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maninblack
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Kermit
Kermit

Jeter giving the gift of disease is one of those MLB traditions. 

pops
pops

Am i the only one that feels like clicking on the astros thread is a wormhole to texags?

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shadow_operative

shadow_operative 15932

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/15/2020 at 10:43 PM, Helobious said:

Yankees have quietly put together a 6 game win streak. Fucked Toronto tonight 20-6.

And if you don’t know who Deivi Garcia is you should probably learn.

here's a fun little story about the most predictable thing ever:

Deivi Garcia is on my fantasy team; has been since before his first start. he was great. so great, in fact, that i legitimately texted HG saying, "i really hope that Helobious doesn't suddenly discover Deivi and start running his mouth about him; i'd like for Deivi to continue to pitch well." sure enough, you suddenly popped up as if summoned from hell to run your mouth about how "if you don't know Deivi f'ing Garcia you better ask somebody." this morning Deivi Garcia had his first start since your chest thumping post. so far today vs shitty ass Boston:

2.1 IP, 8 H, 6 ER. i should have dropped him the moment you popped off about him. thanks Helo. 

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Helobious

Helobious 9787

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Posted

I’ve definitely mentioned him before, I’ve tracked his ascension up the Yankee minor league system the past couple years and he pitched in the futures game last year I believe. I definitely didn’t “just discover” him.

Superstitions, jinxes, karma, etc. are all refuges for the mentally weak and the stupid; they only work if you believe in them. However if my spouting off really did inconvenience your life even the slightest bit I’d happily do it 100x a day.

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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 16201

Posted
Posted

The 8 AL playoff spots are pretty much set, but we have a few sweats in the NL. LAD/SD are in, Atl/Chc are all but official. The rest of the hopefuls... 

Mia 28-25 .528
Phi 27-26 .509

StL 26-24 .520
Cin 27-27 .500
Mil 26-26 .500

SF 26-26 .500

 

One of Mia/Phi & one of the Central teams will be in, then the other 4 get to battle for the last 2 spots. 

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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 16201

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Damn, sounds like Pitt’s #3 prospect royally fucked up. 

Quote

Pirates prospect Oneil Cruz was involved in a tragic accident in the Dominican Republic on Monday that resulted in the death of three people.

According to the Diario Libre newspaper, Cruz was driving on Carretera Sánchez between Baní and San Cristóbal when a collision occurred between his vehicle and a motorcycle carrying three people, all of whom died in the accident. The report stated that the motorcycle was traveling in the left lane without any lights on.

“The Pirates are aware of the tragic accident in the Dominican Republic involving Oneil Cruz,” Pirates senior vice president of communications Brian Warecki said in a statement. “We have been in contact with Oneil and he is cooperating fully with the local authorities. We will provide an update as more information becomes available.”

Prosecutors determined that Cruz was under the influence of alcohol while driving and scheduled his hearing for Wednesday, according to an ESPN report. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, citing a police report, also reported that Cruz was arrested at the scene around 1 a.m. on Monday. The club has not yet commented on the reports that Cruz was allegedly driving under the influence.

Transit authorities said that all of those involved were traveling after the curfew that had been established by the Dominican Republic government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by ESPN.

Cruz, 21, suffered no serious injuries, according to his agent, Rafa Nieves. The 6-foot-7 shortstop spent the summer working out at the club’s alternate training site in Altoona, Pa. That camp concluded last Thursday, and players went their separate ways. A few came to Pittsburgh, some headed south to an instructional league-style camp in Bradenton, Fla., and others, like Cruz, went home.

Cruz is the Pirates’ third-ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, behind 2020 first-round Draft pick Nick Gonzales and rookie third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes.

 

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 55844

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14 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

A 6'7" shortstop. Gotta be a record.

 I read about this guy last year and have been really hoping he makes it, because I remember when people said Ripken was too big to play SS.

Seems like he could avoid jail for this considering:

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The report stated that the motorcycle was traveling in the left lane without any lights on.

 

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Beau Vine

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Stark:

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On the wall of my office is a calendar that tells me it’s the last week of the baseball season. It’s a good thing, too, because on top of my shoulders is a head that keeps telling me it feels more like Memorial Day.

But it’s always good to remember that our brains have never been less reliable than in a year like this. I’m that blockhead who was writing “April” on checks in the middle of July. So losing all track of baseball time just fits right in.

