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- 05/03/2012, 06:33AM ET
The biggest disappointment of MLB '12 so far is...
MagicSpecs said 05/03, 07:22 AM
Albert Pujols and the LA Angels.
I was going to go for Reyes and the Marlins, but when I thought about it a bit more I just couldn't do it.
I know the season is still very young, but IMO enough of the season has taken place to allow this TD. (And let's face it, we're getting desparate). Any disappointment is welcome for this TD whether it is a player, team, manager, event, whatever.
As of right now Prince Albert is batting a cool .208 with no home runs, 5 RBIs, a .252 OBP and a .287 slugging %.
Admittedly, the sample size is smallish, but there are also few (if any) signs of improvement. Pujols has had 101 at bats - representing more than a sixth of a whole season. If Pujols were to total 600 ABs this season he'd need to hit .340 the rest of the way to bring the year back to his career average.
And this comes all on the back of signing the 3rd largest sports contract OF ALL TIME.
Meanwhile, the Angels sit proudly at the bottom of the easiest division in baseball, behind the powerhouse Mariners and A's franchises. Whilst their current deficit is by no means an insurmountable gap, this is disappointing for fans, players and management alike.
Marlins Fan said 05/04, 01:48 AM
Pujols is a great choice and would probably be a better choice than the Marlins' bunch if I were to use any single one of them on their own, but for me the biggest disappointment of the 2012 MLB season so far has been the collective efforts of Miami's top dogs, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Johnson, Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Reyes and Heath Bell.
Real quickly I want to point out where the Angels and Marlins rank in terms of offense:
Angels: 19th in runs
Marlins: 29th in runs
Miami has scored fewer runs than any MLB team not named the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pathetic, especially for a team "loaded" with offensive talent.
Pujols has been bad, but the Angels' offense isn't suffering as much as Miami's because of his struggles. The Marlins, on the other hand, have been absolutely anemic on offense and it really shows in the teams' offensive ranking.
I'll get to the individual stats in the next arguments, but I want to point out some more offensive team rankings:
Marlins: 28th in BA
Angels: 18th in BA
Marlins: 27th in OBP
Angels: 24th in OBP
Marlins: 24th in SLG
Angels: 19th in SLG
Marlins: 26th in TB (total bases)
Angels: 20th in TB
Good topic and good luck.
MagicSpecs said 05/04, 12:27 PM
Direct comparisons between AL and NL offensive numbers are misleading. The Marlins bat every day with 8 hitters and a pitcher, the Angels have 9 hitters. This leads to statistical imbalance.
Despite being bottom of the NL East, Miami is currently just 2 wins out of a wildcard spot. They sit in a thoroughly winnable division, and are still well in contention despite their slow-ish start.
Reyes is showing signs of vintage Jose, with 5 hits, 4 walks and 3 stolen bases in the last 4 days.
Giancarlo "I was better when my name was Mike" Stanton (already developing a reputation as a slow starter - not to mention battling with a nagging knee injury) is also stirring from his slumber with at least 1 hit in each of his last 6 games, and 3 homers during that stretch.
Josh Johnson is so far the unluckiest pitcher of '12. Granted, he's given up 41 hits over his 5 starts, but he's not being hit hard. Of those 41 hits, 37 were singles and 4 were doubles. Not a single homer given up. His BABIP is .436! JJ looks good, and when his BABIP evens out he'll be fine.
Pujols went hitless again last night. It's got so bad that he's shaved his beard.
Marlins Fan said 05/05, 03:54 AM
True; the Leagues have different lineups. However, Kendrys Morales, the Angels' DH, has grand totals of 2 HRs and 8 RBI, so clearly the DH "position" hasn't helped boost the Angels' offensive totals much, if at all.
And those numbers you presented for the Marlins' players... pretty misleading. Let's see if I can put those stats into perspective here...
Jose Reyes is getting on base at a .311 clip. Reyes is hitting .226 overall.
Hanley Ramirez is hitting .198.
Giancarlo (I agree; he was better as Mike) Stanton's OBP is .308.
Those are some of the most putrid offensive numbers I've seen in a long time. The A's laugh at these guys. The Padres snicker about the Marlins.
But Miami's hitting has been a thing of beauty when compared to the pitching of "ace" Josh Johnson and big-money closer Heath Bell.
