2016 MLB thread. THE CUBS HAVE BROKEN THE CURSE! Chicago Cubs are your 2016 World Series champions

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He might want to reconsider that appeal. Something tells me the umpire fraternity doesn't forget incidents like that, and him appealing is just saying he thinks what he did wasn't wrong.

Take a seat for four games and don't have the decision-makers hating you and your team any more.
 
When he cocked his arm back, I honestly thought that helmet was going straight to the dome of that ump.  Lawrie hummed that bad boy into the ground. 
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Man, that Will Rhymes scene was strange. Gets hit in the arm with a pitch, complains about dizziness and collapses at first.

I guess he's alright. Some kind of quick nerve reaction, maybe? Weird.
 
Early signs of a new Dodgers era.

Spoiler [+]
Dodgers players have exercised gallows humor in recent years, as former owner Frank McCourt's ugly financial situation manifested itself in organizational cutbacks. "I don't write any checks," one player said privately last summer, "until I know for sure that my paycheck has cleared."

But times have changed quickly. The Los Angeles Dodgers have new ownership, they are in first place, and this is a time of renewed commitment -- the organization to the players and vice versa.

The family room at Dodger Stadium has already been renovated, and there are more changes to come to make the players more comfortable.

Stan Kasten, the new team president, met with the players recently and provided each of them with two jerseys signed by Magic Johnson -- one personalized to the player, and the other to be used for the player's favorite charity. And Kasten told the players that the Dodgers needed them to be part of the organization's effort to touch the community.

What Kasten said, in so many words, was this: A few minutes ago, your faces lit up when I gave you that autographed Magic Johnson jersey -- and that's exactly the reaction that our fans have when they get something from each of you.

On Sunday, Kasten asked four members of the team to go to a gate at Dodger Stadium as fans came through the turnstiles; a fifth player, Clayton Kershaw, also volunteered. After they finished, pitcher Aaron Harang approached Kasten and told him how much he enjoyed it and how he had thought about what Kasten had said about their possible impact on fans.

The response to this new era in the Dodgers' history, Kasten said, "has been phenomenal."
[h3]Lowe's mechanical adjustment[/h3]
In the midst of the bottom of the ninth inning of Derek Lowe's shutout against the Minnesota Twins the other day, Cleveland Indians catcher Lou Marson went to the mound and asked the pitcher what he wanted to throw with his next pitch.

"Do I really need to answer that, Lou?" Lowe replied, with a smile. "C'mon."

Of course Lowe was going to throw his sinker, which he threw on 115 of his 127 pitches in the victory, the 172nd of his career. It's the quality of his sinker that has been responsible for his remarkable turnaround. Lowe, who turns 39 in 15 days, is 6-1 with a 2.05 ERA.

Even last year with the Atlanta Braves, Lowe said over the phone on Wednesday evening, he knew exactly what he was doing wrong with his sinker. Lowe tended to bend over too far in setting up for his delivery, and then his front (left) shoulder would fly open and his sinker would flatten out. He and Atlanta pitching coach Roger McDowell worked on this problem repeatedly, but Lowe would get into the rush of a game and the needed physical adjustment would evaporate.

But Lowe continued to work through the winter and through spring training on his delivery, and he has been able to maintain it and fight off his own instinct to constantly tinker with pitch grips and pitch selection and mechanics. He's focused on his sinker, and his ratio of ground balls to fly balls is the best it's been in five years. He got 22 ground ball outs against the Twins the other day.

"The most gratifying thing about this start is that I had to put in a lot of time and effort to change stuff, and I've had the results," he said.

The Indians took care of business against Felix Hernandez on Wednesday night, as well.
[h3]Notables[/h3]
• The Jim Eppard era began for the Los Angeles Angels, who brought in the hitting coach after firing Mickey Hatcher following Tuesday's game -- and Albert Pujols mashed his second homer of the season. The Angels are hoping that Eppard can spark the offense, writes Bill Plunkett.

Mike Scioscia defended Hatcher's work but says it's time to move on.

For the first time, you have to wonder when Scioscia's time could expire, writes Mark Whicker.

• Stephen Strasburg has thrown 48 innings, which means he is about 110-120 innings short of the 160-inning range; when he reaches that, the Washington Nationals will prepare to shut him down for the season.

A rival executive noted the Nationals' current surplus in starting pitching right now, as well as Washington's strong standing in the NL East, and wondered if maybe this might be a good time to sideline the right-hander -- to save innings for September and maybe October.

