Around Baseball 2025

[hanton]

Enjoy

 

[BB17]

Lol MLB wanting to make a statement and it blows up in their faces with a terrible zone from here all day. 

[GoBlue41]

3 hours ago, hanton said:

Enjoy

 

She will fit right in. Her first strikeout call was off the plate too. Gotta start somewhere though. Hope she does well. No need to talk about it anymore. 

[John_Havok]

2 minutes ago, GoBlue41 said:

She will fit right in. Her first strikeout call was off the plate too. Gotta start somewhere though. Hope she does well. No need to talk about it anymore. 

Guaranteed the scorecard will be posted and bitched about to high heaven tomorrow

[Jays24]

Is it too early to say that the Mariners remind me of the 2015 Jays in terms of making the perfect moves at the deadline to go on a massive run? 

Hopefully it'll end by our hands when we small ball them to death in the playoffs like the 2015 Royals lol. 

[Laika]

She had a 91% call success rate today which is below average and bad but it was her first game, lots of pressure. I'm sure she'll be "fine". 

[hanton]

I kinda feel bad for her tbh, I hope this was her dream (to make the majors) and not forced on her by the league.  Anyway hope she does well - umpires just like players/prospects spend quite along time working their way up through the lower levels.

[GoBlue41]

53 minutes ago, hanton said:

I kinda feel bad for her tbh, I hope this was her dream (to make the majors) and not forced on her by the league.  Anyway hope she does well - umpires just like players/prospects spend quite along time working their way up through the lower levels.

As long as she doesn't show up next game with a "Pay us what you owe us" shirt in pre-game she should be fine. 

[mphenhef]

13 hours ago, hanton said:

Enjoy

 

Aww, first blown call and they save the ball.  It's always fun seeing a right of passage.

[Brownie19]

22 hours ago, hanton said:

Rarely see this, can't stand on the rubber without the ball.  Balk

The rule is actually that you can't stand on the mound without the ball and my understanding is that any part of the dirt is considered the "mound"...

[jaysblue]

12 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Is it too early to say that the Mariners remind me of the 2015 Jays in terms of making the perfect moves at the deadline to go on a massive run? 

Hopefully it'll end by our hands when we small ball them to death in the playoffs like the 2015 Royals lol. 

Out of all AL teams, the one I'm most worried about is the Mariners. That rotation + pen and their lineup has greatly improved with some key additions. 

 

[Orgfiller]

Not buying all this hype about the Mariners. They obviously improved with the Suarez and Naylor additions, so the lineup is definitely deeper but it's not some powerhouse idk. The rotation is good but it's never as good as it seems because Safeco is such a pitcher's haven. Their best starter Woo is 21st in league fWAR. Would much rather face this rotation than the Phillies gauntlet of Wheeler-Sanchez-Suarez-Luzardo.

The bullpen's top arms - Munoz, Brash, Speier (I guess?) are quite good but there's no depth behind them.

Overrated team IMO.

[jaysblue]

Josh Naylor has 22 SB's this season. How? lol

[jaysblue]

8 minutes ago, Orgfiller said:

Not buying all this hype about the Mariners. They obviously improved with the Suarez and Naylor additions, so the lineup is definitely deeper but it's not some powerhouse idk. The rotation is good but it's never as good as it seems because Safeco is such a pitcher's haven. Their best starter Woo is 21st in league fWAR. Would much rather face this rotation than the Phillies gauntlet of Wheeler-Sanchez-Suarez-Luzardo.

The bullpen's top arms - Munoz, Brash, Speier (I guess?) are quite good but there's no depth behind them.

Overrated team IMO.

LOL. You can also say the Jays are overrated as well, but won't go there though since I'm enjoying this season and not going to get into back and forth bickering with someone like you. 

I was talking about teams in the AL. Obviously, Phillies and Dodgers in the NL are better overall teams. 

Some top arms in the Mariners rotation have missed time this season. Gilbert is back healthy and starting to look like his old self and has put up elite numbers: in 16 starts has a 2.1 fWAR, 2.89 FIP, and 12.74 K/9. Woo has been solid and consistent throughout the season. Kirby is also starting to come around: 3.40 FIP and 1.5 fWAR in 14 starts. Castillo doesn't really scare me but when he's your No. 4 starter, can't complain. As for their pen, Munoz, Brash and Speier have all been really good. On paper, are the Jays arms significantly better? Jays have better BP depth, will give them that. Rotation wise, Mariners have more elite arms.

 

 

[Laika]

fWAR ranks

Position Players:

Jays #1, Seattle #9 (6.3 fWAR gap; Seattle has a horrible defense)

Arms:

Jays #24, Seattle #19 (1.9 fWAR gap)

 

Org is right. The Ms pen is surprisingly thin. They have 3.5 good relievers and then some real slop. 

Their bats can be pitched to. It's a good offense now but most of their core bats have big holes somewhere. 

They are scary in a short series because Gilbert/Woo/Kirby could just dominate though. The problem with their rotation and lack of WAR there would be the other arms. Logan Evans sucks, Bryce Miller has been brutal as well. These guys are not starting playoff games. Luis Castillo probably doesn't either. 

 

I mean, if the Ms win the playoffs it's because those three SP dominate and they hit a bunch of homers and Cal Raleigh is WS MVP. 

If they lose in the playoffs we probably see some of the core bats strike out too much + the pen blows some games where the SP can't go deep. If a team can work Woo/Kirby/Gilbert and get them out at 5 innings or less, they have a good shot. 

Toronto is a more "complete" team IMO but they don't have that playoff SP package. 

