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For the first time since 2013 the True Cardinals are Monte Cristo division champions. Silvergun’s 5-year reign of terror is over.

So you're saying he doesn't have Justin Upton upside?

You were banned because you said you were shitposting with the goal of being banned. The moderation team has been instructed to oblige self-requested bans.

Did I mention that I hate Spencer Turnbull?

The thing about Trout in a redraft is that you can write in the 180 wRC+ and forget about it. A couple players will finish ahead of him in a given season, but nobody else is a slam dunk top-5 player year to year. Anyone who tried to get cute and took Harper ahead of Trout in 2016 or Betts this year probably missed the playoffs.

I don't even know how you project a superlative talent like Trout over the long term. His hitting peers are guys like Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, and Ty Cobb and all of these guys mashed until 40. With Trout entering his age-28 season next year, I think it's more likely that he still has 10+ years of high-end offensive production left than that he starts showing age-related decline with the bat in the near-future. There isn't a single player in baseball I'd take over him.

This is why I never post images here that aren't linked from another web page: I'm too hold to know how to do it properly.

Bryce Harper's clutch score before this season was negative for his career. It's now slightly positive. We're just seeing good sequencing luck in 2019 - his BABIP with RISP is in 2019 is 0.443 and his BABIP with the bases empty is 0.212. People's tendency to attach importance to these kinds of fluctuations is exactly why WAR is so valuable.

I think most people here understand the issues with WAR when it comes to pitchers - it's not terribly useful for relievers because top guys can be used almost exclusively in high leverage situations, increasing their value beyond what a context-neutral stat would estimate. And it's extremely sensitive to good/bad HR/FB luck. I rarely look at WAR for pitchers. For position players, WAR is critically important IMO. Trying to reconcile the relative values of offense, defense, baserunning, and framing for catchers without model similar to WAR is pretty much impossible for an average fan. Most people just end up letting their own biases cloud their opinions, and up missing the mark by miles because they were concerned that WAR would mislead them by a few feet. Remember the non-saber fan opinion of Ryan Goins?

I know how you feel. I've had Clevinger miss most of the year, Skaggs literally die, Happ be worse than replacement level, Votto turn into a pumpkin, and Taylor not contribute anything.

At least you're making other people happy. I'm really going to enjoy my $50 winnings and picking 8th instead of 18th in every round of the draft, and you caused that happiness. So pat yourself on the back.

Has there been a more humiliating DDL season than Boxy's 2019?

I'm hoping that's true next year. He's ranked 728th overall in our format this year, and I missed his best month of the season. He's been sub-replacement level since the start of May.

He's been maybe the most frustrating player I've owned in fantasy this year. Since I've owned him he's been bad, but not droppable because there's legit upside: 73.2 IP, 1W, 64K, 4.89 ERA, 2.13 K/BB, 0.351 OBPA And now he's up against his IP limits and will take up a roster spot getting sparse innings during my playoff run. I have NOT enjoyed owning him.

I don’t want to hear it. I’m still mad at you for selling me on Spencer Turnbull.

Has there ever been a case of a team clearly gaming service time clocks for a pitcher?

Come on silvergun!

Nice to see Pillar have another productive year. I wonder if the last 1-2 years is going to end up looking like an outlier when it comes to good MLB vets not making any money. The Brewers are leading the NLC right now in no small part because they've received 7 fWAR from Moustakas and Grandal for like 28M worth of 1-year deals. The Twins are leading the ALC by 3.5 games and have received almost 8 fWAR from Cruz, Gonzalez, Schoop, and Perez on cheap, short-term deals. The Giants aren't going to make the playoffs, but I like that Zaidi saw an opportunity to snag a league average player that was available for free because his own team didn't want to spend 5.8 on a couple of wins, and made a move to get a little bit better. If, for some reason, veterans continue to be undervalued, there's not going to be any excuse to not at least run a close to 0.500 team out there even in down years and cross your fingers that things break right and you sneak into a WC spot. At the worst you have a veteran to sell at the deadline. Fans of all of the 100-loss teams should be pissed that their team sat out a FA market where wins could be bought for dirt cheap.

Waguespack's utility to the team is going to be as a SP who has two years of options and can serve as a 7th starter who gets the call in case of injury. If Atkins does his job this offseason he's not going to be on the team to start 2020, and he definitely won't be relied on to start by the time this team is good.

Bumgarner Cole Gibson Hamels Hill Keuchel Miley Odorizzi Porcello Roark Ryu Strasbug (if opts out) Wheeler Wood Are all interesting to at least some degree, and I think you can make the argument that no team should be more aggressive in the SP market than the Blue Jays. We have the payroll flexibility, the huge need, and a good young core of position players. We should be trying to land a 1/2 and at least another mid-rotation guy.

I'm legit embarrassed at the thought of a new poster reading the last two pages of this thread.

The negative correlation between season wRC+ and number weeks below a 100 wRC+ was particularly illuminating.

I don’t think this is actually a thing that has been demonstrated, but even granting it, wouldn’t Vlad have the “doesn’t come from old money” factor in common with almost every player in professional baseball?

Jim, what in the f*** are you talking about?