Well at least he finally got his first 1-run save.... in mid-August.
Not so simple.
Kimbrel was lights out from 2010-2018.
Then he went to the Cubs in 2019, and the wheels fell off:
2019: 6.53 ERA / 1.597 WHIP
2020: 5.28 ERA / 1.435 WHIP
Then... out of nowhere he was lights out again with the Cubs. In the first half of 2021, he had a 0.49 ERA and 0.709 WHIP, whiffing an amazing 64 in 36 innings!
However, once he was shipped across town to the White Sox, things fell apart again. He had a 5.09 ERA.
The Dodgers then acquired him for 2022. So which Kimbrel was showing up? The amazing one from the first half of 2021, or the fairly bad one from the second half of 2021? We got the bad one. His WHIP is especially problematic ... approaching 1.6.
That's not a surprise. You don't really want to grab a player on a downswing, especially an older one. Sometimes there's value to be had by grabbing a former good player (for cheap) who has recently hit rock bottom, but that's more of a reclamation project, and not something you should count on.
The Dodgers acquired a "closer" who has mostly sucked since 2019, to be their closer on a team expected to be one of the top World Series contenders.
Looks like another exciting one tonight. I need some kind of Kimbrel alert on my phone.
He just has no swing and miss pitch that is required of closers.
Always do immediately what you plan to do eventually. Having said that Trienen and Amonte and some other wounded veterans return. Who has any idea what the Dodgers bullpen thoughts are. Perhaps there simply are none. This is likely all media.
Hint: Anyone with the nickname “Dr Phil” should be the closer. That’s just me
Kimbrel was a suspected sticky stuff merchant in the first half of his outlier year 2021 like nearly everyone else as driveline pitcher performance data kicked in. The goo just got completely out of hand. Bums like Kimbrel briefly looked like Mariano Rivera.
Then the league cracked down.
Last edited by Sanlmar; 08-17-2022 at 10:05 PM.
I kinda wonder if Pujols is doing roids to end his career, the same way David Ortiz did.
It was very clear Ortiz was on the roids in his final year, but baseball looked the other way because he was both beloved and clearly in his final year.
Pujols is also quitting. He has 3 HR in the last 2 games, and just seems to be hitting better lately. Wouldn't surprise me if he's juicing down the stretch, knowing that there's no chance they will test him.
Remember, this is a guy who continues to lie about his age. He's really 45 1/2. He seems to have too much power.
Dodgers reporter David Vassegh went down "Bernie Brewer's slide" twice, and the second time it didn't go well:
https://twitter.com/SportsNetLA/status/1560112325230620672
Vassegh is 46, and probably shouldn't be doing things like this.
He somehow went back to his job in the 5th inning and completed his duties at that point.
Here's an ESPN article on it: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...e-brewer-slide
I actually heard Vassegh on his first radio gig in the '90s, when he was working as an intern to LA sportstalk legend Joe McDonnell, who I was a big fan of. Vassegh was a young guy at the time, and was frequently derided as "the kid" and criticized on air when things didn't go right behind the scenes. However, apparently Vassegh and McDonnell actually became very close, and Joe's rants against him were an act. Vassegh was the one who McDonnell, then 700 pounds, called to help him when he "fell and couldn't get up" at home. McDonnell had gastric bypass surgery soon after, lost a ton of weight, but died in his late 50s in 2015.
Vassegh finally came into his own, becoming host of Dodger Talk in 2012, and has had the job ever since. He did annoy Adrian Gonzalez in 2015 when he kept criticizing Gonzalez's speed on the basepath, causing Gonzalez to challenge him to a race:
Vassegh lost really badly.
In this situation, the injury might have helped him, as it brought him the most attention he's ever had. Austin Barnes even dedicated his home run that night to Vassegh.
I wonder if doctors checked him for conditions. Like osteoporosis or something?
Like I can’t believe he got that hurt from that. I was expecting it to be some high impact thing He doesn’t appear in poor shape and that was absolutely nothing. To get that hurt is abnormal. I’ve watched it like 4 times trying to see if he hit at a weird angle, but it doesn’t make any sense for him to be that hurt.
Before the Dodger gig Vassey was the producer of Petros and Money which was a national show at the time (it has since been downsized to regional). I used to listen to them a lot, and he was on air a lot as a comedic prop.
When the local Fox Sports affiliate signed their deal with the Dodgers he moved to do Dodger stuff. I always wondered whether that was something he wanted or if he was forced to do it. Radio is really weird where guys get moved around or fired with no warning pretty regularly and they just have to go with it, and you never really know how voluntary it was.
I dont really know the comparable salaries of a syndicated sports show producer versus Dodger talk host. But I know he had recently gotten married and had just started a family, and in that spot I wouldn't have been thrilled to switch jobs to be on the road traveling 100 nights/year.
Order is restored. The NL West is once again a dumpster fire.
The Padres are a train wreck.
The San Diego fans are booing.
Right now Cleveland is on pace to win the division with an 86-76 record. Shameful.
ESPN somehow projects the Orioles have a 4% chance of making the playoffs. What?! They're 2.5 out of the last spot, and they're the 4th best wildcard team at the moment in the AL.
I really wish I could bet against these ESPN projections at their odds.
Dodgers give a small extension to Max Muncy: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...lion-extension
He gets $13m for 2023, but the more significant part is 2024, where the club has an option for him at $10m, which would become $14m if he hits a certain number of 2023 AB.
That's important because he'd be a free agent in 2024. The team had him under control for 2023 anyway, but this avoids arbitration.