"The rest of their rotation is healthy," he said, noting the performances of Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler. "They've got [Chien-Ming] Wang coming back, and [John] Lannan is in Triple-A. If they have Strasburg throw light bullpens but not start, that'll save the innings -- which is a really, really hard thing to do."

The Nationals are 23-14 after Gonzalez's most recent masterpiece. The return of Wang may shake up the Washington pitching staff, writes Amanda Comak.

A teammate says the Hot Stuff incident didn't happen.

• The most underrated reliever in the majors so far this year might be Oakland's Ryan Cook, the 24-year-old right-hander who has held opponents to four hits in 17.2 scoreless innings of work. Lefties are 1-for-27 against him.

• Brett Lawrie is appealing his four-game suspension. I thought he was lucky he didn't get more, and I'm guessing there are some umpires who are not happy with the length of the suspension. From Richard Griffin's story:
  • Because of back-to-back two-game series, the same umpiring crew, led by Dale Scott, stayed in town to work the Yankees series as well. That being the case, Miller was at third base, working right beside Lawrie, who was playing while his suspension is under appeal. Awwk-ward.
  • As such, at 6:20 p.m., Lawrie made his way down the tunnel to the umpires' dressing room, knocked on the door and was ushered in to say his piece and make peace with Miller. The meeting lasted all of one minute. The effort was there, but it doesn't mean it's all good between the two.
  • When the umpires appeared on the field they were greeted with a chorus of boos to home plate. The seemingly light four-game suspension seemed less than a ringing endorsement of Miller by MLB and likely did not sit well with the umpires. When the Jays came out for the first inning, Miller strode out to short left field as Lawrie ran to his position. There was little interaction throughout the contest. The only thing Lawrie still thinks went wrong was a bad helmet hop.
The Lawrie helmet-throwing incident was a little like the Clemens bat-throwing incident in the 2000 World Series. I don't think Roger Clemens meant to necessarily hit Mike Piazza with the bat shard ... but I think he was aiming for the near-miss. Same with Lawrie, in the way he fired his helmet at the feet of umpire Bill Miller.

Ben Walker writes that Lawrie's rant joins a list of others in baseball history.

• Adrian Gonzalez had a problem with a plate umpire's strike zone.

• Felix Hernandez got hit hard.

His fastball velocity is down five mph since the start of the 2007 season, according to fangraphs.com:

2007: 96.3 mph
2008: 94.5 mph
2009: 93.8 mph
2010: 94.4 mph
2011: 93.4 mph
2012: 91.5 mph

• Carlos Gonzalez is hitting .362 in Colorado this year, with a 1.178 OPS in 58 at-bats. On the road, however, he's been a very different player, with a .736 OPS. These numbers are right in line with Gonzalez's time with the Rockies.

2011: .999 OPS at home, .757 OPS on the road.
2010: 1.162 OPS at home, .775 OPS on the road.
2009: .943 OPS at home, .811 OPS on the road.
[h3]Dings and dents[/h3]
1. Drew Storen is aiming to come back around the All-Star break, writes Adam Kilgore.

2. Will Rhymes survived a scare in the Rays' latest victory.

3. The backups to the Giants' backups are getting hurt these days; San Francisco played short-handed.

4. Brandon Inge appears headed to the disabled list, as Susan Slusser writes.

5. Vance Worley landed on the disabled list.

6. Chase Utley fielded grounders.

7. Ivan Nova is on the mend.

8. Brian Roberts says he's closer than ever to returning. Whether he represents an upgrade is an open question; remember, Roberts is 34 years old and hasn't played in a year, and he's played 98 games since the end of the 2009 season.

9. Carlos Beltran is hurting and was out of the lineup again.

10. Josh Tomlin is set to have another MRI.

11. Grady Sizemore took batting practice and is aiming to come back in June.

12. The Twins lost two players in their victory against the Detroit Tigers.

13. Daniel Hudson threw in an extended spring game.

14. Matt Kemp is due back May 29.
[h3]Moves, deals and decisions[/h3]
1. The Tampa Bay Rays traded for a farmhand.

2. Alex Presley was sent to Triple-A, as Rob Biertempfel writes.

3. Daisuke Matsuzaka is not close to joining the Boston Red Sox, writes Peter Abraham.

4. Joaquin Benoit is filling in as the Tigers' closer.

5. Some Royals prospects were promoted.

6. Right now, Aroldis Chapman is where he is needed, says Dusty Baker.

7. The Milwaukee Brewers signed a pitcher.
[h3]Wednesday's games[/h3]
1. The Miami Marlins are gathering momentum, with a lot of help from Giancarlo Stanton.

