The Official 2018 Major League Baseball thread

[rumpleforeskiin]

You don't get ERAs like that in one game, Beav. It takes sucking donkey balls on a regular basis.

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.

Yeah, the Rangers are fabulous. The fact is when you face a shitty bullpen, even a terrible team can look good. The Rangers are 10th in the AL in runs scored. They suck.

 

[EagerBeaver]

You apparently never heard of small sample size. Check back at the end of the season and see how solid those conclusions are. It's still May.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Let me teach you a few things, Beav.

1. A third of a season is not a small sample size.

2. There is no position on the baseball diamond that has a shorter life expectancy than relief pitchers, who are, by and large, failed starters. Chad Green, Adam Warren, Dellin Betances, Joe Kelly, Matt Barnes...even Mariano Rivera. Each and every one a starter who wasn't up to the task.

3. The Texas Rangers suck. They are well on their way to 100 losses. Any team that loses 100 games sucks. The Yankee pitching staff simply made them look good.

4. Pre-season prognostications are more often wrong than right, as the link you sent me about the Yankee bullpen was wrong. If we were to go by preseason prognostications, the Red Sox would have won about 8 World Series in the last 12 years.

Here's a little challenge for you. Check out some of the Top 100 Prospect lists. Fangraphs, Keith Law, BP, Baseball America. Tell me how many relievers you see. Oh, don't bother, I'll save you the trouble. None, zero, nada, zilch.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I am really not worried about the bullpen at all. Shreve has only pitched as much as he has because Kahnle and Warren, who are both ahead of Shreve in the pecking order, have been out all year. They will be back soon. Robertson and Betances have not been as good as usual but you don't know that they will not be lights out the rest of the year. Both have been all star calibre relievers in the recent past, and both have looked good at times this season, but have been inconsistent to date- so far. It's not like there has been a pattern of the Yankees losing games like they did last night. Losses like the one last night happen, to every team. If they happen regularly then it becomes a concern, but that has not happened. Like I said, check back on those stats at the end of the year.

There is also this: the Yankees, with that bullpen, had a recent stretch against the Angels, Astros, Indians and Red Sox in which they went 11-2 against the 4 best other teams in the AL. One of those losses was 2-1 to Verlander, in which bullpen hurled two scoreless innings, and the other was a sweep-averting 5-4 loss to the Red Sox in which the Yankees bullpen gave up just 1 run in 5 innings. In light of these facts your post is objectively nonsense.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

In light of the bullpen having two good games, my post is nonsense? Wowza, Beav, what have you been smoking?

The Yankees have been winning because of their offense, Severino and Sabathia. Robertson already has four blown saves and three wins. He owes the hitters some lobster dinners.

Oh, and it's not "objectively" anything. It's totally "subjectively viewed through pinstriped colored glasses," as per usual.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Ramirez DFA'd

The Red Sox have DFA'd Hanley Ramirez, an overpaid DH, to clear room for Dustin Pedroia's return from the DL and likely to also avoid paying Ramirez even more if he reaches certain PAs so as to trigger further contractual payments:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ey-ramirez-assignment-activate-dustin-pedroia

It seems quite likely that the Red Sox will have to pay some or possibly most of what Ramirez is owed in order to move him, presumably to another AL team that needs another DH. Although it is getting harder and harder for AL teams to acquire or keep on their rosters one dimensional DH type players who can't play at least one position. It hurts to have such players, from the standpoint of roster flexibility. More teams, like the Yankees, are adopting the "DH By Committee" approach, appropriately, making the pure DH type of the past- the aging, injury prone player who is too slow or broken down to field any position competently- a dinosaur of the past. And also enabling them to rotate into the DH slot every day players, in order to give them partial rest from defensive duties.

Will the Sox enjoy the taste of the swallow on Ramirez's contract? Well, one can only answer that from the perspective of the recent Red Sox hard swallows of the Carl Crawford, Pedro Sandoval and Rusney Castillo contracts, which all left a bitter taste. Although it seems like Crawford was a bigger financial hit, it's actually the Sandoval contract that has been nominated for induction into the bad contract Hall of Fame:

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/07/14/pablo-sandoval-red-sox-contract-dfa

The Ramirez contract shouldn't taste quite as bad as the other 3 mentioned, although it will hardly be savored.

