Spoiler https://theathletic.com/4354148/2023/03/29/astros-season-predictions-questions-2023/ Keith Law’s season projection: 93-69 The Athletic’s staff voting: AL West TEAM | PERCENT OF VOTE Houston Astros 83.9% Seattle Mariners 12.9% Los Angeles Angels 3.2% Oakland Athletics 0.0% Texas Rangers 0.0% The Astros are still the team to beat. I have the defending champs ranked No. 1 in MLB as spring training gets underway. — Jim Bowden Fabian Ardaya: Going out on a limb here in taking the club that’s won four pennants in six years. David O’Brien: Seattle is a team on the rise, and additions of Teoscar Hernández and AJ Pollock will strengthen a lineup that could rank among MLB’s top 10. The rotation is young but promising, and the bullpen is outstanding. Still, Houston is a little too strong across the board to unseat this season. Bold prediction: An Astros starter wins the AL Cy Young for the second season in a row, and this time it’s Cristian Javier: (Can I get half credit if Framber Valdez wins?) With a 3.05 career ERA, Javier has the stuff to be one of the game’s most dominant starters. The next step is to spend a full season in the rotation. After throwing 148 regular-season innings last year, Javier doesn’t need to throw 200 innings to be in Cy Young contention in 2023; Justin Verlander won it with 175 innings, and only 15 AL starters had more — still a pretty small group. Though Houston shifted more than any other team in 2022, losing the shift shouldn’t hurt Javier substantially. He runs very low ground-ball rates. His keys will be to limit walks and long balls, and let those sliders and four-seamers fly. https://theathletic.com/4351606/2023/03/29/mlb-predictions-world-series-division-awards/ World Series winner? TEAM | PERCENT OF VOTE San Diego Padres 19.40% Atlanta Braves 16.10% Toronto Blue Jays 16.10% Houston Astros 12.90% Seattle Mariners 9.70% https://theathletic.com/4358731/2023/03/29/rosenthal-unserious-mlb-predictions-2023/ Without further do, my completely unserious predictions for 2023, presented in reverse order of “predicted” finish. 27. Colorado Rockies: Hundreds of young fans stage a protest outside Coors Field, saying the pitch clock limits the amount of time they can drink at games. “And really, what the hell else are we supposed to do here?” one woman asks. 26. Pittsburgh Pirates: The team takes one last stab at signing Bryan Reynolds, raising its offer to $100 million, but over 25 years with $95 million deferred. “Fair market value, no?” owner Bob Nutting asks. 25. Detroit Tigers: Miguel Cabrera makes a mockery of the new, two-disengagement limit, stealing 10 bases in his first 12 games with the slowest running times from first to second ever recorded by Statcast. 24. Kansas City Royals: Intent on making Zack Greinke a “forever Royal,’’ the team’s plan to add the notoriously blunt pitcher to the front office immediately backfires when he blurts out at a news conference, “We need to get whatever we can for Witt Jr.” 22. Boston Red Sox: Moments after his walk-off homer in the first meeting between the Sox and Yankees at Fenway, Japanese free agent Masataka Yoshida utters his first words in English: “Overpay, my ass.” 19. Texas Rangers: Faced with the inevitable injuries to his team’s starting rotation, manager Bruce Bochy asks GM Chris Young to trade for Madison Bumgarner, coax Matt Cain out of retirement and organize a search party for Tim Lincecum. “Maybe Romo, too,” Bochy moans, referring to the newly retired Sergio, the original opener. 