Major League Baseball Discussion

[JustKelli]

Our Blue Jays are 3-7 in their last 10 with 6 straight losses i believe, including a 3 game sweep by the Rays who we now trail by 5.5 games. Only 5.0 games out of a WC though.

In 2019 the Jays made 265 million, last year due to covid they made 116 million...

The Jays are currently valued at 1.625 billion, in contrast the Yankees are worth 5.25 billion.

The Jays are owned by a Canadian conglomerate Rogers Communications whose cell service sucks. That's along with Bell who I'm with through Virgin Mobile that also sucks lol. Both also own "flankers" which are discount carriers that actually treat their customers oretty well but most people have no idea that the parents are Rogers and Bell.

Rogers Sports & Media (along with Bell Communications) also owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors.Toronto FC. Toronto Argonauts. Toronto Marlies. and pretty much everything else in Toronto.

In 2019, Bell Mobility had about 9.96 million mobile/wireless subscribers, while Rogers Wireless had around 10.84 million subscribers. That's of the 33 million total Canadian subscribers

-- Disliking them doesn't stop me from owning stocks in both.

[JustKelli]

Another thread that needs a defibrillator lol.

The Jays laid an 18-4 beating on the Red Sox yesterday.

Here is the wildcard race:

[DominicanD]

Originally Posted by JustKelli

Another thread that needs a defibrillator lol.

The Jays laid an 18-4 beating on the Red Sox yesterday.

Here is the wildcard race:

The Rays just got a big blow today with the news on Glasnow.

[jamaharon]

The Cubs have lost 10 in a row

[JustKelli]

The pride of Maple Ridge British Columbia, 7 time Gold Glove winner Larry Walker was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today. He becomes only the second Canadian to have done so.

Congrats Sir.

B.C.’s Larry Walker inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

NEIL CORBETT Sep. 8, 2021 1:00 p.m.

Maple Ridge’s Larry Walker Jr. was the pride of Canadian sports on Wednesday, as he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Walker was among a group of new inductees among baseball’s all-time greats, including the New York Yankees star shortstop Derek Jeter. They were part of a ceremony at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which had been postponed for the 2020 class due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The star right fielder is the only Canadian-born position player in the hall, and just the second Canadian alongside pitcher Ferguson Jenkins.

In his speech, Walker said it was almost pre-ordained that he was going to play hockey, and noted he had played alongside NHL all-star Cam Neely, also from Maple Ridge. But he wasn’t good enough to make it as a goaltender.

By comparison, he played little baseball as a boy, but recalled playing fastpitch softball in Maple Ridge with father and brothers, with his mom cheering in the stands.

“My mom Mary, my dad Larry, and my brothers Barry, Carey and Gary, the rhyming family.”

His parents still live in Maple Ridge, and there were numerous shots of a tearful Larry Walker Sr. broadcast on the MLB presentation of the ceremony.

Walker broke in with the Montreal Expos, then spent 10 seasons with the Colorado Rockies in his 17-year career.

“I’ll always be grateful that the Montreal Expos took a chance on me, and gave me an opportunity to play baseball professionally,” he said.

“It was a great honour to put on the Expo uniform and represent my home country.”

He also referred the great Expos team in 1994, considered potential World Series champions, when the season was lost to labour strife.

“We all lost out to the work stoppage, and nobody knows what would have happened that year, but I still imagine what it would have been like to bring a World Series to Quebec,” he said, and added that he joins baseball fans in Montreal in hoping Major League Baseball returns to the city.

"I share this honour with every Canadian,” he said. “And I hope that all you Canadian kids out there that have dreams of playing in the big leagues, that seeing me here today gives you another reason to go after those dreams.”

Walker had a huge bat, was five times selected for the all-star game, and won three batting titles. He was outstanding on defence, known for a cannon arm, and won seven gold glove awards. He won the 1997 National League MVP honours when he hit for a .366 average with a league leading 49 home runs and 130 RBIs.

There were 34 hall of famers in attendance for the event.

Coors Field in Colorado with its light air and roomy outfield, is lauded as a hitters paradise. Without question, it has helped many a Rockies batter pad their statistics. According to ESPN’s MLB Park Factors, 1,266 home runs were hit at Denver stadium in 2019. That is over 200 more than the next highest park.

But a telling stat that brought up Walker Jr.’s stock is his WAR or wins-over-replacement. The stat is used to determine the additional amount of wins a player’s team has accumulated above the expected number of victories if they were substituted with a replacement-level player.

For Walker Jr., his career WAR of 68.7 on Fangraphs ranks him as 86th of all time.

[JustKelli]

The Blue Jays who are currently two games back of the New York Yankees and one game back of the Boston Red Sox have the last six games at home with the series starting tomorrow against the Yankees and the final series will be against the Orioles. It's Make It or Break It in that three-game Series against the Yankees otherwise the Orioles series won't really matter especially with the Mariners in the AL West only one game back Toronto as well and they are eight and two in the last 10...

[Armadillot]

Hope the lockout doesn't take away too many games. Opening Day has already been pushed back by two series, and I'd hate to see two squished seasons in three years.

[alexora]

Looks like RUSSIA, the sports doping capital of the world, is now taking hostages...

