Baseball 2025

[CheeseHead]

Somewhat underwhelming trade deadline day for the Jays, especially when you look at what the Yankees did for their bullpen. Not sure about Varland and France, they must have been late pieces left over after the Twins tore up their roster; happy with the Seranthony Dominguez trade, and obviously a bit of a gamble on Bieber but if he gets back even close to what he was before the TJ surgery (and gets back sharpish), well it could make all the difference this season..

[Golden Fox]

Season has officially turned to s**t.

 

After some ups and downs, it felt like it was coming together for the Giants. On June 13, we were 12 games over .500 and into a share of first place in the NL West having just taken the first game of the series at Dodger Stadium - and were in the process of finalising their blockbuster trade for Rafael Devers.

 

Since then, its been abysmal, and at the trade deadline we've traded away long-term favourites in Tyler Rogers, Camilo Doval and Mike Yastrzemski, officially giving up on the season.

 

What really rubbed it in was the 3 game sweep by the Blue Jays straight out of the All-Star Break. I'd been looking at a couple of sites for some Argos merch, while the Argos were in the middle of their losing streak, and got an email from one of those sites happily titled "The Blue Jays are on Fire!"   

[KingsX]

13 hours ago, Jordan said:

LCFC need to hire Twins GM Jeremy Zoll as a consultant to help them clean up their wage bill

They rolled into town with a “who are these guys” lineup tonight and couldn’t even win behind Joe Ryan.

 

Trouble is, Minnesota got rid of most of the guys who can actually play.  This would be like us getting rid of Vardy, BEK and Hermansen and keeping Vestergaard, Reid, Soumare and…

 

oh wait.

 

[Jordan]

9 hours ago, KingsX said:

They rolled into town with a “who are these guys” lineup tonight and couldn’t even win behind Joe Ryan.

 

Trouble is, Minnesota got rid of most of the guys who can actually play.  This would be like us getting rid of Vardy, BEK and Hermansen and keeping Vestergaard, Reid, Soumare and…

 

oh wait.

 

There will be a few GMs in late September ruing not making one last proposal to the Twins for Ryan.

 

These last few days have been completely ridiculous on and off the field across the league. A wild deadline day (including perhaps the most in-demand closer getting caught up in a spot-fixing investigation, sorry @KingsX ), several walk-offs, and several absurd comebacks/meltdowns (no comment 😶) .

On top of it all there will be perhaps 90,000 fans watching a baseball game played at a race track tonight on the same day that two games will be taking place at minor league parks.

 

As much as I miss the way things used to be and have more than a few gripes with Rob Manfred, it feels like there is more drama and entertainment around the league at this point of the calendar now than there really ever used to be. The expanded playoffs, more logical trade deadline dates, end of post-deadline waiver trades, and reduction of September expanded rosters from 40 to 28 all contribute to this. 

 

Edited 2 August 2025 by Jordan

[Fear Of The Fox]

Watched the Yankees vs Marlins game late last night. What a game. People who don't like or give a chance to baseball should watch games like this and I'm sure their interest in the sport will grow. 

[CheeseHead]

3 hours ago, Fear Of The Fox said:

Watched the Yankees vs Marlins game late last night. What a game. People who don't like or give a chance to baseball should watch games like this and I'm sure their interest in the sport will grow. 

Yes, cracking entertainment that was, especially for Jays and Red Sox fans. Not least because of how the Yankees trade-deadline bullpen signings got on:

 

Jake Bird - gave up a walk, 2 singles and then a grand slam

David Bednar - gave up a homer, double, 2 singles

Camilo Doval (9th inning) - 2 singles and a walk

 

And on one of the singles given up by Doval, teammate and fellow debutant Jose Caballero out in right field mishandled a ground ball, the error leading to a game-tying run. Then the Marlins walk it off with the runner at 3rd getting home after a dribbler in front of the plate by ex-Yankee Agustin Ramirez.

 

You couldn't write this stuff!

[CheeseHead]

Shane Bieber to make his first start for the Jays on Friday night at Miami 🤞

[CheeseHead]

On 18/08/2025 at 23:02, CheeseHead said:

Shane Bieber to make his first start for the Jays on Friday night at Miami 🤞

The MLB.com headline says it all: "Bieber completes long road back with 9-K gem in Blue Jays debut"

[KingsX]

21 hours ago, CheeseHead said:

The MLB.com headline says it all: "Bieber completes long road back with 9-K gem in Blue Jays debut"

Just have a thought for fans of the club that produced him and three other Cy Young winners in a 15 year span, and dumped them all for prospects rather than pay to keep them.

