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Neighborhood Janny said:
Yankees did what they always do: shoot themselves in the foot while aiming for their head.

Anyone who still holds onto hope about the Yanks winning another World Series needs to just come to terms that they are no longer the dominant power of MLB. They haven't been since George Steinbrenner kicked the bucket. The 2009 team had no business winning that World Series because they relied on the old guard to get it done. As good as Aaron Judge, Anthony Volpe, or any other player may be, they just aren't cut from the cloth of champions.

Dodgers will repeat next year is my bold prediction. If you can call it bold.
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A huge contributing factor to New York even making the WS is the weakness of the AL. The National League has teams like the Mets, Padres and Phillies who can rival the Dodgers in contention, but what juggernauts are in the AL? Houston's dynasty has reached their endpoint, teams that were on the "up and coming" in 2021 like Seattle and Toronto are flamed out, Boston is barely at .500 ball, and even the Rays' analytical prowess hit a roadblock this year. Who's left? Baltimore? Cleveland? The pesky Tigers and Royals?

The Judge era Yankees are just AL Central merchants; they've won every series against a Central team while inversely losing every one against a West or East team. What prospects have they developed in this window besides Judge? Gary Sanchez? Gleyber doesn't count as he was in the Cubs organization until he was brought over. Jasson Dominguez has played all but 10 games.

Something is fundamentally wrong in the Yankees organization. George Steinbrenner would have demanded heads roll from the top down for the pennant drought, let alone the atrocious WS display and Game 5 collapse. Hal seems to be perfectly content with keeping Cashman as a bootlicking GM to deliver playoff calibre teams buoyed by stardom like Judge, Cole et al, without enacting the necessary organizational changes to produce a well-rounded lineup. Championship calibre success goes beyond mere spending; the Dodgers may have a huge payroll but what's brought them to 4 WS appearances in 7 years is their ability to combine effective development with the appeal of a big market. Persistently turning waiver claims and burnout journeymen (Muncy, Phillips, Taylor, list goes on) into quality pieces makes them the Rays with money, which makes sense as Andrew Friedman came from TB.

Until Hal grows some balls, fires Cashman, and completely revamps the organization NYY will continue on their current trajectory.
 
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Seeing as how there's so much chatter about Juan Soto and his contract, it got me thinking about the situation. I'll try and break down my thoughts on his free agency.

Soto is a generationally talented hitter who hits for both power and average, while getting on base at an obscenely high clip. He's productive in any situation, whether it's in the regular season or the playoffs. From a pure batting perspective, he's comparable to some of the all time modern day greats such as Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., a young Bonds, Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout.

Are the above traits justifiable for some of the monopoly money tier figures that are being thrown about ?

Soto is at best a mediocre fielder who will never be a serious Gold Glove contender. While many people focus on the bewildering Yankees performance in Game 5, they forget that in Game 1 Soto was made his own gaffs with some of the angles that he took on flyballs. Contrast this with some of the names above amongst whom are some of the greatest fielders to ever play the game. I don't want to hear that defense doesn't matter in those modern era because that's why the Dodgers are World Champions.

Soto is an average baserunner and is not a factor at all with stealing bases. There are 2 40-40 players among the names that I've listed and aside from Cabrera, the others were tremendous on the base paths.

I believe that Soto is more motivated by money than by anything else. He's already been on 3 teams, all of which are in decent to great geographies (for people who think about things like quality of life away from the diamond, etc.). He repeatedly turned down long term offers from the Nationals and Padres even though those were excellent teams which could have been contenders for years with Soto. He's about to do the same to the Yankees (or force them to pay so much that they won't be able to surround him with good enough players).

His comments post the World Series loss were already about it being "open house" for all teams. In all my decades of watching sports, the truest competitors are too dejected to even think about anything other than trying to process a tough loss. It's hard to imagine other greats not responding with something along the lines of "Now is not the time to think about free agency. We just lost the motherfucking World Series".

Another aspect is marketability. He wants Ohtani's contract, but even leaving Baseball aside (Ohtani is already well on the way to unironically being the greatest player of all time), Ohtani is the most searched athlete in the world...of any sport...let that sink in for a moment. It's not just Japan, but the entire world...and he's a Baseball player, which isn't shit compared to Soccer, the NFL and even Cricket for Christ's sake.

Where is Soto's rabid fanbase who will generate literal billions in revenue for the team that he goes to, as in the case of Ohtani ? Fuck it, I'm old enough to remember how popular Griffey was...many of you likely remember ARod and the dollars that he generated. The Dominican Republic ? Straight up literal shit hole that no one cares about.

