MLBRT 5/9/2024

The questions and discussion…  

1) Mike Trout began his career on a Hall of Fame trajectory path. However in the last four years or so his career has been effectively stalled by a series of injuries and this year once again he has suffered a torn meniscus that is,  if not a season ending injury, an injury that will place him on the IL for an estimated minimum of 60 days.

Have injuries derailed his Hall of Fame career? If he retired tomorrow is he still a Hall of Fame electee? Why or why not?

Trout burst upon the MLB scene by winning Rookie of the Year and placing second overall the voting for MVP that season. And in his first 9 years in the majors he never finished less than 5^th in the voting for the game’s MVP… he had 3 wins, 4 second place finishes and a 4^th and 5^th place finish. Add in 9 Silver Slugger awards along with 11 All-Star selection and he has quite a few pluses on his side of the ledger for being considered as a Hall of Famer right now.

Then I compared Trout’s numbers to Mickey Mantle’s, who is considered to be one of the all-time great centerfielders to have played the game, and their slash lines are very similar… for his 14-year career Trout is slashing .299/.410/.581 with an OPS of .991 compared to Mantle’s (18-year career) slash line of  .298/.421/.557 with an OPS of .977. And it caught me by surprise that Trout is actually outperforming Mantle in Slugging and OPS. So again that could be considered another couple of big pluses on his side of the ledger for saying… Yeah, if he has played his last MLB game then he would be a Hall of Famer.

However when I looked at his career numbers.. or what the people who vote for players to get into the Hall call  the counting numbers… he is a little on the light side of things.

A decent bench mark for players being considered as Hall material is if they reached 1,500 runs and 1,500 RBI and among centerfielders only Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, Tyrus speaker Ken Griffey Jr., Carlos Beltran and of course Mantle ever reached those numbers. Trout in his 14 years is decidedly very short of both benchmarks with 1,123 runs and 954 RBI.

And I’ll assume reaching at least 400 HRs would also be another benchmark for a player getting selected as a Hall of Famer… and again while he is close he still falls short of that counting number also with 378 HRs…. again while he is close, Trout still falls short of that benchmark with 378.

In my opinion, if Trout retired today as a MLB player I’d have to say he is a very border line Hall of Fame electee.  I do however think the voters would elect him into the Hall based upon his early career stats before his injuries started limiting his games played per year… but not as first ballot selectee. But again if he were to retire right now from the game it would be a tough decision putting him into the Hall based his counting numbers.

 2) The San Diego Padres and the Miami Marlins combined for the season’s first significant on Friday (5/3), with San Diego obtaining second baseman Luis Arraez in exchange for four minor league players that included outfielders Dillon Head and Jakob Marsee, first baseman Nathan Martorella and right-handed reliever Woo Suk Go.

Does this trade signify the beginning of what may be called a season-long fire sale of the Marlins most marketable MLB talent? Why or why not?

And ultimately which team “wins” this trade? Why?

Yeah, I do believe this is the start of the Marlins being a seller of whatever MLB player assets they have that can get them a decent prospect haul in return.

The problem is after they traded Arraez do the Marlins have any other players that other teams would pay for with a hefty prospect package?

Of the possible players that could be considered tradable many of those players are having terrible years so far or are injured.

Simply put, even if they want to sell off players it isn’t going to easy getting any real value in return for what they have to offer to other teams looking for players to add for a run to the playoffs.

3) After experiencing tightness in his groin in the sixth inning of his start on Thursday (5/2), the Texas Rangers placed Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi  on the 15-day injured list with what is being called a right groin strain.  Eovaldi is the fifth Texas starting pitcher on the injured list.

The Rangers rotation depth chart now looks like this… Jacob deGrom (rehabbing from TJ surgery), Eovaldi (out with groin strain), Max Scherzer (rehabbing from back surgery), Tyler Mahle (rehabbing from TJ surgery), Cody Bradford (out with back strain and rib fracture) all are on the IL with only Jon Gray, Michael Lorenzen, Dane Dunning and Andrew Heaney available as healthy arms.

Will the Rangers starting pitching woes derail their chances to make the playoffs and defend their World Series title? Why or why not?

You certainly would think that having so many pitchers battling the injury bug it would hurt their playoff chances but guess what…

After being barely over .500 with a 15-14 record on April 28 they suddenly went 7-3 and are in first place in the AL West. And outside of two slug fests that they did win their pitching limited their opponents to no more than four runs scored in the other eight games with two shutouts, a one run allowed game and two games where they only allowed two runs.    

If this is any indication of what the Rangers can do going forward the rest of this seson then I think they will be just fine making the playoffs and defending their World Series title.

4) In CBSSports.com’s “Batting Around” column (their version of a roundtable discussion more or less) the question was posed… Who’s the best shortstop in MLB?

Almost to a man the four-person panel said it was Mookie Betts with only one member hedging his response by saying, “I might lean Betts, but we need some diversity in our responses…” and then offered up some possible alternatives to Betts being the pick.  

Do you agree with CBS’s panel… is Betts MLB’s best shortstop? Why or why not?

And if Betts isn’t the “best shortstop” then who is? Why?

I crunched the numbers, and this is what I came up with… its between Mookie Beets and Bobby Witt as the present shortstops who are at the top of the ratings ladder.

Betts has a .346 batting average which is third overall in MLB but first among shortstops. Witt’s BA is .327 for 12^th overall and 4^th among shortstops.

Betts 27 RBIs is the best among shortstops while Witt’s 20 RBI is 5^th.  

And Betts 32 runs scored are 2^nd overall in MLB ad as a shortstop while Witt leads MLB with 36 runs scored and is of course the leader among all shortstops.

Betts .451 OBP is first in MLB and among shortstops while Witt has a .394 OBP that is 2^nd  among shortstops.  Slugging has Betts at .556 which is 10^th in MLB and 3^rd among shortstops while Witt’s .571 average is 6^th overall in MLB and 1^st among shortstops.

Witt edges Betts in the field with a 1.1 DWar  compared to Bett’s 0.9 which is 1^st and 2^nd respectively among shortstops. And Witt has the better fielding percentage at .979 (3 errors among 141 total chances) compared to Betts .966 (4 errors among 119 total chances.)

Overall I have to say I agree with the CBS panel that right now Mookie Betts is MLB’s best shortstop. But Witt is right on his heels.

5) Two rookie Japanese starting pitchers are arguably are at the top of the early list for the NL’s Rookie of the Year award…

After what can only be called a disastrous first start in MLB, the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto has put up 1.64 ERA and now has a seasonal stat line that includes a 3-1 3-1 W/L record , a 2.91 ERA, 42 strikeouts and just 8 walks for a 5.25 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The Cubs’ Shota Imanaga on the other hand presently is sporting a 5-0 W/L record with, a 0.78 ERA 35 strikeouts and just 4 walks for a 8.7 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

A word of caution should be suggested… Yamamoto’s present stats are skewed by his horrendous first MLB start where he lasted just one inning, gave up 5 runs and left the game with a 45.00 ERA.

In your opinion which pitchers present career path is the most sustainable this season? Why?

And if you had your choice which pitcher would you rather select over the long course of his MLB career? Why?

Let me make this really simple…

If Imanaga can continue putting up the numbers he is presently putting up then its Imanaga by a long shot as the “winner’ in the rookie Japanese starting pitchers competition.  However given what Yamamoto has done since his awful beginning in MLB he ain’t no slouch as starter either.

Personally I’d take either one of the two as a starter on any team if I was a manager.  

Extra Innings…