MLB 2018: Sho(hei) Me What You Got

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

14 hours ago, DMC said:

10th homer since June 1 for Stanton today, and he crushed it.  Stanton career 1st half:  .880 OPS, 137 wRC+.  Stanton career 2nd half:  .958 OPS, 154 wRC+.  Had a .950 OPS in June and 1.088 in the 4 July games.  Just sayin. 

His power numbers are nearly identical to what he had at this point last season.

[Ramsay B.]

On 7/4/2018 at 2:35 AM, GrimTuesday said:

 It feels like every time I've ever posted in here they immediately nosed dived, but the Mariners are rolling well enough that I'm gonna risk it.

We'll see if my posting has doomed the M's tomorrow.

[GrimTuesday]

46 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

The Prophecy has come true, time to not post in this thread until the off season.

[KingintheNorth4]

 Navaez and Sanchez hit home runs off of Justin Verlander. Who would've ever guessed?

[Ramsay B.]

9 hours ago, GrimTuesday said:

The Prophecy has come true, time to not post in this thread until the off season.

The gods are cruel, my friend. They got back on track tonight though.

So Chris Davis is batting .152 right now. I don’t know if he’s still on track for the worst WAR ever because they started sitting him a lot, but damn. If there was ever someone who should start learning how to bunt, like immediately.

Nationals with the huge comeback against the Florida Jeters. Impressive nonetheless. 

[DMC]

So Aaron Judge now has sole second place in HRs for the season, at least for the day.  And yet he still has yet to have a multiple homerun game.  That's weird, right?  Albeit, not that weird, when you consider JD Martinez, the one guy with more homeruns, only has one 2 homerun game to his name this season.

[Week]

Junior Guerra looks like he has never held a bat before. He's currently working on back to back no hit seasons.

He was originally drafted as a catcher/outfielder for the first 5 years of his career.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

Dellin Betances is not to be trusted with anything.  

[DMC]

3 hours ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

Dellin Betances is not to be trusted with anything.  

Well that's just wrong.  Dude has been - by far - the most dominant reliever on the team for the better part of two months (only 1 run allowed since May 12 before today).  That's a lot better than, say, Chad Green, who allowed 2 ERs in 2 innings right beforehand, for example.

[Ramsay B.]

I did miss the game so I didn’t see his stuff but Delin had been lights out before today, and it was a tied game so it’s not like he blew a 2 run lead or anything. I do hope this doesn’t fuck with his confidence and put him into one of his patented tailspins though.

Fucking Red Sox don’t lose. Peaking way too early. Morons.

[DMC]

The Sawks will regress.  They're not this good - they have holes in the back of their lineup, rotation, and bullpen.  Objectively, they have more holes than the Yanks at full strength - and the latter is in a far better position to add by July 31.  Also, the comparative schedules in the second half heavily favor the Yanks.  Seriously, I've never seen so much bitching about a team that's on pace for 106 wins.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

4 hours ago, DMC said:

Well that's just wrong.  Dude has been - by far - the most dominant reliever on the team for the better part of two months (only 1 run allowed since May 12 before today).  That's a lot better than, say, Chad Green, who allowed 2 ERs in 2 innings right beforehand, for example.

I disagree, he's been shit in high pressure situations. Bitching? The ease of their schedule means absolute shit if they can't beat the Rays and the Orioles. The O's might come close to losing 120 games and they've beaten the Yankees 5 times. And that 106 win season might come down to a wildcard game because they can't beat the shit teams in their own fucking division. 

 

 

 

 

[DMC]

38 minutes ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

I disagree, he's been shit in high pressure situations. Bitching? The ease of their schedule means absolute shit if they can't beat the Rays and the Orioles. The O's might come close to losing 120 games and they've beaten the Yankees 5 times. And that 106 win season might come down to a wildcard game because they can't beat the shit teams in their own fucking division. 

