Former Houston Astros reliever Will Harris has reached an agreement on a three-year deal with the Washington Nationals, a source confirmed to ESPN's Jeff Passan on Thursday.
Harris should jump into an eighth-inning role and could get save opportunities, too, according to Passan. USA Today reported the deal is worth $24 million . . .
Spring training has arrived.
I miss baseball.
Me, too. I haven't had the heart to change my avatar yet since there are no games being played.@Polly Ticks
8888crybaby
@Polly Ticks
Never surrender!!
(https://throneberryfieldscom.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/coronavirusred.jpg)
https://www.mlb.com/playersleague (https://www.mlb.com/playersleague)Note that I did try watching some of this last night.
IMHO, the Nationals have an excellent chance of repeating as world champs.A better chance than even you think. They seem to be the sleepers in the talk over who's going to go all the way this truncated season, but then again we learned last year how un-allergic the Nats are to opening cans of surprises.
The loss of Rendon hopefully won't be a factor...although I'm also a strong believer in the abstract contributions to a clubhouse/dugout such as happened with "Baby Shark" Parra last year.Parra was invaluable for that, but the Nats are one team who don't exactly lack for clubhouse or dugout enthusiasm. If they could have made even heretofore-stoic Stephen Strasburg dance, I wouldn't exactly worry about them.
Tonight is "SCHERZDAY" !!! :2popcorn: vs. the Yankees in Washington. Hopefully the rain will happen before 7pm so it cools off the field.Even in the present circumstances, Max Scherzer v. Gerrit Cole is must-see pitching.
A better chance than even you think. They seem to be the sleepers in the talk over who's going to go all the way this truncated season, but then again we learned last year how un-allergic the Nats are to opening cans of surprises.
Parra was invaluable for that, but the Nats are one team who don't exactly lack for clubhouse or dugout enthusiasm. If they could have made even heretofore-stoic Stephen Strasburg dance, I wouldn't exactly worry about them.
Even in the present circumstances, Max Scherzer v. Gerrit Cole is must-see pitching.
Thanks for taking the time to reply in detail, @EasyAce@DCPatriot
Going to be strange with piped-in crowd noise, etc..
They should simply pretend it's like a sandlot game we all played as kids. The only 'fan' noise were the players themselves.
Somebody suggested in one of the parks, they needed a repertoire of sorts for home runs.
For example when you're down 7-2 in the 8th inning and you hit a bases' empty HR, you don't pipe in the noise when Mazerowski hit it over the ivy in Left Field in Game 7 to beat the Yankees.
We've heard it already for years, when I've watched a Spring Training game in Florida with merely 200 people scattered in the seats. Not fun.
@EasyAce Are they planning to utilize the catcher's mask camera recently seen in that TV spot?
Why go halfway? Make the damned umpire wear it. LOL!
In super-slo-mo, it will be instructive to the viewer to see where contact is made on the bat...how far extended the bat was, etc., hitting it into the ground vs. just over the SS's head.
So, I'm looking forward to it as long they don't overuse it.
Even Joe Biden could appreciate the physics. :laugh:
@DCPatriot
This just in---Juan Soto has tested COVID-19 positive. Missing Opening Night and more.
It will go one without me! I've seen my list pro game either live or on TV. The fact is that I hope MLB, the NFL, and the NBA all go bankrupt!
@Bigun
I'd probably be right there too. Haven't watched an NBA game in decades. ...carjackers in shorts.
And because the Redskins have been league fodder for over a generation, haven't watched a set of downs in years. Not even the Super Bowl.
Baseball is different. It's peaceful where anything can happen.
Plus, It's Scherzer vs. Cole :laugh: 'YOUR' Gerit Cole, Earl!! LOL
@EasyAce
I'm calling bullsh*t!
I'll bet he's asymptomatic. GD Vegas bookies. 9999hair out0000
I don't give a damn! The kneeling , BLM loving bastards can ALL KMA!
It will go one without me! I've seen my list pro game either live or on TV. The fact is that I hope MLB, the NFL, and the NBA all go bankrupt!Like they even care. They've already written this year off as a loss. That's why they're doing this now. With the stands already empty, there's no worry about losing fans.
