Never heard of the guy until it was mentioned in this article. So no, I'm not convinced on Lamet. As a general rule of thumb, similar to nicksaviking, I don't trust any pitcher from the Padres organization. Their ballpark favors pitchers too much, and produces stats much better than their true ability.
Same story, different year.... There's always better upside assets to deal next year. But wait, now those assets made the majors and did okay. No way they can trade them anymore while they're cheap. It's a vicious cycle.
Game 1 starts tonight. They're forecasting that it will be over 95 degrees at first pitch. Which would be the hottest temperature at the start of a game since the 2001 WS in Phoenix, AZ. The Dodgers and Astros are the first 100 win teams to meet in the World Series since 1970. Kershaw v. Keuchel tonight. I predict both pitchers will see the 6th inning at least.
Tommy Reinking of Twinkie Town wrote an article after compiling research about home grown Twins players and the WAR they've produced for the team. It should be no surprise that the Twins have much better success developing hitters over pitchers. The pitching chart is pretty sad to look at. The team hasn't had a group of home grown pitchers average over 1.0 WAR per player since 2009. It's possible that the current group we're hoping for in the minors bucks that trend. But I'm sure there were other hot pitching names we've been hoping for over the last 14 years that never worked out.
I guess they're just rolling with Croft for the time being. He's already named the starter against Iowa. Though I can't imagine Seth Green is worse than Croft.
Croft looked awful against Illinois. If Illinois was even a halfway decent team, this should have been a loss. It's a coin flip next week in the battle for Floyd. Iowa gives up 235 passing yards a game, ranking 12th in the conference. It doesn't seem to matter who the coach is, the Gophers always seem to throw the ball to one guy, and one guy only. Fleck and co. need to come up with a game plan to spread the ball around.
This was a very enjoyable read. Thanks. I didn't realize he was mixing in that many sinkers this year. From my untrained eye, I thought those were 2 seamers with good movement on it. It's truly a pleasure watching him pitch when the fastball and curve are on that day. Next year there will still be some learning curves, so I agree with gunnarthor that he'll be a similar pitcher in 2018. I have high hopes he'll make a huge stride in 2019 and beyond.
Concur. The story last winter was Dozier had a career year, and couldn't produce similar stats. Now there's 3 years of data showing he can be a ~30 HR hitter and 2 years of an OPS north of .850. Even if the contract is one less year, he answered a lot of questions whether or not 2016 was for real.
Comparing Sano to Pablo Sandoval is a lazy, false narrative. Miguel Sano is a 6'4" man built like a tree. Pablo Sandoval is a 5'11" slap hitter. Just stop with this.
Just like Buxton, whatever it takes to get it done I'm on board with. Both him and Buxton will most likely need north of $100 million to consider an extension.
Yes, all of this. Also, the Pirates' attendance has declined by 25% over the last 2 years, and will continue to do so next year. Historically, whenever revenue goes down for them, they find ways to cut costs.
If I squint, I don't mind the Dodgers making it out of the NL. It has been a long time coming for them. My only hope left, and it looks like for several others here, is rooting for Houston. Watching Aaron Judge at the plate annoys me. It's like he's out there playing slow pitch softball when others are playing a real baseball game. Every single time he's upper cutting the hell out of that ball and swinging out of his shoes.
Buxton is pretty much in the driver's seat for any contract negotiation. He's already had a share of "life changing" money, and should be in a position to gamble on himself if he chooses to do so. It's in the Twins' best interest to lock him up ASAP before next year's FA class breaks the salary scale as we know it. I just don't know if the team really had an opportunity to offer a lengthy contract extension buying out FA years.
This division would be brutal to be in. Not that I disagree from a geography standpoint, it would just be very difficult to win division titles against Houston, Cubs, St. Louis, and Texas.