And that’s kind of how I felt when I set out to write this ever-popular end-of-season awards column, my heart warmed by the knowledge that America can’t wait to congratulate me for the wisdom I showed in nailing every single one of these. How the heck do we make sense of a 60-game season anyway?

Does it even make sense to be handing out these awards? Are we celebrating these guys for making history — or for just getting off to what we used to know as “a hot start?”

Aw, it doesn’t matter. We’ll never know what would have happened if life had just been (pause to shed a quick tear) “normal.” So whatever. Since it doesn’t look as though Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Buffet, Kimmy Schmidt, Kim Kardashian, Lin-Manuel Miranda or even Wily Mo Peña will be stopping by to present these awards, I’ll once again be forced to dish them out myself. The envelopes, please!

AL MVP: José Abreu, White Sox

A friend of mine who works for the White Sox had an observation about José Abreu this week that I can’t get out of my head. He called his team’s first baseman the most underappreciated player in the game — and even compared him with Albert Pujols.

No, that’s not because when he looks at José Abreu, he sees a Hall of Famer. It’s because he sees a guy who started raking and producing the day he got to the big leagues seven seasons ago — and has never stopped. And you know what? Take a look. He has a point.

But I’m not picking Abreu as my AL MVP as some kind of career-achievement award. After days of agonizing and mind-changing, I’ve settled on him because, of his seven big-league seasons, this one is the best and most impactful. Easily.

Abreu went into Thursday leading the American League in nine significant offensive categories — and he was second or third in six others. He’s on pace to lead the league in hits, RBIs and slugging in the same season — and you might want to know the only two players to do that in AL history both got MVP trophies out of it.

Led league in hits, RBIs, slugging (AL)

YEARPLAYERHITSRBISLUG

1967

Carl Yastrzemski

189

121

.622

1978

Jim Rice

213

139

.600

2020

José Abreu

74

57

.644


(Source: Lee Sinins’ Complete Baseball Encyclopedia)

Also, I know RBIs aren’t a stat for the cool kids anymore. But Abreu went into Thursday with more RBIs (57) than games played (56) — a feat achieved by just four other qualifying hitters in the last 50 years: Manny Ramírez (twice), Juan González (twice), Kirby Puckett (1994) and George Brett (1980). And in 2020, those RBIs still matter, even if the length of this season didn’t match the length of those seasons.

Now factor in this guy’s relentless refusal to miss even one freaking game — in a season when the ability to make it onto the field has been such a critical ingredient. And I think it’s clear that Abreu has been the best offensive player in his league. But I still had moments this week when I watched José Ramírez take over one Indians game after another and heard a voice in my head say: “You’re not picking that guy? What are you thinking?”

OK, here’s exactly what I’m thinking: I recognize that Ramírez’s monster finish puts the narrative on his side. In fact, he’s accumulated more FanGraphs WAR (1.2) in the last week than Christian Yelich has all season (0.6). And that’s just crazy. But Abreu is .341/.400/.635 this month himself, so is it OK to conclude he has held up his end? He has for me.

I also had one AL exec try to convince me that if it’s close, the guy who plays the most significant defensive position ought to win, and that’s Ramírez. But hold on. Abreu is tied for the AL lead in Defensive Runs Saved at first base (+5) — while Ramírez is -6 at third base. So does Abreu deserve to have points deducted just because of the position he plays? I couldn’t convince myself of that.

Finally, I look at this season in Chicago as a turning point in the life of this franchise. There are many reasons for this transformation. But I also know who the heartbeat of the White Sox is. And, not coincidentally, it’s the guy who gets my AL MVP vote.

SPECIAL BONUS REASON!: Did you know José Abreu — No. 79 in your program — would have the highest jersey number of any MVP in baseball history? I’m all in on that!

MY AL MVP “BALLOT”: 1) Abreu, 2) Ramírez, 3) DJ LeMahieu, 4) Mike Trout, 5) Tim Anderson, 6) Shane Bieber, 7) Nelson Cruz, 😎 Luke Voit, 9) Brandon Lowe, 10) Teoscar Hernández.

NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Braves

Is it just me, or is there something shocking about the fact that Freddie Freeman has never had a top-three MVP finish? How is that possible? Daniel Murphy has had a top-three finish. Lorenzo Cain has had one. Chris Davis has even sneaked into a top three. And no disrespect to them, because they had the right season in the right moment in time.

