The SABR Gamer

Athletics Cardinals Diamondbacks Mariners Nationals Orioles I didn’t say they didn’t exist. I said they’re a mouthful. I know you didn’t say they didn’t exist. I was just showing that nobody really complains about those names and I’m sure the same will eventually be true about Guardians.

I just don’t like the way it sounds. Guardians is a bit of a mouthful. Three syllables is too much for a team name. Athletics Cardinals Diamondbacks Mariners Nationals Orioles

If he tweaked something, he wouldn't be out there. I think it's probably just overuse and a bit of arm fatigue. He needs 2-3 days off and then hopefully he'll be fine. I hope you’re right. I admit it could be irrational fear clouding my judgment.

Lol Kimbrel’s arm isn’t right right now. Might sound reactionary but he just looked like he tweaked something getting the save against Arizona. His velo was down to 96.5 yesterday for the first time in over a month and then even more tonight. Maybe I’m just being a tweak because I’m worried it will hurt his trade value but I scout pitchers as part of my job and he looks off to my eyes.

Kimbrel totally hurt his arm a couple appearances ago overthrowing trying to get the last strike and missed really high. Down to 95-96 today.

He’s almost 32 and the only reason he’s in the league is high velocity. CubinNY just likes to post for the sake of posting. Completely worthless addition to the thread.

The White Sox are under .500. Every Chicago sports team is the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. They are a good team though.

when was the last time the Cubs lost or any other Chicago team lost a real stud in their prime? I was really bothered when the Cubs lost Maddux. I wasnt shocked because everyone knew it was coming. It still bothers me that the Cubs screwed up so bad with a HoFer and then have the audacity to retire his number. I think the thing with Len is the shock of it. You always get the sense that relationships are ending no matter what level they are on. This completely floored me. Sosa was old and getting bad, but the team's treatment of him was(and still is) really gross. I wish I could like this 10 times. eta: Sammy was actually still pretty decent at the end of his Cubs time though. He was an above average regular in both 2003 and 2004, and I will make the excuse for him that he was trying to mentally rebound from a devastating hit by pitch during that time, which at least from my memory made him stand a mile away from the plate for a while. I was born in the early 90s, with a massive White Sox fan grandfather and a super cool dad who liked both teams, but prefered the Sox at the time. Despite their persistent efforts, Slammin' Sammy was just way more convincing to a 7-year-old. The Cubs owe my fandom to Sammy, and I would be willing to bet that's case for countless Cubs fans around my age. The disrespect and self-righteousness of the Ricketts' family in their approach to Sammy is simply insulting. They are about as petty and pathetic as you can be, saying Sammy literally *owes* them an apology for not being forward about his steroid usage. That's not even why the braindead Cubs fans wanted an apology from him. So, like, did they hear one time in passing that there was a segment of the Cubs fan base that was super mad at Sammy, assume it was for steroids, and run with it? Is there even a good business argument for Sammy's exile? It just feels like a rich piece of horsefeathers trying to teach us all we can't have too many fun things in life. Goes without saying, but the Cubs are so horsefeathering Trumpy. Suck my dick, Cubs.

Bryant if Theo offered him that deal: I’m highly skeptical he gets $200+ mil. The FA class is loaded and will suppress salaries alone on top of other shenanigans. Javy, KB, Rizzo, Freeman, Lindor, Seager, Correa, Story, Nola, Syndergaard, Conforto, Bauer if he does his 1 year deals, then some of the bigger recent guys have opt outs I believe (Bryce/Machado/Arenado, etc). Pretty sure Sofa is saying your offer is already way more than he should get, not that he somehow would get even more.

4.1 WAR as a leadoff man with un less juiced ball is about all we might expect. WAR doesn't care where you bat in the order and the de-juiced ball applies to everyone, not just Bryant.

lol I feel like Tom is doing an especially bad job of reading comprehension in this thread. Every response is just him repeating his incorrect analysis and misunderstanding the rebuttals that contradict him.

Is this some sort of hedge? Either he's good or you're right? You're going to feel dumb next year.

You don't have to post *every* stupid thought you have.

I still think the Cubs are better off because they aren't owned by Reinsdorf, but the Sox do have some very good pieces and lots of payroll flexibility. Jimenez, Moncada and Anderson all look pretty impressive, and Luis Robert could be a stud. I've always wanted to watch the Cubs beat the Sox in the World Series.

