2015 MLB thread

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Billy Hamilton has an OPS+ of 58.

And a positive WAR.

That's...insane.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

The Cueto starts at home are almost like a carnival. Everyone wants to be there to see it and the crowds are electric. So much fun.

Got two out of three from the Angels and go for the series win tomorrow night on national TV.

[kingfc22]

Matt Duffy continues to be money in key situations.

[MizzouRah]

Is Lackey the best bang for the buck starting pitcher?

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Is Lackey the best bang for the buck starting pitcher?

2/10 on deGrom scale.

[Bisbo]

Are the Nats toast? Ever since Davey Johnson started that "world Series or bust" thing, they play like they expect their reputation to carry them. Someone needs to light a fire under this team, and I don't see it coming from the clubhouse. Is Matt Williams our baseball version of Jim Zorn?

[Bisbo]

Adam Kilgore, writing in today's Washington Post, made an interesting proposal to avoid what may well require the Cardinals to play a wild card team in the first round that is better than the other two division champs: allow the team with the best recored to decide who it will play in the first round. Pretty interesting suggestion. While the choice might be obvious most of the time, it could make for some interesting strategic calls some times, including this year. I suppose there could be some issues with possible collusion, but I like the proposal.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Boy, really fun series to watch between the Angels and Royals. Some amazing defensive plays on both sides. Great to see the Royals overcome a tough offensive night and find a way to win the game and series.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Is Lackey the best bang for the buck starting pitcher?

If you said "veteran" yes, but there's a bunch of studs like deGrom and Cole at similar money

[lighthousekeeper]

According to ERA+, Greinke's having the 10th best season for a pitcher ever.

Single-Season Leaders &amp Records for Adjusted ERA+ | Baseball-Reference.com

#beyondDeGrom

[BillJasper]

Dodgers hire Ron Roenicke to coach 3B.

Dodgers shake up Don Mattingly’s staff, hire ex-Brewers manager Ron Roenicke as third base coach | HardballTalk

[lighthousekeeper]

Drew Hutchinson, with a 12-2 record and sub 4.00 FIP, gets demoted to AAA by the Jays. Weird.

[Grover]

Looks like it's because they have 8 games over 10 days and are going with a 4-man rotation for the back half of this month. They've called up 1B Matt Hague and are going to call up Ezequiel Carrera.

Hutch will be back in the rotation when the roster expands to 40.

It gives you an idea of who the first man out of their playoff rotation is though.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by stevew

If you said "veteran" yes, but there's a bunch of studs like deGrom and Cole at similar money

True...

[Grover]

Yankees Pitcher Knocked Out Of Game After Taking Line Drive To The Face

yikes.

[Dutch]

Always terrible to see. Thankfully he got to jerk his head back just a bit during impact which...every little bit helps.

[stevew]

Payback for Nunez never getting the 2b or SS job

[molson]

Ben Cherington out as Red Sox VP and GM. He leaves behind a fascinating track record of a World Series Championship surrounded by 3 years of garbage. I mean, I'll take that in any 4-year period, but the short-term future looked pretty bleak. (the farm system is still good I guess, but there's lots of terrible contracts on the roster now. Sandoval and Ramirez and Porcello bombed horribly.)

Dave Dombrowski new president of baseball operations.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by molson

Ben Cherington out as Red Sox VP and GM. He leaves behind a fascinating track record of a World Series Championship surrounded by 3 years of garbage. I mean, I'll take that in any 4-year period, but the short-term future looked pretty bleak. (the farm system is still good I guess, but there's lots of terrible contracts on the roster now. Sandoval and Ramirez and Porcello bombed horribly.)

Dave Dombrowski new president of baseball operations.

Damn, that didn't take long!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Absolute hose job by the guys in NYC on that review in the 11th inning on the Escobar hit. No way they got that tag on him at second base. Glad that the Royals won in spite of it. First time in 35 years that the Royals are 26 games above .500.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by molson

Ben Cherington out as Red Sox VP and GM. He leaves behind a fascinating track record of a World Series Championship surrounded by 3 years of garbage. I mean, I'll take that in any 4-year period, but the short-term future looked pretty bleak. (the farm system is still good I guess, but there's lots of terrible contracts on the roster now. Sandoval and Ramirez and Porcello bombed horribly.)

Dave Dombrowski new president of baseball operations.

Really curious to see who they go with as new GM. Frank Wren has been mentioned (and would be terrible), obviously Jerry Dipoto could be a candidate (certainly has experience with a meddling owner!), Alex Anthopoulos' contract expires at the end of the season I think (I think he'd be good).

