Around Baseball 2018

[Bobthe4th]

I do think baseball should try to market personalities a bit more, it’s just difficult when every team plays every day. You don’t get time to reflect, or anticipation for the next game. Baseball is a game of repetition over a long grinding season, it emphasises stats much more than individual moments.

[KevinGregg]

" you only really appreciate how much better he is than everyone else when looking at a spreadsheet"

 

Nailed it. Lebron, Brady, Gretzky all made everyone else look terrible by comparison, especially when it mattered most. Trout has also never single handedly carried his team to a championship like those guys. (You cant in baseball, but who cares right)

 

Trout just gets like 1 extra base hit a week for the entire season so you don't really notice much but it ends up being obscenely valuable

[Pendleton]

" you only really appreciate how much better he is than everyone else when looking at a spreadsheet"

 

Nailed it. Lebron, Brady, Gretzky all made everyone else look terrible by comparison, especially when it mattered most. Trout has also never single handedly carried his team to a championship like those guys. (You cant in baseball, but who cares right)

 

Trout just gets like 1 extra base hit a week for the entire season so you don't really notice much but it ends up being obscenely valuable

 

Gretzky never single handedly carried a team to a Stanley Cup. The only Cups he won were as part of an Oilers dynasty that included many Hall of Fame talents, a group that won an additional championship after he was dealt.

[DigitalRock]

Gretzky never single handedly carried a team to a Stanley Cup. The only Cups he won were as part of an Oilers dynasty that included many Hall of Fame talents, a group that won an additional championship after he was dealt.

 

He single handidly carried an average kings team with Kelly f***ing Hrudy in net to the cup finals were they lost to a lucky habs team who won 10 in a row in OT. He had 40 points that playoffs, and he was past his prime by then. The Oil don't win 4 cups without 99, not even close. The Oilers are not a dynasty without 99.

[Pendleton]

He single handidly made an average kings team with Kelly f***ing Hrudy in net to the cup finals were they lost to a lucky habs team who won 10 in a row in OT. He had 40 points that playoffs, and he was past his prime by then. The Oil don't win 4 cups without 99, not even close.

 

I don't disagree with anything you've just said, but it still doesn't mean 99 won a Cup single handedly. To suggest that is an insult to the other Hall of Famers, they were a dynasty because of the collection of talent.

[Grant77]

Gretzky never single handedly carried a team to a Stanley Cup. The only Cups he won were as part of an Oilers dynasty that included many Hall of Fame talents, a group that won an additional championship after he was dealt.

 

That's debatable. He scored a number of crucial goals in the Oilers Cup runs (159 points in 77 games). I don't know if single handedly is the right term, but he was far and away the best player on the ice and they almost certainly would not have won 4 cups without him, particularly in 1987, whereas the loss of a Kurri or Messier probably would not have changed things.

[Pendleton]

That's debatable. He scored a number of crucial goals in the Oilers Cup runs (159 points in 77 games). I don't know if single handedly is the right term, but he was far and away the best player on the ice and they almost certainly would not have won 4 cups without him, particularly in 1987, whereas the loss of a Kurri or Messier probably would not have changed things.

 

Best player yes, best of all time yes, but I can't accept "single handedly" when there were multiple guys on that team who are top 100 of all time.

[P2F]

I can't accept "single handedly" either. It's single-handedly - one hyphenated word. Carry on.

[DigitalRock]

I don't disagree with anything you've just said, but it still doesn't mean 99 won a Cup single handedly. To suggest that is an insult to the other Hall of Famers, they were a dynasty because of the collection of talent.

 

No one wins anything single-handedly in team sports.

[G-Snarls]

Mike Trout new MLB leader in WAR.

 

All is right with the world again.

 

So how will the writers justify having made Betts the MVP this year?

[DigitalRock]

The Kings might have won the cup that year if not for McSorley's illegal stick lol...a goal Hrudy should have had though. Amazing they even got to the finals.

[Captain Adama]

So how will the writers justify having made Betts the MVP this year?

 

Winning team, WAR is right next to Trout's so there's not really much difference, better fielder.

[DigitalRock]

So how will the writers justify having made Betts the MVP this year?

 

They won't justifiy it, but don't want to give it to trout every year so Betts is an easy pick.

[Orgfiller]

So how will the writers justify having made Betts the MVP this year?

 

Unless Betts strikes out in every at-bat until the end of the season it's totally valid to hand him the award. WAR isn't precise to the decimal and right now he and Trout are indistinguishable by it, there's plenty of argument to be made for either to win it. I'd prefer it was merely on account of how they helped their team rather than rewarding Betts for playing on a substantially better roster, but unfortunately that's not the way voters think.

[KevinGregg]

So how will the writers justify having made Betts the MVP this year?

 

I thought they already re-named the MVP to the Annual 2nd Best Player in the League award?

[Brownie19]

Best player yes, best of all time yes, but I can't accept "single handedly" when there were multiple guys on that team who are top 100 of all time.

