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MLB 2015 Regular Season |OT| Pickin' Up the Pace of Play

Z

zroid

Banned
anyone read Jonah Keri's article today on the Doyers?

some interesting stuff in there http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-los-angeles-dodgers-don-mattingly/

mostly touches on Donnie and various issues the team struggled with in 2014

Yes, leaving Kershaw in too long twice in four games netted disastrous results, but that wasn’t all on Mattingly: The Dodgers bullpen consisted of Kenley Jansen and a pack of Skittles by that point in the season, leaving no desirable option for the seventh inning of either NLDS game, short of turning to the closer that early — something no manager in baseball would do at that point. Yes, benching Puig triggered a firestorm, but the team’s poorly constructed roster featured too many outfielders (but no true center fielder) thanks largely to Colletti’s nonsensical decision to give Andre Ethier an $85 million contract extension two years prior. Scapegoating Mattingly might have been tempting, but it wouldn’t necessarily have been fair.

Plus, while Friedman is known as a numbers guy, he’s also always emphasized clubhouse harmony, something that he, new GM Farhan Zaidi, and other members of the front office would soon realize the 2014 Dodgers completely lacked. With Kemp, Ethier, Puig, and Crawford all on the roster, squabbling broke out over playing time, with Mattingly hinting at players’ selfishness after an early-June loss dropped the team to eight games behind the then-front-running Giants. Mattingly now speaks candidly of that unit’s “lack of professionalism.”

Molly Knight, a writer who spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons embedded with the Dodgers and will soon release a behind-the-scenes book, The Best Team Money Can Buy, put the team’s dysfunction in stronger terms.

“I wasn’t around for those 1970s A’s teams, but I can’t imagine they were much worse than the 2014 Dodgers,” Knight says. “It was a disaster, a shitshow. [Mattingly] had to make sure guys didn’t kill each other and keep all of that out of the media. He had to deal with Yasiel Puig, who’s phenomenally talented, sells tickets … and he’s a basket case. He flouts all the rules, skips BP, shows up late. What do you do? Bench him and watch your team lose? Or not punish him and piss off 24 other guys?”

Puig has caused fewer stirs than usual this season because he’s missed time while nursing a hamstring injury. But he’ll presumably remain a managerial challenge once he returns.

“It’s not easy managing that, figuring it out,” Knight says. “They weren’t going to win the World Series with that bullpen, with no center fielder, and the worst defensive shortstop in the league. It takes a really steady manager’s personality just to get as far as they went last year. He did as well as he could have done.”
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L

Little Green Yoda

Member
zroid said:
anyone read Jonah Keri's article today on the Doyers?

some interesting stuff in there http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-los-angeles-dodgers-don-mattingly/

mostly touches on Donnie and various issues the team struggled with in 2014
Click to expand...
He had to deal with Yasiel Puig, who’s phenomenally talented, sells tickets … and he’s a basket case. He flouts all the rules, skips BP, shows up late. What do you do? Bench him and watch your team lose? Or not punish him and piss off 24 other guys?
Click to expand...
he brings so much emotion and excitement though
 
Link

Link

The Autumn Wind
giphy.gif
 
Z

zroid

Banned
This is such a weird stat

Tom the Intern @TomTheIntern

#BlueJays have 34 straight games without a save, second longest streak since 1988 ('02-'03 BAL: 44 gms)

And the best part is they actually have a winning record in that span (18-16). Baltimore was 6-38 in theirs!
Click to expand...

Tristan H. Cockcroft ‏@SultanofStat

Practically none of the teams in history w/this kind of streak had winning records

The 3 longer save-less streaks:
2002-03 Orioles 44 (6-38 record)
1987 Red Sox 44 (20-24)
1982 Tigers 36 (12-24)
Click to expand...
 
B

Beckx

Member
Loco4Coco said:
Who's the best team currently so I can jump on that bandwagon.
Click to expand...

P-League

The Hawks are head and shoulders above everyone else in terms of pure talent. They are absolutely murdering the central league in Interleague play, 10-3 including a sweep of C-League leading Giants.

The Fighters are my favorite - super entertaining team with great pitching (not just Shohei Otani, pretty decent staff overall and Kohei Arihara is showing signs of why he was the #1 pick). Sho Nakata at 1B (Sho-time!) leads the league in homers.

The Lions can mash but their pitching is sketchy. 19 year old Tomoya Mori (from Osaka Toin high school, like Sho Nakata) has 10+ HRs and is the top all star vote leader in NPB this year.

The Eagles and Marines are interesting but won't contend IMO.

Orix is just awful. Team should be better but the chemistry is bad or the water is bad or something. 19 games below .500 and 15.5 games out of first. But, they just got ace Kaneko back and Brandon Dickson has been absolutely insane for them.