17. San Francisco Giants: In a highly unusual step, Shohei Ohtani announces six months before the free-agent market opens that he will not consider San Francisco, explaining he has too much respect for Giants fans to set them up for another disappointing pursuit of a big name. Ohtani adds, “All 29 other teams are welcome to bid.” 15. Cleveland Guardians: Manager Terry Francona is ejected from a tie game with two outs in the bottom ninth after plate umpire Angel Hernandez rules that José Ramírez is not “alert” to the pitcher with eight seconds left on the pitch clock, resulting in an automatic strike three. “Angel and ‘alert’ in the same sentence, that’s a good one,” Francona says. 14. Los Angeles Angels: Ohtani and Mike Trout battle for MVP, but the team collapses again after owner Arte Moreno continues his recent trend of “switcheroos,” pulling a $450 million offer for Ohtani, vetoing a trade for the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara and turning down $3 billion for the club from a Japanese consortium, all within a span of 48 hours. 13. Minnesota Twins: Carlos Correa misses time with elbow, finger, shoulder, hamstring, calf and groin injuries, but pronounces his season a success. “Not one day on the IL because of my ankle!” he says. “Where are those doctors now?” 12. Chicago White Sox: Depressed by his team’s 15-27 start, owner Jerry Reinsdorf asks in a meeting, “What about Tony?” prompting the entire front office to resign. 5. New York Mets: Owner Steve Cohen buys the Dominican Republic, eliciting howls of injustice from small-market owners. Miffed by the reaction, he then buys Venezuela. 4. Toronto Blue Jays: The new, higher walls and asymmetrical dimensions at Rogers Centre result in the Jays allowing a record six inside-the-park homers in the first month. “Small sample size,” club president Mark Shapiro says. “Makes me long for Tal’s Hill,” former Astro George Springer sneers in response. 2. Atlanta Braves: Infield coach Ron Washington, 70, takes over at shortstop in the ninth inning of a blowout loss to the Phillies. “They took away Dansby. They asked me to work a miracle with Grissom. Might as well just play the m—– f—– myself,” Wash says in the most cleaned-up version reporters can offer. 1. Houston Astros: Owner Jim Crane, glumly conceding that “winning doesn’t fix everything,” invites The Athletic’s Evan Drellich to throw out the first pitch of the 2023 World Series. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...ings-playoff-fields-and-world-series-winners/ https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/...for-mvp-cy-young-rookie-of-the-year-and-more/ Mike Axisa: Framber (Cy Young)
Spoiler https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/pa...playoffs-wild-cards-world-series-mvp-cy-young AL West Our pick: Houston Astros (26 votes) Who else got votes? Seattle Mariners (2) Why did you pick the Mariners to win the AL West? (1) The starting rotation is strong and deep, and they have Luis Castillo the entire season. (2) They upgraded at positions that were offensive black holes last season (Teoscar Hernandez, Kolten Wong). (3) The bullpen is good. (4) Jarred Kelenic is -- gasp! -- figuring things out. (5) Cal Raleigh is going to hit 35 home runs. (6) Julio Rodriguez is a super-duper star. Look, the Astros are a powerhouse; Vegas has made them the betting favorite to win the World Series and become the first repeat champ since the 2000 Yankees. But Justin Verlander is a huge loss, Jose Altuve is out for a couple of months, lack of depth is a concern, there is some age in the lineup and, frankly, it's time a few things just happen to go wrong. -- David Schoenfield AL champion Our pick: Houston Astros (11 votes) Who else got votes? New York Yankees (8), Toronto Blue Jays (6), Seattle Mariners (3) World Series champion Our pick: San Diego Padres (7 votes), Atlanta Braves (7) Who else got votes? New York Yankees (5), Houston Astros (4), New York Mets (2), Los Angeles Dodgers (1), Philadelphia Phillies (1), Toronto Blue Jays (1) Only four people picked the Astros to repeat. Why were they your vote? We just released our first Power Rankings of the season and the No. 1 team was ... the Astros. If our experts believe the Astros should start at the top, why can't they also finish it there? Maybe we've just grown used to the idea that a team won't repeat, but this one is still loaded. The lineup should be even better once Altuve returns, given the addition of Abreu. And sure, losing Verlander hurts -- but it was the depth of the pitching staff that carried them through October, not any one pitcher at the top of it. -- Dan Mullen https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...