Of course, there’s value beyond statistics. Shohei Ohtani puts butts in the seats and eyes on the tube. He’s also a jam-up guy. I can’t think of a casual baseball fan who even knows who Nolan Arenado is.
Interesting. I think, if given the choice, I would much rather spend my money on Juan Soto, for example. I have a bias towards getting two or three superstars and then building around that. It hasn’t worked for the Angels, but then again Angels management sucks.
Oh, I agree completely. Superstars are rare. I am just not sure that having a superstar that gets his value from doing two jobs really well is better than one superstar that gets his value from doing one job amazingly well. I’m willing to be convinced. But if I can buy 8 WAR, I think I’d rather have it from a hitter (or pitcher) than a hitter/pitcher.
Part of that is specifically because those type of elite talents are very rare. If I’m spending max dollars, I want it to be something I can’t get anywhere else. I can get a 4 WAR pitcher and a 5 WAR hitter - not easily, but I can get them.
But maybe I’m off base here. You are basically getting a top-20 pitcher and a top-75 or so hitter.
Either way, he’s certainly fun to watch.
That’s kinda sad. An amazing defensive 3B that can also mash. One of my favorite players.
You mean the Nolan Arenado who’s played in six All-Star games and voted in for a seventh; who’s been in the post-season four times, nine-time Gold Glove winner with a career WAR of 50.9? I’m pretty sure even a casual fan must have heard his name at some point.
Yeah, I’d say the casual sports fan might not know the name of Arenado, but they’d know Ohtani.
Orioles just might be a team of destiny this year.
Tonight, they trailed the White Sox 3-2 with two out in the bottom of the ninth, nobody on base. Kyle Stowers, a rookie in just his 6th game, was at the plate. On the first pitch, Stowers hit a foul popup down the third base line. Sox left fielder had an easy play on the ball, but managed to overrun it and ended up dropping the ball. Two pitches later, on an 0-2 count, Stowers hit his first major league HR to tie the game.
Orioles won the game, 4-3 in 11 innings.
What’s crazy is, tonight’s game notwithstanding, it’s not just luck. They had a horrible start, but they’ve actually been legit good for quite a bit of the season. It’s a month after this article, and they’ve gone 20-15 since; they are currently 65-59. After trading away Mancini and Lopez.
I’m a casual fan and I’ve never heard that name before.
I’ve heard Ohtani’s name a hundred times though. I even remember when teams were courting him before he joined MLB.
If you asked me who Arenado was before I read the last handful of posts, I’d say I have no clue, and I’ll probably forget his name in a few days unless he comes up again in any media I listen to or read (which he probably won’t).
And I listen to sports radio in a daily basis, just apparently not in a market where he’s notable.
Sports radio (and national sports television) hate baseball, and rarely talk about it, so that’s no surprise. Even local sports radio in an MLB market will rarely talk about players or teams from out of market.
In other neuse, an infielder for Oakland pitched the final 1.2 innings of the As game last night, retiring all 5 batters on 11 pitches. Wow!
That’s true… but Ohtani is ACTUALLY doing both jobs. If you have a pitcher worth 4 WAR and a hitter worth 6 WAR they are contributing ten wins to your team. Good for them. But Ohtani is literally both those guys, and therefore is worth ten wins.
The other factor is that Ohtani occupies only one roster spot. Roster spots are very, very important; you only get 26, and that’s not many. Teams run out of guys in games all the time; last night the Blue Jays won a game in which they used every hitter they had and had, at best, two pitchers left. Ohtani effectively allows the addition of an extra player.
Seems backwards.
Rather, national sports news loves ratings and the general American audience loves the idea of baseball but hate the actual game, though many do still follow their own team. Even World Series game TV audiences can be dwarfed by middling teams playing on Monday Night Football. Sports news follows eyeballs, it doesn’t direct the eyeballs. If more Americans started following baseball again, I’m 100% sure that would be reflected in the news coverage.
