General Baseball Chit-Chat Thread

[NewUserName]

Glad the overpay on Shelby Miller is working out so far for the Diamondbacks.

I am way more happy that the Cubs are run by people who didn't overpay for Miller.

[Clem Fandango]

The Top 5 WAR leaders in the AL consist of Manny Machado, Jose Altuve, Mike Trout, and Josh Donaldson... the 5th person? Colby Rasmus. He's destroying the league right now.

 

.302/.449/.698/1.147 6 HR 16 RBI 15 BB 17 K

 

Never would've seen that coming.

[David]

Don't look now, but Zobrist has a higher WAR and wOBA than Starlin already.

[Sammy Sofa]

David's going to be saying everything's #blessed in no time.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

David's going to be saying everything's #blessed in no time.

He better hope nobody gets careless with some water or something. It would be a shame if something were to happen to him.

[Derwood]

How the heck is Colby Rasmus almost 30? He looks 17

[Cubswin11]

Looking through Fangraphs.... Both Harvey and deGrom have some velo red flags. DeGrom is down ~3 MPH across the board on all his pitches from last year and Harvey is down anywhere from 1.5-2 MPH on all his pitches. Probably too early in the year to take too much away from but it's something to keep and eye on over the next month or so to see if they regain some velo from their early season starts.

[soccer10k]

Looking through Fangraphs.... Both Harvey and deGrom have some velo red flags. DeGrom is down ~3 MPH across the board on all his pitches from last year and Harvey is down anywhere from 1.5-2 MPH on all his pitches. Probably too early in the year to take too much away from but it's something to keep and eye on over the next month or so to see if they regain some velo from their early season starts.

 

They didn't mention any specific numbers but on the Effectively Wild pod the other day they were saying that pitcher's velo is typically lower in April and goes up as the season goes along. They didn't say by how much on average or how long it takes to stabilize, however.

[Cubswin11]

Looking through Fangraphs.... Both Harvey and deGrom have some velo red flags. DeGrom is down ~3 MPH across the board on all his pitches from last year and Harvey is down anywhere from 1.5-2 MPH on all his pitches. Probably too early in the year to take too much away from but it's something to keep and eye on over the next month or so to see if they regain some velo from their early season starts.

 

They didn't mention any specific numbers but on the Effectively Wild pod the other day they were saying that pitcher's velo is typically lower in April and goes up as the season goes along. They didn't say by how much on average or how long it takes to stabilize, however.

Got it. That makes sense especially in both of Harvey and deGrom's cases where they have missed some time in spring/this year already that they are a bit behind and may not be 100% ready to go yet. Thought it was interesting at least, especially in deGrom's case, 3 MPH is significant.

[Banedon]

The articles about Dusty turning around the Nats have begun.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-nationals/post/_/id/965/under-dusty-bakers-leadership-everything-going-washingtons-way

 

Also:

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[CubInOK]

I guess he still has all his starters throw 120 pitches every start.

 

I'd stay faaaaarrrr away from Strasburg when his free agency comes.

[David]

The articles about Dusty turning around the Nats have begun.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-nationals/post/_/id/965/under-dusty-bakers-leadership-everything-going-washingtons-way

 

Also:

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

[Liam Neeson]

So I'm by no means the first person to think about this but wouldn't Joey Votto to the Blue Jays make a ton of sense? Rodgers Communication basically prints money so eating his contract wouldn't be bad.

 

Reds get a middle of the road prospect and his contract off the books.

Votto waves his no trade clause to go home.

[CubInOK]

I'd stay faaaaarrrr away from Strasburg when his free agency comes.

 

To be fair - that one doesn't fall on Dusty.

Oh it will after this season.

[JennieGarthAlgar]

So I'm by no means the first person to think about this but wouldn't Joey Votto to the Blue Jays make a ton of sense? Rodgers Communication basically prints money so eating his contract wouldn't be bad.

 

Reds get a middle of the road prospect and his contract off the books.

Votto waves his no trade clause to go home.

 

I mean, if you're a team that wants to win a world series in the next few years and you could use a very, very, very good first baseman... and all it would take is a "middle of the road prospect"... then, yes. Yes, it would make a ton of sense for the Blue Jays.

 

But I don't see that deal make a ton of sense for the Reds, so...

[SouthSideRyan]

The articles about Dusty turning around the Nats have begun.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-nationals/post/_/id/965/under-dusty-bakers-leadership-everything-going-washingtons-way

 

Also:

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

 

This was all so predictable. Hopefully they fail in the postseason in magnificent fashion.

[apete6]

The articles about Dusty turning around the Nats have begun.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-nationals/post/_/id/965/under-dusty-bakers-leadership-everything-going-washingtons-way

 

Also:

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

 

This was all so predictable. Hopefully they fail in the postseason in magnificent fashion.

 

The Cubs losing to Dusty Baker or the White Sox in the postseason would be extremely tough to take.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'll give Baker credit for this: He knows how to snipe jobs on underperforming teams to get credit for their regression to the mean.

[Sammy Sofa]

 

 

This was all so predictable. Hopefully they fail in the postseason in magnificent fashion.

 

The Cubs losing to Dusty Baker or the White Sox in the postseason would be extremely tough to take.

 

Given that losing to the White Sox in the postseason would mean the Cubs losing the WS, I'm pretty sure that would be extremely tough to take regardless.

[apete6]

 

This was all so predictable. Hopefully they fail in the postseason in magnificent fashion.

 

The Cubs losing to Dusty Baker or the White Sox in the postseason would be extremely tough to take.

 

Given that losing to the White Sox in the postseason would mean the Cubs losing the WS, I'm pretty sure that would be extremely tough to take regardless.

 

Agreed, but losing to, say, the Blue Jays, would be much more preferable. Yet still extremely shitty.

[bcl412]

All playoff losses suck a lot. I dont think i know enough sox fans to care about losing to them specifically. Then again, i don't know many cardinal fans either and i still find them to be annoying.

[snoodmonger]

Were the White Sox expected to be good this year? Are they good? I know they have a great record, but their offense is pretty dismal. I don't follow them closely enough to know if it's expected to get better or what.

[Clem Fandango]

I have a friend who is a White Sox fan. He posted this image on Facebook one week after the season started. One week.

 

http://i.imgur.com/uMaxb4L.jpg

 

The irony is outstanding

[CyHawk_Cub]

^^^I continue to not care about the White Sox, and am actually amazed when I do encounter a Cubs fan who wants to spend more than a cursory moment to discuss them.

[toonsterwu]

I'll give Baker credit for this: He knows how to snipe jobs on underperforming teams to get credit for their regression to the mean.

 

Hell, he wasn't target 1. I forget who was target 1, but Dusty was the fallback.

 

Rizzo's supposedly on the hot seat, but I still think he's doing a solid job there. They've got a very solid club, their system should be able to provide help not only soon, but potentially, impact help, and he set it up so that the youngsters won't be rushed. They've got enough trade assets if they need to make a move. Granted, some of their moves were just solid gambles that worked out (Erick Fedde comes to mind), but someone had to take the gamble.