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Netzer

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If only statcast had the technology to measure the launch angle and exit velocity of yankee balls that have been hit off of your chin.

Goo Punch
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Hank Chinaski
Hank Chinaski

Good fucking riddance. 

youdunnf'dup

youdunnf'dup 2147

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Did Ken Giles really say “fuck you” to Hinch as he walked off the field? That’s what everyone is reporting, but it doesn’t look like he said that at all. I know Astros fans hate him (and rightfully so because he’s a fucking clown), but if that’s what he really said, he may have just secured his one way ticket out of that locker room. No?

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UTexasFight

UTexasFight 9388

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Stark midseason awards:

Wait. It’s almost time for the all-star break already? That can’t be right. It feels like I was hovering around a back field in Mesa, watching Yu Darvish throw his first live batting practice as a Cub, like three days ago.

But if we’re halfway through the season, that means it’s time once again to hand out those coveted – and not-so-coveted – midseason awards you all love so much. And as always, this extravaganza will not be hosted by Seth Meyers, Randy Myers, Randy Quaid, Randy Johnson, Dwayne Johnson, Johnson and Johnson or Davey Johnson. So please hold your applause (I said please!) while I do this myself. And of course you agree with every one of these.

AL MVP OF THE HALF-YEAR
Mike Trout, Angels

Take a minute, will you? Just take a minute and let your brain wrap itself around the greatness of Mike Trout. Try to digest the meaning of being in this moment, watching this guy play baseball. He’s 26 years old – 26! And he’s on the cusp of his third MVP, and sixth top-two finish. Nobody this young has ever won three MVPs. Nobody this young has ever collected this many top-two finishes. Nobody!

And now it turns out that those first two MVP seasons and those first five top-twos were just the warmup act for Trout’s greatest season ever. If he keeps this up, he’d finish with a .314/.457/.626/1.083 slash line that also features 44 homers, 120 runs scored, 141 walks, 25 stolen bases and 326 times on base. So how many men ever have had that season? Yep. No one.

So even in a year in which so many of the greatest players on earth – Mookie Betts, José Ramírez, Francisco Lindor, J.D. Martinez, José Altuve, Aaron Judge, etc. – have made excellent MVP cases for themselves, this is Mike Trout’s world. Everyone else is just playing in it.

APOLOGIES TO: Betts, Ramirez, Lindor, Martinez, Altuve, Judge, Manny Machado, Chris Sale, Luis Severino, Edwin Díaz (among others).

NL MVP OF THE HALF-YEAR
Freddie Freeman, Braves

I came so close to handing this prestigious half-trophy to Nolan Arenado that I actually typed out his name on my keyboard at one point. So why did I then change my mind and pick Freddie Freeman over the best third baseman in baseball? Here’s why:

There’s no .350-point differential in home/road OPS with Freeman, but there is with Arenado. I hate to play that Coors game with a guy who has traditionally been so good away from the Rocky Mountains majesty that he has a higher career road OPS (.794) than Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer, Justin Upton or Dustin Pedroia. But it’s a factor this year – because Freeman’s splits (.904 home/.970 road) epitomize his remarkable consistency as an offensive force.

The fact is, Freddie Freeman hits everywhere and everybody. He hits left-handers (1.067 OPS). He hits right-handers (.880 OPS). He hits the long ball (fifth in the league in extra-base hits). He hits the small ball (more times on base than anyone in the NL except Joey Votto). He hits fastballs (.322, with a .546 slugging percentage). He hits breaking balls (.353, with a .647 SLG). And he hits when the Braves need him to hit (.367 with men in scoring position, a league-best .352 over the last six seasons).

Now does Arenado deserve extra credit for playing in a worse lineup, where only Trevor Story has hit around him? Probably. Should he get extra points for leading the universe in Web Gems? He should. So if Nolan Arenado doesn’t win an MVP one of these years, that would be a travesty. But it’s not one of these years; it’s this year. And the MVP of this particular half-season has been Freddie Freeman.

APOLOGIES TO: Arenado, Lorenzo Cain, Javy Báez, Matt Kemp, Ozzie Albies, Max Scherzer, Aaron Nola, Max Muncy, Brandon Crawford (among others).

AL LEAST VALUABLE PLAYER (LVP) OF THE HALF-YEAR
Chris Davis, Orioles

I guess I’m not supposed to feel sorry for an LVP award-“winner.” And in Chris Davis’ case in particular, I know what you’re thinking: The guy makes $23 frigging million a year to hit frigging .160, and you frigging feel sorry for him? OK, good point. He’s the most well-compensated .160 hitter ever. Got it. But I still like Chris Davis. I’m sure he never meant to go out and hit .160. It’s just that when a guy is in the midst of the worst season by any every-day player in the last 100 years, the LVP awards committee can’t help but take notice.

That .160 average? It would be the lowest by any qualifying hitter since the legendary Bill Bergen “hit” .139 in 1909 – and the lowest by any qualifying AL hitter in the history of the American League! That .517 OPS? It could challenge the record for worst OPS in the DH era (currently .502, by Tim Johnson, for the 1973 Brewers). That 190-strikeout-to-77-hit pace (2.47 K/H) he’s on? That would rank second only to Adam Dunn’s epic 177-to 66 whiff-to-hit rate (2.68 K/H) for the 2011 White Sox.

And finally, how about this? At his current pace, Davis would score 30 runs all season (in 484 at-bats) – only 14 of which wouldn’t consist of him driving in himself with a home run! That would, not surprisingly, obliterate the record for fewest runs scored in a season on non-homers by any regular position player – which is currently 19, by Leo “Chico” Cardenas, for Mickey Rivers’ 1972 Angels. So if your point is that $23 million apparently doesn’t buy what it used to, yep, you’re right. It never used to buy an LVP trophy.

SIGHS OF RELIEF FOR: Miguel Sanó, Robinson Canó.

