24 and There's So Much More

Old Man Acuña

I know it's much tougher to prognosticate with pitchers; that's part of the challenge here.

gotta be PCA at this point...MVP this season, huge numbers, top defense.

Knowing the risks, I think I'd be inclined to roll the dice with Mis and hope that he's this generation's Verlander or Scherzer or Kershaw. Skenes' sideway season does not bode well for that.

tentative "don't jinx him!" write-in for Didier Fuentes (age 21)

Yeah, I goofed there. I checked all the hitters on each team's BRef page, not so much the pitchers.

roll the dice with Mis and hope that he's this generation's Verlander or Scherzer or Kershaw. Skenes' sideway season does not bode well for that.

Skenes on the season still looks fine. ERA of 3.91, WAR of 3.1. Verlander's 3rd full year: 4.84 ERA, 1.8 WAR; Scherzer's 3rd full year: 4.43 ERA, 1.4 WAR. i don't think we should read too much into a sub-elite season from Skenes.

i think the guy on this list I might be most wary about (aside from the pitchers, where injuries are a concern more than skill) is Walker. but it's not a major concern, he just needs to be more consistent and draw some more walks, which is entirely possible. PCA was looking pretty poor at the end of last year and it was even more worrisome from a batting perspective.

It was less Skenes' pitching line that opened my eyes than the numbers I was reading about his significant drop in velocity. (By the way, I like to call velocity "velo"--I invented that.)

A somewhat cryptic Skenes interview posted on the Pirates thread the other day:

Skenes doesn’t place all of the blame for his season on the WBC, although he also believes it played a role. He said he doesn’t regret doing it. But he has felt the impact of that tournament in March.

“It definitely affected the year,” Skenes said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the only one.”

He paused, staring at the floor in silence for nine seconds.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Skenes said. Ten more seconds passed. “Definitely didn’t make things easier.”

So it's not velocity. He'll be a Cy Young guy in non-WBC years, Mike Morgan or Bob Friend* when he gets dragged into the maelstrom of international politics.

*The two answers Google A.I. gave me when I asked "who was the most mediocre starting pitcher ever?"

Everyone who was doing the weird performative US military sucking off during the WBC has had a bad or cursed season.

Aaron Judge
Cal Raleigh
Roman Anthony
Paul Skenes

https://defector.com/mentally-ill-former-navy-seal-inspires-team-usa-to-wbc-final

Sorry folks but it’s just science

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Mis.

James Wood hits good

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Shasta vote for James Wood, I'm guessing.

No votes for Cami?!

He might have been my second choice. Based on absolutely nothing except instinct, I'm thinking that this is PCA's career season.

1) I'm expecting Caminero's BA to go up and PCA's HR to go back down;

2) I was the first person ever to post about him (though via a link, not by name): Because They Might Win 110 Games: the 2023 Tampa Bay Rays Thread