But now it’s Freeman’s time.

The more I reflect on this, the more the Braves’ first baseman feels like the symbol of baseball’s journey through the tenuous world of 2020. He started this season battling the coronavirus, to the point that he wondered if he would live to play this summer. But he summoned strength as he went along, then punctuated a remarkable season with the best September of any player in the National League (.371/.486/.730, a .213 wRC+ and 1.8 fWAR).

So we look up, as this season nears its finish line, and there are the Braves, locking in the No. 2 seed in their league despite an exhausting succession of injuries to their pitching staff. And there is one of the faces of their franchise, sitting in the top two in 18 meaningful offensive categories by my count. And I didn’t need Chipper Jones to tell me that Freeman has that MVP look.

But now that I have that part out of the way, you should know this was still an excruciating decision. In a season when there hasn’t been enough time for anybody to put distance between himself and the field, the gap between Freeman and these four guys is microscopic.

Mookie Betts — Has had another one of those quintessential Mookie-esque years. Leading the league in Baseball-Reference WAR while playing for the best team in the sport. So hold those tweets and what do you know, Stark comments. If you think he’s the guy, hey, no argument from me.

Manny Machado — Machado has been ridiculous for the last five weeks (.395/.428/.742, with the usual spectacular leatherwork). But the .200/.308/.411 first chapter of his season also counts. Nevertheless, Machado is still totally in the thick of this argument.

Fernando Tatis Jr. — Might have won this unanimously if the season had ended three weeks ago. Unfortunately, he’s 6 for his last 43, with no homers and twice as many strikeouts as hits. And in a nine-week season, three rough weeks carry outsized weight.

Juan Soto — No hitter not named Bonds or McGwire has had a .700-plus slugging percentage and 1.189 OPS in the last 25 years — until now. And that’s a reminder that Juan Soto — at age 21 — is the most gifted hitter alive. Unfortunately, those two weeks he missed represent more than 20 percent of this strange season. And never has that mattered more than in 2020.

I’ve been swirling those names around my brain for a week now. I talked myself into and out of every one of them. Then an NL West coach helped nudge me toward a decision by telling me even he thought the MVP of his league wasn’t anyone in his division. It’s Freeman’s turn — and honestly, it’s about time.

SPECIAL FUN FACT ALERT: If Freeman and Abreu win, it would be only the third time the MVP in each league played first base for a living. The other years: 1994 (Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell) and 2006 (Justin Morneau, Ryan Howard).

MY NL MVP “BALLOT”: 1) Freeman, 2) Betts, 3) Machado, 4) Tatis, 5) Soto, 6) Trevor Bauer, 7) Marcell Ozuna, 😎 Corey Seager, 9) Trea Turner, 10) Ronald Acuña Jr.

AL LEAST VALUABLE PLAYER (LVP): J.D. Martinez, Red Sox

Abreu hit six home runs in one weekend at Wrigley Field. The Yankees recently hit five home runs in a span of 14 pitches. And somehow, J.D. Martinez has hit six homers all season. That seems like a typographical glitch. But I keep looking at it. It never changes.

You know what else never changes? There’s a certain responsibility that goes with stardom. So when you’re supposed to be a star on a team that loses Mookie Betts, David Price, Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodríguez, your job is to rise up and do your best to carry a group whose only hope of contention is to mash its way into the playoffs.

Instead, Martinez ranks dead last among all qualifying hitters in both leagues in FanGraphs’ version of WAR (-0.9). He’s a man who has hit .150 (3 for 20) with two outs and men in scoring position … and .100 (2 for 20) in the late innings of tight games … and 11 for 66 (.167), with one homer, in all AL East parks not known as Fenway.

Instead, Martinez has been intent on making sure the world knows how unhappy he is with Major League Baseball for banning the use of in-game video, calling it “a joke” and a “PR stunt” (via si.com) as far back as March.

Well, on one hand, I sympathize. An entire generation of hitters has grown up with that in-game video, and I know life isn’t the same without it. I also know that if there were four months left in this season instead of 72 hours, he’d still have time to right this starship.

