2013 MLB Discussion

Wow, there is no showboating or hotdogging at all going on there. Just the typical admiring it for a brief second before jogging the bases.

 
I am sick of this unwritten what you can or can't do after you hit a home run etc. Its all about who does it and if they are on the team you cheer for or not. Puig slides into home, Dodger fans love it, everyone else hates it and says he's a douche. What about Bonds pirouetting after hitting a home run against the Dodgers or little Cecil bowling over his team. Let the players have some emotion and personality.
 
bvharris said:
Singling out Ortiz is pretty lame, no offense. He was on one list ten years ago with 100 other guys, he doesn't belong in the same paragraph as A-Rod when it comes to this issue.

I'm not going to sit here and say with 100% certainty that he's clean, because I don't really think anyone can truly know that about anyone, but come on. I promise you that neither the Yankees nor Sox got any preferential treatment.
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I single him out because: He is still playing today. He had/still has a huge impact on the Sox and so many of their wins. He's a Red Sox and I hate the Red Sox. Bartolo Colon is just as big of a cheater as is Andy Petite. I hate Andy Petite and Roger Clemens because they're both lying cheats and they're Yankees.

He does belong in the same paragraph as Arod. Ortiz has always said he never used steroids, yet his name was on the Mitchell Report and he magically got ridiculously good when he went to the Red Sox. The Sox had a number of known steroid users including his good buddy Manny Ramirez . The only difference between Ortiz and Arod is that Arod has admitted it and hes a giant d bag. Ortiz has always played the nice guy

 
NinjaPenguin777 said:
I single him out because: He is still playing today. He had/still has a huge impact on the Sox and so many of their wins. He's a Red Sox and I hate the Red Sox. Bartolo Colon is just as big of a cheater as is Andy Petite. I hate Andy Petite and Roger Clemens because they're both lying cheats and they're Yankees.

He does belong in the same paragraph as Arod. Ortiz has always said he never used steroids, yet his name was on the Mitchell Report and he magically got ridiculously good when he went to the Red Sox. The Sox had a number of known steroid users including his good buddy Manny Ramirez . The only difference between Ortiz and Arod is that Arod has admitted it and hes a giant d bag. Ortiz has always played the nice guy
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This. Guys like Ortiz and Pettitte get of the hook because they are viewed as likeable, franchise players by the fans of their teams.

Though speaking of Ortiz, he's appealing his 5K fine for smashing the dugout phone and actually putting his teammate in risk for serious harm. fucking ridiculous, he should be suspended on top of the fine.

 
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bvharris said:
Singling out Ortiz is pretty lame, no offense. He was on one list ten years ago with 100 other guys, he doesn't belong in the same paragraph as A-Rod when it comes to this issue.

I'm not going to sit here and say with 100% certainty that he's clean, because I don't really think anyone can truly know that about anyone, but come on. I promise you that neither the Yankees nor Sox got any preferential treatment.
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He went feom being a garbage player to a superstar once he went to Boston and started running with Man Ram. If we are blindly accusing people, who is to say that Man Ram wasnt running a steroid ring in Boston. We know he didnt quit using.

Edit: On my phone and didnt see that penguin made the point I was going to make.

Oh and I love how Mike Stanton hasnt been on MLB network radio all week and I love Jim Bowden talking about how roiders stole money from other players. All those latin players he stole from probably would love to beat the shit out of him for that remark.
 
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Let's be fair. Ortiz's last season in Minnesota he had an OPS+ of 120 and he was an above average player there in his age 21-26 years. Plus, he was never a full-timer for the Twins, never once amassing more than 500 PA's. I'm not saying one way or the other whether he uses/used, but holding his stats from his early years against him as proof that he's using isn't real proof. Not to mention that as a left-handed hitter, he's pretty well suited for Fenway.

 
jza1218 said:
Let's be fair. Ortiz's last season in Minnesota he had an OPS+ of 120 and he was an above average player there in his age 21-26 years. Plus, he was never a full-timer for the Twins, never once amassing more than 500 PA's. I'm not saying one way or the other whether he uses/used, but holding his stats from his early years against him as proof that he's using isn't real proof. Not to mention that as a left-handed hitter, he's pretty well suited for Fenway.
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Rational thought when it comes to steroids accusations? Get out of here!