I recall many on this board saying Ohtani was a slam dunk (please excuse the basketball reference) case for SI Sportsperson of the Year, and the reasons this did not happen are more or less the same for this plus a dollop of bias for American athletes. It’s not exactly flattering, but people who post on message boards about baseball are a bit of a self-selecting crowd and their sports views probably not representative of America at large.
So, what’s with the White Sox?! They’ve had the inside track to the best Latin players for a while via players like Abreu who basically has been recruiting for them. They are supposedly loaded with talent and pretty good pitching. Yet, they are struggling in 3rd place in what may very well be baseball’s weakest division.
I’m not liking the team attitude. They are seemingly out of shape and under performing. We’ve had several players hurt by simply running around the bases. We have two players who have actually injured themselves SWINGING AT A PITCH.
I’m usually pretty understand when it comes to coaches/managers but, in this case, I’m thinking that Tony L. is not getting out of this team what a good manager should get out of his team.
The bias absolutely, positively was why he didn’t win. If he was Stephen O’Sullivan and had done the same thing he’d have been acclaimed. They do pick baseball players, in a ratio fairly chosen given the number of major sports there are:
2017 - Jose Altuve (shared with J.J. Watt)
2014 - Madison Bumgarner
2009 - Derek Jeter
2004 - The Boston Red Sox
2001 - Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson
1998 - Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa
1995 - Cal Ripken
1988 - Orel Hershiser
Given they have to also follow football, basketball, hockey, boxing, MMA, the Olympics, golf, tennis et al., that’s a reasonable number of picks.
The SI bias for American athletes isn’t subtle. They almost ALWAYS choose an American, unless it’s a group selection an they can pick a foreigner along with an American. It’s been 40 years since they chose a non-American by themselves, and Gretzky had to break his sport to do it.
He helped land Luis Robert, and has helped recruit a handful of other Cubans. But I wouldn’t say that Jose Abreu is out scouting games and handing out contracts in the Dominican Republic or anything.
Their problem is that Luis Robert is always hurt, Eloy Jimenez is always hurt, Tim Anderson is always hurt, Yoan Moncada forgot how to play baseball (and is always hurt), Jose Abreu is getting old, Lucas Giolito can’t throw a breaking ball anymore, and the back of their rotation is garbage (aside from a surprisingly resurgent Johnny Cueto!).
Oh, and Tony LaRussa is the worst manager in baseball.
I know, but I tend to use hyperbole for emphasis and dramatic effect. LOL
I think you hit it on the head with baseball’s reigonality. If you only care about your team, then any given night there’s 28 other teams you don’t care about. For a national broadcast that’s a problem and you’re likely going to focus on the teams with the most fans.
Also baseball just has a shrinking audience, and an older one. So less of a draw for TV and radio.
I agree. If it isn’t the NL West, I don’t care about it at all (except seeing the Houston Asterisk’s lose.) Although lately I’ll put on whatever game I can find just to have baseball in the house while I read or web-surf.
That last bit is true, but not necessarily a new phenomenon. For as long as I’ve been a baseball fan, dating back to the '70s, I’ve been annoyed at how often the games on national TV (going back to NBC’s Game of the Week) featured the Yankees, Red Sox, or Dodgers.
The Dodgers have a run differential of +275, a staggering total. The vast majority of World Champions didn’t do that.
If they kept up a similar pace for all 162 games they’d end up at +368, the third best total ever. Here are all the 1901-on teams that have hit at least 300:
1939 Yankees +411
1927 Yankees +371
1936 Yankees +336
1902 Pirates +334
1906 Cubs +323
1998 Yankees +309
1937 Yankees +307
1931 Yankees +307
2001 Mariners +300
The Nationals released struggling third baseman Maikel Franco… but on his 30th birthday. C’mon, guys, do better.
MLB and the Mariners decide to alienate all their regular fans by making the Mariners/Guardian game only available on something called Apple TV.
I have a TV that can get this game, but it took some effort. Now I’m just pissed off.