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2014 Official Major League Baseball Thread

hungry101

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I disagree, the CY Young will be between Clay Buchholz and Jake Peavy. :lol:
Let us not forget Anabelle Sanchez. He is a wizard on the mound.
 

smuler

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Hahahaha. You spelled his name the girlie way!

In all the years I've known Hungry, I don't think he has ever posted once without a spelling error :lol:

Best Regards

Smuler
 

EagerBeaver

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Hahahaha. You spelled his name the girlie way!

This was his subconscious speaking to us. Hungry knows very well that with the stuff that Sanchez possesses, he has a very girlie career won-loss record. Anabelle is a .500 pitcher for his career and with his stuff, he really should be ashamed of himself for having the same record as a lot of mediocre pitchers.
 

Doc Holliday

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MLB Monday morning news.......

-Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn passed away at the age of 54. He had been battling salivary gland cancer.

-The KC Royals are surprisingly the hottest team in baseball right now, having won 7 in a row. I saw them against Toronto a few weeks ago & they're an exciting team!

-Both the Red Sox & Yankees have lost their last 2 games. NY is 6-4 in its last 10 games, while the Sox are only 4-6. The Jays & the Orioles split their 4-game series at Camden Yards.

As the Doc sees it......

I've been saying all season long that the Yankees will wind up in last place. However, i may have to revise my position. The Red Sox may get the honor of finishing last & be the first team to go from last place to first and back to last place. Currently, the Red Sox lead the Rays by only 4.5 games. The Rays have been surprisingly awful all season long and have recently shown an improvement. They can't be worse than they've already been.

The Red Sox

Third baseman Brock Holt has been very good hitting leadoff. But will it last? Team leader Dustin Pedroia isn't having a good season offensively and he's only hitting .264 with only 3 homeruns. Will he ever bounce back to being as productive as he once was? David Ortiz isn't doing any better. He's only hitting for .249. What would his hitting numbers be if he wasn't playing home games at hitter-friendly Fenway Park? Outfielder Daniel Nava is proving that last season was fluke. He's only hitting .198 and will likely be sent back to the minors. But that's nothing compared to back-up catcher David Ross, who's barely hitting. 169. Grady "The Experiement" Sizemore is only hitting .216 & it wouldn't surprise me if the Red Sox release him. Once-promising centerfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. continues to struggle at .208 & it's not surprising why he's been hitting at the bottom of the lineup for most of the season. But the worst hitter so far has been returning shortstop Stephen Drew, who's struggling terribly at the plate by hitting only .167. Hopefully for him his numbers will eventually rise considerably since he will once again be a free agent following this season.

The Yankees

On the Yankees side, things are only slightly better. They were clobbered by the A's yesterday & are currently tied with the Orioles, 4 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. Highly-paid centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury appears to have lost his leadoff hitter's slot to Brett Gardner. He went hittless yesterday in the #3 slot & is now hitting .282 with only 4 homeruns. Combined with Brett Gardiner, Carlos Beltran & Ichiro Suzuki, the Yankees have weakest-hitting outfield in baseball. The power numbers that we've been accustomed to over the decades have simply not been there this season. Beltran has been awful (and injured) and is only hitting .221. That's what usually happens to ballplayers when they enter their mid-to-late 30's. They slow down, their eyesight isn't as good as it once was, same thing with their reflexes, and they are in decline. Suzuki's numbers have been decent in a limited role, but he's mostly a singles hitter & he hasn't hit a homerun yet. It wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't hit one for the rest of the season.

Designated Hitter Alfonso Soriano is hitting only .228 and has only 6 homeruns. Maybe it's time to give him a rest. Or trade him to whomever would accept his contract. I doubt anyone would take him this late in his career. He's at least 38 years old & should have retired as a Yankee after last season. Elsewhere on the team, free agent bust Brian McCann is hitting only .224 with just 7 homeruns. He should hand back some of the money the Steinbrenners are currently paying him. He's been absolutely awful! As for infielders Brian Roberts & Kelly Johnson, they've been very bad offensively, as i had said they'd be from day one. 34-year old Mark Texeira is only hitting .242. Like all the others, his numbers have been declining. Just like Derek Jeter's, who should have retired a year ago. Why? Because they're old, old, old!!! And finally, infielder Yangervis Solarte has come back to earth and his batting average has slowly declined to the current .274 level. He's got 6 homeruns & pitchers are now being more careful when pitching to him. He was playing second base yesterday & will not make Yankees fans forget Alex Rodriguez. Say what you want about A-Rod, but he was still a feared hitter & could still regularly hit the long ball when he was in the lineup.

The Blue Jays

Mark Buehrle has continued to pitch very well. Same thing with Drew Hutchison & J.A. Happ. R.A. Dickey has been good, but remains a victim of the long ball every game he starts. He left Saturday's game with a groin strain & his status is uncertain for his next start. Rookie Marcus Stroman was impressive in two of his three starts, and will likely get one of the starts in their series against the hated Yankees. Out of the bullpen, Dustin McGowan & Casey Janssen have been great, while the likes of Steve Delabar, Brett Cecil & Aaron Loop have been decent. The team is expected to re-activate set-up man Sergio Santos in time for the Yankees series. He may replace Brett Cecil, who suffered a groin strain in his last appearance.

