2022 MLB General Season Chatter: Ghost Runners On The Half-Billion Dollar Infield

i was just talking about how insane that yankees staff is. two of them showed no indication they had this kind of performance in them previously. one is always injured, and despite his clear talents, his simply being able to make it to the mound every 5th game right now is amazing to me. and then there's Garret Cole. the collective pitching performance that team is getting (including their pen – with Clay Holmes and his absurd 1.8 WAR so far) is unfathomable.

and with Sanchez, I was pretty high on him – even went to Lansing to see him pitch – but the year he won the ERA crown, to me at least, really felt like it was a fluke. he hadn't really worked out all his issues even at that point. Manoah feels like a lot safer bet than Sanchez did (tho I would not have anticipated a cy young calibre performance from him either at this point)!

Sanchez's never-ending blister problem was already an issue, I think, and in general he seemed on the fragile side. Manoah definitely does not.

And also Sanchez had a harder time dealing with control issues.

matt carpenter update:

34 PAs, .286/.412/.964, 275 wRC+

6 home runs, 1 double, 1 single. 5 walks, 9 strikes outs.

over 900+ hundred deep pelvic thrusts while waiting for the pitch

and along with Trevino – i'm starting to wonder what dark magic the yankees are using to get these performances out of people.

Not sure what to expect this weekend for Toronto...especially nervous about Manoah's start, although he's had three great starts in Yankee Stadium to date.

his start is the one i'm the least worried about.
i am tho, quite nervous about this series.

I saw about two dozen cardinals fans on the streets of Boston today before I realized what was happening.

The Braves (14 game winning streak) played the cubs (10 game losing streak) today, and miraculously the Cubs won 1-0.

Anthony Rendon out for the rest of the year again with wrist surgery. That $245M contract is looking worse every day.

Yikes!

The Brewers have designated Lorenzo Cain for assignment. The move comes on the same day that he reached 10 years of MLB service time. Cain and the club came to a “mutual decision” about today’s roster move, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (via Twitter). Jonathan Davis was selected from Triple-A to take his roster spot, per the team.

at least if no one else picks him up (or he retires), he reached 10 years

Lorenzo Cain showed up to his first baseball practice in 10th grade wearing a collared shirt, jean shorts and basketball shoes. Then he played 10 years in the Majors, made two All-Star Games, won a Gold Glove and a World Series.

Today, he was DFA’d by the Brewers. pic.twitter.com/HOe5EJuXEc

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) June 18, 2022

https://i.imgur.com/Es153vP.png

almost all of them made it to the world series, and the others made it to the league championship series or were the 1942 dodgers

wow - 1942 Dodgers, get your shit together!

it's like they weren't even trying, come on

this is probably cold comfort to brewers fans, but by the statcast metrics (EV, hard hit%, xOPA xBA xSLG) he's having a very comparable season to Nolan Arenado, who is doing much better in terms of results so far

fuck, sorry. "he" is Christian Yelich

^-- title of 2022 Brewers thread

He’s looked a lot better at the plate this year, I think he’s gonna go on a sunrun soon

arenado has gone pretty cold since april too

his may was not great (offensively), but since June he's been pretty great again (143 wRC+)

it's funny, goldschmidt was relatively average in April, and then on May 1 it's like Arenado passed him the flame of greatness and then passed the fuck out for a month

gotta say, not trying to stir up NL Central beef, and i like the brewers in general after working a decent amount of games there, but craig counsell has the most perpetually disappointed and possibly pained expression in the game. i could say, "oh, that guy over there has craig counsell-face" and you'd know exactly what i meant, right?

it's kind of endearing i guess, like i want him to feel better

also, sorry to always mention yadi, but speaking of "NL Central beef", it makes me think of how his last appearance in cincinatti will go! it would be kind of perfect for him to get a simultaneous standing ovation plus resounding boo-off

yeah I feel like even if you made a shitty Craig Counsell muppet I'd immediately know who it was supposed to be

it would be a good cue for an actor, I think. "you just had your annual review and you didn't get a raise. i want you to take it like you're craig counsell."