Demonstrate my point!  If they win 106 games and lose the division, well, that sucks but it's also very unlikely.  More importantly, Betances has been in plenty of high pressure situations over the past six weeks and exceeded expectations.  The notion he's been "shit" in such situations is a bunch of mularky to anyone that's watched the games.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

27 minutes ago, DMC said:

Demonstrate my point!  If they win 106 games and lose the division, well, that sucks but it's also very unlikely.  More importantly, Betances has been in plenty of high pressure situations over the past six weeks and exceeded expectations.  The notion he's been "shit" in such situations is a bunch of mularky to anyone that's watched the games.

I am wrong about Betances but I'm still not thrilled about last night. Coming in and hitting the lead off batter and letting a last place team walk off doesn't exactly give me confidence in the guy. 

 

Very unlikely? The Yankees are 15th in baseball with runners in scoring position and the Red Sox are sitting at the top.  So it's probably not as unlikely as one might think. I want to see Cashman work his black magic and fill that hole along with the others.  

[DMC]

7 minutes ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

The Yankees are 15th in baseball with runners in scoring position and the Red Sox are sitting at the top.

The Sawks also have two guys hitting out of their mind that are likely to regress.  Honestly, they're great at the top with Betts/Benintendi/ Martinez/ Moreland/ Bogaerts.  But they have significant weaknesses at all other 4 positions when it comes to hitting.  Sandoval is outhitting Devers in OPS right now.  I love that.  I'm really, really not scared about some random stupid statistic - the Yanks have 151 HRs to the Sox's 130.  The Yanks can take any starter they got but Sale, and their bullpen has a really soft underbelly.  Wayyyy more worried about the Astros.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

2 minutes ago, DMC said:

The Sawks also have two guys hitting out of their mind that are likely to regress.  Honestly, they're great at the top with Betts/Benintendi/ Martinez/ Moreland/ Bogaerts.  But they have significant weaknesses at all other 4 positions when it comes to hitting.  Sandoval is outhitting Devers in OPS right now.  I love that.  I'm really, really not scared about some random stupid statistic - the Yanks have 151 HRs to the Sox's 130.  The Yanks can take any starter they got but Sale, and their bullpen has a really soft underbelly.  Wayyyy more worried about the Astros.

Is that a random statistic? Hitting .250 with runners on second is a cause for concern.

The Yankees lost a game just last week because they couldn't get a runner over from third base with less than two outs. They couldn't get a fly into the outfield.

How many of those 151 homers are solo jobs when they the game is already out of reach for the opposition? 

The Yankees live or die by the homerun. 

I'm concerned about having a losing record against last place teams. 

Oh yeah I'm thrilled about that too. I hate Devers, he always seems to get to us though. 

I'm still not thrilled with the Yankees starting pitching either. I'm hoping Bumgarner becomes available but they're probably going to have to get a bottom of the rotation guy. 

[DMC]

1 minute ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

Is that a random statistic? Hitting .250 with runners on second is a cause for concern.

The Yankees lost a game just last week because they couldn't get a runner over from third base with less than two outs. They couldn't get a fly into the outfield.

How many of those 151 homers are solo jobs when they the game is already out of reach for the opposition? 

The Yankees live or die by the homerun. 

Not to pick on you, but this narrative is really stupid.  It's like me rebutting that Gleyber is tied for the most 3-run homeruns in baseball.  Who cares?  It's a small sample size and doesn't tell you much about actual clutch hitting - how many times did each team have guys on second in a game that was non-competitive at that point? 

The whole relying on homeruns thing, though, that's especially stupid.  What do you face in the playoffs?  Really good pitching.  What do you want to do against really good pitching?  Score as quickly as possible.  What's the best way to do that?  Slug as much as possible.  One homerun is much easier against a great pitcher than a single, bunt, stolen base, and sacrifice fly.  Just as a double getting in a runner from first is better than a single.  In the playoffs, there's smaller margin for error.  You want those that can capitalize on those errors as much as possible - which means slugging HRs and extra base hits.  Relying on home runs is an asset in the playoffs.