Lastly, I don't believe for a second that he's actually 26. There have been numerous age-related scandals from the Dominican Republic and from Latin America in general. I believe that he's likely closer to 28 or 29.

So yes, the giga kike that is Cohen will likely give him an insanely overvalued contract over 15 years that will approach 700 million. Myself on the other hand, for what it's worth, would not even consider giving him a contract beyond 10 years and my limit would be around 450 million. I'm just some retard online, but I think that the arguments against are extremely strong.

Lastly, this shuffle shit and crotch grabbing in-between pitches is straight up faggot behavior. I remember when he was talking shit about "shuffling Ohtani's ass" back in the Angels days. Well, he ended up going 0-3 against Ohtani with 2 strikeouts (the 2nd of which was particularly awful because Soto appeared to hurt himself on the swing).

What's that line from that one show ? Oh yeah..."You come at the King, you best not miss".
 
Armor of God said:
Are the above traits justifiable for some of the monopoly money tier figures that are being thrown about ?
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He could be comparable to Giancarlo Stanton in a few years that would be a bad outcome. Mookie Betts 365/12 contract looking like a bargain with future fail DHs going for as much as soto. Still though he is only 25 years old with already a career 201 HR. Could he become a better fielder? A lot of players don't get called up til they are his age now. Really good players usually peak around age 29-31. It would be fucking hilarious if soto was one of those scam dominicans that is really way older.
 
Neighborhood Janny said:
Jose Siri was a great prospect in the Reds' farm system. I watched him come up through the Dayton Dragons and thinking he would be an All-Star caliber player, but man...what a fall off.
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He can still go get it in center, but man he really can't hit. Siri was never the most disciplined hitter even at the best of times but last year his swing and miss rate was 41.9% last year which is borderline unplayable. And he's swinging and missing on more stuff in the strike zone than ever.
 
Gay Communist Gun Club said:
He can still go get it in center, but man he really can't hit. Siri was never the most disciplined hitter even at the best of times but last year his swing and miss rate was 41.9% last year which is borderline unplayable. And he's swinging and missing on more stuff in the strike zone than ever.
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But he'll still hit about a dozen homers and pimp every last one of them.
 
Ohtani wins his 3rd MVP (2nd consecutive award) to become the 2nd player alongside Frank Robinson to win the award in both leagues.

I wasn't expecting him to win unanimously because of the whole DH disrespect thing, so that was a pleasant surprise. If he can stay healthy for the next 5-7 years then I think he has a chance to challenge Bonds' record of 7. He's the only player in history to win the award unanimously 3 times as well.

Seeing a lot of rhetoric along the lines of "Well akshually Judge is the better player and if there was only 1 MVP award then Judge would win over Ohtani hurr durr" on social media and certain YouTube channels covering Baseball.

No, Judge is not more valuable than Ohtani. Ohtani achieved his results batting leadoff for most of the season. 50/50 may never be done again (I don't think that it will be) and he was within a whisker of winning the Triple Crown. Judge had Soto alongside him for the entire ride, who I would venture to say is more feared by pitching staffs than Judge.

Let's also not forget all of the injuries to star players that the Dodgers had to deal with. Pitching disasters aside, Betts, Freeman and Muncy all missed major amounts of time or dealt with injuries down the stretch. Ohtani was the 1 constant throughout the season.

One last point would be this: if you could pick any player from anyone on a roster across the entire MLB, then would anyone pick someone other than Shohei Ohtani ?

I rest my case.
 
Just saw this on /sp/; Tampa looks to add to the misery of trading every piece of value by engaging in the Gypsy Lotte career simulator.

An entire franchise stunted by a single bridge.

rays kwab.JPG
 
Armor of God said:
Ohtani wins his 3rd MVP (2nd consecutive award) to become the 2nd player alongside Frank Robinson to win the award in both leagues.

I wasn't expecting him to win unanimously because of the whole DH disrespect thing, so that was a pleasant surprise. If he can stay healthy for the next 5-7 years then I think he has a chance to challenge Bonds' record of 7. He's the only player in history to win the award unanimously 3 times as well.

Seeing a lot of rhetoric along the lines of "Well akshually Judge is the better player and if there was only 1 MVP award then Judge would win over Ohtani hurr durr" on social media and certain YouTube channels covering Baseball.

