2015 MLB thread

[stevew]

The Reds suck too.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Up and in on the ribs is a typical place pitchers go to send a message. I don't believe for a second that the pitch wasn't on purpose. Why the Royals kept going in on him after that I don't know. I don't know if there's history or if it's just the Royals being the Royals.

Either way, the Royals continue to be the easiest team to dislike in baseball.

Yeah I was gonna say that too about the Royals. This is probably the most invested and optimistic I have been with the Jays this late in the season since I started being a fan as a kid (1993 haha), and this is a series I tried to at least follow the scores for. The Royals did not leave a good impression on me with this game!

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Either way, the Royals continue to be the easiest team to dislike in baseball.

Yes.

[kingfc22]

Heard there was an incident in an MLB game. Took one guess for me to know who was involved. What a bunch of d-bags in KC.

[stevew]

A bunch of people got tossed in the Pirates game too

[Atocep]

"He can't take it," Volquez said of Donaldson. "I don't know why. He hit a lot of homers in the first couple of games and he was pimping everything he does. Somebody hits you, you've got to take it, because you're pimping everything you do."

Ah, there's the explanation. The Royals continuing to be the enforcers of the unwritten rules of baseball.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by stevew

A bunch of people got tossed in the Pirates game too

Yeah, that was more of a group incident than the Jays-Royals thing. Brandon Philips didn't look happy lol.

[JeeberD]

Volquez, the dude who broke George Springer's hand. Yeah, I don't like that guy...

[Scoobz0202]

yordano Ventura really is dumb as hell and easily one of the more unlikeable players. Combined with Volquez and lol.

Dumb ass Ventura deleted this from his Twitter. Directed at 6x all star Jose Bautista, a real nobody

“We’ll meet again later and if you do that with me, you’ll see what I’m about. I don’t care about anybody. I used to respect you, but you’re a nobody. … You got lucky this time, but MLB doesn’t get canceled after this season. Keep running your mouth. … You need to stop giving signs. You’re gonna get it from me for being fresh and you really are a nobody.”

This is baseball. Enough of this tough guy bullshit. And it's easy to talk when you never hit.

[Johnny93g]

Wow, alot of true professionals playing for K.C.

Is this what a little bit of success does to you?

[Scoobz0202]

I don't even know if it is a lot of Royals players. I don't feel like I ever hear bad things about the hitters. It is that pitching staff, or maybe even just those two players. And I have a feeling Yost doesn't help matters like he should.

[Johnny93g]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

I don't even know if it is a lot of Royals players. I don't feel like I ever hear bad things about the hitters. It is that pitching staff, or maybe even just those two players. And I have a feeling Yost doesn't help matters like he should.

Very true, i don't know alot about them, or their players, but it's not the whole team, cant be.

[Grover]

It's not. It's definitely just Ventura and Volquez.

I'm tired of watching the behavior, especially Ventura.

[BishopMVP]

Or they could just trade for McCann and go all-in.

I only saw it briefly, but Yost's interview after the game also seemed incredibly disingenuous. I know everybody needs to play the media game and can't acknowledge when they were sending a message, but saying that you're perfect little angels and the Blue Jays were the ones intentionally throwing at players? Gtfo.

[cartman]

Wild game between The Astros and Rangers. A ton of runs were scored early, and Beltre had a cycle by the 5th inning (the 3rd of his career). The end of the game turned into a pitcher's duel, and the Rangers won 12-9.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Don't know how many people watched all the Royals/Blue Jays games over the weekend, but it was a great series. Every game was competitive and both sides had a lot of intensity. Felt like a playoff series.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by cartman

Wild game between The Astros and Rangers. A ton of runs were scored early, and Beltre had a cycle by the 5th inning (the 3rd of his career). The end of the game turned into a pitcher's duel, and the Rangers won 12-9.

I didn't get to see the game...wtf was up with McCullers? The kid has been great all season but got destroyed last night.

