Quote from fenn68 on June 22, 2019, 11:29 am

Trade deadline in about 5 weeks and although the AL Division races seem over and, except for the NL Central, the NL races seem over .... the Wild Card races are still robust .... not sure how that will impact the trade deadline. Limit the sellers (for now)? Push that against the trade deadline is a hard deadline this year .... may end up squeezing a lot of action in those last two weeks of July.

In the AL, 6 teams are in play for the 2nd WC with only 4 games separating them in the loss column. Boston and Cleveland with 35, Texas with 36, Oakland and CWS with 37, and LAA with 39. Tight shot group for now following NYY, MINN, HOUS. and TB. Some will clearly fade out .. but when?

In the NL, Colorado has the 1st WC slot with 35 losses ... so not all that secure. Then the 2nd slot has 7 teams within 3 games in the loss column. MILW, PHIL, STL all have 36 losses .... SD, WASH, CINN have 38 losses .... AZ at 39 losses.

Basically at this point 21 of the 30 teams are in contention for the playoffs.

When will the other 9 teams become sellers ... if they have any marketable pieces will they be way over priced given the buyers will have limited options for adding good pieces? Will the potential buyers bid their time until some of those "bubble" wild card teams fall out and maybe make some better options available while expanding the market thus reducing the cost? Will SD be a buyer or seller or both?

Maybe one or two outlier deals but shaping up for a hectic last week in July.

Quote from WindsorUK on June 23, 2019, 6:04 am

Just looking at some of the all time MLB records. And I found a particular stat that I guess most here wouldn't have a clue about, short of looking it up. I did a double take as well.

Anyway, here it is: currently there are only 4 MLB active players with 2000 or more career hits( I'm going off ESPN's baseball stats page). Pujols obviously top of that list with over 3100, next is.......Miguel Cabrera, with around 2700+ hits. The next guy on that list is Robinson Cano( 2500+). I guess Cano has been around a while and played to a high standard so makes sense.

Can you guess who currently sits at number 4? Kudos to anyone who knows this without diving onto the web.

Quote from Brian Connelly on June 23, 2019, 10:14 am

Quote from WindsorUK on June 23, 2019, 6:04 am

Just looking at some of the all time MLB records. And I found a particular stat that I guess most here wouldn't have a clue about, short of looking it up. I did a double take as well.

Anyway, here it is: currently there are only 4 MLB active players with 2000 or more career hits( I'm going off ESPN's baseball stats page). Pujols obviously top of that list with over 3100, next is.......Miguel Cabrera, with around 2700+ hits. The next guy on that list is Robinson Cano( 2500+). I guess Cano has been around a while and played to a high standard so makes sense.

Can you guess who currently sits at number 4? Kudos to anyone who knows this without diving onto the web.

It's not Kinsler, is it?!

Quote from WindsorUK on June 23, 2019, 10:58 am

Good guess but no😁

Quote from fenn68 on June 23, 2019, 1:03 pm

My first thought was Kinsler who most of us really never saw in his prime since he was an AL ... did look him up and going into today's game at 1989 plus a hit today. So we should see Kinsler get to 2000 next month. He sits fifth on the active list.

As for #4 ... would not have though of him either but upon reflection quite a good career albeit out of national limelight.

Quote from WindsorUK on June 23, 2019, 3:14 pm

I can't imagine anyone will guess who it is. Fairly obscure but yes, solid career indeed.

Quote from MrPadre19 on June 23, 2019, 3:51 pm

I'd have to guess Yadier Molina or Nick Markakis.

Due to longevity and Markakis was very consistent for a lot of years.

 

Quote from WindsorUK on June 23, 2019, 4:04 pm

I'd figure if anyone would get this David, it would have been you.

You're down in Brave country, right?

Quote from fenn68 on June 28, 2019, 7:50 am

The following analysis that I saw on a Padre post-game show might give ML teams a concern on the heavy use of RP and reducing length of starts ... all driven by the analytics.

Might have some of the specifics off (since purely from memory) but the essence is that for the first time since the late 60's the ERA for RP is HIGHER than SP and looking over the past decade RP ERA has consistently gotten worse. That 10 year trend is the worrisome part.

Since the analytics tend to be based on past performance ... will the recent results trigger a change in the analytics?

This should create some debate on why the RP performance has diminished and, even more so, how to stop (reverse) the trend. With the increase use of RP ... is baseball running out of GOOD RP ... burning out more arms sooner ... is the move to high velocity vs. command / movement shorten the life span of RP?

Will teams, in part, reverse the trend to shorter starts and start developing the next wave of SP to go longer? Is that possible given the lack of command in SP (more pitches) in recent years?

Stepping back maybe the combination of high use / high velocity is just not sustainable as a strategy with the breakdown of arms forcing teams to go to second tier RP sooner and more often.