The Official 2024 Major League Baseball Thread

[Angelsjunky]

Aaron Judge is a beast. .322/.456/.701, 41 HR in 111 games. His 216 wRC+ is the highest since Bonds in 2004 (233). Only Ruth, Williams, Mantle and Bonds have had better than 216 wRC+ seasons. Those four, plus Cobb, are the only players that have had multiple 200 wRC+ seasons...Judge would be the sixth player.

 

[T.G.]

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

Aaron Judge is a beast. .322/.456/.701, 41 HR in 111 games. His 216 wRC+ is the highest since Bonds in 2004 (233). Only Ruth, Williams, Mantle and Bonds have had better than 216 wRC+ seasons. Those four, plus Cobb, are the only players that have had multiple 200 wRC+ seasons...Judge would be the sixth player.

 

Hopefully, the AJ jinx is in full effect now!

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, T.G. said:

Hopefully, the AJ jinx is in full effect now!

But why? I kind of want to see him put up insane numbers. 

[T.G.]

Just now, Angelsjunky said:

But why? I kind of want to see him put up insane numbers. 

Isn't it obvious?

Because he's a Yankee.

That being said... I get what you're saying.  I just like bringing up the AJ jinx.

[Angelsjunky]

Just now, T.G. said:

Isn't it obvious?

Because he's a Yankee.

That being said... I get what you're saying.  I just like bringing up the AJ jinx.

Fair enough. I guess I stopped hating the Yankees (if I ever hated them) when we became the Red Sox's bitch in the Aughties, and given that the Yankees haven't won the WS in 15 years, I haven't had that same feeling of inevitability with them. Similarly, given that I'm not a SoCal guy, I don't have Dodgers butthurt so don't hate them like most here do. I don't even hate the Red Sox, though find them a bit annoying (Boston is annoying, in general, though it has its perks).

[Tank]

we've been watching more dodger games this year because of ohtani. that means we've had to listen to joe davis. this week with the phillies in town, we're getting joe davis and jessica something or other (i think she did espn sunday night games for a year or two). 

remember when you were a kid and you'd watch water evaporate on the sidewalk on a hot summer day? yeah, that's about a billion times more interesting than listening to arguably the most boring, monotone play by play guy in major league baseball. combined with jessica, i'm sure they play tapes of them calling a game to the inmates at gitmo as a form or torture. 

[T.G.]

10 minutes ago, Tank said:

we've been watching more dodger games this year

Reported.

[Tank]

1 minute ago, T.G. said:

Reported.

my punishment is having to listen to joe davis. it's borderline cruel and unusual. 

[T.G.]

6 minutes ago, Tank said:

my punishment is having to listen to joe davis. it's borderline cruel and unusual. 

I haven't watched a single AB of Ohtani's.  Not even a highlight. 

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

Graterol done for the season.  Can we take some solace that the dodgers have injuries like is.  Sure they have Shohei and they win, but their guys drop like flies too.   

[m0nkey]

Their lead in the division is going to be down to just 3 games over the padres and diamondbacks (they're losing 8-4 in the 8th, assuming this score holds).

[jsnpritchett]

White Sox fired Pedro Grifol. 

 

[m0nkey]

Bring back La Russa!

[m0nkey]

Jackson Holliday's first 10 games in the majors might not actually have been indicative of his future.  

 

.375/.444/.917 in his 7 games since getting called back up with 4 home runs (including homers in his last 3 games)

[Angelsjunky]

Chuck mentioned Stephen Strasburg in another thread, who I had completely forgotten about. He officially retired in April, but didn't pitch in all of 2023, and barely since 2019, after which he only pitched about 30 innings sprinkled in 2020-22. Anyhow, it got me thinking about forgotten players - guys I haven't thought of in a while. For some reason*, I remembered the name Andrew Benintendi. I looked him up, and here's what I found: he is still playing, but kinda sucks. 

For those that don't remember, Benintendi was a "can't miss" Red Sox prospect after he was called up in 2016 at the age of 21, hitting .295/.359/.476 in 34 games. He was unspectacular but solid enough in 2017 and improved enough in 2018 for some (Fangraphs, I think) to gush and think he was a star-in-the-making. 