NL LVP OF THE HALF-YEAR
Dexter Fowler, Cardinals

Speaking of contracts everyone would like to do over, what the heck happened to Dexter Fowler? It’s only Year 2 of his five-year, $82.5-million deal with the Cardinals. But yikes! When the team president of baseball operations (the normally understated John Mozeliak) wonders publicly what became of your effort and energy, when the Best Fans in Baseball start treating you like a Cub, when your Wins Above Replacement start with a minus-sign, your season has turned into an official debacle. And far be it for us to pile on, but LVP rules and regulations require that. So here goes:

This one-time leadoff man for a World Series champ is hitting a terrifying .173. That would be the lowest batting average by a Cardinal who got to the plate this many times (261) since 1906…. A career .290 hitter right-handed, Fowler is (gulp) 4-for-42 (.095) this year from the right side, with 17 whiffs and one extra-base hit (which took him until this week!)… He’s 9-for-114 (.079) when the count reaches two strikes… He’s 6-for-66 (.091) from the seventh inning on… He’s 2-for-43 (.070) against breaking balls… He’s 0-for-the-season (0-for-17) against fastballs 96 miles per hour and up… And his minus-1.3 Wins Above Replacement would be the worst by a Cardinals outfielder in this millennium. In other words, it’s been pretty much the most LVP-ish year ever.

SIGHS OF RELIEF FOR: Yoenis Céspedes, Hunter Pence.

AL CY YOUNG OF THE HALF-YEAR
Justin Verlander, Astros

Every once in a while, you’ll hear someone say something like: “There are only two or three true aces in the whole sport.” Really? Have you seen the American League in 2018? This is a league with some serious acehood. There are many, many nights the hitters have no chance – against Justin Verlander, Chris Sale, Luis Severino, Corey Kluber, Gerrit Cole, James Paxton, Blake Snell and, what the heck, even Charlie Morton. So picking a Cy Young from that group is almost as impossible as hitting against that group. But when you volunteer to write one of these awards columns, choosing a winner is just a rough part of the gig.

This derby is so close that three days ago, I’d have typed out an ode to Sale in this space. But here we are, one more dominating Justin Verlander start later, and I’m back on the Verlander bandwagon. He leads the league in ERA (2.05), WHIP (0.83), opponent OPS (.544), opponent average (.180) and most starts allowing one earned run or none (12). And yes, I’m aware that Sale, Snell, Severino, Bauer, Cole and Kluber are within micro-decimal points in every one of those departments. I told you this was impossible. But look at it this way: There are no wrong answers. (That’s my official response to every tweet, comment and email that I shoulda picked OTHER GUY’S NAME GOES HERE. So no need to scream too loudly, friends. I get it.)

Still, there’s also something special and ace-like about Justin Verlander that counts here. Watch him when trouble arises. The league is hitting .157 against him with runners on base, with 52 strikeouts and 22 hits. That drops to .086 (3 for 35, with 17 K’s), with runners in scoring position and two outs. In one-run or tie games, the planet is batting .149, with 114 strikeouts, 14 walks and a mere 44 hits. He has a 1.96 ERA against teams .500 or better, with 89 strikeouts and nine walks. And on one of the great rotations of modern times, is there any dispute about who leads that staff?

Only three pitchers in the last 35 years – Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Roy Halladay – have won Cy Youngs seven years apart. Justin Verlander is on track to join that distinguished group at age 35. And the scary part is, he’s better now than he was when he won his first Cy Young!

APOLOGIES TO: Sale, Severino, Kluber, Bauer, Cole, Snell, Paxton, Edwin Díaz.

NL CY YOUNG OF THE HALF-YEAR
Max Scherzer, Nationals

Bet you didn’t know that no defending Cy Young award-winner has ever started an All-Star Game in his home park. But that’s about to change next Tuesday evening, when Max Scherzer stomps to the mound at Nationals Park, with those iPhone camera flashes sparkling, and reminds everyone in D.C. why he’s the best pitcher in his sport right now.

Halfway through another ridiculously dominating season, he’s right on track to lead his league in strikeouts for the third straight year. No active pitcher has done that. He’s also leading his league in WHIP for the third straight year. The only pitchers to do that in the last 50 years: Greg Maddux, Johan Santana and Clayton Kershaw. And if Mad Max just keeps rolling along at this rate, this will be his fourth consecutive season with at least 200 innings pitched and a WHIP below 1.00. The last right-handed pitcher to do that? How about Walter Johnson, from 1912-15! So with all due respect to Jacob deGrom, Aaron Nola and even Josh Hader, this is what Cy Young greatness looks like.

APOLOGIES TO: deGrom, Nola, Mike Foltyniewicz, Hader.

AL CY YUK OF THE HALF-YEAR
Sonny Gray, Yankees

It was just last week that Sonny Gray uttered words that seemed to sum up the essence of Cy Yukkery so eloquently, we should actually engrave them on the Cy Yuk trophy someday (just as soon as we manufacture that trophy). They went like this:

“I feel like we’re the best team in baseball four out of five days – and then I come out and do that. It just sucks.”

By “that,” he meant a start against the Red Sox in which he gave up six runs and got seven outs. But the fact is, he could have been referring to lots of starts he’s made this year, for reasons that pretty much defy any logical explanation. He has had five starts in which he didn’t make it through the fourth inning. All other Yankees starters combined have five. He has made six starts in which he gave up at least five earned runs. All other Yankees starters combined have made seven.

At Yankee Stadium, he has basically turned the entire league into Freddie Freeman (opponent slash line at home: .329/.415/.564). Leading off innings, he has essentially transformed every hitter he’s faced into Mike Trout (.456 OBP). And you know his theory about how the Yankees are the best team in baseball all the days he doesn’t pitch? He’s actually right! They’re 51-20 when anyone else pitches. They’re only 7-10 when he gets the ball. Hard to believe it was a year ago this time that the Yankees went out and traded for a starting pitcher to save their season – and it was him. Now they’re out trying to trade for a starting pitcher again – because of him.

