Soto Alone

 

What's very funny about this umpteenth incredible Juan Soto season in that it's still something of a down year for him.

For the first time since 2019, he's hitting below .300, and he's currently only hitting only .227. Everybody's walking him, and he leads the league with 47 bases on balls. He has 9 home runs but only 16 RBIs. And while he's played in every game and is extremely valuable for his Washington Nationals, all this time on a team that's now a last place one is beginning to drag him down, I think.

I think his recent struggles have factored into the trade rumors rearing their heads last week. Well with someone like Soto, what'll happen is there'll be three days of 'is this person gonna be traded', two days of 'no, says the GM, this person is absolutely not going to be traded', and two days of 'well, are you SUUUURE?" I hate this game of keep away GMs play. We're not trading Kris Bryant, we're not trading Kris Bryant, THANK YOU FOR YOUR YEARS OF SERVICE, KRIS. Perhaps this is a very literal, non varied approach I'm asking for, but if people could just...be honest. Like, Rizzo could just ignore these trade talks about Soto, because clearly that's what he could do in a few months, instead of lying and saying 'ABSOLUTELY NOT' when it could be a decent idea to trade him and start over. 

Now. Soto could be traded, because...if the Nats are doing this badly, of course he could. But at the same time...maybe Juan Soto needs to stay a National the same way Mike Trout has needed to stay an Angel, because can you imagine them anywhere else? The other thing is, unlike Trout, Soto has his ring and he's only 23. He has another, like, 17 or so years if he wants to keep it up. And while he's only had 5 years in the majors, that's not a long time for an initial star-making tenure. So like...I think he does need to stay in Washington and keep leading the team.

Not that it'll be fun, at least initially. The rotation's a mess, and is a lot like the Reds' rotation only if they all had a bit more experience. Only two people have a WAR higher than 1, and they're Soto and Josh Bell. The young up-and-comers like Keibert Ruiz, Riley Adams and Lane Thomas are either succeeding or struggling. Cesar Hernandez and Maikel Franco are striking out a lot, but they're at least getting better at contact work. Nelson Cruz got his average above .200 but only has 4 homers, and is definitely playing his age. And when big roles are relying on people like Alcides Escobar and Dee Strange-Gordon, you know there's something awry.

I'd like the Nats to keep Soto, and for Soto to start working towards contact success again, but I also know how difficult it is for this team to deliver now that the championship armada is gone.

Coming Tonight: Former Cubs highlight-reel staple, current Detroit moneymaker.

Purple Hays

 

I think the best way you can describe the Orioles this year is that they are the team that can be beaten by the Mariners 10-0, and then turn around and beat the Mariners 9-2. They are capable of good things, but said good things are maddeningly inconsistent.

Like, the Orioles can bring up Adley Rutschman, who people have been waiting years to see in the majors, and the second he gets there, Rutschman will only be able to hit .179 with 7 hits in 44 at-bats. The savior has arrived and it's gonna take him another year to learn how to hit major league pitching. Even worse, Grayson Rodriguez is gonna be even further away from the majors due to a lat injury. And you'd think that some of the newer call-ups, like Kyle Bradish, Rylan Bannon and Denyi Reyes would help, but they haven't. The team is so mediocre that new blood can't drag it out themselves.

What this team does have, that I'm sure they're glad they have, is a strong core, made up of Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander, Austin Hays and Trey Mancini, and have some genuinely good defenders like Jorge Mateo and Ramon Urias helping the cause. This is a 5th place team, but for a last place team there's a lot going on, and there's still 5 people who have 20+ RBIs. To have competent starters like Tyler Wells and Jordan Zimmermann, even when Means is out, is more of an assurance than they've had in a while. 

But the fact that the Sox are getting hot, the Jays are streaking, the Rays are building themselves back up and the Yankees aren't being moved still leaves this O's team in last, as they usually are. They might lose 100 games again this year, and a lot of it won't be their fault. They're winning tough matches against other divisions and other teams. The issue is that they're not better than their 4 division rivals, and a lot of divisional matchups will be a wash this year, which will leave them higher in the loss category.

