• Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!

MLB Discussion Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Alright guys. I'm going to *attempt* to start some kind of discussion here beings that I finally have got something to actually talk about.

To me the baseball All Star game is one of the things that I look forward to the most during the summer. I get like heavily invested into it for some reason especially when it comes to me filling out my All Star Ballot. Unlike most fans I take voting for the All Star game to another level. It goes beyond just voting for the 9 players online per league... I literally attempt to play manager for both leagues and try to construct the entire roster of teams from who I think should make it.

This year, however, has been tough as hell to decide. It seems that there is a lot of grey area into who I think is the best player in their position for this year and who deserves to be on the team.

For example... The 1B position is stacked in the AL with guys like Miggy, Albert, and Jose Daniel Abreau have all had great years to this point. Derek Jeter is probably going to get the nod at SS... but is this the right choice? His year hasn't been the greatest year and I don't think he deserves the starting job over someone like Alexi Ramirez. The third base position is loaded too in the AL with Beltre, Encarnasion, and Josh Donaldson. Edwin has had an amazing May, but his April was so aweful. In the National League, you have guys such as Votto, Morneau, Adrian Gonzalez, and Goldschmidt at 1B, and guys like Harper, CarGo, Carlos Gomez, McCutchen, Ryan Braun, Puig all crowding the outfield spots... Dee Gordon, Chase Utley, or Brandon Phillips...

So I guess my question is what is your strategy to voting for the All Star game? I don't actually vote until the later part of June / early July, but if you guys have voted already, who have you picked and why? Who do you think deserves to start and who do you think doesn't? Anything shock you about how the fans are voting and who is getting left out?
 
My strategy would be to vote for whoever has been best to this point this year, with close decisions going in favour of the guy with the better recent track record. In your scenarios above, I'd go Miggy at 1B, A. Ramirez at SS and probably Encarnacion at 3B (that one really is tough though) for the AL. For the NL I'd easily go Goldschmidt at 1B, haven't paid enough attention to the OF or 2B to make a decision (aside from the decision to NOT vote for Harper).
 
Encarnacion was a fucking bum when he was on the Reds... *grumble*

actually he was decidedly average but whatever
 
edwin never plays third outside of interleague and even then its uncommon, also the reds suk

edit: THE ballot

hRSmjqv.png




it was a tossup between cruz and EE at DH but i went with cruz to be the hipster guy that doesn't favor his own players
 
Last edited:
9454e2db23.png


roughly picked based on who i expect to do best for the rest of the year, really wanted to take gomez over puig given puig's 400 babip is not at all sustainable, but i cant quite...
 
... XBo? Really? I love what the kid is doing but his defense at short is mediocre at best and he's not even going to play there much anymore because of Drew being resigned.
 
tennisace said:
... XBo? Really? I love what the kid is doing but his defense at short is mediocre at best and he's not even going to play there much anymore because of Drew being resigned.
Click to expand...
He's been having a very good year though, and is arguably the best offensive shortstop in the AL. He will be moving to third though yeah, but i was doing position based on what they've been playing all year. We also know pretty clearly that alexei ramirez wont continue to hit this way going forward, whereas although bogaerts will decline some, he is very probably a much better hitter.
 
Imanalt said:
He's been having a very good year though, and is arguably the best offensive shortstop in the AL. He will be moving to third though yeah, but i was doing position based on what they've been playing all year. We also know pretty clearly that alexei ramirez wont continue to hit this way going forward, whereas although bogaerts will decline some, he is very probably a much better hitter.
Click to expand...

He has been hitting for completely empty average, doesn't hit for power or run on the bases at all. Hasn't even been close to Ramirez this season, and definitely not even close to all star calibre yet
 
Stallion said:
He has been hitting for completely empty average, doesn't hit for power or run on the bases at all. Hasn't even been close to Ramirez this season, and definitely not even close to all star calibre yet
Click to expand...
Bogaerts and Ramirez have almost identical isolated power and bogaerts walks more, so ramirez's is an "emptier" average...

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.as...am=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=17,d

I think its hard to make an argument that Bogaerts and Ramirez aren't even close, and i expect Ramirez to regress more than bogaerts (although looking at it, Bogaerts' babip scares me some, so we'll see on that)
 
Imanalt said:
Bogaerts and Ramirez have almost identical isolated power and bogaerts walks more, so ramirez's is an "emptier" average...

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.as...am=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=17,d

I think its hard to make an argument that Bogaerts and Ramirez aren't even close, and i expect Ramirez to regress more than bogaerts (although looking at it, Bogaerts' babip scares me some, so we'll see on that)
Click to expand...

They're much closer than I thought. The things that pop out to me in favour of Ramirez are the much lower babip with the significantly higher average (although Boegarts gets on base a lot), the difference in steals and the RBIs. Xander obviously has way more upside but to this point, Ramirez has definitely been better this season.

Also random aside but fuck, all the good SS's are in the NL lol
 
9U34njA.jpg


one of the greatest baseball mysteries of the year: solved

next on the list: how much did tampa bay pay the umpires and MLB to keep price from getting suspended?

edit: NEVERMIND EVERYONE DAVID PRICE WAS FINED AN UNDISCLOSED AMOUNT, JUSTICE SERVED ALL PRAISE TO GLORIOUS LEADER BUD SELIG
 
Last edited:
9gz2C.png


went with performances so far (would've put arenado>frazier if not for the tbd status for arenado's return and norris>mccann if norris wasn't in a platoon so...)
 
Last edited:
I give up on this season, I don't think there's been a team in modern history with this many serious injuries at this point in the season, poor Rangers :-(
 
Gregory polanco to get called up tomorrow... fucking finally, the pirates rightfield has been a cesspool for a year and a half, just hoping we can trade one of the two players we had playing there for a 4 or 5 starter given we have literally the worst pitching staff in baseball with approximately 1 legitimate starter
 
kershaw has a legit shot to break the scoreless innings streak imo. his next starts are probably: padres, (a couple all star innings), pirates, giants, cubs with a ton of days off in-between.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top