2017 MLB Season

[Shadowlight]

http://www.businessinsider.com/attendance-sports-leagues-world-2015-5

The so called "white sport" sure has a lot of fans of both sexes but you would never know it if you were watching NBA/NFL central ( with their ultra over emphasis on black players) otherwise known as ESPN.

 

[Shadowlight]

Wondering where Carolina has been since he does a lot of baseball postings? Should mention that Houston OF Derek Fisher has just been called up and he had a nice debut last night to top off an excellent preseason. It never fails but too often the white prospects are blocked and Houston already has a crowded outfield. Jake Marisnick their athletic CF is sadly not a full time player and OF Josh Reddick had a concussion so Fisher will likely be sent back to Triple A before long. But he is 23 and has exciting athletic tools. One to keep an eye on. Since Houston is a big time contender this year I would love to see Marisnick start and have young 3B Bregman and OF Fisher excel to go along with Josh Reddick. But that leaves three white OF's among others competing for two spots as George Springer has RF/CF locked up.

 

[Carolina Speed]

Wondering where Carolina has been since he does a lot of baseball postings? Should mention that Houston OF Derek Fisher has just been called up and he had a nice debut last night to top off an excellent preseason. It never fails but too often the white prospects are blocked and Houston already has a crowded outfield. Jake Marisnick their athletic CF is sadly not a full time player and OF Josh Reddick had a concussion so Fisher will likely be sent back to Triple A before long. But he is 23 and has exciting athletic tools. One to keep an eye on. Since Houston is a big time contender this year I would love to see Marisnick start and have young 3B Bregman and OF Fisher excel to go along with Josh Reddick. But that leaves three white OF's among others competing for two spots as George Springer has RF/CF locked up.

I'm here Shadowlight. Just got a lot going on right now with my job, kids, graduations, etc. Thanks for asking. I enjoy your posts. Keep it up.

 

[Leonardfan]

BSPN is really pushing the latino angle - they named Manny Machado as the face of baseball last week (he's batting .217 currently) and their lead story today is from their new sub-site Beisbol Experience on what it is like to be latino in baseball today. Clearly no agenda here.

 

[Don Wassall]

I'm surprised the Cubs are just 34-34 so far. Last year they looked like they would be a great team for years to come, spearheaded by some topnotch young White talent. Does anyone know why they're struggling? It's still early in the season not to get overly worried, but their slow start is unexpected.

 

[La France Blanche]

BSPN is really pushing the latino angle - they named Manny Machado as the face of baseball last week (he's batting .217 currently) and their lead story today is from their new sub-site Beisbol Experience on what it is like to be latino in baseball today. Clearly no agenda here.

What it's like to be Latino in baseball today = part of the new privileged class.

 

[Carolina Speed]

I'm surprised the Cubs are just 34-34 so far. Last year they looked like they would be a great team for years to come, spearheaded by some topnotch young White talent. Does anyone know why they're struggling? It's still early in the season not to get overly worried, but their slow start is unexpected.

Probably starts with pitching. Arrietta and Lackey are a combined 11-12 and their ERA's are close to 5.00. Lester and Hendricks aren't much better are a combined 8-7 and over 4.00 ERA combined. Only one player is hitting over .300, J.Jay and he has 0 HR's. Bryant had 15 HR's, but only 28 RBI's and is batting around .260. Hopefully they'll heat up after the All Star break.
On a brighter note, Trea Turner stole 4 bases in one game the other day and is now second in MLB with 26 steals, 3 behind Hamilton. I predict he'll pass Hamilton before the end of the year.
Madison Bumgarner is doing simulated pitching and should be back soon.
Mike Trout is trying to get back by the All Star game. He's starting to make swings already.

