2023 MLB Postseason Thread

[Spanky__99]

Hmm.. ok I’m wrong, but I’m not supposed to know better than you:P

 

That’s a pretty harsh park factor taking .830 OPS down to 120 wRC+. I think, idk. Just seems it would be higher

 

lol... you still don't know how wRC+ works even after our last exchange on the matter. Man, there's no helping you, minion.

[connorp]

It’s all good, where ya going?

 

Hasn’t been decided. Possibly Madrid. I have a potential wife option in Colombia, but she has a kid, mulling in that. It’s a 2yo boy and if he’s Hispanic, he may be naturally good at baseball and that’s a plus

[connorp]

lol... you still don't know how wRC+ works even after our last exchange on the matter. Man, there's no helping you, minion.

 

I was right you were wrong last time. So I learned nothing. This time I’m not correct

[BTS]

Hasn’t been decided. Possibly Madrid. I have a potential wife option in Colombia, but she has a kid, mulling in that. It’s a 2yo boy and if he’s Hispanic, he may be naturally good at baseball and that’s a plus

 

How does she feel about 90-day fiance?

[connorp]

How does she feel about 90-day fiance?

 

Hmm.. I didn’t ask anyone. I think they’d all be more receptive.

[Spanky__99]

I was right you were wrong last time. So I learned nothing. This time I’m not correct

 

Incorrect.

[Jimcanuck]

Hasn’t been decided. Possibly Madrid. I have a potential wife option in Colombia, but she has a kid, mulling in that. It’s a 2yo boy and if he’s Hispanic, he may be naturally good at baseball and that’s a plus

 

Well, I'm sure you will keep us posted.

[Stangstag]

Yeah exactly. Brandon Belt (138 wRC+ this year, wRC+ 125 in his career and a 2x WS champ) isn't a high end bat that leads to success in the playoffs.

 

Neither is Bo (125wRC+ this year, 127 career). And definitely not Vlad (118 this year, 130 career).

 

But the Diamondbacks on the other hand, DEFINITELY have the big bats needed. Corbin Carroll (133 wRC+, 131 career) is that guy. So is Ketel Marte (127 wRC+ this year, 113 career). Christian Walker is that guy as well (120 wRC+ this year, 111 career). Those are the star bats necessary for playoff success.

 

Thank you sheriff

[Stangstag]

First of all understand wRC+ is a flawed statistic to use in this scenario. It’s a fantastic stat for regular season purposes, but if you have a second baseman that’s got a .780 OPS and that’s good for a 130 wRC+, why do you really care how he stacks up against other 2b in the AL, He’s a .780 OPS bat.. doesn’t count as big bat

 

Did I confuse you again with tough logic??

 

When you don’t understand how wRC+ works but still claim its not a good stat to use

 

Lolllllolololoool

 

Nice logic you got there dude

[jaysblue]

Belt was a 138 WRC+ bat over the season and hit 19 home runs in about 400 plate appearances. You have very high standards for what constitutes a difference maker.

 

Can you tell me how many ABs Belt had against righties vs. lefties?

 

Belt had a great season. Not arguing that. But he's not a difference maker like Bryce Harper, Adolis Garcia, Yordan Alvarez etc.

[jaysblue]

Yeah exactly. Brandon Belt (138 wRC+ this year, wRC+ 125 in his career and a 2x WS champ) isn't a high end bat that leads to success in the playoffs.

 

Neither is Bo (125wRC+ this year, 127 career). And definitely not Vlad (118 this year, 130 career).

 

But the Diamondbacks on the other hand, DEFINITELY have the big bats needed. Corbin Carroll (133 wRC+, 131 career) is that guy. So is Ketel Marte (127 wRC+ this year, 113 career). Christian Walker is that guy as well (120 wRC+ this year, 111 career). Those are the star bats necessary for playoff success.

 

Belt is a platoon bat and that's it. He managed to stay healthy this season and he dominated against RHP.

 

Bo is a high end bat, but definitely capable of being better, which is what I said.

 

Vlad didn't play like a high end bat this season, lets be realistic.

 

None of those guys above were like Bryce Harper, Yordon Alvarez, Adolis Garcia, Corey Seager, Corbin Carroll etc.

