MLB 2018: let the games begin!

[T.D.]

17 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Can you serve it while injured?

Yes.

BTW, the drug (furosemide) is a diuretic and known masking agent. According to this story, furosemide per se is not banned by MLB, but an "independent program administrator" must have concluded that it was being used as a masking agent.

Quoting the story: MLB classifies the drug as a “diuretic or masking agent.” Since it’s not considered a PED by Major League Baseball, there is no automatic ban. Section 3.F of the joint drug agreement says that if a diuretic or masking agent is present in a player’s specimen, it’s re-tested. If the drug is still present, an independent program administrator (who has no association with the commissioner’s office, any MLB team, or the MLB Players Association) is responsible for determining if the player intended to mask another substance by taking a diuretic. If the IPA determines that the player did intend to mask, that’s when the suspension kicks in.

Edited May 15, 2018 by T.D.

[Dave Garrett]

22 hours ago, Dave James said:

Speaking of the Yankees and Oakland, if I was Brian Cashman, I'd trade Sonny Gray back to the A's for a bag of balls and a carton of Big League Chew.

Last summer when the Houston front office was looking at which starting pitchers might be available to bolster the rotation, Sonny Gray was always one of the names in the discussion. The July 31 non-waiver trade deadline came and went with no action, and there was a lot of grumbling that Jeff Luhnow hadn't managed to get the Astros another quality starter. A month later the grumbling promptly ceased when we got Verlander. Even before it became apparent just how well Verlander was going to pitch with the Astros, I remember thinking that not landing anyone in July looked like it was going to work out pretty well after all. 

[Soulstation1]

Tribe at Houston this weekend 

[ghost of miles]

One for Dan, copied and pasted from an Over the Monster thread:

Betts/JDM versus Judge/Stanton? No contest.

And to think that I was mortified at the thought of the 111-HR Yankee duo pulverizing the league
the way the M&M boys did in 1961,… when the Yankees won 109 freakin’ games. I made the comment 
this morning that they were envisioned as the second coming. Well, something different has happened thus far.

Mookie Betts and JD Martinez are outperforming the Yankee twosome in just about every department. Betts at .365
and JDM at .343 are one-and-two in the league for BA, and tied for the lead with 15 HR. Judge and Stanton follow a
ways behind at .282 and .263, respectively, and with 11 HR apiece. The combined Boston duo leads in runs scored, 79 to 65,…
doubles, 31 to 20,… SB, 11 to 4,… RBI, 73 to 62, and WAR, 5.6 to 3.5. Betts is OPS’ing 1.198,… JDM, 1.077. Judge has .962
and Stanton, .872. Like I said,… no contest.

I know that performance rates change and it’s only a quarter of a season,….. but who would have guessed this out of the gate?

[ghost of miles]

Damn, Gleyber Torres is exceeding the hype so far... best #9 hitter in baseball right now. And seems like an upbeat class act too; after he homered in his first AB and came to the plate next time on the heels of Walker’s HR, Colon pretty clearly drilled him on purpose. Torres put his head down and ran to first; next time up, he went yard on Colon again, this time to deep centerfield, and knocked him out of the game.

[soulpope]

4 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Damn, Gleyber Torres is exceeding the hype so far... best #9 hitter in baseball right now. And seems like an upbeat class act too; after he homered in his first AB and came to the plate next time on the heels of Walker’s HR, Colon pretty clearly drilled him on purpose. Torres put his head down and ran to first; next time up, he went yard on Colon again, this time to deep centerfield, and knocked him out of the game.

That`s correct - Torres had definitely the KO punch on Colon .....

[Soulstation1]

Tribe blasted the Cubbies last night 

🙂

[Dan Gould]

So Pedroia comes off the DL today and ... they DFA Hanley Ramirez????

WTFH?

I know Hanley isn't having a great season to date though there was a period where he was as hot a hitter as ever.  In fact I remember seeing a reference to him being in a contract year.  And they are doing this to keep from releasing Blake Swihart, out of options and to all indications at the very best a AAAA player.  Third string catcher and with a handful of starts at DH. 

Seriously, WHTFH?