 

Especially if you ever bemoaned the absence of a salary cap in the Premier League ...

[Jattdogg]

21 hours ago, CheeseHead said:

The MLB.com headline says it all: "Bieber completes long road back with 9-K gem in Blue Jays debut"

Baby baby baby ooooooooo...oh wrong Bieber my bad.

 

Jays for the world series baby! Been too long since jumping joe carter days!

[CheeseHead]

1 hour ago, Jattdogg said:

Baby baby baby ooooooooo...oh wrong Bieber my bad.

 

Jays for the world series baby! Been too long since jumping joe carter days!

I can already see it in October: "Touch 'em all Vladdy"!

[CheeseHead]

2 hours ago, KingsX said:

Just have a thought for fans of the club that produced him and three other Cy Young winners in a 15 year span, and dumped them all for prospects rather than pay to keep them.

Thanks for Andres Giminez, Miles Straw and Ernie Clement as well 🙂

[KingsX]

25 minutes ago, CheeseHead said:

Thanks for Andres Giminez, Miles Straw and Ernie Clement as well 🙂

 

Clement, you got off waivers, hats off.

 

The other two you are more than welcome to!

[NJFox]

2026 MLB schedule was released today. Buried in the article was this. It’s a shame, considering how good the product was when we attended the 2024 London Series:

 

A contemplated Yankees-Blue Jays series at London in June likely won't take place because of scheduling issues caused by West Ham being home for its Premier League final match on May 24, delaying when Olympic Stadium would be available for conversion to baseball.

 

 

[CheeseHead]

17 hours ago, NJFox said:

2026 MLB schedule was released today. Buried in the article was this. It’s a shame, considering how good the product was when we attended the 2024 London Series:

 

A contemplated Yankees-Blue Jays series at London in June likely won't take place because of scheduling issues caused by West Ham being home for its Premier League final match on May 24, delaying when Olympic Stadium would be available for conversion to baseball.

 

 

A real shame, would've loved to have gone to that

[Golden Fox]

Absolutely mental month for the Giants.

 

On August 9th, they were struggling to stay in the post season race, with a recent 6 game losing streak knocking confidence and contributing to knocking them back from a good start to the season to a 59-57 record.

 

Then they had a 7 game losing streak, including an 0-8 and and 1-11 as the wheels came off. They did then win 2 games, but immediately went on another 4 game losing streak culminating in a 9th inning meltdown against the Brewers to drop 7 games under .500 as the season flamed out in spectacular style.

 

And since then, they have won 10 out of 11 games, smashing the ball all over the place, breaking records for consecutive games with homers, and have pulled to within 4 games of a wild card.

 

So they are 12-12 from the last 24 games - back to where they started at 2 games over .500 and I'm not sure whether to start get genuinely excited or to expect a 22 game losing streak between now and the end of the season!

[CheeseHead]

On 04/09/2025 at 11:59, Golden Fox said:

Absolutely mental month for the Giants.

 

On August 9th, they were struggling to stay in the post season race, with a recent 6 game losing streak knocking confidence and contributing to knocking them back from a good start to the season to a 59-57 record.

 

Then they had a 7 game losing streak, including an 0-8 and and 1-11 as the wheels came off. They did then win 2 games, but immediately went on another 4 game losing streak culminating in a 9th inning meltdown against the Brewers to drop 7 games under .500 as the season flamed out in spectacular style.

 

And since then, they have won 10 out of 11 games, smashing the ball all over the place, breaking records for consecutive games with homers, and have pulled to within 4 games of a wild card.

 

So they are 12-12 from the last 24 games - back to where they started at 2 games over .500 and I'm not sure whether to start get genuinely excited or to expect a 22 game losing streak between now and the end of the season!

Missed opportunity, dropped 2 in a row to the Cards to remain 4 back of the Mets in the wildcard race but now joined by Arizona and Cincinnati, with the Cards half a game further back. If the Mets continue to stumble, there could be an interesting traffic jam in the NL wildcard race

[CheeseHead]

MLB Hits leader Bo Bichette placed on the 10-day IL with 19 games left. Big blow for the Jays as they try to hold onto the AL East lead, with the Yankees and Red Sox hot on their heels 

[Golden Fox]

On 07/09/2025 at 22:38, CheeseHead said:

Missed opportunity, dropped 2 in a row to the Cards to remain 4 back of the Mets in the wildcard race but now joined by Arizona and Cincinnati, with the Cards half a game further back. If the Mets continue to stumble, there could be an interesting traffic jam in the NL wildcard race

Very cognisant... A week on and the Mets have not only continued to stumble, they haven't won a game since and have now lost 10 in a row. But they somehow still hold that last wildcard spot with a real jam behind them: Giants have flattered to deceive (and about to lose to the Dodgers again), but still 1 game back and plenty of teams just behind them. 

