2016 MLB Season

[HedleyLamarr]

The Braves are 2-8 after the All-Star break.  This is going to seriously damage their Wild Card chances......

[kroywen]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

Unless something catastrophic happens, Aroldis Chapman, his 105 heater and DV allegations are headed to the Cubs.

Good riddance. I hated that the Yankees took advantage of a DV incident to get Chapman at a dirt cheap price, and felt rather uncomfortable rooting for him. Might be the most uncomfortable I've felt watching a Yankee since Armando Benitez (ironically, also a hard-throwing reliever with a very short-lived tenure).

 

I want the Yankees to sell as many pieces as possible (I would be actively shopping Miller, Beltran, Eovaldi, Pineda, Nova, etc., if I were the Yanks' FO), but unloading Chapman makes sense both from a baseball perspective, and given the DV allegations. Assuming this goes through, I've rarely been so happy to see a player dealt away from a team of mine.

 

(Also love that the Yanks might get Gleyber Torres in return - he's young, and thus inherently risky, but his upside is downright incredible. Having a bat like his at shortstop would be invaluable for any team. #1 ranked prospect in a fairly deep Cubs system, so very exciting for Yanks fans if this goes through.)

[rsaline]

^Plus his name is Gleyber so that's an automatic win.

[CS85]

This feels odd.  I don't want to get caught up in the SJW mania again like I did last year when Kane faux-raped a girl whose identity got leaked by mutants and whose mother hijacked her Barnum & Bailey legal strategy.  

 

It's not the same, obviously.  The Cubs willingly acquired this guy, baggage and all, for a heavy price.  I would seriously hope they did their due diligence, but they need look no further than Phil Emery and Ryan Pace for how they interpret "due diligence."  Jay Ratliff turned out to be an alcoholic psychopath, and Ray McDonald, in spite of everyone screaming NO DON'T DO THIS, proved that he was indeed incapable of abstaining from being a violent, munitions-laden idiot.

 

So when Ricketts, Jed, and Theo all sign off on trading a wheelbarrow of prospects away for a guy who isn't too far removed from a woman-beating/gun-firing incident, I have to think they would know very well the risk they were taking.  

I hope they know what they're doing, but the Chicago trend indicates quite the opposite.

[Dynasty]

In other news, the Marlins are quietly in the Wild Card race. I would've thought their fast start at the beginning of the season would've been just a fluke, but they've been surprisingly consistent so far this season. I'm not giving them high expectations or anything if they make the playoffs, but that's mainly because I didn't even give them expectations in the first place. They've been an interesting group and I hope they can keep it up.

[infrared41]

On the Chapman deal - I'm never crazy about a team that's already good enough to win the World Series making deadline deals and messing with it's chemistry*. I'm probably wrong, but it seems like for every deadline deal that worked, there are 50 that didn't. 

 

EDIT: According to the "experts", the Cubs addressed their biggest problem with this deal so maybe it's a great move. We'll see.  

 

*I know the SABR folks think there's no such thing as "chemistry", but I believe it exists and I don't like messing with it. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Dolphins Dynasty said:

In other news, the Marlins are quietly in the Wild Card race. I would've thought their fast start at the beginning of the season would've been just a fluke, but they've been surprisingly consistent so far this season. I'm not giving them high expectations or anything if they make the playoffs, but that's mainly because I didn't even give them expectations in the first place. They've been an interesting group and I hope they can keep it up.

 

A lot of people thought the Marlins were going to be pretty decent this season. I don't think they're a threat to win the World Series, but grabbing the second wild card isn't out of the question.

 

[ShinyHubCaps]

It's ironic that Sale cutting up jerseys will cut into jersey sales.

[jrodsep]

7 hours ago, Dolphins Dynasty said:

In other news, the Marlins are quietly in the Wild Card race. I would've thought their fast start at the beginning of the season would've been just a fluke, but they've been surprisingly consistent so far this season. I'm not giving them high expectations or anything if they make the playoffs, but that's mainly because I didn't even give them expectations in the first place. They've been an interesting group and I hope they can keep it up.

 

Many (including me) thought that only interesting thing coming from the Marlins in August/September would be Ichiro chase of 3k but they could be hanging around wild card late late late into the season, if only Stanton could get hot they might get the late season push needed. 

