Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

Thought it was the 21st or 22nd, but damn, that's a great coincidence .

 

Maybe next year. Well, Tunes, I’ll be rooting for the Dodgers now. If we’re going to lose, I’d rather lose to the champions.

 

I'm just glad that, with all our different reasons, the vast majority of the Arena community can come together, United, to root against Boston.

 

Congrats @DarthTunick and Dodgers fans. It was a great matchup and was fun to watch. It's always fun to see the East/west coast matchup. Boston can be beat, but it's not going to be easy. Hoping for another 7 games with lots of drama.

 

It's depressing as a Yankees fan having to read that; knowing full well how true it is. To say that Boston has only won three times in the past 15 years. Yeah, once upon a time it was 86 years between their championships. You could go to Yankee Stadium chanting "1918" back when it meant something.

But you're talking about payrolls. I'll be among the few Yankees fans to admit that they pretty much bought the Championship in 2009; as a sort of love letter to a dying George Steinbrenner. But the teams of the 90s Dynasty wasn't about the money. When they beat Atlanta in '96, I don't know if they were even a top 5 in payroll at that point. They were all about building the team around the the core players like Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, and Posada. I think they're trying to get that way now; but the results for the most part have been disappointing.

 

@DarthTunick Thank you, Brewers have a lot of October baseball left in them

I can’t like your post only for the photo of the Dodgers celebrating on the home field.

 

The 1996 Yankees has the second highest payroll in baseball, less than half a million below Baltimore (I know!). Outside of their core, the entire team was acquired via trade or free agency - Wade Boggs, Darryl Strawberry, Mariano Duncan, Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill, Ruben Sierra, Cecil Fielder, Tim Raines, David Cone, Dwight Gooden, Kenny Rogers, Jimmy Key, John Wetteland. It's this year's Yankees who are the outlier over the last 30 or 40 years or so, if not longer.

Amazing.

 

Quite understandable; the Central overall figures to be one of the better divisions next season... I wonder what kind of year Yelich will have, given his likely MVP for this season.

 

Fine; but these days it's pretty apparent that teams like the Cubs, Boston and Dodgers have all used the same strategy to build a Championship-caliber team that the Yankees did back then. As long as those teams continue to trade up and acquire the big name FA, they'll be frontrunners to the Pennant more than the lower market teams. The Yankees want to be there now. I'll be the first to say that I'm beginning to think last year was just a fluke; that the team really isn't that good enough to stretch the playoffs as far as being a game away from the Pennant. 100 wins looks good on paper; but unless you can go far in the playoffs, it means jack squat in the end. You can talk to the 2001 Mariners about that.

 

Most of this year's playoff teams had very few free agents on their roster. Saw this graphic just before the playoff started. The smarter organizations are shifting away from too many free agent signings.



Amazing.

 

It's a blend of FA and trades; which is essentially how the Yankees 90s' dynasty was built (along with the core players from the farm). And you won't find too many people suggesting the Yankees of those years would be the same without the core homegrown players like Jeter, Bernie Williams, Rivera, Pettitte, and Posada regardless of the FA/trade acquisitions. How many of those teams shown in the above graphic could say the same?

 

Most of them?

Boston wouldn't be the same without Betts, Benintendi, and Bogaerts.
Chicago wouldn't be the same without Baez, Bryant, and Schwarber.
The Rockies wouldn't be the same without Arenado, Blackmon, and Story.
Houston and LA are too easy.

Of course, the 1995 Yankees also made the playoffs. Without Jeter, without Posada, and without the HOF version of Rivera. Not sure Houston's going anywhere without Bregman, Altuve, Springer, Correa, and Keuchel.

What's really interesting is it's the smaller market teams, the A's and Brewers, who have the fewest home grown players. That's what made the Yankees run so unique, that they were able hold on to their home grown talent for so long, and that they all lasted as long as they did.

Amazing.

 

I could be wrong about this, but I believe the reason the brewers have so many trades vs homegrown players is that trading is the only way we can get decent players added to the team.

If you notice we are very low for free agents, because we don't have the money to get good free agents. Instead we cough up lots of our good prospects in trades to help the team as best we can.

That's why a small market team like Milwaukee has so much going against it to make the playoffs. You need the perfect storm season where your average to good acquired players (like Cain and Yelich for example) play above their potential and your young guys are hitting their stride as well.

We've only made the playoffs three times in the past 11 seasons because after those two playoff seasons we lost many great players because we couldn't afford to keep them anymore. Most of those players were pitchers which is the most crucial position of course.

For the moment it looks like we won't lose many players too soon, but it will happen soon enough and then we'll have to wait many years to make the playoffs again.

 

Amazing these 2 fierce rivals of the Yankees have hardly met.

http://bit.ly/2R3fi5Z

 

Congrats, @DarthTunick !

 

My point on the Brewers and A's was more that the small market teams have a difficult time holding onto young talent versus the bigger markets.

Amazing.

 

Free agents normally don't want to go to Milwaukee. That's why we had problems signing a top pitching free agent.

 

I was talking about the rotation of the respective teams like Boston and Chicago. And yes, you can throw Houston and that little player named JUSTIN VERLANDER as well. I'm not saying they still wouldn't be good teams; but I wouldn't bet on them being the perennial playoff contenders as they are now.

 

@Chromide, @robert martins, @mavjade Dodgers in 5 or 6!

 

Your right the Dodgers will win a the World Series in 5 or 6 years from now This year is ours

 

You can't deny that it's a scintillating matchup tonight with Sale and Kershaw going. I guess it's nice for some people when you get those prolonged reliever-focused games as the managers bring in a new body every two or three innings; but I'm more of a purist. Yes, long gone are the days when both starters could go the distance; but you should at least see them pitching at or near shutout ball through at least the first five innings for a potential win.

 

Dodgers in 7
Puig as MVP

 

Noooo..... Sox in 7!