2018 regular-season game chatter

one pitch into the season and the marlins are losing

lol whoops, I'll have a mod delete mine

we're on a record pace for home runs in a season

Salvador Perez hurt himself carrying luggage yesterday. 6-8 weeks. -_-,

Fangraphs marathon chat

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2018-opening-day-very-long-chat/

damn José Ureña had a bad first inning

Past a stumbling Schwarber.

Opening day (tribe/mariners) game starts at 10pm EST! Madness.

surely staggering times for TV is the reason, as it's ESPN late game following Dodgers-Giants

I'd figure a 7pm start time in Seattle is probably not that irregular.

Time was all openers were day games though. *scratches beard*

Start the game at 1 or 4 so I can watch it. This is all I ask.

13 Cardinal Ks thru 7 (Thor & Gsellman)

nice slide dumbass

Textbook by Chase Anderson. pic.twitter.com/SBbffAGTLF

— Michael Salfino (@MichaelSalfino) March 29, 2018

whoa that's huge

did he manage to injure himself there??

i think his knees took the worst of it

rays w a nice 6 run bottom 8th

wow white sox are clobbering the royals

Heard from (the awesome) Jason Benetti on a FG podcast that Tim Anderson season was flunked by the murder of a good friend of his. Heck, my fish die and I can't do anything all day. So to see him compete and getting better is pretty cool, I have high hopes for him.

braves tied up the phils

Looking at that Red Sox box score, I somehow don't figure Joe Kelly would be considered their setup guy.

he was really good last year! but yeah

He’s got a riddick fastball, no?

i think he has one of those kyle farnsworth fastballs -- very hard and very straight

goddamn i love having baseball going on in the background while I werk

Mike Everitt (home plate umpire) just took a fastball directly off the top of his mask, taken out of the game. he looked really shaken up.

i think he has one of those kyle farnsworth fastballs -- very hard and very straight

michael feliz appears to have this issue as well

some very bad baseball in detroit today

yeah, both teams seem to be trying to give it away

contract both teams imo

Max Scherzer pretty much at top form. Scooter Genette got a double off of him and it must have just ticked Max off as he struck out the next 7 batters.

(fwiw: Scooter 4/4 on the day)

adam eaton 5-for-5, HR, 2 2B

love that guy

A-Rod does not like the launch angle revolution.

he preferred the injections-for-lunch angle

https://i.imgur.com/LBzuS0L.png

The Yankees haven’t been outside the top two in MLB payroll since 1994, the last time a baseball season ended without a World Series.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/mlb-opening-day-payrolls-down-from-2017/

trend: it seems like just about every single pitcher talks into their glove when heading toward the dugout after recording the final out of the inning, just before it cuts to commercial.

oh to be a leather strap on that glove

bartolo : called up by the rangers to pitch tonight

the first pitcher from the 2017 nippon league to hit a home run in 2018 mlb is: miles mikolas.

106.1 exit velo

blessed day xp

it just struck me that lorenzo cain's nickname "locain" is a cocaine reference?

I’ve watched this thirty times.

pic.twitter.com/HjEbNgy3EV

— Downtown Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) April 2, 2018

Spearing!

Christ this Astros/Os game is only in the 4th

top 13th in Phoenix!

#Rays Kiermaier will try something new today to combat cold weather vs #Yankees - covering his whole body with Vaseline to serve as an extra layer against the wind.

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) April 3, 2018

it's gonna be exciting if he has to slide into a base

Ryan Braun is actually really nice. I saw him being all friendly and cordial with the security guy, someone who everyone else just walked by without saying a word. He’s cool! Didn’t expect that.

But if one person that I thought was a dick was nice, what does that mean about all the other people I thought were dicks? Could they be nice people too? No, I bet that I am correct about all the other people and that none of them are nice, better to just keep a closed mind so that things are steady and reliable

Decent night at the park tonight for Christian Villanueva pic.twitter.com/mCsnyCV54T

— Daren Willman (@darenw) April 4, 2018

<3

the Braves are raking.

Carlos Santana stealing home (10MB mp4):
http://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/mp4/2018/04/04/1906303983/1522871765592/asset_1200K.mp4

sick

Carlos Santana stealing home (10MB mp4)

lol

Lucroy gunned down 3 would-be base-stealers tonight.

THIS! pic.twitter.com/2FJCQzPTUv

— Jen Mueller (@JenTalksSports) April 5, 2018

Minor league player names

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/here-are-the-100-best-minor-league-player-names-heading-into-the-2018-season/c-270771028

Jon Lester threw out Ryan Braun trying to steal third, with his new bounce pass strategy.

to be fair it's a pretty slo-mo steal attempt

https://www.mlb.com/video/c-1908265383

Goldschmidt on pace for 250 walks...

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/BB_season.shtml

Blood bath in Philly

Question for the crowd?

Under the current labor agreement, is it possible for there to be a player/manager anymore?

Seeing a story about Frank Robinson becoming player/manager for the Indians got me wondering why that gimmick had not been done lately.

I was trying to think of a player/manager after Pete Rose with the Reds and could not think of one. Was Rose the last one?

i regret watching the victor robles injury video :(

Question for the crowd?

Under the current labor agreement, is it possible for there to be a player/manager anymore?

Seeing a story about Frank Robinson becoming player/manager for the Indians got me wondering why that gimmick had not been done lately.

I was trying to think of a player/manager after Pete Rose with the Reds and could not think of one. Was Rose the last one?

― earlnash, Monday, April 9, 2018 7:33 AM (twelve hours ago)

not sure about the CBA but seems like that's just too much work for one person, not sure why a player would ever want to take on that responsibility/pressure

yeah i think it's theoretically possible but will never happen again

A scoring change from March 30 awarded Scott Kingery a steal on a play that was originally ruled a wild pitch. So now, Kingery joins Jimmy Rollins as the only Phillies since 1900 with multiple hits and a steal in their MLB debut.

— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) April 9, 2018

Molina suspended for one game. Jeez, MLB are some cranks; I think the poor guy's learned his lesson

bumping/shoving an umpire is an automatic suspension. that it's only one game suggests that MLB doesn't think it was malicious

Apparently the d-bag manager pointed toward Yadi and referred to him with an “adjective”, I think that’s what set him off.

he charged a manager from the dugout, shoved an ump and started to take a swing. It seemed pretty malicious to me. Has any player shoved umpires more and been punished less for it than Molina?

he didn't charge from the dugout? he wildly overreacted to lovullo's backhanded praise of his framing skills -- some version of 'fuck' is in every single sentence on a baseball field -- and tried to get at lovullo with the ump in the way

i mean, yadi is an annoying redass, but he didn't actually hit anyone

ah, I got confused watching the video about his positioning. Still seems insanely inconsistent to me. Last year Willson Contreras got a two-day suspension for bouncing a helmet that accidentally hit an ump. Brett Lawrie once got four games for the same thing. One game for shoving an ump directly seems generous.

damn Boston is destroying the Stankees

Betts is going crazy tonight.

tracer, make a red sox thread

in fact, in a week i am going to create team threads if their fans have not done so

Today’s Brewers/Cards game is only viewable on Facebook.

fuck that

wtf I thought FSN got all 162 games this year

so dumb

not as dumb as last night's game though ;)

That game seemed excruciating for both teams, at least until the last bit. A lot of the Brewers/cards games have been like that so far! Must see, excruciating baseball

lost in the "Brewers have won nearly every game in the final at-bat" narrative is the "Brewers have blown every save opportunity so far" one

Today’s Brewers/Cards game is only viewable on Facebook.

fuck that

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, April 11, 2018 7:34 AM (one hour ago)

mlbstreams

yeah, i'll be hitting that up today for sure. so annoying, though, esp as a recently departed facebook user. makes me dislike zuck even more

Holy crap this FB stream is obnoxious. "How about that routine ground out? Brewers fans, what do you think? Join the conversation!"

facebook fans, tell us what your faaavorite blooper is!

"Many Cards fans in the comments section saying, 'Come on St. Louis! Put some runs on the board!'"

(That's an actual thing they just said... this is the most banal announcing I've ever heard)

"He wants to go downtown here! A little Petula Clark."

I love that--should be turned into verb: "He Petula Clarked that one!"

Brewers fans, do you want to see your team out there for the 9th? I bet you do!

"Cardinals fans were fuming the other night, and for good reasons. Some didn't want to see him in a high leverage situation. Some didn't want to see him walk four batters."

Deep insight into the mind of a Cardinals fan.