 

Feels a bit like this chase!

 

[CheeseHead]

Jays' top prospect 22-yr old Trey Yesavage strikes out 9 on his MLB debut to break a franchise debutant record. With Bieber and a red-hot Gausman, and now Yesavage, the Jays' starting pitching looking a lot better than it was a few weeks ago.

 

Blue Jays now 5 games ahead of the Yankees with the tie-breaker in hand as well. And currently top seed in the AL. 12 regular season games left.

 

Worryingly, the NL does seem to be a lot stronger than the AL this year..

[KingsX]

On 16/03/2025 at 11:58, KingsX said:

I suspect my Guards will be about a third place side this year.  I like the Royals in the AL Central, and the Tigers should be ready to make a move.

 

My betting buddy spends spring training studying the clubs before he wagers on win totals.  His play this year is the Brewers over 87-1/2, which baffles me.  But last year he was on the A’s over 56 and the Guardians over 79.  When you cash these type of bets in August, you look like a genius.

 

My buddy (semi-pro bettor / rock band frontman / Master of Wine candidate, as opposed to having a real job) again cashed his big bets early.  Brewers over 87.5 and Guardians over 82.5 IIRC.

 

My AL Central prediction didn't hold much water.  But how about my Guards 12 of their last 13.  With only two guys who can hit, and a pitching staff that was mostly in the minors last year.  Steven Vogt is a god to keep winning with that.  Guessing the Dodgers are talking to his agent by now ... why just buy the best players when the best coaches are cheaper ...

 

 

[CheeseHead]

3 hours ago, KingsX said:

 

My buddy (semi-pro bettor / rock band frontman / Master of Wine candidate, as opposed to having a real job) again cashed his big bets early.  Brewers over 87.5 and Guardians over 82.5 IIRC.

 

My AL Central prediction didn't hold much water.  But how about my Guards 12 of their last 13.  With only two guys who can hit, and a pitching staff that was mostly in the minors last year.  Steven Vogt is a god to keep winning with that.  Guessing the Dodgers are talking to his agent by now ... why just buy the best players when the best coaches are cheaper ...

 

 

Sweep the Tigers next week and you might actually have a great chance to win that division. Unthinkable a couple of weeks ago.

[CheeseHead]

Fascinating last week of the regular season coming up. Jays making heavy weather of trying to clinch the AL East. Scored a miserable 3 runs in the last 4 games, Bo Bichette being a huge miss. I don't think the Jays can do anything in October going in as a wild card, they really need to be one of the top 2 seeds.

 

A couple of weeks ago nobody in their right mind would have thought the Tigers wouldn't be winning the AL Central, but Cleveland, wow - won 14 of 15 I think. And in that kind of form, they must be favourites to win the division, with a final week home series against the Tigers coming up as well.

 

In the AL West with perfect timing the Mariners have finally overtaken the Astros, having just beaten them twice. Mariners look like the strongest all-round AL team to me.

 

In the NL, it's only really the last wildcard spot that is up for grabs, with the Reds and the Diamondbacks hot on the heels of the Mets for the last remaining spot, with the Giants having more or less faded out of contention in the last week. 

 

A few months ago I covered all combinations of a Red-Sox/Rangers/Mariners v Phillies/Padres World Series, so I am still in with a squeak. I'd gladly give all that up for an appearance in the World Series by the Jays 

. 

[dsr-burnley]

And finally, the Brewers have made it to the second round of the playoffs! 

[KingsX]

A month ago, many of these playoff "races" looked done and dusted.  Not the case today!

 

We are headed to the other side of the continent for college football and will miss the Guards' home stand against the Tigers.  Bummer!  I have a couple of friends with tickets to the games.  But it will be decided between two clubs whose bullpens are on fumes.  They will have to keep running out tired and unproven arms.  Results could be random.

 

If Clase and Ortiz hadn't done whatever gambling thing they did, Guards would be in great position to clinch, with much fresher arms for the postseason.  Without them, well, it would still be quite an achievement to make the playoffs at all.