Murphy is only 1st in average, 1st in Slugging, 1st in OPS, 2nd in RBI, 8th in runs, and 21 HR's.

He's also terrible in defense, average at best on the bases. Defense and base running matter.

I'd give Bryant the nod. He does everything plus. Hits for average, gets in base, hits for power, runs the bases well, plus defender.

Better overall game gets my vote. Murphy def deserves a look, but he's not the best PLAYER.

dangerous, dangerous team.

What about Jose Altuve in the AL? This is my first real chance getting to see him but what a fucking hit machine, has power. Good defence and great base runner.

Unless he's hurt and misses significant time, I just pencil Trout in each yearl. He's been jobbed 3 times in 4 years. Will probably get the shaft again this year because his team sucks, which is stupid.

To me, and MVP means whichever player you take him from his team, that team becomes significantly shittier.... you can take Bryant from the Cubs, and they'd still be pretty decent, same for Donaldson & Murphy. If you take Altuve from Houston, they lose a shit ton, therefore he's my vote....

So would the Angels. I think basing an individual award on a team is unfair. The player(s) cannot control the team built around them. Bryant shouldn't be penalized just because his team happens to be stacked. That's not in his control. He's still putting up numbers regardless, and to me, for an individual award, that's what counts most.

If you want to talk about how shitty a team would be, as bad as they are now, the Angels might be worstv team in the league if they didn't have Trout.

That's very true, especially with all their injuries.....

Trout and Donaldson #1 and #2 and WAR. Don't get to see enough of Trout but it's odd that he keeps getting snubbed.

Maybe he's the Leo Dicaprio of baseball for the MVP snubbery.

Jays decide to go with 6 man rotation to protect Sanchez. It may throw the pitcher's rhythm off a tad but i think it is an infinitely better decision than putting your young stud in the bullpen. I actually think putting Sanchez in the bullpen would have been more detrimental to him than just shutting him down for the season. He would have been forced to pitch in high leverage, high stress situations, when all year, he has spent most of his time keeping runners off of bases.

Then they go lay up a stinker vs the white sox

8/9 is pretty good Droford

Jayce struck out 60 times in a 4 games and took 3 out of 4. Su h an irritating series to watch. Batting avgs drop, team's record rises

As long as they get in base and score runs, it's all that matters. A strikeout, at the end of the day, is just an out.

I need to be up to nurse in 4hrs. Red Sox please go yabo. I'm tired.

Not breastfeed. Be a nurse. Nndbkbd.

Mayor of Ding Dong City just poked one. Let's go Sandy.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOCCCKKKKK

K nite

Dolph Ziegler don't miss no more baby.

Text me if they come back please.

Nudes only.

#nofatchicks

#onlyfatdicks

#syke

come on

One more

Boom. Suck it.

Ziegler made that a lot harder than it should have been.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mark Teixeira expected to announce his retirement later today, at 36, effective at the end of the season.</p>&mdash; Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/761548967473733632">August 5, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The pitching was also great. They gave up 5 runs in 4 games.

:wavesad: Teixeira.


I'll miss him. But the winds of change are blowing strong in The Bronx.
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Teixara wont be retiring. Thats my prediction. He has too much power bat left to retire. If the Yanks dont want him, someone else would. Yanks failed cause they signed him to such a contract that makes him untradeable. He will be playing again. I'm sure of it. Fuck the Cubs should make a play for him.

The guys slugging 340. I don't think any team would give him more than a minor league invite. He looks toast.

Liriano making his debut with the boys in blue tonight. Don't really buy that Russell Martin is some magic cure, even though the guy manages the rotation wonderfully. Pittsburgh has been just as good with its pitchers (as it was where J.A. Happ found his mojo) and Cervelli is apparently as good if not better than Martin.

Only thing that may help is it's a change of scenery and a chance to pitch for a competitor. By all accounts he is an amazing team guy with the right attitude. He's made it clear that if he isn't up to standards he'll be content with a bullpen demotion if that's what helps the team.

I like the 6 man rotation idea. All Liriano has to be is average and he'll pay off. Btw, Dastardly, I love that Toronto basically bought top prospects from Pittsburgh. It's adv aggressive move with a possible short term and perhaps even better long term benefit.

Add injuries almost every season, Yankees probably weren't gonna pick up the option for Teixeira after the season anyway.

Last year he was having a hell of a season and pretty much kept the team afloat for the most part. Again, injury did him in.

Yeah, I like that Liriano is ideally serving as more of a shield for Sanchez. Eat up some innings, hopefully find some form and ensure Sanchez isn't over extended and can help the team. You just hope it doesn't throw the stellar rotation out of sink. But once again, by the sounds of it they were all thrilled with the idea.

What do you think of Pete Walker as a pitching coach, Damo?

