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OFFICIAL 2018 MLB PLAYOFFS Thread (Cubs free)

The A's are seven games over .500, 8.5 games behind their division leader and 8 games behind the WC. Eeesh.
 
Phillies and Nats played to a 3-3 tie after five innings then went seven and a half scoreless innings as both bullpens did well. Phils finally got walk-off HR from pinch hitter Andrew Knapp in B 13!
 
Unless a team completely collapses, it seems like the five AL playoff teams are set on July 2. Just a matter of division vs. WC.
 
Unless a team completely collapses, it seems like the five AL playoff teams are set on July 2. Just a matter of division vs. WC.

The Rays have no one on their team anyone can name besides Chris Archer and are over .500 in a division with the Yanks and Red Sox. They also have the best ERA in the game since employing the starter.
 
They also have to play over .600 ball to realistically have a shot at playoffs
 
A lot of season to go, and all it takes is one team to overpay, but Harper is costing himself big-time.

A couple of other elements have hurt the Harper market:

- Naturally, the Nats were expected to be players in the Harper sweepstakes, but because the Nats offense has struggled (largely due to Harper), they brought up Juan Soto who has demonstrated he can play at 19; Nats really don't need to pay massive dollars on an OF as the Nats now have two MLB top 10 OF prospects in Juan Soto and Victor Robles (and Adam Eaton is under Nats control through 2021);

- The Yankee's acquisition of Stanton took them out of the Harper market.

- Dodgers are expected to focus on re-signing Kershaw; will they be willing to dole out two $300 million contracts in the same off season?

- In addition to his lack of offensive production, Harper's defensive metrics are poor. Harper is simply not the all around star that Mike Trout or even Manny Machado are.

Harper is only 25 and even if he struggles for all of 2018; there will be teams (Atlanta, Phllly, Cubs) willing to give him a massive deal, but absent a major rebound; don't think he is getting the 10 year $400 million+ payday that some were predicting a few months ago.

I think the Phillies are targeting Machado and Trout. If they swing and miss at Machado, they might be willing to make an offer for Harper, but nothing like $350-400M.
 
I think the Phillies are targeting Machado and Trout. If they swing and miss at Machado, they might be willing to make an offer for Harper, but nothing like $350-400M.

Current Phils-O's series is an extended scouting session on Machado. He even got some cheers in Philly.
 
11 am holiday games are so great
 
Tom Boswell wrote a pretty negative column on the Washington Nationals manager. Questions the wisdom of having a rookie manager for a "win now" team. Nationals lost again and are at .500 and would not make the playoffs if they started today.

http://https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/for-the-nationals-the-crisis-point-has-arrived-in-a-hurry-as-it-usually-does/2018/07/03/982d8c50-7eea-11e8-b660-4d0f9f0351f1_story.html?utm_term=.8171d5a14f3a

This is a dumb take. The Red Sox are in win now mode and Alex Cora doesn't seem to have a problem. The Natties have been wrecked by injuries, so it's just lazy pseudo-journalism to hang it on the manager.
 
Two month rental of Machado at SS for LA makes a ton of sense.
 
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