Official MLB baseball thread.

bearfan said:
Teams need to spend more money on players, but players should accept the fact it will be for shorter terms for all but the top players.
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This could be a key incentive for players to improve their performance, obviously. I'm a bit out of touch obviously, but could this bring back the dominance of performance-enhancing substances?
 
Perun said:
could this bring back the dominance of performance-enhancing substances?
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I really don't think so. The penalties in place for failing a drug test or getting caught using PED's are harsh enough that I really don't think it would be worth it to most players to take that risk.
 
Lampwick 43 said:
I really don't think so. The penalties in place for failing a drug test or getting caught using PED's are harsh enough that I really don't think it would be worth it to most players to take that risk.
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I agree with this, there will always be exceptions, but the players as a whole (the clean ones, which are most of them) and pretty anti-PEDs.

I think what we will end up seeing are shorter contracts, but more money paid per year and for the longer contracts buyouts.

Edit, because that is a factor in a team not spending in free agency, if they have to pay a guy for 5 years that they are getting no productivity from
 
WTF is going on with these huge contracts? Just saw a player get a $420M contract! AS AN OUTFIELDER. Does that mean pitchers are going to demand 500M?
 
Onhell said:
WTF is going on with these huge contracts? Just saw a player get a $420M contract! AS AN OUTFIELDER. Does that mean pitchers are going to demand 500M?
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So you think pitchers should get MORE?! Not with their fragile, soon-to-be wimpy American League-ish no-hitting attitude! Be a man and step to the plate!

Mike Trout deserves all of that contract. Not only is he this generation’s star talent, but he’s a classy player (unlike others who recently signed huge deals, whose names rhyme with Achado and Arper.) I just wish he wouldn’t waste his life with the Angels and come to a winning team, like the Cubs, or maybe the Cubs.
 
Yeah, there are stats that show Trout pretty much on pace for a Mickey Mantle/Willie Mays type career, If you go by the paying by WAR theory, his contract would have been close to $600M
 
No one in any professional sports should be getting contracts that huge. They shouldn't even exist. I think the players could live just fine off a few million a year. That's still a lot of fucking money. The greed in all of the entertainment industry has just gone way off the charts.

Anyway, the Cubs and Tigers did some major insane scoring!
 
bearfan said:
Yeah, there are stats that show Trout pretty much on pace for a Mickey Mantle/Willie Mays type career, If you go by the paying by WAR theory, his contract would have been close to $600M
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I seriously need to be enlightened. I know jack about baseball, except that it is boring AF.

To the VERY casual observer like myself, we only hear about home runs. So I know about Babe Ruth, Maguire, Bonds, etc. But that is only ONE stat. Ted Williams is the only player to have a .400 batting average, meaning hes the only player to hit 4 out of every 10 pitches consistently. But what makes a good baseball player a good baseball player? After watching Money Ball I know a lot of neglected stats are now paramount. I mean it did help the Red Sox finally win a World Series after like 80 something years.

So what DO teams look for in players? What makes a good player good and a great player great? It is my understanding that there have been better players than Mantle and Mays since you can't really compare eras, or is it easier to compare eras in baseball as opposed to other sports?
 
Onhell said:
So what DO teams look for in players? What makes a good player good and a great player great? It is my understanding that there have been better players than Mantle and Mays since you can't really compare eras, or is it easier to compare eras in baseball as opposed to other sports?
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This is just for hitters, pitching is a bit more complicated and catchers have additional items around handling a staff and pitch framing.

There is some disagreement with this, but I think teams have all realized the traditional stats like batting average, home runs, RBIs, and especially fielding percentage only tell part of the story and are in some cases arbitrary and in all cases involve some luck. Example in one game a better hits the ball really hard 4 times and records 4 outs, player 2 hits 2 seeing eye weak ground balls, a check swing hit, and a blooper that falls and he is 4 for 4. The theory being that over time luck will sort itself out.