Maybe Hanley is done. Maybe he isn't. There's no reason not find out if he gets hot again. Maybe he gets hot and flipped to another contender at the deadline. You could get a AAAA prospect to replace Swihart, that's for damn sure.

Now I am wondering whether Hanley had makable incentives to make an option year vest if they kept him on the team. But this is dumb, dumb, dumb and not only because Hanley is better than he's shown to date, but Moreland will get exposed as every day 1B especially vs lefties.  Which Hanley can still hit.

[soulpope]

8 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

So Pedroia comes off the DL today and ... they DFA Hanley Ramirez????

WTFH?

I know Hanley isn't having a great season to date though there was a period where he was as hot a hitter as ever.  In fact I remember seeing a reference to him being in a contract year.  And they are doing this to keep from releasing Blake Swihart, out of options and to all indications at the very best a AAAA player.  Third string catcher and with a handful of starts at DH. 

Seriously, WHTFH?

Maybe Hanley is done. Maybe he isn't. There's no reason not find out if he gets hot again. Maybe he gets hot and flipped to another contender at the deadline. You could get a AAAA prospect to replace Swihart, that's for damn sure.

Now I am wondering whether Hanley had makable incentives to make an option year vest if they kept him on the team. But this is dumb, dumb, dumb and not only because Hanley is better than he's shown to date, but Moreland will get exposed as every day 1B especially vs lefties.  Which Hanley can still hit.

And furthermore owing money to  Sandoval, Gonzalez etc ....

[jazztrain]

17 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

So Pedroia comes off the DL today and ... they DFA Hanley Ramirez????

WTFH?

I know Hanley isn't having a great season to date though there was a period where he was as hot a hitter as ever.  In fact I remember seeing a reference to him being in a contract year.  And they are doing this to keep from releasing Blake Swihart, out of options and to all indications at the very best a AAAA player.  Third string catcher and with a handful of starts at DH. 

Seriously, WHTFH?

Maybe Hanley is done. Maybe he isn't. There's no reason not find out if he gets hot again. Maybe he gets hot and flipped to another contender at the deadline. You could get a AAAA prospect to replace Swihart, that's for damn sure.

Now I am wondering whether Hanley had makable incentives to make an option year vest if they kept him on the team. But this is dumb, dumb, dumb and not only because Hanley is better than he's shown to date, but Moreland will get exposed as every day 1B especially vs lefties.  Which Hanley can still hit.

I was surprised by this move, but Hanley has not looked good lately.  Moreland is hitting and playing better defense at first.  Hanley had a vesting option for, I think, $22 million for next year based on at bats.  He was well on his way to vesting if he continued to play anywhere near the amount that he had been so far.

Still, a big surprise.  Did not see it coming.  FWIW, he seemed to be far more engaged this year than he had been earlier.  

[Dan Gould]

There's no loss in losing Swihart to waivers. He's replacement level. Before he fell off so much Hanley could have been Cooperstown-bound. Even keeping him the lineup he wasn't hurting the offense very much and he was still punishing mistakes occasionally.  He gets hot he carries the team for two weeks. 

And if he was headed for a vesting option, so what? The team can afford it. And didn't Moreland sign for just a year?  They'll need someone for 1b next year.

[Soulstation1]

Astros still the best team in mlb 

[soulpope]

Quite impressive ....

https://sports.yahoo.com/aaron-judge-saved-yankees-incredible-100-mph-throw-023809354.html

[Dan Gould]

14 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

There's no loss in losing Swihart to waivers. He's replacement level. Before he fell off so much Hanley could have been Cooperstown-bound. Even keeping him the lineup he wasn't hurting the offense very much and he was still punishing mistakes occasionally.  He gets hot he carries the team for two weeks. 

And if he was headed for a vesting option, so what? The team can afford it. And didn't Moreland sign for just a year?  They'll need someone for 1b next year.

Hanley OPS'd over .900 in April. He falls off (severely) in April and gets shit-canned?  Let's say he was riding the pines like Swihart was and ought to be. With Pedroia back, your right handed pinch hitter is Eduardo Nunez instead of Hanley Ramirez.

That is dumb fucking roster management.

