2016 MLB Regular-Season Thread

I read it was about 700 rings.

My brother was a student manager in college and got an Orange Bowl ring appraised at $7,000. Dumbass left it in his car, which was broken into and it was among the things stolen.

 

I can believe 700. When the Red Sox won in 2004, they were distributed to just about every employee and to selected folks in their broadcast outlets, marketing partners, etc.

 

My old roommate does video for football teams and worked for the Frankfurt Galaxy one summer when he was working for an NFL team. They won the World Bowl or whatever it was called, and he got a ring. It might be the most random, unique possession of anyone I know.

 

If it was 700 rings, that puts them around $13,000 per ring. That sounds about right.
They also make two kinds of rings. One is the super blinged out version with all of the diamonds and whatnot that goes to players, coaches, executives and others that had a primary role. Then they make a cheaper version for the office employees, announcers, marketing people, and others like that.

 

Schwarber carted off with ugly looking leg injury after collision with Fowler in the gap while chasing a deep drive. The curse rears its head again.

 

Schwarber is probably their 6th or 7th best position player. Could make a case for 8th.

 

Billy Beane, keep defending the Cespedes and Donaldson trades. Of the 32 home series the A's have played since September of 2014, they are 9-20-3. Three of the wins have come against the dregs of the National League (Phillies, Padres, Rockies).

 

I would love to see that list.

As a hitter he's on par with Bryant. Higher BB%, Lower k%, and his HR/PA is better.

.953 OPS against RHP last year. Bryant was .875.

Defensively is a different story.

 

If you think he is unquestionably the hitter he was for a hot half-season, then sure you would put him higher. I don't think he is that good and neither do the projection systems, which all had him under 3 WAR for this year.

He is definitely behind Rizzo, Heyward, Bryant. He should probably be behind Zobrist and Russell too. He is in the same tier as Montero and Fowler.

 

How do you figure? Schwarber is 23 and is only gonna get better. Fowler and Montero are 30+ years old and on the decline

 

There is a lot more to projecting a baseball player than just copying last year's stats and applying an age factor.

For one thing, and this is mostly tangential, most professional baseball players don't get much better after 22 or so these days. A little better, but not much. The aging curve has always skewed younger than the average fan realized, and it has gotten a lot younger in the last decade.

But that isn't the main point with Schwarber, the main point for him is that what he did for 250 plate appearances last year was probably partially a Shane Spencer-type fluke. He is a good hitter but not that good. 24.2% of his fly balls went for home runs, a pace only three players (Stanton, Cruz, Alvarez) matched from 2013-2015. Schwarber is strong but not in that power tier. As the sample size grows, it'd be reasonable to expect the home runs to slow down. He is more like a 20 HR guy than the 40+ HR pace he showed last year.

 

I'm old, slightly fat and have no depth perception, and I believe with a full spring training I could play the outfield better than Schwarber. He might be the worst I've ever seen. Shit, he makes Matt Holiday look like a gold glover by comparison.