2026 Misc MLB News Thread

[Brian]

On 8/27/2026 at 10:31 AM, TURBO said:

What was it again that we got for this guy?  UGH!

David Stearns was the head of baseball operations (President of Baseball Operations / General Manager authority) for the Milwaukee Brewers during the August 2, 2022 trade that sent Tristan Peters to the San Francisco Giants for Trevor Rosenthal. 

P.S. David Stearns Mets are in last place in the NL East. 

[markedman5]

 

[Underachiever]

Anyone else watching Dodgers-Tigers? Blake Snell gives up a couple of baserunners, and ground rule double made it 1-0 Detroit, runners on second and third, nobody out. Snell signals to the ump, says something and leaves the field for a minute and a half. When he came back, they let him throw warm up pitches. Very strange. 

[igor67]

Apparently Snell's deal included the complimentary umpire concierge service

[markedman5]

 

[Jopal78]

22 hours ago, markedman5 said:

 

Trying to off load the money he’s still owed for this year, before simply DFA’ing him and eating it. He’s got 10 games pitched in Iowa on rehab and nowhere to pitch in a Chicago.

In other words. Willing to let him get claimed but if they have to eat his salary they’ll DFA him Tuesday so he’s post season ineligible and won’t help any other competitors 

[TURBO]

Pete Crow-Armstrong went 4-for-6 with three homers and six RBI on Saturday, powering the Cubs in a 17-5 rout over the visiting Reds.

[wiguy94]

Looks like Rengifo might have just blown out his knee on a fluke play in the field. They are bringing out a cart to get him off the field

[AdvantageSchneider]

On 5/12/2026 at 12:02 AM, wiguy94 said:

Angles matter just as much as exit velocity. Lara hits the ball slightly harder but the vast majority of his hard contact is on the ground. Lara has 51 hard hit balls on the year. Of those 51, 28 (55%) have negative launch angle. Hitting the ball harder is good but if that contact is just being smashed into the ground it doesn’t really mean much.

Sweet spot rate is rate of batted ball between 8 and 32 LA. This is the ideal launch angle to hit a baseball for maximum damage.  Lara on sweet spot batted balls has a 95 Avg EV and 61% hard hit rate compared to Ewing’s 91 Avg EV and 43% hard hit. In that regard Lara looks much better but the difference is Lara only has only hit 23% of his batted balls on that angle compared to Ewing’s 56%.

That’s why Ewing’s contact quality and underlying numbers are far above Lara’s. It’s an angles issue not an EV issue. 
 

Lara has a .285 xwOBACON compared to Ewing’s .427. 

Here are a couple MLB players with similar xwOBACON to Lara this year - Spencer Horowitz, Luke Keaschall, Sal Frelick

Here are a couple MLB players with similar xwOBACON to Ewing this year - Brandon Lowe, Ronald Acuna, Brandon Nimmo

Ewing 396 PA, 654 OPS driven by a putrid .307 OBP.

Lara 139 PA, 724 OPS, aiden in part by a HR off a position player.

[wiguy94]

39 minutes ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

Ewing 396 PA, 654 OPS driven by a putrid .307 OBP.

Lara 139 PA, 724 OPS, aiden in part by a HR off a position player.

Yeah Lara has hit the ball on much better angles in MLB. Would that be the same if they rushed him up in early May like you wanted?

[Outlander]

The Braves are on a really nice run right now and it all started with that final game against the Brewers. At the time the tiebreaker was mentioned but if the Brewers won they would have had such a big lead over them that it didn't seem like a concern. Now that the Braves have not lost since then they are only three games back of the Brewers. The Brewers have to keep the gas on to keep that one seed, don't need another 2025 September.

[markedman5]

 

[markedman5]

 

[HarryDoyle]

1 hour ago, markedman5 said:

 

I wonder if this will turn around the fortune for the Angels. He seems to be doing pretty well for the Rams.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, HarryDoyle said:

I wonder if this will turn around the fortune for the Angels. He seems to be doing pretty well for the Rams.

