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Hank Chinaski

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Everything posted by Hank Chinaski

  1. lol “beat #10, beat #13” Put another way: “beat a couple teams that are currently unranked.”
  2. Maybe. I expect some “Machado got SD to the playoffs by himself” narrative.
  3. Imagine researchers tested 15 drugs on hundreds of subjects, and then, instead of recommending the use of the drug that clearly and significantly has the best results, they instead pick the top 6 and test them on 3, 5, and 7 subjects, in somewhat arbitrary pairings, and make their recommendations based on that. That’s the MLB playoffs.
  4. This is the most interesting race IMO. I think Goldschmidt, Arenado, and Machado will be the top 3. I’m guessing that Machado takes it, as the two Cardinals take votes from each other. Would have no issue with any of the 3 taking it - will be good to for one of those 3 guys who’ve had great careers to win an MVP.
  5. Yeah, plays a role in the production of testosterone. Back in the 90s it was available to anyone anywhere. But yeah, McGwire or any player having it didn’t seem like a big deal because it was just a supplement, not banned by MLB (it was banned in 2004) nor illegal. It was reclassified from dietary supplement to anabolic steroid in 2005.
  6. I mean, there was some speculation back then, but it was almost entirely ignored. People loved both guys and were all-in on the HR chase. Yeah, the andro thing…in 1998, that wasn’t a banned substance and anybody could buy andro at the grocery store. I remember the reporter asking McGwire about it in his locker, but there was no reason he shouldn’t have had it.
  7. Yup. Between ‘21-‘22, he played in 155 games, hit 48 HR, slugged over .620, about a 175 wRC+…and his K rate spiked to 28%. Will be interesting to see what the rest of his career looks like. He’ll be 31 next season: he obviously remains one of the best hitters in baseball, but hasn’t been able to remain healthy. I don’t think his 30s will be exactly like Griffey’s (at least I hope not), but they could end up with really similar careers arcs (interestingly Griffey also hit 40 HR in his age-30 season, which was his first with the Reds, albeit in more games and in a crazy offensive environment (Trout was much better relative to the league)).
  8. People don’t give a shit if NFL players use PEDs. They just don’t. It doesn’t sully anyone’s reputation, etc. It’s really just a baseball thing. Secondly, nobody liked Bonds. He always came across as a prick. Baseball writers have a long history of creating narratives around guys that don’t kiss their asses, and that was probably part of it; Barry was probably also just a bit of a prick. There was suspicion around him while he was breaking the record, which somehow wasn’t really a thing for McGwire or Sosa 3 years prior. And the fact that he set the mark just 3 years later meant his chase lacked the same type of enthusiasm anyway. But yeah, it’s still the record. Just because people don’t respect a record or wish someone else had it under different circumstances doesn’t mean that you just get to pretend it isn’t the record. MLB didn’t test for anything back then. By 2001 everyone knew it was an issue, and MLB didn’t do anything. Don’t be mad at Bonds just because he was head and shoulders better than everyone else in that era.
  9. 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.)
  10. They’re never going to understand that Mississippi State is the Texas A&M of the SEC, are they?
  11. I mean, that just makes it par for the course over there, no?
  12. By the end of the season, Ags trying to get Jimbo to West Virginia:
  13. Reading about how Jimbo has “lost” them, and thinking about that contract they gave him immediately made me think about this:
  14. 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.
  15. Haha goddamnit they said it again! These crazy bastards keep yelling at each other about pears. I love them so much.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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?
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. Nobody sincerely believes that.
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