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The Official 2018 Major League Baseball thread

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EagerBeaver

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How about on dingers? I said home runs and slugging? You really think he will hit more dingers than all 3 of the Bombers? And are willing to put money on it? I certainly wouldn’t put money on that......also I will take the slugging percentages of Judge, Stanton and Sanchez against the Red Sox top 3 slugging, since 1 on 3 comparisons are always going to fail...also what is team slugging vs team slugging?
 

rumpleforeskiin

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Team slugging: Yankees .469, Red Sox .465
Team OPS: Yankees .812, Sox .795
Team OBP: Yankees .343, Boston .331

Seems like a 3 category sweep
Yep, and numbers so close they could reverse in one at this time of year. Just yesterday, the Yanks and Red Sox pitching staffs had the same ERA. Not any more.

As for what you post above, HRs are less of an indicator of a player's productivity than OPS. Martinez and Betts will outperform any of the Yankees. The one flaw in OPS is that it doesn't differentiate between walks and singles. The Yankees draw a lot more walks, the Sox get more hits. The Yanks have 52 more walks than the Sox while the Sox have 55 more hits. Nobody ever scored from second on a walk or went from first to third on a walk.
 

EagerBeaver

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The Red Sox have 55 more hits having played 3 more games. So it’s more like a 15-20 hit advantage as the Yankees aren’t going hitless in 3 straight games. The stats are close right now only because Judge/Stanton power surges haven’t happened yet. I am surprised the ERA is as close as it is. I expected the Sox to have an advantage there. The statistical analysis will be interesting to watch over the season. Yankees are 12 home runs ahead of Mariners 1997 MLB home run record pace; Sox are also ahead of it.
 

EagerBeaver

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I have been accused by friends and fellow baseball fans of excessive and unwarranted mourning when a MLB player’s career comes to a crashing end with a DFA. I don’t know why, but I feel sad for guys, even the ones I rooted against or did damage to my team. It’s the end of a life, a baseball life, and it’s a sad event. For example, when the Braves let Jose Bautista go earlier this week after around 35 at bats, I felt terrible for him. I thought it could be the end of the line for him until the Mets picked him up today.

Now comes the even sadder news that the Twins have DFA’d former Yankee Phil Hughes:

Twins designate starter Hughes for assignment https://es.pn/2GF9Lgk

Hughes came up in 2007 at the same time as another highly touted Yankees pitcher, Joba Chamberlain, and a equally or more highly touted Red Sox pitcher, Clay Bucholz. None of the 3 ended up having a great career, although Hughes and Chamberlain were contributors on the Yankees 2009 Championship season and both had some decent moments. Buchholz had probably 2 good years and was wildly inconsistent. It seems like all 3 battled injuries and never approached the greatness some thought they could achieve. Amazingly Buchholz managed to find employment with the Arizona DBacks (for now, anyway) but Hughes may well have thrown his last MLB pitch, his career derailed by a succession of injuries with thoracic outlet syndrome being the final nail in his coffin.

So many great MLB players had their careers derailed by injuries. The two that come to mind quickly are a Yankee, Don Mattingly, and a Red Sox, Nomar Garciaparra. Both were great players for 4-5 years before getting hurt and not again performing on a great level. Kind of sad. Mattingly was the best first baseman I have ever seen, and was a tremendous hitter. The only thing he couldn’t do was run. Garciaparra had a 3 or 4 year span when he was arguably better than ARod or Derek Jeter, his contemporaries, but did not possess their durability.

The saddest and most sudden demise of a MLB player I have seen is a tie between Chili Davis and Dave Justice, both of whom played with the Yankees at the end of their careers. Chili Davis kind of lost it in the second half of the 1999 season. Could no longer hit fastballs and MLB pitchers went after him relentlessly with steady heat. I watched as he popped up hittable pitch after hittable pitch until I was ready to puke. I just wanted Joe Torre to put him out of his misery, euthanize him to the bench.

