2016 MLB Regular-Season Thread

And the Giants join the Cubs in the 30-win club.

San Diego is not quite Braves bad, or maybe I'm not giving the Giants enough credit at the plate, but there were a lot of situations the Giants caught the Padres out of position or San Diego just made a bad play.

 

JBJ up to 29 games.

 

Russell Martin was hitting .172 coming into the game with 1 XBH and 0 homers.

Tonight he has 2 homers.

 

And the first thing out of Pedro Martinez's mouth in the postgame was, "I don't know what the Yankees were thinking letting this guy go." What a doof.

 

Whoever gave the green light for this buffoon to appear on television needs to be hung.

 

Remember when his first three career hits were triples? And he hit five triples in his first seven games? This is gonna be like that. Unfortunately.

 

He's not wrong.

Martin since 2013: .243/.342 OBP/.400 SLG, 12.1 WAR
Yankees catchers since 2013: .240/.310 OBP/.392 SLG

The WAR of Chris Stewart (2013) and Brian McCann (2014-present) is 5.7.

The Yankees signed McCann to a five-year, $85M contract thru 2018. Martin is going to make $97M from 2013-2019.

Martin brought the redass on a daily basis and has been to the playoffs in each of the last three seasons with teams that hadn't been there in 20-plus years prior to his arrival. McCann isn't the problem for the Yankees, but he's nowhere near the solution, either, for a team that hasn't won a playoff game since he got there. The Yankees miss Martin. Badly.

Of course this isn't the first time the Yankees have screwed up their catching situation under Joe Girardi. Francisco Cervelli was ignored by Girardi but has become a very good catcher, and just became a very rich man, for the Pirates. His backup is Stewart. And Jorge Posada got run out of town by Girardi--the ultimate kick in the nuts after Girardi hung on a couple extra years to cost Posada a legit shot at the Hall of Fame. Very Scioscia-esque!

 

Yeah he ran Posada out of town, because Posada had a lot left when he hit 248 and 235 in his last two years. Also wasn't throwing out runners anymore and was below average defensively.

 

You're assuming Martin and Cervelli both produce at the same rate if they stay in New York. Is that a sure thing? Were people really crying over their departures?

Also, in Cervelli's case, he still had to show he could hold up for a full season. The slash line in 2014 looks pretty, but it as only 162 plate appearances and this was a guy coming back from a 50-game PED suspension. It seemed to me as if he did have opportunities with the Yankees, but didn't earn more than the part-time role until he got to Pittsburgh.

 

That sound you hear is the collective shitting the pants of Cardinal nation.
Now on the road for for 6.
Metheny may start to get twitchy.

 

Prospect watchers, rejoice: Julio Urias is making his debut tomorrow night vs. the Mets.