August Game Thread
- Thread starter brandonchristensen
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I should add Ohtani is still technically in the game because the umpire ruled he intended to swing and struck out. Waiting to see if he comes up next time.
Crazy thing is, the Royals have one of the best offensive catching prospects in the game not named Henry Davis, and he was completely blocked in AA until a couple week ago.
MJ Melendez hit 28 home runs in AA this year as a 22 year old before finally moving up to AAA 2 weeks ago.... where he's gone on to hit 5 in his first 14 games. I got to see 5 of those home runs in one week when he was here playing our team, and not a single one of them was a cheap home run. He is a really, really consistent hitter, too. and has made absolute HUGE improvements since his 2019 season, cutting his K% in half and getting his BB% up almost into the teens. He appears to have gotten a bit pull happy this year, so that's something to watch on him, but I promise he still has that opposite field power.
He is vaulting up prospect lists right now (Rotowire moved him from unranked in their top 400 at the start of the season to around 70th, for fantasy purposes).
Keep an eye out on this guy, because he is going to be fun, and the Royal might need to trade him in the offseason.
The Royals have an interesting logjam in front of them. It makes a ton of sense to have Perez do more DHing as he gets older, so that may be a natural place to stick Melendez - let one catch and one DH every day.
But they also have two 1B prospects in AAA and AA named Nick Pratto and Vinnie Pasquantino. Both are having really really tremendous seasons. But that's 4 guys for 3 lineup spots.
Absolutely true. I got to watch Pratto earlier in the season (he got called up to AAA before their team came back down here) and he was the best of the Royals hitters that first week of the season (Bobby Witt has been on fire since then, but didn't look great that first week, color me disappointed). Pratto is patient (17% BB rate in AA!!!) and when he makes contact he absolutely crushes the ball. He also looked pretty good at 1B, as well.
Pasquantino was with them the second time through (3rd week after his callup to AA), and I didn't think he was quite as polished as Pratto, but is definitely a future MLB regular as well. Really, really solid bat to ball skills, not a lot of swing and miss at all. The contact is a little less consistent than Pratto was or Melendez is, but he's still putting up a .265 ISO in AA, which is pretty fantastic. I do think he's kind of the odd man out of the ones you brought up, and wouldn't be surprised to see him get traded to a team with a hole at first base this offseason.... not sure if there are any teams out there like that....
The teams chasing each other for the 2nd wildcard in the NL aren't exactly covering themselves in glory. The Pads have dropped 13 of 16, but have the respite of the ever-popular Sunday off-day, and cut the Reds lead to 1½ games by not playing, while Cincinnati dropped their last two against the Marlins. At least St. Louis didn't narrow the gap, as they fell to the Pirates on a walk-off bomb by Yoshii Tsutsugo. Who even knew Tsusugo plays for the Pirates? Apparently it's his 5th home run in 13 games since the Dodgers released him.
Beaz doesn’t seem to realize NY is not Chicago in terms of media and the fanbase
View: https://twitter.com/timbhealey/status/1432086287733899268
View: https://twitter.com/timbhealey/status/1432088247895744520
View: https://twitter.com/AnthonyDiComo/status/1432086685144260616
View: https://twitter.com/timbhealey/status/1432086287733899268
View: https://twitter.com/timbhealey/status/1432088247895744520
View: https://twitter.com/AnthonyDiComo/status/1432086685144260616
Well, Alderson’s not wrong. But he should have just canned Rojas. That team is a mess, as usual. Is there no leader on that team to tell Baez and co that what they are doing is a foolish idea? How bad does that Lindor contract look, yikes….
Eh, like logically Baez really shouldn't, but I really don't feel like a player being upset that the fans are booing him at home after 66 PAs where he hasn't been dramatically worse than he normally is too unexpected, especially for Javy Baez. The Mets offense hasn't been any worse than it was in any other month of the year except July. and they had a particularly absurd run of 12 games against the two best teams in baseball with two cross country flights, it's the pitching that dropped from what they were doing (given the best pitcher in the league is out that makes some sense)
Baez isn't going to win this confrontation image wise but I get it, and maybe that's on the Mets for bringing in Baez to a pressure cooker environment and having a manager unaware of it.
Baez isn't going to win this confrontation image wise but I get it, and maybe that's on the Mets for bringing in Baez to a pressure cooker environment and having a manager unaware of it.
