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

third time through the order starts in inning 5 or 6. if your starter is doing well he’ll go that long just like now. i don’t mind relievers as long as they’re, like, good relievers pitching in meaningful situations.

So much for Chris Sale's return.

the red sox have used seven pitchers and it’s 11-2 with a third of the game still to play

three hours in

Weirdly enough - the jays/ AAA royals game was over in 2 hours and 20 mins.

xp at least they won't have to pitch the ninth

true

jays three pitchers, royals two

maybe you solve this just by severely limiting pitching staffs i don’t know

then you get complaints about injuries and lost union jobs

recall someone suggesting that you only get to keep your DH as long as the starter is in the game (presumably there'd be a workaround for injured starters), but i think that would alter tactics only at the very margins

home run derby is dumb obviously but this seems like a good lineup. a bunch of fun, likeable sluggers (schwarbs, soto, alonso, etc.) but ALSO one really old dude and one really young dude.

Chris Berman is looking forward to seeing Bip Roberts take some hacks tonight.

the AL winning something like 22 of the last 25 ASGs (minus the tie that one time) is pretty bizarre

When I watched through the '70s, starting with the Rose/Fosse game, it was even more lopsided in the other direction: NL won 19 of 20 from '63 to '82.

my dad referred to the AL -- long after it ceased to matter -- as the 'white league'

it's actually fine, though -- i'm not mad at all

In the only game the A.L. won during that stretch, white-guy Fred Lynn hit the first ASG grand slam.

After I saw the clip of Manoah's inning last night, I semi-regretted not watching. The one thing you can say is that they're still actually playing baseball (as opposed to whatever they do in the NBA ASG). I'm sure pitchers don't go inside much, because no one wants to end anyone's career in an ASG (Pete Rose excepted), but otherwise, they play the game. Taking advice from Smoltz while pitching is maybe a bit much.

I actually liked the All-Star game. There is some fine pitching

I only watch one team, so it was nice forcing me to watch the leagues best

goldschmidt and arenado can't make the trip to toronto because they're too busy juggling their balls while watching joe rogan

tommy pham just tried and failed to snap a bat over his knee. footage at 9

it's bumming me out that we're about halfway through the season and four of the six division winners are basically already decided and the winners are the most obvious winning teams possible

sorry i mean three of the six. still.

yep

I'm glad to learn--first time I've bothered to check--that unvaccinated players are docked pay when they can't get into Canada. Drop in the bucket, but it will cost Goldschmidt and Arenado ~620K combined.

i would never have to worry about the cost of my kids education and keeping a roof over their heads for the rest of my life with that money and they can just shrug it off.
just the cost of being so much super duper smarter than everyone else.

I've always admired Goldschmidt's eerie steadiness and anonymity, but this does make me lose some respect for him.

I lost all of mine for him.

same, really

at least he hasn't yet pulled the full realmuto 'i won't let canada tell me what to put in my body' i guess

Basically the Jays right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWk6JcheLMU

i just assume all players are conservative and kind of dumb until i'm proven wrong, which maybe isn't fair, but since the game has a conservative culture in general and players are not encouraged to talk about their social or political beliefs or really express any personality at all that's what i've been forced to do

anthony rizzo being antivax was the frustrating one for me, especially with him being a childhood leukemia survivor you think he'd understand the need to protect the weaker members of our population but i guess not

Arenado was rumored to be unvaxxed (forget why), but Goldschmidt was very surprising. I think everyone assumed Miles Mikolas would be one of the three, though I think it's just because of his mustache.

and yeah, it definitely sucks that i am going to be cheering for these two idiots for the next few years. i don't know, it's a separating the art from the artist kind of thing i guess. i will cheer for the dumb baseball men to play well and try to ignore everything else (which is easy with Goldschmidt because he's a mike pence kind of empty personality).

at least we have sean doolittle i guess

This sounds hokey enough to be made up, but it's not. The reason Arenado gives (or at least originally), that he and his wife were trying to conceive, was the same explanation my barber gave for a few months initially. (He had just remarried.) Not in any kind of defiant way--almost apologetically. But then, at some point, his 12-year-old son asked him why they were more worried about a hypothetical child than the one he had. At which point he and his new wife got vaccinated.

(My only embellishment: I don't think the son used the word "hypothetical.")

I think everyone assumed Miles Mikolas would be one of the three, though I think it's just because of his mustache.