I know some people think the farm is overrated because Bogaerts and JBJ struggled in their rookie seasons, but it's probably a top 3 system. Moncada, Espinoza, Devers, Margot, Benintendi, Guerra, Kopech is a phenomenal low minors group in addition to all the recent graduates like Bogaerts, Betts, E-Rod, Owens, Johnson, Vazquez, Swihart, even JBJ and Shaw who have been on fire for a couple weeks. Director of International Scouting Eddie Romero is a must-retain.

Not sure which side of Dombrowski will show up. He did build decent farm systems earlier in his career, and there certainly was a lot of win-now pressure from Ilitch in Detroit, but it really does scare me how many prospects he traded for "stars" who were already peaking in the last couple years. I know we likely need to trade at least some of those prospects for a top-flight SP, but I hope Betts, Bogaerts, Espinoza, E-Rod and Moncada are all kept off the table this winter.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Dave Dombrowski was MLB's biggest free agent at the deadline.

Crazy enough, the research shows Brian Sabean (of Barry Zito fame) as the most savvy free agent signer.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Really curious to see who they go with as new GM. Frank Wren has been mentioned (and would be terrible), obviously Jerry Dipoto could be a candidate (certainly has experience with a meddling owner!), Alex Anthopoulos' contract expires at the end of the season I think (I think he'd be good).

I know some people think the farm is overrated because Bogaerts and JBJ struggled in their rookie seasons, but it's probably a top 3 system. Moncada, Espinoza, Devers, Margot, Benintendi, Guerra, Kopech is a phenomenal low minors group in addition to all the recent graduates like Bogaerts, Betts, E-Rod, Owens, Johnson, Vazquez, Swihart, even JBJ and Shaw who have been on fire for a couple weeks. Director of International Scouting Eddie Romero is a must-retain.

Not sure which side of Dombrowski will show up. He did build decent farm systems earlier in his career, and there certainly was a lot of win-now pressure from Ilitch in Detroit, but it really does scare me how many prospects he traded for "stars" who were already peaking in the last couple years. I know we likely need to trade at least some of those prospects for a top-flight SP, but I hope Betts, Bogaerts, Espinoza, E-Rod and Moncada are all kept off the table this winter.

Stay away from AA!!!!

I was hoping Dombrowski would sign on to the Jays in some capacity.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

there certainly was a lot of win-now pressure from Ilitch in Detroit

I think that was the key to a lot of those deals. But maybe that's just how Dom works. I guess we'll see (though not like there isn't a lot of win-now pressure in Boston).

[stevew]

Tiex better watch or he's going to get Wally Pipp'd

[Qwikshot]

Thanks Chase for all the memories

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Great article about Don Denkinger. They invited him to an 30th anniversary of the WS win party.

Umpire Don Denkinger still near and dear to Royals’ 1985 championship | The Kansas City Star

Denkinger has told this story a thousand times by now, at least, and every time he motions a knife to his heart to explain what that felt like. A radio station in St. Louis gave out Denkinger’s phone number, and right away people called threatening his wife and daughter.

The World Series did not end that night. The next day was game seven, and Denkinger worked home plate. That had already been planned. He really was a good umpire. Herzog came out to argue a call, and told Denkinger they wouldn’t be there if he’d been right the night before. Denkinger told Herzog they wouldn’t be there if the Cardinals hadn’t been hitting .120 in the Series.

“That’s when he called me a name, and I ran him,” Denkinger says.

[Vince, Pt. II]

It's weird to me that Marlon Byrd is 37 years old. He was the first uber-prospect I had in an online league, way back in the early 2000's in Celeval's CFBL league.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Stay away from AA!!!!

I was hoping Dombrowski would sign on to the Jays in some capacity.

AA isn't going anywhere. He's a Canadian kid. Plus, there'd be no reason to go somewhere that he's going to have to endure another rebuild.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

AA isn't going anywhere. He's a Canadian kid. Plus, there'd be no reason to go somewhere that he's going to have to endure another rebuild.

I don't think it's likely (rooting for Dipoto or the Yankees aGM, praying it's not Wren), but by that logic Theo Epstein wouldn't have left Boston and ended up in Chicago. Relationships/power struggles, $$$, there's always something, and Anthopoulos' contract expires in 2 months. I mean, on the off chance things go wrong and Toronto misses the postseason (or maybe loses the wild card) is it 100% certain Toronto would want him back?