So even if this is a better O's team than usual, and even if people like Hays, Mateo, Wells and Urias are giving this team more versatility than usual, I don't think they'll ultimately get anything done. Which kind of blows, but...that's the game. 

However, I do wonder what this team will look like once Adley Rutschman can comfortably be the center of it.

Coming Tomorrow- The NL ideal.

Anyone Can Pitch: April & May 2022

 

With position players pitching becoming one of the most fun novelties in the sport, I figured I'd bring a new design to Anyone Can Pitch while keeping going my quest to document the best of the canon. 

The first of these came very early in the season, with Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly, now on the IL, taking an inning of relief to round out an early game against the Padres. He did well enough, only allowing 1 hit over 3 batters, and finishing strong in the loss. 

Elsewhere in the NL West, Giants rookie Luis Gonzalez, who has been a few useful addition to the outfield picture, has also made 3 appearances so far in relief. In 4.1 relief innings, he has a 6.23 ERA, 5 hits and 3 earned runs. With the amount of times Gonzalez has pitched by May, he might even make more appearances as we go, which is cool.

In a match with the Giants, longtime Padres power hitter Wil Myers made his first EVER career pitching appearance, which is a big deal. Say what you will about Myers and expectations, but he's still been reliable enough for the Padres over the years, and is the lone survivor of the 2015 contract-a-palooza that A.J. Preller tried. As a pitcher, though, Myers went 1 inning and allowed two home runs. So yes, I think he's better off in the outfield. 

Rounding out our inadvertent trip around the NL West, former Orioles infielder Hanser Alberto, who is now a bench piece for the Dodgers, has gotten 2 appearances in relief, bringing his career total to 4. Alberto has had one crappy outing, giving up two hits an an earned run, and one good outing, giving up only one hit and no earned runs. Both have been against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matter of fact, most of the NL West appearances here have been against other NL West teams. Weird.

I haven't even made a regular custom of Andrelton Simmons on the Cubs yet, and here I am making an Anyone Can Pitch custom of him. I have odd priorities. Polishing off a recent blowout against the Reds, Simmons made his first ever pitching appearance, and turned the game from a 15-5 loss...into a 20-5 loss, giving up 5 earned runs and ending the night with a 45.00 career ERA. Hell of a contact hitter, but...eeeeesh.

I don't think that Dee Strange Gordon's 2022 season is gonna be a career highlight for him, especially after his years in Miami, but Gordon made his former big league reliever father proud by making his first ever career start for the Nationals. In 1 inning against the Braves, Strange-Gordon gave up 3 balls, 3 earned runs including a home run and walked off with a 27.00 ERA. At least he can say he finally pitched in a game. And if you think that's a cool moment for the Gordon baseball family,

Yep, Tom's other kid pitched as well this year. Unlike his older brother, Nick Gordon actually had a decent go of things on the mound. In the only appearance by an AL player in this post, Gordon went for 4 batters to close out a game against the Astros, and only allowed 1 hit and no runs. A more triumphant moment for the younger Gordon brother, and a marker that means all 3 baseball Gordons have pitched at least an inning in the majors.

I'll hope to have some more of these as the season progresses, these are fun.

You Never Can Ketel

 

So uh...the team everyone thought would be ending the year in 5th in the NL West just overtook the Rockies for 4th. And I think they're kinda surprised by it as well.

Ketel Marte has a 14-game winning streak going as I write this, and it's a boost in productivity that I think the guy seriously needed. Since his big 2019 season, Marte has been good but not stellar, and anything to bring him back to that sort of elite, team-leading moment again will help. Yet, at the same time, other foundational pieces like David Peralta, Christian Walker, Zac Gallen and Madison Bumgarner are also doing well. And even better the young pieces, like Daulton Varsho, Alek Thomas, Pavin Smith and Josh Rojas, are also doing really well right now.

And then when you think about it...the D-Backs have got a 25-26 record as a fourth place team. It's a record that's better than three third place teams and two second place teams. So, like...if the Diamondbacks weren't in the NL West, they'd be competitive.

WHICH NOW BEGS THE QUESTION: Are the Diamondbacks competitive?

