MLB 2021

The Super Bowl is behind us now which can only mean one thing: baseball season is right around the corner! Pitchers and catchers report next Wednesday. The Mets, Padres, and Dodgers (with the recent signing of Trevor Bauer) have all been busy. Players declined to begin the season a month late or reduce the number of games. Hopefully, we're getting back to the way things were pre-COVID.

YES!!! I am so ready for Spring Training.
GO NATS!!!

Pitchers and Catchers report in 6 days!!!

I'm ready. Glad it's a 162 game season and they didn't push the start of it back like the league wanted to do.

Agreed! Minor leagues don't start until May, but at least the big clubs get a full season. 2020 was just weird with only 60 games, and a lot of players never really hitting their stride. I am so ready for a real season.

I consider 2020 to be an asterisk. Yes, that means you LA. I don't hold any numbers against the players but many of them are slow starters. I hope the minors can get some work in if only for the fact I don't want these farmhands in the Yankees system to miss out on 2 seasons now. I'm chopping at the bit to see what 17-year-old Yankees rookie sensation Jasson Dominguez can do!

I know! Dominguez is going to be exciting to watch. The whole Yankees lineup is formidable.
I am excited to see what our prospects Cade Cavali and Jackson Rutledge will bring this season.
I said it last year that the only team that will ever consider 2020 a real season is the team that wins the World Series.
Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow.

Looking forward to it!

The NL West looks like it might be fun to watch. I hope SD can give LA a run for their money.
The NL East is going to be rough. Atlanta, New York, and Washington are all looking pretty tough IMO.
The AL East will be interesting. I wondr how the Rays will adjust after coming so close last year. IMO, the Yankees are still the class of that division.

The NL West will definitely be fun to watch between the Padres and Dodgers. The NL East will be fun too and the central is always a dog fight. The Yankees should win the division this year. Tampa's not a better team by trading Blake Snell, although the Blue Jays might put some pressure on the Yankees. These are who I'm picking to win each division:

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: White Sox
AL West: A's
NL East: Braves
NL Central: Cardinals
NL West: Dodgers

I agree with your picks. All of them. I just hope the Nationals can snag a wild card. We made a lot of improvements in the off season.
I think we may eventually see a Yankees - Dodgers series, but I hope someone can knock out LA in the playoffs.

The NL East is going to be tough. The Mets made some moves but the Nats have the pitching to make it happen. They just need to stay healthy (same goes for the Yankees as well). I'd love to see the Dodgers get knocked out as well. I put an asterisk to the Dodgers last year. If it was a full season, you know Kershaw would have crapped again in October from either fatigue or nerves. 60 games is WAY too short. Let's see how he does with a full season this year.

Rangers To ‘Fully Open’ For Fans At Start Of 2021 Season, Masks To Be Required

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2021/03/10/texas-rangers-fully-open-fans-2021-season-masks-required/

Don't worry, nobody's going to see them play live anyway 🤣

I’m new here and since I see no introduction section, I’ll introduce myself here. Sal from Stamford, go yanks! Been too long for a team that spends so high.

Welcome Sal! Always great to have another Yankee fan in here.

thank you Irishman12! Happy St Paddy’s Day!

Thank you, same to you!

Welcome aboard, Sal. I am new here myself. Nationals fan here, but I love any baseball talk.

Looking forward to Opening Day on Thursday! ⚾🧤

Thanks MonsterUSMC! ... yes! can't wait for Thursday!

Well, that sucked. Nothing worse than an opening day loss at home followed by an off-day tomorrow.

Yup. Typical Yankees, can't push runners across when they're on base. Nice bomb from Sanchez and Cole looked good too (was hoping he'd get 10 strikeouts but he wound up finishing with 8).

An asterisk? Oh hell no lol. Our team is stacked with talent. Not just Mookie

60 game season. Not saying they're not talented, but Kershaw would have crapped out in October again under a normal MLB season. Let's see them repeat this year.

Nobody repeats theses days. Not since the yankees 3peat in 2000.

That was my point

It's amazing how the vegas futures never reflect that. Public gonna public.

Yanks started off badly, 5-10 with the worst record in the AL. They're looking better as of late, bats are starting to hit, and Cole (if he keeps it up) should win his first Cy Young. Yesterday against the Indians he had 11K's with no walks. Dude's straight dealing!

Capacity increasing to 33% on May 19th. I may try and get down there for a game.