Brittney Griner: American women’s basketball

superstar detained in Russia

• Double Olympic champion detained at airport on drug charges
• American could face five to 10 years in prison under Russian law
• Seven-time WNBA All-Star also plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg

Brittney Griner, one of America’s most decorated women’s basketball players, has been detained by the Russian Federal Customs Service after it said it discovered vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.


The Customs Service confirmed in a statement issued on Saturday that the detainee in an incident last month at Sheremetyevo airport was a professional basketball player who played in the Women’s National Basketball Association and had also won two Olympic gold medals with the United States, but did not release the player’s name.


Russia’s state-run Tass news agency identified the player as Griner, a seven-time All-Star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury who helped lead Team USA to gold at the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games, citing a law enforcement source.


According to the Customs Service statement, drug-sniffing dogs in the airport’s customs area indicated the possible presence of narcotic drugs in the player’s carry-on baggage following her arrival on a flight from New York. A subsequent search of the luggage led to the discovery of the cartridges, a criminal violation under Russian law that carries a sentence of five to 10 years.


The Customs Service also released a video on Saturday in which the airport security services are seen going through the luggage of a passenger identified as Griner.


In a statement to the Guardian, Griner’s agent Lindsay Colas said: “We are aware of the situation with Brittney Griner in Russia and are in close contact with her, her legal representation in Russia, her family, her teams, and the WNBA and NBA.


“As this is an ongoing legal matter, we are not able to comment further on the specifics of her case but can confirm that as we work to get her home, her mental and physical health remain our primary concern.”


The WNBA said in a release that Griner has the league’s “full support” and “our main priority is her swift and safe return to the United States”.
The Mercury echoed those sentiments in a statement issued later Saturday, saying they were “in constant contact” with Griner’s family and their main concern was the player’s safe return.


The 31-year-old Griner, who led Phoenix to the franchise’s third ever title in 2014 and a surprise return to the WNBA finals in October, has also played for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the offseason since 2015, helping the Russian club to three domestic titles and EuroLeague Women championships in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021.


Nearly 90 of the WNBA’s 144 rostered players have spent time playing overseas during this offseason, where the earnings from their foreign clubs often dwarf what they make in the United States. Griner’s annual salary with UMMC of more than $1m per year is roughly quadruple the WNBA’s league maximum of about $228,000.


It is unclear how long Griner has been detained as Saturday’s statement said only that her arrest took place some time in February. She last played for UMMC on 29 January before the league took a two-week international break for Fiba World Cup qualifying and has been inactive on social media since 5 Feburary.


News of Griner being detained comes as Russian forces continue to bomb civilian targets on the 10th day of its invasion of Ukraine and amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the rest of the world. The US president, Joe Biden, has condemned the invasion of Ukraine and pushed a raft of sanctions with other world leaders against Moscow, which he says have left Putin isolated.


On Saturday, the US state department urged US citizens to leave Russia immediately, re-issuing its travel advisory.


Earlier Saturday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, held an hour-long video call with United States senators in which he called for more support to defend his country from Russia’s invasion.


Rick Scott, a Republican, called for stronger measures against both Russia and its ally Belarus, tweeting that the US should take “EVERY action to destroy their economies”.


Griner is not the first US citizen to have been held in custody by Russian authorities as tensions between the countries have soared, prompting accusations by American officials that Moscow is using the detentions as bargaining chips for a potential prisoner exchange.


In January, Russian officials announced that US teacher Marc Fogel was earlier arrested in a Moscow airport with marijuana and cannabis, accusing the teacher of smuggling drugs into Russia and distributing them among students on a “large scale”.
That revelation followed the detention of two US Marines in separate incidents: Trevor Reed, who was charged with attacking two Russian police officers in a drunken brawl, and Paul Whelan, who was jailed after being convicted on espionage charges.


John Sipher, a national security analyst and veteran of the CIA’s clandestine service, pointed to the “decimated” state of the US embassy in Russia as a complicating factor in Griner’s case.
“There’s been a number of tit-for-tat expulsions over spy cases and the ambassador has been kicked out, so the embassy is under quite a bit of pressure with this crisis,” Sipher said Saturday in an interview on MSNBC. “I think it’s important to publicize her case because that’s the best thing that keeps her safe in this situation, because Russians have a tendency of not treating people very well who are in their custody.”


Griner, a 6ft 9in post player whose nose for the basket is matched only by her shot-blocking prowess, has played her entire nine-year WNBA career with the Mercury after an extraordinary four-year stint at Baylor University, where she led the Bears to an undefeated season and a national championship in 2012. She remains the only NCAA basketball player in history, male or female, to record 2,000 points and 500 blocked shots.


She has also been a trailblazer off the court in her own self-effacing style. Griner matter-of-factly acknowledged that she was a lesbian only days after Phoenix made her the No 1 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA draft – becoming one of the few out athletes in American sports at the time and arguably the most prominent – and later revealed that she had been silenced about her sexuality by her college coach over fears that it would hurt recruiting. (The coach did not deny the claim, saying that she was unable to respond specifically due to privacy concerns.)


One of only 11 players to have won NCAA, WNBA, EuroLeague and Olympic titles, Griner is widely regarded as one of the most dominant players of her or any generation.

SOURCE:

http://theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/05/brittney-griner-reportedly-detained-russia

[Armadillot]

Baseball is back! Lockout is over and the stampede of signing free agents has begun.

[DominicanD]

This is going to be mayhem with players having to be ready to go to AZ or FL as soon as they sign.