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MLB 2022 Regular Season Thread

alkeiper

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Maybe a better feel-good story here. In 2016 the Red Sox sent Anderson Espinoza to the Padres for Drew Pomeranz. Espinoza pitched for Fort Wayne in the Padres system but ended up missing four years due to injuries. On May 30th he finally made his big league debut with the Cubs.
 

snuffbox

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Phil Nevin, whose inexplicable wave home of Aaron Judge last October probably led to his contract not being renewed in New York, replaced Madden as the interim manager.
 

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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So much for the Angels actually being good this year. Is there a precedent for a team having two top 10 current players and still being butt, @alkeiper ? Maybe the early '00s Texas Rangers or a '90s Mets team?
 

HarleyQuinn

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So much for the Angels actually being good this year. Is there a precedent for a team having two top 10 current players and still being butt, @alkeiper ? Maybe the early '00s Texas Rangers or a '90s Mets team?
Not top 10 players, necessarily given their ages, but those late 1997-1999 Orioles were pretty bad despite having guys like Cal Ripken Jr, Brady Anderson, Harold Baines, Rafael Palmeiro, Eric Davis, and Albert Belle who could all slug 25+ HR still. Some of those guys only lasted 1-2 seasons but still.
 

alkeiper

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I hesitate on this because none of them were in their primes, but the '62 Cubs had FOUR Hall of Famers in their lineup and lost 103 games. Williams, Banks, Santo and Lou Brock. They finished behind the Houston Colt .45's, an expansion team.
 

alkeiper

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Josh Hader (8/01/21-06/05-22): 40 games, 38 IP, 11 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 16 BB, 65 Ks, 0.00 ERA. Opponents batting .088/.197/.104 against.
Josh Hader (yesterday): 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 HR, 0 BB, 2 K's, Blown Save and Loss

Not to throw shade on Hader, just to note that may be as improbable a one run comeback as you'll see.
 

alkeiper

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All Star voting is up. I put together two lineups. One is bWAR leaders for 2022 only, another is for 2021-22 combined. I'll show those lineups and then my vote in parenthesis.

American League
C: Alejandro Kirk/Salvador Perez (Kirk)
1B: Ty France/Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Guerrero)
2B: Andres Gimenez/Marcus Semien (Altuve)
SS: Jeremy Pena/Carlos Correa (Bogaerts)
3B: Rafael Devers/Jose Ramirez (Ramirez)
OF: Aaron Judge/Judge (Judge)
OF: Kyle Tucker/Tucker (Tucker)
OF: Mike Trout/Cedric Mullins (Trout)
DH: Yordan Alvarez/Shohei Ohtani (Alvarez)

I don't think 50-60 games alone makes you an All Star. But we can not ignore them either. I think Andres Gimenez has a little more to prove, but Marcus Semien's slump is concerning. So I split the difference. Altuve is a potential Hall of Famer having a typical year. Same thinking at shortstop. Correa is good but there's always some lurking doubt. Bogaerts has a decade of statistics like this seasons. Outfield is easy. Jose Ramirez is just a notch below Devers this year and has a 1.007 OPS, so I feel comfortable in that. For DH I would take Ohtani on star power, but Alvarez can mash.

National League
C: Willson Contreras/Contreras (Contreras)
1B: Paul Goldschmidt/Goldschmidt (Goldschmidt)
2B: Tommy Edman (Cronenworth)
SS: Dansby Swanson/Trea Turner (Turner)
3B: Manny Machado/Machado (Machado)
OF: Mookie Betts/Betts (Betts)
OF: Juan Soto/Soto (Soto)
OF: Jurickson Profar/Bryan Reynolds (Acuna)
DH: Bryce Harper/Harper (Harper)

The National League seems more stable. Contreras, Goldschmidt, Machado, Betts, Soto, Harper, no need to defend those. Second base really throws a monkey wrench into the vote. Tommy Edman is the best second baseman in the league. He played 130 games there last season and won a gold glove. He has played 47 games at second this season. But the Cardinals sent Paul Dejong to AAA and made Edman the shortstop and Edman is on the All Star ballot as a shortstop. If it's Edman vs. Swanson vs. Turner, I have to give the nod to Trea Turner. At second base that leaves Jazz Chisholm vs. Jake Cronenworth. By 2022 WAR it's 2.0 for Jazz, 1.9 for Jake. I do not see how the raw statistics make it that close. Jazz looks much better. But Jake was far better last year. I went with Cronenworth but my heart is not in it. Frankly the All Star team is probably more exciting with Chisholm.

In the outfield I fudged the order a bit to line up Soto and Betts. That leaves the third spot. It doesn't feel like there is a breakaway candidate. Bryan Reynolds is hitting .227. Kyle Schwarber is hitting .209. Profar is hitting .252 with seven home runs and 4 steals. By the standard of a first half All Star that's not quite a statement. Maybe Joc Pederson? But then we have Ronald Acuna Jr. He missed serious time with an injury, yes. But he's back. He has a 152 OPS+. His OPS+ in 2020-21 was 156. He has been an All Star the last two (2019 and '21) seasons. He is almost certainly one of the three best outfielders in the league. He's now healthy. I feel like he is the one who belongs out there.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Yankees and Astros are both running away in the AL East and West respectively with Toronto 11 games above .500 and yet 9 GB of NY.
 

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If season ended today, 4 out of the 6 AL Playoff teams would be from the East (sorry that you suck forever, Baltimore) so it's not like the Yankees are feasting on weak competition.
 

alkeiper

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If season ended today, 4 out of the 6 AL Playoff teams would be from the East (sorry that you suck forever, Baltimore) so it's not like the Yankees are feasting on weak competition.
Schedules can be quirky. That said, there's only one team the Yankees have taken less than two out of three from and that's the White Sox. "Only" four out of seven there. So yeah. Dangerous, possibly historic team. I hope they go out in the first round.
 

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Cool stat I saw earlier this week that through 403 career games Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. has the exact same about of HR‘s and OBP as his father did through 403 games!
 

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I'm more amused by Bo Bichette putting up a 5.9 WAR in his first full season (2021), and finishing 12th in MVP voting. His dad Dante had a CAREER WAR of 5.7, and finished second in MVP voting in 1995 with a WAR of 1.2. He was also a 4-time all-star. The 90s were kind of weird.
 
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