Like they even care. They've already written this year off as a loss. That's why they're doing this now. With the stands already empty, there's no worry about losing fans.
I don't give a damn! The kneeling , BLM loving bastards can ALL KMA!Ditto that. SF Giants were my team but with their new woke manager they can go suck wind.
I missed last night's MLB game, but what I saw on the news was that the players all took a knee for BLM.
This was before the anthem.
They all stood up for the National anthem.
MLB must have received some blow back from the fans, after the Giants and the Reds did their thing during the anthem.
Maybe they thought that this was a compromise?
Fenway has a 150 ft long billboard reading "Black Lives Matter" now.
They played baseball last night?
They played baseball last night?Nope. They played 'politics' last night.
Nope. They played 'politics' last night.
All major league sports in America have become an expression of politics.
Teams and players that you support are no longer a personal choice.
Teams and players are now a public political statement.
Kaepernick and his puppeteers in China must be proud of themselves.
They didn't change anything at all for the betterment of anything.
But they did kill Major League Sports.
With men competing as women, and all the teams wearingKKK...that is, BLM insignia, I can't see how they recover.
We all know what is next. Players will show up wearing Joe Biden/Nancy Pelosi uniforms. (why not?)
Or maybe the uniforms will have pictures of President Xi or Chairman Mao?
Once political uniforms, political ads, and political statements become an ingrained part of Sports, then Sports becomes formally a form of politics. Just as CNN and MSNBC are no longer considered 'news' but is rather pure Leftwing politics, Sports is no longer a form of 'entertainment'.
Nicely put. In a time where a diversion or a distraction to the viritrol and disease would be a morale boosting event, it has turned into a SJW / BLM brainwashing exercise. I can not explain how rabid, and knowledgable I was with my Astros during my 55 year obsession with this team. From attending 100's of games, knowing stats like rain man, hell even Jose Lima was yelling "Hey Catfish" in the stands when he saw me from the bullpen. I was that emotionally invested in this team and this game..
But believe me, my divorce from the game is complete. And I won't be back.
There were pictures last week of the Phillies Phanatic dancing and carrying on in an empty stadium during a game.@Gefn
So frickin sad. And my favorite ball dog, isn’t working this year. He’s going to be catching balls in someone’s back yard. Not in a stadium
I'm so glad we're finally done with the extra innings runner on 2nd base rule.@Polly Ticks
Also ... Go Braves!!
:cheerlead:
@Polly Ticks
From what I've seen, enough teams this postseason were so adept at stranding baserunners they could have had the free cookie on second to open the extras and still stranded them!
How about those Reds?
@EasyAce@DCPatriot
Can you tell us why the ALDS is being played in the Padres' home stadium in San Diego and not in New York or Tampa?
I can appreciate the warm weather being more suitable, but shouldn't the teams enjoy playing the games in their own parks?
@EasyAce@DCPatriot
Thanks a bunch for the reply/explanation. :beer:
@DCPatriot
It's the "bubble" on behalf of COVID-19 safety protocols. MLB decided to use a) ballparks where there was less chance of outside interaction with teams, and b) neutral sites as another of Commissioner Nero's 2020 experiments, in addition to places where the weather's more amenable this time of year. The ALCS is also going to be played in Petco Park.
Though I also admit there's something particularly ticklish about the Athletics and the Astros playing the ALDS in Dodger Stadium, heh heh heh . . .
By the way, the Astros turned a 5-3 deficit and a two-out Oakland infield error in the sixth into a 10-5 Game One win this afternoon, but there's still time for the A's to . . .
(https://scontent.flas1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/120576809_10158223485372912_7253989175120075079_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=R5V2z8kLYVYAX_WMZ8i&_nc_ht=scontent.flas1-1.fna&oh=54a0c5b45e58be6f66d1576cb54bf622&oe=5FA021B3)
I get the idea behind the bubble concept for this postseason, but I personally hope somebody pounds some sense back into Commissioner Nero and next season---assuming normalcy returning---the postseason gets played in the combatants' own ballparks. (I'd like to hope enough owners recover the brains they were born with and throw Commissioner Nero overboard, but that would be too much wishful thinking for now . . . )
It has taken away home field advantage, albeit without the crowds.@GrouchoTex
Astros bats kind of looked like...well, Astros bats, yesterday.
