Who is your favorite current MLB player and why?

#30
#30
[twitterv]980542791922192384[/twitterv]
 
#33
#33
Freak said:
Anyone watch Shohei Ohtani today? He could be fun to follow this year.
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I thought he pitched pretty well, but I can't say I was blown away by him. He had a nice outing. Got into one jam and they made him pay for it with a 3-run HR. His fastball was consistently 97-98, but had trouble locating it sometimes. Best pitch appears to be that splitter, which is typical for Japanese pitchers. Generally speaking I'm skeptical of "We haven't seen anything like him before!" claims about players. They said that about Dice-K and his "gyroball," which appeared to be either an outright myth or just a cut fastball.

I don't think he's going to be a great hitter, especially if he turns out being a great pitcher (they simply won't give him many opportunities to hit).
 
#34
#34
Probably Francisco Lindor, he seems to have so much fun playing the game. Also a fan of Judge, Conforto, Betts and Arenado.
 
#35
#35
05_never_again said:
I thought he pitched pretty well, but I can't say I was blown away by him. He had a nice outing. Got into one jam and they made him pay for it with a 3-run HR. His fastball was consistently 97-98, but had trouble locating it sometimes. Best pitch appears to be that splitter, which is typical for Japanese pitchers. Generally speaking I'm skeptical of "We haven't seen anything like him before!" claims about players. They said that about Dice-K and his "gyroball," which appeared to be either an outright myth or just a cut fastball.

I don't think he's going to be a great hitter, especially if he turns out being a great pitcher (they simply won't give him many opportunities to hit).
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Is the difference with Ohtani that he’s so young? And on a great contract?
 
#36
#36
Kingston Vol said:
Is the difference with Ohtani that he’s so young? And on a great contract?
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The difference with Ohtani is that he's been billed as "the Babe Ruth of Japan." In the Japanese League, he was an all-star level hitter AND pitcher. That kind of hype is unfair to him (but also partially generated by his people in order to boost his contract) but I highly, highly doubt he's going to be that good.

Most of these Japanese guys that come over, with a few exceptions (Ichiro comes to mind), are overrated. Even someone like Darvish; he's a good pitcher, but go and pull his career stats. I know he had Tommy John, but regardless he's only had one true elite year, his second season in Texas. His career WHIP is just shy of 1.20, which isn't bad, but also isn't as good as advertised.

Dice-K only had one good year, also his second year. He was never even an All-Star. Even going back to someone like Nomo; his first 2 years were good, then got shelled after that. Kenshin Kawakami wasn't really all that hyped but was awful. One of the more underrated guys that came over is Iwakuma...he actually has a lower career WHIP than Darvish!
 
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#37
#37
05_never_again said:
The difference with Ohtani is that he's been billed as "the Babe Ruth of Japan." In the Japanese League, he was an all-star level hitter AND pitcher. That kind of hype is unfair to him (but also partially generated by his people in order to boost his contract) but I highly, highly doubt he's going to be that good.

Most of these Japanese guys that come over, with a few exceptions (Ichiro comes to mind), are overrated. Even someone like Darvish; he's a good pitcher, but go and pull his career stats. I know he had Tommy John, but regardless he's only had one true elite year, his second season in Texas. His career WHIP is just shy of 1.20, which isn't bad, but also isn't as good as advertised.

Dice-K only had one good year, also his second year. He was never even an All-Star. Even going back to someone like Nomo; his first 2 years were good, then got shelled after that. Kenshin Kawakami wasn't really all that hyped but was awful. One of the more underrated guys that came over is Iwakuma...he actually has a lower career WHIP than Darvish!
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I think you are underrating Darvish.
 
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#39
#39
zjcvols said:
I think you are underrating Darvish.
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The numbers are what they are. He allows, on average, 1.2 baserunners per inning. That isn't bad but also isn't at an elite level. Darvish's ERA and WHIP are actually fairly comparable to someone like Julio Teheran except Darvish is much more of a strikeout pitcher; that's his saving grace.
 