Because I don't care to post enough. This is a weak ass response lol, I'm right and you don't have a rebuttal. No, it's a pretty good response to a weird, "I usually like you" post, Guy I Thought Was CubinNY until a minute ago. And I'm not sure how you can argue away, "I think Kris Bryant is going to be dealing with nagging injuries too often," like you think there's some kind of slam dunk response. Fair enough, I was just trying to soften my seemingly harsh criticism by mentioning that I do not have a negative viewpoint of you. I'm not arguing with his injury history being questionable to his longterm outlook, it absolutely is. I am arguing with you using a probable outlier data point to justify your entire viewpoint that Kris is not a valuable enough player. He's a top 20 player this year, even dealing with the injury issues, which is incredibly valuable and more than valuable enough for what the Cubs want and need him to be (which is what you specifically said he wasn't). Whether he's going to breakdown is the worthy debate, but I think he showed he can handle the minor, lingering stuff with how he's bounced back multiple times this year.

Because I don't care to post enough. This is a weak ass response lol, I'm right and you don't have a rebuttal.

The lower BR WAR is because of his defense, which can easily be viewed as sample variance, especially since the rating is very inconsistent with the rest of his career and with the other methods of evaluating his defense. You cherry pick a ton, and it devalues your bitching.

He's forever trapped in the Dead Zone of technically being too valuable to trade, but he's doomed to not actually be as great as the Cubs desperately need him to be. Also: his skeleton is an antique. Lol this is a post by someone with a bad grasp on both how good KB is and how good the Cubs need him to be. I mostly like you, but sometimes shut up.

Even Heyward had a pretty good year outside of the leadoff/Joe stuff. Meh. 2018: Offensive value: 3.7 wRC+: 99 WAR: 2.0 2019: Offensive value: 3.7 wRC+: 102 WAR: 1.9 He's still mediocre.

I know it’s going to happen. I’m resigned to it. But does average bat, great glove get you in the Hall now for catchers? What’s the difference between Molina and Jason Kendall, AJ Pierzynski, Benito Santiago and a half a dozen other similar catchers who aren’t in the Hall and have no chance to? Are we lowering the bar to 30 career WAR and being a good teammate on a WS winning team? Even if we assume that Molina is one of the best half-dozen defensive catchers of all time (a point I’m not conceding), he doesn’t hit nearly as well as Bench, Pudge, or Carter did. Molina is much closer offensively to the non-HoF defensive greats like Sundberg and Boone, the difference being that Molina had a slightly longer stretch of offensive adequacy. I’d argue that Molina is not the best catcher of his generation. That’s Joe Mauer even when excluding the numbers he racked up when he was primarily a 1b. Or Buster Posey if you want to expand the definition of generation a bit. Molina is basically on the same level as Russell Martin, trading offense for defense. I’d argue that Molina is not even the best catcher in Cardinals history. That’s Ted Simmons, who belongs in the Hall way before Molina does. That said, I know Molina is going to the Hall because a bunch of sportswriters say so, without much beyond anecdotal support for their reasoning. I’ve got six or seven years to get over it. I’ll be fine. I hate defending Yadi, but Fangraphs added framing to their defensive WAR and he's now the #1 defensive catcher of all time in fangraphs value, and over 50 career WAR, which is 13th best in MLB history for a catcher (3rd amongst his peers, less than 2 WAR behind both McCann and Martin). That's at least close to HOF worthy to me. Catcher WAR MLB History ETA: Framing stats start after 2002, so historical rankings probably shift somewhat, but those guys could be hurt just as much as they are helped by it, so he likely ends up in a similar spot.

I went and booed him loudly before his first PA, and then again every time after that, and more joined each time.

That, and it applies potentially to multiple guys on the team. I get the video game appeal of fielding a team of almost nothing but homegrown stud bats, but that's not something likely to pan out, and it's not like the pitching issues were ever going to be something to take them by surprise with the way the team was constructed and how their drafting went. They won a WS and have the most wins in MLB since all these guys were up together. I’d say it has panned out. Who knows what pitching was really available or how close they came to moving any guys. There were always rumors Mets or Indians pitchers were available but both those teams were trying to win so who knows plus all the Mets guys had injuries or have fallen off since, none would’ve been slam dunk moves and none were ultimately moved and trading the young MLB bats who had success for pitching prospects would’ve been a dumb move. Idk what other impact pitchers were available (none were moved other than Sale, who I doubt they would’ve traded to us) in that 2015-17 range. Based on his complaints, Sammy Sofa would have apparently only been satisfied with a 40-WAR lineup lol. The level of negativity here towards barely more than 2 weeks of baseball is kind of goofy as hell and a reminder that most of the people here, or any message board, are just looking for a place to have a meltdown. The position player WAR output of the last several years is about as good as you could realistically expect. If you were hoping for much more, maybe watch more baseball or look around the league at other good lineups?

This thread makes me way too emotional lol. These moments are why I horsefeathering love baseball.

32nd all time in pitcher fWAR, nearly 70 fWAR for his career. More career WAR than: Tom Glavine, Roy Halladay, Bob Feller, Juan Marichal, etc... If he's a controversial hall of famer then lol.

Hot take.