Random MLB News & Discussion 2014

[Oxy]

Cardinals with the clumsiest putout of all-time? Both CBS Eye on Baseball and I think so...

 

http://sports.cbsimg.net/images/visual/whatshot/Cardinals-Phillies-putout-062114.gif

 

I know that a defender has a right to make a play on a ball in the basepath, but does he have the right to kick it into the basepath and then make a play on it while rolling into the runner?

[pretendastronaut]

JJ Hardy got the silent treatment in the dugout after his first homer of the year, so he celebrated by himself, which was hilarious:

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_06_21_balmlb_nyamlb_1&mode=video&content_id=33913019&tcid=vpp_copy_33913019

[pacopete4]

JJ Hardy got the silent treatment in the dugout after his first homer of the year, so he celebrated by himself, which was hilarious:

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_06_21_balmlb_nyamlb_1&mode=video&content_id=33913019&tcid=vpp_copy_33913019

 

More shocking that it's his 1st of the year. I see he's hitting for a high average with no power. I don't remember that from him. He always seem to hit 20 home runs.

[Funketown]

Mike Trout just keeps being ridiculous. Putting the ball in the air more so his average is down, but he could approach 40 HR's this year.

 

2014: 323 PA's, .307/.399/.607/1.006, wRC+ of 178

 

In his career, he's averaging 10.4 WAR/162 games.

[yfinn6]

Mike Trout just keeps being ridiculous. Putting the ball in the air more so his average is down, but he could approach 40 HR's this year.

 

2014: 323 PA's, .307/.399/.607/1.006, wRC+ of 178

 

In his career, he's averaging 10.4 WAR/162 games.

 

Whenever I see something about Mike Trout, two thoughts come to mind:

 

1) I hope he stays healthy; would love to see what kind of career he can have if he can play 150+ games a year.

 

2) I really wish the Brewers didn't lose that pick and thus, miss out on drafting Trout by one pick. Wasn't it discussed on the draft thread that Seid had intended to draft Trout in 09, but he went to the Angels instead? If so, it's a little heart-breaking considering the Brewers settled for Arnett who's not even in the system anymore.

[pretendastronaut]

Axford playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with the Dbacks mascot:

 

http://mlb.com/fancave/blog/article.jsp?content=article&content_id=81670904&partnerId=th_email

[Nottso]

Axford playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with the Dbacks mascot:

 

http://mlb.com/fancave/blog/article.jsp?content=article&content_id=81670904&partnerId=th_email

 

That's pretty good stuff. If the Rangers come to town next year I want Bernie to touch Beltre's head.

[SRB]

Maybe I am missing something, but how exactly does Mike Trout have a higher fWAR than Tulowitzki, when the latter has a dramatically better offensive line, better defense at a much harder position, and only 15 or so less PA?

[jjkoestler]

Maybe I am missing something, but how exactly does Mike Trout have a higher fWAR than Tulowitzki, when the latter has a dramatically better offensive line, better defense at a much harder position, and only 15 or so less PA?

 

I was just checking out Fangraphs and thought the same thing. Alex Gordon is 3rd in WAR (4.3) which is .8 ahead of GoGo. Gomez has better offensive numbers and plays better D.

[logan82]

Maybe I am missing something, but how exactly does Mike Trout have a higher fWAR than Tulowitzki, when the latter has a dramatically better offensive line, better defense at a much harder position, and only 15 or so less PA?

The offensive portion of fWAR looks like it is adjusted for park factors.

[jerichoholicninja]

The Astros refusing to give Brady Aiken full slot value because of his "abnormal" UCL is apparently making the Astros the disgrace of baseball. I have no specific link or article about it, it's just really bugging me that this is becoming a big deal. Aiken turned down more money than he is almost certain to get if he's drafted next year and the Astros are the bad guys here.

[SRB]

The Astros refusing to give Brady Aiken full slot value because of his "abnormal" UCL is apparently making the Astros the disgrace of baseball. I have no specific link or article about it, it's just really bugging me that this is becoming a big deal. Aiken turned down more money than he is almost certain to get if he's drafted next year and the Astros are the bad guys here.

 

The Astros look pretty bad to me. They were trying to low-ball Aiken and use their superior bargaining position to force him into accepting (because hey, what high school kid isn't going to take a multi-million dollar deal) so they could save money and/or spread their bonus pool to other players, and it blew up in their face.

