general 2021 MLB discussion thread

Trout is on a mission.

Ohtani waving goodbye to Trout baseball from 2B... pic.twitter.com/wud9LlASLt

— Andrew Mah (@Mahster) April 6, 2021

i think i may be getting ohtani fever. the guy is electric. even when he strikes people out in the 3rd inning he's pumping his fist and yelling shit, i love it

btw i checked out more of the jomboy channel (a couple posts up) and i feel like it's a little bit of a brodown, but much less so than other sports dudes, and the "analysis" of fights, weird plays, fans making plays, players saying bad words (pretty much any player caught on film saying ANY words, in fact), and pretty much any other weird baseball thing is pretty great.

i'm so bad at lip reading, so it's nice to know that someone out there is convincingly figuring out what they're all yelling at each other

There is a lot to love with jomboy, his breakdown of Kevin Mather rotary club fiasco was fantastic.

jomboy has bro tendencies, sure, but he seems like a genuine guy. a good way to avoid the bro-ishness is to avoid any video/audio where one of the other guys from his network appears

Yeah, started listening to a podcast episode that featured Trevor Plouffe and he couldn't stop himself from saying he got laid that morning.

On the other hand, O'Brien's been celebrating Kim Ng's promotion, wearing shirts that say 'Women belong in sports' and been pretty vindictive of personnel with assault allegations.

rougned odor to the yankees

not really sure why -- he's good for nothing except homers and he can't play short, where the yankees are actually thin -- but apparently the rangers are paying (perhaps literally) all of the remaining $27m he's owed, so hey why not

anyway lol he has to shave now

xxxxxxps i don't really like castellanos (apart from his role in thom brennaman's downfall, of course) but i think if you plunk a guy you have to accept being flexed on in a situation like that

i hate ads on pitchers mounds

I mean, I don’t get what the original skipping things was about. Dude seems like he was trying to provoke shit from the onset.

10 Ks for Sandy Alcantara, through 5 IP. iirc, 9 of those were swinging strikes, and none were in the strike zone

steve shasta's a's are in quite a hole

Have only checked out a couple box scores and of course since I have been ignoring baseball the Reds start 5-1 with the most runs they have ever scored in the first 6 games. Figures...

Did not realize until a couple days ago that Naquin had ended up a Red. The two times I saw him play live for Cleveland he had great games both getting a couple hits and making really nice plays in the outfield. Seems like a guy that had the talent to make that next step but it never happened.

Never know, sometimes guys like that it finally clicks and they have some a few good seasons in their 30s.

my man jameson taillon's first start in 23 months: 4.2 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 0 BB, 7 K, 74 pitches

unfortunately two of the hits were homers. love to see former pirates thrive in the AL east

the ultimate Jomboy is the Amir Garrett vs. the entire Pirates fight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU-ESpiwV4o

the lip reading is good because it shows that even at the highest levels, trash talk is just as dumb and repetitive as a pickup basketball game

i am listening to the cardinals home opener pre-show, listening to the organ player go wild as the clydesdales trot around the perimeter of the field. no video feed yet, but hopefully they'll show it when the broadcast starts in a few minutes.

i love this. mike shannon is already incomprehensible.

shannon rambling on about how the cardinal fans are the best of all time as the home crowd politely cheered the introduction of the brewers coaches and special assistants, leading to an ovation for kolten wong in his first time back at busch. the best fans in baseball, we indoctrinate ourselves with our earnest respect

the ovation for kolten wong was so earnest and so well-earned that he cried throughout his entire 4-pitch walk from wainwright

maybe they should just let the brewers start every inning with a guy on second, out of respect and gentlemanly fair play

disre2pectful of wainwright not to groove a fastball to wong like he did for jetes

"maybe they should just let the brewers start every inning with a guy on second, out of respect and gentlemanly fair play"

AKA Bill Hall rule

Thinking the Angels might make the playoffs this season.

if i managed the giants, who had yesterday off, i might not have let 35yo johnny cueto throw 118 pitches in his second start of the season

But are you a good looking ex-catcher who said 'uh-uh nice ok' when explained analytics and probabilities?

