2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[MalaCloudy Black]

48 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

I don't need Rizzo, Bryant or Baez. I have Rafael "3 homers in a game" Ortega now!

Update: we still needed Rizzo, Bryant and Baez.

[The Buscher]

12 minutes ago, damshow said:

Those A's teams he oversaw had a fair amount of *ahem* help with their offensive production.

He was announced as Cohen’s first hire, a month and a half before the owners did their approval vote.  To this day it feels like his appointment was meant to appease owners who were uneasy with a guy with this level of fuck you money buying a team without any checks and balances.

My dream scenario is it turns out he was only ever a one-year transition guy, he “retires” after this year.  Of course, Theo is who Mets fans want and and he sure didn’t sound last year like a man who wants to go back to a front office.  But maybe a blank check changes that.

[GhostMachine]

The Blue Jays apparently traded John Axford to the Brewers for a really....ahem...exhorbitant amount.....ONE. DOLLAR.

Granted, he hasn't pitched in a MLB game since 2018, but....daaaamn.

 

[Gabriel]

36 minutes ago, GhostMachine said:

The Blue Jays apparently traded John Axford to the Brewers for a really....ahem...exhorbitant amount.....ONE. DOLLAR.

Granted, he hasn't pitched in a MLB game since 2018, but....daaaamn.

 

They brought him in for depth and then re-tooled through trades instead. Moving him was a favor to give him a chance to pitch at the major league level this season. He deserves it. Apparently he got injured today though.

[The Buscher]

For as much as people complain about the Mets' hitting coaches this season, there isn't a hitting coach in the country that would tell a hitter to swing 3-0 at a ball you can't drive.  The Mets do it multiple times a game.

That's not on the coaches.  This is just a collection of very low IQ players who don't have an approach at the plate other than swinging for the fences in every AB.  It's terrible to watch and a big reason why they will be out of first place by the end of the week.

[The Buscher]

Mets played a noon game in Miami today.  Turned the start of the game on at lunch.  Mets immediately get the bases loaded with no outs.  Given the way the season has gone with RISP especially with less than 2 outs, there isn’t a Mets fan out there that expects them to actually push across a run.

Davis K.  Baez K.  Conforto fly out.  Inning over.

Turned the game off.  I’ve never seen a team look this helpless in these situations.

[gunnar hendershow]

Every day baseball provides me with something new.

 

[The Buscher]

Anthony “taking more time to review the data” Rizzo becomes the latest Yankee to test positive for COVID.

[DMN in the House]

On 01/08/2021 at 14:30, damshow said:

Those A's teams he oversaw had a fair amount of *ahem* help with their offensive production.

Yeah, having Rickey Henderson, arguably the best baseball player ever, hitting lead-off is almost cheating.

[The Buscher]

On the pregame thread on the Mets board I frequent today, all of us were talking of Zack Wheeler as though a shutout was inevitable.  Beyond the fact the hasn't been able to hit in weeks and in particularly look terrible against fastballs, you had all of this other stuff in play:

1) Cy Young favorite Wheeler getting the chance to humiliate his old team
2) Phillies retiring Roy Halladay's number in front of a charged up crowd
3) Met killers Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins in the building for extra bad mojo
4) Steve Cohen reportedly held a team meeting before the game

Wheeler then, of course, coasted through a 2-hit shutout like it was nothing.

[gunnar hendershow]

Wheeler could win Cy Young and Harper could win MVP. I definitely didn't see this at all coming from the Phillies but they are firing on all cylinders at just the right time.

[The Buscher]

Yep.  8 game winning streak for the Phillies coinciding with a 1-7 stretch from the Mets, from the morning of August 1st to now the Mets went from being 4 games up in the East to 2.5 down.

I'd call it a collapse but that would imply that the Mets ever felt comfortably ahead.  Even with a 7 game lead it was clear watching the team every night that they were more of a product of the division than anything.  If I could find a way to describe it - the Mets felt like they rarely actually went out and won games, they just didn't always lose them.  Like how in the span of 4 days they beat the Diamondbacks and Orioles in the same ridiculous fashion - with a walkoff bases loaded infield dribbler.

[The Buscher]

LEAVE THE MEMORIES ALONE

[Slogger]

13 minutes ago, Buschie Kay said:

LEAVE THE MEMORIES ALONE

I choose to remember the happy times

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Basically this is a buyout but giving him the ability to say he retired. They're going to pay him his money but they'll get him off the 40-man roster for good.

I'll fondly remember 2012-13 when he went from folk hero to superstar before crashing back to earth and then eventually becoming the worst player in history.

[The Buscher]

Strangest thing about that Orioles/Davis contract was that it didn't happen until January 2016 and Davis had no other known suitors at the time.  He probably would have eventually tapped out and taken a short-term deal but the Orioles basically bid against themselves.

[gunnar hendershow]

14 minutes ago, Buschie Kay said:

Strangest thing about that Orioles/Davis contract was that it didn't happen until January 2016 and Davis had no other known suitors at the time.  He probably would have eventually tapped out and taken a short-term deal but the Orioles basically bid against themselves.

There was (rumored) pressure on Duquette to make it happen no matter what. Just classic Orioles front office mismanagement. They made a huge offer, nobody else came close, Davis came back to them and they basically had to give him the agreed upon deal.

Honestly I was fine with it at the time because I thought it meant they'd start spending more on keeping the established stars and that they'd work out an extension with Machado soon after. Instead it was an either/or proposition. Worse yet is the same offseason they could've had Machado signed up long-term on a similar deal. Bear in mind he was coming off two seasons cut short by injury and had a breakout in 2015 that he logically wanted to cash in on quickly in case his knees fell apart. 

The 2014 Orioles had (excluding injuries and PED suspensions) Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Manny Machado, Matt Wieters, Nelson Cruz, Chris Davis, and Zach Britton. They let 4 of those guys walk, traded 2 for basically zero return, and signed the worst of all of them to a huge contract. It's about the worst bit of front office decision-making in history.

[Toe]

For a decent stretch, Chris Davis was one of the most feared hitters in baseball. And even in failure, he accomplished something incredible.

(73) Chris Davis’s Streak Was a One in a Million Life Lesson | Baseball Bits - YouTube

[Your Mom]

I know he sucked pretty bad this year but I still can't believe we released Arrieta. I was sure they would just let him ride out the year since we aren't playing for anything anyway. Oh well I'll always remember the good times Jake!  

[gunnar hendershow]

This is really for the best. He's done as a major leaguer. He might give spring training a shot somewhere next year but at some point he'll be back in Chicago to get a raucous ovation after he retires. No point just hanging on and piling up a few more bad memories.