2. The Toronto Blue Jays mashed the New York Yankees with some homers.

3. Jamie Moyer inspired the Colorado Rockies and picked up win No. 269.

From Elias: Moyer became the oldest player in MLB history to record an RBI (since the stat became official in 1920) with his infield single Wednesday night against the Diamondbacks. Moyer, at 49 years and 180 days old, beat Julio Franco by 155 days.

4. Hiroki Kuroda got pounded.

5. Adam Jones does a lot of good work in extra innings.

6. Yu Darvish was The Man for the Texas Rangers, again. Darvish says he's not completely satisfied.

From ESPN Stats & Information, how Darvish won:

[h4]A difference in counts[/h4]
How Yu Darvish has fared this season based on the count after the first pitch.
[table][tr][th=""]
Stat
[/th][th=""]
After 1-0
[/th][th=""]
After 0-1
[/th][/tr][tr][td]
Opp BA
[/td][td]
.308
[/td][td]
.146
[/td][/tr][tr][td]
Opp OPS
[/td][td]
.950
[/td][td]
.420
[/td][/tr][tr][td]
Strikeouts
[/td][td]
12
[/td][td]
46
[/td][/tr][tr][td]
Walks
[/td][td]
20
[/td][td]
6
[/td][/tr][/table]

A. Four of Darvish's seven strikeouts Wednesday came on his four-seam fastball; he had five in his previous seven starts combined. Darvish didn't allow a hit on his four-seam fastball for the first time this season.
B. Got ahead: Darvish started 17 of 28 hitters (60.7 percent) with a first-pitch strike, only the third time this season he's been better than 50 percent.
C. All seven of Darvish's strikeouts Wednesday came after he got strike one on the first pitch, continuing a season-long trend. Despite throwing a first-pitch strike just 55 percent of the time, 46 of his 58 strikeouts this season have come after he gets strike one on the first pitch.

7. Matt Garza again created a mystery for lip readers.

By The Numbers, from ESPN Stats & Info:

2: Game-winning home runs in the 15th inning or later for Adam Jones this season; he's the first player with two in the same season since Mark McGwire in 1988.
3: Home runs in the 15th inning or later this season across the league. Entering this season, there hadn't been one hit since 2009.
4: Consecutive starts allowing at least six earned runs for Mike Minor, longest streak in baseball since 2008.
275: Number of pitchers against whom Albert Pujols has hit a home run after hitting his first off Gavin Floyd on Wednesday night.


Zack Greinke Will Get Paid.
Spoiler [+]
Zack Greinke is putting himself in a great situation. Not only is the 28-year-old Milwaukee Brewers’ ace dominating hitters again, he’s doing it in a contract year. With the Brewers allegedly suspending contract talks with Greinke just last month, it looks like Greinke might take his chance on the free-agent market.

If Greinke were to hit free-agency, he and Cole Hamels would be the two most-sought-after starters. The Brewers have said they are willing to sign Greinke to a long-term extension — but based on recent pitcher deals — Greinke may price himself out of their budget.

Since breaking into the league in 2004, Greinke has been one of the best starting pitchers in baseball. During his career, Greinke has accumulated 32.7 WAR — which makes him the ninth-best pitcher during that period. But Greinke also carries a bit of a stigma: In his sophomore season, Greinke slumped badly and ended his season with a 5.80 ERA. During the spring of 2006, it was revealed that Greinke had been dealing with a social anxiety disorder and depression. He pitched just 6.1 innings that year.

Even with those struggles, Greinke’s overall performance has been impressive. Using our leaderboards, we can compare Greinke to similar pitchers during recent years. Greinke’s WAR total puts him in elite company. The chart only sorts pitchers through their age-28 seasons — since that’s when Greinke will hit the free-agent market. And because Greinke just entered his age-28 season, his WAR total should rise before he hits the market.

The top player on the list, CC Sabathia, is actually a pretty decent comparison for Greinke. Both players made their major league debuts at 20 years old, and both hit free-agency around the same age (Sabathia was 27, Greinke will be 28). That off-season, Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million deal with the New York Yankees. Greinke wasn’t as good as Sabathia during those early years, but he was comparable.