But on the other hand, has anyone noticed it’s been that kind of year — and by that, I mean on Planet Earth? Nothing is the same in any of our worlds. The challenge — for every one of us — has been to adjust to the weirdness. So there’s a term for guys whose response to that weirdness is to hit .217/.293/.389: L-V-P.

MY AL LVP “BALLOT”: 1) Martinez, 2) José Altuve, 3) Those five Rangers regulars hitting under .200.

NL LVP — Yoenis Céspedes, Mets

It isn’t every year that you can hand an LVP award to a guy who only played eight games. But there’s more to these LVP deliberations than numbers, you know. I’m always a sucker for a good Hot Mess narrative. And there’s just something about the Yoenis Céspedes saga that summed up the Mets’ whole season.

• Chapter One: Long-lost star makes it back from his terrifying 2019 ranch encounter with a wild boar to bash joyous Opening Day home run.

• Chapter Two: Long-lost star then spends the next seven games going 4 for 28 (with 15 strikeouts!).

• Chapter Three: Long-lost star disappears without a trace or a note, as front office issues mid-game statement that essentially says: “Geez, ya got us where the hell this dude got to.” 

• Chapter Four: Long-lost star’s agent finally reveals the Mets’ favorite rancher has opted out, even as team officials are sending security to his hotel room and discovering no luggage, no toothbrushes, no Céspedes and no sign that our long-lost star intended to play baseball again — certainly not for any teams in Queens.

Now back to our larger picture. Who knew it would turn out to be that kind of season for a Mets team that assembled in Port St. Lucie with so much hope? Starting with the disappearing rancher, they would turn into one back-page headline after another….

From the Adventures of A-Rod and J-Lo to the GM ripping the commissioner on a memorable Is this thing on? live Zoom stream … From the Wilpons releasing statements that spelled their own GM’s name wrong to a final week filled with reports about the makeup of the Mets’ next front office before they’d even revealed the fate of their current front office.

I don’t know why it feels like it all began with the long-lost star who disappeared without a peep or a trace. But that’s my LVP story — and I’m sticking to it.

MY NL LVP “BALLOT”: 1) Céspedes, 2) Gregory Polanco, 3) Daniel Murphy.

Shane Bieber (Jay Biggerstaff / USA Today)

AL CY YOUNG: Shane Bieber, Indians

I’d like to issue a formal expression of heartfelt thanks to Shane Bieber — for at least making one of these award picks easy. Not that it isn’t highly rewarding to toss and turn all night, thinking through your imaginary Cy Young Award ballot when you’re supposed to be chilling in dreamland … but this also works!

What. A. Season. What a magical run Bieber has been on. I know it only lasted nine weeks instead of six months. But just so you appreciate the extent of the domination …

THE 1.63 ERA — You’re looking at the lowest ERA by any qualifying AL starter since baseball lowered the mound in 1969. Previous low: 1.74, by Pedro Martínez in 2000.

THE 14.2 K/9 — You’re looking at the greatest single-season strikeout rate by a qualifying starter in history. The old record, of 13.8 by Gerrit Cole, held up for one whole year.

THE .167 BATTING AVERAGE — Back in the day, pitchers were the only guys who batted .167. This year, Bieber turned the entire sport into a bunch of .167 hitters. That tied Pedro Martínez’s 2000 season for lowest opponent average in the AL since the lowering of the mound.

THE .444 MISSING AVERAGE — We’re talking 122 strikeouts, but just 46 hits, in 275 at-bats. There has never been a starting pitcher whose opponent “missing average” was nearly 300 points higher than his opponent batting average — but I guess there is now.

THE .494 OPS — In the last 50 years, only two position players who got at least 500 career at-bats have had an OPS of .494 or lower. But that was the OPS of all the poor position players who had to bat against Bieber this year. Only one AL starter in the live-ball era has ever beaten it. Yep, Pedro in 2000 (.473).

THE 69.9 AVERAGE GAME SCORE — Max Scherzer made two starts all year in which he compiled a Game Score of 69.9 or better. That was Bieber’s average game score. The only AL starters in the live-ball era who have ever topped that average over a full season: Pedro in 2000 (73.3) and Luis Tiant in 1968 (72.4).

I know it can make you shake your head to read a phrase like “full season” after a year like this. But as with all these awards, we’ll never know what might have been in a six-month season. This was the only season these guys got to play in. So here’s to Shane Bieber. He crushed this thing from start to finish.

