Orgfiller

Well Butler isn't and Morse is done for the year with a concussion. Ergo the rankings being from 2015.

Oh right, I totally forgot about him. Didn't even consider the pitchers, Sale may very well get the award and it would probably be deserved.

Strikeout totals are deceiving IMO, that's why percentages are used to often. Trout struck out 26% of the time in 2014, a tad high but not alarming. He then promptly corrected that and his strikeout rate has declined every year since: 23.2% in 2015, 20.1% in 2016 and 19.5% this year. Side note: Altuve better f***ing win the MVP this year. He's been ridiculous and Trout being injured for as long as he did probably cost him what should have been a unanimous win. Judge has actually lost value due to his poor second half.

Bautista isn't/won't be part of the core for 2018. Donaldson and Martin are still elite, the other two are sunk costs though so I agree there. The team really isn't in all that bad of a position. Alford and Teoscar should be ready for the show by next year, maybe Tellez turns things around, maybe he doesn't; Gurriel, SRF, Danny Jansen, Ryan Borucko, Reese McGuire (?) could all be knocking at the door for role-playing time at least. It's highly unlikely any of these guys will impact the team like a Devers or Gary Sanchez, but that's still a good amount of young, potentially not useless talent to complement the likes of JD, Martin, Stroman, Sanchez (not sold on him yet), Osuna and maybe Travis. I think the FO aren't in as big a pickle as one might think. The Red Sox will be the team to beat in the East and it won't be close, but there's a lot of uncertainty in the rest of the division and the potential wild card teams. Playoffs are well within reach, the biggest obstacle will be securing depth for both starters and position players.

Andrew Heaney, making his third start since coming back from TJS. This is also marks consecutive outings for Weaver with 10 punchouts which makes me feel tingly in all in the right places.

4 of my (i.e., Gibbers') starters have posted 10+ K performances this week already. On the other hand, the hitters have gone 2/33 so that's less fun.

Holy f***ing s***. This season strikes again.

What was all of that. Ugh, great outing from Brett Anderson.

I think you would be mistaken. Sale makes everyone look bad.

I love Brett Anderson.

The kid can hit. I don't know if he'll tap into it enough but he has pretty legit raw power.

Welp, Raffy Lopez with another mammoth foul ball.

Holy f***, he did it again! Another unreal play!

Lol Junior Cruz, nice one Buck. I think you were going for Jose Cruz Jr.

Nah don't worry, I appreciate you trying to expand your knowledge of newer stats. By FIP and xFIP, you would be right that Stroman has benefited from some luck, however even if his ERA matched those two, Stroman would still be performing admirably. Remember this is the AL East and he plays in a hitter's park so his numbers are expected to be higher than some of his counterparts around the league.

At least Maile was a f***ing rock behind the dish. They're all s*** at hitting but at least give me the ones that won't be leaking back there while handling the pitching staff well.

I don't mean to pile on gruber, but your point about Stroman being lucky wasn't quite supported during that inning lol.

Raffy Lopez is really getting on my f***ing nerves.

f***

His FIP is 3.86 (FIP- is 87), xFIP is 3.63 (xFIP- is 83). Absolutely nothing s*** about it.

His BABIP is .311 and HR/FB is 17% lmao, he's been lucky with getting GIDPs if anything, but otherwise he's actually been rather unlucky.

A somewhat darkhorse candidate is Andrew McCutchen. Insane peak as a top 3 player in the game, and with his resurgence this year as a good - not elite as he was a few years back - hitter, if he finishes out strong he could have a chance. Will be 31 to start next season.

It could be the early knee injuries if anything, but since he rebounded for back to back 6+ win seasons. He's an elite defender and officially made the transition from good doubles hitter to tapping into his power with consistency a couple of seasons ago. He may be a douche but it hasn't affected his play to date and with his tools, barring any serious injuries he's very much on track for a HoF career.

I could very well be talking out of my ass here, but I think generally switch-hitters get more praise than say, an equally good hitter from only one side. This is due to a couple of reasons as I see it: 1) it's hard enough to hit major league pitching effectively from one side, so it's doubly as impressive to be able to do it from both, and 2) they always have the platoon advantage, i.e. you can't really bring in a righty/lefty specialist to face them, even though certain switch hitters do have different splits, though if they're good enough those tend to be less significant than a single-sided batter. So in the grand scheme of things, when comparing a switch hitter to their single sided counterparts, all else being equal, the former gets slightly more praise/would be preferred.

You also missed Manny Machado among the younger players. Trout makes everyone look bad in comparison, but Harper and Machado are 23 and 29 respectively in career WAR through age 24. Those guys are absurdly talented and they're being overlooked because of how good Trout is.