2024 MLB Season Thread

[stevew]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

While we're at it, I need some fat first and third basemen in the league who just hit monster homers. Not enough of those. Bring back the Matt Stairs look.

Jake Burger

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

While we're at it, I need some fat first and third basemen in the league who just hit monster homers. Not enough of those. Bring back the Matt Stairs look.

Pirates have been going for the humungous 1B look in free agency the past few years (Daniel Vogelbach, Rowdy Tellez - these guys could be 80's WWF stars) but without the power, unfortunately.

[stevew]

Strong talk of Reynolds to 1b next year. Hopefully he can hit a bit better with less defensive effort

[miked]

Man, I know the 3rd HR came off of a position player pitching, but damn. I did not think I'd see a 50/50 batter.

[Ghost Econ]

Did you ever think you'd see a 50/50 pitcher? Because we also got that

[JPhillips]

6-6 with 3 HR, 2 SB, and 10 RBI is a pretty good day.

[stevew]

I actually heard about this CJ Abrams gambling thing a few weeks ago. Dropped some WAGS off when the Nats were in town and the guy who was with them(probably brother of Crews) was talking about how crazy CJ was with baccarat.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by stevew

I actually heard about this CJ Abrams gambling thing a few weeks ago. Dropped some WAGS off when the Nats were in town and the guy who was with them(probably brother of Crews) was talking about how crazy CJ was with baccarat.

Sources - Nats demote All-Star CJ Abrams after all-nighter - ESPN

I think it is stupid they demoted him. Old school players would be rolling in their graves.

[stevew]

It seems like an appropriate transaction to me. I’m sure he can just go through an arbitration process and get the days of service back, but in the meantime, he doesn’t get the rest of the season.

[Ksyrup]

He doesn't lose any days of service, from what I read. I don't recall the specifics, but that's not an issue.

[stevew]

I had it more accurately figured out a few days ago, but the White Sox would have to win somewhere in the neighborhood of 128 straight games to equal the current winning percentage of the first place guardians.

[Ksyrup]

How about them Tigers? They've made up 10 games in 6 weeks and passed the Twins for the last WC and are tied with KC now. They finish with 3 vs TB and 3 vs the White Sox who will have already passed the 62 Mets for worst record ever.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

How about them Tigers? They've made up 10 games in 6 weeks and passed the Twins for the last WC and are tied with KC now. They finish with 3 vs TB and 3 vs the White Sox who will have already passed the 62 Mets for worst record ever.

The pitching has been amazing, especially the bullpen in their normal roll as well as a ridiculous stretch of bullpen days. The coming-out party of Parker Meadows has been very fun to watch, especially after a demotion earlier this year (IIRC? Or maybe it was an injury?). I'm very confident in Greene and I still wish Tork would take a huge step and move from borderline to dominant, but all the other young guns are exciting to see. And the guy it's nice to NOT see is Javy, sadly.

[Lathum]

Mets continue to roll taking 3/4 from the Phils including a 2-1 gem over Wheeler last night with Diaz getting the 6 out save and it possibly being Alonsos last home game as a Met.. Acuna has injected major energy into the team.

2 up on Atlanta and they start a series tomorrow when Mets have to face Sale. Finish with 3 against the Brewers who hopefully rest guys to set their pitching.

[Swaggs]

Skenes numbers have been so crazy this year. He has 22 starts this year and, in his three worst starts, he gave up 4 runs once and 3 earned runs twice. He's given up 1 or 0 earned runs 13 times. ERA is sitting at 1.99 (FIP is 2.48). If the Pirates had any kind of competent offense and bullpen, he should have some kind of stupid record like 17-1 or 2.

I think he deserves the RoY, but there is some talk that Jackson Merrill from SD is the favorite. Seems like Skenes is having a historic season (6.0 WAR in 22 starts) vs Merrill having a solid one (4.3 WAR - .292/.326/.503 with 24 homers and 16 steals and average to moderately positive defensive value in CF), but the everyday player stuff can be tough to overcome versus a pitcher, I guess.

[stevew]

I’m going on Weds. I had some hope they may bring up Chandler for 1 start but that’s wishful thinking and a bad 40 man move. This team needs at least 2 more competent hitters going into next year. I wouldn’t be opposed to flipping Ortiz for something.

[stevew]

Finally cutting Michael A Taylor and Rowdy after a season of suck.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Skenes numbers have been so crazy this year. He has 22 starts this year and, in his three worst starts, he gave up 4 runs once and 3 earned runs twice. He's given up 1 or 0 earned runs 13 times. ERA is sitting at 1.99 (FIP is 2.48). If the Pirates had any kind of competent offense and bullpen, he should have some kind of stupid record like 17-1 or 2.