If it was just Baez that did it, you might have a point. Lindor and Pillar were also participating in the thumbs-down thing, and they don't have the excuse of having new in town. Baez is just the lightning rod here because he made the statements. The problem goes beyond him.
If Schwarber started doing this, I think we would all be pretty pissed. It’s nonsense, and someone should have told him immediately to cut the crap. IMO.
Baez is hitting 210/258/452 for the Mets, he should worry more about his own performance than how the fans are feeling about the Mets collapse. (not that it really matters, but Lindor and Pillar have been terrible too).
Baez is hitting 210/258/452 for the Mets, he should worry more about his own performance than how the fans are feeling about the Mets collapse. (not that it really matters, but Lindor and Pillar have been terrible too).
I agree with both of you really in that it's more than Baez and that someone, likely their manager, needed to squash this real time. It just doesn't work for players to be taking shots back at the fan. I just feel for Javy a bit here because it's not like he's doing dramatically worse than he usually does: a bit down across the board over his normal stats that can easily be chalked up to small sample size, a new team, and competition level, and he's getting the buzz over it likely because other guys on the team are letting him. IMO asking for a ton more than what Baez is giving is asking Javy Baez to be a player he ultimately isn't.
Ideally, Lindor and Rojas would be the parties playing peacemaker here. Alas.
Ideally, Lindor and Rojas would be the parties playing peacemaker here. Alas.
Dodgers now 20-6 in August and 1.5 back of SF.
Just imagine if they had Kershaw and Bauer right now.
Just imagine if they had Kershaw and Bauer right now.
Kansas City must feel pretty good about the contract extension they gave Sal Perez earlier this year. He looks like he will set the all-time record for homers by a catcher (Bench has the record at 45) and Perez is currently at 38, having hit 12 in August. He doesn't walk at all which keeps his OPS lower than expected at .859, but if you value his defense, he would be a real MVP candidate in a non-Ohtani season.
Amazing comeback by the Mets, sleeping through the whole game, down 5-1 in the 9th, they rally for 5 including Baez coming all the way around from 1st on a single to left plus a bobble to score the game-winning run. First time they have come from 4 down in the 9th to win the game in ten years.
Amed Rosario with a 2-homer night – one to dead center and one inside-the-park. He also has 2 singles and has driven in all of Cleveland's 5 runs tonight. I still think his best contribution long-term would be what he brings back in a trade (because pretty much 90% of Cleveland position player prospects play up the middle), but he's a line-drive machine and a better player than I gave him credit for when Cleveland acquired him.
2 home runs for Matt Chapman, 9 in his last 15 games. He's had a very up and down season.
April: .189/.306/.389
May: .217/.324/293
June: .277/.343/.532
July: .180/.247/.292
August: .244/.372/.526
Overall he's at .223/.319/.417 though Fangraphs has him at 3.1 WAR because of his defense.
April: .189/.306/.389
May: .217/.324/293
June: .277/.343/.532
July: .180/.247/.292
August: .244/.372/.526
Overall he's at .223/.319/.417 though Fangraphs has him at 3.1 WAR because of his defense.
Seattle versus Astros.
Loaded bases tied 0-0 in bottom of 8th, 1 out. Former Mariner Graveman pitching for Astros. Former Astro Toro at the plate. Two sides of the same trade.
Salami time.
Loaded bases tied 0-0 in bottom of 8th, 1 out. Former Mariner Graveman pitching for Astros. Former Astro Toro at the plate. Two sides of the same trade.
Salami time.
That’s been a good trade for the Mariners, despite the initial furor. Toro has been really good.
Yankees hit into *5* double plays last night. Gardner's first GIDP since 2019.
140 wRC+ since the trade. He's also become one of the tougher strikeouts in baseball with a 13.9 K%.
The Reds dropped the first game of their double-header against the Cardinals, but Nick Castellanos is making sure there's no sweep with a 2-run homer in the 1st inning of the nightcap and a grand slam in the 2nd inning. JA Happ allowed as many runs in 1+ inning than he had in his first 5 starts with St. Louis. The Padres lost to the D-Backs, so the Reds will mostly likely finish the night with a ½ game lead over the Padres and 2½ in front of the Cardinals.
The most likely combo of the four NLDS teams are playing each other now, MIL@SF and ATL@LAD, both games tied at 2 in the 6th/7th. Scherzer was dominant through 6 but came out after 76 pitches and Graterol had given up the lead three batters later.