June -> July

07/02/2023

Hello and Welcome.  Mikey has traded a bunch of players, we have turned the calendar from June to July, and we now have a league that is rounding into shape.  Today we have a June recap for the league, some stuff on Vinny Castilla, and much more.  Hope you want to read about the 2008 Brewers!  This edition of Hoff's Hot Takes is brough to you by Taco Bell's Spicy Potato Taco, 32 oz bottles of Ice Mountain, and The National Guard.  We will start off with a team by team update, and a recap of June.  Hope everyone has a nice 4th of July!


Alex Berry

Record: 62-68-14

Record in June: 25-21-2

3 best Players in June: Fernando Tatis Jr. Nick Castellanos. Trea Turner.

Notes - Two ties in June. Wander Francos per 162 pace so far this season: 284/341/447.  40 2B. 8 3B. 20 HR. 52 SB....  Alex has a guy named Lars Nootbaar?  Is that a real person?  Did Alex find him as a random Computer generated payer in the minors in MLB the Show 21?  He plays for the Cardinals though, so that checks out.   He also has Brandon Donovan (STL again) who is eligible at 4 positions.  I do not think I have seen a guy eligible at 4 before. Evan Phillips is sick.  I have heard rumblings of Lucas Giolito being traded, so maybe he will step it up even more away from Jerry Reinsdorf.

Alex Kurgan - Springfield Isotopes (Go 'Topes!)

Record: 51-71-16

Record in June:1-24-3

3 best Players in June: Mookie Betts. Blake Snell. Matt Olson.  

Notes -  I almost want to take this whole section to write a glowing tribute to Clayton Kershaw, since he is still doing the damn thing all these years later, but I decided to save that for another episode.  Devin Williams and Clay Holmes really drive home the Topes on the backend, as they have about 60 IP, an ERA of like 1.70, and 25 saves combined.  He has two other closers that also have a combiend 30 saves, so along with Micah, the dude loves saves.  Shouts to Craig Kimbrel still doing the thing.  I still sometimes let my arm dangle down before I do anything important.  Good to see Tijuan Walker making a bit of a comeback.

Bill Brey - Wuhan Warriors

Record: 81-54-5

Record in June: 27-19-2

3 best Players in June: James Paxton. Kevin Gausman. Ranger Suarez.  

Notes -  Bill has 8 (8!!!) Guys on his team with over 35 innings pitched, and under a 3.00 ERA.  He has 11 guys with under a 1.20 WHIP.  This teams pitching staff is nasty and dirty. BOTH!  Bill also has a guy named Ezequiel.  Anytime you can get a guy that goes by Zeke, I am all for it.  Underrated name.  Give me Bill for the final 4.  And honestly, we should have seen this coming since like the beginning of May when he started to just be really really good.  Vladdy is still batting .277, which is a little low for him. Bregman is at .250. If they can turn it up, and the pitching stays good, there is not a team that could be better. 

Joe Gaza - Team Dad D

Record: 70-66-8

Record in June: 19-27-2

3 best Players in June: Ronald Acuna, Shohei Ohtani. Justin Turner 

Notes -   Joe makes some moves, and vaults all the way up to NUMBER 3 in Hoff's Hot Takes Power Rankings.  The biggest climber in the last few weeks in terms of ceiling of their team.  Acuna is just the best all arond baseball player in the game at the moment. Freeman is a masher, Tucker is a masher.  Turner is a masher. He has 3rd overall Catcher.  I like this Dad D Joe has going on. I still like Johnathon India too, and is a contributer in all categoies.  Hopefully he gets Shane Mchlanahan back to contirbute and make some noise, he will need him in his matchup with Brey or Kloss in the first round.  Ian Happ is a bit dissapointing lately as well.  

Jordan Hoffmann - Wild Thing

Record: 48-86-10

Record in June: 22-25-1

3 best Players in June: Christian Walker. Gunnar Henderson. Teoscar Hernandez.

Notes - Jordan trades away all of his players, and has his best stretch of baseball of the year.  He even won two matchups in a row!  Kyle Scwarber is still batting under .200.  Kind of concerning.  After a slow start, Gunnar Henderson is rounding into form, and should be a keeper again if he finishes strong.  Jordan also picked up Gavin Williams and Ben Joyce as possible guys to keep, althought Joyce needs to get that flame thrower a bit more accurate to be successful, dude walks more than my dog (thank you)

Micah Yarborough

Record: 69-67-8

Record in June: 29-18-1

3 best Players in June: Corbin Carroll. Michael Honors II. Luiz Arraez.

