2019 Rolling "Hey Chatter Chatter" chatterthread

Happy Opening Day!

Anyone else gonna be watching?

god, i wish. i watched a ton of baseball the last 2 years, "working" from home. now, as a working 9-5 stiff, i am pissed that opening day is entirely made up of afternoon games on a thursday

Oh shoot, I meant season opener. This season is scheduled to begin on the EXOTIC island nation of Japon in a mere 3 hours. ESPN/MLB.TV will be airing it live.

oh dang, i forgot about that!

i will be missing it, unless this night goes even more toward the gutter than it already has

but i hope ichiro does well.

and also...that reminds me - is he going to retire after this opening series?

i haven't heard that from anywhere, but it just kind of makes sense

I would imagine so. He only played a handful of games last season.

next time let me know when the season starts

Welp doc, it's definitely not a pitcher's duel lol.

ESPN crew pronouncing Haniger's name incorrectly.

There were crazy amount of homers in this game.

Tokyo Dome has very similar dimensions to Tropicana Field that has normalized air pressure system making it a slight hitter's park with a tendency to produce more homers than the average NPB stadium.

I just lurk here but I'm really happy baseball's back.

Have we talked about the Wander Franco brothers yet? Three brothers who share the same name, all currently playing in the minors:

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=677551#/career/R/hitting/2018/ALL
http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=645566#/career/R/hitting/2018/ALL
http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=622568#/career/R/hitting/2019/ALL

the one with the rays did some very impressive things in the appy league last year

Ryne Harper turns 30 on Wednesday. This was the first big-league camp of his career. He made it to the big leagues with Seattle for 3 days in 2017 but never played. Was up in Boston and Denver. Rocco Baldelli was very happy to inform him about 40 minutes ago.

— Dan Hayes (@DanHayesMLB) March 25, 2019

Teams that enter the 2019 season with faith and hope: Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Indians, Twins, Astros, Athletics, Angels, Nationals, Phillies, Mets, Braves, Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, Pirates, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres, Diamondbacks

Teams that enter 2019 without faith and hope: Blue Jays, Orioles, White Sox, Tigers, Royals, Rangers, Mariners, Marlins, Giants

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/03/mlb-faith-and-hope-report-2019.html

seems over-positive

i can see why the reds and padres are optimistic, but i don't think they're really going to contend. nor do i have much faith/hope in the angels/pirates/diamondbacks

I can confirm that, at the team level, we have little faith and less hope.

i think the padres have a chance of contending if all of their young hotshot players are good sooner than expected. the reds should be feeling better about the direction they're moving in but it doesn't seem likely that they're going to be the team to win the NL central. i agree about the angels, pirates, and diamondbacks.

Source: Fernando Tatis Jr. will be on the Padres’ Opening Day roster. If any GM was going to do something like this, A.J. Preller seemed like the one.

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) March 27, 2019

padres are gonna be v. interesting! i am excited to see chris paddack, who has a) *very* little experience b) absolutely *insane* numbers

in 177.2 minor league innings he's had 230 K, 20 BB, .805 WHIP; this spring training it was 20 K and 2 BB in 12.2 IP

The White Sox confirmed Tuesday what a $43 million contract seemed to signal: Eloy Jimenez will begin the season in the major leagues.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/ct-spt-white-sox-eloy-jimenez-opening-day-roster-20190326-story.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUeIQ92Azn4

angels' opening day left fielder is apparently . . . peter bourjos. he is .229/.284/.372 over the last four seasons

padres made a waiver claim on (former d-backs) outfielder socrates brito; they don't actually need another outfielder and it is being surmised that they claimed him just to fuck over the d-backs' depth after souza's injury

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2wzdKHX0AAVGfs.jpg:small

i enjoyed these, especially the jim thome one

http://youtu.be/MEjD17Q7stA

6 HRs in Brewers/Cards so far, including one by Jhoulys Chacin (lmao)

who needs a DH?

you could make a solid rotation out of all the Milwaukee SPs who have hurt themselves running the bases over the last five years

lorenzo cain did the torii

that was a pretty nice opening day game

The Rangers TV crew has zero personality.

dodgers hit 8 homers on opening day. if this is van scoyoc's doing, i'm all in.

no personality would be an improvement on the pirates tv crew

Briefly had the urge to get MLB The Show 19 until I looked up what a PS4 Pro costs.

I’m really liking it. But I’ve only played about 6 hours of it.

same

did i already complain about opening day taking place during the afternoon of a weekday? sure was fun to read the boxscore of my favorite team's game after it was over

It's just hard to drop $400 + the game when I already have an XBox and only play one or two games a year.

if the Indians score more than zero runs per game this year I will be surprised

the day after opening day is always such a buzzkill

was hoping royals/white sox would get rained out yesterday so we'd have a day game today

https://www.sbnation.com/2019/3/26/18272826/indie-rock-fantasy-baseball-league-stephen-malkmus-ira-kaplan-rem

That’s really cool.

