evan

RIP Luis Valbueno and Jose Castillo. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/sports/luis-valbuena-jose-castillo-.html

AL MVP. *The* greatest individual season by a Red Sox player in my lifetime. Higher wRC+ than any of even Papi's best seasons (tied with Manny's 2002 season for best wRC+ in my lifetime) and the 2nd highest WAR by a Sox player ever behind only Yaz's 1967 season. The 2nd 30/30 (HR/SB) season by a Red Sox player ever, the other being Ellsbury in 2011.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-yankees-now-have-a-second-ace/

the only real issue with Paxton is he has only thrown more than 150 innings once, he hasn't exactly been a workhorse. But when he's on the mound, he's an ace caliber pitcher (5th best FIP and 7th best xFIP among starting pitchers since 2016). he had some issues with home runs this year, but he had a HR/FB rate well above his career norm which should probably see some regression next year (though Yankee Stadium might not help much in that regard). His K/BB rates are great. Sheffield's pitched well in the minors and is highly touted, but he has command issues and for someone so highly touted his peripheral stats come across as pretty "meh" (fairly pedestrian strikeout rates (save for the 12+ K/9 when he repeated AA) and high walk rates). I think the Yanks did very well in this trade.

I'm hoping for a great tri-state winter in that the Yankees won't be able to dig out for the 2019 season.

He was probably tipping his pitches, but I don't think it affected him that much. As you said, his location was just awful. He looked much better in game 5 getting two 3 pitch strikeouts.

Kimbrel looked much better last night than he has all postseason, the fastball command was there. I'd be all for a change if the rest of the pen wasn't so shaky.

Or, you know, the best scoring offense in baseball got to him.

DEVERS!!! LETS DO THIS!

https://deadspin.com/the-brewers-hate-manny-machados-guts-1829809844 Never cared for Machado, but he's really taken the bush league play up a notch over the last week. Classless.

Take away that abysmal June (5-21) and you have a team that was 72-64 otherwise. 38-30 in the 2nd half. Mets were let down by a blah offense (though Nimmo and Conforto look good and McNeil is looking pretty intriguing) and god awful defense (and yet, they may not have even been the worst defensive team in the NL East). I could see them in the mix next year especially if they do bolster the lineup, but the NL East could be even tougher. Braves/Phils are young talented teams and while the Nats might lose Harper, there's still a pretty decent core of players there IMO. Marlins just need to be moved to Montreal.

Red Sox: +229 run differential Astros: +265 run differential Might be the best playoff matchup in a while, though last year's Astros/Yankees series (+196 and +198 respectively) was pretty damn good. Even crazier to think these teams are in the same league. Again, this probably says a bit about the disparity in the AL between the top and bottom teams.

Stanton vs. sub-.500 teams in 2018: .232/.329/.438, 12 doubles, 20 home runs in 407 PA Stanton vs. .500+ teams in 2018: .310/.362/.601, 22 doubles, 1 triple, 18 home runs in 298 PA He had an OPS over 1.000 against the Sox and Rays. Also, 30 of his home runs were hit with the game within 3 runs. Complaining about the offense that was 2nd in the AL in runs scored and led in home runs seems kind of silly. Seems to me like the biggest issue was the rotation depth and their inability to pitch deep into games.

Lol @ Eli.

They gave up a lot, but it's not like it thinned out their system too much. I don't think they mortgaged their future much (if at all). https://www.minorleagueball.com/2018/8/24/17779560/los-angeles-dodgers-top-20-prospects-for-2018-mid-season-review