The Official 2018 Major League Baseball thread

It’s the weather which has sucked. Not unique to NYY - MLB attendance down 17.5%. Bad weather across northern USA

Yankees have highest ticket demand of any MLB team: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/461602002

The Yankees season ticket sales were as of January 500,000 ahead of where they were at the same time in January 2017. That’s all that matters- tickets sold. An empty seat doesn’t mean it wasn’t purchased. Lots of season ticket holders stay home in bad weather or sometimes can’t make it.

According to this, Toronto attendance was down over 10,000 per game in the early going despite a retractable roof. Yankee Stadium does not have a roof:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mauryb...-reasons-mlb-attendance-is-down/#646dfc9036f2

I read another article that said the Orioles have had the biggest drop of any team, and that is probably a combination of weather and their pitching has just been awful for a long time now.

Sanchino Strikes!!!!

This is what happens when a washed up 41 year old closer throws a meatball to “The Sanchino”:

https://es.pn/2HSwUAO

You will be seeing a lot more of this at a baseball stadium near you. Yankees are leading MLB in homers and runs scored and Judge and Stanton haven’t even gotten hot yet, although Judge is leading the AL in walks and OBP. None of this should be a surprise.

EagerBeaver said:

You will be seeing a lot more of this at a baseball stadium near you. Yankees are leading MLB in homers and runs scored and Judge and Stanton haven’t even gotten hot yet, although Judge is leading the AL in walks and OBP. None of this should be a surprise.

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Oh Beav, Beav, Beav. How do you define "hot." Judge's OPS is over 100 points higher than his career number. What're you smoking? Yes, you are right that Stanton hasn't gotten hot yet. Maybe he will when Andjuar, Gregorius, Torreyes and that punk Austin come back to earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piOTSUd3V9o

Now the Yanks take to the road, the Sox come home after a 6-3 west coast swing. No more cheapies for Sir Didi, who has hit each and every one of his 9 dingers into the short porch at Yankee Stadium 3. Let's see how he fares in a major league ballpark.

But the most remarkable thing is that major league teams continue to pay relatively big bux to Fernando Rodney, who sucks, and who has always sucked. Why is it that once a closer, always a closer?

Make no mistake - Judge and Stanton have NOT gotten hot as of yet. While Judge is leading the AL in walks and OBP, it’s not really what he is paid to do. He is being paid to hit long and intimidating HRs in explosive bursts, as is Stanton. We have seen a few teaser 440 foot plus blasts from these 2 (including Judge 443 foot HR off Chris Sale) but no sustained bursts, like when Stanton had 30 HRs in a 48 game stretch last year and 19 in one calendar month, or like Judge in September last year. Stanton has been very inconsistent with his plate discipline, often chasing unhittable sliders well out of the strike zone, resulting in an excessive number of strikeouts. I suspect we will see the HR bursts from both guys as the weather warms. Judge is an amazingly smart and disciplined hitter who works the count in his favor and has been much more aggressive in going after 3-0 and 3-1 cookies. So the burst is gonna come and when it does there will be hell to pay.

Regarding the great mystery of how Fernando Rodney keeps getting contracts to be a MLB closer despite the fact that he sucks goat balls, my theory is that most MLB teams overestimate the importance of experience in determining who should close games for them. It’s great for Rodney’s children and grandkids, but there are plenty of younger relief pitchers with better stuff across MLB who are better candidates.

Judge is currently at 1.122. He will be lower than that at the end of the year. He is currently on pace to hit 47 home runs. He will hit fewer. And those other guys will come down to earth, more than off-setting Stanton's boost. The Yanks are leading the league in runs scored, they will lead the league i runs scored. However, they will be in the middle third in pitching stats.

They are a very good team. The Red Sox are a very good team.

The Baltimore Orioles are 3-1 vs the Yankees (and in Yankee Stadium, to boot.) The Baltimore Orioles are 3-18 vs everybody else. If this is a close race, as it likely will be, the Yankees may come to regret that weekend lapse.

