2019 MLB Thread

"muscle979 wrote:

I don' think Nick Markakis should be mentioned here. Are you talking about the Nick Markakis who's averaged 173 hits a season over the past six years? These guys in the Mets lineup are all professional hitters, but Markakis is not? Anyone who tries to blow off Nick Markakis (Braves fans do it too, I guess he doesn't hit enough HRs to be taken seriously) can easily be proven wrong. Yes, his WAR isn't eye popping, though last year he beat Bryce Harper's WAR. He collects hits and he gets on base. But he's not the star, nor do they need to him be. He's a quality, professional bat in the order. That's my story and i'm sticking to it LOL.

Donaldson has been disappointing, but he barely played in the spring so we'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks or so. McCann is a reserve player at this point in his career. I think he was brought in mostly to help with all of the young pitchers. He strained his hamstring last night so we won't see him again for a little bit. I'd rather they spent the Donaldson money on pitching.

Eh i guess you can make the argument Markakis will hit his 280 with his 10 homers but ya theres no power and the average has some fluctuation. Fair enough.

"RoninFin4 wrote:

Checking in to see if this is where one can buy runs...

Reds pitching has been pretty good, but they've been woeful on offense so far.

I feel like a lot of teams right now are in the opposite situation. They have some potential trade partners out there.

Wow Sanchez with three homers today and our our latest baby bomber big red clint Frazier hit his 2nd home run.

Go Rays btw. We are a problem.

"Nappy Roots wrote:

Go Rays btw. We are a problem.

Play Brandon Lowe every day please. My fantasy team could use a 20hr 2b :knucks:

The Cubs have now scored at least 10 runs in half of their games this season.

Lets not talk about the pitching staff.....

"Boik14 wrote:

Play Brandon Lowe every day please. My fantasy team could use a 20hr 2b :knucks:

Will happen even less when Duffy comes off the injured list. We are just too deep. With good RH options on the infield off the bench. I am not a big Lowe fan truthfully. Not a super fan of that signing, but whatevs.

Well my Marlins currently have a better win % than the Red Sox. lol

The Cubs are currently outscoring their opponents 72-71, but have a 3-7 record. They've scored 51 more runs than the Reds, and allowed 51 more than the Rays.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

The Cubs are currently outscoring their opponents 72-71, but have a 3-7 record. They've scored 51 more runs than the Reds, and allowed 51 more than the Rays.

The entire staff sans Lester has been brutal. The Darvish contract ... yikes. And what the hell happened to Quintana? He was a borderline ace on the WSox, but turned into a pumpkin almost immediately. That trade is gonna be a killer. If they don't make the postseason, Maddon has to be gone.

That said, the Rickett's claim of having no money and thus handicapping Theo is a crusher.

"texanphinatic wrote:

The entire staff sans Lester has been brutal. The Darvish contract ... yikes. And what the hell happened to Quintana? He was a borderline ace on the WSox, but turned into a pumpkin almost immediately. That trade is gonna be a killer. If they don't make the postseason, Maddon has to be gone.

That said, the Rickett's claim of having no money and thus handicapping Theo is a crusher.

I think that this will be Maddon's last year regardless. He was the right hire, he got the job done, but I wasn't sure that he'd make it five years when the contract was signed. A lot of Cubs fans think that we'll hire Joe Girardi after this season.

Darvish just hasn't been healthy, and he's also been the victim of some terrible luck. He was pitching extremely well last night, and other than two liner HRs, shut down the Pirates through five. It was encouraging. But yeah, that contract was always a huge risk. Quintana has been up and down. Excellent some days, lousy others. He was excellent the second half of 2017, but inconsistent since.

At the end of the day, the Cubs total failures to be able to develop pitching are killing them. Other than trading for Hendricks while he was at AA, they haven't developed a single starter who's belonged in the majors since Jeff Samardzija. And before him, it was Rich Hill, who came up in 2005!

Cubs getting rid of Maddon for Girardi is so foolish lol

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

I think that this will be Maddon's last year regardless. He was the right hire, he got the job done, but I wasn't sure that he'd make it five years when the contract was signed. A lot of Cubs fans think that we'll hire Joe Girardi after this season.

Darvish just hasn't been healthy, and he's also been the victim of some terrible luck. He was pitching extremely well last night, and other than two liner HRs, shut down the Pirates through five. It was encouraging. But yeah, that contract was always a huge risk. Quintana has been up and down. Excellent some days, lousy others. He was excellent the second half of 2017, but inconsistent since.

At the end of the day, the Cubs total failures to be able to develop pitching are killing them. Other than trading for Hendricks while he was at AA, they haven't developed a single starter who's belonged in the majors since Jeff Samardzija. And before him, it was Rich Hill, who came up in 2005!

No doubt Maddon was a great hire, just that his style behooves itself to shorter stints than a long term sustainability. There are some fundamental issues with the team that a good staff should be working out I think. Girardi would be interesting.

As for Darvish ... man I was a Rangers follower for most of his career and while he had some crazy highs, the dude is super volatile. "Bad luck" follows him way too much. He will have days where he looks to be among the best, then fall apart in the next game after he gives up a walk early. He lets stuff get to him easily, quick to rattle and very bad at digging himself out of holes and funks. Hopefully he can at least be healthy a good #3-4 in the rotation for the rest of his contract.

The failure to develop - or maintain - pitching is one of those big underlying issues I mentioned earlier. While that blame obviously is spread around some, hard not to take a look at what Maddon is doing to see big drop-offs and lack of consistency.

Pete Alonso is setting all kinds of records so far https://www.sny.tv/mets/news/mets-rookie-pete-alonso-made-mlb-history-on-tuesday/306119906

And that was before his 454 foot blast tonight. #GOAT :danceline:

Cubs finally win a game where they score fewer than ten runs, so they've got that going for them. :001_rolleyes:

I think that this was the first time I've seen one pitch hit the batter, catcher and ump. The Marlins OF had to leave the game afterwards, and the ump was hurting.

