Baseball Thread

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Local Fed said:
The two closest active pitchers aren't going to touch him as they're peers from his generation in Scherzer (almost 41 and clearly isn't an ace anymore)
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It's all good vibes in Toronto right now with the Jays ripping off 8 straight wins with sweeps of the Yanks & Angels at home (and for the first time ever running the gauntlet on a 7-game homestand).

But Scherzer is still Mr. Glass.

He only made it 3 innings into his start to open the season. Then pulled himself and declared he wouldn't pitch again until his chronic thumb issue from the last few years was "sorted out for good".

This resulted in him clowning around the dugout on the IL for about 6 weeks with no timetable to return.

Then he eventually disappeared to Dunedin, FL to the Jays complex for awhile. So we got daily updates on now he was feeling after throwing bullpens and simulated games for weeks. Then he eventually went out on rehab.

He returned right before the Yanks series and has had 3 starts. His stuff has been alright (with velo sitting around 94) but he hasn't been very efficient and hasn't made it out of the 5th yet. He is on unspecified pitch counts, but burns the overworked bullpen when he gets yanked in the 4th or 5th, especially because the Jays haven't been carrying a long man until recently.

On top of all this, the same chronic thumb issue that knocked him out 3 innings into April is still there after all the babying and bullshit.

He complained about "expected inflammation" in his thumb the day after his last AAA rehab start. All we hear now is how much his thumb is going to hurt the next day after his games.

In his last start against the Angels, Scherzer was lifted after 70 pitches and 4 innings because his thumb was hurting more than usual after his 85 pitches the previous start against NY. This on a day when the Jays had like 3 relievers available and ended up winning in the bottom of the 11th.

I hope the Jays go out at the deadline and get another starter because Max isn't long for this team. It's not like they have any depth waiting in the wings either (except a post-TJ Alek Manoah just starting his rehab). For the 12 weeks or so that Max was gone, the club was running out a bullpen game 1-2 times every rotation.

Thank God for found money in a post-Korea Eric Lauer.
 
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The Dodgers took a sixth straight loss, being swept by the Astros and the Brewers. Their offense has scored only 1 run in each game except for a 6-4 loss in the middle game against Houston, and a 3-2 loss to end the Milwaukee series.

Despite that, they still have a 5 game lead in the NL West over the Giants, with whom they begin a weekend series.
 
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Anyone who is talking about the Pirates trading Skenes is fucking retarded, Cherington probably isn't even trusted to part ways with Keller. Dude is a fucking retard, Nutting needs to find his balls.
 
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A.P. Hill said:
The same "let the kids play" type stuff got said about Tim Anderson and he was one of the biggest locker room cancers in baseball.
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Franz Joseph said:
I said before that I love baseball to death, I despise how it has the most Reddit fanbase of any of the major North American sports.
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I, too, love baseball to death. But I don't hate the fans as much as I hate the culture around the players, coaches, parents, and organizations.

Competitive baseball attracts some of the rudest, most arrogant, most churlish jackasses in the Western Hemisphere. Bryce Harper's demeanor is hardly an outlier. I've had the displeasure of rubbing shoulders with them over the years.

The Unwritten Rules aren't merely boomer platitudes; they exist to maintain a spirit of good sportsmanship and keep these shitheads in their place.

Sadly, baseball is also a Good Ol' Boys Club. Once you hit the high school level, making the team or getting playing time is determined less by talent or merit, and more by who the coaching staff knows (or gets the most money from), or the ones who just hang out with the actually talented players.

"Let the kids play" should be about not underestimating the walk-ons, and giving the benchwarmers a chance to prove and improve themselves. In practice, it means "continue ballwashing and enabling the obnoxious prima donnas."
 
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The Rangers just can't get back to .500. One day they can't score runs, the next day they win 8-2 and you think "wow, they can actually score" and then the next day, when a win would take them to .500, one of the normally good pitchers shits the bed and they give up 11 runs to the lame duck A's.
 