Greinke compares even more favorably to Johan Santana. Even though Santana wasn’t a full-time player until he was 23, both players have produced nearly the same amount of value through their age-28 seasons. If Greinke can muster a 5 WAR season this year, he’ll actually have produced more value than Santana by the time he hits the market. Santana — who reached free-agency at his age-28 season — received a six-year, $137.5 million contract with the New York Mets.

The two players immediately below Greinke — Justin Verlander and Roy Oswalt — signed extensions with their clubs and never reached free-agency. While their deals aren’t comparable to what Greinke will make, they give us a good idea of why players test the market. Even though all three pitchers put up comparable numbers, Verlander made $80 million while Oswalt made $73 million.

The last two interesting names on the list are Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. Cain recently signed a six-year, $127.5 million extension with the San Francisco Giants. Many analysts think Greinke will use that deal as a benchmark during his negotiations. While Lincecum hasn’t signed a big extension yet, he’s rumored to have turned down a five-year, $100 million offer from the Giants.

Since Cain’s deal was an extension, it’s reasonable that Greinke would expect to make more on the open market. While we don’t know exactly what kind of deal Lincecum is seeking, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Greinke was after the same contract. The Sabathia and Santana contracts give us an idea of what similar pitchers made just four or five years ago. If we adjust for inflation, Greinke could justifiably ask for something between Sabathia’s and Santana’s contracts. Because of his past issues, teams might be hesitant to offer Greinke such an expensive contract. But based on his performance, he deserves to be paid like an elite starter.


Kenny Diekroeger’s Season.
Spoiler [+]
In 2009, Menlo High School shortstop Kenny Diekroeger was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the second round and was reportedly offered just over a million dollars to join the organization. He chose Stanford and stayed close to his Northern California roots. Most players, when faced with a similar choice, follow suit.

Diekroeger has no regrets. And he thinks this season has been just fine, too. Talk to the shortstop for even a few minutes, and you’ll realize he’s got an even-keeled outlook.

“Maybe it’s too bad that I didn’t get to see a different part of the country,
 
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Lawrie

I now see why folks say he has that George Brett intensity. I love it.

Anyways...heard an advertisement on the radio today for the Nats/Bucs game...."Come out to the stadium and see Ian Desmond and the Nationals take on Jose Tabata and the Pirates."

Uh....
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Originally Posted by Kevin Cleveland

He might want to reconsider that appeal. Something tells me the umpire fraternity doesn't forget incidents like that, and him appealing is just saying he thinks what he did wasn't wrong.

Take a seat for four games and don't have the decision-makers hating you and your team any more.
Click to expand...


   Eye on Baseball
 
Adam has been killing it, especially with the glove. O's somehow still in first, but I'm not sure how much longer this home-run offense will hold up. Need some guys to take more patient approaches and start getting on base or we'll fall off as usual.

AL East is ridiculous - every team currently has a positive double digit run differential. Meanwhile, in the AL Central...
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Beltway series starts tomorrow.
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Originally Posted by abovelegit1

Adam has been killing it, especially with the glove. O's somehow still in first, but I'm not sure how much longer this home-run offense will hold up. Need some guys to take more patient approaches and start getting on base or we'll fall off as usual.

AL East is ridiculous - every team currently has a positive double digit run differential. Meanwhile, in the AL Central...
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Beltway series starts tomorrow.
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You guys need to lock him up soon, he's finally hitting that potential
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For the O's fans:


Is Adam Jones Pulling a Matt Kemp?
Spoiler [+]
On Tuesday, Adam Jones took a 1-0 fastball from CC Sabathia in the second inning and launched it out to left field. On Wednesday, in the 15th inning, he destroyed a curveball from Nate Adcock, breaking a 3-3 tie and giving the Orioles a go-ahead run that led to their extra inning win. Yesterday, the victim was Luke Hochevar, whose 4th inning slider didn’t break far enough out of the zone, allowing Jones to deposit it over the center field wall for his third home run in as many days.

The power surge continues Jones’ strong start to the season, and his 13 home runs are now just six fewer than he had in both 2009 and 2010. The long ball barrage has raised his overall season line to .295/.345/.604, and his 159 wRC+ puts him in the top 20 in offensive performance to begin the year. Once you add in the fact that Jones is a center fielder who also runs the bases well, Jones has been a top five player in the sport so far.