I think he deserves the RoY, but there is some talk that Jackson Merrill from SD is the favorite. Seems like Skenes is having a historic season (6.0 WAR in 22 starts) vs Merrill having a solid one (4.3 WAR - .292/.326/.503 with 24 homers and 16 steals and average to moderately positive defensive value in CF), but the everyday player stuff can be tough to overcome versus a pitcher, I guess.

There is no scenario where anyone should vote for anyone but Skenes. He's been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball as a rookie.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by stevew

Finally cutting Michael A Taylor and Rowdy after a season of suck.

It looks like they're cutting Rowdy now because he is 4 plate appearances away from a $200k bonus.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

It looks like they're cutting Rowdy now because he is 4 plate appearances away from a $200k bonus.

Christ. That’s Comisky level bush league.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Here's a crazy number for ya ...

Taylor had a slash line of 193/253/290. His WAR of 0.9 was 6th best on the team amongst all Pirate hitters.

I knew they were bad at the plate but good LORD.

[stevew]

I just saw that Tellez thing about the plate appearances. Can Bob Nutting please do something inappropriate with a minority or woman for fucks sake?

[Swaggs]

The bad thing is that Rowdy has been fairly decent, by Pirates’ standards, the 2nd half of the season and they are doing this to bring up 29-year old Josh Palacios, who clearly doesn’t fit into the future plans and didn’t have some kind of amazing minor league year to reward. Taylor is an elite defensive CF and base runner, so it’s a shame he didn’t latch on to someone before the deadline.

Just shitty transactions by a shitty FO. The time to cut these guys was mid-season. Now, I’m sure it is just going to piss off agencies and make whatever is left of their reputation worse for signing FAs and draftees.

[stevew]

They still like to run Connor Joe out there. I think they should fire everybody, but that’s not the Bob nutting way

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

The bad thing is that Rowdy has been fairly decent, by Pirates’ standards, the 2nd half of the season and they are doing this to bring up 29-year old Josh Palacios, who clearly doesn’t fit into the future plans and didn’t have some kind of amazing minor league year to reward. Taylor is an elite defensive CF and base runner, so it’s a shame he didn’t latch on to someone before the deadline.

Just shitty transactions by a shitty FO. The time to cut these guys was mid-season. Now, I’m sure it is just going to piss off agencies and make whatever is left of their reputation worse for signing FAs and draftees.

Yeah, Tellez has had a bad year but he was bad in Milwaukee last year too. And he has been much better of late.

I think the bigger issue for the Pirates is you're not going to have players and agents take you seriously in regards to incentives. Just makes it harder to sign any free agents, even bargain ones. And all over $200k.

[Ksyrup]

Looks very unlikely the Mets/Braves game tomorrow can happen in the evening. Anyone seen reports of whether they are going to try to move it up earlier in the day, or reschedule for Monday (hoping that the Braves get mathematically eliminated and they don't need to play the game)? Easiest thing to do would have been a DH today but I'm sure neither team wanted that and it's probably too late anyway.

[Ghost Econ]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Yeah, Tellez has had a bad year but he was bad in Milwaukee last year too. And he has been much better of late.

I think the bigger issue for the Pirates is you're not going to have players and agents take you seriously in regards to incentives. Just makes it harder to sign any free agents, even bargain ones. And all over $200k.

Supposedly a team could sign him and give him 4 at bats, which would cause his bonus to kick in and it's prorated between the teams. So the Pirates would owe about $195k. I doubt a team will do it, but it would be funny.

[Swaggs]

The Pirates front office excuse was that the AAA season ended yesterday and they wanted to give guys that will be part of the 2025 season a chance.

So, with 6 games remaining, Peguero didn't play.

The 29-year old, on his third team and has already had 400 MLB plate appearances, Joshua Palacios got to pinch hit for a 25 year old they traded for at the deadline (Billy Cook, who actually did have a nice minor league season - .849 OPS, 17 homers and 26 RBI), who just called up about 10 days ago and Palacios struck out with runners on first and third and one out.

Also, shitty of the manager to not get an extra start or two in for Rowdy if he knew that the plan was to cut him at the end of the AAA season.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Supposedly a team could sign him and give him 4 at bats, which would cause his bonus to kick in and it's prorated between the teams. So the Pirates would owe about $195k. I doubt a team will do it, but it would be funny.

I'll chip in the $5K if someone does it!

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Supposedly a team could sign him and give him 4 at bats, which would cause his bonus to kick in and it's prorated between the teams. So the Pirates would owe about $195k. I doubt a team will do it, but it would be funny.

If I am the Reds, or another division rival, I absolutely would do this.

[JPhillips]

It would hurt them if they actually were trying to win, but they don't care so the detrimental effect on free agents doesn't matter to them.

MLB needs to change the rules so it's harder to pocket all the shared money. Right now the easiest way to profit is to not try to win.