Elsewhere on the team, Jose Reyes is red-hot, while injuries have begun to take its toll on some players. DH/first baseman Adam Lind was hit on his foot by a fall ball on Saturday & is currently walking on crutches with his foot in a boot. Preliminary x-rays were negative, but he's scheduled to undergo more testing in Toronto. Edwin Encarnacion is playing with a sore back & his production has slightly declined recently. Brett Lawrie continues to play great at both third base and second base, and the outfield has been steady. Centerfielder Colby Rasmus has missed a month due to a hamstring injury & should be re-activated soon. And finally, third baseman Juan Francisco has seen his numbers decline, even though he hit the long ball on Saturday. Brett Lawrie will get most of his starts at third base while Francisco works on getting out of his slump. When Francisco is in the lineup, Lawrie is moved over to second base ahead of Steve Tolleson, who's been quite effective at second base since being called up a month ago. Behind the plate, Eric Kratz is getting more & more starts while battery mate Navarro gets to DH when not catching. The Jays are expected to keep 3 catchers for the rest of the season since they've all performed very well.

Here are my slightly revised predictions:

Toronto will win the East, followed by the Orioles & Yankees. The Rays will likely pass the Red Sox in the standings & make a move on the 3rd place position. The World Champion Red Sox will once again wind up last in the division, just like they did 2 seasons ago. Will John Farrell be able to save his job with a strong finish?? I doubt it, but upper-management may give him one last look next season to see if he can turn the ship around.

As for Joe Girardi, he continues to impress me with the way he's handling that lineup he's been stuck with over the past 2 seasons. I feel for the guy. But if the Yankees continue failing, he'll likely be the one getting axed & not Brian Cashman, who is the real culprit behind this team's failures.
 

Merlot

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BOYZ!

They were clobbered by the A's yesterday & are currently tied with the Orioles, 4 1/2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. .

So currently, if the season ended today the Yankees would not be a Wild Card team. I thought I'd save Beav the trouble. You're welcome. :D

BTW - Jeter is hitting right where I predicted, around .270 and having the worst year of his career on nearly all stats at the current rate.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/18/the-uehara-phenomenon/

In the real news today consider Koji Uehara. When he came to the Red Sox he was designated to be a middle inning reliever. But because of injuries to multiple closers he was put into the latter role. So how good is he? Playing for a 2014 Red Sox team that has endured key injuries, is 6 games under .500, and has been just plain bad periodically, Uehara has saved 14 straight games and has a WHIP of 0.685, a rate that would give him the 7th greatest year ever for a closer, including an ERA of .059...at age 39. So who had the greatest year of any closer? That was Koji for the 2013 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, a team that couldn't seem to do much wrong at all.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/whip_season.shtml

Here are the greatest single year closer performances by WHIP in MLB history.

1. Koji Uehara, 2013, 0.565
2. Dennis Eckersley, 1989, 0.607
3. Dennis Eckersley, 1990, 0.614
4. Craig Kimbrel, 2012, 0.654
5. Mariano Rivera, 2008, 0.665
6. Joaquin Benoit, 2010, 0.680
7. Eric Gagne, 2003, 0.692
8. J.J. Putz, 2007, 0.698
9. Cla Meredith, 2006, 0.711
10. Takashi Saito, 2007, 0.715


More astonishing is the case of Pedro Martinez. In 2000 he pitched 217 Innings, for 284 SO, an ERA of 1.74...with a WHIP of 0.737 that ranks 1st All-Time among starters, and is still 12th when put up against closers. His 2000 season beat every year of the great Mariano except once. Arguably better then Bob Gibson in 1968.

Cheers,

Merlot
 

joelcairo

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-Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn passed away at the age of 54. He had been battling salivary gland cancer.

I always read the baseball thread but very rarely do I post in it. I'll take advantage of this opportunity to note 3 things:

1. Tony Gwynn: great hitter, very classy guy. Can't believe Doc's brief note above was the only comment on his sad passing.
2. In hockey I'm always happy to see Doc's predictions (leafs having success, Red Wings failing to make playoffs) fail...but in baseball I'm hoping his prediction about the hated Yankees comes true.
3. This thread ...AND this board....REALLY misses Rumples!
 

EagerBeaver

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Matsuhiro Tanaka is a 9th inning save away from winning his 11th game, which would lead the American League. Tanaka also has a league leading 1.99 ERA.

Trivia question: who was the last American League Pitcher to have an ERA under 2.0 for the season? Clue: it has happened twice in the AL since Ron Guidry's 1.74 ERA in 1978.
 

EagerBeaver

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Since Guidry's 1.74 ERA in 1978, Roger Clemens' 1.93 in 1990 and Pedro Martinez's 1.74 in 2000 are the only two times an AL pitcher has gone under 2.0 in ERA.
 

Doc Holliday

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A shame for the NYY that Tanaka can't pitch every game because other than him their rotation sucks a dick.

