June 6th, 2023 Dirty Diez Drama
Hello and welcome to Hoff's Hot Takes. Hope everyone had a good weekend. I myself had a decent little time. I played in a company golf outing in a two man scramble at Foss Park Golf Course. We finished at -3, so with only two guys I feel good about that, because my game is so inconsistent that I never know who is showing up. My game is like a schizophrenic Jackyl and Hyde. We just had a big ol deep dive last week into the league, so I am kind of feeling lazy. You get what ya get, ya know? Anyways, we have the usual shenanigans this week. As always, the Takes are brought to you by Youtube TV, the NBA Finals, and the Crayola company.
Trades - Jordan has started his tear down. He never quite got going out of the box, and mathematically, it seems pretty improbable he will compete. He has traded Alexis Diaz, Ronald Acuna, Zach Wheeler, and Jose Altuve. He has gotten back 2nd, 3rd, and 5th rd picks in these transactions. Watch out for Mike Berrones to start climbing. His team is getting healthy, and he now has two more studs. Kloss picks up Altuve and Diaz, who should shore up a spot in the final game. I will be texting people the next week or so next weeks Takes so they can put their feelers out there in an offical print publication of regard such as Hoff's Hot Takes (TM)
Dirty Diez Drama - Alex Berry and Mike Kloss tied this week 6-6-0. We are gonna treat that like a bad Ex girlfeind and move on.... Bill Brey beat Joe Gaza 10-2-0. Joe not only forgot about his sisters wedding this week, but apparently forgot to manage Team Dad D as well. We all know Joe is a talented scout, but he must be really paying his international guys a ton, cause Ohtani and Yoshida came over the Pacific after a nice Sapporo and batted .365 with 12 runs and 12 RBI. Speaking of crossing the Pacific, the Wuhan Warriors are on a roll. Some say they are causing all of the league to run and hide in their houses. Semien, Bregman, Garcia = .373, 15 runs, and 15 RBI. Vlad Guerrero is getting going. Watch out. Getting back to Joe here, Goldschmidt and Happ = .194 with only 2 RBI. I could see this being a playoff game here. Probably the 3rd and 4th best teams in some order. Ryan beat Jordan 5-7-0. This marks the 4th in 5 weeks Jordan has been leading into the weekend and lost. Maybe I should not have traded Diaz, I need closers in my life. Austin Hays and Elias Diaz were getting keeper looks from me, but they went a combined 4/39 this week, so maybe they are coming back down to earth. Teoscar Hernandez from the Mariners batted .318 this week, which is the equivlent to a normal player batting .698. Framber is next for me boys. Come and get it...Ryan cruises here, even though I traded my studs in the middle, so it is basically a free win. You owe me 1/16 of your winnings sir. Star won every hitting category, but should not have because my team is trash. I won every pitching category with the lowest ERA of the week. I think we are gonna get Bryce hot in the next few weeks and he will carry you here. I still like you for the final game most likely, and for sure the final 4, but step it up, eh? Alex Kurgan beats Mike Berrones 8-4-0. Berrones had Kurgan drop a bomb on him and provide about half his RBI in one day, but other than that, it still was kind of not close. Berrones gets back up with Acuna and Wheeler coming his way, and Stanton coming back. Freeman and Judge combined for .295 with 11 runs, 5 HR, 6 BB and a killer OPS. If he has Acuna, Stanton, Freeman, Bichette, Judge, and his staff holds up, I do not see why there is not a world where he contends. But the real story here is the 'Topes. Logan Webb and Clayton Kershaw had 20 IP and only 4 ER this week. That is good. Alex Cobb, and Clarke Schmidt combined for 13 IP and 0 ER. Good stuff there 'Topes. Do NOT like Mookie get hot now. DO NOT! We wrap up with Micah beating Nolan 9-2-1. Micah is another guy is trending up here. Seems like Nolan is falling out of contention, and Micah is peaking like an 8th grade boy slow dance grinding at his local dance at the public school. First time outside St. Whatever's, and ready to get weird with the public school weirdos. Nolan had Brandon Nimmo bat 1/7. More like Brandon NeedMoHits, AmIRight? Josh Jung still rolling. Has not slowed down yet ; on pace for 33 doubles, 36 Homers, and over 110 RBI. Luis Robert batted 4/20. Nice. Micah had Adley Ruschman, and Luiz Arraez bat almost .500 in 45 combined PA. Corbin Carroll still doing work. This 100% is a guy I would have no idea who he was without this league, and this dude is a stud. Corbin Burnes gave up some more runs here. David Debnar made up for it. Dylan Cease did well here, but I will not call him Dealin' Cease for another few starts. Just an update there..
Interview Question of the Week - Did ya forget about the interviews? I hope not.... OH BOY I hope not... Today we asked a bunch of people to give me a rant on baseball. Dealers choice on the topic
Mike Kloss - MLB needs to stop all this BS with the sticky stuff on the pitching side. If batters can use it, the pitchers should be able to too... Pete Rose and Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame. Anybody who is worthy who used steroids actually... I wish MLB had a salary cap, or a spending floor. I think it would fix some issues in baseball regarding competitiveness ... I hate bullpen days. We should be able to call up a pitcher from AAA for a day for God's Sake.
Micah Yarbs - I am not a Boog Scambi fan. In fact, I don't like him much at all. He brings out that sensationalist, pompous, national ESPN style broadcasting that I hate. He is not a Chicago guy, but he consistently shows up Joe Girardi and tries to look smarter than him. His voice inflection is too much for me to almost bare. He is now the play-by-play guy for MLB the show, so I had to turn announcers off. Would rather play in silence like a weirdo than listen to him.