-world-series-picks-mvp-cy-young/11553259002/ Bob Nightengale AL East winner: Blue Jays AL Central: Guardians AL West: Astros AL wild cards: Mariners, Rays, Yankees NL East: Atlanta NL Central: Cardinals NL West: Padres NL wild cards: Phillies, Mets, Dodgers AL champion: Guardians NL champion: Phillies World Series winner: Guardians AL MVP: Mike Trout, Angels NL MVP: Trea Turner, Phillies AL Cy Young: Emmanuel Clase, Guardians NL Cy Young: Zac Gallen, Diamondbacks AL Rookie: Gunnar Henderson, Orioles NL Rookie: Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks Gabe Lacques AL East winner: Yankees AL Central: Guardians AL West: Astros AL wild cards: Rays, Blue Jays, Mariners NL East: Atlanta NL Central: Cardinals NL West: Padres NL wild cards: Dodgers, Phillies, Mets AL champion: Yankees NL champion: Padres World Series winner: Padres AL MVP: Kyle Tucker, Astros NL MVP: Juan Soto, Padres AL Cy Young: Kevin Gausman, Blue Jays NL Cy Young: Spencer Strider, Atlanta AL Rookie:Grayson Rodriguez, Orioles NL Rookie: Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks Steve Gardner AL East winner: Blue Jays AL Central: Guardians AL West: Astros AL wild cards: Yankees, Mariners, Angels NL East: Atlanta NL Central: Cardinals NL West: Padres NL wild cards: Dodgers, Phillies, Mets AL champion: Blue Jays NL champion: Atlanta World Series winner: Atlanta AL MVP: Shohei Ohtani, Angels NL MVP: Juan Soto, Padres AL Cy Young: Shohei Ohtani, Angels NL Cy Young: Aaron Nola, Phillies AL Rookie: Gunnar Henderson, Orioles NL Rookie: Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks Bobby Nightengale AL East winner: Blue Jays AL Central: White Sox AL West: Astros AL wild cards: Mariners, Yankees, Rangers NL East: Atlanta NL Central: Cardinals NL West: Padres NL wild cards: Dodgers, Phillies, Mets AL champion: Mariners NL champion: Atlanta World Series winner: Mariners AL MVP: Shohei Ohtani, Angels NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Dodgers AL Cy Young: Luis Castillo, Mariners NL Cy Young: Aaron Nola, Phillies AL Rookie: Gunnar Henderson, Orioles NL Rookie: Garrett Mitchell, Brewers Stephen Borelli AL East winner: Yankees AL Central: Guardians AL West: Astros AL wild cards: Blue Jays, Rays, Mariners NL East: Atlanta NL Central: Cardinals NL West: Dodgers NL wild cards: Padres, Mets, Phillies AL champion: Astros NL champion: Padres World Series winner: Padres AL MVP: Jose Ramirez, Guardians NL MVP: Ronald Acuña, Braves AL Cy Young: Gerrit Cole, Yankees NL Cy Young: Yu Darvish, Padres AL Rookie: Gunnar Henderson, Orioles NL Rookie: Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks Scott Boeck AL East winner: Yankees AL Central: White Sox AL West: Astros AL wild cards: Blue Jays, Angels, Guardians NL East: Atlanta NL Central: Cardinals NL West: Padres NL wild cards: Dodgers, Mets, Phillies AL champion: Astros NL champion: Padres World Series winner: Padres AL MVP: Shohei Ohtani, Angels NL MVP: Manny Machado, Padres AL Cy Young: Framber Valdez, Astros NL Cy Young: Spencer Strider, Atlanta AL Rookie: Gunnar Henderson, Orioles NL Rookie: Miguel Vargas, Dodgers Jesse Yomtov AL East winner: Yankees AL Central: Guardians AL West: Astros AL wild cards: Rays, Mariners, Twins NL East: Atlanta NL Central: Cardinals NL West: Dodgers NL wild cards: Padres, Mets, Phillies AL champion: Astros NL champion: Padres World Series winner: Astros AL MVP: Julio Rodriguez, Mariners NL MVP: Trea Turner, Phillies AL Cy Young: Framber Valdez, Astros NL Cy Young: Julio Urias, Dodgers AL Rookie: Josh Jung, Rangers NL Rookie: Garrett Mitchell, Brewers
Sounds like a self inflicted problem that MLB should tell them to toss rocks and stop retiring numbers. Last time I checked there are an infinite amount of numbers. Give Aaron Boone number 666
Regardless of the Yankees retiring a lot of numbers... why do managers and pitching coaches need numbers?