Nyy lookin shaky af

going to get buried in "mets don't give degrom run support" discourse if they lose, but trevor rogers might actually be really good now

taylor tyler trevor rogers

I like the Padres players but I find it impossible to root for a team still using military camo for a uniform.

Can’t cheer for a team you can’t see!

"mets don't give degrom run support" discourse

it *is* pretty funny/amazing tho, along with the mets bullpen in degrom starts

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

not that unexpected, i guess, but i just watched arenado do a perfect DP turn as the SS (in a shift) in a 6-4-3, dragging his foot over second base as he took the toss and then throwing it over to first.

giolito was v. good but bieber was just lights-out

9 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 11 K, 113 P, 85 ST, game score 91

31 batters, 24 first-pitch strikes, *one* 3-ball count, *one* runner reached second, don't have an exact count but he went 0-2 on more than half the guys he faced

also the 3-ball count/walk came with two outs in the ninth against the reigning AL MVP

super impressive

damn

Yadi is catching his 2000th game today, 6th all-time.

kinda feel like starting a Cardinals specific thread and being the only who posts in it. Morbs was always against the shared division threads anyway, and i want a place where i can share high-rez pictures of yadi and willie mcgee without shame

Nyy lookin shaky af

― calstars, Saturday, April 10, 2021 1:25 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

who knew that only doing the bare minimum to improve your team for two offseasons in a row would be a bad thing?

I would never shame you for sharing your Willie McGee pics!

the problem is, willie mcgee pics quickly lead to john nogowski pics

Totally inappropriate.

Of the five guys who got there first (2,000 games), three are in the HOF (I-Rod, Fisk, Carter), two aren't (Bob Boone, Jason Kendall). I thought that might be in and of itself decisive, but no. He's almost dead-even with Kendall in bWAR, so who knows.

kendall's HOF case suffers from playing for small market teams, and not having a HOF-level standout skill. his defense was always good, but i'm not sure he was ever regarded as elite like the current hall of famer yadier molina(i could be wrong)

One thing that Molina might have going for him is that he's the first to do it with one team; probably my own bias speaking, but I think at the margins HOF voters are a little less enthusiastic about itinerant careers.

Speaking of which I just learned Jed Lowrie is on his 4th separate stint with Oakland

the Rolaids "Fourth Time Around" award

yankees are gonna come in fourth, but at least they'll be under the luxury tax

Baseball should install a Lux Interior tax on the oldest and least cool teams.

It’s Kyle Farnsworth and it’s not even close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uplOrx-nVIo

Willie McGee would win with two votes

Orel and benito santiago

How many people have played Major League Baseball? Are we seriously going to have to poll all 127 people to ever play?! (Or whatever the number is)

I believe the number is something pleasingly round. Like 10,000 or so?

Edit:

[MLB Statistics] 18,918 players have played Major League Baseball. Mike Trout, who is 25 years old, has been worth more WAR than 18,589 of them, or 98.2%.

Mike Trout is 30! Point stands though

Oh shit, once again the little section that google highlights is way out of date!

As of today, the number is 19,969, at least according to https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/ballplayer.shtml

Might have been a good poll to have in 2011--the World Series thread had 1,081 posts (240 this year).

this world series sucked though

whereas in 2011 america's team was playing, as well as the cardinals

That baseball-almanac figure is also old as the 20,000th player debuted this year

i should know better than to try to google than on my phone, hahaha.

i suppose the "real" answer depends on other factors too:

https://www.ocregister.com/2021/05/26/hoornstra-finding-mlbs-real-20000th-player-with-apologies-to-jose-godoy/

Reminiscent of the league trying to figure out who scored their millionth run in 1975.

b-ref is up to 22,563 with the addition of negro league players

wander franco is the next vladimir guerrero jr. he can't miss

Honestly just the most horrible updates on that case everyday. Just despicable