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#40
#40
05_never_again said:
The numbers are what they are. He allows, on average, 1.2 baserunners per inning. That isn't bad but also isn't at an elite level. Darvish's ERA and WHIP are actually fairly comparable to someone like Julio Teheran except Darvish is much more of a strikeout pitcher; that's his saving grace.
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With 600 IP since 2012, hes 16th in FIP and 18th in WAR. He’s 10th when you factor in ballpark for FIP. He’s 20th in WHIP. That’s Ace territory
 
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#41
#41
zjcvols said:
Also Darvish has a career WhIP of 1.18 that’s hella good
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Julio Teheran has a career WHIP of 1.20. He allows almost exactly the same average number of baserunners per inning as Darvish does.

Darvish is a better pitcher because he strikes out more guys, which means those baserunners have less chance of scoring, but it also kind of puts Darvish in perspective.

Darvish is good, but he isn't as good as someone like Kershaw, Scherzer, Strasburg (when healthy), Kluber, Syndergaard, or Sale - despite seemingly put in the same category as those guys.
 
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#42
#42
05_never_again said:
Julio Teheran has a career WHIP of 1.20. He allows almost exactly the same average number of baserunners per inning as Darvish does.

Darvish is a better pitcher because he strikes out more guys, which means those baserunners have less chance of scoring, but it also kind of puts Darvish in perspective.

Darvish is good, but he isn't as good as someone like Kershaw, Scherzer, Strasburg (when healthy), Kluber, or Sale - despite seemingly put in the same category as those guys.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone claim Darvish is a top 10 pitcher in baseball since he had TJS
 
#43
#43
Yeah, I’m with ZJC on this one. Darvish isn’t Kershaw, but he’s a great pitcher and dramatically better than Teheran IMO.
 
#44
#44
zjcvols said:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone claim Darvish is a top 10 pitcher in baseball since he had TJS
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I haven't seen anybody's rankings of SPs lately. Darvish is mentioned in the same breath/category as those other guys though (because of his 2012 season), but he empirically isn't as good as those guys, especially since the surgery.
 
#45
#45
NashVol11 said:
Yeah, I’m with ZJC on this one. Darvish isn’t Kershaw, but he’s a great pitcher and dramatically better than Teheran IMO.
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I said he's better than Teheran too. But by comparing a couple of numbers of Darvish's to Teheran's, I think you can make a case that Darvish is overrated, especially when Darvish is still frequently mentioned as among the best of the best in the game.
 
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#46
#46
05_never_again said:
I haven't seen anybody's rankings of SPs lately. Darvish is mentioned in the same breath/category as those other guys though (because of his 2012 season), but he empirically isn't as good as those guys, especially since the surgery.
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So you haven’t seen any rankings but you say that people say he’s in the same breathe?
 
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#47
#47
zjcvols said:
So you haven’t seen any rankings but you say that people say he’s in the same breathe?
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I don't care what someone's specific rankings are of SPs. I follow baseball and the discussion around it, and the impression that I get is that Darvish is thought of in the same category as those other pitchers I mentioned, especially when he was being pursued this past offseason.

Darvish is a good pitcher, and would be an ace or a 1A on most pitching staffs, but he isn't as good as those others I mentioned. That's all.
 
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#48
#48
Maybe not a popular pick, but I enjoyed watching Adam Dunn hit.

Dunn HR totals:
2004: 46
2005: 40
2006: 40
2007: 40
2008: 40 (32 with CIN, 8 with ARI)
2009: 38
2010: 38

He had another season in 2012 with 41. Consistent? What's amazing is that out of all of those years listed, he was an All-Star exactly once, in 2012. The K totals were prodigious, but despite them he still had an OBP of .368. I bet if he were putting up those numbers today, he'd be looked at differently as a player.
 
#49
#49
Ill go with Snydergaard since, A Rod is retired - Stanton and Judge are favorites as well -- when Senzel arrives I like him too, being a VFL
 
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