[FiddySicks]

I had the Marlins beating the Dodgers in the Wild Card game this year. So far, so good! As long as the Giants pull their heads out, anyway  

[Cujo]

*checks preseason predictions*

 

*glares at Arizona Diamondbacks*

 

[Sport]

18 hours ago, infrared41 said:

On the Chapman deal - I'm never crazy about a team that's already good enough to win the World Series making deadline deals and messing with it's chemistry*. I'm probably wrong, but it seems like for every deadline deal that worked, there are 50 that didn't. 

 

EDIT: According to the "experts", the Cubs addressed their biggest problem with this deal so maybe it's a great move. We'll see.  

 

*I know the SABR folks think there's no such thing as "chemistry", but I believe it exists and I don't like messing with it. 

 

 

If he's anything like Johnny Cueto last year then the Cubs may finally end this World Series drought. During his time with the Reds I don't think I ever heard anything about Chapman being a bad teammate. He was just a Cuban mystery man who didn't speak english and so nobody knew anything about him and then the bizarre behavior with women started happening. The off the field stuff, domestic violence included was never cool, but I never heard a peep about being a clubhouse problem. 

 

 

[Sport]

Fun stat for a dismal season: the Reds have had a hall of famer on the roster every year from 1956-2008 now that Ken Griffey Jr's been inducted. The only team that can say that. Pretty cool. 

 

The best shot at continuing that streak is Joey Votto and Votto's a long shot right now so that streak might end at Griffey. To even have a case, and I think he does, Votto needs to keep up his saber-friendly production for the next 3-5 years, hope more saber writers get votes, and then hope for a down year. 

[SFGiants58]

Melvin (nee BJ) Upton Jr. is headed to the Blue Jays.

 

Something, something, blow job joke. Anyway, I'm pretty glad that the Giants aren't blowing the farm on Chapman or Miller, given how much the team has been burned by moves like that in the past. The team still needs certifiable bullpen help (and injury returns), but I'm sure the front office will avoid a blockbuster trade.

[FGM13]

I'm not sure what Upton Jr. is supposed to do in Toronto. He could push Bautista to 1B/DH, but Smoak, Encarnacion and possibly Colabello in the future already are entrenched there. He's an upgrade over Pillar at the plate but he doesn't play elite CF and Pillar is a fan-favourite. LF isn't an option, Michael Saunders has quietly been a stud there. I don't know, Toronto. Trade for a reliever.

[infrared41]

9 hours ago, McCarthy said:

 

If he's anything like Johnny Cueto last year then the Cubs may finally end this World Series drought. During his time with the Reds I don't think I ever heard anything about Chapman being a bad teammate. He was just a Cuban mystery man who didn't speak english and so nobody knew anything about him and then the bizarre behavior with women started happening. The off the field stuff, domestic violence included was never cool, but I never heard a peep about being a clubhouse problem. 

 

 

A couple things I didn't know about the Cubs. After a 26-5 start, the Cubs have basically been a .500 club. The bullpen is ranked 14th with an ERA of 3.83. The team needed to do something. Anyway, when I said I worry about a trade messing up a team's chemistry, I didn't mean that Chapman is a bad teammate or a problem in the clubhouse. I don't have a good explanation for it, I just never like messing with a good team. If Chapman clicks, the Cubs are going to be tough to beat. 

[Kramerica Industries]

7 hours ago, FGM13 said:

I'm not sure what Upton Jr. is supposed to do in Toronto. He could push Bautista to 1B/DH, but Smoak, Encarnacion and possibly Colabello in the future already are entrenched there. He's an upgrade over Pillar at the plate but he doesn't play elite CF and Pillar is a fan-favourite. LF isn't an option, Michael Saunders has quietly been a stud there. I don't know, Toronto. Trade for a reliever.

 

Couple of things about it:

 

a) Upton has had something of a revival after his career crashed in Atlanta. OPS+ of 111 last season and 100 this season in San Diego. Yeah, he's going to strike out an awful ton, but for someone who might just be a 20/20 player, who is having the major sum of his contract subsidized by the Padres, you can do a lot worse.

