2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[Your Mom]

I love this man already. LETS FUCKING GO!  

[ThrillhouseMAX]

Man, I love Stro. Sad to see him leave the Mets, but hope he does well in Chicago. 

[Lowerdeck]

I don't understand trading Renfroe for JBJ

[The Buscher]

As expected, the owners unanimously voted to lock out the players and it took effect at 12:01 AM Eastern.

MLB.com along with all official team sites removed all articles pertaining to recent player transactions, as if they never happened. All player pictures were removed from the roster pages too.

[gunnar hendershow]

At least with this work stoppage I assume people won't irrationally blame the players like they did with the strike.

[The Buscher]

I didn't think someone could make a worse proposal than Rob Manfred, but here we are:

 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Lol and he's super butthurt and QTing and replying to tweets calling out what an awful "solution" it is. 

[Krabby]

What in the XFL is that guy on?

[gunnar hendershow]

If you like cheating in baseball now just wait until cheating quite literally pays.

[Your Mom]

meh I didn't want Carlos Correa anyway!

[The Buscher]

Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, and Buck O’Neil have been elected to the Hall of Fame.

[gunnar hendershow]

18 hours ago, CM Busch said:

Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, and Buck O’Neil have been elected to the Hall of Fame.

The fact at least 2 of these people (Buck O'Neil and Bud Fowler) hadn't been in the HOF for years is one of the more incredible indictments of the HOF. Still so much racism to fix in Cooperstown.

Like you're forgiven for not inducting Kaat at a time when you absolutely had to win 300 games or have a career ERA under 3.00 to get in, he came close to 300 and had a historically good glove as a pitcher.

Tony Oliva would be an average offensive player based on his numbers today but much of his prime occurred at a time when some of the most dominant pitchers in the game were active. I guess by the time he was HOF eligible offense had rebounded and his numbers looked average.

Gil Hodges was a preeminent defensive player and until recently that was overlooked. Fair.

Minnie Minoso is probably the most beloved White Sox player in history and actually I can't believe he wasn't in already. Always assumed he was a Hall of Famer. Don't know how they didn't induct him when he first hit the ballot.

[The Buscher]

I'm over the moon that Hodges finally made it in.  Great defensive player, a power bat for his era and then his managerial career including taking the Mets to a World Series after years of futility.

I just recently learned that Hodges was actually elected in by the Veterans Committee in 1993, he earned the necessary 12 out of 16 votes.  But the by-laws stipulated at the time that the voters needed to convene in person to certify their votes and one of Hodges' voters, Roy Campanella, was hospitalized.  So Ted Williams who oversaw the committee at the time threw Campanella's votes out, costing Hodges and Leon Day election.  Day got in two years later, ridiculous that it took Hodges nearly three more decades.

[The Buscher]

The Mets have begun scheduling interviews with managerial candidates as that's about all they can do during the lockout.  I get the sense that a pretty sizable contingent of the fanbase, particularly the older fans, are going to melt down if the team doesn't hire Buck Showalter, or at the very least a manager with previous MLB experience.

They don't want another first-time manager taking over a team that is even more veteran-heavy after last week's signings, especially since a manager's primary role now is to maintain the clubhouse.  Moreover despite being an older guy, Showalter's embraced analytics while at the same time having the panache to go with his gut when the situation calls for it.

You'd take the good and the bad with him.  The good being that he's taken multiple teams to the playoffs.  The bad being his "managing with his gut" moments leading to stuff like Zack Britton sitting in the bullpen during a winner take all game.

[GhostMachine]

Showalter would be an excellent choice. Hell, if they can't post a winning (or at least close to winning) record with him at the helm, then something is seriously wrong.

My theory? Someone tried to put a curse on the Yankees years ago, and it somehow went on the wrong team.

[Gabriel]

Freddy Galvis will be playing the next two seasons in Japan. Good for him, getting that guaranteed money and avoiding the headache of the lockout... but man, I had him on my list of guys I wanted the Jays to go get (again, in his case).

I know they've been linked to many different options, but I am not confident that we can replace Semien without breaking the bank. Galvis would have been a really good option to have in the infield for a couple years while we sort through the prospects. His bat doesn't play as well as Semien's does, but Galvis has some pop and tends to be consistent. He's a smart player and his fielding skills are excellent. Hiding a guy like him among the lineup of mashers that we have would have given him a real opportunity to surprise at the plate too.

[MalaCloudy Black]

https://defector.com/espn-boldly-asks-what-if-these-two-generational-athletes-were-just-average-athletes/

I rather like this article. Ray Ratto's always good for a good take.

Quote

 

Or we can all sit down and agree that the people who operate and defend baseball should probably act like grownups and say this instead:

“We did it for the money, you naive simps, just like we did the color line and five rounds of expansion and livelier and deader baseballs and seven-inning doubleheaders and arbitrary baserunners. We did it because baseball actually isn’t the most rigid of sports as you might imagine, but as the most malleable. We’ll do anything to anything if it means you give money to us and we get to keep it.”

All this is, if it has a name, is fetishizing some arbitrarily assigned new numbers to old deeds. It’s too difficult to say, “The people who ran, supervised and played baseball were committing massive felonies but were cool with all of it because everybody was getting their taste, and sports figures on both sides of the desk have a much more casual and even frosty relationship with fair play and even the law than they want to admit.” Szymborski’s numbers say what they say, and I would defend his math skills against anyone. They just don’t say anything about what actually happened, or how many times, or for whom, or to whom, and explains nothing in an old and pedantic way.

 

 

[The Buscher]

Buck Showalter is indeed the new manager of the New York Mets.

[gunnar hendershow]

I love Buck and he was an amazing manager here in Baltimore. One extremely glaring mistake in a playoff game doesn't cloud an endless amount of smart in-game decisions. He'll wear it his welcome by sticking with his guys over better alternatives soon enough but for a franchise in a win now environment that doesn't and shouldn't matter.

[The Buscher]

On 18/12/2021 at 14:55, damshow said:

I love Buck and he was an amazing manager here in Baltimore. One extremely glaring mistake in a playoff game doesn't cloud an endless amount of smart in-game decisions.

I’d say the reaction to the hire from the Mets fanbase so far is like 90-95% positive.  The rest are stubbornly insisting that Buck won’t embrace analytics and that the assertion that he will is just a narrative made up by media members who wanted him to get the job.

Seems kinda insulting and ageist to imply that an older manager won’t use data to make informed decisions.  His own players say he does.  No manager can get a job nowadays if they ignore advanced stats.  But he’s got enough experience to know when to use his instincts.