 

[Shadowlight]

The Cubs have stumbled out of the blocks (see pitching above post) and Schwarber and Russell have not hit at all. I do not see them as some sort of dynasty and I am not totally sold on their goofy manager, who almost blew the WS last year but they are in a lousy division and they win close games with a stellar bullpen. So they could still make some noise this postseason so it is still too early to write them off.
In my territory everyone has been touting the Yankees but I have been warning them they are not built for the long haul of a full season. The Red Sox on the other hand are going to be a WS contender. Cleveland looks to be another contender and have called up rangy OF Bradley Zimmer. The Cubs like juggernaut this season are the loaded Astros. They are currently the best team in baseball. The Nationals have some ongoing problems. First I would like to see Turner play better. Every time it looks like he is about to break out he falls back with an 0-5 game. He does not always have great pitch recognition, strikes out too much plus does not walk enough and it is hurting his BA. Still he is a true blue caste buster with his speed and athletic ability so it is essential he picks things up. I would love to see him steal the SB crown away from guys like Hamilton and Gordon. Secondly their bull pen rots and they have to address it before the trading deadline. Cannot win the big ones with that bullpen. And Dusty Baker is a "good but not great" manager. Over his long career he has never shown the ability to win the big stage playoff games.
The Dodgers feature blooming star Cody Bellinger and along with Arizona and surprising Colorado form a West Division trio that all have a shot to make the WS. About two weeks away from the half way point so things should start getting clearer shortly after the All Star break.

 

[Carolina Speed]

Trea Turner has stolen 4 bases tonight and has taken the MLB lead at 32. It will probably go back and forth for a while between himself, Hamilton and Gordon. Hopefully Turner can eventually win the stolen base title by the end of the season.

 

[Carolina Speed]

More unfortunate news! Trea Turner fractures wrist when hit by a pitch. No timetable for his return. Maybe by post season.

 

[Shadowlight]

Reporting from BLEAKLAND where hopes and dreams die in a puddle of blood and despair. The 2017 MLB season had more promise in regards to athletic white players in a long time. But as the God of Justice once again goes into hiding the caste world spins around and places snipers on roofs and knocks off the crucial white men one by one. No need to go on about the positives so far this season from my perspective things have turned hellish. I still have not recovered from the loss of Mike Trout.
And let this be a warning for us as we "look" forward to the NFL season. My mind spins back on all the horror NFL moments most notably the Ryan Swope show that never got off the ground. There were players trying too hard to impress and subsequently tore their ACL's before their rookie seasons like Jared Abbrederis and Jordan Shipley. Jordy Nelson tore his ACL two seasons ago. And back to baseball in 1994 the great "white hope" Chipper Jones tore his ACL right before his rookie season.
In baseball yesterday was a nightmare come to life. Like so many young white players who have to prove themselves and then some, unlike so many black players who get to cruise because their scouting reports emphasize their "upsides", rookie athletic Yankee, in his first ever MLB game, OF Dustin Fowler WENT through a wall to catch a foul ball last night. He ended up screwing up his knee and will be out for 9 months. All this before he even got a chance to hit. He may have lost his entire career just like that. Brett Gardner called it one of the most heartbreaking things he has ever seen on a baseball field.
Earlier in the day Caste Supreme Buster Trea Turner who along with Mike Trout are TWO of the most IMPORTANT athletes in the caste universe, got nailed on the wrist by a pitcher of color and will be out for two months or more. Turner who had struggled to find himself at the plate all year was showing some signs of busting out. He also was running wild as he took over the SB lead with 35 opening up the possibility of a white man stealing over 70 bases which had not been done since Scott Podsednik. I truly feel the pitch was a deliberate take out pitch because Turner had been stealing bases left and right the entire series with the Cubs. Think white WR's getting nailed in the skull or knees. He was at the very least ready to challenge Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton for the SB crown. Those two guys never get thrown at for stealing bases. I hope they both tear their ACL's before the week is up but that is not how the world operates these days.
The ONLY silver lining with the Trout and Turner injuries is they did not tear up their knees. Still any baseball injuries to the hand,wrist or fingers can take long to fully recover because unlike football baseball hitting requires more nuance and one doesn't just come out of those type of injuries swinging the bat like nothing happened.
Here is a list of the injuries this season that strike at the very heart of caste world.
SS- Zach Cozart--having a career year
CF- David Dahl--rookie phenom last season and true 5 tool player out for the season with a rib/ back disorder--good grief
CF- Adam Eaton- tears his ACL hustling to first base
CF- Charlie Tilson- A White Sox speedster who was penciled in for CF suffered an injury prior to the season and is nowhere to be found
CF- Kevin Kiermaier--the premiere defensive CF in baseball this highlight reel broke his hip with another (hustle) ill advised slide into first base
Yes, earlier in the year I relished the Pats Super Bowl victory and Roger Federer bagging another surprising major. Even the NFL Draft perked me up. And I know I am one of those glass half empty type of guys but I have been in a royally pissed off mood ever since Trout went down and with these other baseball injuries I am now howling at the wind. Life stinks and then proceeds to get worse.