 

I can't accept "single handedly" either. It's single-handedly - one hyphenated word. Carry on.

 

No one wins anything single-handedly in team sports.

 

Guys - Grant is right. Give up.

[KevinGregg]

obviously no one does anything single-handedly in sports, but there must be a way to quantify relative contributions from each member of a team, and I am fairly certain that Lebron and Brady would be shown to be responsible for a much greater % of their team's success than Trout (Though I would be super interested in seeing the results). As for Gretzky I was thinking more about his season with the Kings where he basically pulled a 2017/2018 Lebron and took a team of bums to the finals than his run with the Oilers.

[Olerud363]

They won't justifiy it, but don't want to give it to trout every year so Betts is an easy pick.

 

I'm fine with giving it to Betts this year...

 

here is the real funny thing

 

before this year when Mookie had never been ahead of Trout in WAR, you had scouts saying they were comparable, a bunch of old timers.

 

Now after this year it will be something like

 

10 10 8 9 10 7 10

-------2 5 8 5 10

 

So before this year Betts had never come that close to Trout, and oldtimers were still arguing he might be better. Now that they are tied (for one year) I am sure we will see some great quotes.

 

"The stats are just catching up to what we always knew, Betts is better"

 

"Mookie's a guy who is always underrated by the stats, but last year even fangraphs had him up with Trout, that means he was even better, way better in real life"

 

"For a while Mookie scouted better, but Trout had better stats, now that Mookie has pushed even in the stats I don't see how there is even an argument here"

[glory]

So how will the writers justify having made Betts the MVP this year?

 

They don't need to. Dude has a 9.2 WAR on a team that is going to win over 110 games. He deserves the award.

 

Trout is the best player in the world, but he's not winning it every year. That's just the way it goes.

[Spanky__99]

They don't need to. Dude has a 9.2 WAR on a team that is going to win over 110 games. He deserves the award.

 

Trout is the best player in the world, but he's not winning it every year. That's just the way it goes.

 

Yup, it's the reality of it.

[bzapple]

As long as they don't give it to JD Martinez, it's cool.

[Spanky__99]

Watch Martinez jack this to tie the game...

[G-Snarls]

They won't justifiy it, but don't want to give it to trout every year so Betts is an easy pick.

 

Trout fatigue

[G-Snarls]

As long as they don't give it to JD Martinez, it's cool.

 

I'm fine with Betts getting it

 

And hoping Betts keeps his decent batting average lead over Martinez to make sure the latter doesn't manage to win a triple crown and take the award undesevedly

[Captain Adama]

They don't need to. Dude has a 9.2 WAR on a team that is going to win over 110 games. He deserves the award.

 

Trout is the best player in the world, but he's not winning it every year. That's just the way it goes.

 

It's kind of like when Donaldson won the award over Trout. Trout's WAR was higher, but less than 0.5 so the difference was basically negligible. Looks like this will be the case with Trout and Betts this year.

 

Also, Tampa Bay looks like they're gonna win 90 games this year and are likely to miss the playoffs. Crazy.

 

Good for them though, they went with an unorthodox approach to start the game with bullpen guys, and are 3rd best in the league with 578 runs given up. I've heard announcers s*** on their strategy all season, but the numbers speak for themselves.

[Krylian]

Trout fatigue

 

Sounds like a euphemism for too much pussy.

[glory]

It's kind of like when Donaldson won the award over Trout. Trout's WAR was higher, but less than 0.5 so the difference was basically negligible. Looks like this will be the case with Trout and Betts this year.

 

Also, Tampa Bay looks like they're gonna win 90 games this year and are likely to miss the playoffs. Crazy.

 

Good for them though, they went with an unorthodox approach to start the game with bullpen guys, and are 3rd best in the league with 578 runs given up. I've heard announcers s*** on their strategy all season, but the numbers speak for themselves.

 

I'm still upset that the Rays got Tommy Pham and not the Jays. The Rays have been making great moves and they have a loaded system. I'm afraid they might be in for another run around the time the JAys expect to compete with Vlad. I hope not, but might be unavoidable.

[Krylian]

I'm still upset that the Rays got Tommy Pham and not the Jays. The Rays have been making great moves and they have a loaded system. I'm afraid they might be in for another run around the time the JAys expect to compete with Vlad. I hope not, but might be unavoidable.

 

Tommy Pham sounds like the name of a low level gangster in Chinatown.

[Captain Adama]

I'm still upset that the Rays got Tommy Pham and not the Jays. The Rays have been making great moves and they have a loaded system. I'm afraid they might be in for another run around the time the JAys expect to compete with Vlad. I hope not, but might be unavoidable.

 

Speaking of which, Pham went deep again.

[Spanky__99]

I'm still upset that the Rays got Tommy Pham and not the Jays. The Rays have been making great moves and they have a loaded system. I'm afraid they might be in for another run around the time the JAys expect to compete with Vlad. I hope not, but might be unavoidable.

 

Who cares, we want a sustainable winning org first, everything plays itself out after that.