MLB 2014 season thread

The bullpen has sucked all season. A 40-year-old suddenly falling off the end-of-career cliff should come as a surprise to nobody.

The starting pitching which had been good went to shit instantly the moment the Price deal was done, when Verlander (who has been average at best all season) and Sanchez went down within days of each other.

Verlander came back tonight and did semi-decent, but threw 105 pitches in 5.2 and was yanked in the middle of the inning, hardly an encouraging showing. Sanchez is not expected to be back for 10 more days at least.

The Price trade looked great at first but in his first 3 starts in Detroit, Price has a win, a loss and a no decision -- certainly it's possible Smyly could have done that.

In the meantime, getting rid of Austin Jackson has killed the offense -- nobody on the top of the order is getting on base any more.

Cabrera (like Verlander) is also still nagged by the aftereffects of the groin/core surgery he had last fall. (Incidentally, the Tigers need to fucking fire their entire training/medical team.) He's lost ALL his power -- he's now a banjo singles hitter who takes eight seconds to jog gingerly from home to first. Cabrera has become almost as bad a base-clogger as fatass Prince Fielder last year. Nobody else is hitting so the offense has ground totally to a halt.

Defensively, Castellanos is the worst in the league at 3B, Suarez is playing like a AAAA journeyman at short, and Torri Hunter is playing RF like a washed-up 39-year-old.

So basically the whole team has gone completely to hell all at once.

 

They needed to get more for Fister, who was a great performer for them.
His breaking stuff was a nice change of pace. A staff should have some variety.
They had the depth to absorb the loss, but moving him out also compelled them to trade for another starting pitcher several months later. So what did it really achieve?
This team has four star pitchers, two star hitters and no star relievers.
That's not a good composition of a ballclub.

 

Suppposedly they had to get rid of Fister to "clear salary cap space" ( : : : ) to bring in Nathan.

 

Watching a few recent games it is obvious they're afraid to use Nathan in any high-leverage situation, and would only do so as last resort. Just waive the guy if you're afraid to use him. It's late August.

 

Posnanski with interesting FB post, noting that once Jeter's 2 is retired, the Yanks'll've retired 1 thru 10:

1 -- Billy Martin
2 -- Derek Jeter
3 -- Babe Ruth
4 -- Lou Gehrig
5 -- Joe DiMaggio
6 -- Joe Torre
7 -- Mickey Mantle
8 -- Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey
9 -- Roger Maris
10 -- Phil Rizzuto

https://www.facebook.com/JoePosnanskiSports/posts/672619742834244

 

On that we agree. They didn't get nearly enough for Fister. It doesn't matter that they had the depth to move him. You don't give away solid pitching for less than fair value. Clearly a money move, but not one they had to make.

That said, I think Cabrera's health is the bigger issue. He is not even close to his usual self right now and the offense is suffering badly for it.

 

It must be nice to be at half-strength and still be slashing 311/378/507 with 87 RBI.

 

Looks like Lincecum is about to be yanked from the rotation.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2014/08/24/pregame-notes-bochy-ready-announce-lincecum-decision-tight-calf-sidelines-pagan/

Signed through 2015. Won't end well.

 

Mike Morse is quietly having a very nice season at .285 with 16 homers, 60-something RBIs and 30 doubles.

 

Cabrera was close to his usual level for much of the season, but he has one home run and a .364 slugging percentage over the past month.

 

If the Cubs can hold on vs. the Orioles, the Yankees will have picked up three games against the O's in three days, and will be only 2.5 out of first place.

 

That 2.5 is the wild card. They went from nine to six in the division.