John_Havok

Not creepy at all

Rangers win, Oakland sucking against Seattle as expected but Houston is about to lose unless they score 4 or more in the bottom of the ninth

Seager just Andrus’d a throw to 2b and a run scored for Boston to tie it up at 4. Pitching change now, 2 on and just 1 out. Sox threatening to take back the lead

He’s banged up and feeling every game … not exactly a clean bill of health but not entirely surprising at this point of the season, especially for a guy carrying 50ish extra pounds. Kirk is probably in the same boat.

He’ll be fine

article on milb.com about Orelvis today: https://www.milb.com/sacramento/news/the-road-to-the-showtm-toronto-blue-jays-orelvis-martinez By Gerard Gilberto @Gerard_Gilberto Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at Blue Jays’ second-ranked prospect Orelvis Martinez. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here. The Blue Jays’ tremendous eye for talent on the international market seems to have found another gem in Orelvis Martinez. Toronto signed the Dominican infielder when he was 16 years old to a $3.5 million bonus – the most lucrative in the 2018 international class. Martinez ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 7 international prospect and earned comparisons from scouts at the time to a young Adrián Beltré. Since he’s joined the professional ranks, he’s quietly been one of the best power hitters in the Minors. Martinez’s 86 homers are the most by any player since 2021, and he’s the only Minor Leaguer to hit at least 28 long balls in each of the past three seasons. This year, Martinez repeated a level at Double-A New Hampshire to start the season but advanced to Triple-A Buffalo after the All-Star break. In 119 total games this season, he’s batting .246/.343/.509 with 28 homers, 24 doubles and 88 RBIs. Since being promoted, Martinez has seen an increase in production in most every offensive category, with one important exception. Martinez’s most glaring flaw in 2022 was his 28.5 percent strikeout rate, which likely played a part in anchorin him to the Eastern League for an extra tour. He decreased that figure to 20.5 percent over 70 games with the Fisher Cats this season. But it spiked again in Buffalo, and he’s entering the final week of the regular season with a 27.2 percent punchout rate. Oddly enough, this spike has come at a time when he’s seen an improvement in his average (.273) and on-base percentage (.347). There’s been another interesting development since MLB Pipeline’s No. 88 overall prospect landed in Buffalo – he’s been playing second base for the first time in his career. When Martinez first signed, there was a belief that he would eventually shift from his natural position at shortstop to third base as he grew into his frame. The Blue Jays didn’t wait that long, however, and he’s played both positions on the left side of the infield since his debut in 2019. But with the Bisons, the 5-foot-11, 200-pounder has actually taken most of his defensive reps at second base. “He’s got a lot to learn, but the talent is there and the ability to do damage is there obviously,” Buffalo manager Casey Candaele said in August. “There’s some things that he needs to refine, especially defensively, but he’s willing to work. “He’s not intimidated by any means. He wants to do better. … He’s highly capable of handling it and doing it.” The Santo Domingo native has moved rather quickly through the Minor League ranks. He was the youngest player to open the season on an Eastern League roster last year, and he’s not turning 22 until November. Even his introduction to professional ball could be considered an aggressive assignment. After signing in 2018, he came stateside right away and debuted the following year in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Over 40 games that year, Martinez batted .275/.352/.549 but his game power was more to the gaps than over the fence. He hit seven homers but had eight doubles and five triples. Following the pandemic year, Martinez made his full-season debut with Single-A Dunedin. He was really able to tap into his power in the traditionally pitcher-friendly Florida State League and clubbed 19 homers and 22 doubles while batting .279 with an .941 OPS in his first 71 games of the season. He was promoted to High-A Vancouver in August, and his season was cut short after 27 games due to an injury. But he hit nine more homers over that span and finished with 87 RBIs on the season. Martinez’s 2022 season in New Hampshire was something of a mixed bag. Although he had the high strikeout rate while batting .203 with a 96 wRC+ throughout the season, he also set the Fisher Cats’ single-season home run record with 30 long balls. He was also just 20 years old and was the first player that age to hit at least 30 homers entirely at Double-A since Derrek Lee did it for Memphis in 1996. Martinez has impressed in some manner throughout every aggressive assignment he’s been given. He’s even gotten at-bats in each of the past three Grapefruit League seasons, collecting 15 hits in 45 at-bats (.333) with five homers and 14 RBIs. Martinez, who is on the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster as the club enters the postseason, can join Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk as the latest international signing success story in Toronto. Gerard Gilberto is a reporter for MiLB.com.