Notes - When I look around at Micah's team, two things immediately stand out: Dude, Micah loves steals and saves.  He has his three main RP combining for 45 saves about, and he has 5 guys with double digit steal totals (only team in the league for steals, and tied with Kurgan with saves).  I feel because of those two stats he is heavy on, he probably wins those each week.  When the season starts wearing on, saves and steals start to become a bit more hectic, so a bit more inconsistent as well.  You got a ton of uys coming up, and new pitchers making debuts, so hopefully those two categories can keep him going.  Micah and Jordan had a big Royce Lewis vs. Eduardo Julien talk regarding Twins prospects, and it looks like Royce Lewis was the right choice there. Luiz .400 watch appears to be over as well for now.  Jonah Hiem was a good call as well.  Give me playoff Micah, and it is a toss up if him or Joe will play Kloss in the final four. 

Mike Berrones

Record: 62-77-5

Record in June: 18-30 (No ties.  Thank you Mike for being a man and winning and losing.  No participation trophies here)

3 best Players in June: Ha-Seong-Kim. Ryan Pressley.  Estuery Ruiz.

Notes -  In another world, this section looks very different.  Mike set the record for shortest time between being a buyer and a seller.  Mike has lost six straight matchups, and was the 2nd worst team in June ( Say thank you to Nolan).  Bo Bichette is stacking up a really good season, but it will probably not be able to touch his Dad's 1996.  Mike has 6 guys with double digit steals, including the guy from the A's who is on pace for like 75. Ruiz was picked in the 25th round, so if he stays solid, he would be a real cheap keeper next year that will give you tons of upside to win that category. This is kind of become a bit of a season from hell for Mike here.  Judge was good, but hurt now, and Stanton is batting like .200.  Trades got some picks back, and ONiell Cruz is coming back, which is good because he is god like.  

Mike Kloss

Record: 87-48-9

Record in June: 25-22-1

3 best Players in June: Jose Ramirez. Eury Perez. Nolan Jones

Notes - Kloss has two ties in the month of June.  Now my rules is I usually do not talk about ties, however, we have much bigger phish to fry on this one, so I will speak on him.  Kloss won the waiver bid for Nathan Jones from the Rockies, and he was his third best player according to the player rater in June.  Good moves, Skip.  Kloss has 12 guys in the top 7 at their positions.  Deep and talented, kind of like the new look LA Lakers in a way.  He gets Eduardo Rodrigues back to get some wins, so his team will continue to improve.  Jose Ramirez was the second best player in the month of June.  Championship game as of right now.  

Nolan Weick

Record: 52-82-10

Record in June: 14-31-3

3 best Players in June: Luis Robert Jr. Lane Thomas. Jake Fraley

Notes - Nolan beat Jordan 10-1-1 to star the year off in Matchup 1.  Since then, here are his series results: L,L,L,L,L,T,L,L,L,L,T.  EEK.  He is playing Mike this week, and up 9-2-1 currently, so maybe he is due for a comeback of sorts?  Worst record in June.  Luis Robert IS good.  Confirmed. Nolan, your team is weird man, collectivley your players are really good.  They have good stats, and are decently rated on the player rater.  I do not understand this team whatsoever, and in my opinion, if we played this season 10 times, this is the worst outcome for No Balls.  Matt Mclain is hot for you right now, but he kind of has Elly in his way... Zach Gallen and Felix Bautista are two of my favorite guys to watch throw,  so good on ya for having them on your team.  

Ryan Starcevich - Joliet Bro Stars

Record: 85-54-9

Record in June: 32-15-1

3 best Players in June Ketel Marte. Corey Seager. Ozzie Albies

Notes -  Star has seven hitters in his lineup that are at a top three rank at their position.  Sean Murphy is basically a cheat code at catcher.  Corey Seager has an OPS of over 1.010, which is quite tasty at this point in the season. Buster Olney is reporting that Wild Thing was hot after Elly De La Cruz, and wanted to package Framber AND Xander to attain him.  Negotiations went to the last minute, but it looks like Star made the right choice.  MLB Network had a segment this week comparning him to Ken Griffey Jr. AND IT WAS NOT A JOKE.  Morel could be a good keeper if he wants to get saucy as well.  Give me Star to face Brey in the final four.


2008 Milwaukee Brewers - We obviously a Cubs family here, but I will tell you, the summer 08 season in Milwaukee was one of the best of my life.  Me and Ben would wake up and call of work, grab a 6 pack of Linies, a breakfast sandwich from McDonalds, and go to a Brewers day game.  Tailgate for a bit by eating McDonalds and Linies Sunset Wheat, and watch some ball.  This was the summer that the Brewers aquired CC Sabathia for the second half.  CC started 17 games with the Crew.  He had a 1.56 ERA and went 11-2.  He averaged 8 innings, and a little under 10ks in those starts.  He had 8 complete games, and 3 shutouts in those starts too.  One of the most remarkable runs I have seen.  Like it is this run, and Jake Arrieta that one 30 start stretch.  Miller Park was rocking that summer.  They were 6th in attendance, but they had to be close to 1 or 2 near the stretch run when they were humming with CC.  The rest of the roster is sick.  Let us start with the bench guys who were the veteran role guys -> Ray Durham, Lance Nyx, Craig Counsell,  Gabe Kapler, Russell Branyon, and Tony Gwynn Jr. make up their bench.  Great names there.  We had a lineup (in position order) of Jason Kendall, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Bill Hall, JJ Hardy, Ryan Braun, Mike Cameron, and Corey Hart.  That is solid man.  Braun and Fielder combined for a .280 average, 71 HR, and 208 RBI, and 126 walks.  That is a middle of the order!  JJ Hardy and Corey Hart batted 2nd and 5th in the lineup and averaged .275 with 50 homeruns.  The staff behind CC was killer too.  This was the last good Ben Sheets season.  They also had Jeff Suppon, Dave Bush, and Manny Parra.  They had a washed Eric Gange with 10 saves on the backend too.  They ended up losing to the Phillies 3-1 in the playoffs.  I bet if they got Trevor Hoffmann in there a year earlier they woulda beat the Phillies.  I mean imagine facing him walking into ACDC like this.

