Random MLB News & Discussion 2014

[logan82]

I wonder how may teams a guy can play on in one season. Hector Noesi has been on 3 so far in April.

[RightFieldCoder]

He should try for all 30 in one year.

[reillymcshane]

Wonderful article by David Shoenfield on ESPN.com about the 1978 Oakland A's.

 

They started the season 16-5 and ended up winning only 69 games. It was the year after Charlie Finley got rid of all his players, and was playing with a hodgepodge of minor leaguers and fringe guys.

 

It's full of great stories. The A's wouldn't pay for a left handed batting practice pitcher. They didn't have a single scout. The players would go to the local restaurant to watch tape of the games because the team wouldn't buy a VCR.

 

It's great stuff.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/46880/the-strange-saga-of-the-1978-oakland-as

[reillymcshane]

The 1975 Oakland A's stole 341 bases. They were caught 123 times - a 73.5% success rate.

 

The team had, essentially, two guys who were designated runners. Larry Lintz stole 31 bases, but had only 1 AB. Matt Alexander had 20 SB on 30 ABs.

 

Could you imagine the Interwebs if they had been around at this time. Peoples' heads would have been exploding.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/1976.shtml

[yfinn6]

Someone needs to tweet Casey McGehee's 2011 ABs/production at the guys on MLB Network (look at you, Mitch Williams and Darryl Hamilton). They said the Brewers gave up on McGehee after a good 2010. He had 600 plate appearances in 2011 and OPS'ed at .626. 2012 wasn't much better. The Brewers gave him plenty of chances in 2011 to see if 2010 was just a fluke.

[jerichoholicninja]

Yes, the Brewers gave up on him and because he was so good he was quickly picked up by...a Japanese team. Apparently the whole league agreed with the Brewers assessment.

[TURBO]

This is pretty great:

 

Robinson Cano Surprises Yankees Fans While They're Booing

 

 

AWESOMENESS!

 

The line about leaving for the money is LOL funny coming from a Yankees fan.

[Patrick425]

I had no idea until this morning that Nolan Arenado with Colorado had such a long hitting streak going. Doesn't seem like the type of hitter that would put together a streak like that.

[Kelbysdaddy]

I had no idea until this morning that Nolan Arenado with Colorado had such a long hitting streak going. Doesn't seem like the type of hitter that would put together a streak like that.

Arenado is a total beast! nice gap hitter with 20 HR power and an amazing glove at the hot corner. definitely a guy to keep an eye on, he'll be a star.

[yfinn6]

Well, the Cardinals are back to doing what the Cardinals do: Travis Wood of the Cubs hit two Cardinals (completely inadvertently) in the bottom of the 5th; Wood bats in the top of the 6th and the Cardinals drilled him with a fastball in the upper back. Yadier immediately gets between Wood and the pitcher. Yep, that wasn't intentional or anything. This has to be Yadier's doing - that dude is a total hothead.

[jjkoestler]

Winning 17-5 is nice payback for the Cubs.

[PrinceFielderx1]

The Card deserved it. Is there really any team or fan in the Majors that would argue with me on that besides Card and their fans?

[HiAndTight]

I had no idea until this morning that Nolan Arenado with Colorado had such a long hitting streak going. Doesn't seem like the type of hitter that would put together a streak like that.

Arenado is a total beast! nice gap hitter with 20 HR power and an amazing glove at the hot corner. definitely a guy to keep an eye on, he'll be a star.

 

 

Not a bad left side of the IF in Colorado. [sarcasm]Of course Tulo is going to be traded to the Cards anytime now for Matt Adams and spare parts.[/sarcasm]

 

At least I've spent a lot of time reading Cards fan forums where they've insisted this was a foregone conclusion.

[adamb100]

Some guy uploaded the video of the fan running on the field during the Yankee's game:

 

[RightFieldCoder]

The Wild Thing got a little too wild.

[reillymcshane]

The Wild Thing got a little too wild.

Read the Deadspin version of the article:

 

http://deadspin.com/mitch-williams-ejected-from-childs-baseball-game-for-ar-1574736005

 

It's not just Williams twitter posts, but comments from other people at the game. They said he was a dick.

[jerichoholicninja]

Axford has been removed as Cleveland's closer. That 8.3 BB/9 isn't going to cut it no matter how many batters you strike out. The guy's toast and Doug was wise to jump off that train when he did. Sooner would have been better but at least he got someone who might be a major leaguer out of it.

[RobertR]

Looks like Votto is headed to the DL. Combined with Bruce, the Reds are going to struggle to score runs.

[Thurston Fluff]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I'm posting here because I think it shows which league is interested in cleaning up their PED problem and which isn't. https://sports.yahoo.com/news/colts-star-lb-robert-mathis-212200537--nfl.html

 

The key line that caught my eye was the Colts response to Mathis getting suspended.

In a statement, the Colts said they wanted to reassure Mathis that he would remain an ''honored and cherished'' member of the team.