MY AL CY YOUNG “BALLOT”: 1) Bieber, 2) Kenta Maeda, 3) Gerrit Cole,  4) Lance Lynn, 5) Hyun-Jin Ryu.

NL CY YOUNG: Trevor Bauer, Reds

First off, it’s time for the annual full disclosure. I’m a National League Cy Young Award voter this year, so I’m not permitted to reveal my complete ballot. But bear with me. There’s still plenty to discuss here.

For one thing, the Cy Young was first awarded in 1956. So if I’ve done the math correctly, 118 of those Cy Youngs have been handed out since then. Right-handers have won them. Left-handers have won them. Relievers have won them. Starters have won them. Big guys have won them (Randy Johnson, Bartolo Colon). Little guys have won them (Whitey Ford).

You know who has never won them? The Reds. By which I mean any Red. Not Tom Seaver. Not Johnny Cueto. Not José Rijo. Not Aroldis Chapman or Rob Dibble. Nobody. The Reds are the only team that was in business when the Cy Young was invented that has never won this trophy. But maybe not for long.

I think the answer to the question, Who has been the best pitcher in the National League in 2020? is Trevor Bauer. At least right now. Then again, I’m actually talking about, oh, for the next 20 minutes. But that could change. All it’s done over the last two weeks is change pretty much daily. So what else is new?

Bauer may or may not pitch again Sunday, on short rest. But Jacob deGrom will pitch again. So will Yu Darvish, Clayton Kershaw and Dinelson Lamet. I could make a case for any of them to win this award. They could make a case for themselves by doing something spectacular in their final regular-season trip to the mound.

Bauer (1.73) still has an ERA under 2.00. There have been times this month when that was also true of deGrom, Corbin Burnes, Darvish and Max Fried. I’ve taken this whole group and ranked them in 16 different categories — from WHIP and strikeout rate to metrics that rate the quality of the opposing lineups they’ve faced. You could make yourself nuts trying to sort this out.

Burnes is averaging 13.27 strikeouts per nine innings and allowing 5.58 hits per nine innings. No qualifying NL starter has ever done that. But Bauer leads the league in WHIP (0.79) and strikeouts (100 – in just 73 innings) – and has taken over the lead in lowest opponent batting average (.159).

Then there’s deGrom. If we could just ignore the weird Sept. 16 start in Philadelphia in which his hamstring spasmed on him, he’d have a 1.77 ERA, and he’d be averaging an NL-record 13.72 strikeouts per nine innings. Plus he’s the defending two-time Cy Young. And he has faced significantly tougher lineups than Bauer, Burnes or Darvish.

So how did I separate Bauer from this incredible pack? Volume. It has never been more valuable than in a season like this. And Bauer wins that derby going away. See for yourself:

Times pitching into the seventh inning

PITCHERSTARTS OF >6 IP>6 IP, 1 ER/0 ER

Trevor Bauer

8

6

Yu Darvish

5

4

Dinelson Lamet

4

3

Clayton Kershaw

4

3

Jacob deGrom

3

2

Max Fried

2

2

Corbin Burnes

1

1

So that was my tiebreaker. It got me through this portion of this column. But I would never vote on any award before the season is over, so don’t hold me to any of this. This is one of the hardest awards I’ve ever had to vote for in my life. Why do I suspect it won’t get any easier between now and Sunday?

PITCHERS IN THE ARGUMENT: Bauer, deGrom, Burnes, Darvish, Fried, Kershaw, Lamet, Zack Wheeler, Devin Williams.

AL CY YUK — Matt Boyd, Tigers

It was only 10 weeks or so ago, just before this season, that my good friend Eno Sarris and I co-authored a fun little column that was designed to capture your imagination — and also guaranteed to make us look like the innovative knuckleheads we are. The impossible could happen! That’s what we predicted. Now here’s what we learned, even in a 60-game season:

No, it couldn’t.

And for proof, I offer the name Matthew Boyd. We looked at Boyd’s 2019 strikeout rate and made one of those predictions sure to go wrong — Matthew Boyd as your 2020 Cy Young Award winner. Well, we were pretty close. In real life, he just got my Cy Yuk vote instead of my Cy Young vote. Hey, stuff happens — especially if Eno and I predict it.

