Talkin' Baseball

      Ay! Ever heard of Chris Davis? Yeah, that guy who hit 53 home runs and then 47 two years later? Yeah, that guy. Did you know he had a .233 career batting average? Well, that's unfortunate, but managers will often overlook bad batting averages if the guy has loads of power. Chris Davis was no exception to this practice.     But take a look at his 2018 campaign:     If you can't see it, Chris Davis hit a rather sad .168 in 2018, good for an OPS+ of only 49. YIKES!     Yes, while this season was very bad, there's a reason for this: he did badly. But, something even more impressive than batting .168 in 128 games is what he did from September 14th of 2018 through April 12th of 2019.     After starting the game 1-for-1 on a beautiful day in September, he went 0-for-3 the rest of the contest. No worries, right? 1-4 games raise his batting average, so we're all good.     The next game he went 0-3, and 0-3 the game afterward....

      I'm trying not to relapse back into writer's block. So, I'll post on something semi-stupid; my fantasy decision today. This is stupid for two reasons; why am I posting on my managerial decisions? and, this particular decision was pretty stupid.     I was losing to my opponent 10-5, and there was no reasonable chance that I win. So, I benched my starting second baseman, Zack Gelof, who has been hitting awfully thus far in favor of Jackson Holliday, who has somehow been hitting even worse. Yikes. I also benched my starting catcher, Gabriel Moreno, in favor of Tyler Stephenson, because the past two days Stephenson was sitting his rear-end on my bench and hit homers in each game. Also yikes.     So I ended up going through with the decision. After all, a good manager lets all the players get playing time, right? Well, that's a subject for another day. Anyway,  the two guys I started went a combined 0-for-6 with two walks. Big surprise there. Mea...

     This is the second post of my What if...? series, which I created back when I was experiencing really bad writer's block. Glad to report that that ship has sailed. Anyway, this one came about on a ride home from a baseball game during a friendly conversation.     What if when a pitcher threw a pitch, he both tore his labrum and fractured his humerus? Well, this pitch ended up crossing the strike zone and the batter hit a line drive into the pitcher's already injured elbow.     In case you didn't know, the labrum is an important part of the arm for a pitcher, and tearing it meant Tommy John surgery.  And a fracture of the humerus ends players' careers. So, two injuries that already ruin pitchers, and then a line drive straight to the arm? Not a good mix.

     On one of my fantasy baseball teams this year, I drafted Riley Greene as my third outfielder. I considered my outfield staff pretty good, containing Mike Trout, Evan Carter, and Greene. Well, it seemed that two of the outfielders were quite a bit better than the third. It was then that I made the bold prediction that Riley Greene will bat .320 with 40 home runs, and not only carry my fantasy team, but also win the AL MVP award.       Though I was completely joking when I made this prediction, is it too far fetched? To put it bluntly, yes. Greene has been in the majors two seasons coming into 2024 and played 192 games in that span. He also has 16 home runs (less than 40 in 162 for all of you who didn't know, 14 in fact) and a .271 batting average, only 49 points away from where it needs to be this season.     However, so far, Riley Greene has played in 8 games (as many as his team) and has 2 homers. This actually does translate to 40 home...