While it’s still early, his strong start is evoking memories of Matt Kemp‘s breakout year last season, and the two might be a bit more similar than you think.

Through their age 25 seasons, their numbers shared quite a few similarities. Kemp had 2,469 plate appearances to Jones 2,419, so their playing time through their first four years was pretty close to a dead heat. Kemp racked up two more singles, seven more doubles, six more triples, and 14 more home runs, so while he did show more power than Jones, remember that these totals are over four full seasons worth of playing time, so the per-season gap isn’t all that large.

The area with the most significant difference is also the area where Jones draws the most criticism – walk rate. Through his age 25 season, Kemp had drawn 159 unintentional walks, good for a mediocre 6.5% UBB%, but Jones’ walk rate (111 in 2,213 PA, or 4.6% UBB%) made Kemp look downright patient. In fact, of the 162 batters with at least 2,500 plate appearances since 2006, Jones’ walk rate ranks 151st, just above Freddy Sanchez and right below Jeff Francoeur. Every batter who was walked less often than Jones since he began his career is either a middle infielder or a catcher, with the exception of Kevin Kouzmanoff (not in the majors) and Delmon Young (who may be playing and offending himself out of the league).

Jones’ refusal to take a free pass has been a problem, and despite his natural talents, his low walk rate has translated into a .319 on base percentage and a good helping of scorn from the analytical baseball community. When I mentioned in my Wednesday chat that I expected Jones’ next contract to be for more than $100 million, the queue filled up with jokes about spending that much money on a guy who makes so many outs.

But here’s the thing – as Kemp showed last year, these types of players don’t need to become that much more selective to see their walk rates spike in a hurry.

Last year, Kemp set a career high with a 10.4% walk rate, easily the highest he’s ever posted, but he didn’t actually change his approach all that much.

In 2010, Kemp swung at 30.9 percent of pitches that PITCHF/x classified as outside the strike zone, a mark that was 1.6 points above the league average. In 2011, he swung at 32.9 percent of pitches that the algorithm calculated as outside the strike zone, 2.3 points higher than the league average. He swung at more strikes too, so his swing rate actually jumped from 45.4 percent in 2010 to 48.0 percent in 2011. The data shows that Kemp actually got more aggressive during his breakout season last year.

So, how did he set a career high in walks while swinging even more regularly than the year before? He began intimidating pitchers for the first time. Through his age 25 season, Kemp drew a total of 17 intentional walks. He received 24 IBBs last season alone, more than doubling his career total, and the upward trend was obvious as the season wore on – he was intentionally walked just five times total in April and May, but then received 19 over the final four months of the season.

Kemp’s 7.5% UBB% was an increase over his 2010 total, but it’s pretty likely that a decent number of those unintentional walks were still somewhat planned. As Kemp began destroying strikes, pitchers just started throwing him fewer pitches to hit, so even though he swung more often, the walks came as the result of his power surge.

The trend has continued this year. His five IBBs in 139 PA would project out to 24.6 over the same number of plate appearances as he had last year, and he’s seen a precipitous drop in number of pitches that PITCHF/x calculates as strikes – 42.9% this year compared to 47.0% last year. Kemp has responded to the pitches out of the zone by reducing his swing rates and taking even more walks, but it’s important to note that the power came first and the walks followed, not the other way around.

Adam Jones is still an aggressive hitter, swinging at 51.7 percent of the pitches he’s been thrown this year, but for the first time in his career, he’s starting to give pitchers reasons to fear throwing him a strike. As long as he sustains some of the added power he’s showing right now, pitchers are going to adjust, and they’re going to start pitching around him more often. And the walks will come. Right now, Jones has yet to be issued an intentional walk this season, and he’s only drawn six in his entire career. That’s going to change, and the “unintentional intentional walks
 
I would have given my first born for Kerry Wood's last major league appearance to have been giving up a grand slam today against the White Sox.
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Originally Posted by Stringer Bell 32

I would have given my first born for Kerry Wood's last major league appearance to have been giving up a grand slam today against the White Sox.
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I would have given my first 2 and my ability to have another of my own to have had that be a GS.
Why is he retiring now though.
 
I guess the body (shoulder) is just really starting to go. He gave an interview a little while back about how hard and frustrating the rehab was this time around.

Dude will always be appreciated. Even though I doubt he would have lasted, Dusty really destroyed him and Prior.
 
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