general 2021 MLB discussion thread

OH SHIT

i guess i will take this to Prince Albert Pujols, he reigneth but i really hope/expect that he will in a cardinals uniform for a few home games at the end

cardinals broadcasters say "they've heard word that albert wants to keep playing, continue his journey", so hopefully that's a good sign for that.

at the same moment, they played a recent clip of him hitting a HR, and it really did look like he was painfully limping out of the batter's box for his 40-45 second HR trot

there's an alternate history out there where injuries didn't destroy him so early. even his early-on destroyed version from the early Angels years were pretty great, considering

I guess outright release is best option? Sitting him down doesn't work--Pujols wouldn't accept it--and even the Cardinals won't offer anything in a symbolic trade. Feels strange, though...Must have happened to other HOF'ers.

Sitting him down doesn't work

sadly, i think just about every team in baseball has better bench options

putting aside whether pujols would accept it, i mean. you'd need an extra bench guy to pinch-run for him in case he gets on base

667 HRs

he can hit 110 more over the next 5 years in Colorado

Kinda sad, he obviously made the angels worse but I was always hoping he'd win a WS with them, old man pujols' presence was one of the things that made them a fun team

I have to think this means Marsh is coming up soon with Walsh taking over at 1st

(xpost) Right--benching doesn't work for him or the team...Your move, Detroit.

(Different situation, I realize.)

when the shift is Good

Heads-up Gleyb. pic.twitter.com/Xf9O15t77K

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 6, 2021

that’s amazing. gotta be E-2?

or E-6 - why the hell isn’t he firing to the catcher?

because the catcher was backing up third base, and no one covered home, so there was no one to throw to, i think. wacky play!

can’t charge an error for mental mistakes/poor positioning! kind of a bad play by the catcher, who was never going to beat gleyber to third yet went so far that he couldn’t then beat gleyber home. but the real culprit is the pitcher, who just watched the whole thing.

Gleyber Torres scores from first on a ground ball when the shifted Astros don't cover third OR home -- with #MLBFieldVision tracking pic.twitter.com/qCrosth0Os

— David Adler (@_dadler) May 6, 2021

Amazing. They all deserve errors. Correa actually just... flips to Bregman for some reason as Gleybz races home.

yeah, i was watching that animation, trying to figure out who was at fault. didn't even notice the pitcher dot not moving , even when it was clear that there was a footrace to home. although, tbh i think he was probably just like me, looking at the plays at second and third and going ...wtf?

i know it's just anecdotal, but even factoring in normal early-season weirdness, players getting into mid-season form, etc, it seems like this year has been _exceptionally_ sloppy in the field. way more "little league" plays than i'm used to, at least for cardinal games, and it's on all sides

i also missed about the last 3 weeks of games but i did dutifully look through a lot of box scores to review

Would it be crazy to go to a game in June?

I went to the A's game on Monday

You felt ok?

I'm vaxxed and so are my friends. Wore a mask. Huge gaps between different groups. Seemed fine to me.

Sounds awesome. Would love to get a game in soon, but my wife's a little reluctant.

Ohtani home runs leader.

i bought a ticket to a cubs game in a couple of weeks after reading this article: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/take-me-out-to-the-socially-distanced-ballgame/ which details all the measures they're taking at wrigley (and also i am vaxxed up)

i looked at going to a white sox game but they aren't selling single tickets at all right now as far as i could tell

looking forward to smokies-chattanooga in july. very airy environs.

lol i didn't know todd frazier was now a pirate. he's 1-for-24 in 11 games

He's in mid-season form I see.

seems like the cubs and pirates can be forgiven for giving up on kyle schwarber and josh bell, respectively

btw how about the giants? odd that bee ok hasn't shown up yet

barely posted last year too, come back bee

this LAA/LAD game is getting silly, mookie/seager/turner and trout/upton were all taken out because of the blowout but LAA scored 11 runs over the 6th and 7th and now they're only 3 back

seems like the cubs and pirates can be forgiven for giving up on kyle schwarber and josh bell, respectively

― mookieproof, Saturday, May 8, 2021 9:58 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i guess except the cubs replaced schwarber with joc pederson, who is doing only marginally better than schwarber so far

excited to read this mlb.com article

https://i.imgur.com/iBn1LcI.png

Writer’s dad pumped for son’s first headline

but not SUPER PUMPED?

lol

founder of Hillside Elementary Writing Contest super pumped for former winner's son's first headline

Headline writer not actually allowed to write the article they are titling, and here’s why.

corbin burnes finally walked a dude after 58 strikeouts to open the season

and even that one was a good pitch

Yasmani Grandal is hitting .143/.581/.571 (1.152 OPS) with a .000 BABIP in May.

2-for-14, 2 home runs, 16 walks

— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) May 14, 2021

why don't pitchers throw strikes to Grandal? is his plate coverage so good?

yeah, he has the 8th lowest zone% in the majors, which is weird because he isn't particularly amazing at making contact when swinging at strikes. he's above average but not by much

he just doesn't swing at pitches. lowest swing% in the majors by a good margin (25.5% to max muncy's 31.2%), lowest z-swing% (swings on pitches inside the zone) by a mile (39.6% to david fletcher's 48.6%), second lowest o-swing% (swings on pitches outside the zone) after muncy

so pitchers avoid the zone even though he barely ever swings when they put it in there (second highest called strike rate) and he barely ever swings on balls.

it honestly doesn't make sense, he'll basically give you an 0-2 count if you want it but no one challenges him

weird! we should be pitching coaches. i'm ready to go talk to the guy on the mound facing him late in the game. "Rookie, you've gotta calm down. Let me squeeze your shoulder. Yes, there. Relent to me. Attack the zone. Throw strikes. If he hits a HR I'll buy you a beer. But he's not gonna hit it. Because I put a curse on him. I'll tell you about it after the strikeout. Throw strikes."

If things don't pan out for me, I would like to be America's Silliest Pitching Coach for some local team

maybe he's just very short