There’s a great track on The Show 19 by High Tatras. They’ve only released one EP and info on them on the internet is very scarce. I assume the band either know someone at SDS or someone there is a fan of super unknown indie music. Anyway, I can’t find the track from The Show 19 anywhere.

Seems weird to play on Thursday and then not play on a Friday night.

interesting name, interesting pitching profile

https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2019/3/29/18286586/nick-margevicius-san-diego-padres-starter-velocity-fastball-curveball

3 HRs for goldschmidt, and hopefully a chance for 4 in the 9th. the lone out he made tonight was a screaming line drive to deep center at 108 mph EV

that's like as many HRs as he hit in the first 2 months last season.

spurred by st louis-style bagels

bagel bites?

I didn't believe it at first, but when the Padres won on opening day, it was the first time they were over .500 since June 8, 2015.

i haven't really seen enough of AL morton, but for one thing, he seems to be throwing significantly harder. the pirates/ray searage (rip) theory dictated pitching inside and throwing ground balls, which morton was theoretically perfect for -- i mean his nickname was ground chuck. maybe he was trying to paint the edges too much? the astros seem to have freed him (and cole) to simply throw the ball by people.

two years old, but: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/charlie-morton-now-dictating-his-own-fate

Sinker usage rate went from high 50% to 20%

BREAKING: Angels employee tells DEA about extensive opioid use with Tyler Skaggs, that he told two team officials about Skaggs' abuse, and named other players as having used opioids, sources tell OTL.https://t.co/YGmF58mX7M

— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) October 12, 2019

Kay told DEA investigators that hours before Skaggs' death in July, Skaggs was in his Southlake Hilton hotel room and texted Kay to visit him, according to a source familiar with what Kay told the DEA. Kay also told investigators that Skaggs snorted three lines of crushed opioids in front of him, the sources said. Kay recognized that two of the lines could have been crushed oxycodone, but the third was not a substance he recognized, the sources said. Kay said he did not take any drugs despite being offered them by Skaggs, the sources said, because he was on a medication that would have negated the effects.

Holy shit. I wonder if this will blow up bigger than just Skaggs or if this was just a dude with a problem.

this piece argues the latter


https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/10/12/major-league-baseball-has-an-opioid-problem-now-what/

er the former, sorry.

Phillies' mgr candidates:

Buck Showalter
Joe Girardi
Dusty Baker

2 lols outta 3

Phillies hire Girardi.

It's his next logical stop on Morbs' personal shitlist.

padres hire Jayce Tingler, which i'm pretty sure is a made-up name

I have a real soft spot for Girardi, it's funny he's only 55 but w/ how much the game's changed he might as well be Connie Mack

He'll be good for them

I heard the two fucking morning morons on WFAN interviewing Jon Heyman (who seems like a genius in that context), and they are livid that Girardi didn't go to the Mets. Among other things, it never occurred to them that he doesn't want any part of the Wilpons.

i forget which recent thread (hof?) had some good discussion on catching framing/metrics, including the big boost in fWAR that some players got in the process. but resuming that discussion here, i guess, i share the skepticism about the numbers, and even if they're reliable, i agree that it sucks that it's only incorporated for games back to 2007 (or whatever year it goes back to), for comparative purposes.

but i thought this was a good, simple explanation of how the numbers really can be so dramatic:

http://tangotiger.com/index.php/site/article/statcast-lab-catcher-framing-wowy-at-the-individual-game-level

i'd excerpt some of it here but there are images that are important and i'm lazy right now

Meet Mason Saunders, the secret rodeo identity of Madison Bumgarner

https://theathletic.com/1629527/2020/02/23/meet-mason-saunders-the-secret-rodeo-identity-of-madison-bumgarner/?source=shared-article

Sign-stealing, Reese McGuire--long forgotten.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-catcher-reese-mcguires-court-date-pushed-back-due-pandemic/

Not surprisingly, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame has postponed their scheduled June induction (Olerud, Ward, Morneau) and various other events until whenever.

not the first ward in the canadian hall of fame, my sources say! yes i'm procrastinating at wfh

https://www.mlb.com/news/30-stars-compete-in-mlb-the-show-players-league

the tweet version:

MLB, @MLB_PLAYERS
& Sony Interactive Entertainment have announced the creation of the MLB The Show Players League, the first-ever competitive @MLBTheShow league solely featuring Major Leaguers.