Mikolas on the players who will not be accompanying the #STLCards to Toronto: "I wish I had also not gotten the vaccine, but it's a personal choice." pic.twitter.com/nY3hCCdpLv

— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) July 24, 2022

I actually have not heard of someone regretting getting vaccinated, lol

lol he had no adverse issues, he just thinks it makes him a pussy

https://www.si.com/nba/warriors/news/andrew-wiggins-regrets-getting-vaccinated

A movement of athletes with regrets

about how they got vaccinated

KM is it me or have the cardinals had an inordinate amount of pitcher injuries the last couple years?

Braves lost two games in a row for like the second time in two months. Time to celebrate.

yeah it does seem that way. last year, 2021, was definitely full of injuries. Wainwright was the only starter that made it through the year. Flaherty, Mikolas, and Dakota Hudson combined for about 140 IP, and Carlos Martinez put in about 90 innings before going down for good.

this year seems like more of the same. Flaherty's probably done for the year, Matz was unlucky than injured then became unlucky and injured in the same game a few days ago, when he finally made it back to the mound only to somehow strain every single muscle in his body in fielding a ball crawling down the first base line. he's out for another 6 weeks or something. he's easy to forget because he never plays baseball, but Alex Reyes, who i doubt most of the baseball world will ever know now, was supposed to be a stalwart, potentially ace of the staff, for the past 4 years, at least. he is always injured.

honestly, though, whenever i start to feel down about injuries and bad luck, i remember the mets! not getting to watch degrom pitch must be excruciating, for starters

speaking of matz, i think his injury means that Soto will not be going to the Cardinals. Up until Matz went down, Soto made some sense for the Cardinals. Outfield is not the team's weakness (that would be Starting Pitching and the black hole of production which is Catcher), but they had the depth to trade either Carlson or Tyler O'Neill, plus prospects like Jordan Walker (who is going to be a star, I think, though even then, not an inner-circle star like Soto) to get him. It would have been worth it to have Soto batting in front of covid-deniers Goldschmidt and Arenado for a couple years.

but now, with the team down to 2 reliable SPs (covid-vaccination-regretter Miles Mikolas and Wainwright), going for Soto seems like throwing away this year completely, especially if the Nats still want to include Patrick Corbin in the deal. that would somehow make the rotation even _worse_

Not watching Degrom pitch is upsetting for all baseball fans I’d say. Here’s hoping he is actually back in a week or two.

Yankees are acquiring Benintendi.

— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) July 28, 2022

Good. They can’t bring him to Toronto for any potential playoff games and he can regress in NY for the rest of the season.

Hot Stove has begun, last year's trading deadline was so much fun to watch unfold and didn't disappoint. No way will this year do the same but looking forward to this next week.

apparently Benintendi said he’d get the shot if he went to a contender.

Oakland A’s (3): Catcher Austin Allen, reliever A.J. Puk, and reliever A.J. Snead
Boston Red Sox (2): Outfielder Jarren Duran, reliever Tanner Houck
Seattle Mariners (2): Starting pitcher Robbie Ray, reliever Drew Steckenrider
Cincinnati Reds (4): Outfielder Albert Almora, infielder Brandon Drury, reliever Joel Kuhnel, starting pitcher Tyler Mahle
Chicago White Sox (2): Starting pitcher Dylan Cease, reliever Kendall Graveman
Minnesota Twins (4): Outfielder Max Kepler, reliever Trevor Megill, reliever Emilio Pagán, reliever Caleb Thielbar
Baltimore Orioles (2): Reliever Keegan Akin, outfielder Anthony Santander
Tampa Bay Rays (2): Reliever Brooks Raley, reliever Ryan Thompson
Philadelphia Phillies (5): Infielder Alec Bohm, pitcher Bailey Falter (Falter was optioned to the minors instead of being placed on the restricted list), starting pitcher Kyle Gibson, starting pitcher Aaron Nola, catcher J.T. Realmuto
Kansas City Royals (10): Outfielder Andrew Benintendi, utility player Whit Merrifield, catcher M.J. Melendez, designated hitter Hunter Dozier, starting pitcher Brad Keller, starting pitcher Brady Singer, outfielder Michael A. Taylor, outfielder Kyle Isbel, reliever Dylan Coleman, catcher Cam Gallagher
St. Louis Cardinals (3): Infielder Nolan Arenado, infielder Paul Goldschmidt, catcher Austin Romine

robbie ray played for the blue jays last year? (they didn’t play in toronto until the end of july, but still)