Xander Bogaerts is back tonight. Without him, the Red Sox continued to beat the shit out of everybody in sight. 24 games into the season, their starters have a combined one bad start.

(Just imagine how Judge could do if he could face Tanaka and Gray occasionally.)

As I mentioned if a pitcher is needed Cashman will make the necessary moves before the trade deadline. You seem to believe that what we see now is what we will see in August. Rosters will be changed as always due to injuries and performance issues if those issues continue. One cannot worry or get too excited in April. Allow the season to play out. The Yankees have the deepest roster and minor leagues they have had certainly since the early 1960s and are well equipped to make adjustments as needed to player personnel. They are not a top 15 heavy team like they were in the past. The depth is so amazing that there is no need to sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado and other teams will be left to overpay those two. My guess is the Dodgers will get one and possibly the Angels will get the other.

You are correct about the depth of the Yankee system. Unfortunately, most of the pitching is in the lower minors. While such as Joe.T (where's he anyway) had Harper in pinstripes years ago, I agree with you that they'll pass on both Harper and Machado due to lack of need.

While the Yanks are short starting pitching, with Johnson and Velazquez, the Sox are seven deep, maybe eight with Wright. Good thing since they cannot take on more than another $3 million in payroll without dire consequences in both financial and draft penalties, without also cutting some payroll. (BTW, Castillo doesn't count since he's not on the 40 man.)

Interesting that the vaunted Yankee bullpen is struggling, while the Sox pen has been awesome.

April Grades

Here is ESPN’s grades, projections and assessments for all 30 MLB teams. Note that the NY Yankees are currently projected to win 99 games, thus winning the AL East by 4 games over the 95 win Red Sox:

The best and worst of April for all 30 teams https://es.pn/2w68GOu

Personal Catchers In Baseball

Yankees' Gray to stick with catcher Romine https://es.pn/2I6lDNk

I am not happy about the news that Austin Romine, at least temporarily, will be the personal catcher of Sonny Gray. I don’t like personal catchers in baseball. It’s a team sport, and personal catchers service the needs of an individual over that of the team. Some contend that by servicing the needs of the individual, you in effect service the needs of the team. I say no way. Personal catchers are a cop out, an excuse for two guys on a team who cannot get on the same page.

I would handle the situation differently than Aaron Boone. I would sit down Sonny Gray and Gary Sanchez in my office and this is the talk I would give them:

“You two are both professionals and as professionals this team needs you to be on the same page. Sonny, Gary is a potential 40 HR hitter and the best hitting catcher in MLB and we cannot be arbitrarily resting or DHing him every 5th day. I understand you throw a lot of sliders in the dirt and he at times struggles to block them, but he is getting better and needs the reps of seeing your pitches to make him that much more effective. Gary, I realize that Sonny overthinks and overanalyzes at times and shakes you off, but it’s during those moments of indecision when you need to grab the bull by the horns and take charge. So I want you two to go out for dinner, develop a plan of action moving forward, and report back to me tomorrow.”

That’s how you nip these situations in the bud. You mediate and force communication. It works in divorces and can certainly work here.

EagerBeaver said:

Here is ESPN’s grades, projections and assessments for all 30 MLB teams. Note that the NY Yankees are currently projected to win 99 games, thus winning the AL East by 4 games over the 95 win Red Sox.

Click to expand...

Those are NOT ESPN's projections, Beav. They are the projections of David Schoenfield, one of their writers. FYI, Schoenfield's primary beat is fantasy baseball.

Over at fivethirtyeight.com, the home of Nate Silver, the top statistical analyst in the country, the Sox are currently given a 90% chance of making the playoffs, and a 55% chance of winning the division. The Yankees come in at 82% and 38% respectively. (Silver also created the Pecota system of player projection. Back in 2007, the Tampa Rays lost 96 games and every prognosticator but one picked them to lose 90 games in 2008. Silver said they'd win 90. They won 96.)