I'm...I'm dead serious.

Let's examine this. There's three wild card spots. If the season ended right now, anticlimactically, they would go to San Diego, St. Louis and San Francisco. The Diamondbacks would only be 3.5 games back from a wild card spot. Which means they are currently better, and have more of a playoff chance at this very moment, than the Braves, Phillies, Rockies, Marlins and Cubs, all of whom were supposed to have a better record than them. 

I will put in the disclaimer that it is only early June, so much could change, and the Diamondbacks are just coming off of something of a hot stretch, but...this team has more of a shot than they usually would.

Like, again, let's look at this rotation. With the exception of Humberto Castellanos, whose ERA has taken a dive recently, this team is stocked with people like Merrill Kelly, Zac Gallen, Madison Bumgarner and Zach Davies, who can eat innings and keep runs down admirably. This team has also gotten 10 saves out of Mark Melancon, who, despite his high ERA, still can collect saves like nobody else. And this team has Joe Mantiply and Kyle Nelson as bullpen beasts. AND they actually have great defenders like Gerardo Perdomo and Christian Walker playing everyday. 

This Diamondbacks team has more of a chance to take it all than anybody in their right minds would think. And for that, I salute them.

Coming Tonight- Even with a 30-30 guy, a major prospect and some big pieces, an outfielder who can still go under the radar and deliver when you're not expecting him to.

Kole Mining

 

The Rangers spent the offseason bulking up on contracts, but they're circling third and Martin Perez is having the best year of his career? What year is it??

I'm still of the opinion that the Rangers have made it to third in spite of the Mariners rather than because of their efforts. They've been alright in the past few weeks, but them being alright and the Ms being bad says less about them and more about the M's. With the last few days of Mariners baseball, including Kyle Lewis's return and Taylor Trammell's copious doubles, it feels like they could be on the way back up, and for a pretty alright team like the Rangers...that could be a sign that things might revert back to the way they were.

And look, things have definitely improved in the last few weeks. Kole Calhoun's now hitting .265, Sam Huff and Eli White are affirming the prospectors' hopes, and now Josh Smith his doing major contact work in his first few games. Martin Perez has a 1.42 ERA, and is a degree of unhittable that he couldn't even muster in his initial upbringing in Arlington. And the barrage of Brock Burke, John King and Joe Barlow has become an incredible bullpen trio that has been stopping offenses all season. 

But...you look around at this team and you see a lot of people not playing as well as they should. Marcus Semien is having a major disappointment of a year, only hitting .199 with ONE home run. Last season in Toronto he was hitting up a storm, and he's barely scratching the surface of that now. And so many acquired young players, like Nick Solak, Andy Ibanez, Willie Calhoun, Dane Dunning, Spencer Howard and Kolby Allard, have failed to have any substantial part in this team. Even Jonah Heim, who's had a pretty nice come-up year, is making some errors behind the plate.

This isn't a very fully formed team, and a lot of the pieces aren't fitting together. Even Adolis Garcia, last year's home run beast, only has 8 right now. A lot of energy has disappeared from even what worked last year. 

I could be very wrong, and this team could prove to be better than the Mariners in the long run, but the Mariners have proven to have a stronger youth movement, and now that the pieces of that are joining together, they could outrun Texas in no time. However...the Rangers have surprised me before, and they could do it again.

Coming Tomorrow- A foundational piece for a team that apparently isn't a last place team after all.

The Stars Are Out: April & May 2022

 

Yes, folks, my ongoing chronicle of famous people throwing out the first pitch at baseball games continues  with 2022. And through the first few months of the season, we've already got some nice ones.

Let's start out with one that pissed off Gerrit Cole. First home game of the Yankees' season, and who do they get to throw out the first pitch but legendary Yankee fan and Broadway headliner Billy Crystal. I feel like anytime they ask Billy to do it, he'll say yes, and he loves it. This particular time, the ceremony for him lasted a bit longer than Gerrit Cole was thinking, and Cole blamed Crystal for messing up his mojo and leading to a trickier start for him against the Sox. That's a good way to align yourself with the Yankee fans, Gerrit. 'IT'S ALL NATIONAL TREASURE BILLY CRYSTAL'S FAULT.' 