"A lot of Brewers fans would rather they left Josh Hader in" whoa these guys are dialed in

"He's throwin' BEACH BALLS up there!" okay lmao that is quality commentary

[Fat Albert voice] "Hey Hey Hey—Matt Albers."

love my 300 lb closer

bartolo is his godfather

Kenta Maeda turned 30 today. His interpreter, Will Ireton, decorated his Dodger Stadium locker and jumped out of a box to surprise him. pic.twitter.com/uxWnwHeVPe

— Pedro Moura (@pedromoura) April 11, 2018

i was thinking you guys would be talking about today's big fight between the Rockies and Padres. will look around for it.

yanks-sox just cleared benches

Brock Holt imo a little sensitive about incoming Tyler Austin slide

Benches clear, punches thrown in Padres-Rockies game with Nolan Arenado and Luis Perdomo in the center of it. pic.twitter.com/6cItcDc8Td

— MLB (@MLB) April 11, 2018

Nolan Arenado is a big man, that is not someone you want to be go after you at 100 MPH, wow.

he does not look happy

makes more sense now:

The Rockies' Arenado, righthanded pitcher German Marquez and left fielder Gerardo Parra were ejected. Perdomo and catcher A.J. Ellis were tossed on San Diego's side.

The Padres' Manuel Margot was hit by a pitch Tuesday night and placed on the 10-day disabled list with bruised ribs. The hits kept coming Wednesday with Rockies shortstop Trevor Story being hit in the first and Padres outfielder Hunter Renfroe getting hit in the second.

It always cracks me up when pitchers throw their glove at a guy that may or may not might be running with a bat.

like on the old Superman TV show when the baddies would empty a gun at him, then throw it at him

(funnier: Supe would duck)

https://www.sbnation.com/2018/4/11/17219496/mlb-pace-of-play-changes-pitch-clocks-rob-manfred

Brisbee otm as always.

Discipline has been issued to pitcher Joe Kelly of the Boston Red Sox and first baseman Tyler Austin of the New York Yankees as a result of the bench-clearing incident that occurred in the top of the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s game at Fenway Park. Joe Torre, Chief Baseball Officer for Major League Baseball, made the announcement.

Kelly has received a six-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for intentionally hitting Austin with a pitch and fighting. Austin has received a five-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for charging the mound and fighting. Also fined as a part of last night’s incident were Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin. Players on the disabled list who were fined for entering the field were pitcher CC Sabathia of the Yankees and shortstop Xander Bogaerts, infielder Marco Hernandez and second baseman Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox.

Both suspensions had been scheduled to be effective tonight, when the two Clubs are to continue their series at Fenway. However, both players have elected to appeal. Thus, the discipline issued to both Kelly and Austin will be held in abeyance until the process is complete.

i'm less concerned than brisbee about many of those things. i don't really care about the overall length of the game, but i would appreciate fewer conferences on the mound, less of nomar garciaparra refastening his batting gloves, and less of rodrigo lopez just staring at the catcher whenever runners are on base. if that leads to more offense, i'm okay with that. if it gets out of hand, they can always raise the mound or something.

limitations on pickoffs/extra-inning runners/mercy rule/limiting shifts are all dumb and ridiculous. limiting the number of relievers on the roster sounds like a recipe for injuries. cutting time between pitches might theoretically lead to injuries? but it's only a very recent thing where every big league pitcher needs a 95mph fastball -- there are ways to pitch effectively without throwing everything as hard as possible.

anyway, less time talking/fidgeting would be nice; if it leads to more game action, that's fine

zack weiss's first MLB appearance: 2 HR (the second an upper-deck bomb), 2 BB, 0 outs, infinite WHIP, ERA, etc

wait is it infinite or undefined

that's a good point. is it inside infinity or outside it. and what IS outside infinity? whatever it is, zack weiss is there right now

it's not like it's his fault, but i don't see bryan price surviving too much more of this

whenever they show him in the dugout he looks like he clogged your toilet

Cleveland Indians catcher Francisco Mejia, one of baseball's top prospects, is suing a company that he claims used "unconscionable" tactics to get him to surrender a substantial stake of his future big-league earnings in exchange for an up-front loan in 2016.

Mejia's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware on Feb. 21, alleges Big League Advance, a company run by former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Michael Schwimer, loaned him $360,000 in exchange for a 10 percent stake in his future earnings.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23155146/cleveland-indians-prospect-francisco-mejia-files-lawsuit-disputed-loan

i'm sorry...but he agreed to that??

i understand financial literacy is probably not the strong suit of professional baseball players, but holy shit

one of my favorite things is when some AAA scrub has to play mop-up and gets absolutely obliterated, then has to sit in the dugout with a shiny 81.00 ERA for a week before getting demoted

The Nationals are 2-6 at home.

Atlanta Braves offense juggernaut.

I pushed them all the way off my radar last year -- how unexpected is this?

pretty unexpected! we knew freddie can rake. we knew dansby was probably better than he'd shown so far and we knew albies was good, but neither of them quite this good already

no idea what markakis and suzuki are drinking, tho

oh shiiiiit, I turned my back and missed the Cubs' 9-run 8th

Nine runs on just three hits! And all nine runs were scored with two outs.

What is the record for most games rained-out in a single day?

there were 6 rainouts on 9/12/08, and 8 rainouts on 4/12/97. not sure if the 8 rainout day was a record, though.

the reds/cardinals game seems like it will start at some point, though it might not be for a few more hours.

You're my fact checkin cuz. 6 PPDs today.

Pitching in short sleeves with a game-time temperature of 34 degrees and a wild chill in the mid-20s, the lanky Sale said, "This was the most miserable I've ever been on a baseball field, by far, not even close."

tomorrow's patriots day game in boston has already been postponed; first time since '84

All these rain-outs on Jackie Robinson Day kinda bummed me out today.

Hey they played the New York game and it was 42 degrees so that was cool

Sale and Kershaw were both great today. I'm fascinated by the dominance of the big four--if not for Verlander's resurgence, the gap between them and everyone else just seems to get wider and wider.

Sale/Kershaw/Scherzer/Kluber collectively this year, including the two starts today:

98 IP
61 H
127 K
16 BB
16 ER
1.47 ERA

Bartolololo approaching the shape of perfection

I can’t wait for baseball to start again!

Broken bat home run for Bryce Harpuh.

jeter's plan working to perfection in the bronx

Cashman has pee tape

kinda arbitrary endpoint but aaron judge is the first to 60 career homers (197 games, beating mark mcgwires 202).

also i just tuned in to the LAD/SDP game and they were saying that christian villanueva was one of the fastest ever players to 9 career HRs. just after that he hit his 10th.

All but one at PetCo too...

so who will be the last player* to get their first walk of the season?

jake marisnick, 41 PA, 0 walks
avisail garcia, 59 PA, 0 walks

* with over 40 PAs

lets go shohei

KJansen seems like he's lost his way. He owes his Taylor dinner for stealing that HR away from Villanueva, would've been another BS.

KJansen 9th (2-for-4 in save situations this year):
HR
K
near HR (over the CF wall snag)
BB
Balk
Single (blown save)
K

what happens when you have one pitch and your one pitch goes...

SD TV guy just mentioned this was the first day this season where there were no PPDs.

guys Eric Thames

He hit 11 of his 31 HRs in April last year.

That could not be worded more horribly, let's try again:

he hit 31 HRs in 2017, 11 in April.

yea that 11 was an April record for Milwaukee

kind of assumed MLB pitching had figured him out but the fact that he's wildin' out this year so far is encouraging

mostly I just love that they play his Korean HR song whenever he bombs one

he has more HRs (7) than singles, doubles, and triples combined (5)

Is Colome the ghost of Brad Lidge?

