general 2021 MLB discussion thread

I AM GOING TO THE GAME CWS/STL GAME ON WENDESDAY

since the pandemic, i have been to one public place, a restaurant. this is going to be nuts

wow. that’s awesome karl. looks like gant v rodon.

Turns out I’m going tonight too, which means I get to catch flaherty and giolito as well...along with joe west’s record breaking appearance

nice. giolito has not been great so far this season but his last start was strong.

i'm secretly hoping that larussa will ruin joe west's big game with a huuuuuge argument

MLB's two millionth run will score in the next few days

(the astros' bob watson scored the one millionth in 1975)

Wasn't there some controversy attached to that? I can't find anything online...I remember something, though, from the book I read about the '76 season.

One of the sickest plays I've ever seen

pic.twitter.com/p7NlMgIBO0 https://t.co/iuWw57fO8S

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) May 27, 2021

lol that takes me back to my beer league softball days

RBI double

that's half <3 baez <3 and half lol pirates

unfortunately did not count as a double due to how they scored it

there were two outs. all the 1B had to do was turn around and step on first ffs

I didn't realize there were 2 outs the first time I watched that, which makes the whole thing 100x worse.

I've seen this kind of stuff at my son's baseball games, parents would be screaming to just go touch 1st base.

That is a hall of fame dumb play, I love it

okay that’s the greatest

Every team at the bottom of their tank cycle has stupid plays like this every day, like the 2012 Astros were a highlight reel of dumb plays

I don't think I can remember a play this dumb though

Going to store this in my memory right next to "five reds infielders stare at a popup.gif"

hahahaha holy crap

the calliopes can heard from here to sewickley

The Pirates radio call is marvelous. pic.twitter.com/Kkptci0PWg

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 27, 2021

tremendous.

I've never seen anything like that.

it just hit me for the first time, after about the 200th rewatch, that baez actually had time in all of this to call the runner at home safe in the play at the plate

The way javy teases him all the way back home is priceless. You can see him get into the dude's head like, "yeah, I know the inning is over, but I'm just gonna fuck around and make you tag me... Oops, did we just score a run?"

There were two outs on that play! I'm still trying to register this information.

hang this in the louvre

Jon he called the play at the plate and ended up on second pic.twitter.com/msynr0nlEd

— Mike Black (@mhblack) May 28, 2021

the calliopes can heard from here to sewickley

new board description?

xp even at the point of this photo, had the ball been thrown to first (and had someone been there to catch it) the run wouldn’t have counted because it’s a force out!

this is an interesting thought, although i don’t recall such an interpretation being made

@wezen_ball

Wasn’t he out as soon as he abandoned his path to first base? Running back home is not running towards a safe position.

You're allowed to run backwards in that circumstance. You don't have to run into a tag.

That play is 99% lol Pirates and 1% Baez's trickery.

If you're playing first, who cares if Baez starts running backwards? Just jog the other way and touch first base!

I’d say that play was 99% pirates and 51% baez. you don’t get to 150% without abnormal effort from all parties

https://www.mlb.com/news/2-million-runs-scored-in-mlb

I thought Donaldson and Bob Watson might be somewhat comparable in that they're both Hall of Very Good-type players, but Donaldson is actually far ahead in bWAR in a much shorter time. I don't know, when I look at Watson's career box, it intuitively feels like he doesn't get enough credit for playing his prime years in the Astrodome, where his average year looked like this: 18 HR, 98 RBI, .305/.375/.461, 139 OPS+

watson seems to have gotten dinged awfully hard on defense, and jersey al can tell you what he thinks of that

Marvell Ozuna arrested for family violence

https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-braves-marcell-ozuna-arrested-by-sandy-springs-police/UNGRREUJENFB7G25UA6LAQHXMA/

Marcell

Orioles and Dbacks battling to see who can lose more games in a row (both have lost 12 straight)

The split in the NL West--two terrible teams, three around .600--seems unusually stark; there's usually at least one mediocre team in the middle.

d-backs' win today makes this 7-43

Since May 4, the Orioles and D-backs are a combined 6-43.

— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) May 30, 2021

after boasting a bit about the Giants before heading into last weekend series against the Dodgers, the Giants ended up getting swept at home. even though they were in two of those games. this weekend the lose the fist game, had to come back in the second game where they stole a home run from Pujols and ultimately win the game. the Giants get to Kershaw on Sunday with five runs and take three out of four in Los Angeles. the Giants also have a winning record, so far, against San Diego...

this years Giants team is getting to be real fun to watch!

*they *first

i really should proofread my posts before hitting "Submit Post."

d-backs' win today makes this 7-43

― mookieproof, Sunday, May 30, 2021 7:26 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFwcVul2VrA

Who this fuck is this Adolis García dude?!

I'll do one of my periodic cut-and-pastes from Posnanski (I didn't know him either):

El Bombi!

OK, so there’s not a lot of great stuff going on with the Texas Rangers. But, seriously, how can you not get fired up about Adolis García? I mean, this guy has lived a baseball life. He was a star in Cuba, and then he defected to Japan, where he made almost no impact. The Cardinals signed him in 2017 based on his tools — great speed, quick bat, strong arm, etc.

But here’s a little secret that I’ve heard from baseball scouts: When you hear about a player being “toolsy,” it’s often code for “can’t hit.” Before he created Moneyball, Billy Beane, famously, was toolsy. Couldn’t hit. The Kansas City Royals used to have an outfielder named Alexis Gómez, and every year you would hear about this guy’s incredible tools. “He’s a center fielder who can run and throw, and he put on a power display in batting practice,” Baseball America gushed. He also had a great work ethic and was willing to do anything and everything to get better.

Unfortunately, as you guessed, he couldn’t hit.

García, for all his tools, could not convince the Cardinals of his ability to hit either. He did hit 22 homers in Triple-A Memphis in 2018 and 32 homers in Memphis in 2019, but he had a mindblowing 249-36 strikeout to walk ratio over those two seasons. The Cardinals first designated him for assignment and then made the best deal that they could, which meant trading him to the Rangers for $100,000.

But the Rangers found themselves equally unimpressed and also designated him for assignment, inviting anybody who wanted García to just claim him. When nobody did, they brought him to spring training, where he tore things up. The Rangers still didn’t have any room for him, so they left him back in Arizona … until a series of injuries inspired them to give El Bombi an opportunity.

He thought he homered in his second game … twice. The first time came as the ball crashed off the bat, a long fly ball to right that he and pretty much everyone else thought was gone. But this was in Tampa Bay, where the strangest stuff happens, and the ball apparently bounced off the top of the wall. But García was booking, he’s got a lot of speed, and he raced around the bases and was called safe at home, meaning he thought he’d hit an inside-the-park home run.

But that wasn’t true either, as, on replay, he was called out. The hit was ruled a triple.

So the next day he just homered conventionally off Tampa Bay’s Cody Reed.

Still, he always seemed to be on the brink of being dumped from the lineup. On May 2, he was hitting .233/.378/.479, and the dream sequence seemed to be ending for him.

In the three weeks since then, he’s hitting about .350 and slugging about .750, and he’s smashed 11 homers in 21 starts. As I write these words, El Bombi is tied for the lead in home runs.

I know that stuff like this does happen in other sports — a player will emerge from nowhere and outperform all expectations — but it’s particularly wonderful when it happens in baseball. When a Yermin Mercedes or Jesse Winker or Adolis García just starts playing at this crazy level, even if it doesn’t last, it’s so fantastic.

the orioles and diamondbacks are undefeated in june

Unofficial no-hitter aside, Bumgarner sure hasn’t looked good since he got to AZ. 16 ER in his last 12 innings. Only went 2 innings today.

Bumgarner’s FIP predicts better days ahead, but nothing worth the contract he got.

So sad to see how Lincecum, Cain and Bumgarner bodies basically collapsed.

Lincecum especially since he seemed headed for the hall until shit fell apart for him.

Imagine if the Cubs had kept Darvish and added a FA.

watson seems to have gotten dinged awfully hard on defense, and jersey al can tell you what he thinks of that

― mookieproof, Saturday, May 29, 2021 2:52 PM (five days ago)

lollin'.

so... does this count as "framing" and how many GL0RPz will it net you:

This highlight from 2019 of the catcher acting like a throw isn’t coming is a fake out that has not and will not ever be topped pic.twitter.com/m9iWIRRTjg

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 3, 2021