Talkin' Baseball

 All baseball season I thought that Josh Jung was easily going to win the rookie of the year award. Now I'm not so sure. While Josh Jung has been consistently great all season, Gunnar Henderson, on the other hand, started off the season terribly. Trust me. He was on my fantasy team. Nonetheless, he's shaped up a bit, and is now having an amazing season. Which one of these third basemen is more likely to win the Rookie of the Year Award? Let's see. Gunnar Henderson is slashing a nice .258/.328/.493 on the season with 27 homers, 98 runs and 81 RBIs in 145 games on the season. His home run rate is 4.5%, with the league average being 3%, and his strikeout rate is 25.4%, about 3% higher than the league average. Josh Jung is slashing .274/.320/.486 with 23 homers, 74 runs and 70 RBIs in 115 games this season. His home run rate is 4.7%, almost identical to Gunnar's, and his K-rate is a whopping 29.4%, about 7% higher than the league average. I'd personally give the offensi...

  Ranking MLB’s Closers, Part V Now that we have gotten to the top 10 AL closers, Let’s see who we still have: Andres Munoz Will Smith Ryan Pressly Jhoan Duran Emmanuel Clase Felix Bautista Pete Fairbanks Jordan Romano Kenley Jansen Clay Holmes Today I will cut five more closers. Just to clarify, every single pitcher I’ve talked about is extremely good, as they are pitching at the major league level. Now then, let’s get to it! 10: Will Smith Will Smith has been around for a while, and has a career 3.68 ERA. This season, he has 22 saves and a 4.55 ERA. He has not been getting as many saves lately, and Aroildis Chapman and even Jose Leclerc are getting some, but, seeing as how he has the most saves for the Rangers, I will call him the closer. Even though the ERA is high, batters are hitting just .217 with a .629 OPS against him this season. His walk rate is low at only 2.6 batters per 9 this season, but he is striking out slightly less than 9 batters per nine. This number isn’t b...

 Daniel Bard is a relief pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. He debuted in 2009 at the age of 24. He played through 2013, all with the Red Sox, and was fine, posting a 3.67 ERA. His best season up to this point was 2010, when he played in 73 games and had a 1.93 ERA. After 2013, he retired, playing longer than the average major leaguer. So, he was done. He had a decent career, and he retired, right? Wrong! He came back in 2020 at the age of 35, and won the Comeback Player of the Year award, going 4-2 with a 3.65 ERA and 6 saves in the shortened season. In his age 36 season, he was terrible. He had 7 wins and 20 saves, both good numbers, but lost 8 games and had a 5.21 ERA. I wonder if anybody thought Bard had anything left at this point.  But, in 2022, Bard was amazing. He pitched 60 1/3 innings with a 1.79 ERA and 34 saves in the best hitting park on the planet! He also gave up only 0.4 homers per 9 with batters hitting only .162 and slugging only .245 against him, having a .50...

As the 2023 season starts meeting its close, we have to admit it; the game has changed. They are shorter and typically have more action. But why is this? There are a number of reasons. Why don't we start off with how the game is shorter. MLB started using the pitch clock. It had been talked about for some time, and now it is here. Pitchers (and batters) now have a time limit. Pitchers have limited time to throw the ball to the plate, and batters have limited time to be ready in the box. They have 15 seconds with no runners on, 20 with runners on, and 30 between batters, If a pitcher has a pitch clock violation, it is called an automatic ball, whereas if a batter has a violation, it is an automatic strike. There have been plenty of ejections and frustration about taking more than 15 seconds to get into the box. People strike out batters and walk them by taking too long to go to the plate. Is this a joke? It is plain absurd to do this, and is obviously being used to speed up the game...

