Baseball is a Team Sport, exhibit #781:

The top 5 Teams in the AL, by Wins. And along with those, the LA Angels:
NYY 59
HOU 53
BOS 45
TAM 45
TOR 45
LAA 38

Next, I add the (bb-ref) WAR of the top 2 players on each team

NYY 59 .. 6.0 Judge, Cortes …. 31
HOU 53 . 7.8 Alvarez, Tucker .. 23
BOS 45 .. 5.9 Devers, Pivetta .. 17
TAM 45 .. 5.3 McLanahan, Diaz 18
TOR 45 .. 6.0 Kirk, Manoah ….. 17
LAA 38 .. 8.1 Ohtani, Trout …….. 8

The # at the end is “rest of team WAR”; defined by team WAR minus top 2 WAR, minus 22.

No way we would ever see Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen have great years while the Bulls go 36-46.

NYY 59 .. 6.0 Judge, Cortes …. 31

Not that it detracts from the point made in #1, but LeMahieu (3.0) & Torres (2.9) currently have more WAR than Cortes (2.4), according to BB-Ref.

That Nick Pivetta is the 2nd best player by WAR on the 3rd-ish best team in a league, is enough to make question WAR. ;)

He was such a mess with the Phillies.

thanks YC. I was lazy and saw Cortes on the top 10 WAR pitcher list, and didn't look further down at position players. Very lazy.

It is probably a bit easier to just use WAA for something like this. Same story, less adding and subtracting. :-) Yanks are about 18 WAA with Judge and Torres responsible for 4.5 of that; Angels are -0.6 WAA with Trout/Ohtani combining for 5.4. So the rest of the Angels roster is about 6 wins below average, the rest of the Yanks roster about 13-14 wins above average (in half a season! ... that's still about a 667 team).

While obviously the arrival of Pippen helped a lot (and pushed the Bulls to perennial champ level), the rest of the roster was a big improvement. Krause had been taking a pretty Angels-like approach to that point. The year before Pippen's arrival, the Bulls went 40-42 with a non-Jordan lineup of Oakley, Paxson, Gene Banks, Dave Corzine, Earl Cureton, Brad Sellers, Sedale Thrett and Steve Colter. If that's not the Trout Angels of the NBA I don't know what would be. When Pippen arrived they did improve to 50 wins although that wasn't much to do with Pippen who got only 20 minutes a game -- the lineup was much the same, they just played better defense. Oakley out, Cartwright in, Pippen to the starting lineup didn't make a big difference the next year.

Maybe the Angels need to hire Phil Jackson.

Aaron Judge not in the lineup for Yankees @ Boston, with ‘lower body soreness’. He didn’t start Sunday, Monday was an off-day, but he looked pretty good last night, so who knows what to make of it, but a game without Judge is less entertaining.

Cardinals are playing a lineup of mostly subs---Yepez, Nootbar, Sosa, Capel, Romine---and they've struck out 6 times in two innings vs. the Braves' Spencer Strider.

I miss the old O'Neill-Bader-Carlson outfield----seems like it's been intact for about 10 games this season.

I expect Matt Liberatore to last somewhere between 3 and 4-2/3 innings today.

Josh Donaldson’s Grand Slam, followed by Aaron Hicks’ solo shot, helps fill the entertainment deficit caused by Judge’s absence from the line-up. 5-0.

The Yankees either do not score at all, or binge on Grand Slams and back-to-back homers.

Cardinals are currently on pace for a 27 strikeout game. (3 completed innings)

The cardinals have a chance to completely implode by the AS break. They have a rough schedule, the pitching (which was bottom 10%) is getting worse, and the hitters have stopped hitting. Can't really blame injuries too much. Only Bader and O'Neill have been out.

This is the third season in a row when the team has basically relied on Wainwright and a mish mash of other pitchers. When you are counting on your rotation to be a 40 year old, a couple rookies and some vets with previous arm injuries, it's not going to end well. They made one signing for Matz which was good and he promptly sucked and then was hurt (possibly related ).

