JUAN SOTO seems like a big deal

I noticed that too. Weird: 23/28 his first three years, 9/16 this year. He got bolder and slower simultaneously.

juan soto in 67 second-half games: .369/.542/.682, 18 HR, 81 BB, 34 K

juan soto in 26 september games: .430/.590/.744, 7 HR, 34 BB, 8 K

now leads the NL in both fWAR and bWAR for position players (the latter by quite a bit). envisioning a pujols-like run here

wow, by fWAR he's ahead of everyone in the AL too, including vlad and semien, by just a smidge.

by pujols-like run do you mean his consistency in the 2000s? seems right to me, just watching him. even his lesser stretches (first half 2021) are still very, very good by almost any other measure other than himself

yeah, basically where he's a top-five mvp candidate for the next seven years in a row. more fun soto splits (this season):

he's hitting .469/.463/.813 on first pitches, so don't throw him a first-pitch strike. but then he's hitting .588/.600/1.147 on 1-0 pitches, so

Juan Soto turned down a 13-year, $350 million contract from the Washington Nationals before the lockout, according to this @Enrique_Rojas1 report. In the story, Soto confirms the offer.

More from Enrique at @ESPNDeportes: https://t.co/zNnlWTb9Rd

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 16, 2022

He has 6 home runs this year, and a total of 7 RBIs.

juan soto is in one of the worst slumps of his career.

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

juan soto is batting 25% better than the average MLB hitter (wRC+ 125, .214/.265/.432 with 14 HRs)
juan soto's babip is .207, more than 100 points below any other season.
juan soto has 20.0 fWAR and is 23 years old.

Turned down a 15 year/$440M extension. My guess is that no amount would have been sufficient.

That sounds crazy but I honestly can't blame him for thinking he could get more, possibly a lot more, if he hits FA, and he wouldn't have to spend some of his best years on a rebuilding team. Would really only need to get like 10/400 at 26 to beat it and possibly even leave an opportunity for another decent payday at 36.

$440M seems like a big deal.

he's gonna be a yankee, isn't he

With six playoff teams per league, "rebuilding" doesn't mean what it used to.

Can't blame Soto for wanting to bet on himself though.

i feel bad for nats fans

I can’t believe there seems to be a growing consensus that he will be traded in a week or two. My guess is that it probably costs a team their top 3-5 prospects plus some of their current starters.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/with-juan-soto-available-the-nationals-have-upended-the-trade-market/

Goofy trade scenarios (skimmed--I think the writer's just making them up).

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/exploring-juan-soto-trades-no-matter-how-far-fetched/

whats going on here.

The #Padres, barely clinging to the final wild-card berth, are still awaiting dividends on their blockbuster trade:
Juan Soto is hitting .063 (3-48) without an extra-base hit in his last 15 games; .202 with 7 RBI in 35 games since his arrival.
Josh Bell is hitting .204/.319/.307.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 16, 2022

And that's not even to mention Josh Hader's 4-digit ERA as a Padre. What's going on?

san diego is where stars go to die

It’s fascinating to me how bad the deadline deals have worked out so far to the Padres. And I say that as a person who wants them to do well.

I was gonna post that Drury's been great but I see he only has a 700 OPS too!

just a poorly timed slump

Haven't read it yet, but Posnanski has a column on Soto today:

What gives? At ages 21 and 22, Soto was channeling Ted Williams. Now, all due respect, he’s channeling Ted Sizemore. How can we make sense of any of this?

san diego is where stars go to die

― Spottie, Friday, September 16, 2022 1:41 PM (seven months ago)

Probably no surprise, in view of the fact Soto again leads the league in BB; Posnanski (with some numbers for support) thinks Soto has become too selective.

I've got to believe he'll come back--if not all the way, at least to an All-Star level. Mostly I liked the Ted Sizemore reference in that quote.

Finally, finally--having a player-of-the-month May:

.346/.485/.680, 11 doubles, 5 HR

I don't know if there was any validity to that "too selective" theory (always a dicey proposition). Has he become more aggressive? Twenty-one walks for the month would suggest otherwise. Tim?

(Will be seeing them/him in July.)

MVP already locked up.

Is this the Yankees thread now?

I hope he's a Yankee forever

At least for as long as they're playing the asstros

kinda weird to see the team happy tho ngl

I don't know who Sal Licata is, but he's taken it upon himself to revive the whole Joey Votto thing from 15 years ago, complaining about Soto being selective when there are runs that need to be knocked in. (From what I've seen in a cursory look around, he gets lots of pushback via comments.)

so to clarify, some guy is talking about something that happened 15 years ago

No--he's talking about something happening now, and not especially insightfully. I'm drawing the comparison to what Votto went through 15 years ago.

Massive if true. I'm gonna pay more attention to Sal Licata from here on out.

You see how incredibly timely my post was? In the midst of a Jays meltdown today, Soto came up with two out, runners on second and third, score 4-4. He had the discipline to work a full-count walk, including a called strike that wasn't even close. Which brought Judge up, who knocked in two (also shook off a terrible strike call). If Soto isn't Soto, he probably chases and makes the third out.

Anyway, is this a new ILX policy, that we shouldn't be posting about stupid stuff people say? There goes 63% of all posting.

We prefer to run with "in-house" stupidity round these parts

That's some real, the-antagonist-scouts-in-moneyball, type logic tho! You can see that exact thought coming from the round table drafting scene at the beginning of the movie