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The season already started, but IF I can make a prediction, the butt-Pirates and Rangers (among my two favorite teams ) should see last place easily. I am watching the TWINS vs WHITE SOX Rivalry because that could be what decides the championship in that division by the end of the season. The DODGERS, CARDINALS and probably, the Houston Asterisks will also win their divisions.
Certainly hoping to see the Brewers continue to do well.
Would love to see the Royals make some noise in the central. They're capable, but could use some consistency.
So, what these dopey extra inning rules have deprived us from last year is the old pitcher batting vs. position player pitching. I don't believe we had any such occurrences in 2020 we had our first in 2021. 12th inning of the Dodgers/Padres game saw Dodgers relief pitcher David Price batting against Padres IF Jake Cronenworth. Dodgers had already scored 4 in the inning to blow the game open which is probably a reason Cronenworth was out there, but Price added the final run of the game with a sac fly. Maybe Jayce Tingerl should've gone to Cronenworth sooner?? He only allowed 1 hit, recorded 2 of the 3 outs that inning, and actually struck out 2018 MVP Mookie Betts. At the plate for Cronenworth was a different story as Dodgers pitchers held him to 1-6 batting. Even allowing 2 of the 3 inherited runners to score, he probably had a better day (night) on the mound than he did in the batters box.
Their ace Cole lost today against the Rays' bullpen. The NYY offense broke a franchise record for strikeouts in a 3 game series...all while everybody is healthy.
The Red Sox now have a great chance to win the AL East.
I have no love for the Yankees. If they never win another world series that is fine by me. But they spent so much money on this team and are in last place. Crazy.
Last edited by Oklazona Bound; 04-18-2021 at 09:52 PM..
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Along with all the surprises of this early part of this season (Seattle and Boston are in first place right now), one thing does remain constant. The Dodgers are at 13-3 at this writing and are doing the things that a lot of sports writers have expected from them so far.
MLB said its MLB.TV service saw more than 1.3 billion minutes of streams through its first three weekends of the 2021 season.
That’s a 12% increase compared with the first 18 days of the shortened 2020 season and up 43% compared with the same time frame for the 2019 season, the league said in a release.
I said it last year but it's worth repeating again this year: These 7 inning double headers are so stupid, dumb, and completely unnecessary. It ruins the game of baseball! With Madison Bumgarner throwing the 7 inning no hitter (in the double header) and potentially having it not count because it didn't go 9 innings, I now ask a very logical question: How can a game be official after 7 innings, but a no hitter can't be official in that same game??
Same with the stupid dopey ghost runner to begin extra innings. Look, I know why they implemented both last year, along with the universal DH, but this year they don't have those same problems. Yes, the minors got consolidated, and they start a month later than usual, but they WILL be starting here in May I think this coming weekend, and you still have the taxi squad and the alternate site, so no reason why you can't play regulation double headers even more so when you get to add the extra player on top of the extra player you already have! The Angel's/A's game that went 20 or 21 innings 7, 8 years ago was terrific and so awesome because when I went to bed it was like the 4th inning, and when I woke up to head to class in the morning the same game was in like the 19th or 20th inning. Can we get back to that again??
I also said last year MLB should implement a points system if they were going to follow through on the extra inning and 7 inning double header rule. I just looked at the NL Central because that was the most tight division, and having a points system completely changes that division around, and I'm going to stick to that assessment from last year: the point system works. In case you forgot, here's what the NL Central looked liked:
Cubs (34-26)
Cards (30-28 [had 2 games that were postponed and weren't made up])
Reds (31-29)
Brewers (29-31)
Pirates (19-41). Here's what the standings would've looked like if MLB had a 3-2-1 points system implemented: 3 points for a 9 inning win, 2 points for a non 9 inning win, 1 point for a non 9 inning loss:
Cubs (102 points)
Brewers (88 points)
Cards (87 points)
Reds (85 points)
Pirates (64 points). It completely changes the division around. Even if the Cards only make up 1 of the 2 games, it still swaps 3 & 4 in the standings. And now I think the Brewers (Pads) and Reds (Dodgers) lose anyways, but the Dodgers could be in trouble with Bauer, Gray, and Castillo instead of the 2 guys the Brewers sent out there, but I think the Cards can easily beat the Braves, and I think they do. Whole NL playoff picture is completely changed. Here's what it would look like in the 2-1 format; 2 points for every win (non 9 innings & 9 innings) and 1 point for a non 9 inning loss:
Cubs (74 points)
Cards (70)
Reds (65)
Brewers (64)
Pirates (48). If the Cards play and win those 2 cancelled games, they tie the Cubs in the division and I believe they would've won the division because they finished higher in both the last 10 overall (6-4 compared to 4-6 for the Cubs) and last 10 in the division (7-3 compared to the Cubs 5-5) which I believe was the next tiebreaker.
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