NinjaPenguin777 said:
He does belong in the same paragraph as Arod. Ortiz has always said he never used steroids, yet his name was on the Mitchell Report and he magically got ridiculously good when he went to the Red Sox. The Sox had a number of known steroid users including his good buddy Manny Ramirez . The only difference between Ortiz and Arod is that Arod has admitted it and hes a giant d bag. Ortiz has always played the nice guy
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Ortiz was an .800 OPS player as a part-timer in his time in Minnesota. Apparently this is what we call a "garbage player". He "magically" got good the same way Major Leaguers do when they enter the prime of their careers.

Ortiz plays the nice guy because he's a nice guy. There's no conspiracy to it.

If Ortiz did use (and I'm certainly not going to sit here and say he didn't) at least he was smart enough to either A) stop, B) not get caught once ever. Putting him in the same sentence as a guy like A-Rod whose name was tied to this stuff more than once and clearly went out of his way to keep breaking the rules is just silliness. Unless your standard is "every single guy who ever was remotely linked to steroids ever is culpable to the exact same degree." Which would also be ridiculous.

 
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bvharris said:
Rational thought when it comes to steroids accusations? Get out of here!

Ortiz was an .800 OPS player as a part-timer in his time in Minnesota. Apparently this is what we call a "garbage player". He "magically" got good the same way Major Leaguers do when they enter the prime of their careers.

Ortiz plays the nice guy because he's a nice guy. There's no conspiracy to it.

If Ortiz did use (and I'm certainly not going to sit here and say he didn't) at least he was smart enough to either A) stop, B) not get caught once ever. Putting him in the same sentence as a guy like A-Rod whose name was tied to this stuff more than once and clearly went out of his way to keep breaking the rules is just silliness. Unless your standard is "every single guy who ever was remotely linked to steroids ever is culpable to the exact same degree." Which would also be ridiculous.
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That is the standard set by the baseball writers of america. Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell aren't in the Hall of Fame because they had acne.

 
The BBWAA will judge them all the same when voting for the Hall of Fame. Whether it is A-Rod's rampant use, or Big Papi's minor encounter of PHDs, it is all the same to them.

 
It doesn't help that a significant chunk of BBWAA members are retired or otherwise don't cover the sport anymore.
 
CaseyRyback said:
That is the standard set by the baseball writers of america. Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell aren't in the Hall of Fame because they had acne.
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You're not really holding up a shining bastion of rationality or objectivity there. This is beside the point, but even as a Red Sox fan I don't believe that Ortiz has HoF-worthy numbers at this point in his career.

Ultimately this argument is pointless. It's literally impossible for me to prove that the numbers Ortiz put up aren't tainted. Anyone who wants to believe that is going to believe it. Same goes for every single player.

PEDs were and are part of the game for the past 20 years. This era will indelibly be linked to them. As far as I'm concerned, every single one of these guys (A-Rod, Bonds, Clemens, Manny, etc) should be in the Hall of Fame. This is what baseball was during this era, the sport should have to live with that.

 
Tell that last part to the dinosaurs of the BBWAA (not all of them are, of course, but well over 75% are old timers).