Yet another "transition" year waiting for Molina and Pujols and Wainwright to leave while we waste great seasons from Goldschmidt and Arenado.

At least the second half schedule looks easier

Strider has gotten nine outs against STL and all nine have been strikeouts. What's the record for consecutive strikeouts and consecutive strikeouts to start a game.?

Cardinals are playing a lineup of mostly subs---Yepez,

I agree it seems a subby like lineup, but Yepez has the third most homeruns on the team, 4th most total bases and a 133 ops+ for the season and 7th most pa on the team. He's getting playing time because he has earned a starting position.



On another game thread it was wondered about teams with 100 ops+ at all positions, the Cardinals as constructed right now, have 100 ops+ at all positions except catcher if you consider Carlson the centerfielder. (Donovan and Yepez corner fielders and Gorman second base) Sadly it's a relatively poor/average defensive team when you do that.

Strider has gotten nine outs against STL and all nine have been strikeouts. What's the record for consecutive strikeouts and consecutive strikeouts to start a game.?

According to baseball almanac

Most strikeouts by a pitcher through innings
1st inning = 4 (Hough, Young, Finley, Burnett)
2nd inning = 7 (Dreifort)
3rd inning = 9
4th inning = 11
5th inning = 13
6th inning = 16 (Randy Johnson)
7th inning = 17 (Clemens/Sale)
8th inning = 19 (Clemens)
9th inning 20.


So my guess is at best 11, but at least 9.-- if you are talking outs recorded via strikeout, since Strider wasn't consecutive.

I expect Matt Liberatore to last somewhere between 3 and 4-2/3 innings today.

I thought this was gonna be the inning he imploded: Liberatore had second and third, nobody out to start the bottom of the 4th, but got out of it wihtout allowing a run. Still zip-zip.

EDIT: And Strider didn't strike out anyone in the top of the 4th. Still, 9 Ks through four is pretty good.

Yankees score a run in 5th on Hicks ‘triple’ off base of RF wall that Jackie Bradley let up on, apparently thinking it was going out, followed by Trevino’s pop-up that Franchy Cordero overruns between the mound & 1st base line. Scored as a ‘double’, much to Bob Costas’ consternation. 6-2.

EDIT: Scoring changed to error on Cordero (Costas applauds).

I expect Matt Liberatore to last somewhere between 3 and 4-2/3 innings today.

And he's pulled after 4. Not a terrible outing---6 baserunners, zero runs---but I guess Marmol believes a third time through the order might not go so well, and I have to agree.

Jordan Hicks now on in relief, and he should be able to go three easily, if he doesn't put a bunch of runners on.

A saw a report indicating the "pop-up double" has been reclassified as E3.

A saw a report indicating the "pop-up double" has been reclassified as E3.

Box score indicates this is the case. I don't remember ever seeing an error ruling on a ball like that which went untouched.

Devers with his second homer of the night off Cole. Now slugging 1.087 in his career against him. Sox within 1.

Jordan Hicks now on in relief, and he should be able to go three easily, if he doesn't put a bunch of runners on.

Hicks--who began the year as a starter---is pulled after two scoreless innings and 34 pitches.

His replacement, Gallegos, allows a game-tying homer to the first batter he faces.

The all-time record for consecutive Ks at any point in the game is 10 (Corbin Burnes most recent I think). Looks like 9 is the record for the start of the game set by Pablo Lopez of the Marlins in July last year so I guess tied today by Strider.

Jose Abreu on first, 2 outs, pitch very much in the dirt, C makes a very fine pick but Abreu has already taken off. C gets ready to gun him out at 2nd but Abreu stops halfway. C does the correct thing (when's the last time I saw that?) and runs straight at him. Abreu starts to move towards first but just gives up ... then seems to be "hurry up and get out here and tag me."

The all-time record for consecutive Ks at any point in the game is 10 (Corbin Burnes most recent I think). Looks like 9 is the record for the start of the game set by Pablo Lopez of the Marlins in July last year so I guess tied today by Strider.