Brewers just won consecutive games against the Reds in which the only scoring play was a 2-run homer from Thames. That's kinda cool I guess.

fred freeman got hit on the wrist and immediately left the game :(

the angels really have one of the coolest rosters: trout and simmons' prime, ohtani obviously, cozart post-contract year (the new daniel murphy?), upton resurgence.....and pujols

they really do. even pujols comes with the novelty value of watching him crawl toward 3000 (10 more)

Charlie Morton's 4 starts this season: 25 IP, 0.76 era, 11.88 K/9, 2.16 BB/9, move aside Kluber.

intrigued by how he's picked up 2-3 mph on his fastball since age 32

nats jumping on kershaw early

Just discovered MLB Game Changer, which will switch between games on MLB.tv based on your Priority List. Players, teams, Leverage Index, active No-Hitters, even when a position player is pitching! Was watching my fantasy pitcher Sale, and while he was sitting watched both the Brewers and Braves walk off, then it switched back to Sale all while i'm fartin around doing other stuff

https://www.thebaseballgauge.com/GameChanger.php

yeah, enjoyed that a lot last year. is there a way to get it to work on my roku yet? that was the biggest drawback for me

Definitely needs a bit of polishing, hopefully they add things like that. The issues I have are it not staying fullscreen/unmuting between changes, but it's pretty easy to work around.

https://i.redd.it/u5mdbq0psdt01.jpg

Lol. Glad I started him in my other league!

posted on ILM:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh20JXaAJS0

Brandon Belt's 21 pitch at bat:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23288953/brandon-belt-san-francisco-giants-sets-mlb-record-21-pitch-ab

Middleton, the Angel closer (?), did his best to blow a 2-0 lead to Houston but was helped out by a last-out-at-third boner.

van horn street jinxed charlie morton

#MLB Pretty sure the cold weather is over, so games in which temp at game time was less than 40 degrees since 1990, using @baseball_ref data pic.twitter.com/4z2TvevEa0

— Scott Lindholm 📊 (@ScottLindholm) April 25, 2018

guys Eric Thames

― frogbs, Wednesday, April 18, 2018 12:03 PM (one week ago)

:```(

Q: what could be better than a midweek interleague doubleheader between two mediocre teams where the first game goes 3:51 and the second starts at 8:35pm local time

A: tomorrow's day game, with first pitch at 12:35

oof

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Cardinals center fielder Tommy Pham was removed from St. Louis’ game against the New York Mets on Wednesday night in the bottom of the third inning due to a head injury sustained earlier in the day.

Pham got a cut on his head before the game when he accidentally hit himself in the indoor batting cage.

Pham, who has been battling hamstring issues, missed games on Saturday and Sunday against Cincinnati. He returned to the lineup Monday and went 3 for 3 with a home run and two RBIs in a 6-5 loss to the Mets.

Pham hit a fly ball to right field in the first inning. Harrison Bader then pinch-hit for him in the third.

Pham injured himself in the batting cage when a “hitting contraption” of his design snapped the bat barrel back and caught him in the head. “Blood started gushing. I need to get that fixed,” he says. https://t.co/5gbneoZoND

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 26, 2018

i mean i knew pham was injury-prone but

acuna debuted today and got a hit! even more impressive was him going from first to third on this normal-ass single:

https://www.mlb.com/video/statcast-acunas-epic-speed/c-1977034883?tid=240568594

statcast put his "sprint speed" at 30.3 ft/sec, which would put just behind byron buxton in the MLB: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sprint_speed_leaderboard

Clayton Kershaw W-L
2016: 12-4
2017: 18-4
2018: 1-4

acuna go boom

xpost to A.R. Broccoli

pham gave kind of an odd interview about the injury after the game where he casually mentioned that he had been stabbed before so he was used to blood. turns out it was his father who stabbed him, about 5 years ago:

Tommy Pham gave me the back story on being stabbed. He said about 5 yrs ago his step father stabbed him just below the rib cage while they were fighting. Tommy said he was Ok, but there was quite a bit of blood.

— Jim Hayes (@TheCatOnFox) April 26, 2018

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PPgU44tBL8E/SX5SNKzQ-HI/AAAAAAAAAYc/ZvQm8brOXbs/s400/The_Stepfather.jpg

photoshop

that's pretty messed up!

yeah, i'm rooting for tommy pham so hard. if injuries don't ruin everything, he is my pick for the little-discussed Least WAR accumulated in 20s / Most WAR accumulated in 30s award

who are some of the previous recipients of this prestigious award?

i think he'll be good for a few years, and he's made Cards fans forget about Jason Heyward (though Jason Heyward is doing a good job of that too.)

xpost
lol, i just started looking it up to see. i guess maybe one way to calculate it would just be (30s WAR) - (20s WAR), and the competition is stiff. Barry Bonds had 99.6 fWAR in his 30s (and 65 more in his 20s)! but you know, steroids.

i have to run an errand but when i get home i might dump it all into a spreadsheet and see who really turned it up a notch in their 30s

one that came to mind: your homie Jim Edmonds had almost a 40 WAR in his thirties

Bonds' (30s - 20s) WAR is 34.6. Jackie Robinson put up 48.8 of his 57.2 career WAR during his 30s, for a (30s - 20s) score of 40.2

if Pham can somehow keep up this pace for 6-7 full seasons, he could win this prestigious prize that has such a great name: The 30s - 20s WAR score, presented by Honda

r.a. dickey: 0.7 WAR in his 20s, 17.2 WAR in his 30s, 5.1 WAR in his 40s

one that came to mind: your homie Jim Edmonds had almost a 40 WAR in his thirties

45.5 WAR, according to fangraphs! but he also put up 19.4 WAR during his 20s, leaving him with a (30s - 20s) score of 45.5 - 19.4 = 26.1. Sorry Jimmy.

here's a sorted list: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2018&month=0&season1=1871&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=30,58&filter=&players=0

Raul Ibanez wasn't exactly a WAR beast but he didn't start hitting until he was almost 30. I think his 20s WAR was 0.something and in his thirties it was a robust 20.something.

Would 30s WAR as percentage of career WAR be a better yardstick? Maybe with a career minimum of 25 or something.

Edgar might be the winner by those criteria, judging by the data in Karl Malone's list.

just me or are there an unusual number of day games today?

Would 30s WAR as percentage of career WAR be a better yardstick? Maybe with a career minimum of 25 or something.

Yeah, that’s a good idea! I’ll check that out too, once I get home

That @Braves fan who caught Ronald Acuña Jr.'s first home run? He drove up from Atlanta just to see the game. @KelsWingert has more: pic.twitter.com/ADHVr3fVil

— FOX Sports: Braves (@FOXSportsBraves) April 26, 2018

this is incredible. braves fan drives from atlanta to cincinnati to see acuna play. catches his first career home run, without missing a beat grabs his backpack and sprints out of the stadium. negotiations with braves ongoing. fucking hero

awesome.

Pham is okay apparently

lol twins

the moment we've all been waiting for: the leaderboard for highest percentage of career WAR attained during a player's age 30-to-39 seasons:

https://i.imgur.com/YbLAONi.png

(minimum 25 WAR, as suggested by WilliamC)

that is a list of baseball players

good ol' gavvy cravath

i looked him up because i was intrigued by his name and check out this beautiful baseball card:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/Gavvy_Cravath_Baseball_Card.jpg/250px-Gavvy_Cravath_Baseball_Card.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbvYJXwXUAAz_y-.jpg

Outstanding

one thing i've always heard about cravath - he really hit his stride in his 30s

Cool! Thanks for running those numbers, Karl. (Of course now I'm curious about players with significant WAR in their 40s.)

phil niekro: 25.5 in his 40s
roger clemens: 22.2

i can't imagine any hitters coming close to that . . . unless they'd let bonds play

Nolan Ryan: 31.1

nolan ryan had 30+ fWAR in his 40s

xpost oops! but yep

Could somebody remind me how age-season is calculated for birthdays in the middle of the season? If someone's birthdate is, say, 7/24/64, is 2004 their age-39 season or age-40 season?

from baseball-reference: player's age at midnight june 30th of that year

(you can see it if you hover over the age column)

Ah, thanks. Tough luck for Barry Bonds, then, who had 11.9 WAR in his age 39 season and 7.1 in his 40s.

Reds pitching staff is a grease fire but watching the four game Braves series, I was pretty impressed by the Cobb County lineup. Ender Inciarte also has a really good arm in the outfield, he played some impressive center field.

WATCH: @RaysBaseball Denard Span circle the bases at Fenway Park after an in-the-park home run. All of today's action against the Red Sox is live now on FOX Sports Sun and FOX Sports Go! #RaysUp #MLB pic.twitter.com/wNfPuzwkzN

— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) April 28, 2018

Definitely some wear on the Twins bullpen treads. They successfully went Zach Duke, Addison Reed and Fernando Rodney to close out the Reds today.

Gary Sanchez HR barely clears the left field bleachers fence...

A-Rod: "That blast just landed in the Bronx"

corey seager: out for the season

Oh shit

machado time

that stinks

holy shit @ Josh Hader's line tonight:

2.2 IP, 0 ER, 8 K, 1 BB

good thing they didn't waste him in the cubs series

I don't think they ever had a lead in that series

mega bummer about seager

braves are calling up 20yo RHP (and calgary native) mike soroka to start tonight. don't see too many high school pitchers arrive that quickly

pretty nice debut

I'm glad the bullpen and D held it for him -- they looked like they were trying to give it up late.

Trout sent one 524 feet.

Wait. What? really?! Whoa

Sure doesn't look to be that far on replay (and the game report doesn't say anything to that effect).

yeah he broke the tracker. it WAS a bomb tho

i know it's been said a million times but jesus the commentary on these facebook streaming games is so bad

Donaldson's first game back off the DL looks promising.

xpost

i only had to watch one (a cardinals game. and maybe the first one?) and it was excruciating and i will never do it again

it makes me yearn for an actual commercial break

damn, ex-Cub making good in KC this year.