No, Judge is not more valuable than Ohtani. Ohtani achieved his results batting leadoff for most of the season. 50/50 may never be done again (I don't think that it will be) and he was within a whisker of winning the Triple Crown. Judge had Soto alongside him for the entire ride, who I would venture to say is more feared by pitching staffs than Judge.

Let's also not forget all of the injuries to star players that the Dodgers had to deal with. Pitching disasters aside, Betts, Freeman and Muncy all missed major amounts of time or dealt with injuries down the stretch. Ohtani was the 1 constant throughout the season.

One last point would be this: if you could pick any player from anyone on a roster across the entire MLB, then would anyone pick someone other than Shohei Ohtani ?

I rest my case.
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Judge had better stats all while also playing defense. 50+ stolen bases are nice but how important can they be when they only translate to 12 more runs than Judge had. Ohtani hitting 1st or 2nd for most of the season which are "Runs positions" and he could only get 12 extra runs while Judge hitting 3rd which is an "RBI position" got 14 more RBIs than Ohtani.

Comparing based on position can be challenging which is why you look at the averaging stats which Judge wins all of them. Ohtani had Betts/Freeman/Hernandez as protection for most of the season while Judge had Stanton and ... Verdugo and Austin Wells? Despite Judge having worse protection, he still had .50 higher Slugging than Ohtani.

Judge was simply the better hitter, all while also playing pretty good defense.(Game 5 inning 5 not withstanding.) The best thing about Ohtani is the Pitching with the Elite Hitting, so if he never pitched again like he didn't this year then Judge would be the better option.
 
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Philly Phunk Machine said:
Just saw this on /sp/; Tampa looks to add to the misery of trading every piece of value by engaging in the Gypsy Lotte career simulator.

An entire franchise stunted by a single bridge.

View attachment 6676138
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A bit of an over simplification. The city wanted to prioritize city reconstruction and were fine with repairing the trop, as long as the Rays stayed in Pinellas.

Jew Sternberg decides to go to Yankees stadium South and tells the government to redo the deal because it will cost more now. City was rightfully pissed and told him to kick rocks.

Silver lining when the Rays attendance is under 10k for the year I'll never have to hear another Trampa Faggot say the Rays would draw if they were in Hillsborough.
 
Looseleaf Paper said:
Comparing based on position can be challenging which is why you look at the averaging stats which Judge wins all of them. Ohtani had Betts/Freeman/Hernandez as protection for most of the season while Judge had Stanton and ... Verdugo and Austin Wells? Despite Judge having worse protection, he still had .50 higher Slugging than Ohtani.
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How much time did Betts and Muncy miss ? How about Freeman with the family issues and then the ankle injury late in the season ?

What about the absolute Frankenstein’s monster tier job that the pitching staff had to do with all of the injuries to their frontline pitchers ? Did the Yankees have to deal with any of that ?

Raw stats are important but circumstances are just as important to consider.

Ohtani had a much higher degree of difficulty given all of the flux and injuries. That has to be taken into account and when you do that in good faith, even as a DH he’s the very best player in the league.

He was the one constant on the team that finished with the best record in Baseball. The NL is also a tougher league with much better teams than the AL.
 
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Armor of God said:
How much time did Betts and Muncy miss ? How about Freeman with the family issues and then the ankle injury late in the season ?

What about the absolute Frankenstein’s monster tier job that the pitching staff had to do with all of the injuries to their frontline pitchers ? Did the Yankees have to deal with any of that ?

Raw stats are important but circumstances are just as important to consider.

Ohtani had a much higher degree of difficulty given all of the flux and injuries. That has to be taken into account and when you do that in good faith, even as a DH he’s the very best player in the league.

He was the one constant on the team that finished with the best record in Baseball. The NL is also a tougher league with much better teams than the AL.
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I know you love "Gamblin' Man" Ohtani to death, but in my opinion, if you're not also playing on the field every day, you shouldn't be eligible for MVP. A DH does not have to go through the rigors an everyday position player does, and how a player does defensively should also account for an MVP status. JMHO.
 
GloryHole Stalker said:
I know you love "Gamblin' Man" Ohtani to death, but in my opinion, if you're not also playing on the field every day, you shouldn't be eligible for MVP. A DH does not have to go through the rigors an everyday position player does, and how a player does defensively should also account for an MVP status. JMHO.
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Good thing for me then that next season when Ohtani is not performing DH duties, he'll be doing something that practically guarantees him another MVP.

Also, I've watched footage of him playing in the outfield during his time in Hokkaido. When he does give up pitching eventually, he appears to have the makings of a damn good outfielder.
 
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