MLB 2018 regular season thread

The game's close enough that they have to use their good relievers, and with a decent Rockies team coming in this weekend, they can't afford any suspensions.

They do play the Marlins again in Miami in a week or so, though.

 

OK I have a mancrush.

When can he become a regular on MLB Network????

 

This is an A-plus tweet:

 

And now this:

 

Sadly, Urena might not pitch in that series. The Marlins have two off days and five games before the Braves come to town. Looks like he'd be in line to pitch against the Yankees on Wednesday. The four-game Braves series starts Thursday, so he'd pitch again on the 28th against the Red Sox.

 

Hilarious! That's SOOOO Dodger-like. Okay, just LA like.

 

Sorry Keith, um no, you don't drill someone in the elbow. That's so weak. Game is about the plate, you throw over the plate, he tries to hit it. If he does, tip your hat and try something else.

 

Rodriguez's low ERA is a mirage and it won't last. Rodriguez has an xFIP of 4.00 and a SIERA of 4.10. He doesn't strike out many hitters (7.3 K/9), and he's aided by a really low 5% HR/FB ratio (league average is 10).* It would be stunning if he maintains a 2-something ERA the rest of the way unless he pitches every game at home.

Soto (.970 OPS) and Acuna (.922) will battle it out for ROY. Rodriguez won't sniff it.

*By comparison, Scherzer's xFIP is 3.02, SIERA is 2.70, his K/9 is 12.11, HR/FB is 9.8%. They really aren't similar outside of ERA.

 

To be fair, he was trying to drill him between the numbers, not the elbow. That said, it was still bush league. Make a fucking pitch.

 

People really get off on xFIP. It always makes me laugh. “Here’s how bad he would suck if he gave up more home runs.” “But he doesn’t.” “But yeah, if he did, then he would suck.”

People talked about Matt Cain’s low HR/FB rate for like eight years. Wait till that straightens out, he’ll suck! It did — in 2014 when his arm exploded and he had nothing left for the rest of his career.

Could be the ballpark. Could be that some guys are harder to square up. But I don’t think there’s any reason to believe Dereck Rodríguez is suddenly going to start giving up twice as many home runs this year.

He doesn’t strike out a lot of guys, but he doesn’t walk many either. With enough innings, he’d be in the top five in BB/9. And that’s the more important part of that equation anyway.

 

I don’t think it matters. That’s bad enough that you go after the whole team. Multiple times. Let Urena tell his teammates why he did that to them.

 

"Hot mess" doesn't even come close to describing the Dodger bullpen, which has blown a lead for the seventh straight game tonight.