MLB 2023 Miscellaneous News

[owbc]

I remember Woodard’s debut as well. It was a better pitched game than Strasberg but it was in front of about 1,500 fans. “Strasberg mania” was like a playoff game. 
 

Unfortunately Woodard’s second start was also memorable because it ended our 9 game winning streak and his career was pretty much all downhill from there. 

[Outlander]

Very random but the Brewers are on the immaculate grid game today and one of the guys I always remember from the Brewers is Bob Sebra because he started the brawl against the Mariners in 1990 and never played again after that. Also, recall that he started his career with the Rangers. So put him in for Brewers and Rangers and he is at .07%, never got a percentage even close to that low before and doubt I ever will again.

Anybody else play immaculate grid and what was the lowest percentage you ever had for a Brewers player?

[owbc]

51 minutes ago, Outlander said:

Very random but the Brewers are on the immaculate grid game today and one of the guys I always remember from the Brewers is Bob Sebra because he started the brawl against the Mariners in 1990 and never played again after that. Also, recall that he started his career with the Rangers. So put him in for Brewers and Rangers and he is at .07%, never got a percentage even close to that low before and doubt I ever will again.

Anybody else play immaculate grid and what was the lowest percentage you ever had for a Brewers player?

Julio Franco came in handy again today. 

[sveumrules]

The guy I’ll probably always sync up Strasburg with in my mind is Chris Sale.

Both were considered “injury prone” even during their mostly healthy and overlapping primes, then both fell apart after delivering WS titles and signing big extensions.

2012-19 Strasburg
1,346 IP (17th) | 79 ERA- (9th) | 76 FIP- (6th) | 30.9 rWAR (10th) | 33.2 fWAR (6th).

2012-18 Sale
1,388 IP (6th) | 70 ERA- (2nd) | 68 FIP- (2nd) | 39.3 rWAR (3rd) | 39.2 fWAR (3rd).

Here’s a few other recent-ish guys with long runs of ace quality but not quite the quantity typically needed for the HOF…

2014-23 deGrom
1,356 IP (18th) | 65 ERA- (2nd) | 64 FIP- (1st) | 42.7 rWAR (3rd) | 42.6 fWAR (3rd).

2002-08 Johan
1,413 IP (13th) | 64 ERA- (1st) | 74 FIP- (3rd) | 45.5 rWAR (1st) | 36.9 fWAR (2nd).

2008-13 Cliff Lee
1,333 IP (5th) | 71 ERA- (2nd) | 70 FIP- (1st) | 38.5 rWAR (1st) | 38.1 fWAR (1st)

2009-14 Felix
1,394 IP (1st) | 70 ERA- (2nd) | 72 FIP- (3rd) | 38.5 rWAR (2nd) | 37.2 fWAR (2nd).

[JosephC]

14 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

It would depend on the medicals.  If the doctors say he's physically unable to play (like Prince) then they owe him the money.  Otherwise yea he'd have to go through the motions of showing up every year or negotiate a buyout.    Sure seems like a Prince situation to me though, but they stupidly didn't insure it. 

If a player retires, a team does not have to pay the remainder of the salary.

Fielder could no longer play, but the Rangers had an insurance policy on his contract.  So when it was determined he could not play, the team went to the insurance company and made the claim, allowing Fielder to not play and still get paid...resulting in his retirement.  There was some provision in the insurance contract that Fielder had to remain on the 40-man roster, and Fielder was on the 40 man roster for a couple years after he retired until the Rangers and the insurance company worked out another financial deal that allowed them to remove Fielder from the 40 man roster.

