2019 MLB Regular Season running thread

The voting was reeeeally close but looking back at the contenders’ numbers, I’m shocked they didn’t give it to Jeter.

 

Back then the default position was who had the big HR and RBI totals. When Kent won MVP in 2000, he had 130 RBIs compared to Bonds but then I looked it up and Kent had over 100 more ABs with runners on; so yeah he's going to have more, he got way more opportunities.

 

Morneau wasn't even the best position player on his team that year.

 

That hitters wont adjust is what pisses me off. The rules say 9 men on a side and one is the pitcher. Does it say where they have to stand when the ball is pitched.

hit'm where they ain't

 

I have a feeling that this is one of those things that is easier said than done. Like, hitting is such a specialized activity already, that trying to deviate from your "normal" way to dump a ball into left or right is almost impossible, and more likely to just result in a pop-up.

 

Can you average 95 wins over 4 years. Make the playoffs each year. Win a World Series and be overrated as a manager? Or be an underachieving team? Is Maddon this generation’s Bobby Cox?

 

Yeah, but under the same reasoning, ratcheting up your launch angle to theoretically produce more homers, should result in more popups and topspin dunkers too.

 

Hitting the damn ball at all is easier said than done. But these guys are major leaguers. They SHOULD have the ability to adjust, but the fact is, nobody even suggests they try. It's stupidity masked by stat jargon like launch angle.

 

To be fair, it's not all about the hitter. If the pitcher does his job you can do all the adjusting you want and you ain't beating the shift. If the pitcher is throwing inside, it's next to impossible to hit a fair ball the opposite way. The shift works not only because of a hitter's tendencies, but because opponents pitch to those tendencies.
Now if you want to bunt, that's a different story. Somebody for the Cardinals, I forget who, did that a few weeks ago and got a double out of it. That's the real way to beat the shift.

 

Carpenter got that bunt double. Probably his best hit of the year.

 

Manky Jimmy approves.

 

Thanks! Is any of it wrong?