Jorge Soler homered (472 ft.) to deep left center

just tuned in, but do mariners fans typically boo ohtani every time he bats? i guess because he picked LA over SEA? man, that's fucking dumb. #notthebestfansinbaseball

leading NL position players in fWAR over the last 365 days

Tommy Pham 7.7
Charlie Blackmon 6.9
Joey Votto 6.6

AL

Judge 8.2
Altuve 7.7
Ramirez 7.5

Rhys Hoskins after half a season worth of games: .268/.409/.570, 22 hr and 16 doubles and 158 wrc+.

i would be interested in an exploration of rhys hoskins’ WAR while being compelled to play left field vs his WAR if he were allowed to play his natural 1B

i mean it’s not his fault his NL team went out and signed a designated hitter

15 of the 19 outs made while Scherzer was on the mound were Ks.

Indians bullpen a disaster

(xpost) Came to post the same thing--15 K in 6.1 innings! Obviously couldn't have gone any farther--he'd thrown 111 pitches--but might've threatened 21 otherwise.

8 of the top 10 hitters by fWAR are in the AL. and one of the two NL players is nick markakis. (the other is aj pollock)

Some arguments for Molina to be a first ballot hall of famer on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, even comparisons to Ozzie Smith.

it's getting kind of weird, already. i understand locals doing it because he's a goddamn legend around here, but i don't get the national press/visiting announcers mentioning it all the time as well

I’ll be clear here: I’m on the big hall side of things and more catchers could get in, it wouldn’t hurt and if Molina has his plaque I’ll be happy, he seems cool and it also means it will be deserved, I am just thinking they are setting a lof people with expectations there.

yeah, they're making it a self-fulfilling prophecy pretty much, because now every year he doesn't get in everyone will be like "but back in his playing days everyone said he was a first ballot hall of famer!"

but i'll be happy to see him in the hall, too, if he makes it, even if his numbers don't exactly back it up. and i look forward him to coming back to busch stadium wearing really tacky bright red suit jackets with ozzie, gibson, and the rest of the guys for a long time.

He’ll be the Cardinals coach for 17 years, also.

JFC at the graphic showing that there was 7000 pitches at 98 mph+ in 2014 and that we are on pace to break 20 000 this season.

a-rod: "he's 28 but he probably has the knowledge of a 38-year-old" (talking about Francisco Peña, son of Tony)

fuck you, Yadi

I dout he reads this message board Morbs.

idk, he seems pretty sensitive to disrespect

The Chicago White Sox released the following update today on the condition of White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar: pic.twitter.com/FFrhsiaI4Z

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 7, 2018

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/e/ef/Rush_logo.jpg

(xposts) From a Posnanski column on Markakis:

J. Damon through age 33: 1,845 games, .288/.353/.433, 2,102 hits, 166 homers, 3,162 total bases.
Markakis through age 33: 1,839 games, .288/.358/.422, 2,052 hits, 165 homers, 3,014 total bases.

http://www.mlb.com/news/nick-markakis-has-a-real-chance-at-3000-hits/c-275175746

they call him The Compiler

both good players! but there's a pretty big gap in WAR, presumably because damon's lack of power played better in center than markakis' in right + baserunning

the latter is off to a hell of a start this year

it's getting kind of weird, already. i understand locals doing it because he's a goddamn legend around here, but i don't get the national press/visiting announcers mentioning it all the time as well

― obviously DLC (Karl Malone), Sunday, May 6, 2018 11:04 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bending over backwards to grade catchers on a curve is the new on base percentage I guess

if Yadi makes the HOF Jim Sundberg should activate his dormant Veteran's Committee campaign.

off-topic but i thought this was interesting. i never think of the blue jays as a powerhouse 80s team but they were just consistently good

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hffMszeDiB-Owy90TsTGOl-vmMY=/0x0:1273x371/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1273x371):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10797191/chart__12_.png

(sorry the STL line is highlighted; i grabbed from a cardinals blog)

what? pic.twitter.com/Kt2YEfQCij

— Parker Hageman (@ParkerHageman) May 8, 2018

glad i'm not watching the MIN broadcast, i guess

im sure that makes sense in his head

is that torii or latroy?

torii

Maybe giving him too much credit here, but I think he's talking about launching the ball by "cutting the ball in half" and generating backspin? Not sure about how that applies to Donaldson though, who seems the poster boy for this uppercut/fly-ball revolution

@TBrownYahoo
The Reds are nearing a trade for Matt Harvey. Very close, according to source.

yikes

done deal, for Mesoraco

interesting... i guess mesoraco is as damaged as harvey at this point if not worse

D Bundy's getting lit up, geez

Mesoraco looked like a potential beast at catcher for a minute but wow that was four years ago. he's making $13 million this year??

he signed a 4-year deal after his all-star season, 2015-18, i think

i think injuries/concussions kind of ruined things for him

the pride of punxsutawney

danny duffy's got a ten-run lead before he even takes the mound

Dylan Bundy faced seven hitters. He allowed four homers, seven base runners, two walks and seven runs. He did not record an out. His Game Score was -19, which ranks tied for the 13th worst of all time and the second worst since after 1940.

— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) May 8, 2018

yeah, but he built a lot of character

that's the kind of outing that has dr neal el attrache waiting by the phone

As you might've guessed, per @baseball_ref Play Index, Dylan Bundy is the first starter ever to allow 4 HR without recording an out. (Three starters allowed 3 HR w/o getting an out, the last Phil Dumatrait in 2007.)

— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) May 8, 2018

might need to update 'pitchers who are doing well' soon

ivan nova and lucas giolito have combined to throw 152 pitches in five innings

"Reds land Harvey" strikes me funny

like he's an orca

He has put on weight, yes

I'm sure Harvey will get bored up on Vine St. at 2am and probably drown his sorrows in some Cincinnati chili.

A drunk Harvey forgets what year it is and looks to a once familiar Skyline to try to reorient himself - a disastrous night follows

too bad we don't know literally anything about cincinnati other than their gross chili or we could keep the fun going

i still don't even know how to spell it

Pete Kozma's first plate appearance as a Tiger is a home run off Bartolo Colon.

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) May 9, 2018

aw shit, he just got kozma'd

giants swept in philly and obliterated the franchise mark for strikeouts in a four-game series with 55 (previous record was 44 vs. d-backs with johnson and schilling in 2003)

wow

strikeouts are cool i mean if you strikeout whats the worse you just missed on hitting a double that's all, keep on striking out i say

One player who is not striking out at all and showing the way is freaking Andrelton Simmons, who knew. He stands at a beautiful 6.2% K rate. To be fair, even when he was slashing .244/.286/.331 he wasn't a strikeout guy, but now on top of that his OPS is .921. While playing usual Simmons defense.

What a great trade for Eppler.

Make baseball fun again, they said, it would be fun, they said..... pic.twitter.com/tfdzTjXfWm

— 🦉Mike Clevinger 🌺 (@Mike_Anthony13) May 11, 2018

One player who is not striking out at all and showing the way is freaking Andrelton Simmons, who knew. He stands at a beautiful 6.2% K rate. To be fair, even when he was slashing .244/.286/.331 he wasn't a strikeout guy, but now on top of that his OPS is .921. While playing usual Simmons defense.

What a great trade for Eppler.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, May 11, 2018 12:57 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark

this one seems like a true win-win to me. swanson was playing well this year & shawn newcomb has been awesome too

Swanson was part of another deal iirc

November 12, 2015: Simmons traded by the Atlanta Braves with Jose Briceno (minors) to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Chris Ellis (minors), Erick Aybar, Sean Newcomb and cash.

December 9, 2015: Swanson traded by the Arizona Diamondbacks with Aaron Blair and Ender Inciarte to the Atlanta Braves for Gabe Speier (minors) and Shelby Miller.

