# MLB: May 2018 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 3, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529 "2018-05-03T18:11:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/21 "2018-05-06T23:59:15Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Holy crap this team is exciting. It’s what you want. and the kids are coming through each day. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/22 "2018-05-07T12:29:55Z")
You never know who is going to pick up the Yanks from one game to the next. It could be Judge, or Stanton, or Sanchez, or Didi, or take your pick. The bullpen has been below expectations but they seem to be able to cover up each other’s shortcomings. Yesterday Betances had one good inning and couldn’t do the job in his second inning. Sanchez caught a bunt popup that he should have let drop for a DP. But the bats came through in the end and how about Torres- no rookie nerves here. How sweet would a sweep of the Red Sox be this week? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/23 "2018-05-07T13:10:54Z")
The Blue Jays are 19-16. If you had told me before the season started that they’d have a winning record come May I would have been pleased. If you’d told me they would have a winning record on May 7 despite the following: 1. Their best starting pitcher (Marcus Stroman) will have been absolutely terrible and will not have won a single game, 2. Their best player (Josh Donaldson) will have missed half the season so far and wasn’t really tearing it up when he wasn’t out, 3. The catcher (Russ Martin) - on whom the team was counting for a resurgence - is batting .145, 4. The second baseman (Devon Train) on whim the team was counting for a resurgence, is batting .148 and had to be sent down, he was so bad, 5. The right fielder (Randal Grichuk) who the team was counting on to be better than Jose Bautista’s absolutely awful 2017, has, in defiance of all probability, been WAY WORSE than Bautista was, 6. Speaking of Marcus Stroman, 4 of 5 starting pitchers are pretty bad, and 7. The team’s best player will be Kevin Pillar… … I wouldn’t have believed it possible. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/24 "2018-05-07T13:29:11Z")
I fully expected the Jays to be third in the AL east and fight for the 2nd Wildcard, but they are doing despite many unexpected issues. If a few things break right, the East will take 3 playoff spots. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/25 "2018-05-07T14:00:53Z")
The Cubs have lost 5 straight games, including being swept by the hated Cardinals. The last two St Louis victories came via walk-off homers. Last night’s hero for the Cards was former Cub Dexter Fowler, with the first walk-off homer of his career. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/26 "2018-05-07T14:02:51Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I fully expected the Jays to be third in the AL east and fight for the 2nd Wildcard, but they are doing despite many unexpected issues. If a few things break right, the East will take 3 playoff spots. There are some pretty good squads in the West, too. If the Blue Jays continue to surprise me, the last week of the season may be one hell of a week. 3 playoff spots in one division has happened four times (WC game winner\*) 2013 NL Central: St. Louis, followed by Pittsburgh\* and Cincinnati 2015 NL Central: St. Louis, followed by Pittsburgh and Chicago\* 2016 AL East: Boston, followed by Toronto\* and Baltimore 2017 NL West: LA, followed by Arizona\* and Colorado I’m actually kind of surprised it’s happened four times already. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/27 "2018-05-07T15:13:50Z")
Who would have thought that on May 7th, Yangervis Solarte would have more home runs than either Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton? Also nice to see Grandy contributing…he was a favorite even though he wasn’t in the Bronx very long. What the hell is wrong with Stroman? Everyone seemed to think that last year was his break out season. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/28 "2018-05-07T15:29:41Z")
Stroman was hurt in the spring and never really had a spring training. His delivery has been visibly inconsistent. What is perhaps a more pertinent question is why the Blue Jays insisted on him breaking camp in the rotation when he wasn’t ready. Yangervis Solarte is my favourite Blue Jay, and not just because he’s playing well. He’s just a delightful individual who acts as if being in the major leagues is the most wonderful thing to ever happen to a person. One can sit and wonder for hours why the Padres didn’t want a guy who can play ball and isn’t very expensive and seems like a great guy. Solarte, according to Baseball Reference, is worth 0.7 WAR so far this year; over a fukll season, about 3.5. If that seems a little low for a middle infielder with an .886 OPS, it’s because defensive metrics rate him as under replacement level. It seems clear to me that this is not an accurate assessment of his value, simply because Solarte is, in fact, a replacement defender. He has no set position; he’s mostly played third due to the injury to Josh Donaldson, but has played all the other infield positions, and we’ll be seeing a lot more of him at second and short now that Donaldson is back but the team has a lot of injuries in the middle infield. Solarte is indisputably just competent at all those positions; he’s not great, but he’s good enough. The thing is, there is obvious i nherent value in a man who can play many positions. A capable hitter who can play many positions increases the value it ways not directly reflected in statistics, since it allows for more efficient roster compositions and deployment of other players. I’m not saying it makes him Stan Musial, but it probably offsets his below-replacement defensive WAR. I should point out this isn’t my original idea; many years ago Baseball Prospectus cited the value of a multipositional player as one of the things sabermetrics had no idea how to figure out. ---