CYS OF RELIEF FOR: Chris Tillman, Alex Cobb, Matt Moore, Danny Duffy.

NL CY YUK OF THE HALF-YEAR
Yu Darvish, Cubs

When your stuff is as dazzling as Yu Darvish’s stuff, you’re supposed to win Cy Young awards, not Cy Yuks. But rarely in modern Cy Yuk annals has a man this talented managed to parlay that into so much underachievement. So let’s sum up what the Cubs have gotten so far for their $126-million investment:

Exactly eight starts… totaling 40 innings… one “win” credited to Darvish… three starts in three months in which Darvish made it past the fifth inning… zero starts in three months in which Darvish made it beyond the sixth inning.

Granted, he isn’t currently healthy. A sore triceps turned into an inflamed elbow. Which turned into a cortisone shot. Which left the Cubs totally uncertain when they’ll see their biggest acquisition of this offseason throw another pitch. But this is about more than health. Listen to one longtime front-office man talk about what he’s seen:

“I don’t know if he loses focus. But his stuff is so good, you see him go out for one or two or three innings and he’s just dominant. Next thing you know, he can’t get out of an inning and he gets beat. You see guys – even on his own staff – who don’t have nearly that good a stuff, but they know how to make pitches, they have a plan, and they go through a lineup. Then he goes out there with much better stuff, and all of a sudden he’ll just lose it.”

Someday, maybe Darvish can convince people like this that he has the presence, the focus and the fortitude to pitch up to his potential. But for now, he’s pitched himself right into Cy Yukkery.

CYS OF RELIEF FOR: Jon Gray, Greg Holland, Jason Vargas, Tyler Chatwood.

AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Gleyber Torres, Yankees

An American League executive was talking about Gleyber Torres this week and dropped the “J” word – as in “Jeter-esque.” And even in the Bronx, it’s hard to argue, because Torres, this exec said, just has “that Derek Jeter thing in him.” By which he means calm… confident… slows the game down… winner.

It’s just 63 games and 241 plate appearances into Torres’ big-league career. But here’s a list of all the Yankees in history who have had a .900+ OPS at age 21 or younger (and as many plate appearances as Torres):

Joe DiMaggio (1936) .928
Mickey Mantle (1952) .924
Gleyber Torres (2018) .905

Do we even have to go on? If Shohei Ohtani had stayed healthy, this would have been one of the most fun rookie-of-the-year duels ever. But when Ohtani sprained his UCL, that was that – for the first-half portion of this debate, anyway. (Of course, now that Ohtani is back in the batter’s box and Torres is the guy on the DL, well, get back to us in September.)

APOLOGIES TO: Ohtani, Miguel Andújar, Max Stassi, Niko Goodrum, Ryan Stanek.

NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Juan Soto, Nationals

So what were you doing when you were 19? I was a delivery boy for a company owned by a friend of the family. And that’s about all I was qualified to do, other than maybe providing guidance on acne-fighting products. But Juan Soto apparently had other plans for his 19-year-old summer – like becoming the greatest teenage baseball player ever.

Seven weeks after his arrival in the big leagues – and just nine weeks after he was still toiling in the Carolina League – Soto is on a path never before traveled by any player this young. His current stat line is outrageous for a player of any age: .980 OPS, .312/.426/.554 slash line, a 159 Adjusted OPS-Plus and an astounding walk rate for a 19-year-old (one BB every 6.1 PA).

You know how many teenagers have had an OPS or OPS-Plus that good? None. You know how many have had a slugging percentage or OBP that good? None. (The record in all of those categories was set by Mel Ott – 90 years ago – with a .921 OPS, 139 OPS-Plus, .524 SLG and .397 OBP.) You know how many teenagers have had a walk rate that good? Right. Also none. (Billy Consolo set that record 65 years ago, at one every 8.5 PA). So if Juan Soto has another few months like his first seven weeks in the big leagues, should we give him a rookie-of-the-year trophy or just start chiseling his plaque in Cooperstown?

APOLOGIES TO: Jesse Winker, Brian Anderson, Tyler Mahle, Walker Buehler, Seranthony Dominguez.

AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR
Kevin Cash, Rays

It’s the second week of July, and those Tampa Bay Rays have a better record (47-44) than the Nationals or the Angels. How is that possible anyhow?

In the first week of spring training, they traded away the future Opening Day starter for the Twins (Jake Odorizzi) and a fellow who hit 30 homers the year before (Steven Souza Jr.), then designated the guy who was second on their team in OPS (Corey Dickerson) for assignment. Then, eight weeks into the season, the Rays traded away their closer (Alex Colome) and Opening Day leftfielder (Denard Span).

These were not moves that screamed out: “We’re still trying to win around here.” And they left Kevin Cash without his four leading home run hitters from the year before, without his closer and without enough healthy arms to scrape together what used to pass for a starting rotation. So naturally, since May 13, the Rays have gone 31-22 – all while reinventing the art of starting pitching and riding a stable of anonymous bullpen arms to the best ERA in baseball over the last two months.

The manager never acted like any of those unorthodox moves around him was an affront to him or the integrity of baseball. He just did what the best managers in the game do: He. Made. It. Work. Somehow.

APOLOGIES TO: Alex Cora, Scott Servais, Aaron Boone, A.J. Hinch.

NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR
Gabe Kapler, Phillies

I know it’s hard to remember anything that happened before last week. But this time last year, the Phillies weren’t what you’d call a fearsome National League powerhouse. What they actually were, come to think of it, was a team on pace to lose 108 games. They were 29-58 (a picturesque .333 winning percentage) at the break. So if someone had told you then that they’d be 12 games over .500 (51-39, .567) now, what would you have thought? That they’d clearly been ingesting too much cheese whiz on their Pat’s Steaks, obviously.

