2018 MLB Thread

[Meacon Keaton]

As they should. 

On the flip side, Andujar was screwed out of the ROY because he wasn’t a media darling like Ohtani.

[gunnar hendershow]

39 minutes ago, Buschie Van Wagenen said:

Blake Snell and JACOB MOTHEREFFING DEGROM are your 2018 Cy Young Award winners 

Some asshat voted for Scherzer to deprive deGrom of the unanimous win.

[The Buscher]

37 minutes ago, Meacon said:

On the flip side, Andujar was screwed out of the ROY because he wasn’t a media darling like Ohtani.

I don’t really think that’s fair.

Ohtani had a 40 point advantage in OPS and SLG over Andujar while hitting only five fewer home runs despite 247 fewer at-bats.  That he primarily DH’ed can’t really be held against him when defensive metrics support that Andujar was one of the worst fielders in baseball (-25 DRS, -2.2 dWAR).  And that’s not even factoring in Ohtani pitching a third of the season and doing a good job of it.

Andujar is a hell of a hitter, and if the Yankees can figure a way to get him over to 1B he’ll become even more valuable.  But to suggest that it was a screwjob seems a bit much.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Poor screwed Yankees player

[Meacon Keaton]

21 minutes ago, Buschie Van Wagenen said:

I don’t really think that’s fair.

Ohtani had a 40 point advantage in OPS and SLG over Andujar while hitting only five fewer home runs despite 247 fewer at-bats.  That he primarily DH’ed can’t really be held against him when defensive metrics support that Andujar was one of the worst fielders in baseball (-25 DRS, -2.2 dWAR).  And that’s not even factoring in Ohtani pitching a third of the season and doing a good job of it.

Andujar is a hell of a hitter, and if the Yankees can figure a way to get him over to 1B he’ll become even more valuable.  But to suggest that it was a screwjob seems a bit much.

Almost 50 doubles. Almost 30 home runs. Andujar also struck out 5 times LESS than Ohtani in 250 more plate appearances. If you're going to grade Andujar's poor fielding against him, you absolutely have to count Ohtani DH'ing against him. 

To think that the media hadn't crowned Ohtani the Rookie of the Year from the moment he signed his contract isn't even gullible. It's a gullicalf. 

11 minutes ago, ClouDOOM said:

Poor screwed Yankees player

Win one World Series in a century and the gloves come off. I see how it is.

[MalaCloudy Black]

The gloves are always off when it's the Yankees, you've been a fan for how long? You should know this! I'll throw bombs if I gotta!

[GhostMachine]

50 minutes ago, damsher hatfield said:

Some asshat voted for Scherzer to deprive deGrom of the unanimous win.

Some other asshat is both getting laughed at AND reamed on Facebook for saying Scherzer should have won. (I'm one of those laughing at him.)

[Meacon Keaton]

220 innings pitched, 300 strike outs, and a WHIP of .90. I'm fine with deGrom winning, but let's not act like the guy voted for Ivan Nova or something. Scherzer still put together a ridiculously good year that would be Cy Young winning in any other year than this. 

[GhostMachine]

I think its a combination of Nationals fan (or Mets  hater) and someone who thinks wins-losses matter even if you're the best pitcher on a garbage team type situation, Meacon.

 

[Meacon Keaton]

I’m neither a National fan or Met hater, but I think it’s odd to mock or belittle someone for thinking Scherzer had a Cy Young type year.

[The Buscher]

1 hour ago, Meacon said:

If you're going to grade Andujar's poor fielding against him, you absolutely have to count Ohtani DH'ing against him. 

Not really.  Strictly in terms of defense a guy who doesn’t field at all is more valuable than a guy who fields and actively hurts his team while doing so.

[Meacon Keaton]

Harold Baines and his 2800 hits would be in the Hall of Fame if he had played the outfield more and DH'd less. 

Andujar also didn't miss two months of the season. He also didn't strike out 33% of his at-bats. But I digress. 

[The Buscher]

Not Ohtani’s fault that voters are only now starting to realize that punishing guys for primarily DHing is stupid.  He was on pace to surpass Andujar in more offensive categories.  Can’t argue the strikeouts other than to say they’re sky high league wide with no signs of coming down.

Anyway, Andujar’s really good, but I think if he and Ohtani’s teams were flipped there would be no outcry from the NY media over who won the award.

[The Buscher]

I've also got one of my friends who is a Red Sox fan kvetching about Alex Cora not winning Manager of the Year (Bob Melvin and Brian Snitker won).  "How can he not be Manager of the Year when he won 108 games in his rookie year?"

I don't understand the beef other than blatant homerism.  It didn't take an Einstein to run that team.  The award usually always goes based on whatever team exceeded expectations.  Not saying Cora isn't a good manager but that team was so stacked I'm fairly sure anybody in this thread could've gotten them to the playoffs.

[Meacon Keaton]

“On pace to surpass” means he did not actually do it. Shouldn’t give out awards on projections. The list of guys winning based on projected stats is about as long as the list of DH award winners. 😛 

But yeah, I never got Yankee/Red Sox fans getting upset about their managers not winning manager of the year. Look at how much money you spent on that team. You better damn well win 108 games and the World Series. You’re not winning 90 games with change you found in the sofa like Tampa (...Bay!!!)

[The Buscher]

Yes but it's not like Ohtani's projections are based on an insignificant amount of playing time (though I do love joking about "on pace for" stats a week into the season), he only appeared as a hitter in 45 fewer games which is barely over a quarter of the season.  He did enough to at least make the argument he would've surpassed Andujar in HR and other categories.  Keith Law's the first guy to yell about small sample size and he voted Ohtani.

I think we can all agree though that the worst ballot belonged to Dick Scanlon of the Tampa Bay Ledger.  Not only was he the only ballot to leave off Ohtani, he also left off Torres in favor of Joey Wendle and Ryan Yarbrough.  Did he leave Ohtani off because he missed time?  No - he left him off because he "doesn't consider him a rookie" since he played at a very high level in another league.  Terrible.

Can't wait to see what that guy's HOF ballot looks like.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Shohei Ohtani was absolutely the right choice. Not only was just as good as Andujar (struck out a little more, got on base a little more). Had nearly the same number of home runs and pitched for a third of the season and was above average. He was more valuable of a player than Andujar.

[ThrillhouseMAX]

So, so, so happy about DeGrom being Cy Young 😍

 

Marlins have new logo and colors (in spoilers bc of size)

Spoiler

Colors are listed officially as Caliente Red, Miami Blue, Midnight Black, and Slate Grey. Kinda sorta reminds me of the Heat's Vice jerseys 

Probably won't happen, but it'd be interesting to see an all-black road or alternate uniform that looked something like this. 

 

[gunnar hendershow]

It's an upgrade. But another team wearing red and blue is boring. They had teal, why can't they go back to teal?

[Meacon Keaton]

Christian Yelich is your 2018 NL MVP.

Mookie Betts is your 2018 AL MVP.