MLB 2018 regular season thread

Sale has really struggled with that approach, too, right Dickie?

 

Cole certainly has ace potential, but there's not much to suggest he's going to continue pitching at this level in that bandbox over 35 starts.

Cole had a 4.26 ERA last season and only one season under 3.65 while pitching in the NL Central. His FIP is a full run higher than his ERA, his BABIP is low at .219 and he's pitched twice against Texas and once against San Diego. Both are in the bottom third of MLB in runs scored. SD is second in MLB in strikeouts and TEX is fourth. Cole dominated a couple of shit offenses.

As Dick correctly states, it’s too small a sample size to say “the verdict is in on trading Cole, and it’s not good.”

 

His body of work suggests he's a solid No. 3 who has a career year under his belt.

 

I think that’s a fair assessment.

 

Yet he is more than happy to render a verdict regarding McCutchen when there is also evidence that his numbers will improve, specifically his history of slow starts in recent seasons.

He was also more than happy to declare the Pirates' offseason a success based on 15 games. Sure, he's just trolling when he posts that nonsense, but it does show that he is happy to abandon his aversion to small sample sizes when it suits his argument.

I certainly don't expect Cole to maintain his current level. He had a good bit of luck on his side last night. I don't expect anybody to pitch quite at that level.

That said, Cole is only 27, an age when many pitchers start to figure things out. That he had one great season much earlier in his career demonstrates his ability, but it also skews the perspective on him. You've got a pitcher with a high enough upside that he was the top overall pick in the draft and he is just entering his prime. There is plenty of reason to believe he can get better than he was not just last season, but in previous seasons.

 

Reason to believe he can be better than 4.26? Absolutely. Reason to think he’s going to pitch like this all season? Not at all.

 

No fracture for Freddie Freeman's wrist. In fact, he's in the lineup tonight (which I find to be pretty reckless, but whatever):

 

He just needed a hug.

 

With runners on first and second and no outs, Evan Gattis hits a slow bouncer to third. Kyle Seager steps on third, throws to second for the second out, and Robinson Cano just holds the ball, figuring Gattis had already reached first. Gattis, meanwhile, starts trotting back to the dugout, figuring that there were already three outs, and got tagged out somewhere between first base and the pitcher's mound.

Somebody is going to get shredded in kangaroo court.

 

Isn't that park one of the better pitcher parks in the league?

 

He actually got called out for going out of the basepaths, because he was on the infield grass between first and home when he realized what he'd done.