 

The Blue Jays overall this season struggled offensively. If you considered their bats to be high end this season, you're nuts!

[Terminator]

Belt is a platoon bat and that's it. He managed to stay healthy this season and he dominated against RHP.

 

Bo is a high end bat, but definitely capable of being better, which is what I said.

 

Vlad didn't play like a high end bat this season, lets be realistic.

 

None of those guys above were like Bryce Harper, Yordon Alvarez, Adolis Garcia, Corey Seager, Corbin Carroll etc.

 

The Blue Jays overall this season struggled offensively. If you considered their bats to be high end this season, you're nuts!

 

Yeah, exactly bud. Let's be realistic. The Jays offense struggled and don't have high end bats to make it far in the postseason. The Diamondbacks's bats never struggled and they have plenty of "high end bats".

 

All we have to do is just ignore the numbers, make strawman arguments, and then change the parameters of the debate to all of the sudden start comparing Jays hitters to Yordan Alvarez (while ignoring how the D-Bags hitters compare to him)! It's crystal clear!

[Terminator]

Can you tell me how many ABs Belt had against righties vs. lefties?

 

Yeah exactly. His platoon splits were totally wasted in the playoffs (oh wait, the Twins started righties both games).

 

Belt had a great season. Not arguing that. But he's not a difference maker like Bryce Harper, Adolis Garcia, Yordan Alvarez etc.

 

For sure. He's not a difference maker with the stick but Ketel Marte and Christian Walker totally are.

[jaysblue]

Yeah exactly. His platoon splits were totally wasted in the playoffs (oh wait, the Twins started righties both games).

 

 

 

For sure. He's not a difference maker with the stick but Ketel Marte and Christian Walker totally are.

 

Marte hit 25 HR's and posted a 4.2 WAR season. Christian Walker hit 33 HR's and posted 3.8 WAR. Also, both of them weren't platoon players! If both of them were on the Blue Jays, you and others would be praising them as amazing haha.

[jaysblue]

Yeah, exactly bud. Let's be realistic. The Jays offense struggled and don't have high end bats to make it far in the postseason. The Diamondbacks's bats never struggled and they have plenty of "high end bats".

 

All we have to do is just ignore the numbers, make strawman arguments, and then change the parameters of the debate to all of the sudden start comparing Jays hitters to Yordan Alvarez (while ignoring how the D-Bags hitters compare to him)! It's crystal clear!

 

What made you think after 162 games, bats like Vlad, Springer, Varsho, Kirk etc. were all going to wake up and carry this team when they pretty much were awful all year?

 

Yeah when we're talking about high end bats, I'm talking about elite bats that could make a difference. Outside of Bo, the Jays really never had that type of bat this season. You need to get off the Kool aid dude!

[Spanky__99]

Marte hit 25 HR's and posted a 4.2 WAR season. Christian Walker hit 33 HR's and posted 3.8 WAR. Also, both of them weren't platoon players! If both of them were on the Blue Jays, you and others would be praising them as amazing haha.

 

But you two are arguing the offensive environment, WAR doesn't work here. Jays have had the slightly better bats in this case, no? I can't see an argument around that. Why are you bringing up other teams superstars, that holds no water in the discussion?

[Spanky__99]

What made you think after 162 games, bats like Vlad, Springer, Varsho, Kirk etc. were all going to wake up and carry this team when they pretty much were awful all year?

 

Yeah when we're talking about high end bats, I'm talking about elite bats that could make a difference. Outside of Bo, the Jays really never had that type of bat this season. You need to get off the Kool aid dude!

 

Well if the Jays bats don't bounce back we're f***ed, I'm sure we all know that...

 

They need to get better offensively, I'm sure the nerd realizes that, so we'll see what happens over the winter.

 

These points, again have nothing to do with what you guys were discussing.

[jaysblue]

But you two are arguing the offensive environment, WAR doesn't work here. Jays have had the slightly better bats in this case, no? I can't see an argument around that. Why are you bringing up other teams superstars, that holds no water in the discussion?

 

Max said the Jays had three high end bats in Vlad, Belt and Bo. I said they weren't all high end bats. Belt was just a platoon guy, and Vladdy struggled all season long. Bo was the Jays best overall hitter throughout the year. Out of those three, Bo is really the only guy I would consider high end given the season he had.

