Around Baseball 2025

[Laika]

5 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

And likely the last to ever do it again. 

Guys like Cole and Sale could still pull it off with some luck and magic dust

[John_Havok]

3 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

 

Do you guys think catcher's defensive value is underrated in the fWAR calc?

Obviously Cal deserves a ton of credit and would get lots of votes if happened today.  But Judge is the MVP right now.

I don't think its underrated. I have a lot of trust in the nerds crunching the numbers and while it can never be exact, its probably already as close as it can be to reality

I think in this particular situation though, Raleigh is having a much worse year defensively than anyone issued to seeing, even though its still good. IF he was his usual defensive self along with his current bat, his WAR is probably close or even passing Judge amd the conversation is much closer.

 

[Terminator]

41 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I don't think its underrated. I have a lot of trust in the nerds crunching the numbers and while it can never be exact, its probably already as close as it can be to reality

I think in this particular situation though, Raleigh is having a much worse year defensively than anyone issued to seeing, even though its still good. IF he was his usual defensive self along with his current bat, his WAR is probably close or even passing Judge amd the conversation is much closer.

 

Some of his defensive value, in fact a lot of it, is probably due to him DHing at almost twice the rate he was last year.

Of course Judge has DH'd 19 times as well.

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, Terminator said:

Some of his defensive value, in fact a lot of it, is probably due to him DHing at almost twice the rate he was last year.

Of course Judge has DH'd 19 times as well.

Also true. 

[hanton]

Might be a challenge for Kershaw to get 3K tonight, 0 k's in the 3rd inning and he's already nearing 50 pitches...

edit: just K'd Vargas

[Brownie19]

Kershaw does it!  Unreal moment in baseball history.  Only the 20th to every reach 3000 K's.  Kudos for Roberts to stick with him and give him a chance to do it in the 6th.  Backdoor slider for the called 3rd strike.

Looks like Muncy's hyperextended his knee on the play before the K.  Feel bad for him.

How can you not be romantic about baseball?

[Brownie19]

I just realized Zack Greinke is only 21 K's away from 3000.  I'm surprised he didn't find a way to get another 50 innings to get to 3K. 

I could see a team like the White Sox added him and letting him throw enough to get there just for the fanfare.  It's a significant milestone.

[hanton]

2 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Kershaw does it!  Unreal moment in baseball history.  Only the 20th to every reach 3000 K's.  Kudos for Roberts to stick with him and give him a chance to do it in the 6th.  Backdoor slider.

Looks like Muncy's hyperextended his knee on the play before the K.  Feel bad for him.

How can you not be romantic about baseball?

Wonderful moment, he was nearing a 100 pitches and not fooling too many hitters but Roberts stuck with him - then Muncy goes down on an ugly knee injury just a few mins before he gets the 3k

[jaysblue]

19 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

I opined that the Braves got really lucky with their rotation last year and things seem to be normalizing this year for them unfortunately.  Tough one for the Braves.

Chris Sale had a freak injury that had nothing to do with pitching. 

Max Fried left as a FA. 

They got Spencer Strider back this season and he's starting to round into form.

Spencer Schwellenbach is a legit arm. Sucks he got injured and is going to miss a lot of time now. 

AJ Smith-Shawver only made 1 start last season and sucks about getting TJS this season, but that happens with a lot of young arms. 

Grant Holmes pitched in long relief last season and this season has been a decent arm in their rotation. 

Really the only guy they got lucky with last season was Reynaldo Lopez.

I wouldn't say they got "really lucky" with their rotation last year other than with Lopez. 

 

[jaysblue]

Braves pretty much should wave the white flag on their season. 

Too bad Chris Sale had a freak injury. He could have netted them a haul.

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Chris Sale had a freak injury that had nothing to do with pitching. 

Max Fried left as a FA. 

They got Spencer Strider back this season and he's starting to round into form.

Spencer Schwellenbach is a legit arm. Sucks he got injured and is going to miss a lot of time now. 

AJ Smith-Shawver only made 1 start last season and sucks about getting TJS this season, but that happens with a lot of young arms. 

Grant Holmes pitched in long relief last season and this season has been a decent arm in their rotation. 

Really the only guy they got lucky with last season was Reynaldo Lopez.

I wouldn't say they got "really lucky" with their rotation last year other than with Lopez. 

 

I knew this would trigger you.

Getting 177+ innings from Sale last year when he threw 150 innings combined from 2020-2023 was quite fortunate for the Braves.  They also got 165 innings and 30 starts from a 40 year old Morton.  Add that to the season Lopez gave them in his return to the rotation and it's easy to see that a lot of things fell into place for them last year (despite the Strider injury).

The baseball gods evened it out this year.

[Brownie19]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Braves pretty much should wave the white flag on their season. 

Too bad Chris Sale had a freak injury. He could have netted them a haul.

AA already said he wouldn't consider moving him.

[jaysblue]

1 minute ago, Brownie19 said:

I knew this would trigger you.

