f13.net

Braves have the #1 offense in the league after 5 games. I'm clinging to this before the inevitable decline.

Here's my predictions for the MLB season playoffs:

NL Division Winners: Nationals, Cardinals, Dodgers
NL Wild Cards: Brewers, Diamondbacks

AL Division Winners: Astros, Twins, Red Sox
AL Wild Cards: Yankees, Blue Jays

I think the AL East is going to molly-whomp everybody else in that league, and I think the AL Central is going to be hot garbage to watch. Same with the NL East. I think it's basically the Nats and the rest of the division will struggle to get above .500.

The Cardinals? What the fuck are you smoking? They do not remotely have the pitching or positional depth to win the NL Central division this year. That division is the Cubs to lose and I think over a 162 game season, they will win it by a good 4-8 games. The Pirates are rebuilding, the Reds are rebuilding, and I don't know that the Brewers did enough to improve. I also don't think the Nationals are a lock to be the best team in the NL, though yeah, they win the NL East hands down. The Dodgers are still the team to beat in the NL, in my opinion, not least because the Nats are almost guaranteed to shot their own face off in the playoffs. I wouldn't write the Phillies or the Braves off as sleeper wild cards.

As for the AL, despite their pitching, I think the Yankees win the AL East and the Blue Jays are nowhere near competitive. The Indians and Red Sox are the wild cards. The West might be slightly more competitive as I think the Angels and Rangers will be better but none of them will compete with the Astros.

I'm not as high on the Cubs pitching as others and the Cardinals have an unexpected year in them. They've done it before, and I think the Cubs are due for a WTF season after several good ones in a row. That's a gut pick more than a stats pick.

The AL is a crapshoot. I know the Yankees will be good, but how good? No idea. I think the Blue Jays get in the playoffs, and I think the Red Sox do as well.  Maybe the Indians? I like the Twins more. Astros better not fuck it up.

Twins?? I mean come on...

Go Tribe.

Which will inevitably shit the bed come Sept if they aren't already out of it

Yeah, Cleveland's going to clean up the AL Central.  I agree that the Angels will challenge for the wildcard spot as well, doubt the Twins can hang in for the entire season.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying Pittsburgh's currently undefeated season for all it's worth.

The Blue Jays? :headscratch:  I think they'll have to be lucky to even reach 500 or even close to it.

This is going to be the year of he AL West. Astros > Angels > Mariners. And the Mariners will be over 500.

Yankees take the east. Doesn’t matter who wins the center.

The Blue Jays were my crazy pick. There's usually one division with a crazy surprise.

I was in Vegas at the end of February and wanted to put some money on WS futures, but the odds were garbage. Pity. Hell, I couldn't get more than 22-1 on the fucking Mariners (who are about 10x that). Didn't take it.

Vegas hates baseball because it's where the best gamblers kill them

Yea, those odds are super garbage. 66% as likely as the average team to make the WS? Ah ha ha ha ha.  

Edit: 66% of a parity league rather

Paxton!

Also-
Spotted on Twitter:


That is crazy.

There's no DH in the NL, which will skew the numbers quite a bit.  No idea why it's been mostly M's in AL, though.

If I'm counting correctly there have been 57 AL no-hitters* and 59 NL no-hitters since the DH was implemented (1973).

* including multiple pitcher no-hitters

A little bit is luck a little bit is design a little bit is the fact that the Mariners are always playing an uphill battle.

 Safeco, before the most recent bringing in of the walls, was a notoriously bad park for hitters. Its low altitude (more air for the ball to push through) and the primary open face is from the north, which is also where the wind blows form most often, and that pushes right down from left center field towards the plate. And on top of this, before the teams redesign the field was made "dead" in order to reduce bounces. As a result we went with a defensive and pitching focused team (and lost a lot) and shepherded some of the better pitchers through the league so they could rack up amazing advanced stats in the days before advanced stats mattered and get passed over for accolades in favor of worse pitchers

And then, on top of all that the Mariners have the longest travel distance in the league most every year because we're the furthest team from everyone else. This is super bad for us because we have to travel east (traveling east is worse than traveling west) but it still does give us a slight advantage in home games/stands. Because all the teams that come to us have, at minimum, a 700 mile trip(this assumes they came from Oakland)

That slight edge means its just slightly more likely that we have better pitching outings. So combine some of the better pitchers in the league at the time (Hernandez and Iwakuma) and its not too hard to see why the M's are most likely to have more no-hitters than other teams.

Of course, Paxton threw his in the face of all of those disadvantages. Rogers Field is hard as a rock; its a dome with no wind at almost 1 mile of elevation and Paxton got into town at 3 AM the prior night on a flight from Seattle. Though at the very least the Blue Jays had a long trip the prior as well(from Florida) and also stink this year. Paxton has been on the rise in recent years and is definitely our ace now even if he doesn't get top billing compared to Hernandez. He was coming off a similarly dominating performance in his prior outing

And in other Seattle new:  Cano gets 80-day PED suspension. (http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23512723/robinson-cano-seattle-mariners-suspended-80-games-violating-joint-drug-agreement)

Wasn't that his second suspension?

At least the time he's on the DL will count.

Braves got jobbed on a home plate replay because apparently the NY replay guys are just going to say there's not enough evidence after 3 camera angles show you a guy is safe.

Also means that if by some miracle Seattle makes the post season, he is ineligible. So basically a tac nuke on the season.

Go Dodgers.

That is all.

 :mob:

Not a fan of the Red Sox but they are pretty impressive.

I gotta root for the Brewers because they are the most underdog team left. Also, fuck the Sox and their racist ass fans, and fuck the Dodgers because fuck the Dodgers.

I'd argue that Pats fans are way more racist than Red Sox fans :D.

I dunno there's something unlikeable still about this Sox team. Maybe it's David Price (and enablers) who actually had the balls to suggest people would shut up about his postseason pitching with ONE good start in 11. Jeezus fuck how tone deaf can one person be. God help him if he sucks in the WS.

Jackie Bradley Junior of all people won the ALCS MVP. The guy who barely hit .200 in the regular season. WTG Astros.

Oh look, 2 of the top 3 payrolls made it the World Series. Yawn. Fuck baseball to death.

I was hoping for the Brewers, too, then I remembered Ryan Braun still played for them.  Fuck that guy.  I hope him and the Brewers don't win shit while he's with them.   Not only did he lie about his PED use, he tried to destroy the life and career of the piss collector who tested him knowing full well he was guilty as fuck.

Is it me or is every white guy in the MLB a MAGA shithead?

Baseball doesn't require a college education (or even enrollment)....they sign guys right out of high school. So probably?

Schilling is close to making it for the HOF next year. Seriously, WTF baseball writers. It's not just the absolutely cuntish post-baseball career, it's the evidence that he manipulated shit like the bloody sock even back when.

Eh. Fuck. Please don't.

At least Edgar made it finally. Far and away my favorite Mariner of all time.

That's one for the good guys.  I stopped caring about baseball years ago (moving out of the country will tend to do that), but have fond memories of Edgar and that entire era of Mariner baseball.  An amazing hitter.

Go Nats!  Three more wins to go!

I'll root for the Nats. How much talk is there about Harper leaving and now they are in the WS?

Last week, there was a lot.  Right now, everyone is just excited about the Series as far as I can tell.

Nationals win the World Series with 4 road victories. What a time to be alive.

As a Braves fan.  :oh_i_see:

But as a baseball fan.  :why_so_serious:

Was a good series!