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A.P. Hill said:
The Rangers just can't get back to .500. One day they can't score runs, the next day they win 8-2 and you think "wow, they can actually score" and then the next day, when a win would take them to .500, one of the normally good pitchers shits the bed and they give up 11 runs to the lame duck A's.
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The Jays were 26-28 during the finale of their May 28th away series in Arlington, when Bo Bichette with a sore back came off the bench to hit a 9th inning PH HR to win 2-0.

Since that game, the Jays are 27-11 and somehow learned to score runs again.
 
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five of em said:
DJ bros, it’s so fucking over.
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LeMathieu's 6/90 extension deal was an albatross the second it was signed.

I recall 5 years ago thinking Cashman was using the old NHL cap tricks with guys like Ilya Kovalchuk, signing guys well passed their anticipated best before dates, simply to get frontloaded cap hits down via AAV.

I don't think anyone expected DJ to fall apart right off the bat though. He was such a terror when he first crossed over from the Rockies.
 
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Ohtani hits his 32nd homer into McCovey Cove to give the Dodgers 2-1 lead early in the game.

I always hoped that he would hit one into the water one of these years and I'm glad that he's done it. It's also fascinating because Willie McCovey is actually a pretty good comparison for Ohtani as a hitter (to me personally). 500+ homers at a .270 ish average is where I think Ohtani the hitter will end up if he stays healthy for the majority of his contract.

More impressive than the homer was actually Ohtani's first at-bat of the game where he fouled off several pitches before being walked. I've criticized him for not being able to make pitchers "work" to get him out; in particular I felt that he does his damage early in at-bats or also gets out early.

I still want to see less swing and miss from the guy, but these homers really are majestic. I know that I can be insufferable at times given how much I enjoy watching this cat play, but in a clownworld where I can't have anything nice, let me at least enjoy Ohtani's career.
 
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Jacob DeGrom has opted out of the Allstar Game (good idea). That leaves the Texas Rangers with no All-star players on the team :(
I'm a bit bummed, hopefully somebody drops and we can get a pity pick. Hoby Milner has had an ok season , and Josh Smith can play anywhere.
 
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Looseleaf Paper said:
Jacob DeGrom has opted out of the Allstar Game (good idea). That leaves the Texas Rangers with no All-star players on the team :(
I'm a bit bummed, hopefully somebody drops and we can get a pity pick. Hoby Milner has had an ok season , and Josh Smith can play anywhere.
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I don't understand how Nathan Eovaldi isn't on the American League roster. He's having a fantastic season. Casey Mize, who is also having a very good season, of the Tigers is on the team, but Eovaldi handily bests him in every category there is other than wins. It's not as if Mize is only there as the obligatory "every team has to have a representative" member considering Detroit has a trio of players who will be in the starting lineup (Javier Baez, Gleyber Torres, and Riley Greene.)

Eovaldi should be there over Bryan Woo (he's having a fantastic season, no doubt) too in my opinion; the Mariners have Cal Raleigh in the starting lineup and their closer Andres Munoz is deservedly on the team so he's not a "everyone gets a ribbon" pick either.

Meanwhile, Shane Smith of the White Sox is on the team since they had to have someone there. No offense to him, but he's pitched to #5 starter numbers on the year and hasn't given up fewer than 5 earned runs in a start in just over a month.

Adrian Houser's only made 9 starts, but at least I could rationalize him as being Chicago's representative since he's quietly been one of the best starters in the Majors after going over from his minors deal with Texas.
 
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Local Fed said:
I don't understand how Nathan Eovaldi isn't on the American League roster. He's having a fantastic season. Casey Mize, who is also having a very good season, of the Tigers is on the team, but Eovaldi handily bests him in every category there is other than wins. It's not as if Mize is only there as the obligatory "every team has to have a representative" member considering Detroit has a trio of players who will be in the starting lineup (Javier Baez, Gleyber Torres, and Riley Greene.)