As far as Strasburg, if he retires the Nationals do not legally owe him the remainder of his contract unless that changed in the latest CBA, which I don't think it did.  Even if he cannot pitch, he would still earn his salary by not retiring,  showing up and rehabbing his injury.  It's safe to say at this point that the team doctors (and probably other doctors to provide more opinions) have concluded that he will never pitch again.  Following is just speculation on my part, Strasburg demanded the rest of the contract be paid, so he could show up and go through the motions of rehabbing and eat up resources (trainers, equipment, other staff time) for nothing since he could no longer pitch and still get paid, or he would just retire if the Nationals were still willing to pay him.  Either way, he's still getting paid.  So the Nationals likely just decided to pay him instead of going through the false facade that he is rehabbing and may pitch again one day, and having him eat up resources that could be directed at players who can still play.  Considering he spent his whole career with the Nationals, it wouldn't surprise me if there is a "personal services contract" aspect to this deal where he continues to work with the Nationals doing various, minor PR stuff for the team.

[GAME05]

Maybe there's also paperwork involved where he's not 'technically' retired, but realistically is. Plenty of 50-year-olds out there who are technically free agents because they didn't qualify for the pension and so never bothered doing the retirement paperwork.

[CheeseheadInQC]

3 hours ago, Outlander said:

Very random but the Brewers are on the immaculate grid game today and one of the guys I always remember from the Brewers is Bob Sebra because he started the brawl against the Mariners in 1990 and never played again after that. Also, recall that he started his career with the Rangers. So put him in for Brewers and Rangers and he is at .07%, never got a percentage even close to that low before and doubt I ever will again.

Anybody else play immaculate grid and what was the lowest percentage you ever had for a Brewers player?

You beat my Laynce Nix.

I think .07 was my low too. I believe it was for Bill Spiers for Brewers/Mets.

[Outlander]

Can't say I remember Spiers as a Met, nice one.

[tmwiese55]

41 minutes ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

You beat my Laynce Nix.

I think .07 was my low too. I believe it was for Bill Spiers for Brewers/Mets.

I used Keven Mench in that spot.  Don't think it was as low as .07.   I'll never forget the night they traded for him and he showed up in the dugout midgame and on TV they made it out like it was the second coming of Babe Ruth joining the team, if I remember there was some big talk or deal about the size of his shoes or something too.  All the while I hated the trade so it annoyed me even more. 

[pitchleague]

I used Dane Iorg in one that involved STL and World Series champions.  That got 0.03% the lowest I've seen when I've tried to play.

I guess that's sort of Brewers related, but not to your specific grid.

[areacodes]

9 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

I used Keven Mench in that spot.  Don't think it was as low as .07.   I'll never forget the night they traded for him and he showed up in the dugout midgame and on TV they made it out like it was the second coming of Babe Ruth joining the team, if I remember there was some big talk or deal about the size of his shoes or something too.  All the while I hated the trade so it annoyed me even more. 

His head… they loved to talk about his huge head.

[yfinn6]

9 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

I used Keven Mench in that spot.  Don't think it was as low as .07.   I'll never forget the night they traded for him and he showed up in the dugout midgame and on TV they made it out like it was the second coming of Babe Ruth joining the team, if I remember there was some big talk or deal about the size of his shoes or something too.  All the while I hated the trade so it annoyed me even more. 

Peak Daron Sutton. 

[Frisbee Slider]

Jose Capellan for Braves/Brewers was .06%

[Outlander]

Nice, a surprise today but Cecil Cooper only .06% for all star and 200 hit season:

 

[Underachiever]

On 8/25/2023 at 8:56 AM, Outlander said:

Very random but the Brewers are on the immaculate grid game today and one of the guys I always remember from the Brewers is Bob Sebra because he started the brawl against the Mariners in 1990 and never played again after that. Also, recall that he started his career with the Rangers. So put him in for Brewers and Rangers and he is at .07%, never got a percentage even close to that low before and doubt I ever will again.

Anybody else play immaculate grid and what was the lowest percentage you ever had for a Brewers player?

A Reds/Brewers match of Billy Bates got me .1%. That day was also the only time I ever got 9/9.

[Playing Catch]

The immaculate grid game is fun. It's fun to do while watching/listening to baseball.