It's a smart contract because this gives the Dodgers two more seasons to evaluate him before having to make the decision about a big, long-term deal. Muncy likely signed this contract because of his down 2022. He's not likely to get more than $13m in arbitration, due to this down year. Here he gets one more year to prove himself, and still gets as much as $14m, rather than being in the awkward position of trying to establish a long term deal if he has another substandard year in 2023.
Overall this is team friendly.
Honestly it’s the only thing MLB has done right in twenty years. Kind of did their best to keep the haves and have nots aligned. I mean Chicago has almost $200m payroll, but are inept.
I feel bad for the Arizona and Colorado’s and Baltimore’s of the world trying to compete in that arms race. They’re lucky to be in a race once a decade.
Cleveland has $64 million payroll. As well as they’re ran, it’s hard to compete with the coastal teams with billion dollar cable deals. I’d grow disinterested by July most years and focused on the wild card if anything.
If everyone gets in the playoffs what’s the point of the regular season?
You wanna fix parity create a hard salary cap. This new playoff structure is not the solution and I really don’t think it was meant to be.
Having said that, salaries generally are directed at run production. We know the playoffs are about pitching. Playoff successes like Nationals and Braves should give the Guardians hope.
This regular season has been one of the most boring in memory. Can’t wait for playoffs
Tonight’s Brewers Dodgers is a rare interesting series. Burnes Gonsolin is worthy of your time. Playoff caliber. Good bullpens. Neither team is going for broke over this matchup - regular season is never playoffs.
I do give the Dodgers credit for showing up every night when they positively don’t need to win another game. For that charity I tip my cap.
Regular season is idiotic.
- Barry Goldstein
Barry picture shocked me. Has Isildur gone gray too?
Did the heads up match between Isildur & Hastings mark the nigh water mark in poker. I have a distinct memory of driving in my car and hearing reports from CBS radio or something similarly mainstream talking about the nosebleed games in 2009. God I feel old. None of these guys look remotely similar to HSP days now.
Last edited by Sanlmar; 08-23-2022 at 09:34 AM.
I’d love a hard cap. I’d be thrilled to put Tito and our system up against the Dodgers and big markets every year on a level playing field. They often have more dead money than we do payroll. I’ve been wanting that for years.
And we’d need to double ours to meet minimum in hard cap league. Just assume it’s never getting through the union.
If my team were sitting 12 back of the Yankees and Astros on June 1 every year, they’d simply lose me for the most part. I’d just golf six days a week instead of 4. I’m not you, gut, or Druff that is following the league and truly love the game like I once did. It’s not the soundtrack of my summer like it is for you. I follow my division, games I bet, and Ohtani at bats and his days on the mound.
Might as well contract in that scenario where two teams emerge from AL and NL. If we need to win division as it stands, I’d be in most years as our division is winnable most years.
Onto tonight.
Let’s hope this thread is better karma than wagering thread.
Single @
+125
Open
Aug 23 • 2022
Ticket ID: 4899001
Moneyline: CLE Guardians
CLE Guardians @ SD Padres
Single @
-143
Open
Aug 23 • 2022
Ticket ID: 489901
Moneyline: CHI White Sox
CHI White Sox @ BAL Orioles
Parlay (2 Picks)0 of 2 settled
Aug 23 • 2022
Ticket ID: 4898991
Moneyline: CHI White Sox @ -143
CHI White Sox @ BAL Orioles
Moneyline: CLE Guardians @ +125
CLE Guardians @ SD Padres
Odds:
+339
$50 max on the profit boost.
Same bet at normal odds
Parlay (2 Picks)0 of 2 settled
Aug 23 • 2022
Ticket ID: 489901
Moneyline: CLE Guardians @ +125
CLE Guardians @ SD Padres
Moneyline: CHI White Sox @ -143
CHI White Sox @ BAL Orioles
Odds:
+283
There is no true hard cap in any of the big 4. NBA at least openly is a soft cap. NFL hard cap is a joke. Look at the Saints for the clearest example of that for the last decade. Converting salary to bonus, voidable contract years, etc. No one ever gets cut STRICTLY FOR salary cap purposes.
NHL is the closest, after fixing those absurd 15 year contracts amd shit, but as we've recently seen from Tampa, you can LTIR finagle the cap a bit.
What MLB needs more is a salary FLOOR. Nutting in Pittsburgh wants to keep payroll at 30m? Sorry buddy, time to sell, gotta spend 80. Or whatever the number would be.
I have no problem with soft caps.
I wonder sometimes if I might be guilty of just getting old and cranky. I never watch NBA anymore, It’s been months since I looked up Bill Simmons. I hate the new game.
I haven’t watched any preseason NFL either. I just don’t care about the no touch game.
I never used to watch NHL. I love the sport and am consumed nightly the past couple of years.
I watch a lot more tennis in recent years.
So I still love sports.
Baseball is close to dead to me in the regular season. If I weren’t hate-watching the Dodgers I might not watch at all. I bet many games that I never see. It’s just numbers. I pray the playoffs are still good.
Oh, the new catcher obstructing the plate rule is bollocks. Just awful. You’d think the NFL thought that one up.
The Tatis saga continues.
He is "apologizing" and now having.... shoulder surgery?
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...oulder-surgery
Ummmm... .what?
I thought he was all better, and ready to play, prior to the suspension. Remember he had shoulder problems last year, so this might mean he never got fully better, and was attempting to play anyway, similar to Max Muncy earlier this year.
And when MLB players ignore pain and try to play through it, things rarely go well. Maybe this suspension is actually doing him a favor.
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