Getting 177+ innings from Sale last year when he threw 150 innings combined from 2020-2023 was quite fortunate for the Braves.  They also got 165 innings and 30 starts from a 40 year old Morton.  Add that to the season Lopez gave them in his return to the rotation and it's easy to see that a lot of things fell into place for them last year (despite the Strider injury).

The baseball gods evened it out this year.

LOL it didn't trigger me at all. 

Sale's injury had nothing to do with his arm and he was on pace for around 180 or so innings again this season with elite numbers. 

Morton's previous seasons were still very solid and he was consistent from 2021-2024, so it's not like he was a one-hit wonder or fluke last season, but yeah the Braves let go of him at the right time. He's 41, so at anytime he can just implode and he did this season with the Orioles lol. 

Lopez is pretty much the only one who I'll acknowledge they got lucky with last season. Otherwise for you to say "you saw this coming" and that the "baseball gods evened it out this year" is ridiculous. 

[jaysblue]

6 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

AA already said he wouldn't consider moving him.

Given the team's position even before Sale's injury, not a smart thing for AA to say. Unless he was just saying that for the cameras. As well, saying Sale is on the table out in public kind of sends a message of conceding to the rest of the team in early June. You would think they would entertain offers on Sale if he was healthy at the July 31st trade deadline if the Braves were still 11 GB like they are today. Otherwise if AA was true to his word, then yeah strongly disagree. 

[hanton]

Profar re-instated yesterday homers, homers again today

[G-Snarls]

On 7/2/2025 at 2:26 PM, Laika said:

Guys like Cole and Sale could still pull it off with some luck and magic dust

Is that what Roger Clemens used?

[G-Snarls]

10 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Given the team's position even before Sale's injury, not a smart thing for AA to say. Unless he was just saying that for the cameras. As well, saying Sale is on the table out in public kind of sends a message of conceding to the rest of the team in early June. You would think they would entertain offers on Sale if he was healthy at the July 31st trade deadline if the Braves were still 11 GB like they are today. Otherwise if AA was true to his word, then yeah strongly disagree. 

Braves are the 4th worst team in the NL this year 

Crazy 

[Brownie19]

10 hours ago, G-Snarls said:

Braves are the 4th worst team in the NL this year 

Crazy 

Fire AA!

[infinitebook]

MISREAD BOX SCORE

Edited July 4, 2025 by infinitebook

[jaysblue]

Big Dumper with another HR! Matches his career high with 34 HR’s and its only July 4th. 

[Spanky__99]

O'Neill 2 run jack to take the lead over the Yanks, well done fellas.

[hanton]

Bader walks it off with a home run to defeat the Rays

[Brownie19]

Big Dumper with 2 more.  What an unreal seasons he's having. I love it!

[jaysblue]

Right-hander Clarke Schmidt has a tear in his UCL and will probably undergo Tommy John surgery, Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Joel Sherman of the New York Post).  Schmidt will miss the remainder of the 2025 season and will miss perhaps all of the 2026 season, given the usual 13-15 month recovery timeline for TJ procedures.

Tough loss for the Yankees rotation since Schmidt had been one of their better starters. Looks like things are coming off the rails quickly. 

[jaysblue]

In other Yankees news:

The Yankees have signed infielder Jeimer Candelario to a minor league deal, as announced by the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (h/t to Conor Foley of YES Network). Yancen Pujols reports that Candelario is expected to report to Triple-A on Monday and that Candelario had multiple offers before he settled on the Yankees.

Panic in the Bronx! 

[max silver]

On 7/3/2025 at 9:38 AM, jaysblue said:

Braves pretty much should wave the white flag on their season. 

Too bad Chris Sale had a freak injury. He could have netted them a haul.

The Braves are on a remarkable downturn over the last few years. The 2023 squad featured one of the best offenses in MLB history, the 2024 group experienced a massive offensive dropoff similar to the 2022/2023 Blue Jays, and now similar to last year's Blue Jays squad are suffering a terrible year with a lot of injury issues largely to blame. They still have a lot of very solid pieces but AA will have his work cut out for him to return the team to being more competitive. 

[Brownie19]

4 hours ago, max silver said:

The Braves are on a remarkable downturn over the last few years. The 2023 squad featured one of the best offenses in MLB history, the 2024 group experienced a massive offensive dropoff similar to the 2022/2023 Blue Jays, and now similar to last year's Blue Jays squad are suffering a terrible year with a lot of injury issues largely to blame. They still have a lot of very solid pieces but AA will have his work cut out for him to return the team to being more competitive. 

I wonder if their fans are calling for all the coaches and AA to be fired yet...

[John_Havok]

Kirk named as an All-Star reserve but Springer got snubbed in favor of Kwan, Buxton, Julio Rodrigues and Brent Rooker

[BTS]

The Pirates just went to Seattle and scored 0 runs in 3 games. Skenes must be counting the days until he's out of there.

[Jonn]

29 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Kirk named as an All-Star reserve but Springer got snubbed in favor of Kwan, Buxton, Julio Rodrigues and Brent Rooker

Literally embarrassing for the sport. Don't forget about Soto and Suzuki getting snubbed in the NL.