GAME THREAD

My opinion on the WBC has been this...
It has been a nice surprise this year with enjoyable games and I like that I can throw the TV on at random hours and watch some high intensity baseball in early March. I still have very little national pride in this thing, but that's really more due to the fact that our best players are not in it and there are other nations involved in this thing with rosters of multiple U.S. born and raised players(Looking at you Israel). I absolutely get why they are doing that and I am interested to see how this has effected countries like Israel, Italy, etc... in recent years and going forward. As for now, I'm enjoying watching and rooting for Dodger players and watching some exciting games.

 

Japan, machine- like as usual, scoring immediately in extra innings against Netherlands with the two men automatically on first and second.
A real abomination and mutation of the most perfect game there is was.
I can see this, along with the NL DH, making baseball eventually, a true transgender event of what, at least in my lifetime, the " national part-time".
If they are so worried about saving time, then what the fuck are they playing/watching baseball for in the first place?

 

They've explained this rule a couple times for the WBC. Due to the timing of the tourney, they don't want a 20 inning game where some pitcher(s) are out there for 3,4,5+ innings in an exhibition game when they aren't conditioned for it. It's a similarish reason why MiLB is doing it. They don't want to risk the career of a young prospect making minimum wage for MiLB game that doesn't count. Both the union and commissioners office came out and said that this will never make it to the main stage.

 

Yikes, sounds like there are some serious issues in Mexico right now. I missed it, but apparently AGon is getting booed and their was a big fight in the stands near the PR family section. I guess their agents are saying that they all want to fly out immediately following the game instead of tomorrow now. I wonder if the Dodgers brass will send the private jet down to get its team Mexico players tonight.

 

Neither was the DH "ever going to make it". Or inter- league. Or two wild cards.
And if your going to play a half-step, diluted mutation, why have the "exhibition" tournament at all?. One minute it's a patriotic, a pride swelling, gut wrenching honor to play for your ethnic team, meaning an unforgettable chapter in a player's career, blah, blah...And the next, it's merely an exhibition? I call bullshit on that...Sorry.
And if your going to play and pitch in a March tournament, then get ready ahead of time, by playing winter ball somewhere, and get in shape early. It's not like a mystery that just pops up as a big surprise.
And if prospects are so genteel, disallow them entirely.

 

I have some national pride for this thing.
We produce the best baseball players in the world. The Dominicans think we're nothing.

Trout, Bryant, Harper and Kershaw should be out there silencing those annoying horns and whistles. Pretty embarrassing how it's a Dominican home game on American soil.

They should do a scaled down version of this mid summer instead of the all star game every 4 years. When the pitchers are ready.

 

They also played the US/DR game where there is a shitty US sports fanbase to begin with, while also in a heavily latino based area. If this game is held in any of the other 49 states, it is a much different crowd. One rule that should change is if you are invited by your country of origin to play, you cannot turn them down for the family heritage team. Machado playing for the DR after the US invited him is BS as the DR players "pressured him" into playing for them.

I honestly wouldn't care if this thing ceased to exist permanently. I don't think there is a time of year where this thing makes sense. Baseball is a game of timing, you suddenly take two weeks off in the middle of the season for a select few players to play in an exhibition tourney and it will throw off one set of players and put higher demand on pitchers from another set(you really want Kershaw or Urias doing that?). We see it every year now where even elite pitchers are on fumes when the playoffs are winding down, and saying "fuck those pussies!!!" in response only makes one sound like a dinosaur that has no understanding for a game that has obviously passed them by. This is a tournament that just makes no sense for players that are on teams that have championship aspirations. The whole idea for this was for Bud Selig to grow the game worldwide(also make him more money) and Manfred is trying to ride his coattails and re-establish it here as well. All they are doing is ruining the product at the risk of some of its best players and are pushing away current fans by trying to "speed the game up." The only thing that has come from this as of yet are players that participate routinely get off to slower starts and we were scarily close to one of the games superstars getting an extremely dangerous injury. Not to mention our own superstar SS broke his finger playing out of position on a cold rainy night 4 years ago. I'm having fun watching these games, but honestly the last thing I want to see is more players take this damn thing seriously. I'd much rather have Seager, Kershaw, Urias, AGon, Jansen, Puig, Maeda and Joc in camp getting everyday regular training reps rather than in some cases a world away, separated from the coaches that know them best.

 

Pederson's new form at the plate is sure interesting. Hitting the shit out of the ball too.

 

Agree with you guys. Still frustrating. And screw the Dominican players pressuring Americans to play for them.

 

Moustakas has a HR against Kershaw, we are only in the 4th inning and I would say that he is having a REALLY REALLY bad game.

 

Bellinger is 0-3 w/ 2 K's, but he murdered a ball that went just foul. Lord, when he squares a ball up, it is crushed.

 

Hopefully he feels fine tomorrow

 

I'd trust Dreifort to hit with the bases juiced in the LCS more than Puig.

 

Marlins park looks so much less annoying with the lime green walls covered up.