If one team falls out of that race, it might be the Red Sox. Their pitching sucks and Hanley is probably going to miss some time with a shoulder injury.
Who picked the Yankees to win the East? Every prediction I saw had them finishing around .500. They started out well the last few years too and then faded out of the playoff picture.
However, the bullpen is great, and if Ellsbury and Gardner have career years at the top of the lineup ( both currently over .400 OBP) then they might make a run. Of course, they need another starter, like every other team in the division.
Happy 84th birthday to the greatest baseball player of all time!
One of the local sports radio jocks picked them. Thought I’d heard a couple other talking heads pick the Yankees. The problem is every team in the AL East might finish somewhere close to .500.
Hey!
Only saw him play once, with the Mets in 1973.
Okay, thanks. The Monday night game (Mets -v- Cubs) is slated for ESPN. So that “doesn’t count” as a night game. Got it.
Hanley’s day to day, at least for now. The pitching has been a disappointment so far, yes, and that’s a cause for worry, especially if Buchholz stays in this latest Ferdinand the Bull period much longer. They can’t start Porcello every day, and even getting Hamels for a reasonable price (NOT both Betts AND Swihart, come on, in fact not either of them) won’t stabilize things. Oh, hey, Miley, the plate is in the same place as back in Arizona, it’s the white thing right in front of you. No worries, my pleasure.
Miley wasn’t actually that great in Arizona either, FWIW (though he’s also dealing with pitching in a new league which tends to cause issues).
MMSOTD (mostly meaningless streak of the day):
The Royals are undefeated during the first game of a series - beating Cleveland last night for 9 out of 9 (and back into first).
Yeah, I was surprised the Sox gave up on Rubby De La Rosa for Miley. They even threw in a pretty good prospect in Allen Webster. Rubby hasn’t been great in Arizona, but at least he’s a couple years younger than Miley. And Miley has sucked.
And personally, I think Buchholz is done. His curve used to be a dagger and it is completely run of the mill since his injury back in 2013.
Joe Kelly is the most frustrating guy because his stuff can be awesome. He just needs to be consistent.
Buchholz keeps insisting he feels fine after every bad start. If it was physical, they would all be bad.
De La Rosa and Webster were both already in their mid-20’s, at a make-or-break age, and neither has ever showed he belongs in the majors. I never have a problem giving up all the nonprospects the other team wants in return for actual major league talent, which Miley has shown he is.
I’m even OK with losing Lester, since that effectively was trading for Porcello.
I dunno why y’all are hanging your hat on Porcello. Just because he’s the best Red Sox pitcher doesn’t mean that he’s good. 3-2 with a 4.38 ERA (a 93 ERA+, ie 7% worse than the average) isn’t particularly good.
7 shutout innings last night. I’ll take that.
One start of 7 shutout innings makes a below average pitcher “good” (btw, those stats incorporate that start)? Ok then ;).
It’s a little early in the season to think you have a data base about it yet you can predict anything from, isn’t it? Porcello’s history is not that he’s “below average”, anyway - why discount that far larger amount of information?
He’s had multiple quality starts for Boston, and that combined with his Detroit history is enough to be happy to have him. The other 80% of their games, we got problems.
Yes it is. He’s had two season that can be considered above average - his rookie year and last year.
His ERA+ since he’s been in the league:
2009: 114
2010: 85
2011: 87
2012: 93
2013: 96
2014: 115
His career ERA+ is 97.
Now his Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) has been consistently lower than his ERA in Detroit (aside from last year, interestingly enough), so perhaps his below average numbers are due to poor defense by the Tigers. However, his FIP is once again below his ERA early on in Boston.
It appears his career Wins Above Average (WAA) is slightly above average for his career at 0.7, but that is definitely bolstered by his 2.1 WAA last season.
He’s got 10.6 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in 6 (full) seasons - that’s 1.7 WAR per season (and consider that includes last year when he had 4.0 WAR). That’s fairly below average.
Even before Boston got him, I just saw in Porcello a below average innings eater who had a career year on a contract year.
I was at yesterday’s Nats game when Harp hit 3 dingers. I’ve been hard on Harper in the past, but he’s really showing some discipline at the plate, leading the league in walks. If the rest of the lineup gets hot, watch out.
Really getting frustrated with Matt Williams, I don’t understand why he would let Scherzer pitch in the 8th when he was already at 101 pitches. But what I really don’t get is why Williams didn’t at least get a pitcher warm in case Scherzer started to slip in the eight (which he did). Suddenly, thanks to Stanton’s HR in the eight, a 7-2 game became a 7-5 Maalox commercial. All because Williams neglected to get some one up an ready to go.
The Dodgers continue what may or may not be an odd trend (I’m honestly not sure). So far this season, when the team has scored at least four runs, they are 16-0. When they have scored less than four runs, they are only 2-10. They are scoring four or more with remarkable frequency.
For a team that was supposed to be power-challenged after losing Kemp and Hanley over the off season, especially playing in a pitcher-friendly park, it’s really odd to see them leading the majors in home runs and slugging, and leading the NL in runs scored. Granted, it’s still early in the season, and it would be nice to have a starting rotation (outside of Zack Greinke) settle down, but it’s fun to watch them at the plate so far.
28 games in and the Royals are still not in 4th place in the AL Central (and I believe never in 3rd either).
Still a lot of season left, of course, but maybe Moustakas and Hosmer are finally going to be the players they were hyped as being for all those years (Moose in particular).
Do wonder what the line on Ventura’s next ejection/suspension is, though.
There is a great page for baseball fans up on baseballreference.com, consisting of all the nicknames they have on record for major league ballplayers.
There are tons of good ones, but today’s favorite for me is Mose Solomon’s nickname, “The Rabbi of Swat”.
Indeed, Solomon has a lifetime .375 batting average, which is only slightly deceptive since his career consisted of two games for the 1923 New York Giants, during which he went 3 for 8 with two singles and a double.
You could potentially waste hours looking at that page and wondering where some of those nicknames came from. There must be a reason why Jeffrey Leonard was known as “Penitentiary Face” or why the nickname “Death To Flying Things”* was hung on Jack Chapman, but I will probably never find out for sure.
*this more properly should have been Dave Winfield’s nickname.