MLB Thread - 2023

dude12

Hall of Famer
Melvin isn’t a spreadsheet nerd, so I’m happy with that.
Melvin had an incredibly talented team in SD and couldn’t bring them together, I’m worried about that
Melvin is from outside the existing regime which makes me happy.
Melvin is a former catcher so I’m hoping he can manage a pen better than Kapler and closer to Bochy.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
The Giants extended Farhan to match Melvin’s contract. I absolutely hate it. He batter sign Ohtani this offseason to make me be wrong.
 

Capt. Factorial

ceterum censeo delendum esse Argentum
Staff member
The Giants extended Farhan to match Melvin’s contract. I absolutely hate it. He batter sign Ohtani this offseason to make me be wrong.
The Dodgers just flamed out in the playoffs again. That makes their bid for Ohtani only go up. I can't see any reasonable scenario where the Giants outbid the Dodgers.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
Congrats Rangers! I'm happy for any team getting their first championship. Also, shout out to Bay Area native Marcus Semien who got at least 1 hit in all 5 WS games en route to his first ring.
 
Didn’t realize former Giant LHP Will Smith has been on the last 3 World Series winning teams. Braves, Astros and now Rangers. What a run of good fortune.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
I just now saw Mauricio Dubon won a Gold Glove. What an another amazing move by Farhan. At least we got 5 games of sub-AAA catcher Micheal Paperski for him.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Logan Webb finished second in NL Cy Young voting. Glad quality starts still count for something.
Kapler’s campaigning for him hit some ears. He was very vocal about the amount of innings Webb threw should mean something to voters.

I’m really glad the Giants hired a good manager in his stead because Kapler is good, and someone is going to make a really solid hire when they pick him up.
 
The giants fans I know all can't stand Kapler. They tell me he wanted to be friends with all the players and that he ate during games which drove management crazy. Being an A's fan, I was hoping the Giants would have signed Kapler to a long term contract!
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
The giants fans I know all can't stand Kapler. They tell me he wanted to be friends with all the players and that he ate during games which drove management crazy. Being an A's fan, I was hoping the Giants would have signed Kapler to a long term contract!
Dude got way more out of the “talent” than he had any right getting. Every season hovering around .500 with a random 107 in there with the anti-talent Farhan puts forth is a testament to what he brings as a manager. Gets the most out of most these guys.

Hopefully he learns to be a little tougher on his next stop because I think the Joc Pederson / Card Game fiasco at the end of the season was the perfect excuse for Farhan to scapegoat him.

Like I said… I’m really glad they had a good replacement lined up, because anyone outside of an established/already good manager had the potential to end in absolute disaster.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
The Kings were supposedly sold and 1 yard away from officially becoming the Seattle Supersonics when that blew up in the Maloofs faces. I've still got some small sliver of hope left that this Vegas plan will blow up too or at the very least Oakland will find a way to get their team back -- though probably not until this commissioner is gone. I have no idea why but he's been leading the charge on torching MLB in Oakland more than even John Fisher who just has no business owning a professional sports team in any city. It's hard to imagine a circumstance where the mayor of a city writes a letter to the MLB owners on the eve of a relocation vote saying "We have over $900 million in public financing secured for a new stadium on a site we already own with a completed EIR" and the commissioner of baseball himself says there's no feasible way that city can keep their team. As far as I know there's no precedent for this in any professional sports league and yet here we are. It feels personal.
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
The narrative of Kapler getting a lot out of this team is overblown. Quite a few hitters regressed. I have a hard time thinking of a hitter who flourished under Kapler and his staff. Wilmer for this season but was it because of the staff? Many of the pitchers regressed.

And no, I don’t give Zaidi a pass. I think the whole organization, including the owners, need to figure out what they want to do. They refused to make moves during the season to strengthen their playoff push. Was that Zaidi or was that the owners not opening the purse.

And then the fast track of the prospects. What was the plan there? You know they will be up and down in performance so you usually live with it if they are helping. And I thought Matos was holding his own as was Bailey. Why bring up Meckler? Jumped 3 levels including MLB. Weird. Why bring up Luciano only to send him down. Did his clock start?

Not sure what the plan was. Now we are supposedly back to a mix of analytics and old baseball guy knowledge in Melvin. Hope it works. Word from his last org was he was not very good at managing the pen but that could just be fan talk. Seems like a former catcher should be able to manage a pen well.