros/2019/10/30/599377#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=599377

 

[hockeyfan1]

A sign of the times...minor MLB drug policy change:

[tweet]1205163456988499968[/tweet]

 

[Hobbes]

This is fun:

Houston manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for the entire 2020 season on Monday and the team was fined $5 million US for sign-stealing by the team in 2017 and 2018 season.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced the discipline and strongly hinted that current Boston manager Alex Cora, the Astros bench coach in 2017, will face punishment later. Manfred said Cora developed the sign-stealing system used by the Astros.

Houston also will forfeit its next two first- and second-round draft picks.

So basically the two teams implicated
- won the World Series in 2017 (Astros)
- won the World Series in 2018 (Sox)
- came within 1 win of the World Series in 2019 (Astros)

Maybe they ought to be stripped of the titles?

 

[herman]

This is fun:

Houston manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for the entire 2020 season on Monday and the team was fined $5 million US for sign-stealing by the team in 2017 and 2018 season.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced the discipline and strongly hinted that current Boston manager Alex Cora, the Astros bench coach in 2017, will face punishment later. Manfred said Cora developed the sign-stealing system used by the Astros.

Houston also will forfeit its next two first- and second-round draft picks.

So basically the two teams implicated
- won the World Series in 2017 (Astros)
- won the World Series in 2018 (Sox)
- came within 1 win of the World Series in 2019 (Astros)

Maybe they ought to be stripped of the titles?

They just got fired

 

[itsgametime]

This is fun:

Houston manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for the entire 2020 season on Monday and the team was fined $5 million US for sign-stealing by the team in 2017 and 2018 season.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced the discipline and strongly hinted that current Boston manager Alex Cora, the Astros bench coach in 2017, will face punishment later. Manfred said Cora developed the sign-stealing system used by the Astros.

Houston also will forfeit its next two first- and second-round draft picks.

So basically the two teams implicated
- won the World Series in 2017 (Astros)
- won the World Series in 2018 (Sox)
- came within 1 win of the World Series in 2019 (Astros)

Maybe they ought to be stripped of the titles?

I don't know...then your also penalizing pretty much everyone in the organization including the fans.  No doubt this is bad though and they deserve the punishment.

 

[Kin]

This is fun:

Houston manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for the entire 2020 season on Monday and the team was fined $5 million US for sign-stealing by the team in 2017 and 2018 season.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced the discipline and strongly hinted that current Boston manager Alex Cora, the Astros bench coach in 2017, will face punishment later. Manfred said Cora developed the sign-stealing system used by the Astros.

Houston also will forfeit its next two first- and second-round draft picks.

So basically the two teams implicated
- won the World Series in 2017 (Astros)
- won the World Series in 2018 (Sox)
- came within 1 win of the World Series in 2019 (Astros)

Maybe they ought to be stripped of the titles?

.

I don't think there's any maybe about it. Aside from the actual issue of being fair to the Dodgers and their fans, stripping them of the titles just acknowledges the reality that no one will ever view them as legitimate titles ever again.

Like if you know any Astros or Red Sox fans who bragged about these victories from here on out it'd absolutely be met with "You mean the titles you cheated for?" so it's not like the fans get anything out of those titles anymore anyway. All leaving the banners up means is that there's still incentive for owners t sanction cheating.

 

[L K]

Most of the position players on the 2017 team either received sign
information from the banging scheme or participated in the scheme by helping to decode
signs or bang on the trash can. Many of the players who were interviewed admitted that
they knew the scheme was wrong because it crossed the line from what the player believed
was fair competition and/or violated MLB rules. Players stated that if Manager A.J. Hinch
told them to stop engaging in the conduct, they would have immediately stopped.

Although the Astros? players did not attempt to hide what they were doing from
Hinch or other Astros employees, they were concerned about getting caught by players
from other teams. Several players told my investigators that there was a sense of ?panic?
in the Astros? dugout after White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar appeared to notice the trash
can bangs. Before the game ended, a group of Astros players removed the monitor from
the wall in the tunnel and hid it in an office. For the Postseason, a portable monitor was
set up on a table to replace the monitor that had been affixed to the wall near the dugout.

And yet Manfred didn't have the balls to punish players.    He's a coward.

 

[Kin]

Pretty tough to punish players for something sanctioned by the manager and organization. You'd effectively be asking guys, and most of the Astros that year were young and or fringey players, to be crossing their employers.

 

[Peter D.]

Like if you know any Astros or Red Sox fans who bragged about these victories from here on out it'd absolutely be met with "You mean the titles you cheated for?" so it's not like the fans get anything out of those titles anymore anyway. All leaving the banners up means is that there's still incentive for owners t sanction cheating.

Yup.  They can be said to have an asterisk beside their title and/or have people view the championship as tainted, but as long as the trophy continues to be held and displayed and the banner flown, it means squat.