Enjoy it if you do my friend âš¾

This would be a terrible idea (much like the current "runner on second base to begin extra innings" rule). TL/DR, essentially an independent and associated league of MLB is testing out a new home run derby style of extra innings, whereas if the game goes into extras, each team designates 1 hitter to receive 5 pitches with the winning team being awarded the win with whoever hits the most. If there's still a tie after the 5 pitches are thrown to both teams, they select another player, and so on. This may be nothing but MLB tests these new types of rules in minor and independent leagues so it could be something for the future. I wouldn't be too surprised as MLB is desperately trying to appeal to millenniums and increase pace-of-play.

Pioneer League Testing Home Run Derby In Place Of Extra Innings

Beat 'em Bucs!

Go Penguins!

I'm trying to figure out this NY excelsior pass app. I'm in CT and am wondering how do I get granted access being fully vaccinated (?)

Asterisks visiting Yankee Stadium tonight for a 3 game set. Can't wait to see them get booed out of the stadium, even at 20% capacity!

GREAT win for the Yankees last night against the Asterisks! Let's go for that sweep.

Yanks might be turning the corner. They just need to be consistent. I think when Voit comes back we will see the offense hit an extra gear.

Stanton's hot right now and I saw a stat a few weeks ago that said the Yankees (yes, the New York Yankees) had the second best starting rotation ERA in the entire league! Kluber and German may be settling in. Not getting too excited though as it's still very early.

Kluber threw the first Yankees no hitter since 1999. Cole, Kluber, and German seem to be settling in nicely and if they keep this up (not to mention the addition of Severino either next month or in July) this could be a very dangerous team.

There is still plenty of time for the Yankees to get in gear but they are really shooting themselves in the foot when they keep losing series to teams they could be sweeping. The offense looks very poor right now but not everybody is healthy. They haven’t given me a reason to be optimistic at the moment.

I'm happy they at least split the series with the Rays and I'm surprised the pitcher's been as good as it has been lately but you're right, the hitting's what's keeping them back. Across the board too, Stanton since he's been back, Torres, LeMahieu

Dreadful series against the Sox for the Yanks. Looked lifeless. Except for the last couple innings of the third game. It’s still very early so there’s no need to panic yet, but something needs to change to get them going offensively.

I'm really surprised the Yankees have the sixth best rotation by ERA in the league (second best in the AL behind the White Sox) and that the offense is so inept. What I thought was a weakness after Cole (the pitching) has been it's strength and what was supposed to be it's strength (the lineup) has been it's weakness. We're 60 games into the season and the Yankees are currently sitting in fourth place, 6 1/2 games out of first place. Completely unacceptable and we're getting towards the midpoint into the season, so it's not as early as it once was. They've gotta turn it around and the bats need to come alive!

Truth 😡🤬

Using pine tar as a pitcher and hitter has been part of the game for so many years. The way it is being treated as PEDs, a corked bat, scuffed baseballs or stealing signs to know what pitch is coming is laughable. If some pitchers are using something that makes them almost un-hittable then that’s a different story. I think it’s more for grip. Some may go overboard, but the same can be said for batters.

Agreed, once again Manfred is getting it all wrong and overreacting (where was that overreaction in terms of the Astros sign stealing scandal!?). You're going to see more pitchers like Glasnow get injured now as a result, plus more batters are going to get hit as well.

I am excited for the all star game tonight. I am also uncertain of what the Yankees are going to do going forward. Cashman and Steinbrenner mentioned that they would be willing to go over the luxury tax threshold. I think they will make some big splashes this upcoming free agency.

Honestly, this team isn't a championship caliber club. They're too inconsistent and once you think they've turned a corner, they painfully remind you they haven't. I don't know who they'd trade off but I have zero confidence in Chapman in October. They'll sign Judge longterm I'm sure, but this is just a lost season. A lot of players across the board haven't played up to their potential.

Glad they took 4 out of 6 for the season against the cheating Asterisks but I wanted that sweep and they go and give up 6 runs and a walkoff to Altuve! 😡

The Indians are now going to be known as the Guardians?

Yanks are trading for Joey Gallo. Not a bad pickup but not enough to make a difference IMO.

Yanks trade for Rizzo too. Glad to see they've added some bats but not a big fan of rental players. At least Gallo's under control for 2022 after this season.

Rizzo looks really good at the plate. He’s been on a hot streak. I like the way the lineup looks. Need to close games out better going forward.

Joey Votto of the Reds homered in 7 straight games, if he had hit one yesterday he would have tied a long standing record. He hit a shot that went off the wall only a few inches form the top, just missing doing so.

The Yanks are playing like they’re excited to step into the box and make the opposing pitcher work. Fantastic winning streak so far. With Kluber and possibly Severino coming back, they could get a huge lift.

