2022 MLB Season (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey D]

Why can’t the Sox develop young pitching through their farm system? Is it Fenway that screws them all up?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I think the Sox are toast for this season. They were hoping for a second half resurgence with the return of Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi, but they lost Sale again after just one game and change, and Eovaldi didn't look right last night. Pivetta has been in a slump, too, so they don't really have any kind of starting pitching of note.

As recent results have shown, they also have zero dependable talent in the bullpen.

Pivetta's not really in a slump. He's just come back down to earth and back to his old self is all as he should never be an SP one relies on.

Why can’t the Sox develop young pitching through their farm system? Is it Fenway that screws them all up?

Fenway does present some problems for pitchers, especially lefties and softer-tossing righties I think... although it's probably tougher on opposing pitchers than their own since their own team pitching+defense (and team/roster building) can better adapt (as it's their own home park) than opposing pitchers and defenses -- and it's not as extreme/hostile as Coors.

Certainly, their own team offense has apparently been adapted to make the most of Fenway -- their home BABIPs are generally much higher than normal, driving much of their home/road splits.

But probably more a matter of them simply being better and/or more focused on identifying (and drafting/signing) and developing position players than pitchers on top of circumstances. Afterall, you can't actually draft/sign all the talent you want w/ 29 other franchises involved, especially if you rarely ever get early picks in the draft. And there is the notion of TINSTAPP too -- maybe they subscribe to that (a bit too much) and focus on developing position players at the expense of pitching...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Pretty wild final 24 hours of deadline trading...

_Man_

 

[Osato]

Pretty wild final 24 hours of deadline trading...

_Man_

Agreed. Only way it could’ve been topped is if it Ohtani would have been traded!

 

[David Norman]

And then the crash with the news the Vin Scully died tonight at the age of 94

 

[MartinP.]

"As long as you live keep smiling because it brightens everybody's day."
​

 

[Jeffrey D]

Very sad news about Vin. Because of the time difference between Eastern and Pacific, I didn’t listen to many of the games he worked. Amazing when you stop and think that he started his career at Ebbets Field. Not many titans in baseball broadcasting left (Marty Brennaman retired at the end of 2019, and I hear that Uecker does only home games in Milwaukee now).

 

[Carlo_M]

I moved to LA for college in 1991, and listened to him until his retirement in 2016 (I'm sure I'd caught some of his nationally televised games as a child, as well as the 1988 World Series when I was in the northern part of the state). So I had the good fortune of hearing his voice for 25 years. Or, to think of it as a staggering number, a little over a third of his broadcasting career with the Dodgers. It's amazing to ponder, given how most people don't remember much before they were 3-4 years old, it would be possible for a Dodger fan to live to the age of 70 and not know another voice of the Dodgers outside of Vin's.

He was the grandfather/father we never had, but wished we did. He was the voice of summer. He was the voice of history. People can read up on Jackie and Sandy. Vin could tell you what he saw with his own eyes, heard with his own years, and words he spoke directly to the Legends of the Dodgers, and of MLB. When times were tough personally, he was the friend whose calming voice took your mind off of your troubles. When times were good he amplified those feelings. And when most of the time things were just normal and routine, he not only brought the ballgame to us, for many of us, his voice was the preferred way of experiencing the game.

Everyone is familiar with his call of Koufax's perfect game, Gibson's home run, Buckner's misplay at first, and a myriad of other Dodger and baseball highlights. But a lesser known call, and one that (and I admit I'm biased here) I prefer to the one that everyone else thinks of when they see this seminal moment, is his call on Hank Aaron's record breaking 715th home run (which was hit off of the Dodgers' Al Downing, hence why Vin was calling the game for the LA visiting broadcasters booth). Here it is:


I realize how extremely fortunate I am as a sports fan and citizen of L.A. I got to hear Chick Hearn, Vin Scully, and Bob Miller (of the L.A. Kings) as the soundtrack of L.A. sports for decades of my life. We will all miss Vin, but we should all be thankful for the time we all had together in enjoying this sport we all loved. God speed, Mr. Scully.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Agreed. Only way it could’ve been topped is if it Ohtani would have been traded!

Speaking of Ohtani, wonder if the Angels are prepping to make a big offer to him w/ their trade deadline move to unload Iglesias' 16M/year (for next 3 years) for so very little return... They also save some bits from unloading Thor's remainder of 1-year contract, but there's no potential additional, future implication re: luxury tax and revenue sharing w/ that...

_Man_

 

[Malcolm R]

He should be getting double what the top players get, as he's basically two star players in one.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Speaking of Ohtani, wonder if the Angels are prepping to make a big offer to him w/ their trade deadline move to unload Iglesias' 16M/year (for next 3 years) for so very little return... They also save some bits from unloading Thor's remainder of 1-year contract, but there's no potential additional, future implication re: luxury tax and revenue sharing w/ that...

_Man_

Have you heard anything about how serious Trout’s back issue is, or how long he might be out?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Have you heard anything about how serious Trout’s back issue is, or how long he might be out?

There seems some uncertainty w/ Trout's back issue... though probably not nearly as serious as initially suggested/feared. He immediately downplayed it as just something he/they needs to take some precaution, extra treatment/conditioning work, etc pretty much right after it was reported.

