The Official 2018 Major League Baseball Thread

[Stradling]

1 hour ago, OHTANILAND said:

Mr. Milestone

.248/.267/.425/.692-

OPS+89 - 5 HR - 14 RBI

Yep it pisses me off the Angels chose Ohtani over Cron.  By the way, remember when you hated Cron?   I do. 

[DMVol]

12 hours ago, Lou said:

Since the curtain call game, DiDi has gone 0-11 with 5 KS. 

His average has dropped 41 points.

Don't violate an unwritten baseball rule....Karma is a son of a gun too....

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, hangin n wangin said:

Can you explain this? Pujols is playing first base. We would still DH Ohtani on his hitting days. So Cron would take Pujols' would realistically be taking Pujols' spot, who freaking sucks.

But we knew that would never happen for whatever stupid reason. Money. Respect. Whatever. Not good enough reasons for me. i want the guy in there that produces more. 

I was not a Cron fan at all, but I knew and still know he is better than what we are running our at first base almost every day. And that's Albert Pujols....not Shohei Ohtani.

You answered it yourself, Albert wasn’t going anywhere.   Cron plays one position, Marte 3, Valbuena 2.  The moment we won the Ohtani sweepstakes Cron was gone.   Is he better than Albert sure, by enough to justify releasing Albert to keep him, no, not even close.   

[arch stanton]

Yeah. CJ Cron would push us right over the top

[zenmaster]

A position player needing TJ surgery sounds like something that could only happen to us.

[T.G.]

[Make Angels Great Again]

24 minutes ago, hangin n wangin said:

 Albert is a bench player at this point in his career, and that's putting it nicely. That's where he should have went in my opinion, with Cron taking over 1st base. Cron isn't that good, but like you said, it would still be an upgrade. I don't care who it is, I just want the guy who is hitting best at first base. Whether that would have been Cron, Marte, or Valbuena. At some point, Pujols hitting everyday needs to stop and we need to start the process of him realizing it's over. When does it end cause this .230 average and .270 OBP is simply unacceptable for a number 4 hitter. It's a joke quite honestly. 

 I've said it before on here, but if he continues at this pace (basically what he did last year) again, he needs to be a bench player, at least.

I'm still not convinced that will happen.

 

I firmly believe that if Albert has another 2017 like year (or if he performs even worse), he's done as a starter.

[Stradling]

I really have no idea what is going to happen to Albert’s playing time.  

[Angelsfan1984]

55 minutes ago, hangin n wangin said:

Albert is a bench player at this point in his career, and that's putting it nicely. That's where he should have went in my opinion, with Cron taking over 1st base. Cron isn't that good, but like you said, it would still be an upgrade. I don't care who it is, I just want the guy who is hitting best at first base. Whether that would have been Cron, Marte, or Valbuena. At some point, Pujols hitting everyday needs to stop and we need to start the process of him realizing it's over. When does it end cause this .230 average and .270 OBP is simply unacceptable for a number 4 hitter. It's a joke quite honestly. 

I've said it before on here, but if he continues at this pace (basically what he did last year) again, he needs to be a bench player, at least.

I'm still not convinced that will happen.

They need to Loul Deng him. Let him get his 3,000 hits then force him to kick his feet up the rest of the season. In reality though he'll hit 4th for the next 3 years with a sub .280 obp.

[Angel Oracle]

I can see Pujols being a regular throughout this season; and then if this continues, a part-time starter in 2019 with the Halos hopefully convincing him to retire after 2019 and using the Bonilla strategy (if the AAV threshold rules allowing it) to spread out the remaining $59 million due Pujols after 2019 over about 10 years, and freeing up about $16 million AAV under the threshold for 2020-2021 and only adding about $8 million under it for 2022-2029.       Important to remember with hoping to extend Trout into the late 2020's without going over the threshold in 2021.

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, SuperTroopers said:

Yep it pisses me off the Angels chose Ohtani over Cron.  By the way, remember when you hated Cron?   I do. 

It's hilarious how so many AW peeps are suddenly slobbering over Cron. The same thing happened when Trumbo left and had a good month. When Cron finishes the season with a sub-.300 OBP*, we won't hear about him anymore.

*Yeah, yeah, I know ... Albert. But Cron wasn't traded because of Albert. He was traded because of Ohtani.