He has absolutely killed them so far. And the Marlins just gave him away.

Overall, sac flys seem to be way down from where they were in the past.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

He has absolutely killed them so far. And the Marlins just gave him away.

Christian Yelich is only the second Brewer with 7 HR against the Cardinals in a season. He’s only played five games against them this season.

He just needs 4 more home runs against STL in his remaining 14 games to set the record for most homers against the Cards in a season.

— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) April 16, 2019

Overall, sac flys seem to be way down from where they were in the past.

very good chance Joey Gallo reaches the 100 home run mark before he reaches the 1 sacrifice fly mark. currently at 93 homers and hasn’t hit a sac fly yet in his career

— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) April 16, 2019

Not to have a single one though is crazy in that span of time.

"AGuyNamedAlex wrote:

Not to have a single one though is crazy in that span of time.

Its is, but Gallo is a really weird, limited player. His current .217 average would be his career high, his career averages against both right and left handers are right around .200, he has about as much chance of getting on base with two strikes as you or I do......but saying all of that, his averages and performance with a man on third are much, much higher, when most players are lower. In fact, having a man on third and two outs is one of his most likely situations to get a hit! So while you'd think that with a man on third and less than two outs, he'd just be going BP and trying to hit one deep, it seems like those kind of situations are the only time he's not, lol.

Man, did I see a video of Kershaw in the offseason that was pathetic, this dude does not take care of himself in the offseason, at least this past year he didn’t.

Give a 31 year old pitcher a 3 -100 deal who doesn’t go Tom Brady in the offseason seems like the wrong move..

"djphinfan wrote:

Man, did I see a video of Kershaw in the offseason that was pathetic, this dude does not take care of himself in the offseason, at least this past year he didn’t.

Give a 31 year old pitcher a 3 -100 deal who doesn’t go Tom Brady in the offseason seems like the wrong move..

Hes excellent, but huge Injuries too. I expect him to really fall off before long.

"djphinfan wrote:

Man, did I see a video of Kershaw in the offseason that was pathetic, this dude does not take care of himself in the offseason, at least this past year he didn’t.

Give a 31 year old pitcher a 3 -100 deal who doesn’t go Tom Brady in the offseason seems like the wrong move..

Its weird but being a little hefty in baseball really helps pitchers. There have been studies that link the pitchers weight and length to health and even effectiveness. Guys like CC Sabathia (who ive jokingly called Fatbathia) and even David Wells back in the day never had serious elbow/Tommy John issues in part because their weight helped them bear the brunt of the strain of pitching 200+ innings a year. Kershaw isnt as big as those guy but his decreasing velocity, not the excess weight is the reason hes likely to fall off quick. His velocity has been on a slow decline since 2016 and a few miles per hour vs pro hitters matters a lot.

"Boik14 wrote:

Its weird but being a little hefty in baseball really helps pitchers. There have been studies that link the pitchers weight and length to health and even effectiveness. Guys like CC Sabathia (who ive jokingly called Fatbathia) and even David Wells back in the day never had serious elbow/Tommy John issues in part because their weight helped them bear the brunt of the strain of pitching 200+ innings a year. Kershaw isnt as big as those guy but his decreasing velocity, not the excess weight is the reason hes likely to fall off quick. His velocity has been on a slow decline since 2016 and a few miles per hour vs pro hitters matters a lot.

How can you talk about hefty pitchers and not mention Big Sexy Colon!

Velo loss on a few pitchers this year that's raising some eyebrows - Sale in Boston is another who is down, and he's a beanpole. Kershaw I feel might be able to stay really good even with a velo dip though, he throws some nasty off speed stuff like the curve. His back problems are scary though, and I don't know if putting on weight will help that.

Cubbies staff finally starting to rebound a bit, though ofc the Marlins can make anyone look good right now. Seattle coming back to earth as well now that they are facing some real teams.

"texanphinatic wrote:

How can you talk about hefty pitchers and not mention Big Sexy Colon!

Velo loss on a few pitchers this year that's raising some eyebrows - Sale in Boston is another who is down, and he's a beanpole. Kershaw I feel might be able to stay really good even with a velo dip though, he throws some nasty off speed stuff like the curve. His back problems are scary though, and I don't know if putting on weight will help that.

Cubbies staff finally starting to rebound a bit, though ofc the Marlins can make anyone look good right now. Seattle coming back to earth as well now that they are facing some real teams.

Yeah, the Marlins bats are AAA level, but hey I'll take getting healthy! Two runs allowed in three games, including 24 straight scoreless innings. Given that the Cubs had the NL's worst ERA coming into the series, they needed that. Got the team ERA down to 4.85 now. Pending health, they should be alright.

As far as Bartolo, its funny because he's just been around so long, but when he came up with Cleveland, he was a fit guy. 6'0", 185. But he started to put on weight before he left Cleveland, and by age 30 he was hefty the rest of the way. I love that he's now on his 13th different team, including 9 in the AL. He hasn't pitched for Tampa or Arizona, but he's been around longer than both franchises!

The Cubs and Diamondbacks have both gone 8-2 over their last 10 games, and both teams now sit in second place in their division, and in the top 4 in the NL in run differential. Arizona's only two losses during that stretch were in Chicago.

After starting the year 2-7 in their first three series, all on the road, the Cubs have since gone 10-3 and not lost a series since. They'll go for the sweep vs LA tomorrow afternoon with John Lester back from the DL.

I'm thinking that the Mets might be a fun watch all season. They're in first place but have allowed the most runs in the NL, and the third most in all of MLB