The good news was, Boyd still struck out more than a batter per inning, so we nailed that part. The bad news was, he forgot to clean up the part where he led the league in gopherballs. He did that last year, then did it again this time around.

You know what’s particularly amazing about a season in which he had the worst ERA (6.96) of any qualifying AL starter — by more than a run? Of the 14 home runs Boyd coughed up, he gave up six of them before he got an out in three different starts.

Who else has ever allowed back-to-back homers to the first two hitters in a game three times in the same season, you ask? Right you are. That would be nobody.

In fact, hitters leading off games against Boyd combined for a (OMG) 2.336 OPS this year. So I think Eno and I have the perfect formula for how to point him back toward the Cy Young Award conversation when we try this prediction stuff again next year: Just skip the start of the first inning entirely, and he’s a true dominator.

MY AL CY YUK “BALLOT”: 1) Boyd, 2) Julio Teheran, 3) Jordan Lyles, 4) Mike Minor, 5) Matt Harvey.

NL CY YUK — That Phillies bullpen (yikes!)

Theoretically, these are supposed to be individual awards. But every once in a while, you have a group effort that is so historically mind-blowing, it changes my plans. So on that note, meet the Phillies bullpen. They’ve earned this one. Here would be a few reasons:

• Their 7.17 bullpen ERA and .958 opponent OPS? Trails only those immortal 1930 Phillies (8.01), a team that played in a park (Baker Bowl) with a right-field fence that was 280 ½ feet from home plate!

• This crew’s 1.83 WHIP and .320 opponent average? Both the worst by any bullpen since Cuddles Marshall’s 1950 St. Louis Browns (1.97 WHIP, .326 AVG)!

• That .958 opponent OPS? Creeping dangerously close to the all-time record, again set by those 1930 Baker Bowl Phillies!

• Oh, and that .563 slugging percentage this bullpen has given up? Also by far the worst in the history of baseball! (Next-worst? That .539 SLG by the 1930 Phillies.)

• They’ve served up 41 home runs in 177 innings! That works out to an unfathomable 2.08 per every nine innings they’ve pitched — by far the worst rate of any bullpen in history. (Next closest: 1.73, by the 2019 Orioles.)

• And one more thing about those 41 homers. That’s more home runs allowed by the bullpen than Phillies starters have given up (38) — in 119 more innings! And how many bullpens in the live-ball era have ever done that? C’mon, that would be zero, according to our friends at SportRadar.com — as long as you factor out “openers” and just look at seasons in which the starters pitched significantly more innings.

But those are just the highlights — or should that be the lowlights? — for a team that still has more blown saves (13) than saves (11). This is a team that has lost 14 games it led by at least two runs (most in baseball), seven it led by at least three runs (most in baseball) and four it led by at least four runs (yep, most in baseball).

Finally, though, there’s this:

JOE DIMAGGIO’S CAREER: .325/.398/.579
HITTERS VS. THIS BULLPEN: .320/.395/.563

Yep, they’ve turned the entire sport into Joe DiMaggio! So how do you win a group Cy Yuk award? That’ll do it.

MY NL CY YUK “BALLOT”: 1) Phillies bullpen, 2) Trevor Williams, 3) Stephen Matz, 4) Craig Kimbrel, 5) Madison Bumgarner.

 SPECIAL BI-LEAGUAL CY YUK ACCLAIM: Robbie Ray, Brandon Workman.

Devin Williams (Michael McLoone / USA Today)

AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Kyle Lewis, Mariners

If this were the Rookie Human Highlight Video award, we could spend the next hour gushing about Luis Robert, one of the most multi-talented human beings to ever play baseball. But as Robert’s back-to-reality, 6-for-70, 30-K September proves, baseball is hard.

So let’s talk about Kyle Lewis, because he has made this section of this column about as stress-free as it gets. He launched his season with a 448-foot Mars Mission home run off Justin Verlander. He has been the best rookie in the American League for virtually every day since.

The Mariners center fielder leads all AL rookies in pretty much every big counting stat (homers, hits, runs scored, walks, etc.). He also leads all AL rookies in all the big rate stats (average, OBP, Slugging, OPS, WAR). And then there’s this:

He leads his team in homers, average, runs and walks. And only one other rookie has done that on any team in the last 90 years — Mark McGwire, for the 1987 A’s. Before that, you’d have to go back to Wally Berger, for the 1930 Boston Braves.