Justice, portrayed loosely by a character in the movie “Moneyball”, inexplicably lost the ability to make any contact at the end and started striking out with alarming frequency. While Chili lost it at age 39, Justice went to shit at age 34, a demise likely hastened by his off field partying and carousing. He was a talented player in his prime, though.

I should add that ARod was pretty bad in the half year before he got released. He was at the end much like Chili Davis, couldn’t hit good fastballs. When you get old, the bat slows down and your exit velos dwindle, MLB knows, and MLB will bury an aging hitter with a steady and unrelenting diet of hard heat. And I just feel bad watching this because it’s like watching your old dog die. It’s never pretty until the plug is pulled.
 

sharkman

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The main reason for the power surge in MLB over the years is very simple....and no-one has picked up on it.

True the players are bigger today...but the real reason for the power surge are the bats...most of the bats today are made out of good "ole" CANADIAN MAPLE...

1) Maple is a stronger and denser hardwood (check it out on the hardwood Janka scale) compared to the traditional "ash" manufactured bats...therefore, the ball travels much farther; and
2) Maple is light which results in batters generating greater bat speed!

Maple wood bats were approved for use by MLB in 1998...just when the surge in home runs and power hitting occurred!...Fact not fiction!
 

sharkman

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rumpleforeskiin

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The Red Sox have 55 more hits having played 3 more games. So it’s more like a 15-20 hit advantage as the Yankees aren’t going hitless in 3 straight games. The stats are close right now only because Judge/Stanton power surges haven’t happened yet. I am surprised the ERA is as close as it is. I expected the Sox to have an advantage there. The statistical analysis will be interesting to watch over the season. Yankees are 12 home runs ahead of Mariners 1997 MLB home run record pace; Sox are also ahead of it.
Seems you're not better at math than you are at logic, Beav, The Yanks are averaging just under 9 hits per game. That would make the Sox advantage in the area of 30, not 15-20.

I have a friend, a Yankee fan, considerably more in touch with reality than you are. When I said to him over the winter that Judge/Stanton were more likely to hit 35 HR than 50, he said he'd be quite happy with that. Nobody hits 50 every year. Not Babe Ruth, not Barry Bonds, not Aaron Judge. Both Judge and Stanton are on pace to hit between 35-40 hr. Don't hold your breath waiting for your imaginary "power surge." Giancarlo Stanton is a 7 year veteran in the major leagues. He's hit over 37 HR exactly once.
 

EagerBeaver

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Were Stanton’s 30 home runs in 48 games last year an “imaginary surge”? Were Judge’s 15 home runs in September an “imaginary surge”? No, they were actual historical surges that happened. In fact the only greater September surge ever was by Babe Ruth. So I am quite dealing in reality. Those surges happened before and they will happen again. Watch out when they do.
 

sharkman

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Were Stanton’s 30 home runs in 48 games last year an “imaginary surge”? Were Judge’s 15 home runs in September an “imaginary surge”? No, they were actual historical surges that happened. In fact the only greater September surge ever was by Babe Ruth. So I am quite dealing in reality. Those surges happened before and they will happen again. Watch out when they do.


Wow quite a "power surge" indeed...those numbers are from maple hardwood bats injected with viagra!!!:flame:
 

rumpleforeskiin

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Were Stanton’s 30 home runs in 48 games last year an “imaginary surge”? Were Judge’s 15 home runs in September an “imaginary surge”? No, they were actual historical surges that happened. In fact the only greater September surge ever was by Babe Ruth. So I am quite dealing in reality. Those surges happened before and they will happen again. Watch out when they do.
You are absolutely right, Beav. They do happen. For Stanton, they happened exactly once in seven years.

BTW, you know who has hit the most HR since the last All Star break? None other than JD. He had 16 last September. Just wait for his power surge. LOL
 

rumpleforeskiin

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Hmmm, the Beav's mighty quiet today. Guess I'm not surprised.

Well, Beav, here's a little quiz for you. Can you identify these guys? I wouldn't be shocked if you couldn't, since no one's ever heard of any of them, but here goes:

Ryan Bollinger
AJ Cole
David Hale
Giovanni Gallegos

Best of luck.
 