 

b ) Bautista is almost surely a goner, and if he wasn't, then Edwin is. Maybe one or the other stays; obviously not both, and not because the Blue Jays couldn't afford him (they actually probably could; Rogers is pretty damn wealthy), but because giving large wads of cash for several years to corner IF/DH's in the mid-'30s is generally terrible business. Getting Upton for pennies gives the Blue Jays some flexibility going into 2017. 

 

c) Wasn't going to mention this initially, but do remember that Michael Saunders isn't exactly the example of an iron man out there. He's having a phenomenal season, but it doesn't hurt to have someone who can ably fill in for him if he were to get hurt (hopefully, he won't). 

 

d) nitpick, but Chris Colabello, who has missed 80 games due to suspension and had a 2015 season fuelled by a sky-high .420-something BABIP, and is utterly incapable of playing in the field with any competency, is not really the shining example of an "entrenched" roster player. Toronto got along just fine without him; hell, his absence is what allowed Michael Saunders to get everyday duty, righty and lefty alike, and thrive the way he has. In fact, Saunders has a .290/.377/.634 split vs. LHP, which is simply sensational.

 

disclaimer - I'm not entirely sure about that last one. In fact, it was probably Colabello and Smoak who were the platoon mates, but I know Colabello had also played LF last year, which is where Saunders is so it seems/ed plausible to me that they could be platoon mates as well. I'm not 100% sure on this.

[FGM13]

5 minutes ago, Kramerica Industries said:

 

Couple of things about it:

 

a) Upton has had something of a revival after his career crashed in Atlanta. OPS+ of 111 last season and 100 this season in San Diego. Yeah, he's going to strike out an awful ton, but for someone who might just be a 20/20 player, who is having the major sum of his contract subsidized by the Padres, you can do a lot worse.

 

b ) Bautista is almost surely a goner, and if he wasn't, then Edwin is. Maybe one or the other stays; obviously not both, and not because the Blue Jays couldn't afford him (they actually probably could; Rogers is pretty damn wealthy), but because giving large wads of cash for several years to corner IF/DH's in the mid-'30s is generally terrible business. Getting Upton for pennies gives the Blue Jays some flexibility going into 2017. 

 

c) Wasn't going to mention this initially, but do remember that Michael Saunders isn't exactly the example of an iron man out there. He's having a phenomenal season, but it doesn't hurt to have someone who can ably fill in for him if he were to get hurt (hopefully, he won't). 

 

d) nitpick, but Chris Colabello, who has missed 80 games due to suspension and had a 2015 season fuelled by a sky-high .420-something BABIP, and is utterly incapable of playing in the field with any competency, is not really the shining example of an "entrenched" roster player. Toronto got along just fine without him; hell, his absence is what allowed Michael Saunders to get everyday duty, righty and lefty alike, and thrive the way he has. In fact, Saunders has a .290/.377/.634 split vs. LHP, which is simply sensational.

 

disclaimer - I'm not entirely sure about that last one. In fact, it was probably Colabello and Smoak who were the platoon mates, but I know Colabello had also played LF last year, which is where Saunders is so it seems/ed plausible to me that they could be platoon mates as well. I'm not 100% sure on this.

I'm not saying I disagree with acquiring him, and I do like how he was used tonight (pinch hitting for the offensively useless Pillar), but I just think there's better things to be looking at for this team. The bullpen is an absolute mess, and while Drew Storen is addition by subtraction, this team needs a relief arm in the worst way. I did forget about Saunders' injury problems and I didn't know about Colabello's crazy BABIP last year, not that I trust he'll be useful this year anyway. 

 

Between the trade and the Smoak extension, it's looking like neither Encarnacion or Bautista will be signed. If I were GM I'd sign EE and let Bautista walk, but Rogers doesn't seem to want to act like the big market team they are.

[dsaline97]

Maybe there's a correlation between using PEDs and a .420 BABIP...... Just saying.

[Kramerica Industries]

Pablo Sandoval first broke Drew Storen, and Yoenis Cespedes did it to him twice in consecutive nights. Poor dude, huh? Judging alone by how that guy always collapsed in the biggest games, it's probably no surprise that he's a mental midget, too. 

[FGM13]

As if in response to my post, the Jays went out and turned the soulless husk of Drew Storen into Joaquin Benoit. Not too bad.