They also took advantage of a big error by the usually sure-handed A's Semien.
It has taken away home field advantage, albeit without the crowds.
Mostly, but the "home" team does still have the last AB.@Polly Ticks
@GrouchoTex
I'm not sure what surprised me more---Semien's error (I got home from some errands just in time to turn the game as that error happened), or Alex Bregman's peculiar 5 October mojo. Four seasons, four 5 Octobers, four bombs. I know it's not his birthday, either.
Now, if the Astros start winning by 10-5 scores every 10/5 . . .
@EasyAce
In Rod Serling's voice
Submit for your approval, a man walks into an empty ballpark somewhere in time, with neatly arranged cardboard facsimiles of yesterday's fans. reminiscing of days of yore, with a hint of fall just around the corner.
The date, October 5th.
As the Umpire yells out the familiar refrain, "Play Ball!!!"....
.....You are about to enter the Twilight Zone...
I've blown off the game, but a certain enjoyable Schendfruede will be extracted if Houston wins the trophy this year.
I've blown off the game, but a certain enjoyable Schendfruede will be extracted if Houston wins the trophy this year.@catfish1957
@catfish1957
The schadenfreude for which I'd hoped is now denied.
I'd hoped against hope that, somehow, some way, the 29-31 Astros would push their way to the World Series meeting the 29-31 Brewers pushing their way to the Series, too. Unfortunately, the Brewers couldn't stand up to the Dodgers.
Now, why would I have wanted a World Series pitting losers against losers? Easy: to see the omelettes on Commissioner Nero's face after his apparently lusted-for permanent sixteen-team postseason managed to burp up the very sight of loser versus loser in the Series, the very antithesis of championship play.
So thanks for spoiling that idea, Dodgers.
So, it turns out forcing the National League to adopt the DH wasn't the worst shiny new idea? Now we have the ALDS being played in a NL park.@Cyber Liberty
When I was a young lad, living in Western New York State there were EIGHT teams in the MLB.@DCPatriot
Being educated by the Sisters of Mercy, it was natural to cheer for the Underdogs, which at that time was whoever faced off against the Yankees in the World Series....mainly the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Milwaukee Braves.
Seems the baseball media executives are pining for another Yankee-Dodger World Series today.Just think---A year ago, Randy Arozarena was the culprit who captured his St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Schildt's profane stomp all over the Atlanta Braves his guys just beat in a division series and posted it to Instagram. Arozarena couldn't pull it down fast enough when it went viral fast but the damage was done---Schildt made his team look like sore winners. At least until they got destroyed by the Washington Nationals in the NLCS. Don't think that didn't factor even a little in when the Cardinals included him in a January swap with the Rays.
...it looks like Tampa Bay is not listening at all. happy77
@EasyAce
@DCPatriot
In case you wondered about this postseason's running of the bulls, here are the bullpen ERA thus far in the postseason:
Atlanta Braves--0.52
Los Angeles Dodgers---1.29
San Diego Padres---2.90
Miami Marlins---3.18
Houston Astros---3.86
Tampa Bay Rays---3.93
Oakland Athletics---3.99
Empire Emeritus---5.32
@Polly Ticks
I'm not mad about our starting pitchers' performances so far, either.
You forgot about the telescopically cheating '51 Giants (The Giants stole the pennant! The Giants stole the pennant!) getting to face the Yankees and lose in six.
I have the game on the radio and on MLB gameday (I am at work), Astro's- A's.
Bottom of 5th
5 home runs so far:
Astro's Brantley 2, Correa 1
A's: Laureano 2
Crazy, 1/2 of a game left.
6-4 Astro's right now.
@EasyAce@DCPatriot
LOL! Yeah...that one got by me. I was 5 years old at that time. :laugh:
PS: side note.... Warren Spahn's dad was my baseball coach in my 1st organized little league... the PAL (Police Athletic League)
You could see right away, who gave Warren his nose. happy77
@DCPatriot
I just wonder who gave the Big Beak that near-impossible high leg kick, maybe the highest in the league before Juan Marichal arrived.