To be honest I don't know much about him. I do know whatever he refined with Marco Estrada has worked out. Also have to point to both Stroman and Sanchez developing under him, as both had questions about whether they'd start.

Zach Britton has thrown 37.2 scoreless innings since April 30th

Britton is dope af as a closer. Virtually unhittable.

Pedro Alvarez has 6 hr in last 5 games. Probably the only guy hitting right now consistently.

I see he's only played in 72 games. Was he injured?

Liriano A plus in the first 4 innings. C plus in his last 2. Overall, ate up innings, kept team in the game. Management sent him out there and just said "Do what you do" which is awesome. They'll make adjustments as they go. Guy obviously still has something, but 3rd time through the order is going to be an issue.

A's ended up suspending a coach after discovering he planted hidden cameras in the team's weight room.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...mike-henriques

Would his motivations be of the erotic variety or just an attempt to sell the tape to another team for scouring purposes? I don't get it.

You know, I feel like the Oakland A's should be such a better organization than they are. I feel like if they were owned buy someone willing to spend some money there, they would blow up big time and that city would show to the games. Still some of the coolest looking colors in the MLB.

Angels DFA Tim Lincecum. His comeback hasn't been that great.

I bet if he converts himself to be a closer, might be able to salvage what would be a great career.

Hoo hoo hoo. A-Rod & the Yankees got a press conference scheduled tomorrow.

I could think of many things that could happen. :D

Here's one of 'em.

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Hahaha.

Lincecum fucking sucks. Been that way for a while now. Even as a closer I'd have a hard time seeing him be decent again.

Yeah, he just cannot pitch anymore.

Only plays vs RHP

Lol Baltimore lost to White Sox with Rodon pitching.

Blue Jays lost to Kansas City
Boston lost to the Dodgers

So lol

Rodon and the White Sox are a hell of a lot worse than those other teams.

You literally just threw a lunch at Detroit for losing to the White Sox too. But Baltimore lost to fn Rodon lol.

The End has arrived.

Alex Rodriguez is finished. Last game is on Friday. He'll remain with the Yankees as a special advisor and instructor.

Something Tex said has his conference must have made him realize he ain't got much left.

In fairness the jays have also lost to Epson. White Sox have had their number this year :-(

James Shields stinks

Manny has 3 hr and 7 rbi 2nd player in history to hit hr in 1st 2nd and 3rd innings.

Jays bats are comatose. Oh well.

Just as the Orioles bats come back off life support. 19 runs in 3 games.
Onward to Oakland where I will be Tuesday night.

Congrats to Ichiro Suzuki. Joined the 3,000 hit club tonight.

Dylan Bundy had been better than even I anticipated him to be at this point after 6 innings 2er and 9 ks in a win yesterday. If there's any minor quibble it's his pitch count (90+ in 6 innings yesterday) gets him pulled but if he can keep going 6 it'll be fine..5 starts 27 innings 33 ks 9 ER

I know. I cant wait for him to be a Cub next year

Nice win for the Jays tonight. Tbay sucks but you gotta play the games and Rays can play the division tough when they want to. Fucking Forsythe on base 4 times tonight.

Baseball sucks.

Fuck Boston. Honestly. Paying David Price the idiotic amount of money makes me hope for their imminent failure. Teams like Boston ensure problems within the league will always exist because they'll sign a great (nothing more than great) pitcher to all that money.

Love Price though, feel bad for him that he's having all of those struggles.

That is a dumb take.

Why is it dumb? You really think Bryce Harper should be making 300 mil?

We'll see how Spilchuk feels when the Yankees buy their next team.

Part of it is due to Scott Boras being his agent I think and them missing out on last year's crop of big names to grab an Ace. Also didn't help how bad last year's rotation for starters were.

MLB is a lot similar to the NBA in regards to no salary cap or luxury tax not being a real determinant for bigger and attractive market teams. Took until very recently for the Yankees to feel the real effects of the luxury tax.

Pretty sure the Yanks are done giving 30 year old 7-10 year deals worth a buttload.

One can only hope they've FINALLY learnt their lesson.

The Red Sox are almost entirely built on homegrown talent with their offense. Yes they have made some free agent signings, but 3/4 of their infield and their entire outfield are products of their farm system.

It's why they're likely to sustain long-term success. I view them almost as model an organization as the Cardinals.

I'm fond of the homegrown talent. I like their lineup. But I cannot abide by 217 million dollars for a snake bitten ace, it makes a complete mockery of everything. In my opinion, that signing was a complete fucking joke. I like David Price, but at most that guy is worth a lengthy 150 million dollar contract and even that is all kinds of gaudy and gross.

I will say, even the Yankees when they were buying and selling the league had tremendous scouting and a lot of their best talent was home grown. But there is always that breaking point when it seems all the big money players go there and they are signing these game killing contracts.

Oh look. Blue Jays are tied for first. Perhaps Baltimore has peaked too soon.