Interesting coupla trades. Everyone wins except the dumbass Dbacks imo

yeah but there'd have been no room for him otherwise

find it interesting that even with dansby hurt they're not moving albies to short -- guess they want to avoid a ~controversy~. i'm not aware of evidence that dansby is actually a better fielder

speaking of the Wizard Ozhaino, here are your current ml home run leaders:

1. betts (13)
2. harper, gallo, albies, trout (12)
6. blackmon, machado, jramirez, pollock (11)

a newsletter to keep up with the rooks

https://tinyletter.com/ThisWeekInBaseballDebuts

Joey Gallo grounded out to the Houston Astros Right Side Monster. pic.twitter.com/x8u3heRUtj

— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) May 12, 2018

i know i sound like a stodgy ol' broadcaster but...is there any possible way to hit it to the left side? i know hitting to the opposite field is harder than it looks (i have a hard time doing it even when i'm playing softball) but even a really weak swing or a strong bunt toward 3rd could be a double

yeah I'd try a swinging bunt/baltimore chop but that just flies in the face of the anti-launch angle trend-metric zeitgeist we live in.

anti-

baseball fans who boo pitchers who throw over to first drive me insane. if i were a professional pitcher i would quickly face a class action lawsuit because someone would boo a throw over to first and i'd lose my shit and throw the ball as fast as possible into the crowd and ask them if they could at least understand that, and knowing my luck i'd probably hit some children. it turns me into rob dibble. just stfu baseball fans, you goddamn idiots

imagine booing every field goal attempt of the opposing football team

imagine joey votto as a pitcher being booed for throwing to first

I keep thinking that it would motivate pitcher to throw to first again.

I always think the crowd is booing the pace of play slowdown, and I do agree with them there.

new pace of play initiative: no more throwing over to first, or any base. once you're on base, you just run around the bases carefree

It’s not a slowdown, its baseball.

baseball fans who boo pitchers who throw over to first drive me insane. if i were a professional pitcher i would quickly face a class action lawsuit because someone would boo a throw over to first and i'd lose my shit

Ha I agree it's stupid but this sounds like a sound argument for for doing it, if indeed there's even an infinitesimal chance it somehow rattles the pitcher

reds' first four-game sweep in LA since 1976

Freddy Peralta 5th pitcher all time to strikeout 13 in his major league debut (last one was Strasburg, of course)

probably the only one to do it in a spot start though

I slightly complained about them last week (over Molina's legacy) but really I don't mind the sunday night baseball broadcast team, Mendoza is terrific of course and I like when Rodriguez discusses hitting.

pretty good braves / cubs game going right now

joey bats!

4th lead change of the game

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon is open to trying anything that will heal a cut on his middle finger and keep him on the mound, including urinating on it.

Taillon told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he's received that suggestion as a possible remedy.

"I said if it helps, I'll put a sign-up sheet and everyone can come and pee," he told the newspaper.

"I don't care. I just want (the cut) to go away."

kole calhoun is slashing 158/.187/.195

he has 21 hits, 5 walks, 37 strikeouts

he hit a triple and homer on opening day & HASNT HAD AN XBH SINCE

More like Cold Calhoun.

bah-dum tssshh**

his wRC+ is......2

NL is 36-18 in interleague play so far

jays and cards poised to add one to each side

#Rays news: Sergio Romo to start Saturday, part of another new pitching idea to play matchups in first inning, get Yarbrough deeper. https://t.co/KfWIFOFJzz

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) May 18, 2018

ts: canny managing move vs. attempt to fuck with 'starters' stats in arbitration

if i could be baseball god for a day, i'd change the entire arbitration process

moron with the glove touched a live ball that was headed for the corner and cost the home team a run. his girlfriend/wife/a total stranger is absolutely unloading on him pic.twitter.com/PO9KiSbpiD

— Productive Outs (@ProductiveOuts) May 19, 2018

gf/wife/total stranger otm

The expression on the kids face with the hat and the guy in the blue shirt next to him makes the shot.

when you bring a glove and sit in the first row, you have to approach every at-bat like a fielder -- given the opportunity, do i want to create a ground-rule double? or take away a flyout, or a home run?

has bartman taught us nothing

braves released bautista, maybe the end of his career?

Wow, I'd hoped for that but wasn't sure they'd do it so quickly. He stunk it up pretty bad.

where does jason heyward rank on the albatross contracts list? crazy that this guy is now an unquestionably bad player

i'm not sure, but he's gotta be up there. baseball is really, really weird

Jordan Hicks just hit 105 mph

somehow his K/9 is 3.48

everyone thinks the Rays are blazing some new trail but the Orioles have been using one-inning starting pitchers for years

— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) May 21, 2018

haha

poor qualx

what trout and betts are doing right now is pretty insane. and then there's ohtani! very cool season so far

don't forget your NL-leading Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Barves, just like you predicted

and the Rockies can take the lead tonight.

~105 mph is apparently the limit for pitchers?

Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks became the second pitcher ever (after Aroldis Chapman) to hit the 105mph mark, tossing two fastballs at that epic speed during an appearance against the Phillies on Sunday. As The Athletic’s Mark Saxon writes in a subscription-only piece, Hicks’ feat may represent the virtual limit of how fast a human arm can throw a baseball. “The maximum can’t go up, because the ligaments can’t take it,” said Dr. Glenn Fleisig, research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute. “We’re at the limit, based upon what ligaments and tendons can take….What’s happening is more teams have more guys near the top of the limit, but the limit is just going up nominally. It really can’t go up. Maybe at the top it will go up one mph or so, but never will it be 10 mph faster. It’s just more crowded near the top now.”

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/05/quick-hits-hicks-swihart-reyes-nolasco.html

idk seems like only a matter of time before pitchers just start getting doctors to weave horse ligaments into their elbows so they can throw 150

for real though, if humanity survives for another few decades, at some point baseball will have to figure out how to deal with prosthetic limbs that are more powerful than human arms, cyborgs, and probably a million different PEDs. after seeing how much they've struggled to deal with pace of play and the endless agonizing of certain broadcasters about the issue, i'm assuming this will be living hell

if someone lost their arm, today, and then got a powerful prosthetic arm that could throw 120 mph with perfectly reproducible mechanics as a replacement, what would Keith Hernandez say? this one's all up to keith

keith would definitely mention how hard j.r. richard used to throw; not sure about the rest

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-impact-of-the-nfls-anthem-rule-on-baseball/

hanley is DFA'd

Very abrupt. I go by the building-sized billboard of Hanley that’s 1 block from Fenway at least twice a week

i guess a lot of it had to do with his 2019 option for $22 million, which was going to vest if he hits 497 PAs this year (all of which makes it unlikely that any other team will want to trade for him)

yeah no one's gonna trade for him, but when he's released . . . he seems like a met waiting to happen

Lineups have been released for the Hall of Fame Classic legends game taking place tomorrow afternoon at historic Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.

Former major leaguers representing each of the 30 MLB teams will be coached by six Hall of Famers. #HOFClassic @baseballhall pic.twitter.com/zg8qo57NXP

— Jon Shestakofsky (@Shesta_HOF) May 25, 2018

michael barrett and aj pierzynski, together again

the first HOF game with a catcher collision, rules be damned

NL playoffs start today lineup would be pretty decent.

Braves
Brewers
Rockies

WC- Phils, Bucs

Kinda thought the idea of a Philly and Pittsburgh winner take all wild card game as a pretty interesting proposition.

TB trades Span, Colome to Seattle

who made the c-flap cool? stanton? baez?

is it cool though

if it’s cool enough for harper and trout and pretty much all the braves then i guess so

i would wear a c flap without thinking

I think it looks kind of cool but also maybe bad for marketing

Scooter Gennett went 5-5 and is now up to .337 tonight for the Reds in Denver.

is it good for marketing when a player gets his face cracked open by a pitch

Romo exits w/ one out in the first after Orioles load bases

That'll show those newfangled analytics monkeys

damn, the Indians game a wild one.

i have previously, in this space, marveled at the fact that mike pelfrey made $47m playing baseball. it's still difficult to believe, tbh, but let's take a look at the career of homer bailey.

in 12 seasons, he's been above league-average twice. he broke 2 bWAR once. he has negative bWAR in six of those seasons. he's been worth 4.7 bWAR overall and fading fast. never even made the all-star team. he's also 'earned' $86m so far and is guaranteed $23m more in 2019 plus a $5m buyout for 2020.

i mean i'm all for taking money from MLB owners, but damn. despite being manifestly better, jacob degrom will never make anywhere near that much money. bailey did throw two no-hitters though! (say it morbs . . . )

had no idea Bailey has been around that long

yeah, i was going to say! i refuse to believe he's been around 12 seasons. homer bailey is and will always be a rookie who has run into a bit of bad luck but is promising overall

i imagine reds fans have a slightly different view of him, though

2013 when Homer Bailey signed the extension he was coming off a couple years of 200+ innings and seemed to be heading into his peak. Johnny Cueto was coming off the second year in a row where he had lost nearly 1/2 season to an abdominal problem that did not seem to want to heal. Bailey had already been a Red for a few years and with the couple of no hitters, I think they hoped they were signing a power pitcher that would continue to improve as some pitchers of that style do.

Reds had bum luck as both Bailey and now Met catcher Devin Mesoraco didn't both just get hurt, they were pretty much total busts as contract extensions. They got near nothing out of them.