So in a season in which 77 rookies have made it into the batter’s box for some AL team or another, there isn’t even a doubt about the guy you’d most want to see digging in. This just in from the Great Northwest: Kyle Lewis can play, friends.

MY AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR “BALLOT”: 1) Lewis, 2) Robert, 3) James Karinchak.

NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Devin Williams, Brewers

There’s normally no harder award to vote for than rookie of the year, and here’s why: Because it’s the one award that forces you to compare apples and oranges, pasta and steak or, to allow me to jump off this food-analogy track before I work up an appetite, hitters and pitchers.

It always feels as if you’re supposed to vote for a hitter over a pitcher if everything else is equal, just based on volume alone. So as I started digging in on this race, I spent a lot of time weighing the credentials of Jake Cronenworth and Alec Bohm — until it hit me. It’s not them!

There’s one guy on this ballot who has done things nobody in his line of work has ever done, and it’s not a position player. It’s Brewers reliever Devin Williams, the man who throws the most fun pitch in baseball — the Airbender!

All you need to know about the outrageous season Williams has had is this:

94 Batters faced
52 Strikeouts
6 Hits!

So wait. This guy has struck out 55.3 percent of all the hitters he’s pitched to? Holy KKKKKrap. In answer to your questions, of course that’s the highest percentage of all time — and allows Williams to join Aroldis Chapman and Craig Kimbrel as the only pitchers ever to whiff more than half the hitters they faced in any season.

But then there’s this part. More than eight times as many strikeouts as hits? That’s straight out of your Play Station, not actual big-league life. So if you’re wondering if anyone has ever done anything like this, well, hahahahaha.

PITCHERYEARSOHITSSO/H

Devin Williams

2020

52

6

8.67

Aroldis Chapman

2014

106

21

5.05

Craig Kimbrel

2010

40

9

4..44

Craig Kimbrel

2012

116

27

4.3

Oh, and one more thing. Williams gave up an earned run in his second appearance of the season. Since that outing, he’s faced 81 hitters: 48 strikeouts, 4 hits, 0 earned runs.

So for all the admiration I have for Cronenworth and Bohm — and Tony Gonsolin and Sixto Sánchez for that matter — there is at least some precedent, some frame of reference, for what they’re doing. But Williams? I still can’t believe this is a real person, doing any of this in a real season.

MY NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR “BALLOT”: 1) Williams, 2) Cronenworth, 3) Bohm.

AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Kevin Cash, Rays

Here’s a fun bet you could dazzle your buddies with on your next virtual-happy-hour Zoom yukfest. Just pose the question: Which manager has the best winning percentage in the distinguished history of the Tampa Bay Rays?

Take a drink every time someone guesses Joe Maddon. Then collect their Venmo money when you tell them the correct answer is actually … Kevin Cash. Yet remarkably, since Cash moved into this team’s managerial office, more former Rays managers or coaches (Maddon, Rocco Baldelli) have won a manager-of-the-year award than the current Rays manager.

Yes, even though Cash has won more games over the last six seasons than any AL manager except Terry Francona, he has never won a manager-of-the-year award. And that needs to stop being a thing.

Did you even notice this guy had a dozen pitchers get hurt this year, lost half his Opening Day bullpen and ran 12 different pitchers out there to save at least one game? Of course you didn’t — because all the manager does every year is take the cards he’s dealt and win with them.

Cash has had 17 different players start at least 10 games. He’s had 11 different players play multiple positions. He has never started any combination of players in the same spots on the diamond in more than two games. And how has that worked out?

That team with the $59 million payroll just clinched the AL East, which means that team in the Bronx with the $247 million payroll didn’t. And that doesn’t happen without one of the best managers in the game doing his thing, as absolutely no one outside of Florida pays any attention — until, hopefully, we just blew his cover.

MY AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR “BALLOT”: 1) Cash, 2) Rick Renteria, 3) Charlie Montoyo

NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Don Mattingly, Marlins

Every manager has “stuff” to deal with. But I think it’s safe to say this. No manager who ever lived has dealt with the madness the manager of the 2020 Miami Marlins had to deal with.

His team has made 170 roster moves — in two months. It once made 40 roster moves in a week. And it made at least one move every day for 28 consecutive days at one point, until that streak finally ended, miraculously, this week. So imagine trying to manage a team when you’re not even sure who’s on the team that day? That’s been Don Mattingly’s world this year.