As far as the Red Sox GMs who did these deals, they must be saying to themselves what Sir Alec Guiness did when he realized what he had done at the very end of the Bridge Over the River Kwai:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaAIbgP78Xg

The difference of course is that the Red Sox GMs get to live with their decisions...........

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Fortunately, they don't have to live with the Ellsbury, Pavano, Whitson, or Burnett decisions.

They cannot trade him. If they do, they will have to eat his contract and if he reaches 497 plate appearances, his contract will vest and they will eat his $22M option as well. If they simply release him, all they eat is the balance of this years deal less about $400K if someone else signs him. That will be a new contract sans option.

Actually, if the Yankees had someone like Papi or JD Martinez, they would be thrilled to have a permanent DH. With Hanley gone, Martinez will rarely see the field.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Permanent DH

The Red Sox will likely be a better team without Ramirez. However, there are only a very few guys who can justify being permanent DHs. The Red Sox happen to have one; however unless a guy can produce offense at an elite level, consistently, most teams are going to move away from the permanent DH who never sees grass. I kind of like DH by Committee although the Yankees more than the Red Sox have personnel who can and should be rotated into the DH slot.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Yankees Lineup To Be Altered On Greg Bird Return Saturday

This is finally the lineup everyone envisioned out of spring training and it may be unveiled as soon as tomorrow:

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2018/05/is_this_the_yankees_lineup_with_greg_bird_returns.html

 

[EagerBeaver]

Gleyber Torres Sets MLB Record

Gleyber Torres just set a major league record by becoming the youngest player to homer in 4 straight games - at age 21.

He was previously the 3rd youngest to HR in 3 straight. The two who were younger, by days, were Ted Williams and Babe Ruth.

Torres has more HRs since May 4 (9) than anyone in MLB except JD Martinez.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

A couple of takeaways from last night:

1. Welcome back, Greg Bird. Young Bird has a career OPS of .793. Tyler Austin has an OPS of .832. Please explain how Bird makes the Yankees a better team. Common sense suggests that putting Bird in the lineup is at best a lateral move.

2. Top of the eighth last night in the Bronx. Trout grounds out. Upton walks. Pujols lines out sharply. Chapman replaces Robertson. This would never have happened back when the Yankee manager trusted Robertson. The Yankees had better find someone trustworthy to pitch the 8th eighth or Chapman is going to get burned out.

3. The Red Sox pitching staff just got a whole lot better. Early this month, Peter Abraham posted an article in which he stated that he could identify at least 13 plays that Dustin Pedroia would have made that Eduardo Nunez did not. That number must be well over 20 by now. That's almost a full games worth of outs.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Bird is an extremely talented hitter whose time in MLB has been marred by injuries. In spring training 2017 (the last time before now that he was healthy), he was by far the best player on the team. He also led MLB in home runs in that spring. He is a potential 40 HR bat and provides a much needed left handed power threat in a heavily right handed lineup. He is also probably the most disciplined hitter the Yankees have which is saying a lot because they have a team of grinders. If you don’t know all these things you are choosing not to pay attention.

David Robertson was relieved last night for one reason and one reason alone, which is that lefthanded Shohei Ohtani, the most dangerous left handed hitter in the Angels lineup, was due up. It had nothing to do with trust. It would have been moronic to let a righthanded pitcher pitch to Ohtani in that situation when you have a lefty who throws gas that Ohtani hasn’t seen in his life. Boone made the correct move and the Yankees won the game and their team just got a whole lot better with the additions of Kahnle and Bird.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Sometime, Beav, you should try taking a look at the baseball world without the pinstriped colored glasses. Greg Bird had a monster 1/3 of the season call up back in 2015. After missing a year, he then led the world in Spring Training 2017 and proceeded to hit like a nun in another 1/3 of a season before getting hurt yet again. He's a career .227 hitter and there's nothing to suggest that he's an upgrade over the punk kid Tyler Austin. Austin's minor league numbers do look a bit better than Bird's. He'd be much more valuable if he could pitch in relief or could take the rotation spots of either Tanaka, Gray, or German.

 

[EagerBeaver]

He did not get hurt after the bad 2017 start it was before as I already mentioned. He didn’t tell Yankees coaches and was finally benched when they suspected he was playing hurt. He is definitely a better hitter than Austin. He just has not had the chance to show it due to injury. In any event he will likely start being platooned with Austin until he proves he is all the way back.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Actually, there is a major roster addition today. The Red Sox have a potential HOFer in the lineup today. For the first time this year, Alex Cora gets to write the name "Pedroia" into the lineup. He's an addition on offense, a huge addition on defense, and perhaps the best sparkplug in the game today.