I still think Bailey has enough arm left that he could still become productive in some way down the line. Don't know if the bullpen is the place to get him straight, but it might work. Some seem to think if used as a short man, his fastball might get some more pop.

Matt Kemp leads the NL in batting average and has a 152 OPS+ https://t.co/ZLTGIT3MKD pic.twitter.com/FhfsaIbPYu

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) May 31, 2018

the other nick markakis

see also: rhys hoskins

When I talked to players about converting to the c-flap in recent years many of them said the same thing: More uppercut swings means more high-spin four-seamers up in the zone at high velocities next to the face. "Why risk that?" https://t.co/GPylJg6OHL

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) May 31, 2018

What the quack (~24secs)....

https://www.mlb.com/tigers/video/reyes-bases-clearing-triple/c-2103489483

i feel insane remembering the royals and mets were in the world series only 3 yrs ago

how the almost mighty have dumpstered

always appreciate how, after throwing out a baserunner, catchers do their best mike-pence-at-the-dmz tough look

Rays trade infielder Brad Miller to the Brewers for first baseman Ji-Man Choi.

that's a blockbuster trade, Ji-Man was statistically the greatest Brewer of all-time

cubs and brewers battle for first place in the NL central in a series starting today, should be good

Three @Braves, including NL leading vote-getter @FreddieFreeman5, are among the current NL leaders in the first @CampingWorld MLB All-Star Ballot update. Visit https://t.co/Jd6REEkFYI to vote. #MLBVote pic.twitter.com/kam5L9iFHa

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) June 11, 2018

(they haven't posted the AL update yet)

(let's go nick markakis!)

eff the cubs

i think my OF was Harper, Cain, Yelich when i voted last week

a NL all-star starting lineup with markakis and kemp in the year 2018 would be something to behold

i anticipate a fade of some degree

the yankees are on pace to win 112 games btw

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/6/12/17431794/mlb-owns-everything-rawlings-statcast-youth-baseball-pro-players

Major League Baseball and private investors recently joined together to buy Rawlings for close to $400 million. You know Rawlings, probably quite well. MLB is now a key investor in the ownership group of the company that makes the gloves you grew up working into malleability, running over with your car to get them into game shape, smelling when they’re new and trying to keep tied together when they’re old.

I think the Mariners being on pace to win 103 games is astonishing.

There’s a decent chance we end up with five 100 wins team.

mariners look like a mirage with that run differential

There’s a decent chance we end up with five 100 wins team.

no there isn't

you can be a mirage for 60 games, or 100

this is too good to limit to either the mets or good mlb tweets threads. this shit is all-time

Dear @MLB, give us every mic’d up ejection for the rest of eternity.

Sincerely, Everyone. pic.twitter.com/l0rttuYHb2

— Steve Perrault (@Steve_Perrault) June 13, 2018

terry collins is very mad about cocksuckers, among other things

i watched that this morning and i'm still wondering why the ump said "our ass is in the jackpot if we don't call that"

twice!

Acting classes should recreate this scene until it's nailed down, this is straight out of Cassavettes or early-Scorcese or something.

i've never heard "ass in the jackpot" but i guess he's saying the ump crew will be in trouble if they don't eject thor?

iirc 'cocksucker' is one word (there may be others) that will get you instantly tossed with no questions asked, so i guess terry was enjoying his freedom

(xp) Not only that but if they let that pitch slide without ejection, it just sets the stage for a real bloodbath. The Mets players are taking issue with the fact that there was no warning prior to the game. IIRC this all stems from Utley (who's AB vs. Thor there) hard slide into the Mets' SS who broke his leg on the play, which happened earlier in the season.

i was at that game

we did not get audio

This is like a Cassavetes movie https://t.co/OXMvz3iwKt

— nuanced opinion guy (@charles_kinbote) June 13, 2018

what does that mean, "our ass is in the jackpot" ???

is it that hard? what "our ass is grass" meant 40 years ago.

yeah i understood what it meant via context clues, it's just ... not a real expression. the first time i said it i assumed he was stumbling around a real phrase, but then he said it again.

need a search of uRBAN Dictionary

I mean I gathered that's probably what it meant just wondering if that was some incredible inside baseball terminology

from the EW FB group

In No Country for Old Men when Llewelyn is in the taxi returning to his motel and finds what he believes to be his pursuers in an adjacent room:
“I don’t want to get in some kind of a jackpot here, buddy...”
“Look, you’re already in the jackpot. I’m trying to get you out of it. Take me to another motel.”

is the umpire a Texan?

In any case, I'm glad umpires can invent expressions should the need arises.

Cop slang? http://www.policemag.com/blog/editors-notes/story/2012/08/cop-slang-our-favorite-user-terms.aspx
(in the comments)

To be in the "jackpot" or "jackpotted," meant you were in deep doodoo.

tom hallion is from upstate new york

close enough!

see definition 3

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jackpot

also see definition 4

Watching Cubs-Brewers right now, and what is all that stuff floating around Miller Park? It looks like cottonwood seeds.

cubs are doing the reliever-to-left-fielder shuffle with cishek and duensing

genius managing iirc

My favorite Maddon moment was a few years ago when he made a pitching change, int. walk a batter, made another pitching change.

Ah damn it! MLB took the The Ass is in the Jackpot video down!

guess what I didn't get to see/hear

oh, there is still a YouTube upload

i am kinda underwhelmed, much less entertaining than existing footage of Earl Weaver

Rob Manfred said that the Terry Collins/umpire viral video has been scrubbed from the internet because a collectively bargained agreement with the umpires that said those interactions involving microphoned umpires wouldn’t be made public. MLB is trying to figure out how it leaked

— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) June 14, 2018

looks like Manfred's ass is gonna be in the jackpot now

omg what a bunch of babies

that video was so great rip

Giants-Marlins entering the 16th and i'm disappointed to see no one is 0-for-7 yet

The 9-1-2 hitters of the Giants order went 0-17.

15!

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23806676/los-angeles-angels-place-4-more-dl-bringing-total-club-record-15

fun manny machado trade idea: baltimore gives him to another team, with nothing in return - except the other team also has to take on chris davis. pretty sad that zero teams in baseball would even consider that one

there's barf on the field in pittsburgh, i repeat, there is barf on the field in pittsburgh

my money was on Baltimore

there's blood on field in philadelphia, i repeat, there is now barf and blood in the fields of pennsylvania

(a ball bounced off of the outfield wall and hit nick williams' nose pretty hard and made it bleed, but as a doctor i can tell that he's probably fine)

I think we should all just accept that the yankees are young and fun and good

just my 2c

i'll take the yankees over the gaslight anthem tbh

is that an emo band?

yeah kev, fun... for FASCISTS

i'll take the yankees over the gaslight anthem tbh

― mookieproof, Wednesday, June 20, 2018 11:14 PM (thirty-one minutes ago)

lol

#HanleyRamirez, former @RedSox infielder, has some.. well, issues. Being eyed in connection with an ongoing federal and state investigation. Stay tuned.

— Michele McPhee (@MicheleMcPhee) June 22, 2018

weird, wonder what's going on

josh hader has already pretty much matched 3 of the 4 best andrew miller seasons in terms of fWAR, and in only 38 innings.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/ny-sports-hanley-ramirez-investigation-20180622-story.html

Fentanyl distribution.

Did not expect that

the fuuuck

In tomorrow’s @sfchronicle: A’s to call up Edwin Jackson; he’ll join record 13th major-league team https://t.co/qqHwvmyzLv

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) June 23, 2018

awesome

The Cubs got swept by the Reds in a 4 game series for the first time since April, 1983. They were outscored 31-12 over the course of the four games.

Turns out Hanley wasn't involved at all in the Fentanyl distribution case...