https://cdn.wrn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Craig-Counsell-6.jpg

enhance

https://i.imgur.com/x2r7emn.png

lol the dueling umpire reviews happening in the top of the 9th here, haha

brendan donovan, who for special reasons will always be braden donahue to me, is out.

counsell just smiled!!

but this was the counsell face i was talking about, a little bit more disappointment, like there's something bad happening and it's not his fault or the team's fault, and it's just not fair

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

Burnes is becoming one of those pitchers who's unhittable for reasons no one can quite figure out

https://i.imgur.com/cSzkjfh.gif

https://i.imgur.com/wse1QwM.png

omg

each one of those frames is a fresh terror

depicting a walk-off (??) is pretty smart of the AI huh

look who just became ready to play in the majors

3 innings into his 2022 debut, @Pirates' Oneil Cruz has registered:

🏴‍☠️The hardest throw by an infielder in @MLB this year (96.7 mph)
🏴‍☠️The hardest hit ball of the year by a Pirate (112.9)
🏴‍☠️The 3 fastest sprint speeds of the year by a Pirate (31.5, 30.7, 30.3) pic.twitter.com/nScTK5mD4A

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 21, 2022

It's Oneil Cruz's first game of the season and he already recorded the hardest throw by an infielder this year at 96.7 MPH 🤯 pic.twitter.com/5XUlqHRjac

— MLB (@MLB) June 21, 2022

dang, that first clip. that was a single for almost any player. it was hit so fucking hard that, combined with his crazy speed, it was nearly a triple

O_O

damn, that throw too. dang!

i've heard of Cruz and knew he was on his way, but haven't been paying much attention. looking forward to watching him play now, holy moley

New favorite player

during every home run trot in triple-a this year he would, when passing second, pantomime checking his watch

it is surmised that he was suggesting it was time to call him up, but i kind of hope he keeps doing it

why is it that every time there's an insane young talent they either wind up on the Yankees or some team with a $40 million payroll

Opened up my e-mail right after reading these posts to a shareable Posnanski column on Cruz:

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/the-allure-of-the-one-man-show?r=1imri&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

He's got the wrong link up there--if he fixes it, I'll re-post.

The Rays' Isaac Paredes has three HR in his first three AB--just coming up.

That Cruz is a serious athlete. Does he have an eye or is a total wild swinger? That dude hits the gym and doesn't lose his bat speed, he probably could hit some homers.

The Giants first get walked off by the Pirates on Sunday and then again by the Braves on Monday. Then on Tuesday they score 12 runs and hang on for life.

Baseball is a crazy game.

Me watching the clip of Cruz's throw: "he might want to get to that ball quicker ... he's wasting time getting set for the throw, he's blowing this routine play ... OH!!! Never mind ..."

*NL Central thread detour*

since Nolan Gorman went 4-4 with 2 HRs yesterday, i was looking at his stats this morning and trying to convince myself that the cardinals will win the world series, as one does.

in doing so, i took an early look at his defensive stats, via statcast's Outs Above Average (OAA), and was kind of startled to see Kolten Wong as the very worst performing second basemen in baseball?!

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outs_above_average?type=Fielder&startYear=2022&endYear=2022&split=no&team=&range=year&min=q&pos=4&roles=&viz=hide

of qualifying players, Wong is 38th out of 38th at the position, with -8 OAA. (Jonathan Schoop is waaaaaay ahead of the rest of the field with, 15 OAA to the second place Santiago Espinal's 7 OAA). Gorman is around the middle of the pack, at -1 OAA.

question for the brew crew: is Wong actually having a bad year, defensively?

OAA is an improvement on earlier defensive metrics, i think, but it still seems to occasionally get certain players way wrong. Paul Goldschmidt, for example, is apparently having one of the worst defensive years among 1B, by OAA. but i've watched almost every single inning this year and he has been rock solid while digging out seemingly every single infield throw in the dirt.