A less problematic first pitch incident came in Cincinnati, still hyped from February, and still proud of their Bengals for making the Super Bowl. Joe Burrow had a fantastic NFL season, redeemed himself for a late injury during his rookie season, and made the Bengals a big deal for the first time in years. I think the Reds fans were happy to see him, and seeing as they've done other Bengals first pitches since this, they're still very happy with their season.

As promised by their preview ad for their name change, the Cleveland Guardians could, in fact, get Tom Hanks to throw out the first pitch at their opener. To paraphrase The Simpsons Movie, The Guardians had lost all their credibility, so now they're borrowing some of his. Hanks spent some formative years in Cleveland, and while he leans more towards Oakland as a football fan, he never forgot his loyalty to the Tribe. I'm glad he was not only able to lean into his movie star presence, but even throw in Wilson the volleyball. Happy he knows who he is.

One of the best first pitches you're gonna see this century came from Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki, who couldn't do wrong in Seattle even if he retired in the middle of a season. Ichiro not only showed up to throw out the first pitch for their opener, but threw GENUINE HEAT on it. He's 48, clearly not hitting to MLB level anymore, but Ichiro has retained his rocket arm to this day, which is pretty awesome. 

For the Sox's home opener, they got their MVP of the 90s and home run hitting giant [literally] Mo Vaughn, who brought his kid to throw out the first pitch. I'm glad people still cheer for Mo, despite his career drop-off after leaving Boston. 

Similarly, Braves fans still cheer for Ron Gant for everything he did for them, despite his big years coming for Cincinnati and St. Louis. I feel like I'd have really appreciated Gant more if I'd grown up fully in the 90s. Solid hitter, played for all the red teams including the hometown one, well liked pretty much. 

May didn't have a ton of good first pitches, though...Bill Burr is a pretty damn good one, I have to say. As good of a comedy presence Burr has been for the last decade or so, Burr has become even bigger in the past few years, and even more of a Boston icon. So I'm glad he can throw one out at Fenway and get applause.

Niche one for the road- Michelle Zauner is the lead singer of the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast, who I saw live a few years ago in Philly, where the band is from. That's right, Michelle is from Philly...which is why I was puzzled to see Michelle throw out the first pitch at a METS GAME. She jokingly tweeted afterwards that she was wearing Phanatic socks the whole time, but...still. Glad she's getting acclaim and fame right now, but...the Mets, Michelle?

Hopefully we get some cool ones in the next few months as well. 

May 2022 in Review [feat. Dan Vogelbach]

 

Well, another month has come and gone, and that means it's time for me to do another one of my monthly wrap-up posts. A lot happened in May. A lot of good, a lot of bad, a lot of surprises. A lot. 

So to start off, let's revisit the 5 predictions I made for May last month and see how I did:

1. Somebody takes off. The Astros? The Braves? The Red Sox? Somebody. WELL...THE ASTROS SURE DID. I kinda knew it would happen, too.

2. A very big team goes cold, in a way that will make people question if they're a contender this year at all. Unlike some teams that had lucky Aprils, this team will use this as a way of having the other teams underestimate them, and they'll be dominating again soon enough. I would put the Toronto Blue Jays into this category, as well as, honestly, the Chicago White Sox. Though admittedly, the Jays have a higher probability of snapping back than the Sox right now.

3. Ronald Acuna Jr. makes up for lost time immediately and rises to the head of the pack. Basically, though I'd say he's still kind of warming up. By the end of June he'll be back.

4. There is some controversy regarding an unvaccinated player not participating in a trip to Toronto. Knowing my luck, it will likely be Aaron Judge. Honestly? Not really. There've been one or two small players, but nobody huge. Judge got vaccinated and made the trip to Toronto, which I'm proud of him for.

5. There will be another combined no-hitter. It will not be against the Philadelphia Phillies. Not combined, but Reid Detmers certainly did throw a no-hitter this month.

