Running 2023-24 Hot Stove Thread

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I'm also wondering if some of this is driven by how far-flung the sport's fans are. If you're living in New England, you probably aren't getting a full appreciation of Blake Snell, who you might only see 1-2 times a year. That feels different from previous generations. Everybody knew what Carlton brought, and Glavine, and the Big Unit.

If anything, shouldn't MORE people know more about Snell now than his '70s or '80s comp? You can be a fan in Boston and watch every single pitch Blake Snell ever throws. This isn't like when we were kids, when we learned about teams on the other coast via baseball cards and The Sporting News.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I posted about this earlier but:
Blake Snell has pitched for 8 seasons:
2 Cy Young seasons
4 losing seasons
1 7-6 season
1 4-2 COVID season

This is probably why everyone's like WTF is this guy doing in a very select club of Cy Young winners. As @FileNotFound notes, his two good seasons won him the Cy Young. If he wins another one, and pitches reasonably well into or beyond his mid-30s, he's going to have a compelling modern HOF case. There can't be no more pitchers in the HOF after Verlander/Scherzer/Kershaw/Greinke/Cole, right? (Imminent heat death of the universe likely to make all this irrelevant anyway LOL we're forked)

 

[Michael_ Gee]

This is probably why everyone's like WTF is this guy doing in a very select club of Cy Young winners. As @FileNotFound notes, his two good seasons won him the Cy Young. If he wins another one, and pitches reasonably well into or beyond his mid-30s, he's going to have a compelling modern HOF case. There can't be no more pitchers in the HOF after Verlander/Scherzer/Kershaw/Greinke/Cole, right? (Imminent heat death of the universe likely to make all this irrelevant anyway LOL we're forked)

A prediction: As MLB emphasizes the postseason more and more in its unending futile effort to impersonate the NFL, starting pitchers will be judged more and more on theiir postseason records compared to their regular seasons. Good luck for Kershaw he's about five years ahead of this trend.

 

[qtlaw]

This is probably why everyone's like WTF is this guy doing in a very select club of Cy Young winners. As @FileNotFound notes, his two good seasons won him the Cy Young. If he wins another one, and pitches reasonably well into or beyond his mid-30s, he's going to have a compelling modern HOF case. There can't be no more pitchers in the HOF after Verlander/Scherzer/Kershaw/Greinke/Cole, right? (Imminent heat death of the universe likely to make all this irrelevant anyway LOL we're forked)

You forgot Lincecum and Bumgarner.......(ducking tomatoes)

 

[garrow]

I posted about this earlier but:
Blake Snell has pitched for 8 seasons:
2 Cy Young seasons
4 losing seasons
1 7-6 season
1 4-2 COVID season

Also the first pitcher to win the Cy Young the same season he led the league in walks since.....Early Wynn.

 

[Hermes]

Interesting to see that two Cy Youngs are anything but a guarantee of a HOF career but three are.

Two-time winners:

Blake Snell (AL 2018, NL 2023)
Jacob deGrom (NL 2018-19)
Corey Kluber (AL 2014, '17)
Roy Halladay (AL 2003, NL 2010)
Tim Lincecum (NL 2008-09)
Johan Santana (AL 2004, '06)
Tom Glavine (NL 1991, '98)
Bret Saberhagen (AL 1985, '89)
Gaylord Perry (AL 1972, NL 1978)
Bob Gibson (NL 1968, '70)
Denny McLain (AL 1968-69)

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Lots of bad shoulders and elbows on that list after Glavine.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

A lot of foreign substances, too, but that was all Perry's fault.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

A lot of foreign substances, too, but that was all Perry's fault.

There were no foreign substances. Perry said everything he used was from the good ol' USA.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Interesting to see that two Cy Youngs are anything but a guarantee of a HOF career but three are.

Two-time winners:

Blake Snell (AL 2018, NL 2023)
Jacob deGrom (NL 2018-19)
Corey Kluber (AL 2014, '17)
Roy Halladay (AL 2003, NL 2010)
Tim Lincecum (NL 2008-09)
Johan Santana (AL 2004, '06)
Tom Glavine (NL 1991, '98)
Bret Saberhagen (AL 1985, '89)
Gaylord Perry (AL 1972, NL 1978)
Bob Gibson (NL 1968, '70)
Denny McLain (AL 1968-69)

Saberhagen & especially Santana have candidacies that look particularly interesting with the way pitching has "evolved." Saberhagen has a WAR of 58.9 and won 167 games with both a very solid ERA (3.34) & FIP (3.27) even though he didn't strike out a lot of guys (1,715 in 2562 2/3 innings). His WHIP was 1.14, lower than 63 Hall of Famers plus Roger Clemens. I believe his K/BB ratio of 11.0 in 1994 was the lowest until Schilling or Cliff Lee broke it in the 2000s. He got outs, very efficiently. That's not enough to make him a HOFer for his era, but drop him in here and he's a no-doubter.

If the Cy Young balloting were a little more advanced in 2005, Santana (16-7 with a 2.87 ERA & an AL-best 238 Ks and 0.97 WHIP) would have won his second straight in a walk over Bartolo Colon, who had 21 wins but a 3.48 ERA with 157 Ks & a 1.16 WHIP. But Santana finished third behind Colon & Mariano Rivera ('sup @Junkie). Assuming he wins the Cy again in 2006, he's in that three-timer club where everyone is a HOF lock except Clemens. Even with the brevity of his career and the lack of counting numbers (51.7 WAR, 139 wins, 1,988 Ks), I'd have to think he would have done better than 2.4% on the ballot in 2018.

 

[MTM]

The Angels have had five MVPs, five second places finishes and two more top fives since 2012 -- and zero playoff wins.

This year, five of the six player awards was unanimous and the sixth, Snell, was two votes short.

And I wonder if first and second have been unanimous before, like Acuna and Betts.

 

[Twirling Time]

Imagine that, talent the likes of Ohtani and Trout dying on the vine in Orange County.

Who's rolling over faster in his grave, Gene Autry or his horse?