MLB 2022…

@jumpkutz Your pitchers/catchers report countdown…came and went.

We know the Commissioner of any sport works FOR the owners. However, the great Commissioners are able to walk the tightrope, build consensus on both sides, convince ownership to compromise, and above all ACT FOR the GOOD of the GAME.. Rob Manfred (not going to lie, unless I read an article, I can never remember the buffoon’s name) has never done any of those, and simply is a spineless piece of &$@*that collects obscene paychecks (Manfred’s salary is $11 million, think about that for a second) and is Hellbent to drive the bus over the cliff all the while thinking he’s doing a good job for his bosses. I could rant on about this idiot and the vast majority of scumbags that own teams, but we’ll likely have plenty more time for that.

https://www.talkingchop.com/platfor.../mlb-news-rob-manfred-owners-cba-negotiations

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...-reid-detmers-throws-no-hitter-tampa-bay-rays

@jumpkutz The kid outta U of Louisville Reid Detmers w/the No-No last night (final 3 outs above). He’s only 22, and is just beginning to learn how to pitch at the Big League level.

Low and behold, the Halos finally have a pitching staff/defense worthy of the greatness of Mike Trout (2 HRs last night). Shohei Ohtani is doing things only he can do. It’s early, but it’s nice to feel positive for a change instead of dread.

 

Yeah. Surprising. He was very good in college, but I never figured he had the kind of stuff to throw a no-no. Darn near threw a perfect game. If memory serves, I thought he was a reliever at U of L. Guess not. All he's gotta do is stay healthy and keep throwing the ball like that.

 

We're at the two month mark in the 2022 season, and the inevitable separation of the contenders and pretenders. The Cardinals just swept their first series at home vs. the Padres, who are 3 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. St. Louis is 3 games behind the Brewers in the Central. The other division leaders are the Mets, Yankees, Minnesota and Houston. Those four are all at least 5 games or more ahead of the second place team. The defending champion Braves are already 10 games behind New York in the NL East. At the other end of the standings, the Reds began the year 3 and 20. They're still last in the Central, but they've improved to 17 and 32, and aren't even the worst team in either league at the moment. That would be the Royals, who have won only 16 games and lost 33 for a .327 win percentage.
There's still four months of baseball left, so no one's really out of it. But I don't see the Royal's, A's or Nationals getting better soon enough to turn it around. I'm not giving up on Cincinnati yet, but they're the next most likely to be mathematically eliminated. Baseball is the least predictable major American sport, and I love it.

 

I’ll confess to not keeping up as well as I used to with the big leagues in general, which is why I was somewhat surprised to the Phillies cut Joe Girardi loose, and the Angels firing Joe Maddon. I guess they deserved it if their teams were underperforming but, dang, those two have largely been successful, at least until now. I was really hoping the Cardinals would hire Maddon when Tony “retired” after the 2011 world championship.
What have you done for me lately is still the norm.

 

Maddon essentially couldn't do what Ausmus couldn't do and what Scioscia couldn't do towards the end. Make a good team out of 2 or 3 great players and a bunch of not good ones. The Angels have not had a winning season since 2015. It's hard to win when you spend half your budget on a couple of players, and your team seems to have one of the worst medical teams in the league because they can't keep guys healthy. Maddon was fired because they lost 14 straight games, I think he was fired after 13. Girardi was hired to make the postseason, he was 7 games under 500 in year 3 after two disappointing years. Little surprised both happened so early but not that they happened