Guest Take of the Week -> This week, we have an honored guest making an addition to the Takes.  Please, without further ado, welcome Micah Yarbs speaking on Vinny Castilla!

Vinicio("Vinny") Castilla was born on United States' Independence Day - July 4th, 1967 - in Oaxaca, Mexico. His parents were not aware at the time that they had spawned a legend.

Vinny came up as a shortstop in the Braves organization in 1991 before being selected by the Colorado Rockies in the expansion draft of 1993. Vinny fought for playing time for a couple of years before Don Baylor(RIP) gave him the nod. From there, he quickly became a Coors bopper. I can recall watching him murder the Cubs on WGN a number of times. He emerged in a mid 90s Rockies lineup that featured a lot of righty power with the likes of Andres Galarraga, Ellis Burks, and Dante Bichette. Larry Walker was the chief bopper in the mid to late 90s Rockies offense and his hall of fame presence made this lineup one of the best of the 90s.

1998 saw Vinny put out arguably his best season where he hit 46 homers, drove in 144, and batted .319 while providing mediocre defense at the hot corner. 1998 was an incredible season in the MLB where we saw a tremendous amount of offense due to the steroid era. The Rockies were always a scary opponent during this era. When facing the Rockies, you knew you had to put up at least 5 runs to be comfortable. Fortunately, this was usually easy to do against a middling pitching staff that always had a solid ace or two(Darryl Kile, Mike Hampton, Pedro Astacio, Denny Neagle to name a few), but lacked any sort of depth. Sidenote, Jerry Dipoto was the closer for a period of time during this era and is now the General Manager for the Seattle Mariners.

Vinny was eventually dealt to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays before the 2000 season where he joined a few other veteran boppers (Jose Canseco, Greg Vaughn, and Fred McGriff). His performance was underwhelming though and he was quickly dealt over to the Houston Astros where he recaptured some of his 1990s production, but definitely missed the thin Coors air. Vinny would bounce around a bit during the 2000s, returning to Coors where he went back to his old bopping ways, putting up 43 double, 35 bops, and 131 RBI in 2004. This would be the last season of prime production for Vinny.

Vinny's chief legacy is that he is the all time home run leader among Mexican born players. Quite a legacy indeed. One could also argue that he is the greatest MLB player to have been born on the 4th of July. Let's all tip our caps to Vinny this Independence Day and remember his indelible impact on our lives. I know I'll be raising a Modelo in his honor.

Random Stats - Pedro Martinez pitched over 220 innings in the year 2000.  He had 30 walks... Infielders with 10 or more Gold Gloves - Nolan Arenado, Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Omar Vizquel, Keith Hernandez, Roberto Alomar, and Mike Schmidt.  If Aernado stays healthy he probably will be top 3 in infield GG awards... Randy Johnson in 2004 had 16 wins.  The Diamondbacks are a team only had 51.  That means Randy accounted for 31% of the teams wins.  He is the only pitcher to win over 30% of his teams games since 1979... Marcus Stroman has 12 starts of 6IP and 2ER or less this season as of June 10th.  The Mets as a team only have 15...Luiz Arrez had three 5 hit games in the span of two weeks in June.  He is the only player to do this since Ty Cobb... As of June 19th, Shohei Ohtani leads the angels in ERA, Wins, Ks, BAA as a pitcher, and BA, HR, Runs, SB, and RBI as a hitter.  MGM Sportsbook has him as a -500 favorite to win MVP... Top 5 SB guys since the year 2000 - Dee Gordon, Starling Marte, Billy Hamilton, Rajai Davis, and Elvis Andrus.

Hoff's Hot Takes Power Rankings - Ryan Star, Mike Kloss, Joe Gaza, Bill Brey, Micah Yarbs, Alex Berry

Playoff Standings - Mike Kloss, Ryan Star, Bill Brey, Joe Gaza, Micah Yarbs, Alex Berry

Hoff's Hot Takes (TM)
Powered by Webnode
Create your website for free! This website was made with Webnode. Create your own for free today! Get started