Rangers swept the Angels at home last week and now they will be sweeping the Angels on the road. The Rangers will be in first place and 33-14 against the AL West this year. That is getting shit done.

 
jza1218 said:
Let's be fair. Ortiz's last season in Minnesota he had an OPS+ of 120 and he was an above average player there in his age 21-26 years. Plus, he was never a full-timer for the Twins, never once amassing more than 500 PA's. I'm not saying one way or the other whether he uses/used, but holding his stats from his early years against him as proof that he's using isn't real proof. Not to mention that as a left-handed hitter, he's pretty well suited for Fenway.
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Fenway is actually one of the harder parks in which to hit HR for left-handed hitters. RF foul pole is very shallow, but it gets deep in a hurry. The RF power alley is one of the largest in baseball, and CF is also deep (with a high fence, to boot).

 
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According to brooksbaseball's PitchF/X, Danny Salazar averaged over 98 MPH on his fastball last night.

98 MPH.

98!

And it's not like he threw 12 pitches. He threw 74 fastballs and 103 pitches overall. For more fun, he pounded the strike zone, throwing 22 first pitch strikes in his 30 batters faced.

98 MPH!

More fun: his K/BB in AAA this season was 5.57 in 59.1 IP.

 
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Feeding the Abscess said:
Fenway is actually one of the harder parks in which to hit HR for left-handed hitters. RF foul pole is very shallow, but it gets deep in a hurry. The RF power alley is one of the largest in baseball, and CF is also deep (with a high fence, to boot).
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Prodigious power was never something Ortiz lacked, even in Minnesota. Fenway can suppress left-handed power if you're someone who only pulls the ball, but that's not Ortiz either. I've been watching him hit at Fenway for 10 years - he uses the whole thing. ;)

For example, here's his hit chart from just this season at Fenway: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/player/david-ortiz/hitchart/85214?q=david-ortiz

Ortiz may have used, he may not have, but if you watch him swing a baseball bat every day you'd be convinced that's not what makes him a good hitter. The guy is a pure hitter.

 
bvharris said:
Prodigious power was never something Ortiz lacked, even in Minnesota. Fenway can suppress left-handed power if you're someone who only pulls the ball, but that's not Ortiz either. I've been watching him hit at Fenway for 10 years - he uses the whole thing. ;)

For example, here's his hit chart from just this season at Fenway: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/player/david-ortiz/hitchart/85214?q=david-ortiz

Ortiz may have used, he may not have, but if you watch him swing a baseball bat every day you'd be convinced that's not what makes him a good hitter. The guy is a pure hitter.
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My post wasn't meant to say that Ortiz took steroids to hit HR once he came to Boston (he did use them at some point, and may have used them further, but that's not my argument here), or that he lacked power in Minnesota. He had a .241 ISO as a 25 year old and a .228 ISO as a 26 year old while getting his swing screwed with. My point was only that Fenway suppresses left-handed power, which it does; even if Ortiz still hit a ton of HR there. His 17.2% home HR/FB rate compared to his 20.1% road HR/FB attests to that. I haven't checked (nor will I, too much work) his spray charts at Fenway, but I'd guesstimate that had Yankee Stadium been his homepark, Ortiz would have conservatively hit 25 more home HR during his career, and possibly as many as 50 or 60 more.

Anywho, Ortiz's power does come from pulling the ball, as it does with most players. 243 of his HR since 2002 have been to RF, 98 to CF, and only 43 to LF. Where Fenway has benefited Ortiz is in hitting it the opposite way (as you alluded to) inside the park. Despite a 66% flyball rate and 13% popup rate to the opposite field since 2002, Ortiz has a .331 BABIP and 163 2B in 1195 PA in plays ended in the opposite field. That's more 2B and a higher BABIP than he's hit either to CF or RF, and in far fewer opportunities. He's (smartly) used the Monster for a bunch of cheap 2B and long singles in his career, and is testament to his ability as a hitter to use the whole field.

 
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I had to drop MLB.tv as money is getting tight. I'm going to miss watching my Orioles.  :whistle2:(  Oh well. I do enjoy listening to games too. Hopefully can sign up again before the season is over.

 
Icegaryen said:
Young clears waivers. LOLmarro fails again. What teams would be interested in him at this point? Red Sox and Texas?
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I'd have to think the Sox would be, yeah. They seem in no rush to give Middlebrooks another shot or to call up Bogaerts and play him at 3rd.

