squally1313

lol what

Rios is the obvious send down here, but would be pretty pleased if they made it Hosmer to send a message to Ross by taking away one of his veterans. Though ultimately I think Rios is similarly pretty worthless (or at least his ceiling is pretty low), so it doesn't really matter. Nelly is different in that he's stuck behind Happ/Bellinger/Seiya and he's just not supposed to be the caliber of hitter that Mervis is (despite what his 87 PAs tell you this year), so it's not as egregious when he doesn't get DH appearances.

I mean, better than what we have now. But if this is the big move to make within the organization, we're still a long ways away. Maybe I'm just haunted by the LaHairs/Hoffpaiurs of the world (or I have unrealistic expectations based on the KBs/Javys of the world), but upgrading from league average first baseman to above average first baseman is about the most inconsequential thing you can do.

This is almost definitely the wrong thread but I couldn't think of a better one and I'm still terrified of starting new threads for anything that's not a game thread, even 20 years in. Saw a tweet about Robinson Chirinos retiring, and figured he was maybe just calling it quits early? Nope, 38 years old, probably on the older end for a catcher. Just a name that's been bouncing around in my head for the last 15+ years thanks to you degenerates. Dude was traded for Matt Garza! With Hak Ju Lee! And the current GM of the Phillies! Sorry for reminding everyone of their own mortality, but still. A first ballot Name around these parts.

Do better than this website and win!

Is there anyway to embed more than one post when you're quoting? This is probably just me getting old, but seemed easier to track the conversation when I could, for example, quote A quoting B and have both their messages show up with mine in my post.

A while? It's April. And he has a 16.8% walk rate. Do you have a better option than the dude with the .396 OBP?

And it's a pretty drastic overreaction regardless.

Correct, but that puts us in a 7 way tie for 8th in blown saves this year as a team. Which is mostly just a way of saying it happens more often than you probably think, especially as starters get pulled earlier and earlier.

No idea if it's still there but there was a house on the east side of Sheffield somewhere around Sheffield's bar that was freestanding, set back in the lot, and always had people out in the front yard playing whiffleball whenever I would walk up from the Belmont stop on the way to games. You'd go deaf from the train in your backyard, but that was my dream rental situation for like 6 years in my 20s.

Yes and no on Wisdom. I don't think anyone was expecting top tier performance, but along those same lines no one was really expecting a playoff appearance. The way to move to that conversation is for players to exceed expectations/projections. We've obviously seen some of that this year, and some of it seems more sustainable. Wisdom's doesn't look particularly sustainable, in that a .398 iso would be the 7th best this century (and he's certainly not Barry Bonds or 2001 Sammy Sosa, or even 2023 Max Muncy). But the K rate has gone from historically bad to just very bad while the walk rate has stayed consistent, and ZIPs has him at a 3 win player for the year. With his power, I don't think we should really expect more dongs as the weather improves (unlike Dansby or Seiya) because Wisdom's are typically no doubters regardless. But splitting that difference on his 2022 and 2021 isos and defensive numbers the rest of the year puts him pretty comfortably at 2.5-3 wins.

I was looking for holes in Morel's game. Admittedly, the K rate is bad. And probably won't ever be good. But I was hoping he'd be able to add some speed to the team (not that we're lacking, but speed is great), and was a little disappointed in him only having 8 steals. Figured 88 PAs, hitting over .300, has lots of chances. And then realized he has (going into today) 23 hits but only 8 singles, which is pretty nuts. That BABIP of .400 sounds a lot better if he's making loud contact that often.

I'd have to imagine in that scenario that LAA would have to blow all the other offers out of the water to have a chance at getting him back. They'd need to somehow pick up a ton of almost-MLB ready talent to be able to sell him on a winning team during Trout's early 30s, which I can't see a team giving up in a 'go all in for Ohtani' deal. Otherwise, outside of just family life/comfort, Ohtani is making $70m this year including endorsements. If he wants to win, LAA has built up a big hill to overcome.

