I'm sure the fans are thrilled at all the money the team is saving

I noticed that Patrick Corbin is leading the league in Losses for the third straight year. If he stays atop that leaderboard he will be the first pitcher to do that since Phil Niekro (four times, 1977-80). Of course Niekro, while averaging 19 losses a year, was averaging 18 wins. Corbin's average for 2021-23 so far is 7-15.

Of course a bad W-L does not mean you're a horrid pitcher. Pedro Ramos of the Senators and Twins once led the league in losses four years running, .395 W%, and had an ERA+ of 102 over the span. Murry Dickson, with the Pirates, led three straight years in losses, .362, ERA+ of 106. Both Ramos and Dickson were All-Stars once during those stretches (as was Niekro).

Corbin, though, has in fact been horrid (.313, ERA+ of 70).

Right now, the positions held in the Nats’ title run by those four wonderful stars, who’ll earn north of $125 million this season, are held by Abrams, 22, Gray, 25, Thomas, 27, and Candelario, 29, who earn $8.7 million.

Juan Soto is 24. Trea Turner, on the other hand, turns 30 today, so I guess the Nats were right to be rid of him.

Anthony Young was about league average in the process of losing 27 decisions in a row. Those were some fun Mets teams.

I think what bothered many fans is that the Nationals never made a best ‘no strings attached’ offer for Harper or Soto. IIRC, the Harper offer had so much deferred money that it was only ~ $270M in today’s $$ while the Phillies offered $330M with no deferrals. I don’t think the numbers were disclosed on Soto, other than the offer included substantial deferrals. That wasn’t going to get it done for either player.

Of course a bad W-L does not mean you're a horrid pitcher. Pedro Ramos of the Senators and Twins once led the league in losses four years running, .395 W%, and had an ERA+ of 102 over the span. Murry Dickson, with the Pirates, led three straight years in losses, .362, ERA+ of 106. Both Ramos and Dickson were All-Stars once during those stretches (as was Niekro).

heh. I was playing around on BBREF the other day, looking at Cub rosters from the 70's. Bill Bonham was always considered a disaster at the time because of his crappy W/L record. One year he went 11-22. Thing is now, by WAR, that 11-22 was better than Don Sutton's 19-9. From 1973-1977, Bonham went 50-68 with 14 WAR. In those same years, Sutton went 88-50 with 19 WAR. By average, its 10-14 2.8 WAR vs 16-10 3.8.

I think as a general rule its fine to let stars leave, but trading Soto was dumb. He's young and the perfect player to build around. Rebuilding is fine, but the fact the Nats have gone so cheap about it is mind-boggling. You're a big market team, you don't have to dumpster dive for Dominic Smith and Jeimer Candelario.

They're a big market team that had their TV money in limbo and it still isn't all that great

They're a big market team that had their TV money in limbo and it still isn't all that great

And they lost most of any potential windfall from winning the Series and the next year being the Covid year with fewer games and no fans in the stands.

Apropos for the heir to the franchise that was screwed over by the previous short season.

They're a big market team that had their TV money in limbo and it still isn't all that great

Fine, but their payroll is half what it was. They should be able to outspend the Brewers.

So they can be in 4th place in the East?

Four teams can make the playoffs in a division! Seems dumb for any big market team to say "oh no, other teams are too scary and good"

I'm not saying that. I'm saying they suck and spending millions would do very little to change that

It’s fair to debate whether the Nats were justified in slashing payroll because of “where they are in the cycle,” but you still don’t trade a 23 year old with a career 157 OPS+ unless you are getting Juan Soto in return, which was literally impossible.

Bill Bonham was always considered a disaster at the time because of his crappy W/L record. One year he went 11-22. Thing is now, by WAR, that 11-22 was better than Don Sutton's 19-9.