Still have to keep this momentum up through September and into October but they've made some huge strides since the trade deadline. This looks like a different and more confident team.

Carrying their current mentality and approach into the postseason is key, like you said.

Yanks winning streak comes to an end at 13 games but what a ride!

It’s really coming down to the wire. How different do you think the team will look next year if they don’t make the playoffs? Only half game back with 10 games back so they cannot afford losses against bad teams anymore.

People want to blame Boone and Cashman but they're not the issue. Players aren't playing up to their potential. Players across the board are having down years: DJ LaMaheiu, Chad Green, Zack Britton, Gleyber Torres, Luke Voit, etc.

At least the Yankees held on and were able to make it to the postseason. Now the real season begins!

Time to put in that work. No Sale, no Martinez with Cole on the mound. Let's do this!

Watching Dodgers - Giants huge game! Rivalry going back to when both teams played in New York.

Not 1 team I wanted to win in the divisional round did: Tampa, Chicago, Milwaukee or San Francisco. Wow, utterly shocked and disappointed!

Absolutely LOVE the fact the Asterisks* have made 5 straight ALCS appearances, cheated to 1 title, and have lost 2 out of the 3 last World Series and not only that, but lost at home too. Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Correa's gone. Grienke's gone. Let's see how they do as they continue to lose pieces (yet, unfortunately, they're in a weak AL West division).

Braves....World Champs....Yees Indeed.

Atlanta Braves great team well deserved!

I am just looking forward to what the Yanks do in the offseason this time. Clearly something with this team isn’t clicking.

Don't expect Correa. Don't want him or need him and don't want or need Seager for that matter. Gotta resign Judge after the offseason which is gonna cost a pretty penny so I don't think it's prudent to sign a shortstop to a $300+ million contract when you've already got Cole and Stanton on the books and Judge in the offseason.

What moves do you think the Yanks need to make in order to be real championship contenders?

Don't want, don't need cheating, scumbag Correa. Honestly, I think if the lineup plays up to its potential and the rotation replicates last year's performance, we should be good. We've always had a lineup and a decent to weak starting rotation but last year the script got flipped: good starting pitching but the lineup was dead. If we can harness both, I like our chances. Not sure if there's any free agent left I'm dying for the Yanks to sign.

I agree. Offense needs to play up to their potential. Our bullpen was shockingly bad last season. Hopefully we won’t see that again

True and our bullpen is always our strength. Just hope they don't miss regular season games now with the lockout!

Ortiz was the only one elected into the HOF today. I don't agree with it. Cheater should have been banned like the rest of them!

I can’t wait until this lockout is over with

You and me both. A deal needs to be done before March 1 if they hope to avoid missing any regular season games. And at this point, it doesn't look too promising unfortunately.

It’s a shame. The Yanks are very high on their shortstop in the minors so I think they will sign Simmons when this is all over with.

These kids better produce because these baby bombers haven't outside of Judge. Severino's been too injured, Sanchez is too streaky a hitter and terrible behind the plate, and Greg Bird isn't on the team anymore.

And just like that, BASEBALL IS BACK!

I’m happy baseball is back. I like some of the moves the Yanks have made. I love that they are putting faith in the prospects to come up soon and make an immediate impact.

I'm kinda soured on it to be perfectly honest. Judge is the only one of the Baby Bombers to push through and even he's had injury problems. Severino's been nothing but injured since he signed his extension, Sanchez was finally traded to Minnesota recently, Bird was nothing but injured as well, and Torres, well...we can only hope a move back to second will fix his problems. They bet the farm on going younger like they did with the Core Four and got burned because these kids ain't it.

They had a disappointing offseason and were really out strategized by other teams which was surprising to me. It seems like they are betting the farm on the new kids coming up now. Volpe, the really young kid Dominguez and others. They still improved in areas from last year and I think we still have a chance to make a run, but I can’t say that this is a championship team as it is currently constructed.

They didn't do much to address the rotation or bullpen. I don't mind betting on Volpe if the kid can produce at the major league level. My question, with the resigning of Rizzo at first, Torres moving to second, Kiner-Falefa at SS, and Donaldson at third, where does LeMahieu fit in? You need his bat in the lineup (if he produces at the 2019 & 2020 levels he once did) but Stanton's gonna clog up the DH. I'm predicting he'll slot into third because you know at some point Donaldson is, unfortunately, gonna pay a visit to the DL.

In other news, the Yankees have a strict policy of not engaging potential free agents until they're available on the market but I've heard talk of the Yankees already engaging Judge in extension talks. They need him. Regardless of how injured he's been, he's the face of the franchise. They need to win this kid a ring already!