EagerBeaver

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Uh, you are aware that Tommy Kahnle and Adam Warren are on the DL but about to return? The Yankees have the best bullpen in the majors once they return. Not even worth discussing further. Lots of teams now churn guys in and out of their bullpens so there are fresh arms. The Rays are actually using a 4 man rotation and the 5th man is a bullpen day. So teams are lengthening their bullpens beyond what it normally is.

What you should be talking about is the team Scranton is fielding which is a better team than some MLB teams. This type of depth is seen over a full season, not 42 games.

Of those 4 guys you mentioned, Gallegos is not in the same category of the other 3 as place holders or filler material. He is a legit end of the bullpen pitcher on an MLB team.
 

rumpleforeskiin

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Sorry, Beav, that's just horseshit of the most pungent variety. Beyond Chapman, Green and Shreve, the Yankee bullpen is suspect at best.

David Robertson has allowed runs in 5 of his 21 appearances, not a good record at all, and more than any member of the Red Sox pen not named Hembree. He has reached his expiration date.

Dellin Betances is probably trusted more by you than by Aaron Boone. In short, he sucks.

Tommy Kahnle once healthy is a decent 7th inning guy, but certainly not as good as Matt Barnes. His career 3.66 ERA is underwhelming for a relief pitcher.

Overall the Yanks pen is middle of the road, certainly not one a contending team would want to take to October.
 

EagerBeaver

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It was one of the best in MLB last year and I expect the same by end of this year. Take a look at how many guys got churned in and out last year. It kept guys fresh and in the playoffs they were highly effective. The Yankees have a top 6 of Chapman, Robertson, Green, Betances, Kahnle, Warren and Shreve and Holder are behind the top 6. At the end of the year they will be among the best in MLB as they were last year. Not worth discussing further and if you don’t think they are a top 5 bullpen at least you don’t know what you are talking about. The depth is very significant. The guys you mentioned are the same kinds of people that were churned last year which is why the bullpen was so effective. Other bullpens got burned out because of not enough depth and churning which is why it is entirely silly to talk bullpen in May. Look at the stats on the Yankees bullpen in April and May 2009. They were among the worst in MLB and by end of the year they were among the best. It’s for some of these same reasons. That bullpen was completely overhauled; this one doesn’t need to be. I am not worried about Robertson or Betances- they haven’t gotten off to great starts but their track records suggest they will have all star performance when all is said and done and no reason to believe otherwise.
 

EagerBeaver

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MLB Best Bullpens 2018

This is from MLB.com, top 10 bullpens in the game:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.mlb.com/269393006-top-10-mlb-bullpens-for-2018.amp.html

Nothing has changed. The personnel has not changed and they are same team ranked #1 to start the season. After 6 weeks I am not going to pronounce them a poor bullpen. Small sample size- good players will always rise to their norms from an early statistical deviation. Also, it’s the projected strength of the team which is 31-14 without the bullpen performing at its best.
 

EagerBeaver

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Yankees Long Ball Onslaught Continues

The Yankees had hit 17 homers in their last 4 games before tonight - an all time franchise record for any 4 game stretch. Tonight- so far- the Yankees have hit 4 more, including a 471 foot blast by Judge that was the longest ever hit in the Texas ballpark.

21 homers in 5 games would appear to be a team power surge- and we are still in the 5th inning.
 

rumpleforeskiin

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I rest my case. Nice job by the best bullpen in the world tonight.

update: here's the box score for your reading pleasure. https://tinyurl.com/ybkou4y9

And here's your best bullpen in the world:
Shreve: 4.15
Robertson: 4.91
Betances: 4.71

After Green and Chapman, there isn't one guy you can trust.
 

EagerBeaver

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Sometimes, the best bullpens get beat, especially on the road. I watched Texas this series and they look like a team that is much better than their record. They have a lot of good, young athletic players. All 3 games they looked like a good lineup and put tough at bats on the Yankees. It was the first series the Yankees lost since mid April.
 
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