2017: 154 games, .271/.352/.424, 20 HR, 1.8 WAR, 102 wRC+

2018: 148 games, .290/.366/.465, 16 HR, 4.4 WAR, 123 wRC+

That 4.4 WAR at age 23 was enough for people to expect stardom, especially after he helped the Red Sox win the World Series (.333 BA). But he slipped in 2019, hitting .266/.343/.431 (100 wRC+, 1.2 WAR), and missed most of the covid-shortened 2020 season. The Red Sox traded him to the Royals in February of 2021, when he bounced back somewhat, hitting .276/.324/.442 with 1.4 WAR and winning a Gold Glove. But clearly not the type of performance a star has at age 26. He had a rather different season in 2022, hitting .304/.373/.399 with a 122 wRC+ and 2.2 WAR, with a mid-season trade to the Yankees. 

The White Sox rewarded him with a five-year, $75M contract, evidently feeling that he was a reliable, everyday average plus regular. He paid them back with his worst season yet, hitting .262/.326/.356 with 5 HR, -0.3 WAR and 87 WAR. He's even worse this year, hitting .210/.263/.351, -1.3 WAR, 70 wRC+. He doesn't quite qualify, but that -1.3 WAR is #204 out of 205 players with 300+ PA (only Eddie Rosario is worse with -2.0). The White Sox are so bad that his -1.3 WAR isn't even the lowest on the team; Martin Maldonado is at -1.6 in 147 PA. The White Sox have nine hitters with at least 100 PA and negative WAR, compared to only four with positive - their best being 0.9 WAR.

To put that another way, the White Sox are almost two years into his five year contract, and have gotten -1.6 WAR for $30 million. Ouch.

(*The reason I thought of Benintendi is that I was browsing 2025 free agents and Alex Verdugo was on the list of outfielders. Verdugo reminded me of Benintendi.

[jsnpritchett]

 

 

[Slegnaac]

How soon does Nevin have to submit his application to the White Sox?

 

asking for a friend....

[Angelsjunky]

Vlad Jr has been absurd. Since 6/21:

.400/.451/.839, 16 HR, 251 wRC+ in 175 PA.

After 2021, he looked like he'd challenge for the best hitter in baseball, but then had two mediocre years in a row with a downward trend. Now he looks like he's back to vying for best hitter again, at least that doesn't play for the Yankees. I wonder what happened - obviously something clicked.

[m0nkey]

He cut his hair 

[Slegnaac]

1 hour ago, m0nkey said:

He cut his hair 

sucker

[Inside Pitch]

13 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Vlad Jr has been absurd. Since 6/21:

.400/.451/.839, 16 HR, 251 wRC+ in 175 PA.

After 2021, he looked like he'd challenge for the best hitter in baseball, but then had two mediocre years in a row with a downward trend. Now he looks like he's back to vying for best hitter again, at least that doesn't play for the Yankees. I wonder what happened - obviously something clicked.

All his batted ball data this year screamed bad luck...it was possibly the most exaggerated example I've ever seen. To be honest it did last year as well but not on the level it was this year.  At one point he was in a 0-fer stretch where he managed something like 18 straight batted balls with exit velocities over 100.  

He's been the poster child for why predictive data is so much more insightful than the traditional triple slash stuff.  

[Inside Pitch]

10 hours ago, m0nkey said:

He cut his hair 

But he grew a beard..   Its science.

[m0nkey]

Jarren Duran went to the Matt Joyce school of dealing with hecklers

 

First player to actually be suspended for something like this?

[Roy Hobbs]

24 minutes ago, m0nkey said:

Jarren Duran went to the Matt Joyce school of dealing with hecklers

 

First player to actually be suspended for something like this?

Kevin Pillar was suspended for the same thing in 2017,with Toronto.

[m0nkey]

15 minutes ago, Roy Hobbs said:

Kevin Pillar was suspended for the same thing in 2017,with Toronto.

Yup and also apparently old friend Yunel Escobar got suspended for having the Spanish equivalent written on his eyeblack. So I guess there’s precedent