How this works: Elo ratings are a measure of team strength based on head-to-head results, margin of victory and quality of opponent. We’re using an Elo-based system that also accounts for starting pitchers, travel distance and rest, with an average team rating of about 1500. This forecast is based on 100,000 simulations of the season and updates after each game.

Wonder how many simulations Schoenfield ran. Any idea, Beav?

Another ace in the hole for the Hose is their manager, who spent last year studying the work of AJ Hinch as a coach with the World Champion Astros. One thing he learned from Hinch is that the way to win in September and October is with a well rested team. No member of the Red Sox has played every game this season. He's even set things up so he knows in advance who is sitting, who is playing, and arranges the most days off on days before off days so his players get two days of rest.

So far this season, Devers has had one day off, Benintendi, Bradley and Martinez two, Hanley three, Mookie and Nunez four, Moreland seven. The catchers, of course, even more.

As for the Yankees, Gregorius, Judge and Stanton have played every game, Gardner has miss two, and OMG catcher Gary Sanchez has had three days off in five weeks. (While DHing is not catching, you're still in the game. It is NOT a day off.)

Why the Steinbrothers hired a manager without so much as one day as either coach or manager is utterly beyond me.

Judge was rested last night, although it’s not so far into the season that we really need to worry about resting guys.

Right now, Tyler Austin is leading all AL rookies in HRs and RBIs. The Yankees are currently starting rookies at 1B, 2B, and 3B. All 3 are hitting .290 or better and were it not for a guy named Ohtani, the 3 of them might be fighting for Rookie of the Year. I think Andujar has a shot at winning the award, depending on what the Angels end up doing with Ohtani. Ohtani is unexpectedly a better hitter than he is a pitcher (much like Babe Ruth), and the Angels seem befuddled by this development and don’t know what to do with him.

I saw something I have never seen in baseball, or sports last night. After a long mound visit during which it was presumably discussed whether to intentionally walk Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez with 1st base open and men on 2nd and 3rd, Astros closer Ken Giles on the very first pitch after the mound visit, gives up a game winning 3 run HR to Sanchez and then, coming off the mound, he punches himself in the face:

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=23379228

Will he be suspended for throwing a punch at a player?

Yankees, Red Sox To Play 2 Games in London

Report: Yankees, Red Sox to play in London https://es.pn/2IapVDj

Matt Harvey DFA’d

A thoughtful article on the Mets’ Matt Harvey, who was DFA’d by the Mets today after refusing a minor league assignment:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...w-york-mets-pitcher-designated-for-assignment

Yankees Surge Up Power Rankings

Winning 15 of 16 has shot the Yankees up the power rankings and tonight the #1 and #2 teams in the power rankings start a 3 game set in the Bronx:

Power Rankings: Which AL East juggernaut is No. 1? https://es.pn/2jyaxmd

Yankees Serve Home Run Platter in KC

A variety plate of home runs were served in KC last night: the inside the parker by Hicks, his second ITP HR of the year; the game breaker by Torres; the fountain blast by Stanton; and finally the multiple and back to back variety, both provided by Gary Sanchez:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=380519107

So who is the best hitter in baseball? Well, I'm not an expert, so how about the word of the best hitter in baseball in the last 25 years.

Hey, Mr. Big Hurt, who is the best hitter in baseball?

“The best hitter in baseball,” Thomas said. “And I know that can be debated by a lot of people because there are so many great hitters in this game. But what he’s done over the last two years, I would say last three, four years — his consistency at the plate, .300 hitter, home runs all over the place, driving in big runs.

“In baseball the last two years, he’s led the league — he’s led all of baseball in home runs, RBIs, OPS, and total bases. That is the best hitter in baseball, and no one talks about him.

“This guy — I’m sorry to put you on front street, J.D., but it’s time to talk about this man as potential league MVP, one of the best players in the game.”