[Brad]

I believe it had to do with a vesting option for 2019 based on combined plate appearances for 2017 and 2018, which he was on his way to meeting. 

[jlhoots]

Brewers continue to do well.

[ghost of miles]

7 hours ago, soulpope said:

Quite impressive ....

https://sports.yahoo.com/aaron-judge-saved-yankees-incredible-100-mph-throw-023809354.html

The later throw was pretty good as well! Judge is definitely an asset in right field. That first assist definitely saved Severino’s bacon in the third inning. 

Odd that the Angels scratched Ohtani as tomorrow’s starter—second time they’ve nixed him from facing the Yankees. Michael Kay had an interesting long-game speculation about it last night... are they looking ahead to a possible Angels-Yankees wildcard game scenario in which they could run Ohtani out (as a pitcher) against a Yankee lineup that had never seen him before?  

[soulpope]

35 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

The later throw was pretty good as well! Judge is definitely an asset in right field. That first assist definitely saved Severino’s bacon in the third inning. 

Odd that the Angels scratched Ohtani as tomorrow’s starter—second time they’ve nixed him from facing the Yankees. Michael Kay had an interesting long-game speculation about it last night... are they looking ahead to a possible Angels-Yankees wildcard game scenario in which they could run Ohtani out (as a pitcher) against a Yankee lineup that had never seen him before?  

Yeah both throws were top notch .... interesting thoughts about why scratching Ohtani' s start....

[Brad]

I seriously doubt that the Angels are thinking that far ahead about a WC game (especially when the Yankees will probably win the division).  I follow the Angels (along with the Mets) and they probably didn’t want to expose him to that joke of a right field fence or get caught up in the hype. As far as Michael Kay goes, I would take anything he says with 10 grains of salt. 

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

I seriously doubt that the Angels are thinking that far ahead about a WC game (especially when the Yankees will probably win the division).  I follow the Angels (along with the Mets) and they probably didn’t want to expose him to that joke of a right field fence or get caught up in the hype. As far as Michael Kay goes, I would take anything he says with 10 grains of salt. 

I believe a capable pitcher will have success despite this "joke of a right field fence" .... so for Ohtani's reputation do presume this not being the reason ...

Edited May 26, 2018 by soulpope

[Brad]

I think they want to avoid the big stage at this point.  After all, it is Yankee Stadium and there is a lot of hype about this series. If the Angels make the playoffs (a big if), there will be time enough for a matchup. 

[ghost of miles]

2 hours ago, Brad said:

I seriously doubt that the Angels are thinking that far ahead about a WC game (especially when the Yankees will probably win the division).  I follow the Angels (along with the Mets) and they probably didn’t want to expose him to that joke of a right field fence or get caught up in the hype. As far as Michael Kay goes, I would take anything he says with 10 grains of salt. 

He was just speculating, but in this age of jockeying for any micro-advantage you can find, it wouldn’t really astonish me. Obviously video is plentiful to study, but it’s still not the same as having actually faced a pitcher in a game. I’m also not as confident as you that the Yankees will edge Boston for the division.

Here’s a NY move of which I don’t approve:

Yankees activate Bird, option Torreyes

Why Torreyes instead of Austin? Toe is versatile, playing well at second, shortstop and third, is an excellent contach hitter, and plays well off the bench no matter how long he’s been sitting. Austin hits HRs against lefties and that’s about it... I’m not as sold on him as other Yankee fans are, and we’re well-stocked against lefties as it is. Plus Toe brings such a great spirit to the clubhouse and dugout. Oh well, he may not be down at Scranton for long, given how brittle Bird’s proven to be.

[Soulstation1]

Tribe best 24W / 25L team in MLB 

[Dave Garrett]

17 hours ago, Soulstation1 said:

Astros still the best team in mlb 

I shouldn't be surprised anymore, having seen them do it so many times before, but it was still sort of shocking last night to see Kluber stifle the Stros with six innings of shutout ball, only to see them put a vicious beatdown on Cleveland's bullpen with eleven unanswered runs in the eighth and ninth. Certainly sympathetic to the conundrum Tito has to deal with, as the Stros have definitely had their own well-documented bullpen woes in the not-too-distant past. 

[Soulstation1]