MLB 2024

[gunnar hendershow]

Clay Holmes is the least deserving reliever to make an All-Star team in I don't know how long. Marcus Semien in over Jordan Westburg is a crime. Disappointing Mountcastle and Santander missed out but it's fair to whom they lost out making the team for.

[Your Mom]

We definitely only deserved the minimum this year but Shota is the guy regardless of minimums. So glad he got the nod!  

[Razohiro Ishii]

Shota won me over with his interview on the Pat McAfee show a while back, seems like a real cool guy so I'm happy to see him get in.

[Maxx]

1 hour ago, The Buscher said:

 

They gave his spot to Grimace.

[The Buscher]

1 hour ago, gunnar hendershow said:

Clay Holmes is the least deserving reliever to make an All-Star team in I don't know how long. Marcus Semien in over Jordan Westburg is a crime. Disappointing Mountcastle and Santander missed out but it's fair to whom they lost out making the team for.

Semien was voted in by the players which would suggest either they ignored the stat lines in favor of a rep pick or, maybe, Westburg was listed as a 3B on the ballots they got.

Holmes was picked by the league which makes it even worse.  I even said I thought the league would elect another Yankee to the team but thought it’d be Gil which I could at least justify.  Really that spot should’ve been Jason Adam which would’ve freed up Paredes’ spot for Westburg.

41 minutes ago, Maxx said:

They gave his spot to Grimace.

I’d unironically rather have Grimace on the team over Alonso.

[gunnar hendershow]

Lol

 

[Your Mom]

Something I know I very rarely think about but happy for him and any player who makes it that far

[Your Mom]

 

[The Buscher]

Juan Arturo Recio confirmed that a press release also announced that in addition to abuse and exploitation, Franco is also being accused of human trafficking.

Lock him up and throw away the key.

[Michelle Branch]

I don't believe in capital punishment, but there are absolutely people that just need to go. 

[The Buscher]

Paul Skenes got pulled 7 innings into a no-hit bid.  I understand teams are overly protective of arms nowadays but come on.

Anyway, I think he's gotta start the All Star Game provided the Pirates don't beg him to not pitch.

[Michelle Branch]

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Hell yeah they went and did the thing we all said they should do.

[The Buscher]

Good move by the league.

To the surprise of nobody, Jose Altuve has opted to skip the ASG.  While he might have a somewhat valid reason for not playing (got hit in the hand over the weekend, though he's playing through it), he's skipping the festivities as well.  This means he's found a reason to skip it in 2021, 2022, and 2024 - aka all three years he made the All Star team since the cheating scandal and has been subsequently getting booed at every park outside of Houston.

[GhostMachine]

They should just toss out votes for him from now on.

Sad thing is, Altuve may not have been involved in the cheating, but a victim of guilt by association.

Edited July 12 by GhostMachine

[Mad Jack]

Isn't Altuve, famously, the Astro who didn't cheat and actively got annoyed when he heard the bin banging?

[gunnar hendershow]

Altuve is gonna be a super interesting player when it comes time to elect him to the Hall of Fame. He's a borderline player right now but could get to 3000 hits before he retires (it'll be tight).

Punished by association might be what happens.

1 minute ago, Mad Jack said:

Isn't Altuve, famously, the Astro who didn't cheat and actively got annoyed when he heard the bin banging?

Not sure? He had his best career year in 2017 (though basically only better than 2016 in part because the rest of the offense around him did better thanks to the cheating). It's some of the other guys from that team who when you look at their splits after they got caught really fell off in a number of categories. He's basically been consistent throughout.

[gunnar hendershow]

Oh wow they let Vance Honeycutt drop to the team that teaches players discipline extremely well in the minors. Could be an amazing pick for the Orioles if his holes can get corrected.

[The Buscher]

I was interested in Honeycutt but not sure I have the faith in the Mets' development team yet to clean up the holes he has, maybe with time they'll get there under Stearns but seemed risky.  As it is I'm OK with the Carson Benge pick.  He was a two-way player in college but I believe he's going to just be a hitter in the minor leagues.  Nolan McLean who the Mets drafted last year is also two-way but announced yesterday that he's dropping hitting and will focus just on pitching.

The Royals took Jac Caglianone with the 6th pick, announced him as a two-way player and I've heard for years that he might be the closest thing to Ohtani we've seen and even with him the talk immediately after his selection is that he won't be doing both in the minors and will be just a hitter.

Kinda makes you appreciate even more what an absolute unicorn Ohtani is that he was actually able to do both all the way to the big leagues.  He's got a legit chance to win NL MVP as a pure DH, and has somehow accumulated enough WAR to actually justify it without even playing defense.  And he's still on track to pitch again next year.  Just ridiculous.

[gunnar hendershow]

I've wondered since Ohtani broke out if there'd be a wave of two-way players. But it seems at least through high school, college, and the minors in the US that there is an aversion to letting players do everything when there's one thing they're marginally better at. 

I'd be curious if with the number of Dominican academies that have opened if we see two-way players come through there. Or maybe we see some IMG Academy type "schools" take a shot at letting guys be two-way through high school.

Overall I have general confidence Ohtani is closer to one-of-a-kind than the first of many.