Baseball 2018

[TGH-Adfabre]

Originally Posted by pgjocki

Matheny was a cancer and the fans were literally begging for him to be fired.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I am not sold on that but they have swung in a better direction since he was replaced.
Certain fans in STL are always calling for the managers head. La Russa spent time here as persona non grata. This town booed Izzy at the stadium. I am happy Matheny was removed but I am not sold he was killing the organization.

[Tony M]

It says something about the relative strengths of the divisions that the Indians are likely to be the first AL team to clinch their division despite being 7 games behind the Astros and 17 games behind the Red Sox.

Added to which the rest of the AL Central will likely be eliminated from the wild card race before the Indians clinch the division!

[Cobra Mgr]

Somebody's getting fired.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Somebody's getting fired.

Shame. I always liked Rod Allen.

But maybe things can be sorted out by getting rid of the chair in question?

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Shame. I always liked Rod Allen.

But maybe things can be sorted out by getting rid of the chair in question?

I think once things turn violent, the only thing that needs to be sorted out is how long til the unemployment check arrives.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Somebody's getting fired.

Suspended 4 the yr.

[Le Grande Orange]

Here's a fun little thing from the minors: worst team in the league yet won the league championship.

This was the Eugene Emeralds, which posted the worst overall record in the Northwest League's 2018 season at 31-45 .408. (The next worst clubs were Tri-City and Boise at 35-41 .461). Yet the club made the playoffs. How? Because in its division, the Hillsboro Hops won both the first half and second half division title. The second playoff qualifier in a case of a repeat half winner is the second place team in the second half. That team was Eugene, which finished one game ahead of Salem-Keizer (17-21 versus 16-22), Eugene went 14-24 in the first half.

The Emeralds then proceeded to beat Hillsboro 2 games to 0 in the first round, and defeated Spokane 3 games to 0 to win the championship.

[Cobra Mgr]

1. Amazing that happened.
2. Even more amazing that both series were sweeps.
3. Why wouldn't the tiebreaker be the 2nd best overall record instead of limiting it to the 2nd half?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

3. Why wouldn't the tiebreaker be the 2nd best overall record instead of limiting it to the 2nd half?

Semi-related, why are they having a split season at all? Strikes me as *weird*.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Semi-related, why are they having a split season at all? Strikes me as *weird*.

Minors have done that for ages. I think it maybe due to call ups. A roster in the 1st half might be quite different from the 2nd half.

[Le Grande Orange]

Eugene's accomplishment may well be the first time a club with the worst record in a league went on to win the league championship. I'm not aware of any other such occurrences offhand. It requires an usual set of circumstances.

It wasn't a banner year for teams in the league. Only two finished above .500 and another two finished at that record. The standings are given below.

2018 NORTHWEST LEAGUE Final Overall Standings

                                   W  L   Pct.  GB

NORTH DIVISION
   Vancouver Canadians (TOR)     40  36  .526    - 
 x Everett AquaSox (SEA)         38  38  .500  2.0
 y Spokane Indians (TEX)         38  38  .500  2.0
   Tri-City Dust Devils (SDN)    35  41  .461  5.0

SOUTH DIVISION
xy Hillsboro Hops (ARI)          51  25  .671   -
   Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (SFN)  36  40  .474  15.0
   Boise Hawks (COL)             35  41  .461  16.0
 z Eugene Emeralds (CHN)         31  45  .408  20.0

x - first half division winner
y - second half division winner
z - alternate playoff qualifier

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

3. Why wouldn't the tiebreaker be the 2nd best overall record instead of limiting it to the 2nd half?

Most minors which use the split season format use that rule, but not all. The Carolina League also uses the second place finisher in the second half in the case of a repeat half division winner.

Originally Posted by Westheim

Semi-related, why are they having a split season at all? Strikes me as *weird*.

The split-season format is widely used in the minors, and has been for a long time, but it is less common in short season leagues. The Northwest League from 1955-65 used a split-season format; in 1966 it switched to a short season schedule, and dropped the split-season. It readopted the split-season in 2010 to expand the number of playoff qualifiers from two to four.

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Minors have done that for ages. I think it maybe due to call ups. A roster in the 1st half might be quite different from the 2nd half.

I think a major influence is from the older days of the minors, when they were more independent and received less direct financial support from the majors.

Since revenue was primarily derived from attendance, and attendance relied on a competitive season, the split-season gave two division title races each season instead of one, thus reducing the attendance-lowering effect of one club running away with the pennant since the season was reset halfway through. You can find instances in the 1950s, for example, of minors adopting the split-season during a season in response to one club building up too much of a lead, as a pennant race all but over in late June or early July meant poorer tickets sales for the rest of the summer for the clubs out of the race.

Since the split-season had been a long-running feature of many minors, it just stuck around even after the majors became more consistent in their financial backing of minor league clubs.

[Cobra Mgr]

Seriously, why aren't umps suspended for this??

[Cobra Mgr]

Speaking of bad umpiring, what is this ump doing?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Speaking of bad umpiring, what is this ump doing?

Like anybody else in attendance, Tom Hallion was just very, very stunned and could not compute that the Mets had actually won a ballgame?

[dsvitak]

How odd. Puig and Bellinger, middle of the order guys, got more than 10% this years' RBI in one game today.

10% of their yearly total, on September 15th.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Here's a fun little thing from the minors: worst team in the league yet won the league championship.

Not a worst-to-championship story, but close: second worst-to-championship.

In the Pioneer League 2018 season, the Great Falls Voyagers won the league championship while having the second worst overall record in the league at 34-41 .453. Only the Orem Owlz were worse, at 22-54 .289.

Great Falls won the North Division in the first half with a 22-16 record. But the club faltered badly in the second half, going 12-25. But since it won the first half division title, it got into the post-season. In the first round it dispatched Billings 2 games to 0, then went on to defeat Grand Junction in the finals 2 games to 0.

[Cobra Mgr]

Addison Russell put on administrative leave as accusations of domestic violence are investigated..

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Addison Russell put on administrative leave as accusations of domestic violence are investigated..

Gotta love 2018. Report crimes to the police? Nah! Just make accusations on Twitter or other social media instead.

[MorseMoose]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Addison Russell put on administrative leave as accusations of domestic violence are investigated..

Good for her for speaking out.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Gotta love 2018. Report crimes to the police? Nah! Just make accusations on Twitter or other social media instead.

What good would reporting to the police do if you have zero physical evidence or witnesses? That's the problem with domestic violence. It almost always becomes "he said, she said". The problem on the other side of the coin is Russell & the Cubs having to suffer from his absence when there is, at this point, only an accusation & no proof. Again, "he said, she said".

If she did suffer from physical violence I have no problem with her taking to a public blog to vent after suffering in hidden silence. As one who suffered verbal abuse myself, I know how therapeutic putting your thoughts & history to paper or screen in order to deal with what has happened to you is beneficial.