@EasyAce@DCPatriot
LOL! I remember that like it was last week.
Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette...and that single solitary camera in the upper deck right behind home plate...no instant replay. In B&W.
WOW!! Hot Dayum!@DCPatriot
THAT was a Classic AB vs. Chapman by Brosseau in the bottom 8th.
"Eff the Yankees!!" :tongue2:
Like Harold Reynolds said to Brosseau postgame..."You're a better man than me! After seeing that 100 mph throw at my head, I'd be 'seeing' that pitch forever!!"
:2popcorn:
@DCPatriot
Once upon a time, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, "“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.†His near-namesake Ray proved that tonight! wink777
@EasyAce@DCPatriot
This game tonight...why we all LOVE baseball!
In hindsight, I would have walked Brosseau after he fouled off the 3-2 pitch the 1st time. He had seen every one of my weapons. Let the guy in the on-deck circle stand in there. :laugh:There was only one problem with that idea: Neither Brosseau nor on-deck hitter Yandy Diaz had ever faced Chapman more than twice before, and of the pair of them Diaz had a hit in two plate appearances while Brosseau never had. No one's going to predict it would be Brosseau hitting the long ball off Chapman with that information at hand. Chapman's mistake was throwing down and in on that tenth pitch when he'd started Brosseau with a pair of strikes the second one of which was a swinging strike on a fastball up in the zone. Just why Gary Sanchez was in the game at all by that point (the Yankees inexplicably switched him in for Kyle Higashikoa who was calling a terrific game), never mind calling for something down and in when Brosseau fouled off four out of five pitches down (the one he didn't foul was ball three), remains a mystery.
Didn't it ever occur to 'Adonis' to throw something off-speed? Does he even HAVE a change-up? Seems to me that even a 90 mph pitch in the same place would have Brosseau WAY out in front.Chapman's repertoire includes a splitter and a slider. He threw Brosseau one splitter and two sliders; both sliders were fouled off. If Sanchez was doing any thinking behind the plate, he might have told Chapman to throw the splitter on the tenth pitch and fooled Brosseau into an out.
IMO, that AB was up there with the one-legged Dodger, Kirk Gibson's in '88 and Jim Rice's 'Flagpole' moonshot in 75. A ten-pitch clinic on how to eat cheese. happy77You mean Carlton Fisk. Rice was injured and missed that World Series.
Beside being very rich, wondering how Gerrit Cole is feeling right about now...home sitting on his ass. :laugh:@DCPatriot
@DCPatriot
Possibly, he might wonder how on earth he could have pitched his ass for nothing in Game Five.
LOL! True.@DCPatriot
Atlanta has Game 2 locked down, too!
@DCPatriot
I say again---these Rays are playing defense like the 1969 Mets: acrobats, jugglers, aerialists. The only thing missing seems to be paratroopers and human cannonballs.
Might I remind everyone...the scores of the 1960 World Series which make Mickey Mantle weep
Game 1... 6-4 Pit
Game 2... 16-3 Yanks
Game 3... 10-0 Yanks
Game 4... 3-2 Pitt
Game 5... 5-2 Pitt
Game 6... 12-0 Yanks
Game 7... 10-9 Pitt
So...the Yankees actually "won" because they got the most runs.
So...the Yankees actually "won" because they got the most runs.
That was an A-MAZ-ing series. :cool:
Might I remind everyone...the scores of the 1960 World Series which make Mickey Mantle weep@DCPatriot
Game 1... 6-4 Pit
Game 2... 16-3 Yanks
Game 3... 10-0 Yanks
Game 4... 3-2 Pitt
Game 5... 5-2 Pitt
Game 6... 12-0 Yanks
Game 7... 10-9 Pitt
Good work there, as usual. You're a walking encyclopedia. :laugh:@DCPatriot
But my only point in listing the scores, was to soothe the nerves of anyone nervous that the BIG, BAD DODGERS have awakened. Nothing to do with TOTAL RUNS SCORED in the series.Point taken well.