More of an emphasis is placed on on base percentage (getting on base via a hit or walk), exit velocity (how hard they hit the ball), launch angle (getting the ball in the air) there are all kinds of new stats with fielding that determine if a ball is hit in a certain area with a fielder positioned in a certain place, and a ball hit a certain way (speed, trajectory, etc) what percentage of the time should an out be recorded. There are multiple metrics for those 4 things, but I think they are the keys most teams look for now.

The whole deal with Moneyball is breaking down what skills and attributes gives you the best chance to score a run on one end and prevent the other team from scoring on the other side.

The more "soft skills" things that are big now are generally being a good teammate and not getting in the news for the wrong reasons. There is less tolerance for assholes who are good players.

The thing with Trout is he does everything really well, and he is a good teammate, and someone the Angels can promote as the "face of the franchise". Which does lead to money both in ratings, tickets sold, and merch sold.

I would add injury history always plays into it as well.

There are different formulas, but the attempt at placing a unifying value on a player is WAR (wins over replacement). The idea being that how many more games will this player win based on having him versus someone that can be picked up cheap on the waiver wire. Combining hitting and fielding.

If you look here, you will see the last 10 years based on how baseball reference calculates it

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/WAR_top_ten.shtml

Last year Trout was 10.2, so essentially Trout accounted for a little over 10 wins on his own. But every years he has played, he has been in the top 10, usually the top 3. Few players can say that.
 
To add, there are major disagreements across stats sites on how to calculate WAR .. different stats emphasized differently by different formulas, but however anyone calculates it Trout is always high on the list.
 
It changed the way we look at sports. A really huge one.

By the way, I highly recommend the Ken Burns documentary Baseball. Been plucking at it the last few nights and its really damn good.
 
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/08/711234347/trump-administration-kills-baseball-deal-with-cuba

The Trump administration is ending the Obama-era 4 month old deal that allowed Cuban baseball players to sign MLB contracts without defecting. The Trump administration states it is for the benefit of the players to keep their money with their talents and flourish in a free system without having their wages garnished by the Cuban government.

This is rich coming from a nation that does the exact same thing with U.S Citizens working abroad or with assets NOT in tax shelter havens.
 
Wow! Can't believe I haven't shown my excitement for the Twins! I always wondered if "Mauer power" was bringing them down and a season like this right after his retirement makes me wonder.
 
Houston got Zack Greinke at the trade deadline. Their starting rotation is now loaded and this should make them the clear favorites in the AL.
 
Lampwick 43 said:
Houston got Zack Greinke at the trade deadline. Their starting rotation is now loaded and this should make them the clear favorites in the AL.
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Oh yeah. Having Verlander, Cole, and now Greinke makes them a powerhouse. I just don’t want to see another Astros-Dodgers World Series. I like the Astros but they just won it two years back, and I despise the Dodgers. Hopefully someone can knock them out... looking at you Atlanta! No way the Cubs are making it past the first round if they even do make the playoffs.
 
Yeah, the Cubs need to shake something loose. I like the trades they made at the deadline, but I would expect some significant changes in the off season
 
13 games to go in the regular season, and the Cubs are 2 games behind the Cardinals, but they still have 7 games remaining against them head-to-head.

Unfortunately, Rizzo is out for at least a week, which really hurts, especially with Baez out for the rest of the regular season as well. The Brewers are still right there as well, only 1 game behind the Cubs, despite the fact that Yelich is done for the year.

This division is going to come right down to the wire.
 
These are tense times for us Cubs fans. The Brewers have been on a tear (they’re 14-3 in September), and the loss of Yelich doesn’t really matter when they're facing weak teams for the rest of the season.

Cardinals lost last night, but sadly so did the Cubs. It’s just like them to lose behind a great pitching performance by Darvish, too. Their offense is too feast-or-famine. Baez and Rizzo are huge losses (Russell not so much), but this Nico Hoerner kid has stepped up and helped the Cubs go 5-2 over their last seven.

I’m predicting that the Cardinals sadly win the division, but that the Cubs get a wild card spot. I’m just hoping it’s the top WC spot, because we all know what their road record looks like...
 
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