Around Baseball 2025

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

Anyone watch that Sunday night game? Skubal's must watch tv... k'd 8 of the first 9 batters he faced. Finished with a 1 hit 7 SO innings and 13K's.

I sure did.  He's unreal.

[jaysblue]

Skubal becomes a free agent after the 2026 season. Would be a perfect target if the Jays want to open up their pocketbooks for him! 

[jaysblue]

What does a Skubal contract look like? 

[Laika]

Gerrit Cole numbers, if he has clean health between now and free agency 

[jaysblue]

3 hours ago, Laika said:

Gerrit Cole numbers, if he has clean health between now and free agency 

Yeah good comp and benchmark. Might even get more. 

[Eat My Shatkins]

8 hours ago, jaysblue said:

Skubal becomes a free agent after the 2026 season. Would be a perfect target if the Jays want to open up their pocketbooks for him! 

Perfect. So he'll be a Yankee or a Dodger sooner rather than later.

[jaysblue]

AL MVP: Judge or Raleigh? 

 

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, jaysblue said:

AL MVP: Judge or Raleigh? 

 

I still give it to Judge. He's the most feared hitter on Earth. The surprise factor and being a C will probably get Raleigh some 1st place votes though and depending on how close they are by seasons end he could win it as people will be tired of Judge winning every year

[jaysthebest]

Gausman has a control issue.

[jaysthebest]

Guas been dog s***..

[BTS]

Kershaw likely hits 3000 tonight. He's at 2997. 

[Spanky__99]

8 minutes ago, BTS said:

Kershaw likely hits 3000 tonight. He's at 2997. 

And likely the last to ever do it again. 

[Brownie19]

On 7/1/2025 at 8:00 AM, jaysblue said:

AL MVP: Judge or Raleigh? 

 

Judge - and it's not really close.  222 wRC+ (v. 184 for Cal) and 6.5 WAR (v. 5.6 for Cal).  A few extra HRs for Cal are insignificant.

[Spanky__99]

10 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Judge - and it's not really close.  222 wRC+ (v. 184 for Cal) and 6.5 WAR (v. 5.6 for Cal).  A few extra HRs for Cal are insignificant.

The catcher position is significant, but Judge is like you said, far ahead.

 

[Terminator]

I think it's a worthy discussion given Dumper's position. But I have a feeling it will work itself out over the course of the year as he comes back down to earth and Judge continues to hit.

[Spanky__99]

1 minute ago, Spanky__99 said:

The catcher position is significant, but Judge is like you said, far ahead.

 

 

1 minute ago, Terminator said:

I think it's a worthy discussion given Dumper's position. But I have a feeling it will work itself out over the course of the year as he comes back down to earth and Judge continues to hit.

[Terminator]

1 minute ago, Spanky__99 said:

 

Couldn't be more proud of both you and myself (and the rest of Team Positive) for sticking with the team (and frankly the country for that matter) while the rest of the board tucked their tails and ran after a shaky April.

I'm not surprised we agree on the MVP race either. Great minds think alike!

[Brownie19]

39 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

The catcher position is significant, but Judge is like you said, far ahead.

 

 

39 minutes ago, Terminator said:

I think it's a worthy discussion given Dumper's position. But I have a feeling it will work itself out over the course of the year as he comes back down to earth and Judge continues to hit.

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.

[Laika]

19 minutes 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 it's that catcher defensive value is underrated. More like, catchers cannot play as much due to the physical demands of the position so they are underrated by WAR based on a simple lack of volume. Or maybe WAR is missing some kind of positional adjustment because the position it so taxing. Wear and tear tariff. 

The rebuttal to that is obvious but the rebuttal to the rebuttal is something like - do we want to live in a world where a catcher can literally never be the MVP? 

Are catchers the relief pitchers of hitters? 

[Spanky__99]

Yeah, it's about the Premium position as a catcher, the voters will surely look at that, but I don't see Judge slowing down anytime soon. He likely takes the crown again.

[Brownie19]

16 minutes ago, Laika said:

I don't think it's that catcher defensive value is underrated. More like, catchers cannot play as much due to the physical demands of the position so they are underrated by WAR based on a simple lack of volume. Or maybe WAR is missing some kind of positional adjustment because the position it so taxing. Wear and tear tariff. 

The rebuttal to that is obvious but the rebuttal to the rebuttal is something like - do we want to live in a world where a catcher can literally never be the MVP? 

Are catchers the relief pitchers of hitters? 

I hear what you're saying, but Cal has played in 1 less game and has 7 fewer PA's this season. 

If Raleigh played in the NL or was having this type of year in almost any other season - he'd be the clear cut MVP.  But how many 220+ wRC+ seasons have their been in the past 50 years of baseball?  This is Bond's level sh*t.  

What Raleigh is doing is also historic for a catcher.  It will be fun to see if he can sustain it over the course of a full season.

[Spanky__99]

Ohtani's back pitching now, I doubt he shits' the bed the rest of the way, it's close in the NL now, but I expect that to change in the 2nd half. PCA and Tucker are right there in the NL amongst others.

[Terminator]

To put the Catching position in proper historical context, the greatest Catcher of all-time (Johnny Bench) has just 74.8 WAR. The best OFers have nearly 170.

And in MLB history, only 8 times has a Catcher put up an 8 WAR or better season. Buster Posey had the highest season ever at 9.8 WAR in 2012. Raleigh is on pace for 11 WAR right now.

But I suppose Judge's season is also historical. He's on pace to put up 12-13 WAR and that's only been accomplished by Bonds, Ruth and Gehrig.

But f*** Aaron Judge. He plays for the Yankees and I hope he gets hurt. I'd vote for Raleigh.

[mphenhef]

2 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

And likely the last to ever do it again. 

Chris Sale could get there.  He's only off by about 475.  A young guy like Skenes could get there one day too.

[Laika]

Fractured elbow for Spencer Schwellenbach. 

Brutal.

The Barves aren't describing it as super serious but it seems like one of those injuries that could get worse or beget other injuries. 

 

Quote

Mark Bowman of MLB.com relays that Schwellenbach felt sore after his last game against the Phillies and a small fracture was discovered. He’ll be shut down for four weeks and could be back with the big league club in September.

 

[Brownie19]

Schwellenbach fractures his elbow.  Ouch.

Somehow, he's expected to pitch again in September, which I can't see happening.

[Laika]

Just now, Brownie19 said:

Schwellenbach fractures his elbow.  Ouch.

Somehow, he's expected to pitch again in September, which I can't see happening.

You can already predict this eh

Tries to pitch in September, shut down

Pitches in 2026 but has TJS in May. 

[Brownie19]

1 minute ago, Laika said:

You can already predict this eh

Tries to pitch in September, shut down

Pitches in 2026 but has TJS in May. 

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.

[BTS]

4 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

And likely the last to ever do it again. 

I think we'll see it happen again. Just takes one ace to start young and have a healthy career. 

[Brownie19]

13 minutes ago, BTS said:

I think we'll see it happen again. Just takes one ace to start young and have a healthy career. 

Even though IP are way down, strikeouts are way up (and still climbing?), so I think it's possible unless MLB makes an adjustment to cut back on strikeouts.