I get frustrated about them losing to the fucking Orioles too, but it's a long season and nothing to write home about.  They're overworked and understaffed right now, should be a lot better in a week.  As for getting a starter - yes, they need at least one, and I totally expect them to get at least one.  Shouldn't cost too much either based on the market.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

12 minutes ago, DMC said:

Not to pick on you, but this narrative is really stupid.  It's like me rebutting that Gleyber is tied for the most 3-run homeruns in baseball.  Who cares?  It's a small sample size and doesn't tell you much about actual clutch hitting - how many times did each team have guys on second in a game that was non-competitive at that point? 

The whole relying on homeruns thing, though, that's especially stupid.  What do you face in the playoffs?  Really good pitching.  What do you want to do against really good pitching?  Score as quickly as possible.  What's the best way to do that?  Slug as much as possible.  One homerun is much easier against a great pitcher than a single, bunt, stolen base, and sacrifice fly.  Just as a double getting in a runner from first is better than a single.  In the playoffs, there's smaller margin for error.  You want those that can capitalize on those errors as much as possible - which means slugging HRs and extra base hits.  Relying on home runs is an asset in the playoffs.

I get frustrated about them losing to the fucking Orioles too, but it's a long season and nothing to write home about.  They're overworked and understaffed right now, should be a lot better in a week.  As for getting a starter - yes, they need at least one, and I totally expect them to get at least one.  Shouldn't cost too much either based on the market.

But is it easy to hit a homer off of Justin Verlander, or Chris Sale or any off the good pitching you're likely to see? Fat load of good it did in the ALCS last year. Sure they made it further then they had any right going but I'm not sure them swinging for the fences is going to put them over the top.  

Are the Yankees likely to score an ace at the deadline? I'm inclined to say no. Methinks they're going have to settle for another guy who is going to turn out to be a bust like Gray or a guy like Jaime Garcia. At this point they should get Sheffield on the 40 man and see what he can do.  

[DMC]

8 minutes ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

But is it easy to hit a homer off of Justin Verlander, or Chris Sale or any off the good pitching you're likely to see? Fat load of good it did in the ALCS last year.

Well, it saved them in the Wild Card game, and certainly catalyzed their win against the Indians - in which Didi hit 2 off Kluber and Bird hit that clutch HR off Miller.  Don't specifically recall the ALCS, but they hit about .200 during the entire postseason.  The difference is how much you make out of those 1 of 5 hits.  This is a pretty simple premise:  Good pitchers are going to severely limit the amount of times you are able to hit the ball.  It's better if your batters can hit the ball as hard/far as possible when given the chance.

13 minutes ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

Are the Yankees likely to score an ace at the deadline?

I think they'll get Happ.  He won't cost much in terms of prospects and there's not much else out there.  I'm comfortable with him as the 4th starter in the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind getting more though - they have plenty to spend down on the farm that's never gonna make it to YS3.

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Well, it saved them in the Wild Card game, and certainly catalyzed their win against the Indians - in which Didi hit 2 off Kluber and Bird hit that clutch HR off Miller.  Don't specifically recall the ALCS, but they hit about .200 during the entire postseason.  The difference is how much you make out of those 1 of 5 hits.  This is a pretty simple premise:  Good pitchers are going to severely limit the amount of times you are able to hit the ball.  It's better if your batters can hit the ball as hard/far as possible when given the chance.

I think they'll get Happ.  He won't cost much in terms of prospects and there's not much else out there.  I'm comfortable with him as the 4th starter in the playoffs.  Wouldn't mind getting more though - they have plenty to spend down on the farm that's never gonna make it to YS3.

The Yankees hit .205 in the ALCS, the best hitter by far was Mr. Chase Headley. In the Yankee loses they never scored more than one run, in two of their loses they hit homers, one in the top of the 9th by Bird in Game 1, and one by Judge in game 6, where they lost 7-1. And Frazier drove in the tying run in game 2 after stringing hits together off of Verlander only for Chapman to give up the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. And they were shut out in game 7. 

They didn't win a single game where they didn't homer, also they didn't win at Yankee Stadium, they hardly scored in those three games.

 

You're comfortable with Happ? I hope you're right. because he hasn't exactly been lights out in the last month. Is his history versus the Red Sox enough to make a trade for him?

Apparently Cashman finds the asking price too high for Happ according to Jon Heyman.