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Baseball 2018

Started by Ferris, March 29, 2018, 01:38:39 PM

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Famous Mortimer

What's a little peculiar is how little traction the story's gotten on some of the sites I visit - the only proper article about it is behind Baseball Prospectus's paywall. I get the feeling the vast majority of Fangraphs' writers are more bothered about getting hired by a front office than they are about discussing anything other than stats; but I'm surprised people like Michael Baumann and Sheryl Ring haven't written about it (maybe they're just polishing up their takes on it).

But this shit is pretty serious and I hope the Astros (who've not exactly showed themselves to be the nicest people in baseball) get some severe punishment for this.

Famous Mortimer

Of course, a couple of hours after I post this, the articles start popping up. I ought to just shut the hell up.

This might be big enough news for the MLB Network to cover it, even!

Ferris

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on November 13, 2019, 09:36:07 PM
Of course, a couple of hours after I post this, the articles start popping up. I ought to just shut the hell up.

This might be big enough news for the MLB Network to cover it, even!

We shall see! I read about it on the Athletic, I think they broke the story but now people are going back and finding all sorts of irregularities. Alex Bregman seems to be a repeat offender (including stealing a win from my beloved Blue Jays), but it looks like this goes back to 2017 (when the Astros managed to reduce their K rate by 38% in a single year, the largest such fall in MLB since the swing-happy days of the late '90s). Knowing exactly what pitch is coming at 2 strikes would certainly help on that front.

Famous Mortimer

It's so out in the open now, and the team seems so unrepentant about being staffed by pieces of shit, that MLB will have to do something. I hope.

Ferris

You'd hope so. I think this will put a lot more pressure on the allegations of violence and the league turning a blind eye to it. Osuna pitched in the World Series for fucks sake, after getting (correctly) immediately turfed out by the Jays so it hasn't hurt his career at all. See also Aroldis Chapman who just pitched in the ALCS (though gave up a walkoff dinger lolol).

The sign stealing stuff is too esoteric to have much traction outside of baseball circles (it took me 3 paragraphs to explain what was happening), but it's an extra item that makes MLB look bad so they'll probably need to address a lot of other ongoing concerns just so they can demonstrate willingness to change on a number of fronts.

Sports writers would do themselves a favour if they called this "cheating" rather than "stealing signs". One is much easier to understand and would carry more weight with external publications covering this.

Rambling fuck it post

Ferris

Rendón to the Halos, Cole in pinstripes, and the Jays are pleased about signing fucking Tanner Roark. Approaching peak desolation here.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on December 12, 2019, 01:29:02 PM
Rendón to the Halos, Cole in pinstripes, and the Jays are pleased about signing fucking Tanner Roark. Approaching peak desolation here.
Same with the Cardinals. Their most entertaining player leaves for free agency and...nothing. There's no players worth anything in a trade, really, so this is the dull bunch they'll be rolling into next year with, most likely.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on December 12, 2019, 01:29:02 PM
Rendón to the Halos, Cole in pinstripes, and the Jays are pleased about signing fucking Tanner Roark. Approaching peak desolation here.

did you say 2020 or 2021 was our year?

Ferris

Quote from: BlodwynPig on December 12, 2019, 02:06:21 PM
did you say 2020 or 2021 was our year?

I had 2020 penciled in but I think that's unlikely now, especially as the Yankees probably have the division locked up for the foreseeable future so Jays will be scrapping for the wild card at best.

2021 now the target, but they need to start spending serious money. They have the lowest salary in MLB which is great (especially because we have an excellent young infield for league minimum salary), but the outfield stinks and we only have 3 starting pitchers on the roster. Also not convinced by the bench depth.

If they splash the cash now (and then again in the 2020 offseason), it could be great. If they cheap out, then it'll be a waste of generational talent.

Ferris

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on December 12, 2019, 01:59:57 PM
Same with the Cardinals. Their most entertaining player leaves for free agency and...nothing. There's no players worth anything in a trade, really, so this is the dull bunch they'll be rolling into next year with, most likely.

I saw Ozuna has gone - is Freeman still there?

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on December 12, 2019, 04:02:06 PM
I saw Ozuna has gone - is Freeman still there?
Freeman plays for the Braves, so you may be thinking of someone else. Goldschmidt? He's like white bread got turned into a human, and appears to be playing slightly worse than his projections (it won't get any better as he's heading into his mid 30s either).


Ferris

Ah you're right, I was thinking of Goldschmidt. NL is not my primary division!

I always thought he was a great player, first baseman so as long as he still hits he should age ok

Ferris

Jays sign Ryu on a pretty ok contract.

No idea why more teams weren't in on him (ok it's because he's getting older and had injury issues) but this is a nice pickup. Need to sort the outfield in the next 2 offseasons and maybe sign 1 or 2 legit starting pitchers and the Jays could actually be good for 2022