Nolan W - Why did we ban the shift again? WTF? I hate it. These guys are "professional" hitters. They should make an adjustment to hit it some other way. If they can't, they should not be there. The shift is actually a risk for the defense to take. So, banning the shift moved some good strategy out of the game. I think it is pathetic. Lay down a shitty bunt and you are on almost everytime.
Mike Berrones - Jeter is the most overrated athlete of all time. He was minus at defense, and he would not be half of the player he was if he wasnt getting beach balls due to being in a murders row of a lineup always. If he was drafted by the Reds he would be good, but a journeyman who may hit 7th on a good team. The HOF is tarnished not because of lacking Bonds, or because a steroid guy like Ortiz is in - it is tarnished because Jeter got the most votes ever. He is a better minority owner of a team than he was a shortstop for a team. He is worth over 250 million, and I respect Chase Daniel's career more than his.
Jordan Hoffmann - Stan Musial is the most underrated great of all time.... I wish more parks had unique features like SD being into a warehouse, Wrigley having ivy, the hill in Houstin, etc... Mike Mussina is not as underrated as I thought he was... Robinson Cano is going to be historically underrated. I also think we should have 4 pitchers per game, and they should have to go through the lineup once. So 4 pitchers per game, they each face 9 batters. That could lead to people pitching more, and it would be easier to compare pitchers.
***Throwback ball players of the week - Alright, last week, we detailed the hitters in the 21st century who have had 30 SB, 30 HR, and 30 2B in a season. I think we all learned a little about Alfonso Soriano, and Ian Kinsler that day... Today we look at a different stat, but similar, for pitchers. Today we look at pitchers who have had seasons with a 3.25 ERA or lower, more than 12 wins, and more than 150 Ks all in the same year. Way more seasons qualify for this one, but same amount of people roughly, and I think it does a good job of putting pitchers into tiers. I will say I did not find a good article like the 30/30 article I used for my last week's Takes, so I am using my memory of the dominant pitchers that we can remember. I may have forgotten someone, but I doubt it to be honest. These are all guys off my head, so I may have forgotten one or two, but again, doubt it, Bitch. Alright, without further ado, here are the pitchers who have had 3 or more seasons with an ERA of under 3.25, more than 12 wins, and more than 150 Ks in the same season:
3: Chris Carpenter, Johnny Cueto, Jacob DeGrom, Chuck Finley, Tim Hudson, Tim Lincecum, Jake Peavy, David Price, Steven Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman
4: Matt Cain, Gerrit Cole, Tom Glavine, Doc Gooden, Cole Hamels, Orel Herscheiser, John Lester, Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, Adam Wainwright
5: Madison Bumgardner, David Cone, Zach Greinke, Felix Hernandez, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, CC Sabathia, Johan Santana, Curt Schilling
6: Kevin Brown, Roy Halladay, John Smoltz, Justin Verlander
7: Pedro Martinez, Max Scherzer
9: Randy Johnson, Clayton Kershaw
10: Greg Maddux
11: Roger Clemens
Note: A ton of guys made it once or twice. David Wells did not have a single season. Andy Pettite may have had two, but if you told me it was 0 I would not blink....Maddux did this every year from 92-02 except 1999... Clemens reached this feat in 1986, and 2005 - 19 years apart. He was more gassed up in 2005 than a Chevy Avalanche on a road trip though... Barry Zito and Jason Schmidt had one season each, as did Jake Arrieta, and Mark Prior. Mark Buehrle, the most overrated player in Chicago sports history, has 0.... I think Cliff Lee, and Roy Oswalt are higher than I thought they would be. Schilling is lower than I thought... DeGrom got screwed by being injured a lot. So did Pedro if you look at it... Shouts to David Cone, and Max S.
Random Stats - Jhoan Duran for the Twins just made history this week. He now has the second fastest average pitch per apperance. Since 2008, only 3 guys have averaged over 103 MPH on pitches in an apperance with at least a dozen pitches -> Aroldis Chapman in 2016 (103.5), Jhoan Duran this weekend (103.3), and Jordan Hicks in 2019 (103.1)... Fernando Tatis hit 40 HR as a SS in 2021. The last five seasons before that a shortstop has hit 40 HR in a season : Ernie Banks in 1955.1957,1958,1959, and 1960...Pitchers with 1 hit as a batter in a No hitter since 2010 -> Ubaldo Jimenez, Roy Halladay (perfect game in the playoffs), Matt Cain (perfect game), Homer Bailey, Tim Lincecum (2 hits in a No No), Jordan Zimmerman (2 hits in a No No), Chris Heston (No idea who this guy is. He Also had 2 hits in his No No), Max Scherzer, Cole Hamels, Jake Arrieta. Jake Arrieta, Max Scherzer, and Cole Hamels are the only guys to have multiple no hitters where they also had hits.... In 2004 and 2005, Brad Lidge for the Astors combined for 10 wins, a 2.07 ERA, 71 saves, and a WHIP of 1.06....
Hoff's Hot Takes Power Rankings - Kloss, Brey, Star, Mike, Micah, Joe
Playoff Standings - Kloss, Star, Brey, Joe, Micah, Kurgan
This Week's Matchups
(31-68-9) Jordan vs. Nolan (40-60-8)
****(64-37-7) Star vs. Joe (60-44-4)****
(48-55-5) Mike Berrones vs. Micah (49-51-8)
(68-32-8) Mike Kloss vs. Alex Kurgan (44-51-13)
(43-52-12) Alex Berry vs. Joe (53-49-6)