Houston loses. Need a miracle for Oakland to come back on Seattle but as Mr. Loaf once said, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

Anyone see Schwarber send a ball into orbit? 483 feet. 113.9 off the bat at 32 degree LA = moonshot

Yeah and really you’d only expect the Astros as the best bet to lose, and that’s pretty close to a coin flip. But, maybe the Athletics play loose and beat the Mariners and maybe the Red Sox get lucky against Texas.

I bet you 5$ and a gum wrapper they increase by 30% or better than what they end with this season

Yeah, but the issue that happens there is that if teams don't play each other equally, then using an overall WL record is even less equitable since certain teams will always play garbage teams more than others because of differences in schedule.

Happens pretty much every year. THe problem with balancing schedules is that travel becomes exceptionally unbalanced. West coast teams already travel far more than central teams and east teams and that disparity would only get wider. I get that many don't really think of this as much of a factor, but it is.

Attendance always lags a bit behind when a team starts to get good after a long period of shittiness. Miami hasnt cracked 80 wins since 2010. They've been legit horrible. ANd they still had better attendance overall in 2010 as an 80 win team than the Jays did with an 85 win team. It's just been way too damn long for them. Willing to bet next season they bounce back attendance wise pretty noticeably. Not to like, upper-echelon levels, but a bounce back for sure.

Orelvis was the International League Player of the Week for last week. 9-25 overall and homered in 3 straight games.

Location isnt an issue with the Marlins, they've just been traditionally s***** for years. People want to see the Rays (at least... I think?) but truly, getting to and from that Stadium is a nightmare. I did the drive when I was in Florida a few years ago and there's just no way I would do it even remotely regularly. The traffic getting in and out is akin to hitting yourself in the balls with a jackhammer.

no clue about the same location, but the fixed roof in Florida would seem to be a necessity due to the insane weather they have down there. Even with a retractable roof they'd probably have to have it closed 75% of the time, so no reason to spend the extra money - that would be my guess anyways. And if you have a fixed roof, way harder and costlier to do real grass. It's not even the fixed roof and turf that are are the real big problems, the real problem was transportation and that doesnt seem to have changed.

Here's a link to a more detailed story. Says talks with Tampa never got off the ground. Stadium is only going to seat 30,000, fixed dome roof, artificial turf. Artist rendering is pretty cool but yeah, hard to imagine it won't still have the same transportation issues the current dump has. https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2023/09/18/stadium-gas-plant-district-2028-tropicana-field-stuart-sternberg/

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-playoff-format-faq Condensed version is top 2 division winners get a bye, Division winner with 3rd best record hosts WC 3 in a best of 3. WC 1 hosts WC 2 in a best of 3

The new market inefficiency for teams: hire random people, provide them with steroids dissolved in a skin penetrating substance to go around to ballparks and shake every opposing player's hands on a daily/weekly basis.

Baseball is so weird.

It’s not unfortunately. The Gameday zone matches the zone we see on TV, but not the Statcast zone. It’s one of the things that MLB wants to iron out before they ever bring the ABS to the majors, they want to be sure the zone we see on TV for any broadcast is the same one as Statcast uses

Use baseball savant, they use the Statcast pitch tracking tech from the games for their data and graphs. Gameday zone is not as precise

Pitch 5 wasn’t the terrible call, the slider for strike 2 was terrible. Pitch 5 caught the edge of the zone, but could have gone either way Remember, the zone you see on TV is terrible for the height of the real zone, much better on width

Ya had to say it….you had to bring Swanson’s name into this….NOW LOOK WHAT HAPPENED

Wasn’t even a bad pitch. 97 up and virtually out of the zone, just a great rip by a great hitter.