Looks like the Nats tried starting a one-inning pitcher against Tampa Bay tonight:

Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	WHIP	ERA
G. Gonzalez, P
	
1.0
	
3
	
6
	
6
	
5
	
2
	
1
	
-
	
3.68

whoops, my code must be cross-tabbed

Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	WHIP	ERA
G. Gonzalez	1.0	3	6	6	5	2	1	-	3.68

Dayton Moore first offered public support to Luke Heimlich a week ago in an FSKC interview that generated few headlines or controversy. How the Royals' GM became an unlikely advocate for the Oregon State pitcher and convicted child molester: https://t.co/m6F7MKVXMr

— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) June 26, 2018

Javy Baez is having a truly ill game tonight.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-rays-played-a-pitcher-at-first-base/

ross otm, both that extra base by contreras and the throw by muncy were dangerous as hell

Highest OPS+ by a teenager*
Min. 100 PA, since 1901
1. 166 -- Juan Soto, 2018 Nationals
2. 146 -- Whitey Lockman, 1945 Giants
3. 139 -- Mel Ott, 1928 Giants**
4. 137 -- Tony Conigliaro, 1964 Red Sox
5. 132 -- Ty Cobb, 1906 Tigers**
6. 130 -- Jimmie Foxx, 1927 Athletics**
7. 122 -- Sherry Magee, 1904 Athletics
8. 119 -- Johnny Lush, 1904 Athletics
9. 118 -- Bryce Harper, 2012 Nationals
10. 117 -- Mickey Mantle, 1951 Yankees**
*Age-19 season or earlier
**Hall of Famer

https://www.mlb.com/news/juan-soto-working-on-best-teenage-mlb-season/c-283388364

damn

1904 a's were loaded

by my research on bbref, kluber's start this week was the worst of his career by game score (8)

His 18K game from a few years ago was another interleague game, also against the cardinals

Lush played for the Phillies!

so did Magee

Yes and they finished last that year!

Highest OPS+ by a teenager*
Min. 100 PA, since 1901
1. 166 -- Juan Soto, 2018 Nationals

run it again after tonight's game, dude had a career night.

182 now!

the "squat" Willians Astudillo is up

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-weirdest-player-in-the-minors-is-now-in-the-majors/

And an RBI single in his first AB.

Also, Cubs had 9 runs on 14 singles before Happ doubled just now.

today's Brewers-Reds game featured both a reliever (Michael Lorenzen) hitting a grand slam and a catcher (Erik Kratz) recording a strikeout on a 59 mph knuckleball (that was well outside the strike zone, but I guess the ump just wanted to get it over with)

Worst June in Mets' club history. Think about that history.

yeowch

Chris Sale is ridiculous.

yeah, he’s one of the best pitchers in his division

*air horn*

Third-worst month in Mets history, actually.

*air horn*

― Karl Malone, Saturday, June 30, 2018 11:00 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago)

(tony reali mutes, deducts 4 points)

god damn you tony reali, this is the last time

oh I was saying he was doing it to me!

Astudillo hit a triple today! 3-7 now with three RBI.

we love our willians, but the twins have him playing 2B today

he has not played middle infield since 2011, and that was for 18 games

!

imagine him & Bartolo as a battery

gerrit cole / justin verlander trivia

He already owns an unusual but interesting record -- at least since people started keeping track, he has the record for most consecutive games to start a season where the pitcher goes at least five innings and allows six or fewer hits. Cole has done that all 17 times this year.

The odd thing is that Justin Verlander did it in his first 16 starts this season. There must be something in that Houston water.

looks like colby rasmus is retiring (again)

Colby Rasmus steps off the 'roller coaster' again. Reports from Baltimore have former #stlcards torchbearer prospect walking away from the game -- for a second consecutive summer. Spoke to him about that this past spring: https://t.co/oC629kTL0c #Orioles #MLB

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) July 4, 2018

if you can't make the orioles roster you'd better, in the words of the immortal chuck noll, get on with your life's work

https://deadspin.com/carlos-gomez-cant-hit-the-ball-but-he-can-hit-this-wate-1827345931

this looks like something out of Smash Bros.

in the last calendar year, aaron judge is slugging .568

francisco lindor is slugging .566

this is kinda random but AL first basemen are having a pretty terrible year, collectively

Wow at that Lindor number.

yeah, the most defensible AL 1b All-Star id the A's guy, Olson?

Also Oakland is looking like our only hope for an AL WC race. (other than btwn the East's two Evil Empires)

Biggest Changes in Attendance per Game
1 #Marlins ⬇️11,162⬇️
2 #BlueJays ⬇️11,147⬇️
3 #Tigers ⬇️7,319⬇️
4 #Orioles ⬇️7,063⬇️
5 #Royals ⬇️7,035⬇️
6 #Pirates ⬇️6,496⬇️
7 #Brewers ⬆️6,154⬆️
8 #Astros ⬆️6,000⬆️
9 #Rangers ⬇️4,929⬇️

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) July 5, 2018

apparently the marlins this year have taken a policy of not lying about attendance so that when it theoretically rises once the team is theoretically better the new ownership group will have an accurate reflection of how much they’ve actually risen attendance \(o_O)/

hi J... I thought MLB-wide policy now was to record attendance as tickets sold for a game, not actual fannies in seats; i wonder if this has changed?

you might be right and i could just be parroting jetah propaganda

the high in anaheim today is to be 117° -- 109° by game time at 7 PDT. have we had heat-related postponements yet?

there's been a few guys recently who have left games bcuz of the heat

you know, back in the day the boys used to wear wool uniforms and ride in single-berth trains without any air conditioning, all without any complaints at all. in fact they used to wear those wool uniforms on the train, because they loved the game so much. i remember some pranksters setting shoelaces on fire in the dugout, but you know when it was time to lay down a sacrifice bunt for the 5th time in a game, we were ready, and that's something the boys today with their launch angles and metrics can't seem to learn

i've been listening to too much tim mccarver recently

Trevor Bauer says he's never signing a long-term deal. Only one-year contracts.

Why? Turns out he made a bet with a friend: If he ever signs a multi-year deal, the friend gets to shoot him in the nuts with a paintball gun from 10 feet away.

Full podcast: https://t.co/hvN9x1gPKo pic.twitter.com/9l3z7PHLGz

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 6, 2018

:/

sure...

huh

Trevor "one of the most scientific baseball players in MLB" Bauer

Jordan Zimmermann outpitched Bartolo Colon in 2 hours, 5 minutes. Sun just set, so they'll have to wait for postgame fireworks.

— Jason Beck (@beckjason) July 7, 2018

Both starters were so good - game ended just minutes after sun set, played in a crisp 2:05. Zimmermann threw 96 pitches, 67 for strikes. Colon w/ 97P - 72 strikes. Combined - the two went to a 3-ball count just three times....

— Dan Dickerson (@Dan_Dickerson) July 7, 2018

Great four- or five-way Cy Young race shaping up in the A.L.: Severino, Sale, and Bauer, Kluber and Verlander still hanging in there.

Missed Snell from Tampa Bay (because I don't know who Snell from Tampa Bay is).

i saw a night game in Seattle (2006?) around the solstice that ended before the sun set. (Jamie Moyer for the M's)

The Angels have a pitcher named Deck McGuire! Obvious refugee from a WWII Navy movie.

I heard an inning of Joe Buck; he's still got "it."

dude was a first round pick for the Jays many moons ago!

o shit the nats had a players-only meeting and now they're unstoppable o shit

love to discuss things with my coworkers

o shit the nats had a players-only meeting and now they're unstoppable o shit

― mookieproof, Saturday, July 7, 2018 10:40 PM (yesterday)

They were down 0-9 to the Marlins at one point during the game in which their win streak started.

!

Giants' Alen Hanson just scored from 1st on a wild pickoff throw to tie the game vs. the Cubs 😮

(via @SFGiants) pic.twitter.com/pyc30NPRvK

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 10, 2018

Astros win on wacky walkoff:
https://streamable.com/g5ic0

as if they weren't good enough

the astros have optioned ken giles to triple-a

was he closing most of this year?

Texas TV crew just put up a career-stats comp of Bartolo and Jack Morris and i want to smash my head against the punk rock.

17-0 at the end of 4 for our Indians.

Got to give it to the Tribe for coming back and laying an whooping on the Reds tonight after the black hole collapse yesterday in the 9th.

Cleveland's lineup when it's right, is pretty impressive.

the rockies are attempting to outdo cleveland, they've got 18 runs in the fourth inning

May want to x-post to Position Players Pitching

catch of the year candidate, billy hamilton going waaaay over the CF wall to rob matt carpenter tonight

that recent keon broxton catch is hard to beat i think but that billy hamilton catch was insane

Orioles, White Sox, and Royals on pace to lose 106-116 games.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2018-misc.shtml

Year over Year attendance : Down 2.5 million to date

9 Teams in positive attendance year to year,
Rest of the league is in negative attendance including the Cubs, Red Sox, Angels, and Cardinals.

its realy sad, it was a sport

clearly the data show americans are choosing the yankees in these polarizing times

Well about that...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/opinion/new-york-yankees-evil.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/15/opinion/sunday/15hart/merlin_141223467_c71ae7d7-2023-4550-87e9-56e57221d9d3-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp

Hail Cashman

Orioles, White Sox, and Royals on pace to lose 106-116 games.

― Andy K, Sunday, July 15, 2018 9:03 PM

The Fangraphs projections have them all playing .400 or better the rest of the way.... and finishing with 105, 101, and 107 total losses, respectively.