Running out a Brock Holt/Brandon Snyder platoon in the middle of a pennant race when they have better options continues to baffle.

 
bvharris said:
I'd have to think the Sox would be, yeah. They seem in no rush to give Middlebrooks another shot or to call up Bogaerts and play him at 3rd.

Running out a Brock Holt/Brandon Snyder platoon in the middle of a pennant race when they have better options continues to baffle.
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Bogaerts is mashing in AAA, it's very possible that he can out hit Young for rest of the season (and certainly out field him...). Unless Young can be had for a bag of peanuts, I'd wait until September and call up Bogaerts.

 
Heh, I remember when Orioles fans were chomping at the mouth for Brandon Snyder to be called up.

Mark Reynolds was DFA'd today.
 
Icegaryen said:
Bogaerts is mashing in AAA, it's very possible that he can out hit Young for rest of the season (and certainly out field him...). Unless Young can be had for a bag of peanuts, I'd wait until September and call up Bogaerts.
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Bogaerts will certainly be up in September, I think the question is whether they should wait that long. Going through August with the Holt/Snyder platoon doesn't seem like the best plan.

 
Icegaryen said:
Bogaerts is mashing in AAA, it's very possible that he can out hit Young for rest of the season (and certainly out field him...). Unless Young can be had for a bag of peanuts, I'd wait until September and call up Bogaerts.
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If Ruben gives him up now I'll really be scratching my head. He wouldn't trade Young to the Yankees for a AA pitcher and for them to take his remaining salary, I don't know why he would give him away now. I'm ok with that though, get him out of Philadelphia. It's pretty obvious Ruben is totally clueless.

 
Rangers acquire Alex Rios for a PTBNL (most likely future utility man Leury Garcia). Good deal for Texas. Potential playoff outfield of Rios/Martin/Cruz.

 
Bravo Jon Daniels. Acquired a Cruz replacement for this year and the next,  in the heat of a pennant race for what looks to be a potential AAAA/ utility player. 

 
Don't look now, but Ike Davis has a 1.095 OPS in 73 2nd half plate appearances. It's buoyed by a 26% walk rate and high BABIP, but his chase rate is almost Bondsian (15.5%), and his batted ball profile has shifted in the direction of line drives and flyballs, as opposed to groundballs.

MVP!

... okay, so he's clearly not winning any awards, but it looks like he's going to finish the year in positive territory.

 
Sadly Miguel Cabrera will win because the Tigers will make the playoffs (and he is Miguel Cabrera) and the Orioles may not make it. However, neither Davis or Cabrera should be MVP. It should be trout because he is hands down the best player in baseball, but the voters might not even give him a single vote.

 
GhostShark said:
Sadly Miguel Cabrera will win because the Tigers will make the playoffs (and he is Miguel Cabrera) and the Orioles may not make it. However, neither Davis or Cabrera should be MVP. It should be trout because he is hands down the best player in baseball, but the voters might not even give him a single vote.
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I won't mind it if Cabrera wins in this year. He's clearly, hands down better offensively than Trout (and everybody on the planet for that matter) . Trout's value also comes from fielding and base running, but the bWAR and fWAR of both players are way too close to indicate a better player (based on WAR).

I will however, bitch a lot when Trout finishes 4th. Cabrera got his in the bag, voters will have Davis (teh HR and RBIs!!1111!!) or Scherzer (teh Ws!) second based on whether Orioles make the post season.

 
Profar looks like he is finally starting to put to together at the plate.

I wonder if the Astros are content to suck this bad again next year or will begin to spend money. If they picked up a couple decent bullpen arms they could be a halfway decent team.
 
