2022 MLB General Season Chatter: Ghost Runners On The Half-Billion Dollar Infield

https://i.imgur.com/Es153vP.png

almost all of them made it to the world series, and the others made it to the league championship series or were the 1942 dodgers

wow - 1942 Dodgers, get your shit together!

it's like they weren't even trying, come on

this is probably cold comfort to brewers fans, but by the statcast metrics (EV, hard hit%, xOPA xBA xSLG) he's having a very comparable season to Nolan Arenado, who is doing much better in terms of results so far

fuck, sorry. "he" is Christian Yelich

^-- title of 2022 Brewers thread

He’s looked a lot better at the plate this year, I think he’s gonna go on a sunrun soon

arenado has gone pretty cold since april too

his may was not great (offensively), but since June he's been pretty great again (143 wRC+)

it's funny, goldschmidt was relatively average in April, and then on May 1 it's like Arenado passed him the flame of greatness and then passed the fuck out for a month

gotta say, not trying to stir up NL Central beef, and i like the brewers in general after working a decent amount of games there, but craig counsell has the most perpetually disappointed and possibly pained expression in the game. i could say, "oh, that guy over there has craig counsell-face" and you'd know exactly what i meant, right?

it's kind of endearing i guess, like i want him to feel better

also, sorry to always mention yadi, but speaking of "NL Central beef", it makes me think of how his last appearance in cincinatti will go! it would be kind of perfect for him to get a simultaneous standing ovation plus resounding boo-off

yeah I feel like even if you made a shitty Craig Counsell muppet I'd immediately know who it was supposed to be

it would be a good cue for an actor, I think. "you just had your annual review and you didn't get a raise. i want you to take it like you're craig counsell."

https://cdn.wrn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Craig-Counsell-6.jpg

enhance

https://i.imgur.com/x2r7emn.png

lol the dueling umpire reviews happening in the top of the 9th here, haha

brendan donovan, who for special reasons will always be braden donahue to me, is out.

counsell just smiled!!

but this was the counsell face i was talking about, a little bit more disappointment, like there's something bad happening and it's not his fault or the team's fault, and it's just not fair

https://i.imgur.com/QEFUbBN.png

Burnes is becoming one of those pitchers who's unhittable for reasons no one can quite figure out

https://i.imgur.com/cSzkjfh.gif

https://i.imgur.com/wse1QwM.png

omg

each one of those frames is a fresh terror

depicting a walk-off (??) is pretty smart of the AI huh

look who just became ready to play in the majors

3 innings into his 2022 debut, @Pirates' Oneil Cruz has registered:

🏴‍☠️The hardest throw by an infielder in @MLB this year (96.7 mph)
🏴‍☠️The hardest hit ball of the year by a Pirate (112.9)
🏴‍☠️The 3 fastest sprint speeds of the year by a Pirate (31.5, 30.7, 30.3) pic.twitter.com/nScTK5mD4A

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 21, 2022

It's Oneil Cruz's first game of the season and he already recorded the hardest throw by an infielder this year at 96.7 MPH 🤯 pic.twitter.com/5XUlqHRjac

— MLB (@MLB) June 21, 2022

dang, that first clip. that was a single for almost any player. it was hit so fucking hard that, combined with his crazy speed, it was nearly a triple

O_O

damn, that throw too. dang!

i've heard of Cruz and knew he was on his way, but haven't been paying much attention. looking forward to watching him play now, holy moley

New favorite player

during every home run trot in triple-a this year he would, when passing second, pantomime checking his watch

it is surmised that he was suggesting it was time to call him up, but i kind of hope he keeps doing it

why is it that every time there's an insane young talent they either wind up on the Yankees or some team with a $40 million payroll

Opened up my e-mail right after reading these posts to a shareable Posnanski column on Cruz:

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/the-allure-of-the-one-man-show?r=1imri&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

He's got the wrong link up there--if he fixes it, I'll re-post.

The Rays' Isaac Paredes has three HR in his first three AB--just coming up.

That Cruz is a serious athlete. Does he have an eye or is a total wild swinger? That dude hits the gym and doesn't lose his bat speed, he probably could hit some homers.

The Giants first get walked off by the Pirates on Sunday and then again by the Braves on Monday. Then on Tuesday they score 12 runs and hang on for life.

Baseball is a crazy game.

Me watching the clip of Cruz's throw: "he might want to get to that ball quicker ... he's wasting time getting set for the throw, he's blowing this routine play ... OH!!! Never mind ..."

*NL Central thread detour*

since Nolan Gorman went 4-4 with 2 HRs yesterday, i was looking at his stats this morning and trying to convince myself that the cardinals will win the world series, as one does.

in doing so, i took an early look at his defensive stats, via statcast's Outs Above Average (OAA), and was kind of startled to see Kolten Wong as the very worst performing second basemen in baseball?!

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outs_above_average?type=Fielder&startYear=2022&endYear=2022&split=no&team=&range=year&min=q&pos=4&roles=&viz=hide

of qualifying players, Wong is 38th out of 38th at the position, with -8 OAA. (Jonathan Schoop is waaaaaay ahead of the rest of the field with, 15 OAA to the second place Santiago Espinal's 7 OAA). Gorman is around the middle of the pack, at -1 OAA.

question for the brew crew: is Wong actually having a bad year, defensively?

OAA is an improvement on earlier defensive metrics, i think, but it still seems to occasionally get certain players way wrong. Paul Goldschmidt, for example, is apparently having one of the worst defensive years among 1B, by OAA. but i've watched almost every single inning this year and he has been rock solid while digging out seemingly every single infield throw in the dirt.

this is pretty great -- he's so happy

14 seasons.
695 appearances.@DRob30 finally gets his chance in the batter's box. pic.twitter.com/d9uXeCcPhx

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 23, 2022

had to swing otherwise he wouldn't have had the AB *touches nose*

Nice story:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mark-appel-called-up-by-phillies

lol, Morel really says hi to EVERYONE, doesn't he?

yanks have gone 14 innings without a hit

They got within eight outs of Vander Meer...about what it'll take to make me notice combined no-hitters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFUawXZhnlc

^^ jomboy on the angels/mariners brawl

loooool what is with all the angels coaches getting in these one-sided attempted fights

archie bradley lol

phil nevin is not, in fact, better than that

also lol at everyone screaming at jomboy for a breakdown for 24 full hours

Astros 16 innings last week are a preview of Yankees eventual playoffs when they cannot get on base and strike out 14-16 times in a game against matchup bullpen situation.

Yankees and White Sox both look like a couple of beer league softball teams pounding tall boys and going for the chain link fence each swing.