[m0nkey]

3 hours ago, OHTANILAND said:

Mr. Milestone

.248/.267/.425/.692-

OPS+89 - 5 HR - 14 RBI

LOL at mr. milestone 

[JustATroutFan]

Always liked Cron. Never heard any complaints from him about not getting enough playing time or given a chance of getting out of his slumps. MS didn't like Cron, as evidence by the fact that he send Cron down to the minor leagues last year AFTER hitting that grand slam against the Mets! Nice to see Cron playing well, always thought that he could be a good bat if he got enough playing time, like he did in 2016. 

[Stradling]

4 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

Always liked Cron. Never heard any complaints from him about not getting enough playing time or given a chance of getting out of his slumps. MS didn't like Cron, as evidence by the fact that he send Cron down to the minor leagues last year AFTER hitting that grand slam against the Mets! Nice to see Cron playing well, always thought that he could be a good bat if he got enough playing time, like he did in 2016. 

Sorry bud but that isn’t how this stuff works.  They don’t make decisions after the game on who gets sent down unless it is a pitcher because they need an extra arm.  You left out the part where the Mets starter gave up 10 runs in less than 2 innings.  You also left out that Scioscia hated him so much that the previous year he was the starting first baseman.  

[Homebrewer]

1 hour ago, SuperTroopers said:

I really have no idea what is going to happen to Albert’s playing time.  

Nor do you have an opinion about what should happen? Whatever Scioscia decides is always best, right?

[Stradling]

Just now, Homebrewer said:

Nor do you have an opinion about what should happen? Whatever Scioscia decides is always best, right?

What should happen is the team should play him this season and then reduce his role respectfully going forward.  That is my opinion of what should happen.  

[Angelsfan1984]

1 minute ago, Homebrewer said:

Nor do you have an opinion about what should happen? Whatever Scioscia decides is always best, right?

[JustATroutFan]

13 minutes ago, SuperTroopers said:

Sorry bud but that isn’t how this stuff works.  They don’t make decisions after the game on who gets sent down unless it is a pitcher because they need an extra arm.  You left out the part where the Mets starter gave up 10 runs in less than 2 innings.  You also left out that Scioscia hated him so much that the previous year he was the starting first baseman.  

There was no one else who could play first base that year on a regular basis. Then, Valbuena came along last season and we all know how much he is loved by Fat Mike. He continues to play that fool despite the fact that he has been terrible with that much playing time that he gets. 

[Homebrewer]

5 minutes ago, SuperTroopers said:

What should happen is the team should play him this season and then reduce his role respectfully going forward.  That is my opinion of what should happen.  

At this point (with Cron being traded away) there really aren't any better options, so that's a safe bet. I'd rather have Albert at 1st than a Nobuena-Marte platoon there..which only says how little I think of those two.

Albert actually doesn't look awful at 1B so far this season...but how long will that last?

[Stradling]

6 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

There was no one else who could play first base that year on a regular basis. Then, Valbuena came along last season and we all know how much he is loved by Fat Mike. He continues to play that fool despite the fact that he has been terrible with that much playing time that he gets. 

You do know Valbuena didn’t just come along, right?   Eppler signed him, to platoon.   It was probably Epplers biggest mistake.   Then when Valbuena missed the first month Cron hit .220 with zero power.   My guess is Scioscia doesn’t care for either players skill set because they are one dimensional.  

[Make Angels Great Again]

Real footage (with sound) of a 1931 game between the Skanks and Chowds.

 

[Stradling]

Just now, Homebrewer said:

At this point (with Cron being traded away) there really aren't any better options, so that's a safe bet. I'd rather have Albert at 1st than a Nobuena-Marte platoon there..which only says how little I think of those two.

Albert actually doesn't look awful at 1B so far this season...but how long will that last?

Yea I am pleasantly surprised by his defense.  I think it will last until he has another lower body injury.  I like Albert much better than I like Valbuena.   Albert strikes out less and changes his approach when runners are in scoring position.  I also trust his glove better than the other options.  

[Dick B Back]

Let’s get back to some real MLB talk and stuff. Enough of the Mang>Valbuena>Cron crap. Its like saying my Vega>Pinto>Gremlin.

Edited May 1, 2018 by Dick B Back

[Lou]

This is now . . .

6 hours ago, OHTANILAND said:

Mr. Milestone

.248/.267/.425/.692-

OPS+89 - 5 HR - 14 RBI

 

That was then . . . 

On February 17, 2018 at 6:09 PM, OHTANILAND said:

Cron is just another 1st Round pick that amounted to nothing. 

 

 

[Tank]

6 hours ago, OHTANILAND said:

Mr. Milestone

.248/.267/.425/.692-

OPS+89 - 5 HR - 14 RBI

i think you should also include marte's stats since albert isn't our only firstbaseman.