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

Already plotting the first episode of The Camus 'Cast with Joe Maddon

Maddon traded for the first overall pick in the draft (of 1992)

I was surprised to hear that Maddon was fired (mainly considering his long history with the Angels), but he's in the last year of his contract and hadn't really improved things on the field. His weird tinkering was suited for the Rays (a franchise that more or less exists for beta testing creative management strategies) but not for a team with the resources and talent of the Angels. Even with the Cubs I think he was getting away with a lot of his eccentricities because the team was too good to not win (until, of course, they stopped winning).

amazing last time I looked up the Angels record they were like 26-15 or something and I thought it was great that finally the two best players of the modern era were gonna get some playoff time

they're now 3 games under .500 lmao

i think he was valuable for the 2015/2016 cubs, but less as a strategic manager and more in terms of keeping the tone light and fun, which seemed to help keep the stress off of a team that was very young and didn't have much playoff experience

I still think about how Chapman very nearly blew the World Series and if they could have ever come back from that the next year.

Acuña's 2 HRs last night got a lot of the highlight attention but my favorite bit of last night's ATL game was this Michael Harris II catch: https://www.mlb.com/video/kyle-wright-in-play-out-s-to-sean-murphy

sick grab by a guy i have literally never heard of before

I've seen him make a few others where his reads/jumps off the bat are so good that the catches look a lot easier than they are and don't wind up in the highlights.

Is there trackman data on that it looks like he covered about 50 yards

The Rays’ Cowbell which speeds up just as every 2-strike pitch is delivered to the opposing team is one of the most annoying things in baseball. It’s like playing in a stadium of toddlers

I'm starting to feel really sorry for the Angels.

nah

They lose again via shutout, up to 14.

Still in second place.

AngeLLLLLLLLLLLLLLs and counting

Pff…

The guy screaming "He has two strikes, Tony!" after Tony La Russa intentionally walked Trea Turner on a 1-2 count to pitch to Max Muncy who proceeded to hit a three-run homer is peak chef's kiss. (via @NBCSWhiteSox)pic.twitter.com/C9yaR0ZdBU

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 9, 2022

is tony trying to get fired a month from now?

What would Hawk say?

It just took Shohei Ohtani to finely end the streak.

*finally

Acuña's 2 HRs last night got a lot of the highlight attention but my favorite bit of last night's ATL game was this Michael Harris II catch: https://www.mlb.com/video/kyle-wright-in-play-out-s-to-sean-murphy

― WmC, Wednesday, June 8, 2022 12:53 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

even better is the shot of Andruw Jones's reaction

At his current pace, Jose Ramirez will finish this season with:
105 extra-base hits
48 strikeouts
99 walks
108 runs
168 RBI
45 doubles
12 triples
48 homers
He's got a .294/.394/.647 slash line

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 11, 2022

White Sox fans chanted "FIRE TONY (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)" in Saturday's 11-9 loss to the Texas Rangers, referring to Chicago manager Tony La Russa.

The Sox blew a 5-0 lead in the 10-inning affair with the Rangers — contributing to the team's 11th loss in 17 games. The Sox currently sit in third place in the American League Central.

I am so glad this is going terribly for Larussa. Feel bad he’s taking the chi Sox season with him, but fuck him.

The rest of the NL East has woken up: Braves have won 10 in a row, Phillies have won 9 in a row, Marlins have 5 five in a row. The NL central on the other hand….

Larussa sucks but the White Sox record is more due to injuries, regression, and having way too many scrubs in the lineup than the managing.

Listen times are hard in the heartland

When was the last time that two teams in the same division had active win streaks of 10 or more games? Phils and Braves might get there. I have no idea how to check this.

matt carpenter is batting .286/.444/1.000 with five homers in 10 games

my fault for ever doubting him

6 hits, 5 HRs

At this pace, he’s gonna get 18 hits this season

Didn’t realize he played 130 games last year. He hit .169/.305/.275

it hurt my back just to watch him

i still have nightmares of his plate routine, which he does before every single pitch. the first thrust of his hips, the shuffling of the feet. the second thrust. the swing and a miss. ughhhh

ESPN just dropped the funniest nugget of all time

Joe Maddon got a Mohawk to surprise the guys with to help break the losing streak but the players never saw it because he got fired that day 😭😭😭

— Dish (@D1SCHER) June 12, 2022

“Now I’m unemployed and I have a Mohawk” feels like a gag straight out of Friends.

The Giants are sporting black t-shirts with some Fantasy Football 101: “Stashing players on the IR isn’t cheating.”

— Maria I. Guardado (@mi_guardado) June 13, 2022

I've always liked David Price, but pretty easy gig for $32M.

the most hallowed record of them all has fallen

Yadi stands alone at the top!

14,865 putouts as a catcher.

The most all-time in MLB history. pic.twitter.com/tvXlSRsy5y

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 14, 2022

such a weird thing, giving the catcher a putout for a strikeout (even if that wasn't one)

props to him for doing it during a 100°/insane dew point day game tho

goldschmidt 6-for-8, 3 HR, 8 RBI in today's doubleheader

I was looking at the career boxes of a couple of the Yankees starters, trying to figure out why they're unbeatable, and Aaron Sanchez turned up on one of their Similarity Scores list. We were as big on him in Toronto in 2016 as we are on Manoah right now. Sad, itinerant tale the past few years, currently pitching poorly for Washington. Until a few days ago, anyway--they released him, and he just signed with the Twins.

(xpost) Currently leading the NL in all three slash stats.

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.