I mean, they're 12-12 and just got back the guy who has put up 13.6 fWAR in 277 career games. April 24th is far from 'the end of the day'. There's a 38 point gap between their offensive BABIP and their defensive BABIP. Let's get a little bit deeper in the year before we like, start blaming the baseball manager of all things.

Is there some clear alternative that you're pining for that doesn't carry a mathematically similar risk in a 9 inning sample of blowing up? Like, you're telling me that the guy who had a 3.17/3.51/4.15 ERA/FIP/xFIP over 133 innings the last two years shouldn't have been 'expected to be a major part of a competitive bullpen'. A 3.17 team bullpen ERA would have been second in baseball last year. It's late April, no one has learned anything of importance yet from 9 innings.

Wait, are you thinking that every time we run through the list that we do another sign up from scratch? I was kinda under the impression that it would just loop back around to the top. Would vote for that as an alternative. Having said that, still admit it's tough to keep track and given people probably don't want like, text messages as reminders, might need to come up with a better system of reminders. Off the top of my head, maybe whoever starts the thread tags the next two people just to bring it back somewhat top of mind? Feel like sometimes I'll just visit during the game and then not be back until the next game starts, which would be bad if it were my turn. Alternatively, if the Cubs could just rip off a long winning streak again, that would make things easier. So if someone could arrange that, that would be great.

Jesus, the amount of nostalgia this triggered is honestly concerning. Dude is 35 years old, has been playing professional baseball since Bush was in office, and has 57 career innings in the show. What a life.

Not sure what it says in the forecast, but a nice little hailstorm turned snowstorm rolled through the near western suburbs about 45 minutes, so conditions should be pretty dicey. Don't think it'll get delayed or anything, just might get a little weird.

Yeah Brock is trying to get rid of megathreads, starting one with that subject would quickly become the most posted in topic on the site.

Man, him and the Cardinals would be a perfect fit huh? Here's hoping.

Yeah, wet tonight, then getting real cold for the weekend, which is unfortunate because those are some intriguing pitching matchups.

I'd also assume, but don't know for sure, that the big majority of tourism comes in during the winter months. Don't think there are nearly as many people getting out to Vegas during the June-August stretch. The other side of that, of course, is that, given the alternative, the goal doesn't have to be filling a 40k stadium 81 times a year. 25k a game puts them in a significantly better position. Anecdotally, going to a bachelor party out there next month and it was exceedingly difficult to get tickets to the Savannah Bananas game out there (capacity 10k). So there's an appetite for some sort of baseball at least.

The new rules added a lot of enjoyment, but this team was built to produce baseball that's really enjoyable to watch (at least for me), even if I'm still not sold on it being the best strategy to win games. 22nd in offensive K%, after being 10th, 1st, 4th, 11th the last four years. Couple that with being 19th in walk rate (which certainly isn't optimal) and 12th in total HRs (13 of the non-Wisdom variety in 17 games) and you're getting a lot of balls in play. Can we continue BABIPing at a .341 pace? Probably not, but we also don't need to continue playing at a 105 win pace either. Pitching has been as advertised too, even if I was skeptical. Starters are pretty average on walk and K rate, but very much outperforming their peripherals because our BABIP against is second best in the league. Reasons for that are pretty obvious if you look across the field. And then the bullpen has been incredible. First in K rate, 14th in walk rate, 10th in HR/9. They've actually been unlucky, 16th in ERA, 3rd in FIP, 2nd in xFIP. Eventually we're probably going to have to dong more, and I don't think Wisdom is turning into a 50 HR guy at age 31. But if we can keep hitting the ball hard (1st in LD%, though the rest of the batted ball metrics are, um, significantly worse) and winning the BABIP battle comfortably until it warms up at Wrigley for the Swansons/Happs/Suzukis of the world....we should be fine hanging around.

If you thought this was a 78 win team in a season where teams play 162 games, how many wins do you think that same team would win in a 146 game season? (as an aside: dumb pedantic Kyle arguments tinged with a cautious amount of Cubs optimism?? NSBB is back bitches)

I didn't mean so much 'super offensive walk out music' as I meant 'being a huge horsefeathers'