While technically true, Gonzalez re-signed with Cleveland the same day he reached free agency. There's not much extra other teams can offer to lure away a minor league free agent. He still could have been selected in the Rule 5 draft had there been one, but he has said that he never even considered leaving the only organization he's ever known when he was so close to the majors (and although he wouldn't say it, there was little to block him from reaching the majors this year).
There was a certain catch in Houston he made that was worth 3 runs and an eventual WS appearance because of it.
I don't think the Red Sox will regret trading Mookie at the end of that contract. I do think the Red Sox still could have done better in the trade.
There wasn't actually, if there was then there never would have been a controversy
His "issue" in the playoffs has mainly been slugging. I looked at it yesterday. His OBP is down like 20-25 points, but his SLG is down 125 points. 55 playoff games, 252 plate appearances, so a little more than 1/3 of a regular season. 17 doubles, which is pretty good, but only 4 HR.
This is really only because he doesn’t get to face that choke artist/bum, Clayton Kershaw, enough. Mookie went 2-5 with a HR and BB against him in 2018. That’s a 1.500 OPS!
If the umpire calls fan interference, does the closest fielder get credit for the putout?
I honestly do not know.
Spot the lie. Because I cannot.
So true. My guess (and it's only that) is that, absent COVID, Mookie would have played 2020 without a contract and likely have signed a larger deal than L.A. gave him. But given the circumstances and the uncertainty, he made the right decision.
Yes. Just ran a simulation and a team with a 60% chance of winning every game (which is a big edge) loses a 5 game series 30% of the time. Billy Beane was right. The Dodgers should just remember that and run it back.
I don't think it's possible to build a team that is "built to win in the postseason." A team that wins in the regular season is usually in good shape to win in the postseason...except that there's ONLY good teams in the postseason so all but one good team will lose.
There will always be an element of randomness of outcomes in the MLB postseason. Do not know if it will be as unpredictable as the NHL, but favored teams will lose a lot more often than people may expect.
Good point, if you're top heavy you might do better in the postseason. But if you're top-heavy you might not even MAKE it to the postseason due to the grind of the 162.
Mookie also doesn't have a signature moment, which--let's face it--matters in playoff baseball and often has no correlation to talent or contract. There's a reason WS history is littered with Reggie Jacksons and David Ortizes ... but also Steve Pearces and Jeff Conines.
They should worry that the value he's giving them is being squandered by... I'm not even sure what. But at least some of it has to fall on our old friend Roberts. Love the guy but how can you not get more out of that team in the postseason? As random as postseason baseball can be... our last couple managers always seemed to get the Sox locked in.
That's a good one, but I like this one:
Or maybe in the postseason you face pretty good pitching, such that in a small sample size you can't expect to be exactly as successful as you were all season? Also the Sox teams he played on were teams, where lineups and defenses are coordinated to be effective, so if those teams won with him in RF, maybe not everything he contributed shows up in his OPS? I get it, you'd expect more offensive production, but the Renfroe (last seen in Boston getting benched vs the Astros) comparison is insulting.
I also was struck by how much Mookie underperformed his career regular season numbers in the postseason, and decided to compare his numbers to those of another highly-admired RF set for a huge payday.
Imagine Playoff Mookie serving food? Fucking guy would spill boiling soup all over some kid, disfiguring him for life, but would follow it up with a cute little dance and the entire place would burst into applause and proclaim him the best soup server ever.
Wow. That's some pretty intense vitriol. I get that Betts has had a significant dropoff when going from the regular season to the postseason, but from your comment you would think he had personally cost Boston a championship or two (although by baseball reference's estimate he was consistently a negative for Boston's WS odds in the playoffs). Still, the donating extra food to the homeless was, at least in my opinion, a genuinely nice thing to do and I never got the impression that he was doing it just to get some good will or puff up his ego. You may think the story is overblown but there's enough times that we have to deal with the cognitive dissonance of having an athlete on our favorite sports team that has (at least allegedly) done some not so great stuff (I've lived in Los Angeles the last few years and I'm glad I never was at a game Trevor Bauer was starting where I would have to make a decision about whether to cheer or boo, to say nothing of what is going on with the Browns).
WTF?! You don't get the difference between Betts actually spending some time helping people directly and not just bragging about his foundation that he visits in the offseason when he's bored? He really isn't like all the rest. And apparently a number of us sincerely appreciate this.