Okay, so honestly I did pretty well there. Regardless of that, there were still 5 Things That Happened in May 2022 That No One Could Predict:

1. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles lapping great teams. Now, things have righted themselves and both these teams are back in 4th and 5th respectively, but...for a large portion of the month, the Pirates were ahead of the Cubs and the Orioles were ahead of the Red Sox. For bizarreness's sake it was pretty cool. 

2. The Cardinals had room for the kids. The Cardinals were already doing pretty well this year, but thanks to injuries and inefficient veterans, they needed to call up some of the big prospects, which is a feat usually reserved for rebuilding teams. The Cardinals are still very competitive, so you can see great players like Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Harrison Bader alongside the new guys like Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez and Brendan Donovan. There's so much heading in the right direction for this team, especially now that Matthew Liberatore is hitting the zone as well.

3. The Yankees' lead holds. I think we're all still waiting for the other shoe to drop with the Yankees, and it very well might in early June, but despite some strings of losses towards the middle and end of the month, the Yanks are still one of the best teams in baseball. Judge is having an all-timer year, Cortes is still hot, and so many elements that haven't worked in years past are working now.

4. Seiya Suzuki goes cold. Everyone thought he'd come off to a strong start for the Cubs, and he did, but I don't think anybody thought he'd lose as much ground in his second month in the bigs, hitting .211 with only 15 hits this month. Hopefully he comes back into his own as the season goes on.

5. Taylor Ward. Everybody knew Trout would be back, Ohtani would be strong, Walsh and Marsh would hit, but everyone had written off Taylor Ward, a rookie from 2018 who had failed to make much of an impact in a crowded roster. In May, Ward hit .333 with 5 home runs and 13 RBIs...ironically the exact same amount of each he had in April. Score for consistency. Walsh is as big of a factor in this team as the stars, and it's great to see.

Now, the inverse of that, 5 Things from May 2022 A Lot of People Probably Could Have Predicted:

1. Story only needed a month to adjust to Fenway. I get it, man. Adjusting to a new place is hard, and Trevor Story's first month for the Sox was dismal. But...he's still Trevor Story. So we all knew something was coming. Sure enough, his OPS in May was .866, and he had 32 RBIs and all 9 of his home runs this month. Whatever he was struggling with before, he's clearly figured it out now.

2. The Dodgers stay in first. With this much talent, and Mookie Betts hitting homers like it's Fenway again, it was a foregone conclusion. 

3. The Mariners collapse. This happens every year. EVERY. YEAR. They have strong Aprils and Augusts, this team. We know this. They had Mitch Haniger for April, he gets injured and the team sinks. The Mariners do have Lewis, Trammell and Roenis Elias back, so something very well could happen in June, but I don't know how long until they're competitive again.

4. Man, The Phillies are Bad at Defense. Look, don't be shocked if you start Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber and Odubel Herrera in the outfield and the defense sinks. You know what you did. And with Harper still unable to throw for a bit, this is how it's gonna be. Heck, at one point, an outfield play went so wrong that Didi Gregorius got injured. That is what we're dealing with here. We have Moniak back now, so hopefully things will improve slightly. 

5. Tony LaRussa Made The News Again for Bitching About Decorum. Water is wet. 

Now, as usual, let's list the Top 5 Players of May 2022:

1. Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers

2. Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

3. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees

4. Joe Musgrove, San Diego Padres

5. Alek Manoah, Toronto Blue Jays

And finally, I will make 5 Predictions for June 2022:

1. It's June, so the Toronto Blue Jays finally show up. I say they lap the Yankees for first. They do this every June, we might as well get ready.

2. A very big player comes off the IL and completely changes the script for their team. I will allow Kyle Lewis to be grandfathered into June if it is him.

3. Right now the NL West goes Dodgers-Padres-Giants. The order will change by June 30.

4. One specific team is going to get hit very hard by injuries this month it's gonna cause them to sink like a stone in the standings, and I pray it is not my New York Yankees. 

5. The Rays trade somebody prematurely so they can loosen the cap early. I just talked about this yesterday so it might as well now.

So, that was May 2022, bring on June!

Coming Tonight: One of the contracts that landed in Arlington this year.