Laika

I'd give him a lifetime contract in a second if Vladdy would sign ANY EXTENSION One year of Vlad and Bo would be worth decades of Charlie Charlie is growing on me rapidly. He's like a tumor with a nice ugly smile.

I didn't realize how s***** Ohtani has been with the stick recently Ohtani has hit only .191/.331/.376 with seven home runs over his last 172 PA VLAD VLAD VLAD VLAD VLAD VLAD MVP MOST VLAD PLAYER MOST VLADUABLE PLAYER M VLAD P

Kevin Cash pulling Rasmussen is incredibly simple: third time through the order in a close game against a very good offense. The Rays live by a code and we should all respect that. Every man needs a code.

There are lots of good developmental examples and you have to gave Charlie some credit. Kirk has been good from the start at a young age, and despite lots of outside criticism about his body. Manoah has been good from the start. Ray and Matz are comfortable and exceeding expectations. The culture in the dugout is fantastic. The players have fun, most of them are doing very well. You can go on and on.

Longoria could reach that 60 WAR threshold with a productive late 30s but I still don't think there is much chance he'll get in. - won't hit even 400 homers - will have an AVG in the .260s He needs to pump out two more VERY GOOD years and then hope Scott Rolen gets in so he can follow that path The Rolen half of that is looking fine but the Longoria production part is not likely

yaaaaaaaaa

Ray is going to lead in IP and he has a good shot at leading in ERA (if Lance Lynn doesn't qualify). Narrative could be on Ray's side too if Toronto makes it in - he has carried his team more than the other candidates have. And his FIP / fWAR lagging looks to be a bit unfair or not indicative of skill. Hard to bet on the voters not leaning for Cole because of, you know, New York and wins. Could end up decided by who misses the playoffs. Not sure Eovaldi is really that close because he's not going to end up leading any of Wins, K's, ERA, or IP. Lynn will be short on IP but has been excellent. Ray is actually way ahead in RA9-WAR and bWAR. He's got it!

Hey, why the f*** didn't Cole Sulser close the game yesterday anyway?

I don't think Machado is a safe bet. In fact, I wonder if he's not even a coin flip to make it. He has 39.7 WAR right now and is going to end up with a ~3.9 WAR season. He needs to repeat his 2021 five or six times to get over the basic 60 WAR threshold. Or he needs to adapt/improve and have some more big big years. Or play like an average player until he is like 39. All of those are possible, sure. I mean, it's relative. Machado is a safer bet than almost every other player to compare him to so in that sense he is a safe bet. But baseball is full of guys who were fantastic in their 20s but aged hard/normally in their 30s and never accumulated enough production to be Hall of Famers. Take the guy who just retired - Ryan Braun sure looked like a great HoF bet at 28 years old. I think Bryce has a better shot than Manny. I just think Bryce is better. If Manny needs to repeat his 2021 five or six times to get in, Bryce only needs to repeat his 2021 three times.

lmao Salvador Perez of all people is going to steal the HR crown from Vladdy isn't he

I would imagine the plan is something like: - They run a sort of platoon in CF but not exactly a true platoon where Dickerson plays against every RHP. Dickerson would play against some RHP, Grichuk might still play half the time or more, and Dyson would replace both defensively. - They pray to Jesus that Springer can man CF at some point after a few more cortisone shots. If they wanted Cavan to come up and cover CF at all I would imagine that he'd be getting reps in CF in AAA. Plan D if there are injuries would probably be Palacios or Mallex Smith?

Surely a couple of randoms from the main board would participate? Email league members to see if their brothers or uncles or wives or pastors or pastor's wives want a team

Machado is just so naturally good that I could see him transforming into a bit of a slugger in his 30s. I'm imagining a guy who stops having any real defensive value but starts hitting 40+ homers.

Seems like a massive experiment at this point in the season. Biggio is REALLY struggling with the stick in AAA. He might not be right or healthy.

Someone spin it up. Just run a really quick draft, change the rules or something so we fly through it.

Yeah I get that. Could say the same about a few other guys currently in the game. Bryce is on track but needs to stay healthy and productive for several more seasons. Machado needs to either plug along like this until he is 36 or he needs to have a bit of a career revival and pump out some more 6 win seasons.

Updated WC race tracking sheet Yankees turning it on against weak competition. The SEA-OAK four game set that is one series out could all but eliminate one of them from contention. If you look at Oakland's slate as a whole, they kind of had to destroy Texas and the Royals and they choked. I am looking forward to cheering for Cleveland against NY and the Mets against Boston. Toronto succeeds at getting past one of their two TB speed bumps.

Machado has a lot more work to do if he wants in the hall.

Soria has decent enough FIP, xFIP, and xERA numbers. His ERA is a bit inflated. He is definitely lower on the totem pole and should not be a high leverage guy but he won't be in the playoffs unless Charlie wants to actually get fired. We'll see. Yesterday was a big lead. It was fine to use him. Dude gave up a two run bomb and it was still a comfy win. The pen is basically: Closer - Romano Reliables - Mayza, Cimber, Richards Unreliables with promise - Pearson, Merryweather, Borucki Unreliable with veteran savvy - Soria Long man - Stripling There are definitely certain situations where you would prefer Soria to any of "unreliables with promise". Borucki has lost the zone and Merryweather/Pearson have so little experience this year, any of the three are more liable than Soria to like, walk the bases loaded or f*** up so bad that it leads to a monstrous inning. Soria might give up some hits but to me he seems more likely to do the basic thing correctly (throw strikes, make the other team earn it). If the reliables are not available who to go to in a 6-1 or 7-1 game? I see the case for Soria there. If the reliables are not available and you need someone to come in with men on and get huge strikeouts, that should be the time to roll the dice on Merryweather or Pearson. The wrong time to use Soria is when you need to get out of a tight spot. IMO.

Whatever the reason is, Toronto should be ahead of them because Toronto has the h2h tiebreaker. So if they both finished in a two-way tie for the top WC spot, Toronto would get homefield advantage.

Austin Hays!!!!!

play in game

why not? 87 pitches is a light workout

As frustrating as parts of this season have been, at least we don't have to watch Michael Wacha pitch.

Being patient isn't always good. When a pitcher is pounding the zone you just fall behind. I don't think the Jays' process yesterday was that bad. Specific players may have had bad plate appearances though.