2015 MLB Season Thread with Postseason Discussion

[pmoehrin]

Two things:

I'd put Arietta above Grinkie.

God I HATE awarding the MVP to a pitcher. I hope that doesn't happen (but it probably will).

I've looked at the award as if I knew coming into the year what everyone was going to do, who would I want on my team the most? The answer to that for me in the NL was Zack Greinke.

That being said I think a solid argument could be made that whoever doesn't win the award would have had the best season in baseball history to not win the Cy Young since the award's inception.

In nine years out of ten both of them would have won it and I have a hard time arguing how a 22-3 season to go with a 1.77 ERA isn't enough to win the Cy Young award, because it is.

I put Arrieta 2nd in the MVP voting after Greinke just to show how great of a year I thought Arrieta had and under the same principle as I argued for Greinke as one. If I couldn't get Greinke on my team, I'd want Arrieta, although I'd really prefer if I could have both.

There's no way you can say one guy had that much better of a season then the other. I think Jake Arrieta had the greatest season of any Cubs pitcher in history. You could arguably replace pitcher with player and the sentence would still be accurate. And Zack Greinke put himself in the potential HOFer discussion with his performance this year.

[2001mark]

My own personal top ten of the best managers available in baseball going purely by resume.

This is not a power ranking who I would hire, just more of a way to give people an idea of exactly who's out there if your manager has gotten fired, is on the hot seat, or think he should be fired. Anyone 65 or older was left off this list as well as anyone with health reasons that would potentially prevent them from being hired. (ie. Kirk Gibson)

1. Ron Gardenhire

2. Jim Tracy

3. Ron Washington

4. Jerry Manuel

5. Ozzie Guillen (if you're feeling crazy)

6. Eric Wedge

7. Willie Randolph

8. Bob Brenly

9. Bud Black

10. Ron Roenicke

If none of those names fancy you, I'd say you're probably looking at a rookie manager.

If I'm a bad team, Guillen is my guy to rock the boat. If an underperforming team... no way jose.

[KittSmith_95]

Two things:

I'd put Arietta above Grinkie.

God I HATE awarding the MVP to a pitcher. I hope that doesn't happen (but it probably will).

I've looked at the award as if I knew coming into the year what everyone was going to do, who would I want on my team the most? The answer to that for me in the NL was Zack Greinke.

That being said I think a solid argument could be made that whoever doesn't win the award would have had the best season in baseball history to not win the Cy Young since the award's inception.

In nine years out of ten both of them would have won it and I have a hard time arguing how a 22-3 season to go with a 1.77 ERA isn't enough to win the Cy Young award, because it is.

I put Arrieta 2nd in the MVP voting after Greinke just to show how great of a year I thought Arrieta had and under the same principle as I argued for Greinke as one. If I couldn't get Greinke on my team, I'd want Arrieta, although I'd really prefer if I could have both.

There's no way you can say one guy had that much better of a season then the other. I think Jake Arrieta had the greatest season of any Cubs pitcher in history. You could arguably replace pitcher with player and the sentence would still be accurate. And Zack Greinke put himself in the potential HOFer discussion with his performance this year.

May I ask why Trout over Donaldson in the AL?

[pmoehrin]

Two things:

I'd put Arietta above Grinkie.

God I HATE awarding the MVP to a pitcher. I hope that doesn't happen (but it probably will).

I've looked at the award as if I knew coming into the year what everyone was going to do, who would I want on my team the most? The answer to that for me in the NL was Zack Greinke.

That being said I think a solid argument could be made that whoever doesn't win the award would have had the best season in baseball history to not win the Cy Young since the award's inception.

In nine years out of ten both of them would have won it and I have a hard time arguing how a 22-3 season to go with a 1.77 ERA isn't enough to win the Cy Young award, because it is.

I put Arrieta 2nd in the MVP voting after Greinke just to show how great of a year I thought Arrieta had and under the same principle as I argued for Greinke as one. If I couldn't get Greinke on my team, I'd want Arrieta, although I'd really prefer if I could have both.

There's no way you can say one guy had that much better of a season then the other. I think Jake Arrieta had the greatest season of any Cubs pitcher in history. You could arguably replace pitcher with player and the sentence would still be accurate. And Zack Greinke put himself in the potential HOFer discussion with his performance this year.

May I ask why Trout over Donaldson in the AL?

Again talking about two players who had great seasons and I'm not going to find too much fault in someone who says they would rather have Donaldson over Trout. Again my question would be how can I get both?

