Hank Chinaski

I am hopeful that as newer generation (and more analytically inclined) writers make up more and more of the electorate, some of these idiotic customs will die off. Pujols is obviously a HOFer, he has been since he left the Cardinals (it didn’t matter what he did for the Angels, which basically amounted to padding his HR and RBI totals). The idea that he “shouldn’t” be unanimous because he’s not the best player ever is asinine. You either think the guy is a HOFer or you don’t. Nobody could reasonably argue that Pujols isn’t. (And yeah, I get that voters have sometimes not voted for guys who they know will get in so that they can vote for others that will get less support, but that was largely around the logjam from a few years ago.)

They’re never going to understand that Mississippi State is the Texas A&M of the SEC, are they?

I mean, that just makes it par for the course over there, no?

By the end of the season, Ags trying to get Jimbo to West Virginia:

Reading about how Jimbo has “lost” them, and thinking about that contract they gave him immediately made me think about this:

It’s not to nitpick his performance from last night, as he bounced back from those bad throws and played a good game, made winning plays. But the inability to make those throws is consistent, and not making them is often the difference between winning and losing. When Worthy is ten yards behind the defense you just can’t miss him - that’s literally the “touchdown play” we always joke about. That’s all. Not dumping on the kid, he’s an asset to the team and plays his ass off, and he has improved.

Haha goddamnit they said it again! These crazy bastards keep yelling at each other about pears. I love them so much.

Be that as it may, he was done wrong on so many levels that day, and the personal foul call on him is probably the most egregious shit I’ve ever seen in a football game. I never really feel too badly for these coaches making millions to coach football, but I felt bad for Charlie that day because he got royally fucked.

I mean…look, Card did what he had to do tonight. But goddamn he blew 2 TDs with terrible throws to wide ass open receivers. The last TD to Worthy probably should have been an INT. He still holds the ball too long. This was a good win. Card did some things well. He can be an average college QB. But he’s just limited in what he can do.

Yeah, he had 494 HR before he apparently started the PEDs and broke baseball from 2001-2004. He wasn’t just a HR hitter. He was going to hit 500+ easily, and probably would have gotten to 600. (Actually Aaron is probably a good comparison - he never hit 50, but was in the 30s and 40s every damn year for a long time.) Wait what thread is this?

Exactly this. Card just can’t execute the offense. It’s the same issue as last year - way too many plays are there and just aren’t made. It’s why any game with Card at QB seems like a coin flip, and why it’s hard for me to really know what to think of Sark at this point. I think we’ll know more about him if/when Ewers comes back, as he appears capable of executing the full offense.

Don’t they all just basically need to be as good as they’ve been all season? They need to score enough runs to win, which they’ve done better than anyone but the Dodgers all year long.

I disagree. We can quantify value pretty well. It’s not Ohtani’s fault that Trout missed 40 games, Rendon missed most of the season, the other pitchers on the staff aren’t good, etc. Those things don’t diminish his value at all; they diminish the team’s overall success. His value is still his value. We have a pretty good estimate of the impact he’s had on his team’s win total. It appears to be slightly less than Judge has had on his team’s. Their teammates are responsible for the rest of it.

I tend to go by the value metrics. I understand that they aren’t perfect, but they are the best we’ve got at determining player value. It’s complicated because there is no real basis of comparison for Ohtani, aside from adding his position player/pitching WAR. For example, there may be an adjustment needed because he’s a great hitter and pitcher all tied up into a single roster spot; that has obvious value, but how do we quantify that? I don’t know, and so I’d be inclined to go by the value metrics that we currently have which, like them or not, are used (in some form or fashion) universally in MLB. So I’d go with Judge based on the numbers that, ironically, Helo hates so much (WAR). He’s had an historic offensive year while playing reasonably good defense at a premium position. Ohtani offensively has not been in the same universe as Judge this year, and I don’t think the pitching numbers make up for the delta. Again, acknowledging that we may one day look back at this and say it was obviously Ohtani. But with what we know now, I’d vote for Judge.

Nobody sincerely believes that.

He’s suddenly 4th in MLB in wRC+ at 162 (5th if you count Trout, who hasn’t played enough games to “qualify”). He was at 160 in his MVP year.

Yes, yes I was.

Jesus it seems like a really long time ago that Bryant won a ROY and MVP in back to back seasons while leading the fucking Cubs to a WS title and seemed like he was in a clear HOF path.

I assume you mean Thursday - today. He’s reached base in 40% of his plate appearances. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that he’s fine.

Well the odds of getting swept in the first round are extraordinarily low, mostly because they almost certainly won’t be playing in the first round.

So as a team, the stros are 6/41 (.146) on balls in play the last 2 games. Baseball.

So 15 straight scoreless innings. I guess they’re getting this shit out of their system?

Nobody wanted you to start. (I’m just messing with you.)

Counterpoint: they just beat the 55-93 Pittsburgh Pirates.

I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets something like 6 years / $300 mm. The Yankees almost have to give him whatever he wants after this season. (And it will probably end up not being a great deal for them.)