[Brownie19]

28 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Josh Naylor has 22 SB's this season. How? lol

That is probably one of the craziest stats of 2025.  Naylor has 3rd percentile speed at 24.5 ft/s.  For comparison, Kirk has 2nd percentile speed at 24.1 ft/s.  Last year, Kirk's speed was better than Naylor at 24.7 ft/s and he's never even attempted a stolen base...

Naylor has 11 SB's in 15 games in Seattle. That's insane.  WTF is going on?

Great catch to notice this jaysblue!

[Orgfiller]

11 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

LOL. You can also say the Jays are overrated as well, but won't go there though! 

I was talking about teams in the AL. Obviously, Phillies and Dodgers in the NL are better overall teams. 

 

Why do all your arguments sound like a child saying "no u"? Embarrassing man. It's not all about the Blue Jays.

Anyway, the Astros if healthy are a much scarier team IMO. Alvarez, Altuve, Correa (again), Paredes in the playoffs is a nightmare. Brown and Valdez are two top of the rotation studs, Abreu and Hader at the back half are nasty. Scary team if everyone is healthy come the playoffs.

[Grant77]

12 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Is it too early to say that the Mariners remind me of the 2015 Jays in terms of making the perfect moves at the deadline to go on a massive run? 

Hopefully it'll end by our hands when we small ball them to death in the playoffs like the 2015 Royals lol. 

Did they make the right adds? Naylor has been great, but Suarez is hitting .105 and striking out every other at-bat. He looks like his old self again from what I have seen.

The Mariners issues coming into the deadline, in my view, were defense and relief pitching. They were already bottom 5 in defense before adding Suarez, giving them the worst left side of the infield we have seen in quite some time. Naylor is average defensively so I don't see a big change there.

Their bullpen is also bottom 5 and exactly replacement level of you exclude Munoz, but all they added was a depth lefty. Perhaps they get away with that for a series, but one bad start and their AAAA guys are going to get exposed.

Orgfiller also correctly pointed out that the rotation can be a bit overrated at times. I understand that this doesn't tell the whole story, but they aren't even top 10 in starter WAR, let alone some unbeatable juggernaut.

I see a fringe playoff team with a lot of flaws being carried by an incredible season from Raleigh.

[metafour]

Ty France post trade: 161 wRC+

Eugenio Suarez post trade: -1 wRC+

 

Just like everyone would have predicted hehehe.

[PitaBaby]

The Jays are now first in the MLB in average, OBP, and hits. Also second in 2B's and third in OPS. Now this is how you win games. Imagine if they hit more dongs and Georgie and Tony Taters were healthy?

[Laika]

Jays, Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, Astros, Rangers, Tigers 

TBH the AL is wide open, all of these teams have their strengths and flaws 

[Grant77]

3 minutes ago, Laika said:

Jays, Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, Astros, Rangers, Tigers 

TBH the AL is wide open, all of these teams have their strengths and flaws 

Jays, Astros, Yankees, and Tigers will be the ALDS teams in my opinion.

[Pendleton]

13 hours ago, Laika said:

She had a 91% call success rate today which is below average and bad but it was her first game, lots of pressure. I'm sure she'll be "fine". 

 

Ranked 13th of 15 umps on the day, that would have normally flown completely under the radar otherwise. The first call was pretty funny though 

[Terminator]

Mariners needed to add another bat and a reliever. They made some good additions to the lineup but stopped just short.

Their bench is embarrassing but I suppose they feel that Robles and Raley can return and give them a boost in the form of platoons?

But that roster plays up in the playoffs because of the formidable playoff rotation and top heavy bullpen. Fangraphs has them as the most likely team in the AL to advance to the WS right now, just edging us out.

[Jays24]

All the issues talking about the Mariners depth is relevant during the Regular Season.  Come playoff time, it's all about your top 3/4 starters, your top 3/4 relievers, batting lineup and defense. 

Mariners outclass practically every AL team in those areas except defense. This is where the 2015 Royals, I mean 2025 Blue Jays, come in to ruin their fun :) 

[Terminator]

 

 

Umpire Scorecards doesn't grade how egregious the misses are, it just registers missed calls or not.

So her overall accuracy wasn't bad, but a lot of the pitches she missed weren't close to being borderline. That seems bad but I suppose she got a lot of the borderline calls right which is good?

I'm sure she was nervous and her debut was good enough that I think she probably ends up being an acceptable ump.

[Terminator]

But you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be cheering hard for her to fail. I cannot wait for a manager to get into her face after a blown call.

There is zero chance that John Schneider has the courage to do it. But maybe this is the one instance where that a$$hole Aaron Boone can finally do the right thing?

[BB17]

47 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

All the issues talking about the Mariners depth is relevant during the Regular Season.  Come playoff time, it's all about your top 3/4 starters, your top 3/4 relievers, batting lineup and defense. 

Mariners outclass practically every AL team in those areas except defense. This is where the 2015 Royals, I mean 2025 Blue Jays, come in to ruin their fun :) 

Yeah that's the thing some people seem to be forgetting. Your overall WAR is irrelevant to what the team is now and how they project in the postseason. Your 5th SP and bottom 3 relievers won't matter much in a playoff series. 

 

[jaysblue]

2 hours ago, PitaBaby said:

The Jays are now first in the MLB in average, OBP, and hits. Also second in 2B's and third in OPS. Now this is how you win games. Imagine if they hit more dongs and Georgie and Tony Taters were healthy?

The Rockies series last week definitely helped to pad some stats haha. 

[jaysblue]

The AL this season is probably the most wide open its ever been! October baseball should be fun and the Jays like every other team have a chance to go on a deep run. Every AL team has their strengths and flaws and no team is perfect.