2019 Rolling "Hey Chatter Chatter" chatterthread

wouldn't he have made more money through the arbitration process, even? holy shit that's bad

saw someone saying that if you're an agent and your client (or his family) insists on signing a deal like this, the only honorable thing to do is resign

also that, as we know from things like david wright's contract, the teams hedge on deals by taking out insurance -- and maybe that's something the union should do for its young members, on the other side, as they await arbitration and free agency

if the going rate is still ~9M/WAR, then he will "earn" the entire $35 million with one year similar to his 2018.

Jose Ramirez is this year's Paul Goldschmidt.

Khris Davis: has anyone ever had 9 HR by April 11?

can't find that: April record is 14

the wind is blowing out at wrigley

i was at the game today and the two contreras HRs out of the park and the rizzo HR to the top of the bleachers were all pretty impressive

10th for Davis, April 12th. Some comparisons:

Bonds, 2001 - 2
McGwire, 1998 - 4 (hit three the next day)
Sosa, 1998 - 2

Maris and Ruth started their seasons much later--they had 1 between them.

Khris Davis isn't good enough for me to want to root for him to break a major record. (Excuse tortured syntax.) And probably not good enough to sustain this anyway, I don't think. If he challenges .247 again, that I'd get caught up in.

otm. also he probably doesn't have many games left against the orioles

yeah Davis is an edge case, he opened the season a week before the rest of league for what should have been exhibition games in Tokyo.

the other Chris Davis pinch-hit in the 9th tonight and lined out to end it.

Rox at Giants is going to the 14th, and I swear a shot of the scoreboard just now included its message "GAYLORD PERRY IS LEAVING AT 11:30"

16th, and we have Weird Baseball (midnight local time)

Morning update: giants win, 3-2 in 18 innings

cue Ernie Banks saying “let’s play two!”

It was a fireworks night as well, much to the surprise of folks in the neighborhood around 2am.

real pitchers duel in the bronx today between . . . cc and ivan nova

Mets-Braves is about 1:10 in and it's the bottom of the 2nd.

Mets' RS/RA (88/83) is nearly identical to the notorious Cubs (86/83) despite the disparity in W-L.

the rockies are batting .203/.263/.313 as a team and have hit the same number of homers as cody bellinger

That long-fabled Corey Kluber collapse may be upon us...then again he does usually struggle in April

daniel palka is hot on chris davis’ heels: 0-for-28 with 13 K

ouch ouch ouch

Yu Darvish throws the most devastating fastball of his career. pic.twitter.com/sicvVLhnUL

— Cut4 (@Cut4) April 16, 2019

That was definitely faster than the ball that hit Bellinger. But Bellinger’s hit still felt nastier.

Did Bellinger's also ricochet off the catcher and the ump, leaving a trail of buckled-over wincing men?

It’s scarier, for sure. The actual impact to
Brinson doesn’t look as painful, though.

Cody Bellinger gets drilled in the knee. That didn't look too good #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/65ehdDXzWn

— Dillard Barnhart (@BarnHasSpoken) April 16, 2019

KM: What's "whoosh" in ILX-speak?

xxp is notable as Albert says for taking out 3 (!) ppl!

I was reacting to the “ouch.” Definitely notable for other reasons that I didn’t touch on, though.

i kind of forgot that keuchel and kimbrel are both still free agents

it's shameful, tbh

tim anderson is in trouble for calling the (white) pitcher who plunked him a ‘weak-ass fucking n_____’

i’m sure this will go well

Bat flip of the year goes to #WhiteSox Tim Anderson . pic.twitter.com/VLgWx2R3IG

— Sports Freakshow ⚽🏈🏉🏀⚾🏏 (@aussiebeastmode) April 18, 2019

he flipped his bat, too. unwritten rules aside, it was dumb for keller to throw a pitch at him

everyone got what they deserved i think:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/white-sox-tim-anderson-renteria-suspended-one-game-royals-p-keller-gets-5/

i have to say baseball has some questionable unwritten rules in general, though

Look up Bour double-play in angels-mariners 8th inning. Sheer wtf, better to watch than me try and describe

I'm in favor of bat flipping AND beaning

justin bour is having a tough week (see the second video clip from an earlier game with the cubs, as well):

https://deadspin.com/angels-justin-bour-gave-up-an-embarrassing-double-play-1834187688

through 20 games, tatis jr is batting .296/.370/.606, 154 wRC+

he's going to be amazing... reminds me of manny machado or younger hanley ramirez just physically

that bour clip is brutal

😬 pic.twitter.com/SzaTYe8mqB

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 20, 2019

dee actually orchestrated all of that, which is pretty cool

Why didn't they call infield fly? I'm confused

infield fly is only with first-and-second or bases loaded

no respect for ausmus not immediately benching bour

otoh he already had bourjos (.086/.108/.114) and cozart (.096/.143/.115) in the starting lineup so i guess there weren't too many options

I also thought the infield fly rule only had to do with first base being occupied.

right, makes sense, because if the player runs as they are supposed to, you still only get one out

yelich nearly hit the perfect homer today

it went 421 feet off a 69 mph pitch

Fernando Rodney tied Cy Young's games total tonight--I know; that's like saying Ed Sheeran matched Chuck Berry's bowling score--prompting me to look at his career box for maybe the first time ever. He's really had some high-save/mediocre-or-worse-everything-else years, hasn't he? He might be the only 300-save guy with a true outlier season on his resume (2012, half his career WAR).

I enjoy watching Yelich at bat, don't get me wrong, but Belli is on a whole other level

https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2019/4/22/18510708/cody-bellinger-christian-yelich-los-angeles-dodgers-milwaukee-brewers-mvp

Folks, allow me to free your minds. Yelich, while exceptional, is NOT the best player this season. That honor belongs to Cody Bellinger. Here are some of his otherworldly numbers in bullet-point format, just as Provenzano dubiously presented those of Yelich:

• .424 batting average
• .500 on-base percentage
• .882 slugging percentage
• .552 wOBA
• 255 wRC+
• 2.3 fWAR

All of these stats are not only better than Yelich’s, they’re better than everyone else’s in the National League. While the disgraced Provenzano wasn’t wrong when he described Yelich’s 222 wRC+ as Ruthian, Bellinger’s 255 wRC+ goes far beyond The Babe. The single season record for wRC+ is 244 set by Barry Bonds in 2002. This makes Bellinger’s start to the season, uh, super-Ruthian? Mega-Bondsish? Trout-in-rookie-ball-like? Whatever, it’s crazy good.

Bellinger's 2.7 bWAR in 23 games projects to 19 over 162

i might want to take a mulligan on the Judge vs Bellinger debate from a couple years ago.

I've been waiting for the right moment to revisit the raised eyebrows I got when I suggested Bellinger was clearly the better bet. (In other words, I'm skeptical the leap he's taken is for real. The weird thing is, I said all that before I'd actually seen him play; I don't think I would have after watching him the last couple of World Series. In the abstract, though, the idea that a 21-year-old has significantly more growth potential than a 25-year-old is an absolutely fundamental tenet of the early Abstracts.)