 

[Gangrel]

http://www.businessinsider.com/attendance-sports-leagues-world-2015-5

The so called "white sport" sure has a lot of fans of both sexes but you would never know it if you were watching NBA/NFL central ( with their ultra over emphasis on black players) otherwise known as ESPN.

Interesting that this site shows the NHL and NBA virtually neck and neck for attendance. Whereas sports radio would have us believe hockey is a "niche sport" no one cares about and the NBA is second only to the mighty NFL...

 

[Carolina Speed]

I'm hesitant to report this, but I don't believe in bad luck, so I'll go ahead. Despite the numerous injuries to major stars in MLB, there continues to be some bright spots. Mainly the continued dominance of the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw pitched a complete game, 13 strike outs, and recorded his major league leading 14th win of the year. He also got the 140th win of his career at 29 years of age, thus keeping him on track for a possible 300 win career. With 10 more wins, he'll be halfway there, (150) by seasons end.
In the same game LA's MVP candidate, Justin Turner, hit a pair of HR's and now leads the league in AVG. .377, OBP., .473, and OPS+ 179!
Other bright spots include: the top 3 BA. leaders in the NL are all from the Nats: Murphy .342, Zimmerman .330, and Harper .325.
Future HOF catcher Buster Posey having another phenomenal season, batting .324.
Blackmon, Cozart, Goldschmidt all having great seasons along with ROY candidate, Bellinger.
Atlanta's Freddie Freeman has come back strong after his injury, collecting his 1,000 career hit and belting his 15th and 16th HR of the season while hitting .348!

Injury updates: Mike Trout and Madison Bumgarner are scheduled to be back for the first game after the All Star Break.

 

[Leonardfan]

I don't think it is that bad of a season - sure some of our top guys have been injured but here's a small list of players have really good seasons that are just not getting all of the accolades:

Chris Owings dbacks
Brandon Drury dbacks
Scott Schebler Reds
Adam Duvall Reds
Chris Taylor dodgers
Ben Gamel Mariners
Mitch Haniger Mariners
Scooter Genett Reds
JT Realmuto Mariners
Steve Souza Rays

There are quite a few very good every day players going right now - those are just some of the less big named guys I have on fantasy teams.

On another note of an annoying BSPN pushed trend - I totally block out the HR distance/exit velocity nonsense that has become BSPNs baseball equivalent to their qbr for football. A homerun is a homerun - I could care less about how far it went - it does not give the team an extra run - it's a very pointless thing to discuss.

 

[celticdb15]

Joe Cuck Buck : "Lindor has that light up the camera smile."

 

[Don Wassall]

The Dodgers are 29-4 in their last 33 games and on pace to win over 110 games for the season. I don't recall a better run than that in a long time. The Giants had a 26 game win streak once but it happened 101 years ago.

How are the Dodgers on the white friendliness meter? Other than Clayton Kershaw of course, who is sensational once again this year.

 

[Leonardfan]

They are very white friendly - Cody bellinger, Corey seager, Justin turner, Chris Taylor, Joc Pedersen, Logan forsythe, chase utley all see a ton of paying time. Alex Wood has emerged as a viable number 2 to Kershaw. Austin Barnes plays behind Grandal at catcher but is good enough to be an everyday catcher in his own right.

