General Baseball Chit-Chat Thread

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Reading this article on the Ringer about trading for rentals, and this part gets a big eye roll from me:

 

On the other hand, Torres has turned into the best-case-scenario version of himself—there’s no guarantee the Cubs could have turned him into the player he is now with the Yankees, who might be the best in the business at player development. The Cubs have done a good job with their middle infield prospects, but Addison Russell, Javy Báez, and to a lesser extent Ian Happ are very different players than what they were expected to become as teenagers. Still, those three and Kris Bryant are all very good players—it’s not like Chicago has a Torres-shaped hole in its lineup.

 

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/7/16/17571406/trade-deadline-manny-machado-baltimore-orioles-rumor-rental

 

Yes, the Cubs player development system probably wouldn't have been the right place for Torres to maximize his potential, as evidenced by the disappointments of Addison Russell, Ian Happ, and Javier Baez.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Shame on the Cubs for not developing a teenage Ian Happ when he was *checks notes* playing in high school and college.

[Regular Show]

If anything the Cubs should get tremendous credit for developing Baez and all his success this season. I can totally see Baez floundering in another organization where the manager has little patience for a young player like Baez.

 

No doubt in my mind that Maddon is the perfect manager for Baez.

 

Happ was largely a finished product when we drafted him and just needed the reps. I guess he wouldn't be as defensively versatile if he were in another organization. Happ is probably just a second baseman in another organization. Not sure how much Russell changed going from Oakland to Chicago, or exactly how much credit we should get for his development. All three players are playing well at the big league level and the Cubs deserve credit for developing them.

[Sammys Boombox]

I was wondering today, what is the average cost per plate appearance across the major leagues? If you figure the product the owners are selling are plate appearances, and the cost for them to provide them are the salaries of all the players being paid. It comes out to $24-25k/plate appearance. And that doesn’t include front office, scouting, coaching staff, travel costs, etc.

[Bull]

It wouldn’t really affect balls in play, but I do kind of hate shifting. Makes the game more boring and seems like it could be a very simple fix. Just say 3B/SS can’t begin the play right of the 2B bag, 2B can’t begin to the left. And maybe I just feel this way because the Cubs don’t shift as much as other teams, I don’t know.

 

It would effect balls in play though. Extreme shifting makes it a bad idea to put the ball in play.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

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[Bobson Dugnutt]

 

lol wut

[Bobson Dugnutt]

the nl has maybe two terrible teams compared to like nine in the AL.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

The Indians are going to leave the worst division in baseball, lose their DH, and pile up more wins if they headed to the NL. No doubt about that!!

[soccer10k]

The Indians are going to leave the worst division in baseball, lose their DH, and pile up more wins if they headed to the NL. No doubt about that!!

 

Yeah, that was the main one that stuck out to me. The others might be slight exaggerations but at least they’re all really good teams.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The AL is 85-102 against the NL this year. At current winning percentages, the Indians will play about 110 games against teams with a losing record, and they are currently playing at an 89 win pace.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I was beginning to wonder if Heyman was the dumbest horsefeathers alive, but no one will ever beat Bob.

[Brian]

I would say the majority of non division leaders in the NL are better than all of the non division leaders in the AL outside of the Yankees.

[Cubswin11]

horsefeathers like this is only going to get worse since one of the Yankees/Red Sox is getting WC 1. “Could the Winner of AL WC 1 beat the NL All-Star Team, my column.”

[Ding Dong Johnson]

[Regular Show]

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It must suck to be an Orioles fan right now.

[javy knows my name]

This is the worst article I've ever read

 

http://[https://nypost.com/2018/07/20/the-game-that-proved-major-league-baseball-has-lost-its-mind/amp/]

[Transmogrified Tiger]

That was incomprehensible and I'm mad at you for exposing me to it.

 

On the plus side, it did make me wonder if Murray Chass wrote the style guide for the New York Post, and that led me to the delightful opening to his wikipedia page: "Murray Chass (born October 12, 1938, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) [1] is an American blogger who covers baseball."

[Cubswin11]

This is so Mets that he’s playing through this and they are delaying surgery

 

[Cubswin11]

Yeah something is going on there. It might be completely legal and they’ve “hacked” pitching in which case good for them, but it also might not be.

 

[Clem Fandango]

This was done before with the Mariners, but it's fantastic regardless:

 

https://streamable.com/d4a4a

 

It won't play for some reason on mine, so if you need the link:

 

https://streamable.com/d4a4a

[TruffleShuffle]

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Yeah something is going on there. It might be completely legal and they’ve “hacked” pitching in which case good for them, but it also might not be.

 

 

Remember when the 2000s Cubs set the strikeout record basically every year?

[Banedon]

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[Banedon]

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