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

About to turn the page to July, when things become a bit clearer as to the contenders and pretenders. The Mets' off season spending spree appears to be working so far. They're 19 games over .500 and four games up on the Braves. The rest of the division is lagging, so for now that one looks like a two team race. The same for the NL Central, where my Cards and Milwaukee are even further ahead of Philly, Miami and Washington. Looks like second place won't be good enough there this season. The West has LA, San Diego and the Giants very much within striking distance of each other. St. Louis has been better at home than on the road. When your ace is a 41 year old curveball specialist in probably his last season, who pitches much better at home, it's a wonder we're where we're at. The five Gold Glovers defense has been just above average, and two of them, Bader and O'Neill, are on the IL, the latter for the second time this season. Yadi's there too, along with authentic ace Jack Flaherty, whose brief comeback was halted by yet another arm setback, and Steven Matz, our biggest off season pickup. One reason we're still in it is due to some excellent work by several minor league call-ups: position players Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez and Ivan Herrera have stepped in and performed way above average. Likewise for pitchers Matthew Liberatore, Packy Naughton, Johan Oviedo, Andre Pallante, Angel Dondon and Zack Thompson. Only Pallante was on the opening day roster. The bullpen has been decent, the starters average. Another reason is the hitting of Paul Goldschmidt. He's having a career year at the plate at age 34, and is a Gold Glove caliber first baseman. He's a lock for the NL All Star starting lineup. 31 year old Nolan Arenado is a streakier hitter than Goldy, and strikes out too much, but when he's hot, he can carry a ballclub. Defensively, he's still the best third baseman in either league, and it's consistently outstanding, regardless of how he's doing at the plate. He truly makes the hard plays look easy, and the easy ones automatic. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes the league to catch up to the new guys at the plate, but the experience they're getting this early in the season, combined with the return of key starters means we should be deep enough to still be there at the end of September. There's still lots of room for improvement everywhere, and despite the uneven performances and injuries, we're still trading places with the Brewers for first every few days. I'm optimistic that the return of healthy mainstays combined with improved pitching and performances from other key guys (hello, Albert Pujols) will result in a lengthy post season run.
If anybody else wants to take a crack at the American League, have at it. I'm looking at my retirement calendar to see how many Cardinal games I can make it to the rest of the summer.

 

@jumpkutz @BarryWhite

Not MLB related but I'm heading east in a few weeks to attempt to see a game at Bosse Field. My trip last year ended in a complete washout. Never even got on the grounds. Hopefully this trip has better weather.

 

It’s in a small way like stepping back in time. Hope you enjoy your visit!

 

Julio Rodriguez (21) put in a show before running out of gas in the Final of the HR Derby. The AL won for the actual game for a 9th straight year.

 

I also liked the moments where Albert’s kids got excited when Kyle Schwarber could only manage to tie him in their first round head to head in the HR derby, then #5 got on a roll in the second half of the bat-off to advance. Every player surrounded him to offer congrats. I got goose bumps.
Albert isn’t having a good season. He’s hitting .215 at the ASG break, despite playing mostly against left-handed pitching, which he handles better than righties now: .315 vs. lhp, .154 vs. rhp. Despite his age and leg and foot injury history, he’s still an above average 1st baseman.
But so is Paul Goldschmidt. And he’s having a career year at the plate. Albert’s wins against replacement number: -0.5. On July 6th at Atlanta, the most telling moment of reality. With the bases loaded with two outs trailing by three runs, rookie skipper Ollie Marmol did what was once unthinkable. He pulled Pujols out of the on deck circle in favor of left handed hitting rookie Nolan Gorman. The numbers made sense, even though a couple didn’t. Albert was 2 for 3 in the game, and a lifetime .357 batter against righty Jesse Chavez. Gorman grounded out to the 2nd baseman, leaving the Cards’ 7th, 8th and 9th runners left on base. Final, St. Louis 0 Atlanta 3. You can make a sound argument that Pujols is occupying a wasted roster spot. Know what? I. Don’t. Care. Some things transcend practicality. This is a human game. Though the sport is the most insanely heavily quantified one in history, the numbers leave out the unquantifiable: the unpredictability of human idiosyncrasies. Kirk Gibson could barely walk. Ask Dennis Eckersley if he could still hit. Ozzie Smith hit 28 home runs over a 19 year career. Ask Tom Niedenfuer about number 13 in 1985. “GO CRAZY FOLKS! GO CRAZY! AND THE CARDINALS HAVE WON THE GAME BY THE SCORE OF THREE TO TWO ON A HOME RUN BY THE WIZARD! GO CRAZY!” Albert has earned the right to go out on his terms. Cardinal owners and fans understand this. It’s both the right and the human thing to do.

 

It's August 1st, which means the dog days of summer will soon give way to slightly cooler, earlier darkness and, ultimately, October. Two of the three AL divisions feature double digit leaders. The Yanks lead Toronto by 11-1/2 games in the East, while the Astros hold a 12 game advantage over surprising Seattle in the West. Still plenty of time to catch up, but you gotta start now to give yourself a chance. Minnesota leads Cleveland by 1 game and the Pale Hose by 2 in the Central. Still anybody's to win. Where it will get complicated, in both leagues, is the expanded playoffs. Wild Card teams probably won't be decided until the last day. In the NL, LA is 12 ahead of the Padres in the West. The East and Central are a bit tighter. The Mets and the Brewers lead Atlanta and St. Louis by 3 games, respectively. In the AL Wild Card race, Toronto, Seattle and the Rays are the last three, but Cleveland, the White Sox, Baltimore and Boston are all within 3-1/2 of Tampa Bay for the last spot. Atlanta, San Diego and Philly are the last three in the NL, St. Louis is 1 game behind the Phillies, SF 4 and Miami (yep, you read that right) are 8 back. The Rockies and Arizona are the only other teams less than double digits behind the last spot at 9-1/2 games back. Right now it's hard not to imagine New York and Houston sewing up playoff spots. They're both good and deep, as are the Dodgers and Mets in the NL. The Braves could catch New York, but I just don't see it happening. They'll be fighting for a Wild Card spot. Will the Cardinals catch the Brewers? Depends on if they can get healthy and get a starting pitcher before the trade deadline passes. The current starters are average, as witnessed by their largely .500 won-loss records. They all have to get better and get some help if St. Louis is to not only make the playoffs, but compete when they get there.