Latest On Mike Trout's Back Injury

Mike Trout has been out of action for almost three weeks due to an issue that was eventually diagnosed as …

www.mlbtraderumors.com

Certainly still seems a pretty significant concern, especially since he's been having trouble staying healthy and on the field these last few years even before this particular issue/diagnosis... and he ain't gonna get any younger going forward as he turns 31 in a few days...

_Man_

 

[Robert Crawford]

If Ohtani cares about winning then he needs to leave the Angels. They don't have a good owner which is the root cause as to why certain sports franchises never win.

 

[ponset]

Rest In Peace Vin Scully.

 

[Jeffrey D]

The Padres recent acquisitions- can they actually keep most of these players, or is it another 1997 Marlins (load up to make 1 run with players they knew wouldn’t be around due to financial constraints)?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, presumably, they plan to keep Soto until he can hit free agency (FA) -- he's under control for another 2 years after this... though his arby salaries won't exactly be cheap -- although it's always possible they deal him away to recover some prospects if they do win it all this Fall. Highly doubtful they'd wanna pony up enough to lock him up long term before he hits FA -- he's got Boras as his agent, and that's probably partly why the Nationals ultimately gave up after realizing they couldn't keep him for less than FA market rate. They better win it all at least once before he hits FA though -- they just went all in and mortgaged much of their future (for at least next several years) w/ this (and other) move afterall...

Bell is just a rental... though I suppose they could try to re-sign/extend him since they no longer have Hosmer or Voit and will likely ditch Myers (who could otherwise play 1B I guess). They're still paying essentially all of Hosmer's $$$ thru 2025 (though it's "just" 13M/year after this year)... unless he unexpectedly opts out after this season, but Bell also has Boras as his agent, so...

Drury's also just a rental, whom they got from the Reds. IF he keeps up his breakout, maybe they'll wanna try to keep him around on a very modest deal. He could probably take over at 1B (and cover all over the field parttime) if/after Bell leaves to FA, IF he keeps hitting... but he's probably mostly best used as a utility bat w/ a weak-side platoon split, not everyday 1B.

Hader is under control for 1 more year, but won't be cheap. I imagine he'll get $16M-plus in arbitration if he gets back on track and has a good run the rest of the way. That's probably partly why the Brew Crew was willing to swap him for Taylor Rogers, who'll enter FA after this, plus what seems like a pretty good haul.

_Man_

 

[MartinP.]

With all the star power the Dodgers have, it was two rookies, James Outman (debuted Sunday) and Miguel Vargas debuted last night (2 hits, 2 RBI's--one of them Outman--and a steal of third base) that won us the game yesterday, 3-0.

I believe it was the first time the opening lineup of Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman...that not one of them got a hit in the game. (Trea Turner ended his current 20 game hitting streak.)

This weekend three games with the Friars at the Ravine.

 

[David Norman]

I know there were a couple posts earlier about the "Devil you know" Jansen, but whatever occasional issues he had seem to pale in comparison to Craig Kimbrell's struggles (again). The RedSox nearly threw away a World Series a few years ago b/c they couldn't hurt the guy's feelings by not allowing him to pitch. Some Red Sox fans behind the scenes even invented a stat called a "Kimbrell" and "Blown Kimbrell" as subcategories to designate how many times he gave up runs to make a big lead a 1 run win and/or loaded the bases in a save situation. Some folks even came up with a Blown Super Kimbrell for a 4+ run game he would come in and either allow the other team to score 3 or more runs and have to be rescued from himself.

The question is how much of a fluke the first half of 2021 when he was really good turns out to be because he's been pretty scary since mid 2018, all of 2019 and 2020, the second half of 2021 and most of this year. Is he fixable?

Can a Closer with a WHIP of 1.5-2.0 be trusted in a postseason run? If not at what point do you start looking at other options? When it gets to the point you can't even bring him into a 2-3 lead game against lesser offenses, how are you going to bring him into a 1 run lead against a good offense or a game with runners on base and a 1 run lead?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Really feels like the Dodgers should've either convinced Muncy to get TJS back before the winter or kept him on extended IL to get right/fully healthy (after it became too late for TJS w/out a completely lost season)... Hard to believe he's actually fully healthy and been playing (close enough) at 100%...

They also needed to figure out how to fix Belly as well, especially seeing how terrible he looked throughout spring training. He just continues to seem waaay too lost at the plate... He would kill my salary dynasty team this year IF I wasn't prepared enough after last year's debacle, which included my ownership/reliance on Eloy (and Patrick Corbin) -- I will most likely end up DFA-ing Belly (and eating 1/2 the remaining 3 years of a huge contract I have for him) by this coming offseason... and to think I dealt Devers pretty much straight-up (including the salary/contract aspect) for Belly a couple offseasons ago, LOL...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, how do you hit 7(!) HRs and still not beat dem lowly A's??? And it's not like they played atrocious D afterall -- 0 errors anyway. Heck! Dem A's didn't even "out-hit" them either. They would've won if they just had a couple more guys on base while hitting those 7 (solo) HRs all in separate innings, LOL.

Gotta wonder if they didn't sell the team's soul or something when they won it all back 20 years ago, LOL...

Yeah, Ohtani should probably not re-up (beyond next year) w/ them -- he hit 2 HRs himself in this one too...

_Man_