If they didn't have Tanaka, they'd likely be in last place behind Tampa Bay right now.

As for last night's game, i missed most of it, but saw the 9th inning. Toronto's last batter, Anthony Gose, had three called strikes on him to end the game. He fouled off several other pitches. Not a single pitch in that at-bat was a strike if you check the graphics. I wondered if Tanaka also got a favorable strike zone when he was pitching, or did it happen only in that at-bat with Robertson pitching?
 

lgna69xxx

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Tanaka is the BEST pitcher in ALL of Baseball so far at this point of the season. And the scary thing is he makes it look so easy.
 

EagerBeaver

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The scouts seemed to think Tanaka was not as good as Yu Darvish but they were evaluating from the standpoint of pure stuff, and not other intangibles like toughness, competitiveness and ability to make big pitches when in trouble. This is why Tanaka is leading the majors in wins and ERA. He is a ruthless competitor and he reacts well to adversity. He has had two games against the Blue Jays this year in which they hit leadoff homers against him, but he then bounced back to shut them down in a big way. Yesterday he proceeded to strike out 10 in 6 innings. He is very difficult to hit once he gets two strikes on a hitter because they have to expand the strike zone due to the explosive splitter. This means hitters are prone to chase pitches and he can throw pitches off the plate on which he will not get hurt.

After Tanaka, Betances came in and pitched a dominant 7th and 8th inning in which he was throwing his usual repertoire of unhittable pitches. More and more Girardi is using Betances in a role similar to Rivera in 1996: 7th and 8th inning man to set up the closer (Robertson). Because of Betances's size, durability and starting experience, as well as explosive stuff, he is ideally suited to such a role.

Robertson has reminded me of Wetteland in 1996. The stats (17 out of 19 saves) say he is getting the job done, and he is right there with Rodney and Holland as the 3 best closers in the AL. He is striking out a ton of people (43 Ks in 23.2 innings!). However, if you watch his saves, they are always a lot of drama, with lots of pitches and baserunners, like Wettleland. But like Wetteland, he gets the job done and the drama is sort of part of the package that you have to live with, even if you don't like living with it. With Rivera as closer there was not much drama and the saves were more dominant, but all that matters is the bottom line, and 17 of 19 is a very good bottom line.

The one thing with Robertson is that on the rare occasions when he is off he is really off, and he really gets his ass kicked, and I think Girardi should pull him when it becomes obvious he does not have it. That last really bad blown save I could see it coming from the beginning of the inning and I also saw some bad body language which I have not seen from him before, and as a coach you have to go get a guy when those kinds of things are obvious. I think Girardi probably wished he did after that game.
 

Merlot

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BOYZ,

The stats (17 out of 19 saves) say he is getting the job done, and he is right there with Rodney and Holland as the 3 best closers in the AL.

This is right where you blew your credibility on this point.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/30130/koji-uehara

Uehara
...............................GP GS CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB SO W L SV HLD BLSV WHIP ERA
2014 Regular Season 32 0 0 0 32.2 18 3 3 3 4 43 2 1 15 0 0 0.67 0.83

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/29172/david-robertson

Robertson
...............................GP GS CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB SO W L SV HLD BLSV WHIP ERA
2014 Regular Season 24 0 0 0 23.2 18 10 9 3 9 43 0 2 17 0 2 1.14 3.42

Uehara has given up the same number of hits, but over 8 more games and 9 more innings. He's given up 6 less earned runs, 7 less runs, 5 less walks in at least 40% more chances. He's PERFECT in save opportunities. His WHIP and ERA are astounding, ranking in the top 10 in the entire history of all closers, never mind just 2014, and he dominates without the drama. If he didn't pitch for a team that was 2nd worse in run production in the AL he would have had more Save opportunities. The burden is greater on Uehara and yet he's superior to Robertson in every way except SO rate. Geeeeeeeeez, you were fond of touting WHIP when it was in your team's favor.

If Koji wore pinstripes he'd be like your god. Without that he's ignored. Typical Yankee fan. There's no possible argument that Uehara isn't better, and yet you don't even put him in the top 3 in the AL. MAJOR Bullshit! :amen:

What the hell is in that Yankee koolaid.

I think Girardi probably wished he did after that game.

Oh wait, he's not Hercules, Schweitzer, and Einstein after all. OMG! lol.

Wheeeeeew,

Merlot
 

smuler

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Boustan. Yummy.

Good to see Kansas City playing well

Zack Wheeler is 2-7 so far for the Mets

Not a good year so far

Best Regards

Smuler
 

gurgeh85

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Game 70: Blue Jays (41-31) at Yanks (36-33)
June, 18, 2014 5:51 PM ET
By Wallace Matthews | ESPNNewYork.com

NEW YORK -- The Yankees are on the verge of history tonight; if they beat the Blue Jays again, it will be the 15th straight time they have beaten Toronto at home, which will be their longest winning streak against a visiting team in more than a half-century.


Hmm, that's weird. Don't the Yankees realize they're supposed to suck?
 
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