The Yankees gave up on homegrown talent after their initial dynasty. Early 2000s is when they literally started buying everyone and became the evil empire. They're finally realizing that's a poor way to do things.

And Price is getting paid what his market value is. He deserves to go to the highest bidder, just like any of is in our own job market. The owners rake in so much money that the discrepancy between what they make, and what the players who generate that income make, is still a large one at the least.

Grienke got an equally lengthy, gaudy deal. Because that's the new market. The Yankees are eating A-Rod's contract like it ain't shit. Because it isn't. Look at what J.A. Happ and Estrada got this year. Guys who've had zero previous extended success. No way they make out on those types of deals even 5 years ago.

Even my sorry ass Padres are eating a large sum of money to jettison players. Revenue streams are greater than they've ever been. $30 mil is the new $20mil now. This has been trending in that direction for a while now.

And to answer your earlier question, yes, Bryce Harper is def worth whatever contract he signs. Just like A-Rod was when the Rangers gave him the then "worst contract ever".

Don't get me wrong, I think these guys should sign what is offered, I just think what is being offered is fucking ridiculous. There needs to be better regulations on this sort of nonsense.

stfu

this is goddamn AMERICA last time I checked

@Damien Ray - isn't there a way to use WAR to determine whether a player "plays to, above or below" their contract

Not sure exactly how else to phrase that. But the original A-Rod contract is def a good example...

lol I dread Baltimore finish 1st, not because of anything to do with Baltimore, but because Droford will act as though he is Buck Showalter's right hand man.

I'm amazed at how bad both the Jays and O's are vs the West.... the A's and Sox are both SO SHIT, and the amount of games dropped to them just blows my mind. These are both teams 15 games over .500 and they have struggles against 2 very mediocre teams. O's are 10-17 vs the West I can only assume the Jays are as bad if not worse.

some 538 article I searched for:

FanGraphs has a way of converting a player’s WAR into his monetary value on the open (free agent) market. The site calculates how much teams spend per projected WAR in a given season1 and then applies that “market price” to each player’s output at the end of the season. That gives us a sense of how much it would cost to buy the WAR he created. FanGraphs isn’t the only one to perform this calculation — so we’re dealing with a bit of estimation here — but if you take a consensus average, teams were willing to pay about $7.7 million for every additional WAR this season.


Not really trying to relaunch the "WAR debate" but "in theory" to play up to his contract, David Price should only need to average a WAR of just above 4.0 over the next 7 years to be "worth" his contract. A feat he accomplished in 6 of his 7 previous full seasons and a mark he'll likely still hit this season

correct?

baseball is fun

You are correct. The value of a win is typically in the $5-$7 range. A-Rod was worth about 25 WAR in his time in Texas. By today's standards he as more than worth the money. Brian Kenny from mlb network did a nice breakdown yesterday that said as much.

Bryce Harper is going to only be 25 when he's a free agent, heading into his age 26 season. If the Yankees are going to hand out one more batshit crazy contract, he's easily the guy to do it for.

Granted he's having a massive regression from where he was last year but I think teams have just wisened up to pitching around him and it's gotten into his head. He'll make the adjustments and he'll still hit like 50 HR a year with that short porch.

To be fair, if you go against Sale and Q back to back against the WSox you will probably lose 1 or 2 games.

Yeah that's true. Plus the amount of great teams who will drop 2 of 3 or even get swept to crap teams is staggering. Just the nature of a 162 game season.

I think it also has to do with the lower tier teams really loving to play spoiler and take a dump on the top tier teams.

I don't by buy into that teams looking to play spoiler nonsense. Bad teams all of a sudden play above their heads to the detriment of their division rival, but wait until they're out of the race and their own wins and losses don't matter? Sounds silly.

Prince Fielder expected to announce his retirement tomorrow according to Fox Sports. Teased to be related to his recent neck surgery and the results doctors gave after it was done.

Dale why do you care how much teams spend or give to players?

I think it has to do with lack of pressure. When guys all of a sudden can relax and have nothing to play for, they'll play some better baseball. When the games matter, they are complete and utter shit.

You see it in all sports.

Going to the Os game in Oakland tonight..very weird being 2700 miles from home

I'm sitting front row 3rd base side have an Os flag if they don't take it away

That's really sad news about Fielder. The guy is only 32 years old and was great a year ago.

He's technically not retiring. Rather, he's announcing he's not physically able to play. If he retired he'd forfeit his remaining salary.

Still doesn't change the fact that he can no longer do what he loves to do at a relatively young age.

Calling the Colosseum a dump insults dumps

:y: Red Sox beat the Yanks tonight.

Sox probably need a sweep in order for this series to be successful considering they are barely hanging on to a wild card spot and Yankees cleaning house on their roster.

It's early August. As long as the continue to win series after series they'll be fine.