general 2021 MLB discussion thread

noted yankee-killer michael wacha

So I'm watching a lot of Angels game (blame Trout and Ohtani) and one thing Girardi has done often is have Ohtani batting 2nd, Trout 3rd, someone with a terrible OPS at 4th and Walsh (1.063 OPS) at fifth.

Forgetting dealing with the psychology of players: is having a gap like this some sort of sabermetrics thing I missed? Would my instinct to have Walsh batting 4th straight after Trout and Ohtani be right?

I think you always want to have your best hitters in a row regardless of any other factor

that said your "someone with a terrible OPS" is Justin Upton is it not??

I also saw Pujols in a that spot a week ago vs the Royals, which was strange.

fwiw joe girardi manages the phillies and joe maddon manages the angels

and i guess before i'd criticize maddon's batting order i'd criticize having prince albert in the lineup at all, let alone above ninth

Woops yeah, two old dudes in red uniforms.

Upton is having a good game, so it's probably just psychology.

I don’t think it’s a sabermetrics thing. I think he just has a bunch of old guys with big contracts on his team.

So they’re saying he isn’t the cause but Andrelton Simmons, an anti-vaxer, has caused a covid outbreak in the Twins clubhouse.

giolito gave up 8 runs in the first inning vs. the red sox. i blame it on it being a 10 a.m. CT game for some reason.

sending him back out in the second was an intriguing decision

they moved the marathon to october couldn't they do the same with this stupid tradition? boston is the worst city in america

We’re #1!

In normal times I would always take this day off from work to watch the marathon.

More on this cool new feature on https://t.co/9BlYThnWuF:

The leaderboard pages AND player pages now have some underlined stats when you hover over a season line

Click, and you get videos of that player & event type on @MLB Film Room!

It's THIS simple ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/4aLBM3jsVs

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 19, 2021

Arihara has been pretty good so far!

Corbin Burnes has 36 strikeouts to start the season without allowing a walk, the most since 1893

Burnes means testes in vulgar french and I always giggle.

Man I wish they taught us vulgar French in school!!

Wouldn’t work in Quebec tho!

has anyone else gone to a game in person this season, or are you planning to? i just bought a ticket for a cubs game in a few weeks. i'll be fully vaxxed, and the article in fangraphs this week about going to a cubs game showed me they've made more changes at wrigley than i realized to prevent crowds gathering in the concourse for extended times. so i'm not really too worried about the COVID aspects.

i'd rather go to a white sox game and not give the ricketts my money, but i can get to wrigley without taking public transportation, which i feel less comfortable about still, especially a potentially crowded train to the south side.

cubs seem to be waking up

i have no plans to go to games but it's mostly due to the expense

I could imagine going later this summer when hopefully they've approved Pfizer for 12-15 and my kid is vaxxed, but I'm putting off deciding. Have credit from the tickets I bought to a game last April...

tyler glasnow just had a 4 strikeout 4 ER first inning

Vlad has gotten on base every game so far this season.

deGrom w/ 12K thru 6 on 78 pitches

0.35 ERA lol

He has an RBI tonight, so into his fifth start this year, he's given up one earned run and knocked in two.

15 thru 7

Degrom is somehow even more otherworldly than usual.

ERA: 0.32. Batting average: .545.

If they leave deGrom in now, well, I know someone who'll be cursing somewhere.

game score: 98

damn

the kid is good

Jacob Degrom needs his own thread
A Thread For Jacob Degrom Who Is Doing Really Well
Stay Healthy, Please: The Jacob Degrom Thread
Jacob Degrom is Bringing Joy Back to Baseball
JACOB DEGROM seems like a big deal
How Many Home Runs Will Jacob Degrom Hit in 2021? POLL results

Who's the Best-Looking Current Degrom?

I have a (dumb) question but are these K totals less impressive in an era (npi) where batters are striking out way more? or is that not a significant factor?

Ks for pitchers I mean

It's less impressive given that batters are swinging for the fences more than they used to, but more impressive because modern pitchers throw faster and with more movement.

a little. but it's still amazing, especially the efficiency of it. i mean he only threw 109 pitches to get 15 strikeouts, and he got more swinging strikes (29) than balls (25)!

Or to put it another way: he's struck out 50 of the 101 batters he's faced this year.

twitter.com/SteveGelbs/status/1385971218415767552

As a comparison: the year Ryan struck out 383, he faced 1355 batters. Which I realize is far more impressive in terms of value, but just as a percentage, Ryan was at 28%. Aroldis Chapman is at 922/2222 for his career, 41%.

was just thinking it feels like yesterday we were all gawking at kimbrel/chapman putting up similar K-rates in one-inning appearances

but yeah it's definitely a little watered down in this era and i hope something changes to address the super high K-rates but it's not like gibson/koufax's best years have an asterisk on them just because they happened before the mound was lowered

aroldis really should have been a starter

ASSHAT achieved

https://i.imgur.com/jauf45K.png

A's SHAT

nationals rotation is a disaster apart from scherzer

i assume he has a no-trade clause, but this is the last season of his deal and i imagine he'd accept a trade to a winner (nats are currently at 13% to make the playoffs) -- could be v. interesting

MLB piece from the other day comparing Scherzer right now to Verlander in 2017:

https://www.mlb.com/news/max-scherzer-possible-trade-deadline-deal

clearly i should work for mlb dot com