 

Term then responds to my post and makes it seem like I'm a huge D'Backs supporter, bringing up their bats and how they are inferior to the Jays. I never even mentioned the D'Backs bats in my response to Max.

 

Regardless, the D'Backs aren't as bad as Term and others are making them out to be. Carroll had an MVP type year and both Marte and Walker offensively were really solid. I don't know why it's so controversial in stating that on here. Like seriously it's insufferable.

 

I couldn't care less about comparing the Blue Jays to the D'Backs. It's really sad and pathetic some posters on here are dismissing the D'Backs success in the Postseason and using it as an excuse to justify a Blue Jays early exit lol. At the end of the day, I just want to watch good Postseason baseball and looking forward to a Texas/Arizona World Series.

[jaysblue]

Well if the Jays bats don't bounce back we're f***ed, I'm sure we all know that...

 

They need to get better offensively, I'm sure the nerd realizes that, so we'll see what happens over the winter.

 

These points, again have nothing to do with what you guys were discussing.

 

Yeah let's hope guys like Vlad, Springer, Kirk and Varsho all bounce back. Can't just assume all that will happen, which is why it's important to add another high-end bat or two this offseason.

 

This is definitely a make or break it offseason for Atkins IMO.

[Spanky__99]

Max said the Jays had three high end bats in Vlad, Belt and Bo. I said they weren't all high end bats. Belt was just a platoon guy, and Vladdy struggled all season long. Bo was the Jays best overall hitter throughout the year. Out of those three, Bo is really the only guy I would consider high end given the season he had.

 

Term then responds to my post and makes it seem like I'm a huge D'Backs supporter, bringing up their bats and how they are inferior to the Jays. I never even mentioned the D'Backs bats in my response to Max.

 

Regardless, the D'Backs aren't as bad as Term and others are making them out to be. Carroll had an MVP type year and both Marte and Walker offensively were really solid. I don't know why it's so controversial in stating that on here. Like seriously it's insufferable.

 

I couldn't care less about comparing the Blue Jays to the D'Backs. It's really sad and pathetic some posters on here are dismissing the D'Backs success in the Postseason and using it as an excuse to justify a Blue Jays early exit lol. At the end of the day, I just want to watch good Postseason baseball and looking forward to a Texas/Arizona World Series.

 

Hey, I was just talking about your last few posts in regards with Term and the D-Backs, I don't know what all that other stuff is about. They're on a run, but that offense wasn't better than the Jays, good for them, hot at the right time.

[Spanky__99]

Jays were a team that benefited in season wins with strong back of the rotation performance and BP depth..which didn’t even factor in. That’s always been the point here. Regular season wins isn’t the best barometer of the more dangerous playoff team

 

Same with their (depth) 7th in baseball wRC+ offense that most pundits knew was sorely lacking

 

The pundits preseason were calling for the Jays as WS contenders and fangraphs agreed, lol. They held the Twins to 5 runs and we scored 1, the offense s*** the bed genius, we all know that.

[Spanky__99]

Holy f*** the nerd herd wants to run ten thousand simulations to determine the best team in baseball

 

At the same time they don’t want fat guys on the team completely negating the fact that one of the two biggest external motivators for performance is the chance to be a world champion

 

Huh?

[connorp]

Vlad is an interesting argument is he would classify as a “big bat going in”

wRC+ of course gives me the league adjustment bonus for the AL, which really counts so much bc Seager, Judge, Ohtani, Alvarez Tucker etc dont seem to have an issue.

 

The other benefit to to his wRC+ is the park factor. Which seems to check out. The flaw I said on wRC+ is if Vlads home OPS was higher than his road OPS, he would still get a positive adjustment. But in Vlads case, it’s a textbook case of park factor as he’s a .850+ bat on the road.

 

So one could argue with these nerd stats that he was a big bat going in.

 

However…. People like Term don’t get to have their cake and eat it too… I’m pretty sure he’s joined in on the chorus of Vlad is a fatty and a disappointment. Have to pick a side.

[max silver]

Can you tell me how many ABs Belt had against righties vs. lefties?

 

Belt had a great season. Not arguing that. But he's not a difference maker like Bryce Harper, Adolis Garcia, Yordan Alvarez etc.