 Fantasy Baseball. It is a baseball fan's dream to manage his own team with his own players. This is why it is nice to have a fantasy league like me and my siblings and friends. It is free to play fantasy baseball on Yahoo, where we play it, if you want to set up a league next season. Right now I'm pumped because my eighth place fantasy team, the Atlanta Scareds, defeated the first place team in round one of the playoffs. The manager for the other team is such a nice guy and congratulated me on my victory. You know who you are. Now then, I am playing the fourth seed in the semifinals, and I would like to share my roster with you and see how you think it is. You get 26 players, 3 IL slots, and a NA slot.      So, here is my roster: C: JT Realmuto 1B: Freddie Freeman 2B: Zack Gelof 3B: Austin Riley SS: Nico Hoerner OF: Kris Bryant OF: Aaron Judge OF: Bryce Harper UTIL: Kerry Carpenter BN: Esteury Ruiz BN: Ketel Marte BN: Tyler Stephenson     Now, when Esteury...

 Let's face it: Shohei Ohtani has an amazing career and is having quite possibly the best season of his career this season. However, I would personally give my MVP vote (if I were a sportswriter) to Corey Seager. And here's why. Seager has been insane this season, smashing a league-leading 40 doubles and 31 homers in only 103 games, due to two injuries. He is slashing .344/.406/.663, with the batting average and slugging percentage leading the AL. As a shortstop! And though he has missed over 40 games with injuries, he should still be ahead of Ohtani. Ohtani is slashing .304/.412/.654, with the OBP leading the league. He has mashed 44 homers thus far, and has pitched well this season, going 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 23 starts. It is hard to beat an elite hitter and pitcher in the MVP race. Nevertheless, there is one reason why he should not win the MVP award. Ohtani tore his UCL and may need another Tommy John Surgery. Pitchers who have a second Tommy John tend to have a painful ...

 I'm sorry, but I wanted to interrupt my closer posts to congratulate Ronald Acuna Jr. on his accomplishment. A few days ago, Acuna became the first player ever to hit 30 homers and swipe 60 bags in a season. And the season isn't even over yet! It seems that he will win the MVP amidst the amazing talent in the NL. Congratulations Acuna! (Sorry for the lack of tildes above the n of Acuna. I don't know how to put that there.)

  Ranking MLB’s Closers, Part IV Now that we have finished ranking the NL’s closers, I am ready to rank the closers of the AL. Here they are: Andres Munoz (Mariners) Will Smith (Rangers) Ryan Pressly (Astros) Carlos Estevez (Angels) Trevor May (Athletics) Jhoan Duran (Twins) Emmanuel Clase (Indians) Alex Lange (Tigers) Felix Bautista (Orioles) Pete Fairbanks (Rays) Jordan Romano (Blue Jays) Kenley Jansen (Red Sox) Clay Holmes (Yankees) I say that the AL has only 13 closers, even though it seems that Gregory Santos and Carlos Hernandez will be getting the saves for the White Sox, and Royals. However, they only have 4 and 3 saves respectively, and, if you look at their teams, they won’t have many games to save. Also, Jason Adam has 12 saves for the Rays, but seeing as how Fairbanks has more, I chose him as the closer. I only need to eliminate three this time, and they are fairly easy. 13: Trevor May Besides being on the worst team in the MLB, Trevor May just isn’t closer materi...

  Ranking MLB’s Closers, Part III We are now down to the top 5 closers in the NL. Ready to crown the best one? Let’s do it. The five closers left are Evan Phillips, Camilo Doval, Josh Hader, Devin Williams, and Alexis Diaz.  5: Camilo Doval Though Doval throws over 100 and reaches 104, there is really one reason I have decided to cut him. Though he is tied in the NL in saves (all stats as of August 31st) with 35, and opponents are batting just .204 against him in his career, he is bound to get injured. If you look at his motion, it is very violent. No sidearmer with so violent a motion really should be throwing 104, and so I think he’s going to get injured. Thus, I have decided to cut him at number 5. Check out his motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-qwLWajkko Though this video is his highlights for May, pay attention to the violent sidearm motion, and you will know what I’m talking about. 4: Evan Phillips Evan Phillips had a breakout in 2022, posting a 1.14 ER...