[stevew]

Milwaukee needs to pick up Rowdy to start tomorrow and bat leadoff. It’s fan appreciation day. It would be the funniest thing.

[Lathum]

Man. Mets get fucked by the braves being assholes and have to play a double header Monday. It could also screw the Braves, and for sure the DBacks. Bullpens will likely be a mess.

[Ksyrup]

Wasn't counting on them getting rained out today. That sucks.

[stevew]

Patrick Corbin came out today and did all he could to take the L. He gave up 4 runs in a little bit more than five innings, and walked away with a no decision. Jake Irvin pitches on Sunday vs the Phils. If Irvin dies not lose, Corbin will lead the league in losses for the 4th straight year, tying a modern record.

[Lathum]

While making just under 100 million.

[RainMaker]

The White Sox are going to win out, aren't they?

[Ksyrup]

Tigers and the White Sox. Two unstoppable forces!

Tigers are going to power themselves into the postseason with an amazing last 2-3 months... and then get swept in the WC series.

[Honolulu_Blue]

The Tigers run has been super fun! I went to the game this afternoon with some people from work. Great atmosphere and right after they score those two runs in the 6th to make 2-3 you could just sense they were going to make the comeback.

[Ksyrup]

My daughter sent this to me earlier today and we both got a good chuckle out of it.

2022:
Tigers - 66-96, 4th in AL Central
Lions - 3-13-1, Last in NFC North
Red Wings- 32-40-10, 6th in Atlantic
Pistons - Don’t care

2024:
Tigers - 84-74, 2nd in AL Wild Card
Lions - 12-5, NFC Runner Ups
Wings - 41-32-9, missed playoffs by a game
Pistons - still don’t care.…

— Connor (@ConnorMerecki) September 26, 2024

[Honolulu_Blue]

Heh!!!

Poor Pistons. They are really a dumpster fire. There was no apparent plan ever. They haven’t built a cohesive team that makes any sense. The players don’t fit together and they can’t shoot three-pointers in an era where that’s how you win.

[Ksyrup]

Speaking of which, I just saw that Chauncey Billups is 48 and he's 5 years younger than me - which I obivously knew because he was 5 years younger than me 20 years ago, too! - but it seems unbelievable to me now.

[Ksyrup]

I stayed up last night to watch the Twins lose and was not disappointed. They should have won that game, but as well as things are going for the Tigers, it appears the Twins are the Tigers' opposite right now.

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot is down to 1 for the Tigers, with 3 games against the White Sox who I guess are playing to avoid surpassing the 62 Mets as the worst team of all time (modern times, anyway).

[Ksyrup]

This is a great recap of the White Sox win last night and the upcoming series against the Tigers (from Craig Calcaterra):

White Sox 7, Angels 0: The sweep. And a strangely deflating one at that for the White Sox because there were a decent number of Sox fans who showed up to these past three games wanting, after all of the misery of 2024, to at least be a part of history and see their team surpass the 1962 Mets’ loss record in person. But nope, Chicago even failed at failing. They now go on to Detroit for their final three games and, given how the Tigers have been playing, I strongly suspect the record will be broken there. Which will be fun in its own way as they get to break it against a team managed by A.J. Hinch, the guy their front office wanted to hire instead of Tony La Russa a few years back only to be overruled by Jerry Reinsdorf. The game will be called on Tigers TV by Jason Benetti, the fantastic Tigers announcer who Jerry Reinsdorf ran out of town last winter. It’s almost poetic.

[JPhillips]

A former colleague's husband writes for NYTime magazine and he's with the team until they set the record.

[stevew]

Any chance the As could be pretty decent next year? Rooker would obviously need to stick around. Rooker’s basically having an 80s style MVP season this year. Guys like Gelof and Soderstrom would have to live up to their potential. Wilson’s had a pretty aborted rookie year with the injury but was looking like a potential batting champion in the minors. Butler is only 23 and Bleday was ok. In theory this team could have a bunch of above average hitters next year. Once you get into the bottom third of the lineup and can still make some runs it’s getting rarer these days. I have no idea what kind of pitching they have and this is obviously where it falls apart I’m sure.

[Ksyrup]

It would almost certainly have to be with the guys they've got now, as I can't imagine any FAs signing on to play in Sacramento in 100 degree heat with little league park amenities. Maybe one of those 1-year Boras client-type signings of a guy who expected a big deal but got nothing.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Go Tigers!! Playoffs!!

[Ksyrup]

That was a fun watch. First time watching the White Sox this year and man, they suck. Their pitching and defense are atrocious. The number of walks, wild pitches and just generally noncompetitive pitches they threw was unbelievable. They truly deserve this record.

[stevew]

Pirates rest IKF today, 4 plate appearances short of a 250k incentive.