 

Technically you are correct that Belt primarily faced right handed pitching, but given how right handed dominant the top of the Jays lineup was other teams didn't deploy left handed pitching very much against the Jays so this wasn't a huge factor.

 

Belt appeared in 103 games in 2023. He missed time due to various ailments including separate injured list stints for a hamstring issue (11 days) and back issue (approx. 23 days). He also missed time due to a few stomach bugs and shorter term ailments, to a total of about 40 games or so. The rest of the games he missed were load management and/or lefty starter related. Let's surmise that Belt didn't miss time due to health related issues, and he would have appeared in approximately 140 games for the team if you assume the same ratio of appearances when he was healthy.

 

In the games he appeared in he averaged 3.92 plate appearances per game, just a half plate appearance per game below regular full time starters for the team such as Bo (4.45 plate appearances per game). In other words you would expect Belt to lose 1 plate appearance every two games he appeared in based on being the strong part of a platoon. Go back to the theoretical 140 game appearance for Belt, and at 3.92 plate appearances per game he would have received 548 plate appearances total vs 683 for Springer and 684 for Vlad, not a dramatic difference for a platoon bat all things considered.

 

Belt faced left handed pitching in 39 out of his 404 plate appearances, or 9.7% of his total. Compare that to the guys who typically hit around Belt in the lineup like Bo (17.6%) and Vlad (18.1%) and you can easily deduce that Belt was nearly a full time player when he was healthy and available to play. As previously mentioned the Blue Jays top of the lineup was very righty heavy most of the season with the likes of Springer, Bo and Vlad hitting in the top 3-4 spots most of the season so there really weren't many opportunities for opposing managers to deploy left handed relievers against Belt, really limiting the potential impact of his lefty/righty splits.

 

In 90% of Belt's plate appearances he had the platoon advantage, and he excelled in this split to the tune of a 146 WRC+. Keep in mind that he had a tremendously bad start to the season, and didn't really get his bat going until early May. From May 1 until the end of the season Belt was a 160 WRC+ bat against right handed pitching. So for 5/6 of the season Belt was 60% more effective offensively against right handed pitching in a split where he had the platoon advantage 90% of the time and was typically deployed in 86% of the games when he was healthy and available. In the small amount of plate appearances against left handed pitching during this same 5 month time frame Belt more than held his own as well as he was able to produce a 111 WRC+.

Edited October 26, 2023 by max silver

[Spanky__99]

Vlad is an interesting argument is he would classify as a “big bat going in”

wRC+ of course gives me the league adjustment bonus for the AL, which really counts so much bc Seager, Judge, Ohtani, Alvarez Tucker etc dont seem to have an issue.

 

The other benefit to to his wRC+ is the park factor. Which seems to check out. The flaw I said on wRC+ is if Vlads home OPS was higher than his road OPS, he would still get a positive adjustment. But in Vlads case, it’s a textbook case of park factor as he’s a .850+ bat on the road.

 

So one could argue with these nerd stats that he was a big bat going in.

 

However…. People like Term don’t get to have their cake and eat it too… I’m pretty sure he’s joined in on the chorus of Vlad is a fatty and a disappointment. Have to pick a side.

 

I'm starting to believe you're this planets best troll. lol

[max silver]

I'm starting to believe you're this planets best troll. lol

 

That's assuming he's even from this planet to start with.

[connorp]

That's assuming he's even from this planet to start with.

 

So you think I’m out of this world. Thanks, man.

 

As soon as I can think of something good to say about you, I’ll return the favor:)

[Brownie19]

Hmm.. ok I’m wrong, but I’m not supposed to know better than you:P

 

That’s a pretty harsh park factor taking .830 OPS down to 120 wRC+. I think, idk. Just seems it would be higher

 

It's appalling how confident you seem to be, when you don't understand some of the basics. I've never met you, and don't care if I ever do, but you seem like you're a typical cocky idiot. Maybe you're not, but when you type, that's what comes out.

[connorp]

How do you guys think I’ll do with Adderall? Going to do a prescription starting tomorrow. Maybe I will actually start researching theories.

[Spanky__99]

How do you guys think I’ll do with Adderall? Going to do a prescription starting tomorrow. Maybe I will actually start researching theories.

 

*look at me* lol... what a f***ing dildo.