I keep wondering when the bottom is going to fall out of Donadlson because he was such a late bloomer. But this guy just keeps getting better and better and there is no denying anymore that in addition to being one of the game's true superstars, he is also the best third baseman in baseball.

With Trout I don't think we're just looking at a superstar or the game's best center fielder. He has all the looks of someone that can be a generation defining player. Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds. You click on their BR-reference page and everything is in bold. He almost singlehandedly got an Angels team into the playoffs that probably had no business even being above .500 Simply put Mike Trout is Mickey Mantle with good knees.

As far as I can tell there's only one player in the AL who's at Mike Trout's level and that's Mike Trout and this is the fourth straight year of that being true. You can argue over who's two. The name changes almost every year, but Trout is always there and that's the difference between a HOF player and some of the names I mentioned before. You can find guys in the Hall who were the best in the game for a time and consistent over a prolonged period of time. Rarely do you find someone who was consistently the best over a prolonged period of time and when you do that for four, five, six years, maybe even seven years, you're going to find yourself in some pretty exclusive company in a short amount of time.

The only guy who I see right now having any argument against Trout for the best player of this generation is Clayton Kershaw. Everything I said about Trout could be said about Kershaw when it comes to pitching. Only player in history to lead the majors in ERA for four straight seasons. Harper may get there, but he needs at least another two or three years like this one before I can start talking about him in the same light as I do Trout.

[FiddySicks]

A's have a new GM.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13817126/oakland-athletics-promote-billy-beane-david-forst-front-office

[Still MIGHTY]

As do the Angels. Billy Epper of the Yankees.

Halos also said Scioscia will return.

[2001mark]

It's Trout's to lose every season, & he lost it this season to Donaldson.

Just as Kershaw doesn't automatically get the Cy just for showing up.

[Epiphanic]

Can you honestly tell me that the [2014] Royals did anything different than what the [2007] Rockies did?

Honestly, no. But why do I need to say they are different? Both runs were fantastic and a total ride.

Year End Awards:

MVP:

National League: Zack Greinke (2nd Arrieta, 3rd Harper, 4th Kershaw, 5th Goldschmidt)

LOLWUT

[2001mark]

I think it'll be NL Central team defeating Kansas City in the WS.

The Blue Jays' hitting probably won't be as lethal, & their bullpen is much younger & less experienced than most. The Royals are the new Rangers.

The NL Central team will be so jacked up by the WS, they may even sweep it.

[pmoehrin]

A couple thoughts on the Astros/Yankees game tonight.

With Houston I get the sense of a team that's just spent.

They're not going with Dallas Keuchel on three days rest because he's the probable AL Cy Young winner going against a lefty dominant Yankee team. They're going with him because they don't have anyone else to turn to. Both McHugh and McCullers are on even less rest then Keuchel, Scott Kazmir hasn't gotten out of the fifth inning in his last three starts, and Scott Feldman is out for the postseason. Their only other option is Roberto Hernandez/aka Fausto Carmona, who hasn't done anything in eight years.

If Keuchel was fully rested I think this game would be over before it started, but with him on short rest I think it gives the Yankees a chance. If they can get Keuchel out by the seventh and turn it into a bullpen game, I think they're chances of winning go up dramatically.

Problem with them is I would not be thrilled about sending Masahiro Tanaka against a team who lit him up in the one start he had against them this year. (5IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3HR) The one thing the Astros can do is hit home runs and the biggest knock against Tanaka is that he doesn't keep the ball in the park. (25 HR's given up in 24 starts)

I'd much rather go with someone like Nathan Eovaldi who can keep the ball in the park and not surprisingly who had an ERA of 1.29 in his two starts against Houston. If you keep the Astros in the park, they can't score. But he's dealing with injury issues of his own and I think Joe Girardi is looking at him as a last ditch option.

If it were me, I'd probably start Dellin Betances, because I have zero confidence in Tanaka being able to shut down the Astros past the first inning and with Eovaldi hurting, Severino on short rest and both Pineda and Sabathia unavailable, there's really no other realistic option other then Tanaka to start. So why not just cut to the chase and just start the game off as a bullpen game?

I'm curious as well to see what lineup the Yankees will put up against Keuchel as well. Ackley, Brid, Ellsbury, Gardner, Gregorius, McCann. There's no way you can justify starting all six guys against a guy who's held lefties to a .177 average. Plus Carlos Beltran who fares much better against righties then he does lefties. I'm sure Girardi knows this as well, so don't be shocked to see guys like John Ryan Murphy, Brendan Ryan and Chris Young in the lineup tonight.