 

[Shadowlight]

The two most athletic white guys on the roster are probably CF Joc Pederson and utility IF/OF Chris Taylor. Taylor was basically a journeyman but is having a solid season and has seen time in CF because he has good wheels. Pederson was a highly rated prospect who has had a ton of trouble making contact but recently he has been hitting much better. If he keeps it up he should man CF for them for a long time. SS Seager is a solid defender and good all around hitter. Rookie Cody Bellinger who has seen time in the OF is a good athlete who has potential Gold Glove ability at 1B. He is also the NL version of Aaron Judge because he has a lot of power. Chase Utley has been around for ages and former Met Justin Turner has been a productive hitter. Right now most think the Dodgers, Astros, Nationals and Red Sox are the top four teams. As for their black guys Puig hasn't turned into the superstar that was predicted and OF Andrew Toles is currently injured but I think he will be back and the closer Jansen has nasty stuff. I would love to see the Dodgers face a Trea Turner healthy Nationals team for the NL championship. Don't count out the Cubs just yet. They have a rookie named Ian Happ who is coming on and plays CF at times. The balls should start flying out of Wrigley for the rest of this month and August.

 

[knightedsoldier5000]

It was an absolute disaster for Trout to go down with injury, but now that he's back, he's been hitting well. 2 HRs since he's gotten back with #18 last night.

Interestingly, Trout leads the AL in OBP (.454), SLG (.731), OPS (1.185), IBB (10), OPS+ (with an incredible 216). Baseball reference isn't showing him as the "leader" in these categories though> I'm assuming because he doesn't have enough ABs at this point, but he should fully qualify by the end of the year.

The intriguing question becomes whether Trout will be in the running for MVP again if he is under 100 R & RBI and doesn't lead the league in HRs due to losing playing time to injury, yet leads in all these other categories (OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+).

For comparison, the current AL "leader" in these categories, A. Judge, compares at .433 OBP vs. .454 Trout, .645 SLG vs. .731 Trout, 1.079 OPS vs. 1.185 Trout, 178 OPS+ vs. 216 Trout.

 

[knightedsoldier5000]

Trout hitting .335 puts him at #3 on the AL leaderboard. Outside shot at a batting title this year.

1.
Altuve • HOU
.353
2.
Segura • SEA
.346
3.
Ramirez • CLE
.324
4.
Correa • HOU
.320
5.
Gamel • SEA
.319
6.
Garcia • CHW
.313
7.
Judge • NYY
.312

 

[knightedsoldier5000]

Jason Heyward, the $28 million negro signed to a 7 year contract with the Cubs, continues to stink up the joint hitting .269 / .328 OBP / 7 HR, 7 DB, and below replacement level player value at 93 OPS+, which is actually a lot better than his 70 OPS+ last year. The media hyped this negro as the hottest commodity on the FA market and now the Cubs are paying the price and will continue to pay the price for believing the hype. He was so bad that after he contributed virtually nothing but negative value to the Cubs WS team, that they hatched a lame excuse for the terrible contract claiming Heyward gave a really good speech during the rain delay that rallied the white players to victory.

 

[knightedsoldier5000]

Albert Pujols, signed for 4 1/2 more years, may very well be the worst player in MLB today. This year, he provides the following stats, a negative (-1.0) WAR, .239 BA, .286 OBP, .386 SLG, 81 OPS+. Just imagine if Trout had a real slugger behind him in the lineup instead of this bum. Remember, Pujols was "insulted" by the Cardinals $200 million contract offer. The Angels also gave him a 10 year contract after his playing days for personal appearances, etc. But what Angels fan would want to see him? This is a man ruined by his own arrogance.

 

[knightedsoldier5000]

The best thing for Trout at this point would be to hit leadoff, giving him more ABs and more chances to score runs. Maybe he could make up some of the ABs he missed with his injury by moving him up in the lineup. It looks like he was moved up to #2, and Pujols to #3 in last nights game. Hopefully this is a trend.

 

[knightedsoldier5000]

Could Mike Trout and Bryce Harper become baseball's all time greatest superstar duo?
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ce-harper-baseball-all-greatest-superstar-duo

 

[Carolina Speed]

Could Mike Trout and Bryce Harper become baseball's all time greatest superstar duo?
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ce-harper-baseball-all-greatest-superstar-duo

Great to see you posting again, ks5000! I need a little help on the MLB thread as I have been covered up with work, which I guess is a good thing. Thanks to others posting here as well. I have a lot to say, but I just don't have the time. I'm just happy to get enough time to read everyone's posts!
Thanks again!