**Author:** ![Cell\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Cell\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cell_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/29 "2018-05-07T17:48:08Z")
Gretchen Piscotty, mother of the Oakland A’s Stephen Piscotty, lost her battle with ALS last night. Piscotty was traded to the A’s from St. Louis last year to be closer to his mother after her diagnosis. ALS is a horrific disease. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/30 "2018-05-08T03:36:34Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > It’s now the merry month of May. Ichiro seems to be done as a player. > [http://mlb.com/r/article?ymd=20180503&content\_id=275071046&vkey=news\_sea&c\_id=sea](http://mlb.com/r/article?ymd=20180503&content_id=275071046&vkey=news_sea&c_id=sea) Time lapse of [every one on Ichiro’s hits.](https://www.mlb.com/cut4/time-lapse-for-ichiros-mlb-hits-is-beautiful/c-275626658) Really shows how evenly he sprayed his hits. And there’s a hell of a lot of infield hits. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/31 "2018-05-08T15:01:22Z")
The Red Sox and the Yankees are confirmed for London in 2019. I’m here in London on vacation and there is absolutely no mention of baseball in the print edition of The Guardian. However, it is interesting that MLB is sending two marquee franchises and forcing the Red Sox to give up two home games whereas they could have sent the Marlins and Rays, two teams that don’t draw flies. Usually the NFL sends a team that doesn’t sell out their home stadium, but occasionally they’ll send over a decent team as the road team. It’ll be a cold day in Hell when the NFL forces the Cowboys or Patriots to give up a home game for London. Even with all the years of NFL games in London, if you can even find the NFL standings, they’re listed in a European football format with useless information such as points for as points against I’m still not sure MLB is really going to catch on here, with so many night games starting close to midnight U.K. time. And, of course, many pubs close at midnight or perhaps 1 am. Major League Baseball: London Stadium to host two fixtures in 2019 > **[London Stadium to host MLB games in 2019](https://www.bbc.com/sport/baseball/44038752)** > > The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will play two Major League Baseball regular season games at the London Stadium in June 2019. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/32 "2018-05-08T16:30:26Z")
Two games out of 81 isn’t the same as one out of eight, so I’m not sure the NFL/MLB comparison means a lot. The Yankees and Red Sox has some degree of international branding appeal. You can see Yankees caps in London, even if it’s more a fashion statement than support cfor Didi Gregorius. It’d take years to get baseball to catch on there and the nature of professional baseball is such that an MLB franchise in London can never really happen, but hey, gotta start somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/33 "2018-05-08T16:35:49Z")
PROSPECT REPORT: Let’s talk about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Guerrero has been a wildly hyped prospect since he was signed but holy crap, he’s embarrassing Double A. He’s batting .398 with power and as many walks as strikeouts. You’d think a guy like that should be in the majors… but Vlad2 is only 19. (In fact, he just turned 19 six weeks ago.) Do you rush a kid like that? Make him a free agent at 25? I mean, he might also be one of the team’s best hitters; it’s been done before. Hell of a problem to have. The stats aren’t a fluke, incidentally. I’ve watched him hit and he’s terrifying. Immense bat speed, precision, and power, and a lovely swing. Not much of a fielder - he plays third, sort of okay - but the Blue jays could use a 1B/DH. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/34 "2018-05-08T21:23:45Z")
I say bring him up. The Blue Jays aren’t lacking in interesting players to follow, but he’s going to be a sensation. Are they allowed to try to sign him to a long term deal before they bring him up? Wow - he’s not even on their 40-man roster right now! I want to see him play full time in the majors. I don’t see AAA being that much more of a challenge, and I don’t think MLB pitching is going to destroy his confidence. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/35 "2018-05-08T22:21:38Z")
MLB Network is reporting that Matt Harvey was traded to Cincinnati for C Devin Mesaroco. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/36 "2018-05-09T00:01:55Z")
My Royals just got 7 runs off the Orioles before making a single out. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/37 "2018-05-09T00:03:41Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > My Royals just got 7 runs off the Orioles before making a single out. _sigh_ I’m looking forward to spending some additional time at Camden Yards this summer (I’ve been twice thus far). I don’t think I’m going to have much company in the stands. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/38 "2018-05-09T01:12:54Z")
Jeez - Roberto Osuna dealing with a domestic assault charge. Not cool. Too bad Stroman got no support for his first decent outing of the season last week against the Twins. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/39 "2018-05-09T02:02:00Z")
This is exactly how new sluggers can endear themselves to Yankee Fans. 2 jacks vs the Sox for Stanton. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529/40 "2018-05-09T04:02:22Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Jeez - Roberto Osuna dealing with a domestic assault charge. Not cool. > > Too bad Stroman got no support for his first decent outing of the season last week against the Twins. He was terrible again tonight but it hardly matters as James Paxton pitched the no hitter for the Mariners. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-may-2018/813529.md?page=3)