Well, check those standings. This has actually happened. And if the Phillies can keep this up for the rest of the week, that .234-point jump in winning percentage from break to break would be one of the five biggest in history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. But even that doesn’t tell the whole story – because to find the only other team ever to have a winning percentage that bad at one break and a winning percentage this good at the next year’s break, you have to go back more than 80 years! To the 1934-35 White Sox (25-51, .329 in ’34, then 38-29, .567 in ’35). Those were the second and third all-star breaks ever, by the way.

And what if we had told you, a week into this season, that the 2018 manager of the half-year would be Gabe Kapler? Yes, the same Gabe Kapler who had so many managerial misadventures in that first week, he zoomed to the top of the First Manager To Get Fired odds list in Vegas before he’d even managed his team’s home opener.

Well, there are still lots of people in baseball who aren’t sold on this particular manager, if only because he will never remind anybody of, say, Walter Alston. But Kapler has survived the boos, survived the will-he-make-it-to-Memorial-Day storm, managed outside any box previously seen in his town and emitted so much nonstop positivity that his team has far outperformed its metrics and its expectations. Gabe Kapler started building that culture the day he took the job. And whaddaya know – it’s worked!

APOLOGIES TO: Dave Roberts, Brian Snitker, Craig Counsell and the interim manager of the half-year, Jim Riggleman.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54015

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5 hours ago, youdunnf'dup said:

Did Ken Giles really say “fuck you” to Hinch as he walked off the field? That’s what everyone is reporting, but it doesn’t look like he said that at all. I know Astros fans hate him (and rightfully so because he’s a fucking clown), but if that’s what he really said, he may have just secured his one way ticket out of that locker room. No?

You're fucking prescient!

 

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29182

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17 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Tonight just gets more and more bizarre...not only with the Bregman walkoff, but Tito wanted Oliver Perez (O.P.) after Allen. He called down to the bullpen to get him up but the bullpen heard “O.T.”, nickname for righty Dan Otero...who came in for his 4th game in 5 days and promptly gave up a bases clearing double to Votto:

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Dan Otero stood on the dugout steps at Wrigley Field as he pondered the origin of his nickname with the Indians.

 

Since he joined the club nearly three years ago, his teammates and coaches have referred to him as O.T. That afternoon on the North Side of Chicago, a teammate approached the dugout railing and joined the conversation, joking that Otero’s actual nickname is “Douchebag.”

 

Well, had that been the case, the Indians might have escaped Tuesday’s meltdown against the Reds at Progressive Field. (Otero is actually a nice guy and a family man, so that moniker probably wouldn’t apply.)

 

The Indians’ bullpen has relinquished leads ad nauseam this season. The unit, with a hearty push from Terry Francona and Carl Willis, plummeted to new depths on Tuesday, though.

 

As Cody Allen floundered and the Reds turned over their lineup, Francona told his pitching coach to dial up the bullpen for “O.P.” That’s the nickname assigned to southpaw Oliver Pérez. (You see where this is going, don’t you?)

 

Willis thought the skipper said “O.T.” So, Otero started warming, preparing for his fourth appearance in five days.

 

“The phone rang,” Otero said. “I was told to warm up, so I warmed up as fast as I could.”

 

The Reds trimmed the Indians’ advantage to 4-3 and loaded the bases with two outs. As Joey Votto strutted toward the plate, Francona exited the dugout to summon a new reliever.

 

Only, it wasn’t the reliever he was anticipating. Francona appeared to motion with his left arm, but only a righty awaited. The bullpen door swung open, and out jogged Otero to the mound.

 

“Not the guy I was expecting,” Francona said.

 

Once a pitcher enters, he’s required to face at least one batter.

 

Votto vs. righties this season: .332/.454/.507 slash line

Votto vs. lefties this season: .216/.370/.324 slash line

 

“He’s tough, man,” Votto said. “I’ve never liked facing him. Today was one of those occasions where I got a good pitch to hit, I put it in play and good things happen.”

 

Votto tagged Otero for a bases-clearing double. Otero intentionally walked Scooter Gennett, another lefty hitter. Eugenio Suárez then smacked an RBI single to hand Cincinnati a three-run lead.

 

“I thought I heard ‘O.T.’ ” Willis said. “Frankly, I should’ve asked him to repeat it. But, I got Otero up. I actually sat down and looked at my matchup sheet. You know, Votto is 0-for-4 off of Otero. You know, it’s a ground-ball guy that we trust. And, quite frankly, heart of hearts, I felt like Cody was going to get out of the situation. But, I made the mistake — got the wrong guy up. It’s not that he can’t get the job done, but it probably wasn’t the best matchup.”

 

That’s quite an understatement.

 

Otero vs. righties this season: .189/.223/.389 slash line

Otero vs. lefties this season: .348/.362/.739 slash line

 

“That one lands squarely on me,” Francona said. “There’s no getting around it. I have to be responsible for that.”

 

We can opt to debate nicknames. (D.O. seems more applicable than O.T., and Ollie would make more sense than O.P. if Tyler Olson weren’t already Oly. And, yes, every player on every team has a nickname; that happens when you spend every waking second of eight months with the same group of people.) But this is yet another notch on the futility belt of a bumbling bullpen.

 

The Indians rank last in the majors with a bullpen ERA of 5.37. That’s not a number that one healthy Andrew Miller can fully alleviate. The emergences of Pérez and Neil Ramírez have helped, but this puzzle is still missing some critical pieces. Allen can’t always be perfect, and he’s been a bit more imperfect than usual this season. Injuries have sidelined Miller for the majority of the season. Otero and Zach McAllister haven’t found their footing. The team has cycled through minor-league call-ups, veteran castoffs, kids who fire the ball back onto the field from the outfield seats.

 

Last season, Indians relievers allowed 157 earned runs. This season — and we haven’t even reached the All-Star break — Indians relievers have allowed 146 earned runs. They wasted eight brilliant innings from Trevor Bauer on Tuesday, and their losing streak mushroomed to four games as they tread water in the sorry AL Central.

