Running 2017 MLB regular season thread

Go look at Colon's stats from last year and at 43 he got 1 for 12.5. Sabathia's at least good for 1 for 15. He's left-handed and here are the starters, right now, that will be available (I took out Sale and Bumgarner because their club options will get exercised).

Brett Anderson (30)
Jake Arrieta (32)
Clay Buchholz (33)
Trevor Cahill (30)
Matt Cain (33) — $21MM club option with a $7.5MM buyout
Andrew Cashner (31)
Jhoulys Chacin (30)
Tyler Chatwood (28)
Jesse Chavez (34)
Wei-Yin Chen (32) — Can opt out of the remaining three years, $52MM on his contract
Alex Cobb (30)
Bartolo Colon (45)
Johnny Cueto (32) — Can opt out of the remaining four years, $84MM on his contract
Yu Darvish (31)
John Danks (33)
Jorge De La Rosa (37)
R.A. Dickey (43) — $8MM club option with $500K buyout
Nathan Eovaldi (28) — $TBD club option
Marco Estrada (34)
Scott Feldman (35)
Doug Fister (34)
Yovani Gallardo (32) — $13MM club option with a $2MM buyout
Jaime Garcia (31)
Matt Garza (34) — $13MM vesting option/$5MM club option (can become $1MM club option based on DL time)
Gio Gonzalez (32) – $12MM club option, vests with 180 innings pitched in 2017
Miguel Gonzalez (34)
Jeremy Hellickson (31)
Derek Holland (31)
Ubaldo Jimenez (34)
Ian Kennedy (33) — Can opt out of the remaining three years, $43MM on his contract
John Lackey (39)
Francisco Liriano (34)
Jordan Lyles (27)
Lance Lynn (31)
Wade Miley (31) — $12MM club option with a $500K buyout
Matt Moore (29) — $9MM club option with a $1MM buyout
Jon Niese (31)
Ricky Nolasco (35) — $13MM club option with a $1MM buyout
Martin Perez (27) — $6MM club option with a $2.45MM buyout
Michael Pineda (29)
Clayton Richard (34)
Tyson Ross (31)
CC Sabathia (37)
Anibal Sanchez (34) — $16MM club option with a $5MM buyout
Hector Santiago (30)
Masahiro Tanaka (29) — Can opt out of the remaining three years, $67MM on his contract
Chris Tillman (30)
Josh Tomlin (33) — $3MM club option with a $750K buyout
Jason Vargas (35)
Jered Weaver (35)
Chris Young (39) — $8MM mutual option with a $1.5MM buyout

That's 50 guys besides Sabathia, and probably around 45 after options are dealt with -- Cueto, Kennedy and Chen aren't opting out. Tanaka probably won't. Gonzalez's option will get picked up/vest Garza's will prob get picked up. Colon says he might make one more start and retire. Sabathia's a top 10 guy from that list. He might actually be top 5

 

And now the Cubs lead, 3-2, and the eighth inning isn't over yet.

 

Nats record against teams .500 or better is 11-8. After 96 games they've only played 19 against a good team. most other NL teams has played 40+ games against such teams. The next closest is the Mets who have played 36. Aside from the Nats there are 6 other NL teams at .500 or better.

 

To the minute: Lester's 2016 SIERA (i.e. FIP taking into account types of batted balls) was 3.61, his 2017 SIERA is 3.79. The difference is almost entirely attributable to the league-wide home run spike.

 

That's actually right on the average. Since 2010, either six or seven NL teams have finished .500 or better in every season except one. The exception was 2012, when nine teams did it, but two of those were 81-81. In 2010, two teams finished 80-82. Last year, the number was six.

Oddly, the AL has been between 8 and 10 almost every year in that same span. The exception was 2011, when they only had seven (but the Indians finished 80-82, so they were almost right on the number again).

 

Ken Gurnick is tweeting that Kershaw was removed from today's game after two innings after speaking with trainers.

 

If you have no particular rooting interest and just want baseball on as the soundtrack to a beautiful summer afternoon, who are the best announcing teams, TV or radio?

 

Think about what you just did. Based on that last line, even the home runs he gives up this year aren't his fault.

Simple truth is he's on another good run right now. Let's see if he can avoid the massive stinker that followed runs like this the entire first half of the season.

 

With the exception of Chris Sale, almost every pitcher's home run rate has spiked. The ball is juiced.

 

Mets TV team, with Gary Cohen and either Keith Hernandez and/or Ron Darling, is quite amusing.

 

And the home run rate spiked last year, too, while Lester's numbers improved from 2015 to 2016.