As for Bird, he got hurt on opening day and played 50 games before the brass got on to him? If you believe that, you probably believe that the Russians had nothing to do with the 2016 election.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Your chronology is wrong.He fouled a ball off ankle bone in the last spring training game, and later admitted it wasn’t right since then. He hit .351 before the injury and .100 after the injury. He then came back in September and was arguably the Yankees best hitter from mid September through the playoffs. His production prorated for that period after he came back was something like 47 HRs and 124 RBIs. Nobody paid attention to that earlier period when he was hurt.

It’s a really simple thing- when he has been healthy he has been very good, when he hasn’t been healthy he has not been very good. The poor communication on the injury was one of the reasons the Yankees let Joe Girardi go. Girardi claimed Bird didn’t say anything and he benched him after watching tape which showed he couldn’t fully put weight on that ankle in his swing. You take away that period of time when he was playing hurt and his stats tell a whole other story.

More important is what the scouts think - they’ve consistently graded Bird as the most disciplined hitter on the team. And he has major, real power as Andrew Miller found out in the playoffs last year:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0sMfKenxlJo

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

1. The dispensing of Hanley Ramirez was the work of one man: Alex Cora. Given the season the Sox are having and the immediate result of the change, Cora is the early odds on choice for Manager of the Year. Mitch Moreland, freed of the platoon, has a double, triple and home run in the last two games.

2. Craig Kimbrel gave up a run in the ninth today, ending a 24 inning scoreless streak for the Sox bullpen. Since his opening day meltdown, Joe Kelly has been the best pitcher in baseball, allowing one run in 24 1/3 innings over 23 appearances, a .037 ERA.

3. Interesting stat announced today. Since last August 20, JD Martinez leads baseball in HR, RBI, BA, OBP, Slugging and OPS.

4. After his return last year, Greg Bird had a very good .891 OPS, certainly not close to best on the team. At best, he's a minor upgrade over punk Tyler Austin. At least he's likely to know better than to charge the mound when Joe "Fight Club" Kelly is out there.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I hate to say it but even though the Red Sox and Yankees have played great, the Astros are still the team to beat. The acquisition of Gerrit Cole gave them what is by far the best 5 man rotation in MLB. I don't think the Astros bullpen or lineup is better than Red Sox or Yankees, but the lineup is very good and the bullpen is solid, even if Gary Sanchez made Giles punch himself very hard in the face. There are still trades to be made between now and the playoffs as these 3 teams, which also appear to be the 3 best teams in all of MLB, will jockey to build the best roster for the playoffs.

The Cubs look like the best team in the NL to me, but have not shown it yet, fully. They definitely have the best lineup in the NL, yet somehow I think they or the NL rep in the World Series is going to get hosed in the World Series by one of Astros, Yankees or Red Sox.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I was kind of surprised the Yankees demoted Ronald Torreyes and his .339 batting average to make room for Greg Bird. I thought the move would be to send down one of the back end bullpen guys, but the thinking must be that an extra bullpen guy is more valuable at this time. Although Torreyes has no power and only sees 3 pitches per at bat, he is great defensively at multiple positions and hits. I don’t recall a better super utility guy on the Yankees- the good ones who come to mind are Randy Velarde and Luis Sojo, but can’t think of anyone who was more versatile or a peskier hitter than Torreyes. He is definitely a quality MLB utility man. Really kind of feel bad for him. He must be thinking “what more could I have done?”

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

I would agree with you, but considering just how thoroughly the Yankee bullpen sucks, who would you send out?

Tommy Kahnle and his 7.88 ERA? AJ Cole and his 7.11? Domingo German and his 5.59? Chasen Shreve and his 4.82? Does David 4.76 Robertson even have options? Dellin Betances and his 4.71?

I have to say that was kind of a rude greeting the Angels gave Tommy Kahnle last night on his return from the DL. I wonder if he's now going back with a bad case of whiplash?

Meanwhile, it looks like Drew Pomeranz has pitched his way out of the Sox rotation. He'll be replaced by either Steven Wright or Hector Velazquez.

Note how similar the first four innings of the Yankee-Angel and Red Sox-Braves games looked yesterday. Five shutout innings from the Red Sox shutdown bullpen and a first class meltdown from that of the Bombed is what made the day's difference.