 

“He deserved to win that game,” Allen said. “I didn’t do my job and took that away from him. This is a resilient group. It’s a really talented group. We’ve been through trials and tribulations before. And we’ll be all right. We’re fortunate to have five really good starting pitchers and some really good bats in our lineup.”

 

Every non-contending team should be plugging away at Chris Antonetti’s cellphone with trade offers involving their relievers. Of course, they better annunciate when making one.

 

 

 

 

 

i'm fuzzy on the rules, but couldn't he have waited one pitch and taken him out and brought in perez?  i thought it was one pitch for a pitching change.  zero pitches if they send up a pinch hitter.  is it one batter?

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Beau Vine

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14 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

i'm fuzzy on the rules, but couldn't he have waited one pitch and taken him out and brought in perez?  i thought it was one pitch for a pitching change.  zero pitches if they send up a pinch hitter.  is it one batter?

None of this is correct except for your last question.

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6 hours ago, spystud13 said:

Is the 4th fucking inning the earliest we’ve ever seen a position player?! That is fuckng crazy. 

AZ had had something like 4 straight games that the starter hadn't made it through 5 innings, so the BP was toast.

Also, that was Descalso's 5th career pitching appearance, but the first time he has allowed a run.

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dbecks

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Posted (edited)
14 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

I really really really love Mookie Betts and I don't understand how anyone doesn't. 

 

 

That whole at-bat was incredible.  He worked the hell out of Happ (who threw 46 pitches that inning), and just kept fouling them off until he made a mistake.  First 13-pitch AB that ended in a grand slam since ‘92. 

https://www.mlb.com/video/c-2261997983

 

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Helobious

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5 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

jose ramirez, javy baez, kevin pillar, nolan arenado, Jarrod Dyson to add a few 

I’m slightly biased but I’ll add Aaron Judge on there. He has to be one of the least demonstrative players in the MLB right now. FWIW he’s never been intentionally thrown at in his career that I can remember, Baez & Arenado can’t say that. But that may be more to do with pitchers being overly-sensitive than those guys being unlikeable.

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henrygandorf

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5 hours ago, Helobious said:

I’m slightly biased but I’ll add Aaron Judge on there. He has to be one of the least demonstrative players in the MLB right now. FWIW he’s never been intentionally thrown at in his career that I can remember, Baez & Arenado can’t say that. But that may be more to do with pitchers being overly-sensitive than those guys being unlikeable.

i like judge, and he seems like a good dude who also happens to be blessed with crazy size and talent.  the reason not to like him (if you didn't or don't) is because of the nyc/east coast media circle jerk that went around last year when he started playing great.  it certainly wasn't his fault, but that's where any vitriol came from.

as an astros fan, hearing smoltz and vasgersian take turns blowing him during a saturday astros-yanks game on fox (that he wasn't even playing in) got a little old.  at the all-star break, people basically said he'd have to go 0-100 in the 2nd half to not win the mvp.  it's typical nyy nonsense, so i guess you get used to it.  other players like him, so that's enough for me.

as for jose ramirez, fuck that guy.  i'm playing him in fantasy this week.  he probably hit a homer while i was posting this.

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Stark:

Quote

If your favorite shortstop hasn’t pitched for your favorite team lately, they clearly didn’t get the memo – because position players on the mound is now, officially, the coolest baseball fad ever.

We’ve had 30 of them pitch this year, just two short of the all-time record for a full season. And we haven’t even made it through the All-Star break.

So join with us now as the Useless Information Department recaps the week in wackiness – a week full of pitchers heading for the mound, walkoffs that barely left the batter’s box, a guy who walked and whiffed in the same at-bat and, of course, more great moments in Bartolo-mania.

MYSTERY PITCHERS OF THE WEEK

I’m not sure how I came to be regarded as America’s foremost expert in mystery pitchers and their special charismatic ilk. But I guess that’s what happens when you keep track of every time a position player pitches — for 25 years.

At any rate, I’m there. So I have an important announcement:

We have just witnessed the greatest week and a half in the history of position players pitching. Yeah, ever.

Mark Reynolds pitched – the day after a 10-RBI game… Jeff Mathis pitched – and got an “LP” next to his name in the box score… Jesús Sucre pitched – in a game the Rays were winning… And then there was Wednesday night.

I hope it’s not a five-alarm stop-everything-you-were-doing-RIGHT-NOW sirens-blaring type of event in everyone’s household when a position player comes in to pitch – in the fourth inning. But in my world, hoo boy.

My phone starts vibrating like one of those buzzers you get while you’re waiting for a table in a restaurant. And next thing I know, I find myself watching an 18-1 game – for the next hour and a half.

So I sat there mesmerized as Daniel Descalso and Alex Avila went to the mound in Denver and chewed up 14 outs. In a real game. And this was happening on the same night that, in Cleveland, the Reds’ Alex Blandino was piling up a scoreless, two-strikeout inning – against a team that had scored 19 runs against the Reds’ actual pitchers.

That. Happened.

So here’s our look at the greatest week and a half of mystery-pitching ever:

RAISING ARIZONA

What took place in this Rockies-Diamondbacks game is something you might never see again. Or, come to think of it – considering that 15* position players have pitched just in the last month – you might see it again before you hit the pillow tonight. But here’s what made this game such a classic:

DESCALSO IN THE 4TH? When D-Backs super-utility wiz Daniel Descalso entered this game – after his actual pitching staff had gotten just 10 outs – he did something most of us had never seen before. He was only the third true position player in the last 60 years to show up on the mound as early as the fourth inning. The others:

— Sal Bando for the Brewers, on Aug. 29, 1979 (pitched the fourth, fifth and sixth! More on this game shortly).

— The one and only Rocky Colavito, for the Yankees, on Aug. 25, 1968 (got eight outs in the fourth, fifth and sixth – and was awarded a win by the official scorer for his trouble).

THE EIGHT-OUT CLUB – Descalso would go on to record eight outs himself in this game. And did you know that just five other true position players in the last 50 years have gotten that many (or more) in a game?