[Grover]

Beltre is easily the best 3B of his generation.

[Easy Mac]

I feel like I'm witness to a weird Midwestern performance art piece I just don't understand.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Grover

Beltre is easily the best 3B of his generation.

While I think this is a correct statement, it's weird to me how he came to be that way. There were several moments (sometimes long moments) during his career where he wasn't the best 3B in the league (Zimmerman, Wright, Sandoval, Donaldson off the top of my head), but longevity and glove work I think give him the nod.

---and then I checked baseball reference---

Beltre has had a very strange career path, at least in terms of his hitting. His OPS+ (which is park adjusted, for those who aren't familiar) is absurdly pedestrian for his first 12 years in the league. He entered the league in 1998, and for 6 of his next 12 seasons he was a below-average hitter. In some cases, significantly so. He did have the one outlier year in 2004 (48 HR, OPS+ of 163), but if we ignore that, his average OPS+ for those 12 years was 97 - a (very slightly) below league average hitter.

Then suddenly, in 2010 for Boston (at age 31), he hit 28 HR (more than he ever had outside the crazy year, though not exactly eye-popping - he's been in the mid-20's before) and went on a tear: five straight seasons of 130 or more OPS+. Outside the crazy season, his highest OPS+ was 114. "Well duh, he went from Chavez Ravine and Safeco to Fenway." Yeah, but remember that OPS+ accounts for park factors.

He's always been a defensive wizard, and he was rarely a negative with the bat, so perhaps he does get the nod as the best 3B of his generation. After looking at the numbers, I'm not so sure though. I'm skeptical of players past 30 suddenly posting significantly increased statistics, and 2004 is an insane outlier to just take at face value.

I think if I'm looking at the whole package, I think I take Rolen or Zimmerman over Beltre (I have very little idea how good either was with the glove). I have a tremendous personal bias as a Giants fan, but I'd probably take Sandoval too - he started rough with the glove, but was nearly Gold-Glove caliber the last several years.

[cartman]

Today is the 22nd anniversary of Nolan Ryan's beatdown of Robin Ventura.

[cartman]

Dave Dombrowski is out as the Tigers GM.

http://m.tigers.mlb.com/news/article...office-changes

[stevew]

Beltre's really lucky he got out of Seattle when he did. I think he'll eventually be a Hall Of Famer, but another contract in Seattle would have doomed him.

Also I was looking at David Wright and that contract of his has a good chance in landing near the Ryan Howard bad deals hall of fame. 5 years and 87m left, and they've received 3 WAR for the first 40 million.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Geez. Royals now hold a 9 1/2 game lead in the division. Obviously still have home field advantage to play for, but the division is all but over.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Always kind of amusing to watch all the MLB Network games at dinner and then come home to see how they ended up.

BOS-NYY and ATL-SF both turned out to be nothing missed during the drive home.

[MikeVic]

lol, so is the MLB suspension logic as fun as the NHL?

[Grover]

Rays Rookie's First Home Run Earns Him A First-Rate Silent Treatment

This is awesome.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Geez. Royals now hold a 9 1/2 game lead in the division. Obviously still have home field advantage to play for, but the division is all but over.

Tell that to the 2011 Red Sox.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Always kind of amusing to watch all the MLB Network games at dinner and then come home to see how they ended up.

BOS-NYY and ATL-SF both turned out to be nothing missed during the drive home.

I had the Sox game on local radio on my drive home. Sox had made it 4-3 in the top of the 7th. I get home and settled for bed. Check the At Bat app and see I missed a 9 run explosion in the 25 minutes I was away from the radio.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Detroit's Iglesias just fouled a ball directly into his balls. How does one manage to do that without the ball even bouncing?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Detroit's Iglesias just fouled a ball directly into his balls. How does one manage to do that without the ball even bouncing?

It seems likely there were plenty of balls bouncing.

[Suicane75]

Maybe it bounced internally, like a pinball. 5000 points for the hitting the appendix.