C-League

DeNA Baystars - they're in second but they're going to fall. Perennial cellar dwellers who had an exciting run to start the year. They can hit the ball a mile and have a rookie closer who seems to be the real deal, but they're in free fall now.

Giants - like rooting for the Yankees. Ace Sugano anchors a solid pitching staff but the lineup is underperforming with a lot of questions. Will probably win the division anyway.

Tigers - my second fav team. A lot of history, GREAT stadium with history (Koshien). Shintaro Fujinami (also Osaka Toin, damn that school) is the best young pitcher in NPB that the US media doesn't talk about and is really the ace of the team. Toritani is aging but still a great hitter & SS. Batting is AWFUL this year but they'll make the playoffs because the C-league is sooooo weak.

Carp - poor Carp. Probably most talented team in the C-league and Kikuchi is IMO the best defensive second baseman in NPB. P Kenta Maeda is getting a lot of attention from MLB scouts. Hiroki Kuroda just came back from MLB and is having a good season. Hiroshima has hands down the most passionate fans and their games are electric. Bullpen is huge weakness and they just keep surrendering leads, and the team that was the favorite to win the league is in last place.

Dragons, Swallows - I don't know enough about them or their players to say much. Yakult Swallows have a solid hitting team but struggling.
 
R

Rafa=FedKilla

Banned
Beckx said:
P-League

The Hawks are head and shoulders above everyone else in terms of pure talent. They are absolutely murdering the central league in Interleague play, 10-3 including a sweep of C-League leading Giants.

The Fighters are my favorite - super entertaining team with great pitching (not just Shohei Otani, pretty decent staff overall and Kohei Arihara is showing signs of why he was the #1 pick). Sho Nakata at 1B (Sho-time!) leads the league in homers.

The Lions can mash but their pitching is sketchy. 19 year old Tomoya Mori (from Osaka Toin high school, like Sho Nakata) has 10+ HRs and is the top all star vote leader in NPB this year.

The Eagles and Marines are interesting but won't contend IMO.

Orix is just awful. Team should be better but the chemistry is bad or the water is bad or something. 19 games below .500 and 15.5 games out of first. But, they just got ace Kaneko back and Brandon Dickson has been absolutely insane for them.

C-League

DeNA Baystars - they're in second but they're going to fall. Perennial cellar dwellers who had an exciting run to start the year. They can hit the ball a mile and have a rookie closer who seems to be the real deal, but they're in free fall now.

Giants - like rooting for the Yankees. Ace Sugano anchors a solid pitching staff but the lineup is underperforming with a lot of questions. Will probably win the division anyway.

Tigers - my second fav team. A lot of history, GREAT stadium with history (Koshien). Shintaro Fujinami (also Osaka Toin, damn that school) is the best young pitcher in NPB that the US media doesn't talk about and is really the ace of the team. Toritani is aging but still a great hitter & SS. Batting is AWFUL this year but they'll make the playoffs because the C-league is sooooo weak.

Carp - poor Carp. Probably most talented team in the league and Kikuchi is IMO the best defensive second baseman in NPB. P Kenta Maeda is getting a lot of attention from MLB scouts. Hiroki Kuroda just came back from MLB and is having a good season. Hiroshima has hands down the most passionate fans and their games are electric. Bullpen is huge weakness and they just keep surrendering leads, and the team that was the favorite to win the league is in last place.

Dragons, Swallows - I don't know enough about them or their players to say much. Yakult Swallows have a solid hitting team but struggling.
Click to expand...
Yep. The NPB has been more enjoyable than the show this season. Get overlooked too often because of the lack of teams....
 
Z

zulux21

Member
so I haven't had much chance to watch Emilio Bonifacio play the field this year but good god he needs to be off the field quickly.

He is playing like he is a player that just got locked into a 10 year contract for high money and doesn't give a crap, not a bench player trying to get more playing time. Everything he has done has looked so damn lazy.
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Original Famous Ray said:
Harvey giving up another homer? Whats new. Fuck him.
Click to expand...

lol he's been struggling but come on he's our best fucking player. It takes time to come back from TJS.

I'm just gonna drink and wait for the next Ace Shintaro start to cheer me up.

If anybody is interested I might just start an NPB thread in regular OT, anybody would post in it?
 
Link

Link

The Autumn Wind
Frozenprince said:
lol he's been struggling but come on he's our best fucking player. It takes time to come back from TJS.
Click to expand...
Might as well trade him and get a huge return back. Aces are a waste on this team, and you know the Mets aren't going to be able to re-sign him.
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Link said:
Might as well trade him and get a huge return back. Aces are a waste on this team, and you know the Mets aren't going to be able to re-sign him.
Click to expand...

Roll with deGrom and see what we can get.

Honestly if we're not keeping him anyway (and why would he stay on this shit team?) why not.

I'm already broken from 06' lets just completely kill me so I can stop rooting for these fucks.
 
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