Bando and Colavito are two of them. There was Manny Castillo (8 outs, 8 hits, 7 runs) in 1983. And Craig Kusick (11 outs!) in 1979. And the inimitable Gene “Stick” Michael (nine outs) in 1968. But the most notable of the others was the last man to do it – 30 years ago.

That was the great José Oquendo, back on May 14, 1988. And, incredibly, he got 12 outs – and a loss – out of his stellar work twirling through the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th innings of a Cardinals-Braves marathon. He was the first non-pitcher to get a decision as a pitcher in 20 years at the time. Boy, those were the days.

TOUCH ‘EM ALL – It wouldn’t be quite accurate to call this the “highlight” of Descalso’s night. But he did serve up a 447-foot home run to German Márquez in the fifth. And let’s just say it isn’t every night you see a pitcher hit a home run off a position player. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only other time that’s happened in the 58 seasons of the expansion era is June 23, 1986 – Mike LaCoss off Dane Iorg. That was 322 position-player pitching appearances ago!

THE BEST AVILA-BLE ARM – Once Descalso’s mound work was done, in marched Avila to spin off two shutout innings, making him the first position player to do that since Brendan Ryan, for the Yankees, on Aug. 25, 2015. But the big news was… this had just become, by my count, only the third game in the last 100 years in which two true position players got at least six outs apiece. The other two:

— July 31, 1956 – Twin brothers Johnny and Eddie O’Brien went two innings apiece for the Pirates in a 7-0 loss to the Cardinals.

—  (Wait for it…) Sept. 2, 1918 – On the last day of the 1918 season, the Tigers pointed both Ty Cobb (yeah, that Ty Cobb) and Bobby Veach to the mound for two innings – in a game they won (7-3) against the White Sox.

(ASTERISK ALERT: Here’s the tricky part of that note. On July 22, 1945, the Phillies used “position players” Ray Monteagudo and Jimmie Foxx to work a combined 6 1/3 innings of an 8-5 loss to the Cubs. But wait! Monteagudo actually got to the big leagues as a pitcher, and Foxx pitched nine times that year. So we’re not counting that one. Sorry. Rene and Jimmie can contact their legal representatives if they have a problem with that!)

POSITION PLAYERS 1, PITCHERS 0 – But now for the greatest achievement of all. Descalso and Avila became – ta-daaa – only the second position-player tag team in the expansion era to get more outs in a game (14) than the guys who get paid to pitch for their team (10).

The only other time that happened? It was in that fabled Sal Bando game in 1979. Bando went three. Jim Gantner pitched the seventh. Buck Martinez then finished it up. Real pitchers in that game: 3 innings, 13 hits, 15 runs, 3 home runs. Non-pitchers in that game: 5 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 0 homers. Verdict: Mystery pitchers!

The Descalso-Avila game totals weren’t quite as lopsided, but… Real pitchers: 3 1/3 innings, 14 hits, 16 runs, 3 home runs. Non-pitchers: 4 2/3 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 home runs. Once again…verdict: Mystery pitchers!

THE SCOUTING REPORTS – Of course we checked with scouts on the scene about this!

Descalso: Hit 83 on the gun once and 82 another time, but mostly relied on a curve and slider that were clocked at anywhere from 55 (yep, 55) to 70 mph. Asked if Descalso reminded him of any other famous pitchers, one scout quipped: “Nobody since the Little League World Series.”

Avila: Threw 13 consecutive curveballs, all of them clocked between 71 and 75 mph. So what was the most dazzling skill in his pitching repertoire? He got through two innings like lightning, said one scout: “The seventh inning stretch happened. The next thing I knew, it was the ninth. I hardly even realized they changed pitchers.”

DON’T PICK THE KNUCKLEBERRIES

Then there was Alex Blandino. From the Reds’ point of view, he almost singlehandedly salvaged their 19-4 wipeout in Cleveland. He pitched the final inning, and what an outing – at least by mystery-pitcher standards. Hit 90 mph on the gun. Got two swinging strikeouts – one on a knuckleball (Brandon Guyer), the other on a 90.4-mph fastball (Roberto Pérez).

Not impressed yet? Here’s your definitive list of position players in the last 10 seasons who have thrown a shutout inning with two strikeouts or more:

— Alex Blandino (Wednesday).
— J.D. Davis, Astros (Sept. 9, 2017, vs. Oakland).
— Danny Worth, Tigers (May 22, 2014 vs. Texas).
—  (Asterisk alert…) Chris Davis pitched two shutout innings, with two whiffs, in a crazy Orioles-Red Sox 17-inning game on May 6, 2012. (He was the winning pitcher. Red Sox outfielder Darnell McDonald was the losing pitcher.) But Davis never K’d two in any inning. So that’s a separate achievement, right? Right. Now back to Blandino.

“You know, you hear guys (who are position players) say they’ve got a great knuckleball, but they never get in a game,” said one longtime exec who swears he watched every pitch of Blandino’s magical outing. “But this guy’s knuckleball was pretty good. I mean, he got a strikeout – of a big-league hitter. He just looked like a pitcher. He had the glove up to his face and his eyes staring straight over the glove. He was impressive.”

Asked if he thought Blandino had a future in pitching, the exec laughed and said: “Sure. When it’s 18-4 on the road again in the bottom of the eighth, yeah, I’d pitch him.”

IN OTHER NEWS

As for those other position players who pitched…

MARK REYNOLDS – Had the most, um, unusual series of all time last weekend against Miami. Hit a walkoff homer Friday… Drove in 10 runs Saturday… Pitched and got the last out of a 10-2 loss Sunday. Of course nobody has done all of that in the same series. Nobody has ever driven in 10 runs and achieved either of those other two legs of that trifecta in the same series. Trust me. I checked.

JEFF MATHIS – Became the first man in modern history to catch 15 innings and pitch in the same game Sunday. Gave up a game-winning 16th-inning homer to Wil Myers. So that made Mathis the first position player to take a loss on the mound since Darwin Barney did it, for Toronto, in a 19-inning game on July 1, 2016. But if it makes him feel better, he’s the eighth true position player to lose a game on the mound in the last 10 years. It happened twice in the previous 40 years!