@DCPatriot
Says Yadier Molina, who wasn't a Gold Glove finalist this year: "I do not know if it is MLB or whoever it is but it is clear that they do not want this Puerto Rican jibarito [the word means, roughly, "little yokel"---EA] to tie with the great Johnny Bench."
Bench holds the National League record for catchers with ten Gold Gloves.
Say I: MLB or whoever it was had no problem with a Puerto Rican jibarito (and Hall of Famer) named Ivan Rodriguez holding the major league record for catchers with thirteen Gold Gloves.
Yadier Molina is talking through his sombrero.
@EasyAce@DCPatriot
WOW! Impressive. I've never heard of the majority of those names/match-ups. :laugh:
I like your style Ace...someone who can focus on the mundane during these turbulent times. Well done!@SZonian
Nothing like drawing our minds away from possibly stressful situations to that which is fantasy.
@DCPatriot
@SZonian
A baseball forum to which I belong muses aloud about whether the Philadelphia boo birds are still, ahem, cocks of the walk.
It prompted me to imagine a Philadelphia wedding ceremony. The clergyman to the happy couple, "I now pronounced you husband and wife." Then, to the congregation, "You may now boo the bride."
Did someone say "cock"? :silly: :silly: (https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Fd%2Fd6%2FRoosterhawaii.jpg%2F1200px-Roosterhawaii.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)In my last AF unit we "chided" each other as "big cocks" with the aforementioned pic as our mascot in order to escape the PC cucks looking to skin our hides. I'll accept your good natured roast in good humor. 888high58888@SZonian
@SZonian
I won't roast you---but I got two turkeys to roast (neither one named Trump nor Biden) in the next few days. (Turkey's a staple on my diet anyway, but with T-Day approaching . . . heh, heh, heh . . .)
You should be consuming lots of Tryptophan in the next few weeks, so you can have the tolerance to stay awake on T-Day to watch sports.@Cyber Liberty
We'll be roasting a T-bird . . .Roast T-bird?
@Cyber Liberty
They don't play baseball on T-Day, so I spend my T-Days listening to old-time radio with T-Day themes. wink777
Roast T-bird?
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/1957_Ford_Thunderbird_%2828911503716%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/280px-1957_Ford_Thunderbird_%2828911503716%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
There isn't an oven on earth that can hold one, never mind roast one!
@SZonianJust some old fashioned USAF humor...ya big "cock"! wink777 wink777 :yowsa:
I won't roast you---but I got two turkeys to roast (neither one named Trump nor Biden) in the next few days. (Turkey's a staple on my diet anyway, but with T-Day approaching . . . heh, heh, heh . . .)
You should be consuming lots of Tryptophan in the next few weeks, so you can have the tolerance to stay awake on T-Day to watch sports.@Cyber Liberty We've had our discussions about T-Day given that we're only 2 people eating on a bird. But given that our son just passed the Forge at Ft. Sill this past week, we're willing to gorge on his behalf. Thought you and @txradioguy might like to know his status. Our PFC son has joined the ranks of the US Army. Wishing you all the best.
We'll be roasting a T-bird, and also frying a turkey breast. While I still have the kettle of oil, I usually toss in a couple chickens to freeze. I hate wasting the oil, that stuff's expensive!
@Cyber Liberty We've had our discussions about T-Day given that we're only 2 people eating on a bird. But given that our son just passed the Forge at Ft. Sill this past week, we're willing to gorge on his behalf. Thought you and @txradioguy might like to know his status. Our PFC son has joined the ranks of the US Army. Wishing you all the best.
@Cyber Liberty We've had our discussions about T-Day given that we're only 2 people eating on a bird. But given that our son just passed the Forge at Ft. Sill this past week, we're willing to gorge on his behalf. Thought you and @txradioguy might like to know his status. Our PFC son has joined the ranks of the US Army. Wishing you all the best.
Just some old fashioned USAF humor...ya big "cock"! wink777 wink777 :yowsa:@SZonian
@SZonian congrats on your son's enlistment. What is his MOS?Thanks...he's 15E unmanned aviation maintenance
Will we have a Baseball 2021 thread?Got ya covered!