Anybody else comfortable just saying that the Padres hitched their wagon to Machado and Tatis Jr., and the baseball gods are punishing them for it?

I don't like calling people bad names, but I can think of a few for those two.

[Underachiever]

Immaculate Grid today taught me that I know very little about the Dbacks history. Also, Walt Weiss never won a GG. I guess that is a spoiler, but don't use him.

[Underachiever]

Amazing quote by Brandon Lowe:

 

[markedman5]

This is what happens when you listen to your fans and the media experts …..who say “ “ They really need to go for it!”

such a well run franchise…….lol

 

[markedman5]

I wonder what the record is for most DFAs in one season? Miller must be getting close……..

 

[Ewitkows1]

The White Sox just can't seem to get out of their own way. 

[BrewerFan]

The Baseball gods giveth...and they taketh away. Tony Gonsolin goes down with TJ and one of the most underrated pitchers in the game...in my opinion, Walker Buehler is on his way back and his velo is back up into the mid to upper 90s. 

What a stark contrast in how to run a big market team with massive financial resources. The Mets just handing out blank checks while the Dodgers try pulling back on the payroll to get under the tax(before Bauer was reinstated) in a buildup to go after Ohtani and presumably re-sign their own homegrown ace is Urias...but they can bring up 10 pitchers who have MLB caliber stuff and still coast to 100 wins. 11 years with Andrew Friedman, the one year they didn't win the division, they won 106 games.

#2 overall farm system headed into the year, #6 mid-season, ~100M in payroll for a team that could easily go up to 280 or near the Cohen line.

 

ANYWAY, on a day they get Bobby Miller to shut down the Braves, Walker Buhler comes back. Just 24 pitches, so I doubt we see him completely back until '24, but that's a helluva weapon for 3-4 innings. 

https://www.mlb.com/news/dodgers-buehler-stone-make-formidable-combo-at-triple-a?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

[Jim French Stepstool]

On 8/25/2023 at 8:56 AM, Outlander said:

Very random but the Brewers are on the immaculate grid game today and one of the guys I always remember from the Brewers is Bob Sebra because he started the brawl against the Mariners in 1990 and never played again after that. Also, recall that he started his career with the Rangers. So put him in for Brewers and Rangers and he is at .07%, never got a percentage even close to that low before and doubt I ever will again.

Anybody else play immaculate grid and what was the lowest percentage you ever had for a Brewers player?

I'm old enough to remember the early 70s Brewers so that helps me get some awfully rare matches. Don't remember the percentage but for a Brewers-Yankees match I used Frank Tepedino, who was I think 0.0-something.

My kryptonite is the Rays. Have a heck of a time getting matches there. My strategy if stuck: Throw LaTroy Hawkins or Fernando Rodney out there & pray.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Does anyone know the lowest winning percentage (above zero) for a pitcher in a season? I see where Zack Greinke lost Sunday to run his record to 1-14.

[BrewerFan]

On 8/25/2023 at 1:06 PM, tmwiese55 said:

I used Keven Mench in that spot.  Don't think it was as low as .07.   I'll never forget the night they traded for him and he showed up in the dugout midgame and on TV they made it out like it was the second coming of Babe Ruth joining the team, if I remember there was some big talk or deal about the size of his shoes or something too.  All the while I hated the trade so it annoyed me even more. 

I remember...one Wakefield's catchers that Boston traded, they traded for him back because nobody else could catch him and as I recall. Mirabelli? Anyway, Police escort, changing in the backseat. It was a regular season game, but it was vs the Yankees, and those were like playoff games.

And then...Kevin Mench! 

Kinda amazing how significant that Carlos Lee trade seemed. Put up 3.2 WAR over 2 seasons for the Brewers, but he felt like this superstar. I don't blame giving up Nelson Cruz in return(though it did seem weird as he looked like a 5 tool guy at that time and was raking). But just an indication of how far we've come.