JESÚS SUCRE – Unlike Mathis, the Rays’ trusty backup catcher caught none of the first 15 innings of his team’s 9-6 win over the Marlins on July 3. But when the Rays erupted for five runs in the top of the 16th, Kevin Cash actually waved for him to pitch the bottom of the 16th. Which seemed like a fun idea until the first four hitters went single-single-single-sac fly. Which actually proved to be effective setup work, because it set up José Alvarado for a save – as his team’s ninth pitcher of the day.

But enough about him. Here are the only other position players in the last 60 years to get called in to pitch when their team had a lead (and who weren’t already pitching in the game when their team took that lead):

— Andrew Romine, Tigers (Sept. 30, 2017): Got one out in a game in which he played all nine positions.
— Shane Halter, Tigers (Oct. 1, 2000): Faced one hitter (and walked him) in a game where he, too, played all nine positions. (It’s a Tigers thing.)
— Rocky Colavito (yeah him, again, on Aug. 25, 1968): We’ve covered this. Entered with his team leading, 4-1, in the fourth and stuck around long enough to be the winning pitcher!

Wow. How about that. Jesús Sucre: Should have gotten way more famous for this. Don’t you think?

NINE-FOOT-WALKOFF OF THE WEEK

We all have our niches in life. Alex Bregman just happens to have the strangest but truest niche of all time:

The accidental infield walkoff something-or-other!

We’ll get to what he did Tuesday – the strangest but truest nine-foot walkoff whatever-that-was in baseball history – in a moment. But we remind you that back on April 8, the Astros’ favorite human dust storm was the man who hit a seemingly humdrum pop-up against the Padres that Eric Hosmer somehow managed to turn into a walkoff whatever-that-was by overrunning it.

So we checked in with our friends from Sports Info Solutions. And here’s what we found:

— Their tale of the tape on that pop-up in April pegged it as having traveled exactly 38 feet.
— Their tale of the tape on Bregman’s walkoff squibber Tuesday estimated that one came to rest a whopping nine feet from home plate.

So that’s two walkoffs by one man, with a total distance of 47 feet? Who does that, you ask? No one, says Sports Info Solutions. Well, no one else, they mean.

Their database of batted balls goes back 17 seasons to 2002. Nobody else has had two walkoff anythings that traveled 38 feet or shorter in their whole careers. And Alex Bregman has had two in three months. Because of course he has.

“It seems like every time something crazy happens,” Astros broadcast witticist Steve Sparks told Useless Info, “he’s right in the middle of it.”

Doesn’t it? But it doesn’t get much crazier than the goofy walkoff Tuesday in the 11th inning. Furious swing. Balls spins in the dirt in foul territory, then suddenly veers back into fair territory and stops, nine feet up the line. How did it go fair anyway?

“It didn’t want to be a foul ball,” Sparks theorized.

Then A’s catcher Jonathan Lucroy scooped it up. And because Bregman thought it was a foul ball, he hadn’t run. So as Lucroy reached to tag him, Bregman was actually backpedaling backwards in the direction of the batter’s box. But the baseball then mysteriously popped out of Lucroy’s bare hand. So off went Bregman, pumping furiously toward first base.

“What was the ‘Hit Probability?’” Sparks asked. “About 4 percent? It might be zero. It might be the first zero-percent fair ball.”

Nope, we told him, after some exhaustive research. It was actually judged by Statcast to have a 7 percent hit probability.

“Wow, 7 percent seems high,” Sparks said. “I guess it’s the equivalent of an almost perfect bunt. But as soon as Bregman doesn’t leave the batter’s box, you lose all probability that it would be hit. It might be a probability of a hit if he was running. But he didn’t run. And not only that. The catcher was out ahead of him. On a bunt, you’re running out of the box so the catcher is behind you. Then you’ve got the probability of a hit. But he’s not running. It’s a full swing. He thinks it’s foul. And the catcher is out ahead of him? It’s got to be zero. Outside of a heart attack, it’s got to be an out. And I think he lived through it.”

Oh, he lived through it, all right. But even that part got slightly precarious – because Bregman was only safe at first when Lucroy’s throw conked him in the batting helmet and caromed into walkoff land. How did that happen?

“It’s called the Bregman Effect,” Sparks reported, accurately.

Of all the strange-but-true stuff that had to happen for a nine-foot squibber to become a walkoff, the strangest was this: How did an all-star catcher miss the tag when neither he nor the “runner” were actually “running?” You’d have to conclude it’s because Alex Bregman just has Adrian Peterson-type miss-ability, right?

“That’s exactly what it was,” Sparks said. “Or maybe Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders had that maneuverability, to avoid contact. And that’s Alex. He reminds me of Barry Sanders. Two steps. Backpedals. Jackknifes his body to avoid the tag. It’s amazing.

“Or possibly,” Sparks said, with a laugh, “he has a voodoo doll in his back pocket and he can maneuver the defenders the way he wants.”

So let’s see now. In just half a season, Bregman already has walked it off with a 38-foot-pop-up and a 9-foot swinging bunt. So what can he possibly do for his next walkoff trick?

“I say he leans into an eephus pitch with the bases loaded,” Sparks predicted. “How about that one?”

Hold on, we retorted. Who the heck would throw Alex Bregman an eephus pitch with the bases loaded?

“Steven Wright – in the ALDS,” quipped Sparks, former knuckleball king that he is.

“And if that happens,” he laughed, “you and I are going to Vegas.”

USELESS INFO OF THE WEEK

SALE OF THE CENTURY – It’s not up to us to say which pitcher starts the All-Star Game. But we root for history. So how about this: If Chris Sale starts for the American League, it would be the third year in a row he’s done that.

