Major League Baseball 2018 Season Thread

[WestPhillyPunisher]

de Grom and Snell take the Cy Young awards for the NL and the AL.

Sox award Cora with a contract extension through 2021.

-M

Maybe I'm an old fart who's too busy growling at the world to stay off my lawn, but I just can't accept a 10-win pitcher (de Grom) capturing the Cy Young award. All the stat geeks and nerds smugly say wins are meaningless these days, if that's the case, then why do managers still get the ax when they don't win enough games to save their jobs?

[MRP]

Maybe I'm an old fart who's too busy growling at the world to stay off my lawn, but I just can't accept a 10-win pitcher (de Grom) capturing the Cy Young award. All the stat geeks and nerds smugly say wins are meaningless these days, if that's the case, then why do managers still get the ax when they don't win enough games to save their jobs?

If a closer can win the award (and has) then it is not just about wins, it's about the total package as to who was the best pitcher (or most dominant) for that year. If you allow less than 2 runs again, you should win, but you shouldn't be punished if you pitch for a team that can't score runs. de Grom was the most dominant pitcher in the NL this season, so I have little problem with him getting the Cy Young. Winning is certainly the ultimate goal, but if it is a consideration for post season awards, then the MVP should never come form a team that didn't make the post season no matter what his batting average, home run or RBI totals were, since ultimately those numbers didn't help his team win and therefore had no value if winning is the only measure of success, and that has never been the case. I don't think wins are meaningless, but they are only one small piece of the puzzle when looking at who was the most dominant/best pitcher in a given season. When Porcello won 20 a few years back and won the CY Young, there was just as much complaining as about de Grom because the only category he dominated was wins and the rest of his numbers were inferior to the other candidates that year, so you're not going to please any one. The guy who wins gets the award, people complain, the guy who doesn't get wins gets the award, people complain. No matter what standard you use, there are going to be people who are unhappy with the choice and their default reason is that the guy was unworthy of the awards because of "x" reason (be it wins, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, WaR, or whatever current or past statistical measure people want to trot out) to try to quantify their disagreement with the result of the writers who voted on it. That's baseball fans.

-M

[C_Miller]

I completely agree with MRP, although I'm at Mets fan, so I'm a bit biased. Baseball isn't like football. Football is the ultimate team sport where each player on the field has a specific role to help the team succeed. A wide receiver can be the best in the game, but if he doesn't have a Quarterback to throw to him, he's worthless. A running back excels when the defense has to assume that the other team is just as likely to throw and due to a good offensive line. A cornerback becomes more successful with a good pass rush and visa versa. Baseball is a series of individual matchups masquerading as a team sport. While no individual is responsible for wins or losses, the actual statistics are between one pitcher and one batter. There's no question that deGrom was the best pitcher in baseball. And I'm glad he was given the award for best pitcher in baseball.

[Hiromi]

deGrom's something of an anomaly, it takes a spectacularly poor offense to get a record that poor for a guy who is almost a clockwork 2 runs or less over 7 innings pitcher over 32 games, Hell in some games deGrom himself provided his most or only real offense contribution

[MRP]

tidbits out of the owner's meetings-

-owners extended Commissioner Manfred's deal through 2024

-they also extended the TV contract with Fox through 2028

-announced a deal with DAZN, an online streaming subscription service for 3 years

-any votes on measures to speed up the game however have been tabled, Manfred saying they prefer to reach a consensus with the player's union first

-M

[MRP]

Betts gets 28 of 30 first place votes to win the AL MVP. Yelich got 29 of 30 first place votes to run away with the NL MVP. In the AL Trout got 1 first place vote, and JD Martinez the other. Jacob de Grom got the other 1st place vote in the NL.

-M

[DungeonmasterJim]

DeGrom started 32 games and gave up 48 runs, 41 earned runs for the year. He walked 46 batters for the year. That's beyond insane. Final era of 1.70

Scherzer was no slouch either at 33 games started with 66 runs given up 61 earned and walked 51. Scherzer pitched 3 more innings than Degrom. Final era of 2.53

Neither team made the play-off's. Maybe a pitcher on a team that made the play-off's should've won?

[Joker]

Playoffs have nothing to do with the personal achievement of a pitcher. deGrom was amazing this year. The Mets were not. The Mets didn't win an award, deGrom did.

[DungeonmasterJim]

Playoffs have nothing to do with the personal achievement of a pitcher. deGrom was amazing this year. The Mets were not. The Mets didn't win an award, deGrom did.

I'm fine with DeGrom winning the award. But this thread alone shows how different people can interpret how the award should be handed out.

To me, wins are important to the team but a win can be handed out to a reliever that comes into a tied game, makes a single pitch that gets the lone batter he faced out and then his team scores in the bottom of the inning and never surrenders the lead again.

[Joker]

Which is why I think the win/losses argument is silly, personally.