jessecrall

8 minutes ago, Lou said:

Some of you should really read the article I linked earlier in this thread. 

I read it when it came out. Bauer's a fool. 

10 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/05/24/trevor-bauer-gerrit-cole-ucla-dont-like-each-other/640362002/

Money Quote: "But I can’t tell you I know Bauer. I spoke with Bauer one time, and I said, 'I’ll never do that again. I’m good. I got my fill for a lifetime.'"

50 minutes ago, Tank said:

with that being the case, if efforts to sign Cole don't work out for the Angels, then they should target Bauer.

maybe I missed it, but has anyone explained why these two don't like each other? I'm wondering what happened.

According to Bauer, Cole told him at UCLA that he had no future in baseball. Then again, Bauer had zero friends in high school which is astonishing considering he would have been a star athlete so I think he's just a douche. 

3 minutes ago, #WeNasty said:

You can’t get both because they hate each other.  This is well documented.  Why would you want to knowingly do this to a clubhouse.

There's this great interview clip where a reporter's asking Alex Bregman about Bauer and how they go back and forth on Twitter and Bregman's genial about it until the reporter mentions that he and Bauer are friends or something at which point Bregman's face drops and he goes "We're not friends" and ends the interview. Ballplayers are grown men who can deal with guys they don't like but why expend the prospects required to land a pitcher with exactly 1 great season under his belt if there's any chance he'll give you headaches and hamper your ability to sign additional players? 

Cole > Bauer because Cole isn't a giant pain in the ass.

Small sample size alert, natch, but Fletcher's chase rate this year has dropped from 28% to 21% and his contact rate's gone from 91% to 96%. And based on his plate discipline and contact quality, he's been UNLUCKY this year so...I don't think it's crazy for him to end up with an average OPS+ along with his plus defense. 

If Ohtani's healthy and hitting anything close to what he did last year, he's starting every day. You can take Bour & Pujols' attitudes about playing time into account when there's a 10 point difference in OPS+ or there are distinct platoon advantages or disadvantages. But when you have someone coming off a season where he was 50% better than the average hitter AND he can run AND he improved significantly against lefties as the season went on AND he puts asses in seats, there's just no way he's sitting unless you want to give him rest for physical preservation. 

Bill James ran a simulation in his revised Historical Abstract in which he took peak Babe Ruth and put him in a lineup with 8 deadbeats and had a season where he was pitched to and a season in which he was intentionally walked every single time. The team where Ruth was walked every single time scored more runs. It's just rarely a good percentage play to intentionally walk someone even if Trout's hitting ahead of someone who's scuffling. He'll STILL draw intentional walks anyways but managers aren't operating on the same default that they were 15-20 years ago.

If three men don't reach base ahead of Trout, it's a solo shot. And if Skaggs gets bombed out of the game early and the bullpen doesn't step up, 5 runs might not do it. Trout deserves about $430 million worth of credit for what he does but I think his WAR is generally accurate.

3 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

The biggest issues to me are too many strikeouts, too many pitching changes and too much standing around between pitches. Two of those can be corrected. I’m not sure what to do about the strikeouts. Pitchers are just getting too good.

Maybe expansion will help thin the pitching so there are less 98 mph throwers per team. And maybe limit the number of pitchers on a roster so there’s more emphasis on pitching to contact and being efficient, since you can’t use 5 pitchers in a game for 15 pitches each. 

I'm with you on this, mainly because I want a diverse game; not just in terms of where players are from but HOW they play. Watching an endless parade of relievers throwing 98  to .240 power hitters is limiting the game. Baseball has already made adjustments to deal with imbalances via lowered mounds, altered strike zones, humidors, QuestTec...none of this is some grand violation of a pristine pastime.

Seeing Kate Bush live

Watching GOODFELLAS for the first time

Having Megan Ellison back a dump truck full of money to my door so I can direct an over-budgeted adaptation of Richard Yates' THE EASTER PARADE with Saoirse Ronan

5 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

maybe from an information standpoint.  Delivery?   not so much.  

He stays within his game, doesn't try to do too much, that's what gets him into trouble, just trying to go out there, do the interview right and uh, yeah.

*Alex Curry beams*

1 hour ago, Dochalo said:

the media has to do it job and ask the question.  I don't blame them for that.  

here's my armchair psych eval on that interview:

Mike doesn't have the greatest interview skills.  It seems he gets nervous and is given a set of lines to regurgitate. 

I think he has great interview skills precisely because he regurgitates the same lines over and over again. 

Considering a scout last year was quoted as saying Ohtani had a high school bat, I wouldn't bet against him defying expectations once again.

I agree with Ohtani's comment; in the end, he made it abundantly clear that he could adjust to lefties and belonged in the lineup everyday. That's pretty important considering he knew he was only going to have value as a hitter in 2019.

I wouldn't worry much over rankings; the tools for Canning are consistent across all the respected publications so it really comes down to people weighing judgments over ceilings vs floors or talent vs durability. The Fangraphs guys are good and they say Canning's FV tools are all 50 and up; that's not out of synch with anyone else.

The point of ZIPS is to project how people would do with regular playing time as opposed to projecting roster decisions and coming up with essentially useless predictions like "What would Rengifo do if he got 47 plate appearances at the tail end of the season?" Obviously, Brennon Lund isn't going to play 106 games unless multiple team planes crash but it's more helpful and interesting to see what he'd do if given the chance.

Keith Law in his chat today:

-He sees Rengifo as a plausible long-term solution at 2B

-He loves Jahmai Jones, thinks he's already an adequate 2B but needs to produce

-Jordyn Adams hasn't played enough to break his top-100, could be a superstar, could make the biggest jump in his 2020 rankings

I've been an Angels fan for 20 years. Ohtani's 2nd start against Oakland is the most dominant performance I've ever seen from a Halo. If he can give you 20 starts a year without screwing up his swing, you run with it. Plus, the Angels have talented outfield prospects coming out of their ears.

It's probably Griffey, maybe A-Rod...Trout was a better prospect than Vlad Jr, I think. It's hard to guess because in retrospect, you end up gravitating toward guys who had huge careers.

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Thankfully I've never had any surgery but I assume the doctor shows you everything that they will be doing prior to whatever surgery you're having. That makes sense to me. Yes, watching an abortion is disgusting and could be traumatizing. That just shows you what abortion truly is.

It's true. No open heart surgery can begin without the patient watching a 5-hour-long long video detailing the procedure in all its gruesome details. It's kinda cool, actually. The patient is Ray Liotta and he narrates the whole thing. 

That's one way to fix those overcrowded subways...

16 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Nice.

Rengifo should get a look as well.

Rengifo (and Suarez) are on the 40-man already.

Considering the volatility I've seen on Jones' recent scouting reports, this isn't bad news.

11 hours ago, Lou said:

I like jessecrall.  

so, jesse, how is/was your relationship with your father?

Not something I can get into using my real name but if you've seen ZODIAC, he was basically Robert Downey Jr. toward the tail end of that.