 

Jeff Hoffman got over $3M and he's having full-blown TJ surgery, but Aiken is worth half as much as he was originally offered because of some medical abnormality that may or may not even be an issue? Seems insulting/manipulative if I'm the player. I suspect the Astros front office just handled it poorly and burned all of their bridges with Aiken and Casey Close. Maybe if they had dropped to $5M right off the bat (rather than going back up to $5M as a last resort) a deal might have happened.

[yfinn6]

Where are you seeing Aiken was getting half as much? From what I was reading he was being offered 6.5 from the start, and then when the Astros didn't like the MRI, they were offering 5.5. Did they then pull their offer?

[SRB]

Where are you seeing Aiken was getting half as much? From what I was reading he was being offered 6.5 from the start, and then when the Astros didn't like the MRI, they were offering 5.5. Did they then pull their offer?

 

I've only been following it in passing, but my understanding is they offered $6.5M, then they found the UCL issue, then according to Casey Close they came back and offered him like $3.1M (whatever the minimum is that they had to offer to get a pick next year), until the day of the signing deadline when they upped their offer back close to $5M. Seems pretty shady to me.

 

If they had gone straight to $5M after discovering the UCL issue then I bet a deal would have gotten done.

[yfinn6]

There are probably conflicting reports. When I saw the initial 6.5 offer was dropped to 5.5, I wondered why it wasn't getting done. If it was indeed 3.1 (which I found in one report) and that was 40% of the draft slot, then that's kind of shady.

[sveumrules]

Aiken should have asked Dylan Covey how turning down seven figures out of high school turned out for him. Wish him and his UCL the best of luck but odds are he won't get a bonus bigger than 5 million next time he's drafted.

[Funketown]

Clayton Kershaw's ERA since 2010 is 2.32, the lowest in the majors of any pitcher with over 300 IP. Next is Brad Ziegler, and the closest starter is either Medlen (2.75, but only 57 starts) or Cueto (2.78).

 

Is there even any debate right now over who (i) the best position player and (ii) the best pitcher are? It's just too bad they both play on the West coast...

[trwi7]

The worst part about the Aiken fiasco is that the Astros had another high school pitcher ready to sign but when Aiken decided not to sign, it took all of that bonus money away forcing them to either sign the high school pitcher by going way over their draft allotment and forcing the Astros to give up their next two 1st round picks or let him go to college, even though he agreed to a deal.

 

That's why the whole draft allotment sucks. You had a kid who was ready and willing to sign but because another kid didn't sign, they basically had to take the offer/agreement off the table.

[lcbj68c]

If this were the Brewers, this would be deemed unclassy by the Cardinals and their fans.

 

http://m.mlb.com/video/v34677917/sealaa-rodneys-early-arrow-rallies-angels

[SRB]

Clayton Kershaw's ERA since 2010 is 2.32, the lowest in the majors of any pitcher with over 300 IP. Next is Brad Ziegler, and the closest starter is either Medlen (2.75, but only 57 starts) or Cueto (2.78).

 

Is there even any debate right now over who (i) the best position player and (ii) the best pitcher are? It's just too bad they both play on the West coast...

 

Troy Tulowitzki?

[trwi7]

Clayton Kershaw's ERA since 2010 is 2.32, the lowest in the majors of any pitcher with over 300 IP. Next is Brad Ziegler, and the closest starter is either Medlen (2.75, but only 57 starts) or Cueto (2.78).

 

Is there even any debate right now over who (i) the best position player and (ii) the best pitcher are? It's just too bad they both play on the West coast...

 

Troy Tulowitzki?

 

Trout

[pretendastronaut]

Great article on what a travesty Ryan Howard's contract has been:

 

Well, Howard's deal isn't up yet. It won't be up until the end of the 2016 season. But since the start of 2012, Howard has been worth -0.7 WAR. At least, according to FanGraphs; according to Baseball-Reference, he's been worth -0.8 WAR. So far over the course of his $125-million contract, Howard has been a below-replacement-level player, and he doesn't project to improve very much from here on out.

 

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/ryan-howard-philadelphia-phillies-contract-regress-struggle-trade-rumors-release-072514

[young guns]

Rockies give away Tulowitzki shirseys, misspelled as Tulowizki Must be a ploy by the front office to ease a future trade. They will just point to the shirseys and say, see he wasn't that big of a star if we couldn't even spell his name right.

[lcbj68c]

Suppose the Brewers had Tulo. Would you play him at 3rd?

[Eye Black]

Former Brewers Blake Lalli and Kameron Loe (among many other) involved an ugly AAA brawl between the D-Backs and Dodgers affiliates (Reno and Albuquerque). Here is the Deadspin Link (with video).