Not to mention … in the last week of July, the Marlins headed out on what was supposed to be a three-game road trip to start the season — and wound up getting stuck on the road for 23 days. There was an eight-day COVID-19 shutdown, 18 players disappearing into quarantine, a schedule the league literally made up on the fly and “home” games in Baltimore. Yet somehow or other, the Marlins managed to rip off six wins in a row and roar off to a 7-1 start. Incredible.

And that happened, said Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill, despite the nutty fact that “the first time Donnie was even meeting some of these guys was during a game.”

But there is still an excellent chance the Marlins are going to make the playoffs. And would that have been possible without Mattingly’s remarkable gift for leadership? No. Way.

“It’s a matter of not thinking about anything other than today,” Hill said. “And that’s the mentality that Donnie was sharing with these guys every day. Let’s just take care of today.”

Good plan. And it’s also taken care of the easiest manager-of-the-year pick I’ve ever made.

MY NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR “BALLOT”: 1) Mattingly, 2) Brian Snitker, 3) David Ross.

 

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6346

Posted
Posted
On 9/24/2020 at 12:33 AM, shadow_operative said:

folks may not like it, but the man speaks the truth:

 

Counterpoint:

Bauer has pitched against the following teams, with their team wRC+ ranking in parentheses:

12.1 innings against the Pirates (29th);
13 innings against the Cubs (25th);
20.1 innings against the Brewers ( 24th);
13.1 innings against the Tigers ( 21st);
7 innings against the Royals (20th); and
7 innings against the White Sox (7th).

Over 90% of his innings have come against offenses in the bottom third of the league. Almost two-thirds (63%) of his innings have come against 3 of the 7 worst offensive teams in MLB. He's pitched against a decent offense exactly once this year. He's also 6th in the NL in FIP. 

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9790

Posted
Posted
On 9/23/2020 at 10:11 PM, Helobious said:

I wonder how highly riding a motorcycle at night in the Dominican Republic ranks on the list of “Things you can do to live for a long time” . 

I don’t know but it’s higher than “Riding a motorcycle at night in the Dominican Republic with no lights on”

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Sbbruin

Sbbruin 22114

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, 66BUFF said:

Win a title and they are the 90's Braves.

Honestly it's the first round series that scares me.  We've lost ONE series all season, and split 3.  Won all the others.  But best of 3 is fraught with disaster.  The longer the series, the more confident I am.

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shadow_operative

shadow_operative 15932

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Jshep34 said:

But keep on with the idea he benefited from scandal.
 

Well, he did, so...

edit: what you're saying is tantamount to saying that steroids didn't help Bonds. that because he was good before he started cheating, the cheating never helped him. come on man. get real.

also, my hero growing up was Sammy Sosa, and then he juiced, corked his bat, and pretended he forgot how to speak English. i was so hurt and devastated when all of that happened. hey hero turned out not to be who i wanted him to be. and I was like 12-14 years old. watching so many adult Astros fans absolve all of their favorite players of any responsibility, and/or acting as if there was no benefit gained from one of the biggest, most sophisticated cheating scandals in sports history is pathetic. P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C. 

Edited by shadow_operative
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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9790

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Helobious said:

That’s literally the worst news I’ve heard all day. Member when everyone said Jeter’s was dumb for trading him for nothing? I member. Guy is one of the very worst players in baseball & he’s one of the very highest paid. What a life.

At least Helobius is an equal opportunity 2017 MVP basher

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6346

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Beau Vine said:
15 hours ago, Jshep34 said:
Just a couple of batting titles and silver slugger awards prior to 2017. But keep on with the idea he benefited from scandal. 0049535a81926a6ddc3512be59aadd9e.jpg

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

Read more  

Didn't the data show that they weren't banging the trash can for Altuve?

Yes, it did, and the data corroborated what his teammates said (that he was one of the few that didn't want it). Also there's the matter of him having a 189 wRC+ on the road in 2017 compared to 130 at home. He also struck out about 50% more frequently at home. 

The Astros broke rules and deserved to get punished. Altuve is as culpable as anyone because he knew it was happening. The evidence suggests that Altuve didn't really have signs relayed to him, and that his performance was, if anything, diminished in home games. All of those things can be (and appear to be) true. 

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