Arena The Major League Baseball Thread

Baseball is beautiful

Garrett Crochet takes a no hitter into the 8th inning against his former team and naturally the no hitter is broken up by Chase Meidroth, one of the prospects dealt for him.

 

Padres are now 13-3. Michael King goes all 9, striking out 8.

 

And Cardinals take 2 of 3 from Phillies?

 

The Braves took 2 of 3 from Philly. Philly may just have a head start on Braves on sucking bad like them is all

 

King is a Free Agent after this year, right? Asking for a friend...

 

Two-week check in. How you feeling about your team? I'm a mixed bag, but the Guardians seem to be about who they were expected to be.

The positives:

Guardians finished their opening homestand of the season with five wins out of six games.
Kyle Manzardo appears ready for prime time.
Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez remain ... Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez
Angel Martinez looks like he might be capable of a breakthrough year.
K'd Smith appears to still be K'd Smith
After a shaky first start, Luis Ortiz appears to be the kind of starter the Guardians envisioned when they traded for him.
The Bullpen (minus one glaring part) appears to be deeper than last year, and potentially just as good.

The Negatives:
1-5 against teams that aren't in the AL Central.
Lane Thomas, Jhonkensky Noel, and Nolan Jones all seem to be confused as to what to do with a bat in their hands.
Emmanuel Clase currently has a WHIP of 2.143 and honestly I'm surprised it's that good.
Only twice has a starting pitcher gone six innings in the first twelve games. As good as the bullpen looks, that's going to quickly overtax them.
Austin Hedges having an OPS+ of 143 seems like the result of a small sample size and unsustainable given that his career mark is 53

 

How do I feel about my team?

I don't think that I trust ANY of my current starters not named Max Fried. And maybe it's time the Yankees find a new shape for their bats.

 

I actually listened to the game on the radio driving to Manhattan the other day. Tbh, I don't know if it was a product of my radio, which usually doesn't give me a problem like this, or the broadcast itself, but Sims seemed to be talking so low that I had to bump by volume up by like 5 notches just to hear the game. And I've only heard him once so far, but he just seems very monotone for the most part, and there were times were he just leaves you guessing at what's going on until the next batter. Yes, Sterling went crazy at times and he'd announce a Yankees' popup to the outfield like it was a game-winning Grand Slam with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the WS; but at the very least his enthusiasm was apparent and you certainly didn't have to adjust the volume.

 

it looked like it was going to be a long year for the m's, but i'm a bit more optimistic after taking two of three from the astroholes and sweeping the rangers. the pitching has been excellent (with the exception of castillo), as expected, while the offense has been a mixed bag. jorge polanco is off to a really hot start and four of our other regulars have an ops+ over 120, so it could definitely be worse. injuries are probably the biggest negative, with our young second baseman ryan bliss out for the year and victor robles out until august.

 

My brother is actually headed to Minnesota this week to see the Mets. He was in New York last week, got a few home games in there, then drove straight through to his home in Wisconsin before heading further West to Minneapolis. I saw they have a new Joe Mauer statue at Target Field, so hopefully he can take some pictures.

 

I'm not overtly concerned about the Dodgers start (and I'm glad it's looking like a race with the Giants & Padres for the N.L. West title), other than Muncy's average & Pages defense in centerfield.

 

Yeah, pitching has been much better than expected, offense much worse. Expect to even out, hopefully more so for the offense.

Amazing.

 

Cardinals have been swept twice already.

But they swept a series themselves, which I did not expect to happen all year.

7-8.

Given my rock bottom expectations for the year, I am mildly amused.

End of the month is the first series against the Brewers and then a 4 game road set in Cincy.

Those 7 games could decide if I am even paying attention this summer.

 

the Yankees have not yet had a truly heartbreaking loss. Only occasional blow outs and respectable wins and losses. They're above .500. Cant ask for much more at this point in the season.

 

The Twins are really bad but Joe Mauer got a statue on Sunday so at least there’s that. The hitting is so garbage it might actually be statistically impossible to maintain.

 

More Yankee dingers tonight.

On the season

Judge: 6 (T 1st MLB)
Jazz: 6 (T 1st MLB)
Uncle Ben: 5
Volpe: 4
Trent Grisham (yes! really!): 4
Wells: 3

32 total.

 

ESPN opts out of the MLB TV contract.
ESPN buys the rights to broadcast 10 Savannah Banana games this summer.

This is only stage 1.

 

Spencer Strider is back to pitch today




Now just win. Then win more than 1 in a row

 

How much money did they pay this man again and they don't go out of their way to defend him

also coolest uniform matchup of the season so far and without city connects.