The only other pitchers to start an All-Star Game three years in a row? That would be just Robin Roberts, from 1953-55 and Lefty Gomez, from 1933-35 (the first three All-Star Games ever).

And if Max Scherzer starts for the NL? He would be the first reigning Cy Young ever to start an All-Star Game in his home park. So as we were saying, we always root for history.

ROYAL PAIN – What a year for the Royals. Astonishingly, they’ve already had losing streaks of nine games, nine games and 10 games. A little painful perspective on what that means:

They won’t want to hear that the last team to rip off three separate losing streaks of nine games or more before the all-star break was… Choo Choo Coleman’s 1962 Mets! (They had streaks of nine, 10 and 12.)

And, well, the Royals also won’t want to hear that the Yankees have had just three separate losing streaks that long in the last 65 years. And they’ve had none since (gulp) 1982! 

BOX SCORE LINE OF THE WEEK – Your official take-one-for-the-team hero of the week is Elieser Hernández, who kindly gave up 10 runs – in relief – last Saturday for the Marlins, in their messy 18-4 loss to the Nationals. (His line: 2 1/3 IP, 8 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 2 BB, 0 K.) So how rare was that?

— Last pitcher to give up double digits in relief, according to Baseball-Reference.com’s invaluable Play Index: KC’s Vin Mazzaro, in his legendary 2 1/3-11-14-14-3-2 game of May 16, 2011.
— Last NL pitcher to give up 10+ runs in relief: Arizona’s Eddie Oropesa (1/23-9-10-10-3-1), on Sept. 2, 2002.
— And to steal a fun idea from Doug “Kernels” Kern, last to do it in Washington against a team from DC: Nels Potter (5 1/3-12-10-10-5-3) for the St. Louis Browns, on Aug. 1, 1943.

BARTOLO-MANIA – What are we going to do when Bartolo Colon isn’t around anymore to keep supplying us with cool Useless Info tidbits? Don’t even think about that! For his latest trick, he threw a complete game last weekend – at age 45.

Did you know that over the last 70 years, the only right-handed non-knuckleballers as old as Bartolo to throw a complete game are Nolan Ryan (1992), Bobo Newsom (1953) and Satchel Paige (1952)? How about that group!

JAKE-ING IT – On Wednesday, for the 10th time this season, Jacob deGrom gave up one earned run or none in a start of seven innings or more. You know how that turned out. Of those 10 awesome starts, he has won exactly three of them.

Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, Sal Romano has made 15 starts this year where he has given up at least one homer. He has won four of them.

Baseball!

STRANGEST BUT TRUEST FEATS OF THE WEEK

INDECISION – Have you ever noticed in life that some people take forever to get to a decision? Well, that’s where Brewers left-hander Mike Zagurski comes in. As loyal reader/tweeter Benjamin Hill (@bensbiz) reports, Zagurski just took the first loss of his career, in relief against the Reds. But that wasn’t the strange-but-true part.

The strange-but-true part is that it gave him a lifetime big-league record of 1-1. Which isn’t that crazy, except the loss came in 2018 – and the win came in 2007 (11 years and 23 days earlier)! Try that on your PlayStation sometime.

— Last pitcher to go longer than Zagurski between his first and second major-league decision? Elias reports it was Ken Penner, nearly 90 years ago! He went 12 years, 354 days between his first win in 1916 and his first loss in 1929. He, too, finished at 1-1.
— Last pitcher to go longer than Zagurski between decisions, period? Elias says that was Fred Johnson – eight decades ago! He managed to go 15 years, 87 days – from 1923 to 1938 – between any kind of decision.

Baseball!

WHO NEEDS A STINKING AT-BAT? – Thanks to loyal reader (and Athletic contributor) Dan Lewis for pointing us toward the fascinating saga of Mets pitcher Drew Gagnon. He made his major-league debut Tuesday, got to the plate one time and hit a sacrifice fly. But the fact that he has now driven in more runs over the last two months than Yoenis Cespedes isn’t the strange-but-true part.

The strange-but-true part derives from this question: If Gagnon never makes it back to the big leagues (or back to home plate), would he be the first player to end his career with one RBI – but no official at-bats?

The answer, according to Lee Sinins’ Complete Baseball Encyclopedia is: Yes! Since RBIs became an official stat in 1920, no one has ever had a career of zero at-bats but even one RBI.

Baseball!

IT WAS JUST 17 – Thanks to our friends at Stats LLC for pointing out that when the Reds fell behind the Indians, 17-0, Wednesday night, it was only the third time in the live-ball era (now 99 seasons old) that an NL team had found itself trailing by at least 17 runs after a mere four innings. But that isn’t the strange-but-true part.

The strange-but-true part is that all three of those times, the team that found itself 17 behind was the Reds – on July 14, 1934 (against the Phillies), on May 21, 1952 (against the Dodgers) and Wednesday (against the Indians). But that isn’t even the strangest-but-truest part.

The strangest-but-truest part is that on the very same night, the Diamondbacks fell 17 runs behind the Rockies (18-1) after four innings. Which means …

This happened twice in 98 seasons – and then twice in two hours.

Baseball!

SEVEN HEAVEN – Let’s hear it for the Reds, the strangest but truest team of the week. Their inning-by-inning line score Tuesday was a classic:

000 000 007

Shut out for eight innings by the Indians. Score seven – all with two outs – in the ninth. You don’t see that much.

Last time any Reds team got shut out for the first eight innings and then rallied to win with that many runs (or more) in the ninth? It was Ivey Wingo’s 1919 Reds, who scored eight in the ninth to beat the Phillies at Baker Bowl on Aug. 23, 1919.

And it only took them 99 years to do it again.

Baseball!

DON’T FEED THE PANDA – Only Pablo Sandoval could walk and strike out – in the same at-bat. So how’d he pull that off? Wasn’t that hard.

Lost track of the count and jogged down to first base after – oops! – ball three. Then traipsed back to the box for the 3-2 pitch – and whiffed. Thanks for playing – and for entertaining the Strange But True Department!

 

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