Eovaldi should be there over Bryan Woo (he's having a fantastic season, no doubt) too in my opinion; the Mariners have Cal Raleigh in the starting lineup and their closer Andres Munoz is deservedly on the team so he's not a "everyone gets a ribbon" pick either.

Meanwhile, Shane Smith of the White Sox is on the team since they had to have someone there. No offense to him, but he's pitched to #5 starter numbers on the year and hasn't given up fewer than 5 earned runs in a start in just over a month.

Adrian Houser's only made 9 starts, but at least I could rationalize him as being Chicago's representative since he's quietly been one of the best starters in the Majors after going over from his minors deal with Texas.
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I agree, but even if Eovaldi was selected he probably would opt out anyway, which I also think is a good idea, since he just got off a month long injury. They probably know he wouldn't play anyway and aren't selecting him after the drop outs because of that, and his missed time is what led him to not get selected out right in the "first round" so to speak.

Oh well, nobody on the team really deserves a spot except DeGrom, Eovaldi, or Mahle (injured) so I can't be too sad lol.
 
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Looseleaf Paper said:
Jacob DeGrom has opted out of the Allstar Game (good idea). That leaves the Texas Rangers with no All-star players on the team :(
I'm a bit bummed, hopefully somebody drops and we can get a pity pick. Hoby Milner has had an ok season , and Josh Smith can play anywhere.
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Few things would make me happier than for DeGrom to be healthy for the rest of his career and put in as many "counting stats" as possible so that the faggots who vote on the Hall of Fame cannot reasonably keep him out.

There was a stretch there where he was as dominant as any pitcher who has ever played this game. The Hall of Fame needs Jacob DeGrom.
 
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Tommy John Surgery said:
Milwaukee's rookie hurler Misiorowski just got named as an All-Star...with 5 starts under his belt. Don't get me wrong, 97 mph on his changeup is some real hurling but is that all the Brewers have?
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Local Fed said:
It's another one that makes no sense. They already have two pitchers on the team in starter Freddy Peralta and closer Trevor Megill so it's not like they're lacking the mandatory representation.
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I listened to a rambling, old-man-yells-at-cloud discussion with former Rangers/Mets/Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine on David Samson's podcast (former Jeffrey Loria era Marlins exec).

A lot of the talk was the stress & banality of Valentine managing the NL for the 2001? ASG after leading the Mets to the WS the year before.

Valentine argued that the ASG should be based on career rizz instead of current year first half performance because the "fans deserve to see the stars" (I guess he's arguing for a pretty static year-to-year Legends type model, which is the exact opposite of the Misiorwoski pick).

He also talked about
- losing sleep for weeks on deciding roster picks for his NL side (Didn't think ASG managers had much say. Maybe they did in 2001).
- said he picked Curt Schilling to be the ASG SP in Seattle and Randy Johnson pouted and "Don't come back to me asking to play". Then Schilling pulled up lame in his bullpen (possibly on purpose), so Valentine had to beg the Big Unit to start instead, who told him he'd only go "2 innings not 3"
- accused Joe Torre in the AL of being a spineless pussy filling the roster with all his Yankee guys because he was too scared to have them mad at him by picking others
- Valentine talked about painstakingly pouring over advanced analytics for 2001 to select the most deserving candidates for his NL side
- picked some other 3B for the NL based on the SABR numbers, but later regretted it and wished he'd just chosen Robin Ventura from the Mets as nepotism
- said he specifically had a plan to get Barry Bonds the AS MVP by keeping him in the game with 4 ABs. Said he talked to Bonds, who agreed. Then halfway through one of his coaches told him they'd have to PH for Bonds because Barry left the stadium early without telling Valentine to catch his charter flight home
- said Tommy Lasorda begged Valentine to play 3rd base coach for crowd facetime. Then Vlad Guerrero Sr almost killed a feeble Lasorda with a foulball, who Valentine didn't think Vlad was concerned enough.
 
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