[cartman]

Leave it to KC fans (and MBBF in particular) to venerate an ump that fucked up a call.

[cartman]

Mike Fiers of the Astros throws a no-no against the Dodgers.

[lungs]

Love it, Fiers is a class act.

[Atocep]

Cespedes is 4-4 with 3hr and 7rbi through 6.

[cuervo72]

Dear ESPN,

I don't give a crap if the Yankees are retiring someone's number.

Thanks.

[BillJasper]

I wonder how much worse things get here in Cincinnati before Brian Price is shown the door?

[rowech]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

I wonder how much worse things get here in Cincinnati before Brian Price is shown the door?

He will be gone at the end of the year but the more pressing question to me is how Jocketty has kept his job.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by rowech

He will be gone at the end of the year but the more pressing question to me is how Jocketty has kept his job.

Living on his reputation from St. Louis. I'm more than happy if they show both the door. But I'm not sure if Castellini will fire Jocketty.

The reason I fire Price now is that the Reds don't even seem interested in playing baseball at this point.

[mauchow]

Cubs hhhooooot! Woo!

It's been a long time since I've had a season worth watching.

For the past 8 years or so I've bought MLB.tv to watch most of the Cubs games. I even did last year in hopes the youngsters would make things interesting, turns out I was one year too soon.

My son is 4 and gets excited to know how the Cubs did, too. Did Rizzo hit a Rizzo Bomb? How about Bryant, he get any hits tonight? Did Lester throw?

So cool to hear him love the Cubbies as much as me. Hah!

And the GM talk.. THANK GOD FOR THEO! Woohoo! The plan has come to fruition.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

Living on his reputation from St. Louis. I'm more than happy if they show both the door. But I'm not sure if Castellini will fire Jocketty.

The reason I fire Price now is that the Reds don't even seem interested in playing baseball at this point.

Price is good developing pitchers, which is what the Reds need long term. Firing him now won't do anything for the season.

[Logan]

Not very often your best pitcher gets knocked out in the 3rd inning, down 7-2, and you end up winning 16-7.

I was pretty concerned about David Wright having only hit singles during his rehab assignment, thinking it meant his bat was nowhere near ready. His first swing last night sent the ball into the upper deck.

According to Elias, it was the first time in history a team's 1-7 hitters all hit HRs. Poor Ruben Tejada (0-5). All of the other starters had at least 2 hits.

8 HRs and 15 XBHs were franchise records.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

...... the Reds don't even seem interested in playing baseball at this point.

I hope they don't tonight. I'm going to the game and the Dodgers need to figure out if they are interested in the rest of the year or not. The upside of the Dodgers coming to town this late in the year is I have infield seats behind the dugout for 20 bucks a ticket. I swear, I've never seen a more fair weather set of baseball fans than Cincinnati fans. They show up for opening day and after that put their tickets on StubHub.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Finally got out to see my first Royals game in person this year. Had a blast with my five year old. She's a big Moose fan and we got tickets just above the third base dugout so she could see him play. He rewarded us with a couple of great defensive plays and a HR in the seven run outburst where the Orioles couldn't seem to get the last out of the inning.

Hopefully can make it back out before the end of the regular season.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

I hope they don't tonight. I'm going to the game and the Dodgers need to figure out if they are interested in the rest of the year or not. The upside of the Dodgers coming to town this late in the year is I have infield seats behind the dugout for 20 bucks a ticket. I swear, I've never seen a more fair weather set of baseball fans than Cincinnati fans. They show up for opening day and after that put their tickets on StubHub.

I doubt too many teams pack the stadium on a Tuesday night in August, when their record is 52-71.

[Butter]

The Reds are 13th in both average fan attendance and percent capacity for the season.

If they were truly THAT fair-weather, they'd be near the bottom, like the team.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by BillJasper

I doubt too many teams pack the stadium on a Tuesday night in August, when their record is 52-71.

I agree. When I was in Cincinnati they were anything but fair weather about baseball. You could get Bengal tickets for like $5 but that was the 90's and the ownership should be blamed more than the fans.

I live in St. Louis that has the best record in baseball and you can get a decent Tuesday night ticket for $20-30.

[cmp]

1-hitter for Verlander. Looking like his old self.

[MikeVic]

Couple of nice catches from the Jays game last night:

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/145591...-amazing-catch

[Vince, Pt. II]

That's an impressive vertical for Revere.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Great deal if you want to watch out of market games the rest of the year.

http://slickdeals.net/f/8067620-mlb-...of-the-year-10