Games start tonight. More details: https://t.co/pMXYrMqTAe

Here are the 30 players: pic.twitter.com/i2ISX393s6

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) April 10, 2020

i will go ahead and predict a WS of tatis jr vs bo bichette, as they are the youngest

they have been playing a version of The Show for most of their lives, or possibly all of it

i'm told kahnle is v. good

i will go ahead and predict a WS of tatis jr vs bo bichette, as they are the youngest

― let me be your friend on the other end! (Karl Malone), Friday, April 10, 2020 10:45 AM (twenty-two minutes ago)

soto is younger than bobich

didn't see soto there!

tbh this sounds kind of fun

lol

(1/3) Odds to win MLB The Show 20 Players League (Bovada):

TB (Snell) +550
CIN (Garrett) +600
MIN (May) +600
SF (Pence) +1000
BOS (Rodriguez) +2000
CHC (Happ) +2000
HOU (McCullers Jr.) +2000
LAA (Buttrey) +2000
LAD (Lux) +2000
NYM (McNeil) +2000
NYY (Kahnle) +2000

— Odds Shark (@OddsShark) April 10, 2020

wait, so half of the guys are at +3500 - are those all the guys who have literally never played the game before? because if there's anyone like that playing in this tournament, they're going to get obliterated. the show is fucking hard

i am currently playing the 2020 season as my beloved st louis cardinals. dexter fowler is having a monster season. it's fun to make the pretend baseball men run around

playing video games the right way

kooky

https://www.amazinavenue.com/2020/4/10/21216359/mlb-realignment-2020-season-cactus-grapefruit-leagues-mets-al-nl-division

manfred is going to use this year's weirdness to justify every shitty change he wants to make in the future just by saying "fans tolerated huge changes in 2020, this is proof they'll tolerate anything"

so, joey gallo is good at the videogames. he went 4-0 last night. eduardo rodriguez, on the other hand, went 0-4 and didn't score in any of the games

i picked a random game to watch, if anyone's interested: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/588772479

that's blake snell v amir garrett

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2020/04/14/16045/heres-when-and-how-sports-leagues-are-pretending-they-will-start-up-again/

just curious - what is everyone's reaction to the whole cactus/grapefruit league, baseball in empty stadiums idea?

i would watch it for sure. but what happens when one player (or staff or coach, etc) tests positive? it seems likely to end in a bunch of build-up followed by shutting it down 3 weeks in or something

i think it's insane, for reasons mentioned by demause above, but the money being hemorrhaged demands that they throw any and all possibilities at the wall

also the idea of being the only sport playing live games is extremely enticing

I think it's a terrible idea, and one that I just can't see happening.

even if you solved the quarantine/testing part -- which is not to my knowledge actually solvable -- there are only 10 cactus league ballparks + chase field in arizona. to air live games in primetime on the east coast would mean starting games at 5-7 pm, when it's insanely fucking hot

the florida parks are more spread out, i don't think all of them are presently equipped for tv, and it rains every damn day

and despite the players very much wanting to play, i don't see that many of them wanting to either quarantine without their families for four and a half months or drag their families into a situation like that

agreed, I highly doubt anything at all is gonna happen

I think the drugs had been reported months ago; the stunt-flying is maybe new.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/us/roy-halladay-ntsb-accident-report-spt/index.html

insane that the red sox won a world series on the back of this guy and steve pearce:

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=29045398

hey it's the 13th anniversary of "here comes the pizza"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufSQMXLO95w

gotta say, this is an okay turn of events for the Astros

thank you maura I had never seen that

scouting florida in 1982

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EV5f2WlVcAMqoGQ.jpg

Damn

“Ralph” = Raffy?

Lance McCullers! There’s a name to conjure with

that would appear to be raffy -- mets took him in the eighth round but he went to mississippi state instead

top five did all go in the first round -- monteleone had a journeyman career (2.6 war over 10 seasons), boderick didn't get out of a ball, ledbetter made it to double a

2010-19 leaders, counting stats edition:

Games
Adam Jones: 1499
Nick Markakis: 1491
Elvis Andrus: 1478

Stolen Bases
Dee Gordon: 330
Rajai Davis: 322
Billy Hamilton: 299

Home Runs
Nelson Cruz: 346
Edwin Encarnacion: 335
Giancarlo Stanton: 308

RBIs
Albert Pujols: 963
Nelson Cruz: 961
Edwin Encarnacion: 956

Runs
Mike Trout: 903
Ian Kinsler: 879
Andrew McCutchen: 868

they're playing ball in taiwan. weekday games start at 6:30am eastern and there are free streams: https://indyballisland.com/2020/04/19/live-baseball-the-cpbl-is-playing

one team (rakuten) even has english commentary