GhostShark said:
Sadly Miguel Cabrera will win because the Tigers will make the playoffs (and he is Miguel Cabrera) and the Orioles may not make it. However, neither Davis or Cabrera should be MVP. It should be trout because he is hands down the best player in baseball, but the voters might not even give him a single vote.
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I was talking about Ike the Met, not Chris the Oriole. lol

1-1 today with 3 more walks!

 
GhostShark said:
Haha! I figured you were talking about Chris because I never thought Ike Davis could put up numbers like that.
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Ike crushed the last 4 months of last season, and was pretty awesome in 2010, considering he was 23. But yeah, he was horrible to start the season, and he didn't have valley fever to blame like he did last year.

 
Went the the Braves games Saturday and yesterday.  Naturally with my luck the streak ended Saturday, but at least they got the offense rolling again Sunday and I didn't jinx them into a losing streak. :D

 
Darvish killed it again. I just hope he keeps his nice run up. Since he has come back from the DL he has been fantastic.
 
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And today he had arguably the worst stuff he's had since coming off the DL. His curve, 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs where just not there today. However, his cutter and slider were just out of this world.

 
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Heartbreaking loss to Arizona. A stupidly botched call gifting Arizona a run, along with Orioles pitchers seemingly unable to get anybody out EXCEPT one of the best hitters in the league.
 
CaseyRyback said:
Profar looks like he is finally starting to put to together at the plate.

I wonder if the Astros are content to suck this bad again next year or will begin to spend money. If they picked up a couple decent bullpen arms they could be a halfway decent team.
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It's a 100% rebuild from the ground up. No time table at all. The new owners have given the new GM maximum leeway. Better be worth it.

''The confidence is really high,'' Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.
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Yea, prolly.

 
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DNukem170 said:
Heartbreaking loss to Arizona. A stupidly botched call gifting Arizona a run, along with Orioles pitchers seemingly unable to get anybody out EXCEPT one of the best hitters in the league.
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I stayed up late for that one. Disappointing outcome and yes that interference call was terrible. Those goofy O's fans in the outfield stands almost made it worth it. though. LOL. Actually I think that they were putting on a show to get on camera. Still it was amusing.

 
Dodger fans are starting to get really irritatingly whiny about ESPN. Blah blah we're on a monster streak and the only two times we were on the front page of ESPN was two losses. Whatevs.

Way to throw some red meat to the complainers, ESPN. Jesus. If you're going to bitch about the Dodgers getting a call they shouldn't in your segment, you should probably cut the video before the pitch track shows it hitting the corner of the plate. 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9562863&startTime=00:11

 
More bad news for the Texas Rangers -- Matt Harrison is shut down for the year due to his back problems. This sucks because I still don't believe Ogando has what it takes to be a reliable starter, but the Rangers really have nobody else to slide in and take his place now that both Harry and Lewis are done for the season. Unless they make a move for Haren, Lohse or Lincecum, they're stuck with Ogando/Wolf/Tepesch/Random for the remainder of the season.

And Manny Ramirez got released. #sad

 


The Dodgers' starters improved to 13-1 with a 1.72 ERA in their last 18 games since July 26.
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Wow.

And Puig is batting .373. Remember that time when everyone figured out that they should just throw him garbage and he'd swing? Yea that didn't work.

 
I stayed up late for last night's disappointing Orioles loss to Arizona again. Sigh. Actually I headed up to bed after the top of the 11th, checked in and saw that The Diamonbacks got another walk off. Oh well.

 
You know, I really, really want to be an ardent Jim Johnson supporter. He has gotten the team out of so many scrapes its crazy.

But seriously, enough is enough. The Orioles need a new closer. And I am afraid he isn't currently on the roster.
 
And here I though Yankee games would become enjoyable to watch again...I'll never understand the stupidity of not using your best reliever in the key point of the game. 

Cash signed Reynolds. Look like we have our starting 3B for 2014! 

 
God I hope Reynolds plays 3B for the Yankees next year. Maybe we can trade them Wilson Betemit for utility infielder?
 
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