I’m just holding out for the balk derby.
Holy crap that Jays game.
I’ve seen a lot of embarrassing Royals moments in my time, but Saturday night’s loss has to be up there. You’re on the mound in an opponent walk-off situation, and (the collective) you issue four walks…not even recording a single out??? Seriously?
Wondering if this juiced ball issue is going to amount to anything, like…“Tightly-Wound-Ball-Gate”? Hits are apparently 7 feet longer, on average, this season, according to Jeff Blair, and quite a few more blistered pitchers than mentioned in the cite.
Things I don’t want to see in the second half:
Michael Pineda (I give up; trade him to Pittsburgh so he can become an all-star)
Tyler Clippard (DFA or trade or only allowed to pitch in blowouts)
Chase Headley (Another year left on contract. Really?)
Masahiro Tanaka pitching in the daytime:
Night: 12 Starts, 3.10 ERA, 1.033 WHIP, 9 HR
Day: 6 Starts, 14.81 ERA, 2.710 WHIP, 14 HR
The daytime starts only amount to 20.2 IP :eek:
Trading Pineda is fine, I don’t want to give him the contract he’ll probably get in Free Agency. Once he is traded we give either Chance Adams or Caleb Smith a chance in the rotation.
Clippard has been mostly miserable, he can be very good for stretches too. But I doubt we can trade him so probably DFA if he resumes his blows up post All Star Break.
Headley may be tradable in the off-season, but I think we’re stuck with his hot and ice-cold streaks for this season at least.
The Tanaka stats are interesting. David “Boomer” Wells use to be far worse in the day time too. Though not this pronounced.
For Wells, it was probably dealing with hangovers. 1:05 PM is awfully early to be playing baseball.
When Dennis Eckersley pitched for the day-games-only Cubs, becoming an alcoholic in the process, he observed that the toughest thing in baseball was day games after *day *games.
I’m kind of looking forward to Giancarlo Stanton vs. Aaron Judge tonight, although I heard there are other participants in the Derby. Some of these guys are out of nowhere. Justin Bour? Never heard of him. Gary Sanchez only has 13, how did he get in?
I keep hearing about how participating in this thing messes up your swing, and contestants tend to have much lower production in the second half. So I’m happy there are 2 Yankees in it.
Well Judge should just take BP swings, his BP swings tend to leave the ball field anyway. As to Gary Sanchez, he was in the middle a 2 week slump anyway, so probably won’t hurt him.
Why is he in? I’m guessing because of his HR/AB for his brief time in the majors, but he easily could have been left out.
It doesn’t, though. No evidence at all it hurts a hitter to participate.
The average Home Run Derby contestant see a second half dropoff - not all, by any means, but there’s an average decline. But the average ALL STAR has a second half dropoff. Players asked to be in the HRD and All Star game are disproportionately players who had unusually good first halves. Of course they’re likely to drop off, Home Run Derby or not.
If Aaron Judge drops off after this week it’ll be because he’s not ACTUALLY the second coming of Babe Ruth, not because of the home run derby.
As to how they pick these guys, the inclusions of Sanchez and Justin Bour suggest that maybe a lot of players just don’t want to be in it. For all we know there’s 25 guys who were asked and who declined.
I’ve noticed the Dodgers don’t get a lot of love around these parts, but I thought I’d make my case anyway for them going all the way this year.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team this stacked. Every player in our starting lineup and on our bench has proven they can hit for average or power and they have all produced in key situations. This might be the first time I can remember saying that I don’t really care who is in the lineup. They are all good.
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Pitching-wise, we have six legitimate starters and one hell of a closer. Our middle relief is probably our weakest spot, but when your pitchers are going 7 more often than not, it’s less of an issue.
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There are some serious overacheivers this year. Woods is having a Cy-worthy rookie season, steadily becoming the Drysdale to Kershaw’s Koufax. Justin Turner is flirting with .400 and probably the most underrated 3rd baseman in the game (Bet the Mets wish they still had him). The new kid Bellinger knocks 25 over the wall in the first half and Seager shows no signs whatsoever of a sophmore slump. Kike can be put anywhere, infield or outfield, and performs well. Finally, the most infamous of Dodgers, Yasiel Puig, is doing what nobody expected him to do, growing as a player and playing to his potential.
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We have the best record in baseball at the halfway mark. In our last 9 series, we swept six of them and won the rest. We’ve won 26 our last 30. Simply put, we are firing on all cylinders.
I’ve followed baseball long enough to know that anything can happen. This could all fall apart in the weeks ahead. But, for all of the Dodgers fans that have waited not-so-patiently since 1988, there is clearly something different about this year’s team. A nice mix of youngsters and veterans, a less-jovial, more serious focus, and a never say die attitude.
Can’t wait for this stupid All-Star Break to be over and see how this all plays out.
I don’t participate in these threads much anymore but I am still a diehard Dodgers fan. This team is crazy good. Weirdly they seem to be vastly underrated given that they have the best record in baseball and are seemingly concensus top 2 team in baseball. But. Kershaw is still Kershaw even though every year someone tries to make a case in the media that he’s not. Alex Wood is pitching like a Cy Young winner. The rest of their rotation is awesome. Their bullpen is nails. Cody Bellinger is 21 and does nothing but hit home runs, walk and run really fast while playing plus defense. Corey Seger is a solid shortstop and hits like a madman. Justin Turner is seemingly the second coming of Tony Gwynn but he’s a plus 3rd baseman too. Joc Pederson and Puig are both back in form. It’s just nuts. I never hear anyone gushing about any of these guys and none of them made first choice Allstars. It’s crazy how very dominant they are and how few “stars” they have.
Ehh, people post about the team(s) they’re fans of and there are only about a dozen people who post in these threads; the other runaway best team in baseball doesn’t get many posts either except when I bother to say anything about them (go Stros).
Another Dodgers fan here. I have followed them since childhood. And as a UVA grad still living in Central Virginia, I have especially enjoyed Chris Taylor’s rookie season.
Poor Astros. They get no respect. 
Also, to Biotop. Did you know Chris Taylor was going to be this good? I sure didn’t think he was going to be. The team is nuts I tells ya. Honestly, they remind me a lot of the 2013 Red Sox with how fully dominant they are.
It’s always tough to predict how well a player will perform in the pros. Taylor was excellent for Virginia.
Taylor has come up to bat 5 times so far this season for the Dodgers with the bases loaded. He has 3 grand slams and a double in those 5 at bats.
Another UVA rookie, Derek Fisher, is with the Astros. He hit a homer in his first major league at bat.
eh they’ve been getting lots of love from ESPN talking heads and so on. 
On a vaguely related note, the only way the Astros and Dodgers can play each other this year is in the World Series.
Fisher came up as a fill-in for five games, hit 2 home runs, OPS’d about a thousand, and then got sent back down to AAA because they didn’t have room on the roster. He would probably be a better choice for DH than Carlos Beltran, who seems to have finally gotten old.
Yep. 'Stros are lighting up everybody these days.