 

Overall I'm happy with the Cards deadline transactions. I never believed they'd make a serious effort to get Soto so I can't say I'm disappointed.

 

They needed starting pitching, which they presumably got in the form of lefties Jordan Montgomery and Jose Quintana. They didn’t give up much to get Quintana and reliever Chris Stratton from the Pirates, but they parted with reigning Gold Glove center fielder Harrison Bader to pry Montgomery away from the Yankees. It might work out, but the available evidence suggests we gave up too much for an average starting pitcher. There were other factors, to be sure but, for now, I’m skeptical. And you’re right Brad. We were never serious contenders for Soto because we weren’t as desperate as other teams still in the hunt. We needed pitching. We got some pitchers. Let’s see how they do.

 

The Brewers traded 4-time All Star closer Josh Hader to the Padres at the trading deadline. 3-time NL Reliever of the Year Josh Hader. 100 mph radar gun stuff Josh Hader. The first place Brewers. The brass can legitimize and rationalize it all they want, but the locker room? Not the message you want to send to a team [insert chorus refrain here] in first place with two months to go. Hader had a horrible July (14.04 ERA, 2.28 WHIP=walks plus hits per inning pitched) while throwing only 8-1/3 innings over 10 games. You have to bet that’s an anomaly that will answer to the law of averages sooner rather than later. It made the Yanks nervous enough to back away, along with the cost…very un-Yankeelike. I’m sure it caught Milwaukee fans by surprise, even more so than St. Louis shipping reigning Gold Glove center fielder Harrison Bader to the Bronx for lefty starter Jordan Montgomery. As for Hader, I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say
I’m sorry to see Hader go. On paper, it hurts the Brewers and helps the Cardinals. But, man, I can’t think of any reason why anybody on the Milwaukee roster would be encouraged by cutting an X factor stopper like Hader loose. And with the acquisitions of Juan Soto and Josh Bell along with Hader, San Diego has pushed all its chips to the middle of the table for 2022, adding $38 million to a $205 million payroll this season. All in baby.

 

Fernando Tatis, Jr. suspended for 80 games after testing positive for Clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid he says was in a medication he took to treat ringworm….except Clostebol is not approved by the FDA in this country for use in medicines that treat skin and women’s reproductive areas. But it is in Brazil, which has seen an increase in use by Brazilian athletes. So if he was really using a medication for ringworm that had Clostebol in it, where did he get it? Busted. Before today, I can’t think of who the last notable player was to get caught and suspended 80 games in the so called post-steroid era. With this news, there will be renewed calls for baseball to clean up its act, since it appears they didn’t go far enough to clean it up before, or they haven’t kept pace with the ongoing apparent player use and the deceptions they use to hide it. Not. Good.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...r-suspended-80-games-for-ped-violation-padres

 

We’re well past Labor Day as this season hurtles toward the post season. I’m not paying much attention to other teams and divisions because an amazing dynamic is going on. After a very mediocre first half, during which you could legitimately question his inclusion on the 25 man roster, future first ballot Hall Of Famer Albert Pujols has found some super duper extra strength Geritol or something. He had four homers and was hitting .200 at the break. Since then, he’s hit 14 dingers, many of them either tying or putting his team ahead, and is within striking distance of a number only three men have reached: 700 major league home runs. His 697th today in the ninth inning at Pittsburgh put his team ahead after trailing for the entire game. His 696th yesterday tied the game, both of which the Cardinals won. He’s not just heating up, he’s getting clutch hits, sac flies and big flies when his team needs them the most. I don’t know if St. Louis has enough quality starting pitching to win their 12th World Series, but right now, it’s fun to watch history unfold while helping his team win. Fun.

 

There's nothing left to say except, maybe, wow, and let's enjoy the final days of an amazing athlete's career. Another World Series ring would be much more than the icing on the cake...it would be a whole extra cake.