Evan Longoria has announced that he will sign a one-day contract and retire as a Tampa Bay Ray.
Hall of Fame? Conventional wisdom says you should have a WAR of at least 60 and he’s at 58.9. Being the best player in Rays history has to be in his favor especially since they have no home grown players in the Hall.
I think he gets in, though it may not be on the first couple of ballots.
Baseball Reference ranks him as 20th among third basemen on JAWS, and notes that his overall WAR is 10 points lower than the average third baseman who’s in the Hall. The guys for whom Longoria has the highest “similarity scores” are Ron Cey, Robin Ventura, Manny Machado, Matt Williams, and George Foster; Machado is still active, but the other four are all in the Hall of Very Good.
Longoria was great for five of his first six seasons (having lost half of 2012 due to injury), pretty good for another four years, and then just OK for another six seasons. He may well wind up in the “not good enough for long enough” group.
The baseball gods have no mercy. Oswaldo Cabrera taken off field in ambulance with an ankle injury sliding into home. After years of not really getting as much playing time as he deserves and having to sit behind a rapidly fading LeMahieu, off to a great start and goes down on a freak sliding accident.
A very tough freak injury for the kid. His first question to Judge was, “Did I score?” and it did put a brief smile on his face to find out he did.
He broke his ankle tagging up to score from third on an Aaron Judge sacrifice to left.
Right before the start of the game, Aaron Boone said “DJ LeMahieu is on the way.” Coming off the IL.
No news on Jazz Chisholm Jr. yet, but went on the IL May 2 and his injury was expected to keep him out for 4-6 weeks. His is a high-grade strain of the infielder’s right oblique.
The Judge watch: 2 for 3 with 2 walks. Batting .414 with a .500 OBP.
This game has been around since 2021, but I just learned about it.
Free to play, and a potential reward of 5.6 million bucks. All you have to do is pick a batter and then that batter needs to get a hit or a sacrifice fly. Do that 57 times without missing and you win the prize. You can pick one or two players each day. Picking two batters correctly on a single day increases your streak by two.
This year, Judge is a very popular pick, as are Ohtani, Witt, Freeman, and Tatis. The current leader is at 43.
I started last Thursday and my streak is up to six. I’m already planning on how to spend the money.
4 posts were split to a new topic: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred ruled today that “permanent ineligibility” from baseball ends upon the person’s death
It’s Mexican Heritage Night at the Cubs, just got back from getting steps in walking around Wrigley. Absolutely buzzing and green Cubs jerseys everywhere
Of course, the Cubs are owned by one of Trump’s top fundraisers
[Moderating]
This is in no way relevant to this thread. Keep the politics where it belongs.
I don’t know if this has ever happened before with any team, but there was something interesting during tonight’s slate of games:
In Detroit, Javier Baez hit a walk-off home run to lead the Tigers to victory.
Right after that, Isaac Paredes hit a walk-off home run in Houston to seal a comeback win for the Astros.
Right after that, Justin Turner won the game for the Cubs with a walk-off in the bottom of the ninth.
All three hits occurred within 6 minutes of each other. And all three are either currently or former Chicago Cubs players.
I just read that the Royals have signed 45-year-old Rich Hill to a minor league contract. If Hill manages to make it to the majors this season, the Royals would be his 14th MLB team. His first team was the Cubs, as a 25-year-old, in 2005.
I’d be absolutely floored if Longoria ever made the Hall of Fame. He was a terrific player but has has basically none of the things that get you in, and I’m not sure WHY he should be in.
Too funny, nothing beats a day at the ballpark for the 4th of July.
Except there’s a White Sox at Rockies game scheduled that day!
Judge must have had an off-night. He’s down to .410
According to mlb’s IG account, there have been seven other players since 2000 who were above .400 with 40 games played. The most recent was Jose Iglesias in 2013.
Yankee fans looking at third base and asking “Where’s Oswaldo”?
The most recent was Luis Arraez just two years ago. He was 72 games into the season.
I think the distinction was that it was players batting .400 right at Game #40. Arraez was batting .379 at game 40 in 2023.
Yeah, it’s a silly and arbitrary line. But that’s baseball, Suzyn!
Judge was 2 for 4 with homerun 15. So at .412.
So today has given us a Red Sox F9-8 to rob a Tigers homer, a Dodgers 6-5 for the force at second, and a raccoon in the center field stands at Citi.