It wasn't consecutive for Strider, not really it was 9 k's for 9 outs, but he allowed a hit and a walk in the first inning, and a hit in the third inning.

Well heck, probably half the games these days feature 9 Ks in 3 half-innings with some HRs and walks tossed in. :-)

A saw a report indicating the "pop-up double" has been reclassified as E3.

And then it was changed back to a double again, by the official scorer Stevie Wonder.

A saw a report indicating the "pop-up double" has been reclassified as E3.

But then it was changed again, for reasons that elude me (and Bob Costas), Trevino’s double has been restored, and Cordero’s error elimated.

Whatever the scoring decision, that run won the game - a bit of a gift.

Each team scored a run in the tenth. Still dislike this rule. Don't hate it, just dislike it, would prefer two innings or so before you put the phantom runner on. And no matter what anyone tells me, I think it heavily favors the home team.

30 Ks in the Atl/Stl game so far

Blue Jays left-fielder Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. catches up to the Mariners Dylan Moore’s fly ball in the middle of the warning track, only to have it bounce out of his glove & over the wall for a HOME RUN! That too isn’t an error.

Somehow with a man on second to start the inning, with two consecutive base hits to start the inning, the Cardinals still only manage one run.

As I'm sure you're all aware -- cuz the baseball world has been positively abuzz about it -- the Cubs have won 9 of their last 14. That's likely to come crashing to halt with 4 at Dodgers then home for 4 with the Mets plus Hendricks has joined Stroman, Miley and Smyly on the IL. The rotation at the moment is the surprisingly effective Justin Steele (2.72 ERA in June/July), the less surprisingly but very effective Keegan Thompson (126 ERA+), the miraculously non-sucky Adrian Sampson, the son of the wrong Leiter and Matt "12 HR and 15 BB in 32 IP but somehow not historically bad results" Swarmer. Unless one of the real guys is ready to come off the IL, we might see Killian again or possibly Gsellman (off the 40-man). The bullpen will be running out of gas quickly with all those 3-4 inning starts.

The offense remains solid. We can even put 7, maybe even 8, average or better hitters in the lineup at the same time. Morel keeps going along OK -- 799 OPS over the last month or so despite a 37% K-rate in that stretch. I think Ross has to find more PT for Nelson Velazquez (one of our kids) but that probably won't happen until we make some trades. Still too much PT going to guys who don't really deserve it and an apparent unwillingness to move Wisdom to 1B.

Consider that your mid-season Cubs update.

Meanwhile for the loyal readers of the Akil Baddoo newsletter who have been wondering what happened to the 2022 edition ... well Akil took care of that by being really, really, really bad in his first 55 PA and getting sent down then promptly got hurt. He's been back with the Mud Hens for the last month where he's hit 314/418/547 so we may be seeing him again soon.

I just turned on Padres-Giants to see a scary scene: Jurickson Profar took a knee to the head in a collision with Abrams and was down for a while. Tried to walk off, had to sit down. Tried again, got about halfway and kind of collapsed. He’s still responsive but they’re carting him off.

He’s smiling at the doctors as they’re strapping him onto the cart, so that’s good. Fist pump for the crowd on the way out.

Another mid-season-y update

R/G 2022 2021 2019
Apr 4.03 4.26 4.63
May 4.43 4.41 4.79
Jun 4.49 4.66 4.97

HR% 2022 2021 2019
Apr 2.45 3.08 3.44
May 2.86 3.01 3.58
Jun 3.14 3.42 3.67

#35 ... sounds a bit like the Alvarez-Pena collision last week. Looked pretty minor to me in real time but both stayed down for a while. Pena got up first but still had to come out. Alvarez stayed down for quite a while and had to be carted off (responsive at least by then). Fortunately Pena missed just one game; Alvarez two.

But then it was changed again, for reasons that elude me (and Bob Costas), Trevino’s double has been restored, and Cordero’s error elimated.

Tomorrow they will change it to a single and an error, and then they will change it to catcher's interference because, why not.

Bill James had written earlier this season that Franchy's defense had cost the Red Sox two games. I guess this is the third.