[stevew]

Missed Luis Severino a few times to rainouts in AA this year so I'm bummed I didn't get to see him before he made it. The Yanks two other hitting prospects will be up soonish. Greg Bird has a great plate approach. I imagine he'll be one of those .800 OPS guys for a long time. He's got a great eye so I bet his power develops. Aaron Judge is a monster sized human being. Sorta reminds me of David Justice but taller. Hell, it's like Jimmy Graham playing baseball.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by stevew

Missed Luis Severino a few times to rainouts in AA this year so I'm bummed I didn't get to see him before he made it. The Yanks two other hitting prospects will be up soonish. Greg Bird has a great plate approach. I imagine he'll be one of those .800 OPS guys for a long time. He's got a great eye so I bet his power develops. Aaron Judge is a monster sized human being. Sorta reminds me of David Justice but taller. Hell, it's like Jimmy Graham playing baseball.

I still think Judge has high bust potential, but Severino's gonna be a real good one. And he'll probably make an impact this October.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

I still think Judge has high bust potential, but Severino's gonna be a real good one. And he'll probably make an impact this October.

Yeah, I'd like to see Judge hit more homers in the minors for sure. He's Frank Thomas sized. He must wear like a size 16 shoe(we were 4 rows back behind home plate)

[cartman]

Strange stat:

The Rangers are now 36-22 against teams above .500 and 18-31 against teams below .500

[MikeVic]

Pillar - vidme

[Ramzavail]

oh man, great play.

[Vince, Pt. II]

That was fantastic.

[MrBug708]

It wouldnt make a Royals top 10 plays of the week

[MizzouRah]

oh wow.. that was spectacular!

[Logan]

That landing must have hurt.

[MikeVic]

Before the trade deadline, I somehow had Kevin Pillar (the catch guy from the above video) mixed up in my head with Kevin Millar lol. So when I read stuff about how Pillar is a good defensive OF, I was thinking what!?!? That old guy? Then I looked him up on baseball reference and saw that he's young, has a great defensive WAR, and yeah. Completely changed my opinion, obviously haha.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Before the trade deadline, I somehow had Kevin Pillar (the catch guy from the above video) mixed up in my head with Kevin Millar lol. So when I read stuff about how Pillar is a good defensive OF, I was thinking what!?!? That old guy? Then I looked him up on baseball reference and saw that he's young, has a great defensive WAR, and yeah. Completely changed my opinion, obviously haha.

His hitting has fallen off some recently, I believe, but earlier in the season, he was a semi-regular play for me in DFS. He was constantly outperforming his listed value. Of course, that's just offense.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Someone pointed me to the home run he robbed in May...another spectacular catch.

[MikeVic]

Nice! I haven't watched much Jays this year until now, and even now it's more listening than watching. Going by defensive stats, it seems like him and a CF in TB are the two best CF in the AL (for defensive purposes).

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Nice! I haven't watched much Jays this year until now, and even now it's more listening than watching. Going by defensive stats, it seems like him and a CF in TB are the two best CF in the AL (for defensive purposes).

Uhhhh....Cain? He's likely going to be the Gold Glove winner in CF in the AL.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Spare parts, get yer spare parts here

Braves get: Swisher + Bourn + $10m cash
Indians get: Chris Johnson

the cash almost evens out the difference remaining on the contracts

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Uhhhh....Cain? He's likely going to be the Gold Glove winner in CF in the AL.

Kiermaier should get it and it really shouldn't be that close. Cain is great. Pillar is pretty good. Keirmaier has been on an entirely different level though.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Uhhhh....Cain? He's likely going to be the Gold Glove winner in CF in the AL.

Sorry, I haven't followed baseball very closely until the Jays' deadline moves so I looked at only a couple defensive stats and that's what I saw. But top 3-5 for a few defensive metrics for OF in the AL seem to always have Kiermaier, Cain, and Pillar so it makes sense if one of those wins it.