An interesting case for Trout…
Right. More specifically, according to WAR (baseball ref)*
–Altuve leads all of baseball with 7.2 WAR in 120+ games. Another 30 games to go, prorated, should give him another 1/4 of his current total in addition to what he’s got now. That brings him up to very close to 9.
–Trout is fourth in the AL right now (behind only his teammate Andrelton Simmons, Altuve, and Corey Kluber), which is pretty damn impressive for a guy who has missed so much time. He’s got 5.8 in about 90 games. Prorating that gives him another 1/3 of what he’s done so far, or a little less than 2 more “points.” That gives him a final total that’s just below 8.
On a game by game basis Trout’s projected total is more impressive than Altuve’s, but the overall total is likely to be more important to voters, and that is projected to be Altuve. Looking at a total rather than a game-by-game basis is (I think) quite reasonable. Moreover, Altuve’s team is running away with their division, which always helps. And does anyone think either Simmons or Kluber will get many votes? I don’t. Maybe if Aaron Judge’s September is like his May and the Yanks win the division…But I agree with RickJay and Tom Scud, the award is Altuve’s to lose.
*Not to say that WAR is the be-all and the end-all, because it isn’t, but it’s a useful guideline. Also, those who think Trout should’ve won more MVP awards than he has often base their argument on him leading the league in WAR. Live by the WAR, die by the WAR…
After losing an 11-8 slugfest to the Blue Jays last night, the Orioles tonight beat Toronto 1-0 in the 13th inning. Quite a contrast.
And in good news for the Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw on his return is looking like he hasn’t missed a day. 6 innings, 7K, 2 (infield) hits.
Nice to have that ugly little 5-game losing streak behind us, thanks to a strong showing from Kershaw. Wish we would have wrangled up more than one run, but glad it was all we needed.
Mustard, onions and relish on that hot dog, please.
Also, thank God for Kershaw. Whatever happened to the Dodgers having offense AND pitching on the same night, though?
One of the most insane ball games I’ve watched in a while. Cubs beat the Braves 14-12.
Yanks took today’s from the Redsox with some excellent pitching and defense (not Sanchez though sadly) but tomorrow poor Severino draws Sale. Last game was Korey Kluber.
re DL when rosters expand in September…
This affects our fantasy league. Ex: Beltre is out for the season yet there is no reason for the Rangers to put him on the DL cuz they can call up a minor leaguer to take his place.
Why would the White Sox have placed Leury Garcia on the DL the other day though?
Hicks was put on the 10 day DL today, I was surprised when I heard it. I figured they would just carry him in an open roster spot. Does it somehow affect arbitration?
While watching the Royals get mauled by the Twins, 17-0, I created a joke:
How come batters always hit a liner into The Gap and never into Macy’s or J.C. Penney?
Detroit’s Mikie Mahtook provided a welcome assist to Jose Ramirez on a home run today in the Indians-Tigers game. You’ll be seeing this one on blooper reels for years to come.
I like to think that, somewhere, Jose Canseco is laughing about this one. You’re still #1, Jose.
Have you ever heard of anything falling into Macy’s or J.C. Penny? No you only “fall into the gap.”
Then it happened again later in the game but to right field. Ramirez had 2 assisted home runs in one game. That’s the fun thing about baseball, seeing things happen that you’ve never seen before and likely never will again.
I watched that game and they showed both repeatedly. It’s true the right fielder touched the ball before it was a home run, but I don’t think he aided it. It looked like the ball would have been a home run if it hadn’t been touched.
The first one on the other hand, was clearly batted back over the fence by the left fileder while it was bouncing back into the field of play.
Agree 100% that the second was not assisted.
Marine One:
Well, it seems their fly balls have a hard time getting out of Target.
Maybe they’d hit into a better variety of stores if the Twins still played at the site of the Mall of America.
The Jeter Marlins are planning on slicing payroll while paying Jeter a 5 million dollar annual salary.
This isn’t from The Onion.
You have got to be kidding me. The Marlins have been a joke for so long and now they’re going to get worse because owning a baseball team, even if non competitive and only draws fans of the visiting team, is a licence to print money.
It isn’t a good way to get fans from the younger generation. A kid growing up in South Florida who has only memories of years of lousy Marlins baseball isn’t likely to become a fan for life. Especially if their memories of going to the ballpark consists of going with their grandparents who used to live in Boston to see a Marlins vs Red Sox game and the entire crowd is rooting for the Red Sox.
It’s just the beginning of September, but the D-backs have been thrashing the Dodgers, who just don’t seem like a very confident team right now. And the D-backs just came out of nowhere.
When your guy hits four homers in one game, that will happen. JD Martinez with the 18th four-homer performance in MLB history. He had a shot at 5, but struck out.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time it’s happened twice in one year; Mike Cameron and Shawn Green had their 4-homer games just three weeks apart in 2002.
As to the MArlins story, I had my say in the August thread, but it’s a joke. It’s clear the owners plan to simply loot the revenue sharing arrangement and the taxpayers, because drawing fans to the park is obviously not a part of their strategy.
The sad thing is, the Marlins aren’t *that *far away from being a pretty good team. They’re not terrible now. That said, if people don’t want to come see a decent team with one of the best and hottest hitters in the game, what can you do?