The '74 Cubs pitching staff "benefits" from the team apparently having one of, if not the worst defense of all time; Bonham gets boosted to the tune of 0.80 runs per 9. I buy that the defense was bad, but I'm not confident it was THAT bad. (The team's FIP was 58 points better than its ERA, actually smaller than the 68-point difference they would manage in '75.)

hmm, 1974 Cubs starts, 12+ games

C - SSwisher 85, Mitterwald 57
1B - Thornton 76, BillyWilliams 64
2B - VHarris 50, Rosello 33, Grabarkewitz 29, Sperring 27, Dunn 18
3B - Madlock 120, Fanzone 25, MattAlexander 13
SS - Kessinger 147
LF - JMorales 70, BWilliams 41, Cardenal 30, CWard 18
CF - Monday 135, JMorales 27
RF - Cardenal 105, JMorales 35, LaCock 15 (son of ex-"Hollywood Squares" game show host Peter Marshall)

I still have most of these Topps cards in a nearby closet.

let's see - Thornton and Madlock I think had iron gloves, and Williams was over the hill wherever he played. Cardenal, don't remember him as a "glove," and Swisher was only 22. and had Kessinger and Monday lost more than one step by then?

perversely fascinated by the 2B mess - OPS+ that year
Harris 51
Rosello 39
Grabarkewitz 91
Sperring 47
Dunn 145, in 80 PA

Never heard of Ron Dunn, but he was a September callup that year. maybe he takes over at 2B the following season?

nope. in 1975, Dunn went 3-for-7 in 7 1-at-bat appearances until late May. he seems to be a PH, at age 25, and ultimately bad at it. so he eventually was sent down for 2 months, finished 7-for-44 on the season, and his MLB career was over.

of course, the Cubs 2B in 1975 and beyond was Manny Trillo, acquired from Oakland in the offseason along with veteran relief help in Bob Locker and Darold Knowles in exchange for Billy Williams, who gave the A's a respectable season at DH and then a mediocre one before retiring. tough luck, Mr. Dunn !

Trillo didn't hit much for the Cubs, 1975-78, but improved after going to the Phillies with vets Greg Gross and Dave Rader for Ted Sizemore, Barry Foote, and Jerry Martin (I miss the days when 5 or 6 or more guys on Topps cards all could get dealt in the same trade !).

I miss the days when 5 or 6 or more guys on Topps cards all could get dealt in the same trade !

"Break out the airbrush!"

haha, the ineptitude of some of the cards was a highlight.

as a very young kid, I was mystified by some of my first cards of 1968 and 1969. not only did some of these guys not even look to me like ballplayers, some had been out of the majors for years - looking at you, John Tsitouris 1968 Topps card !

he pitched in 1 MLB game in 1966 and 2 in 1967 - yet he got a card anyway that claimed "... the Reds are counting on this veteran for substantial support in '68."

sure they were - the 31-year-old was released in early May after 3 poor outings and never played in the majors again. Bobby Locke only pitched 121 innings in the bigs from 1962-67 - no problem, said Topps, which featured a card of him sans baseball cap and possibly not even in a baseball jersey, either. he then racked up a dreadful 6.44 ERA for the Angels in his final season, with a Topps fake-news blurb of "Bobby can be a valuable fireman for the Angels in '68." (to be fair, he did have 2 SV !)

the truth was, iirc, there was a dispute among many MLB players at how cheap Topps was with them. so not only did some has-beens/never-weres get cards, some of the 1968 and 1969 cards use the same photo (only the border was different).

The '74 Cubs pitching staff "benefits" from the team apparently having one of, if not the worst defense of all time; Bonham gets boosted to the tune of 0.80 runs per 9. I buy that the defense was bad, but I'm not confident it was THAT bad. (The team's FIP was 58 points better than its ERA, actually smaller than the 68-point difference they would manage in '75.)

He also had a lower FIP than Sutton that year and consequently beats Sutton in FanGraphs WAR as well. Not bad for a player I'd literally never heard of until this thread.

FWIW this place had another pretty long discussion on whether the 70’s Cubs defense really did suck like the numbers suggested. Several of the heavy hitters were involved and landed on yes it did. Think it was tied to fat guy being a hall of famer

Because the search sucks ass cannot find thread. But know it exists.

ranking the worst-ever 3Bs for fielding

no idea why this is on MSN.com, but they rate them:

1. Wayne Gross
2. Bill Madlock
3. Butch Hobson
4. Edwin Encarnacion

(I was this years old the first time I ever saw a list with exactly four slots)

The 1968 & 1969 cards used the funky photos because players weren’t posing for new ones because the MLBPA was trying to get a better deal from Topps.

Germans Were Right to Invade Russia