Hard to get a feel for this game. I think the Yankees could afford to go to their bullpen by the third, I'm not so sure if Houston has the same luxury, but at the same time, I much rather have Dallas Keuchel on the mound even on three days rest over Tanaka who just doesn't pitch well against teams like this.

I think the odds of Houston's bullpen being able to keep up with the Yankees bullpen is higher then Tanaka being able to keep up with Keuchel, so I'll pick Houston based on that, but I think whoever comes out this game is getting picked apart by KC in the next round.

[Almighty]

If NY gets by houston then i think they can beat KC

[Kramerica Industries]

Tanaka also obliterated the Jays the last three times he faced them (23 IP, 2 ER I believe), so I don't think that assessment of Tanaka is particularly fair. Houston's lineup is full of long swingers, but also full of chasers. They had one of, if not, the highest chase rate in MLB this season. Tanaka is a pitcher who loves using a splitter; that being a pitch that, if he's not getting it down, will get crushed instead. It seems like a very boom-or-bust matchup for him against this Astros lineup. If he does give up a HR or two, at least the odds favor them only being solo shots, because his WHIP was elite once again this season, so that helps.

I'm much more concerned about the bullpen and lineup than I am about Tanaka.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Can you honestly tell me that the [2014] Royals did anything different than what the [2007] Rockies did?

Honestly, no. But why do I need to say they are different? Both runs were fantastic and a total ride.

Yes. One needed a 163rd regular season game to make the playoffs. The other did not.

If I started denying that the Division Series are playoffs because they didn't exist when I was a kid, would you follow me?

"The playoffs don't start until the NLCS and ALCS, folks! Who's with me?!"

[pmoehrin]

Tanaka also obliterated the Jays the last three times he faced them (23 IP, 2 ER I believe), so I don't think that assessment of Tanaka is particularly fair. Houston's lineup is full of long swingers, but also full of chasers. They had one of, if not, the highest chase rate in MLB this season. Tanaka is a pitcher who loves using a splitter; that being a pitch that, if he's not getting it down, will get crushed instead. It seems like a very boom-or-bust matchup for him against this Astros lineup. If he does give up a HR or two, at least the odds favor them only being solo shots, because his WHIP was elite once again this season, so that helps.

I'm much more concerned about the bullpen and lineup than I am about Tanaka.

Its not going to be a boom or bust matchup for him, because if that splitter is up, he's going to be gone by the third inning. There's not going to be a "let's see if he can settle down" conversation past the second inning.

Realistically I think him going six innings and giving up one run is best case scenario. Unless the Yankees get up big early, the second Tanaka gets into even a bit of trouble after the third or fourth he's getting pulled.

Keuchel will be a on a longer leash, be even with him I don't think I would push him past 90 pitches on three days rest.

Looking at the rosters which are out now, both teams are carrying nine pitchers. Only real difference is the Yankees are carrying two long men (Severrino and Nova) against the Astros one. (Fiers)

Yankees are also carrying three catchers which seems a bit strange in a best of one. Only thought there is that McCann might be benched in favor of Murphy until Keuchel is out of the game. Only thing that would seem to make any sense.

[AnPheitseog]

The world I live in currently is one where i want the yankees to win the wild card and ALDS.

I hate this world

[Fishplatter]

Very disappointing season for the 2015 New York Yankees. When you don't win the World Series,it's a FAILURE. Win a ring, or nothing was won.

[Still MIGHTY]

Very disappointing season for the 2015 New York Yankees. When you don't win the World Series,it's a FAILURE. Win a ring, or nothing was won.

It was a classic, though. The Astros are legit.

[FiddySicks]

Well, I certainly can't complain about the AL representative during this year's World Series. All four teams are fun, and more importantly, aren't the Yankees!

[Fishplatter]

Very disappointing season for the 2015 New York Yankees. When you don't win the World Series,it's a FAILURE. Win a ring, or nothing was won.

It was a classic, though. The Astros are legit.

Yea, they are. Astros to their first ALDS.

[Fishplatter]

I think it may be time for the New York Yankees to make a change at the GM position. Cashman has been there for a long time. They need fresh blood. When the Yankees don't do well in the playoffs, baseball doesn't do well. A Yankees / Cardinals World Series would have been what this country needs to heal it's soul. Regal. Class. Grace. Excellence. Maybe next year.