DeGrom has had so many injury issues that the injury risk is well known...but when he has been healthy and pitching he has been almost universally nails and the best pitcher in the game. It would be hilarious if the Rangers signed the guy, he has a healthy season but doesn't play up to the contract. That would be a very Rangers outcome. Here's to hoping.
Lol he got that worked up about getting called a b****, sounded like he was going to cry. Obviously fans shouldn’t cuss at players but you have to be a great A idiot to grab on and swing at them for something that light.
https://theathletic.com/4368996/2023/04/01/rob-manfred-mlb-analytics-front-offices/ NEW YORK — Rob Manfred got a phone call. It was “one of our more senior owners,” as the commissioner put it, and they began talking about the number of employees who work on, well, numbers. “You know, I don’t know what this analytics thing is, but I have, like, 75 guys,” the owner told him. “What I want to do is, I would spend a week in the analytics department. I was going to figure out what the hell these guys do.” “So, how’d it go?” the commissioner asked. “Well, you know, I got a lot of smart guys down there,” the owner said, “but I am absolutely convinced that analytics is an arms race to nowhere.” Manfred told that story to laughter Wednesday during an executive luncheon hosted by the Paley Media Council in New York. And he chose to tell it because he agrees with the sentiment. “It’s become one of my favorite lines because I think it’s actually true,” Manfred said. “The competitive advantage piece, I think there was a point in time where if your analytics department was more developed than somebody else’s, maybe you got that little edge,” Manfred said. “Right now, everybody’s playing that same game. “Once everybody’s doing it, that little margin that maybe you’re getting … I am sure that whatever that margin was at one point in time — whatever it is today — it sure as heck is not worth the damage that was done to the game over a period of time.” Indeed, some front offices probably are still behind relative to others in research and development, modeling and so on. But it’s a striking declaration for the commissioner to make: that in the aggregate, the pursuit of those edges over a long period ultimately damaged the game. The link between front-office behavior and the overall decline in action in the sport is clear. Teams searched for ways to perform most efficiently within the rules, and in doing so, created a version of the game that steadily grew less appealing, at least in the eyes of many.
It's not advantage if everyone is doing it, but is a disadvantage if you are the one that is not. The Astros have the advantage with international scouting, but eventually that will go away. The good thing is that because of our relationships and success, we will have a better chance of signing who we want
Hey Rob, I'm glad the Stros use/used analytics and Luhnow built a dynasty using those analytics, I'm also glad Luhnow hired a bunch of the very people you despise and made people change the way they scout players. BTW, what damage has been done to the game because of the use of analytics. Oh, does the damage include the yearly butt whipping the Stros give your beloved Yankees? Hey Rob you damaged the game more than any amount of analytics ever could have by not being honest about the cheating scandal. Screw you Rob.
Establishing victory conditions is a much more complex part of any endeavor than it appears. Getting several people to agree on those conditions is exponentially more difficult. For the players and the fans the goal is winning baseball games. For the league and the owners the goal is making money. A good owner recognizes the part winning plays in the game of money making and he recognizes it's limitations too. The same is true of technology and the part it plays in winning. This is something I have given a lot of thought to over the last 40 years and what I have found is very disappointing. In my experience technology never pays for itself. The real cost of implementing the tech always exceeds the benefit in dollars. I have found that to be true in large examples and small. In every instance I have examined (admittedly a small sample of around 30 instances over the years) the result is the same. There are also unintended consequences in each case that are often deleterious, as Manfred believes has happened in this case. As some of you may know I have seldom agreed with anything Manfred has said so I am surprised he came to this conclusion.