“I would just say I don’t think the people that cover the Phillies will be laying on the beach Wednesday or Thursday” - @jaysonst on the Phillies

— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) July 16, 2018

Cards-Cubs are the only game tonight. Has to be a makeup?

I think it was scheduled that way, not 100% certain. ESPN is broadcasting it -- I hope it's not blocked on mlb.tv.

it's a result of the new CBA:

As part of baseball’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players’ union, the 2018 season will include a shorter spring training, more off days during the season, and add four more days to the playing calendar. That means an earlier start to the season, in late March.

It also means the Thursday of the All-Star break will feature one game, a nationally broadcast game ala Sunday Night Baseball. According to a schedule given the Cardinals they will play against the Cubs at Wrigley Field that day, July 19. Teams can be selected only once during the span of the current CBA for that All-Star Thursday game.

https://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cards-to-open-season-on-thursday-march-in-new-york/article_4ba5b127-5165-5ccd-921d-aead92baad03.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share

Top 10 most Home Runs as a teenager:

1. Tony Conigliaro (Boston) 24
2. Bryce Harper (Washington Nationals) 22
3. Mel Ott (NY Giants) 19
4. Ken Griffey, Jr. (Seattle) 16
5. Phil Cavarretta (Cubs) 14
6. Mickey Mantle (NY Yankees) 13
7. Ed Kranepool (NY Mets) 12
8. Robin Yount (Milwaukee) 11
9. Juan Soto (Washington Nationals) 10 <-Turns 20 October 25, 2018
10. Harmon Killebrew (Washington Senators) 9

good list

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2018-trade-value-41-to-50/

kiley mcdaniel is doing the trade value series now

simmons is gonna be pissed

was really surprised to see jose ramirez no. 1 in light of how much bias baseball seems to show towards prospect pedigree, per kiley. but i guess the contract really is ludicrous.

it's steph curry-esque a little

yeah, even the 2022 and 2023 option years are $11 and $13 million, respectively

Choo ended a 52-game on-base streak last night, he's been flying under the radar...

good times in Chicago. first, a full 4-man outfield softball shift against Matt Carpenter:

https://i.imgur.com/5SJnsJM.png

never seen that before! (Carpenter chose to take the free bunt single to the absent left side of the infield:)

https://i.imgur.com/6Qj1cf4.png

then, Tim McCarver said something that I think everyone would agree with, especially Chicago Cubs fans:

You know, back in the 1950s the Cubs were awful, and when the Cardinals visited Chicago there were a lot of people who would show up just to watch Stan Musial hit. The same is true today, for Matt Carpenter. A large contingent of Cubs fans are here just to watch Matt Carpenter hit.

carpenter is really locked in right now, it's great to watch. musial a bit of a stretch perhaps

the bunt was pretty baller

the bunt was fuckin hilarious

do we have a thread about playing baseball?

not sure but I would post about my softball team in such a thread

same

you didn't try very hard, did you

playing baseball

lol i just realized it's in my bookmarks, thanks Mookie.

the pirates just wrecked corey kluber; what the hell is going on

Willians Astudillo was sent back to Rochester on Sunday.

the top defensive players of the year thus far: Matt Chapman and Kolten Wong

https://sabr.org/latest/sabr-defensive-index-rankings-released-through-july-15-2018

One pitcher in the top 25s!

Odor?!

I never see the guy... does he have a bad rep?

Pirates are on fire. 10 wins in a row!

lol @ both the bucs AND the rays having better records than the giants

Morbs: yes, he is supposed to be awful.

who thought the Giants would be better than mediocre this year?

the giants themselves, apparently

Source says @SFGiants expect to be "strategic buyers" before July 31 Deadline. Looking for controllable players, not rentals. Team has no plan to become a seller.

— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 24, 2018

The Giants are only 5.5 back after losing:
#1 SP Bumgarner - 61 games (broken finger, dirt bike crash)
#2 SP Cueto - 11 days/2 starts (sprained ankle)
#2 SP Cueto - 62 games (sprained elbow)
#3 SP Samardzija - 36 games (shoulder stiffness)
#3 SP Samardzija - currently on the DL (shoulder stiffness)

That's like 34+ games of minor-league call-ups filling in for the top 3 in their rotation.

If any of those gimps can get it together, the Giants could compete in that terrible division.

hanging around .500 with those injuries is way more than any giants fan could have asked for. but there's four competitive teams in that division...

Also they lost their closer (Melancon - flexor) & set-up man/back-up closer (Strickland - idiot) for most of the season. Who else...? Longoria? Pence (probably a net-positive)... They are basically a half-minor league team.

shit's gonna happen when you have one of the oldest teams in baseball. tbh they'd be better off if samardzija had been out the whole year

5.5 back is feasible, but they have three teams in front of them and they're already three games up on their pythag

i don't know where they're gonna get 'controllable players' tho -- they have no prospects to trade and the big leaguers are either untouchable or not very valuable. (maybe tony watson, with the way people are about relievers these days)

it seems churlish to bash them after how very successful they've been, but they seem intent on driving their aging, expensive team off a cliff

kinda think this is the last hoo-ra

The Reds have played some pretty wild and weird games this year.

Sergio Romo entered the game as a reliever in the 8th and got out of the inning. In the 9th he switched to 3B for one batter, and then shifted back to pitcher to get the save.

#SFGiants crowd reaction to Josh Hader entering the game pic.twitter.com/5UbEFq85QC

— Josh Holub (@JoshHolub) July 27, 2018

Been close to 20mins so far:

Currently in a blackout delay at Dodger Stadium as all the stadium lights have shutoff in the middle of the inning pic.twitter.com/geWXmguLaN

— Chase Henley (@henleychase) July 31, 2018

lmao 19-0 nats b5

Addison Russell makes a baaaad out at third in the 9th to give the New Pirates a win

He looked safe on all the replays I saw, but it was a mistake to try for third.

http://afropunk.com/2018/08/ozzie-albies-comforting-ronald-acuna-jr-is-the-perfect-alternative-to-toxic-masculinity/

that’s cute as hell

a thousand slashfics launched

heads up for all who have their Twin Peaks costume picked out

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/8/2/17646038/mlb-postseason-schedule-2018-world-series-game-7-halloween

so i guess this means a Mariners-Nationals WS

just as well the yankees scored -- having a 1-0 game go four hours was going to be embarrassing

Friday was 2:14 wtf

Sam Miller on the genesis of the violent walk-off dogpile

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24058781/how-beating-teammates-became-go-walk-celebration

the cardinals have been "accidentally" dumping gatorade on the tv reporter all year, seems like a good tradition

i'm going to mets/cubs at the end of the month on what is apparently "grateful dead day" at wrigley field

which doesn't actually seem to entail much of anything: https://www.mlb.com/cubs/tickets/specials/community-nights/grateful-dead-night

they're announcing the 'players weekend' uniforms and nicknames today, and the guys who just use their surnames anyway make me sad

I admire them! deGrom is one.

https://www.mlb.com/news/2018-mlb-players-weekend-nicknames/c-289419008

jesus christ Corey Knebel just walked the first 3 batters of the 9th inning with a 4-2 lead and somehow wasn't pulled right there

now 8-4 Padres, good going Counsell

Brewers now 0-8 in weekday games

boxberger emoji one is hilarious xp

and the guys who just use their surnames anyway make me sad

― mookieproof, Thursday, August 9, 2018 1:11 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

greinke proving to be the most boring human on earth

maybe I'm just asking cuz I'm bitter right now but if you have a closer whose command is all over the place why don't you have another person warming up, just in case? I've seen so many blown saves that were absolutely telegraphed from the first batter. roll the dice if you must but leaving a guy in when he's missing the strike zone by a foot feels like you're just giving the game away.

Love these --
Michael Wacha: "WACHAMOLE"
Brad Boxberger: "🎁🍔"

Freddie Freeman: "ANDREW"
No idea what this means but I lol'd.

yeah if it were me I’d either use my last name or something that no one has ever called me

The names on the backs of jerseys for Players Weekend. Well played, Derek Holland. pic.twitter.com/RDjotjJEGj

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) August 9, 2018

lol @ "Last Name"

yeah if it were me I’d either use my last name or something that no one has ever called me

― k3vin k., Thursday, August 9, 2018 3:43 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cmon, like you wouldn't use "k3vin k."

derek holland hah

Classic nats lost.

immediate nats loss canon

David Bote just hit the Golden Homer: a walk-off grand slam, down three, and with his team down to his last strike.

For all the years we have pitch data, there are just two other Golden Homers: Chris Hoiles on 5/17/1996 and Alan Trammell on 6/21/1988.

— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) August 13, 2018