It cannot get any worse can it? A top media market, big payroll,  a couple of once in a lifetime players together on the roster and yet 90 losses every year. 

[AdvantageSchneider]

On 8/30/2026 at 11:36 PM, wiguy94 said:

Yeah Lara has hit the ball on much better angles in MLB. Would that be the same if they rushed him up in early May like you wanted?

So are you now saying that the Mets rushed Ewing?  Because that wasn't your tune back in May.  

I also kind of doubt that an extra 6 weeks turned the lightbulb on for him.  His xwOBA increased by only .006 by the time he was called up.  He was who he was, 6 weeks would not have been rushing him.

[wiguy94]

7 minutes ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

So are you now saying that the Mets rushed Ewing?  Because that wasn't your tune back in May.  

I also kind of doubt that an extra 6 weeks turned the lightbulb on for him.  His xwOBA increased by only .006 by the time he was called up.  He was who he was, 6 weeks would not have been rushing him.

I can't recall saying anything other than Ewing had much better underlying numbers than Lara at the time. I don't think I ever opined that Ewing was rightfully/wrongfully called up.

[owbc]

6 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

It cannot get any worse can it? A top media market, big payroll,  a couple of once in a lifetime players together on the roster and yet 90 losses every year. 

I have no doubt the Angels will eventually be a competent organization but it’s going to take time. They are in bad shape right now, The one thing they have going for them is they have a surprisingly large and loyal fanbase and thrive on being the budget baseball option in LA. They may have a big payroll but Arte was extremely cheap and most aspects of the organization are bottom-5 in MLB. 

[Jopal78]

6 hours ago, owbc said:

I have no doubt the Angels will eventually be a competent organization but it’s going to take time. They are in bad shape right now, The one thing they have going for them is they have a surprisingly large and loyal fanbase and thrive on being the budget baseball option in LA. They may have a big payroll but Arte was extremely cheap and most aspects of the organization are bottom-5 in MLB. 

I think the tagline that Arte Moreno is cheap is too crude. His insistence that the Angels be nominally competitive damned the franchise. Their draft philosophy was never who will be the best player, but rather who can be rushed to the big leagues quickest. A refusal to sell/tear down even when it’s the rational decision. Less organizational focus on what’s best for the future of the team and more focus on the immediate here and now. 

[markedman5]

Yeah I’m not sure how anyone hits some of these guys

 

[nate82]

Arte Moreno ran the team like a fan.  Completely irrational and always thinking this was the year and going completely in every single year.  There was absolutely no plan other than we are going for it every year.  They absolutely wasted prime Trout and early prime Ohtani years.

When they finally had an out and a possibility to improve the team in the future the owner went full fan mode and refused to trade away Ohtani.  Why?  Because they had a very small chance to make the playoffs and well when you have a chance at the playoffs you have to go all in!!!! The problem was all of the prospect capital was gone so you couldn’t go all in.  It’s why the summer of fun is a far better strategy than whatever the Angels decided to do.

The Angels right now have a better farm system than they did 2-3 years ago.  But still no where near where they need to be at to be competitive again.  Trout doesn’t want to be traded and wants to retire as an Angel though he wouldn’t bring back all that much in a trade other than salary relief and a lottery ticket.

The Angels are still the red headed step child of LA.  

[dlk9s]

 

[dlk9s]

On 9/2/2026 at 12:13 PM, nate82 said:

absolutely wasted prime Trout

I just looked up his career stats and was simultaneously shocked and not surprised to see that he's only played in THREE playoff games.

[igor67]

That would have felt sad even before the Wild Card era, though I'm pretty sure if we look back on players who retired before then there is a decent number of other HOFers who also barely if ever made the playoffs. Ernie Banks came to mind right away as someone who never even made the post season

[igor67]

Certainly something mentioned before, but so far Henderson and Skubal have continued to pitch on the exact same days post trade. Henderson has pitched 39 1/3 innings allowing 10 runs. While Skubal has only pitched 35 2/3 innings in those 6 starts allowing 13 runs.