 

Umm, he just got caught cheating and the best they can do is hope he still feels loved? The NFL already under punishes the PED cheaters compared to MLB and does not even attempt to investigate accusations outside of the testing policy like MLB does. It even trickles down to fans and media. If a baseball player the level of Mathis got caught it would be a huge story for weeks on end. That player would get major condemnation from everywhere, fans and media alike. Anyone care to bet how long this is front page material?

Seems to league that has the real PED problem, top to bottom, is the NFL not MLB. In both how cheaters are viewed and how they are handled.

[danzig6767]

Looks like Votto is headed to the DL. Combined with Bruce, the Reds are going to struggle to score runs.

 

Not only will losing Votto hurt the Reds in the short term, this is the same knee he had problems with last year, he's 30 years old, and they still owe him over 200 million dollars through 2023.

 

Votto when healthy is pretty much the last guy in the NL i want to see at the plate in a close game situation with runners on base when playing the Brewers. He can hit both lefties and righties. Can hit for power and average. Has amazing plate discipline. That said, the odds strike me as high that the Reds will be stuck paying him 20-25 million per for about five years or more as a player no longer near as good as when that contract was give out. This will be exasperated even further if injuries hit Votto hard on top of simple regression via age.

[jerichoholicninja]

Seems to league that has the real PED problem, top to bottom, is the NFL not MLB. In both how cheaters are viewed and how they are handled.

 

I think that's been pretty obvious for a while.

[danzig6767]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I'm posting here because I think it shows which league is interested in cleaning up their PED problem and which isn't. https://sports.yahoo.com/news/colts-star-lb-robert-mathis-212200537--nfl.html

 

The key line that caught my eye was the Colts response to Mathis getting suspended.

In a statement, the Colts said they wanted to reassure Mathis that he would remain an ''honored and cherished'' member of the team.

 

Umm, he just got caught cheating and the best they can do is hope he still feels loved? The NFL already under punishes the PED cheaters compared to MLB and does not even attempt to investigate accusations outside of the testing policy like MLB does. It even trickles down to fans and media. If a baseball player the level of Mathis got caught it would be a huge story for weeks on end. That player would get major condemnation from everywhere, fans and media alike. Anyone care to bet how long this is front page material?

Seems to league that has the real PED problem, top to bottom, is the NFL not MLB. In both how cheaters are viewed and how they are handled.

 

It's not hard to see the difference in why baseball players have received more condemnation and attention overall than football players busted for PED's.

 

1. Baseball stats and records have long been held up as much more hallowed and with reverence compared to football. So when guys like Bonds, Mcgwire, Sosa etc were shattering long held and revered records in baseball, it was a huge huge national story at the time. On the flip side, when NFL records like say most passing TD's, yards, rushing yards, receiving yards etc get passed, it gets much less coverage and sports fans in general just don't care as much as when major baseball records get broken, especially home runs.

 

For example, ask random sports fans who holds major records in football and you'll get a lot more wrong answers compared to baseball. So the outrage was simply much higher when it came out that nearly all of these majot stars shattering long time revered baseball records were doing so jacked up on roids. The taint of that was so strong that it remains to this day.

 

2. The star factor. When that stuff was going on with major stars like Bonds, Mcgwire, Sosa, and more recent ARod/Braun today, it leaves a bigger taint than most guys getting busted in the NFL. For the most part, it's mainly just the quarterbacks and some elite skill position players who are the stars in football. They aren't the ones getting busted usually.

 

Look at baseball, the only guys who get tons of attention for being busted for PED's are the stars. Sports fans mostly yawn over other players like say Melky Cabrera or Jhonny Peralta when they get nabbed. So in football, when say offensive or defensive lineman get caught, it usually draws faint caring from sports unless maybe it would be some HOF caliber pass rusher. Other than that, some offensive lineman, nose tackle, safety, tight end, corner, etc just isn't going to be a huge story or cared much about by fans except in a rare case of one of those guys being a big star, kinda as non-stars in MLB usually get scant attention for getting busted.

 

Have it come out though that say Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Calvin Johnson, and Adrian Peterson are currently or were in the past all jacked up on roids, it would be a huge national story with legs to go on for awhile. Not so much when an aging defensive lineman gets busted who possibly may even have been doing as he said. Either way, Mathis isn't anymore of a star than a Lucroy caliber baseball player getting busted. His teammate Andrew Luck on the other hand would be big news if caught.

[Nottso]

Looks like Votto is headed to the DL. Combined with Bruce, the Reds are going to struggle to score runs.

 

Not only will losing Votto hurt the Reds in the short term, this is the same knee he had problems with last year, he's 30 years old, and they still owe him over 200 million dollars through 2023.

 

It turns out that Votto has a quadriceps injury as opposed to the knee.

 

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/16/report-joey-votto-likely-headed-to-the-disabled-list-with-a-knee-injury/

[logan82]

For example, ask random sports fans who holds major records in football and you'll get a lot more wrong answers compared to baseball.

If it has anything to do with receiving it is probably Jerry Rice.

[endaround]

DBacks hire Tony LaRussa. If you wanted to go from evil to cartoonishly super evil, that is one way to do it.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10946204/tony-la-russa-hired-arizona-diamondbacks-chief-baseball-officer?ex_cid=espnapi_public