After getting blown up -again- tonight by allowing 6 earned runs in 2.2 innings, JJ's ERA stands at 6.61. JJ hasn't won a single game this year, despite pitching against bad offensive teams for the most part.
Bell has been even worse. Big Heath blew another save tonight. His ERA is 11.42.
Doesn't get any wose that. Bell should be ashamed of himself.
MagicSpecs said 05/08, 04:56 AM
Firstly, I apologise again for failing to post a response sooner.
Reyes and Stanton have turned the corner. Reyes' OBP over the last 10 games is .413, whilst Giancarlo "I'm OK with my new name after all" Stanton has 6HRs, 12 RBIs and is batting .333 over the same span. Pretty decent.
Whilst HanRam, Johnson and Bell have been undoubtedly putrid, Pujols' production is certainly comparable. But the fact that Pujols is even being compared with players of this lesser calibre is only proof that he is so far the greatest disappointment this season.
Pujols now has 117 ABs for the season, and is BELOW THE MENDOZA LINE. His OPS this year is nearly half of that for his whole career.
Of all the players mentioned so far Pujols had the highest pre-season expectation. As a slam-dunk hall-of-famer to be, fresh from signing the 3rd richest sports contract of all time he hit 7 HRs in spring training. The expectation was that Pujols would maintain his career production and propel the Angels into AL West contention.
Pujols and the Angels have been the greatest disappointment of 2012 to date, because their performance has been the poorest in relation to expectation.
Marlins Fan said 05/09, 01:26 AM
Pujols is going to bounce back. He's in a new League, playing with new teammates against new pitchers... and he's done this before. In 2011 people were all over Pujols' case to start the year because he got off to a slower-than-usual start. Granted it wasn't for the same length of time as it's been this year, but through the first couple weeks of the 2011 season Pujols was hitting well under .300 with only one HR.
More specifically, in April of 2011 Pujols hit .257. In May of 2011 Pujols only managed to hit 2 HR. His numbers were way down and fans were consternated.
But we all know how that story ends. The Cardinals won the World Series; Pujols dominated Rangers' pitching throughout; Pujols had possibly the greatest single-game WS performance in MLB history in Game 3 when he went 5-for-6 with 3 HRs, 6 RBI and 4 runs scored.
All that early-season 2011 worry was for naught; Pujols got back on track and propelled the Cardinals to a WS victory, dominating every step of the way.
Fans are fickle and short-sighted. Pujols is adjusting and it's taking a while, but he'll recover and the Angels will be glad they signed him.
Not so sure about the Marlins players...
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Comments (87) Add A Comment
Jose Bautista?
Save_Me_Jebus: Hello…
Total Comments (1636)
If you don't want this one Marlins let it die. I saw the recent TD you started that Beefy messed up and thought I'd try to bring back some of your belief in this fine (cough) site...
MagicSpecs
England, UK
Total Comments (191)
Agreed. he's projected to hit 25 HR, 77 RBI, .180 AVE, his slugging is almost 1/2 way down. his stats this year are a far cry from 43 HR, 103 RBI, 302 AVE and an AL MVP candidate season.
And the difference: Pujols has world series titles, MVP's and all the hardware. he'll get it going in LA eventually, and he's got a better supporting cast.
nf49erfan
Total Comments (169)
It might be 'disappointing' to Angels fans but it's not even a mild surprise. Hitters changing leagues almost always struggle. The pitcher has the advantage when a hitter hasn't seen him before. Same thing is happening to Fielder to a lesser extent. I think he's on pace to hit about 20 HR.
C-C-C
Total Comments (4330)
Plays in Canada. Few care.
C-C-C
Total Comments (4330)
Plus, this is a guy who sucked for years then had two great years. Wouldn't really come as any surprise if he reverted to sucking.
They probably came up with a test for whatever PED he was using the last two years...
C-C-C
Total Comments (4330)
Ian Stewart.
Assassin: Simile…
Total Comments (32925)
Do you mean Canadians don't care, or americans don't care?
nf49erfan
Total Comments (169)
Players are notorious for "stanking" the first few months after signing large contracts.
Statistics show however, a star will burn bright again.. AP will be back.
OlderthanDirt
Total Comments (2098)
The pressure of the new contract and the expectations that go with it may have an effect but in Pujols case the biggest issue is likely that he just hasn't seen these pitchers before.
C-C-C
Total Comments (4330)
Tough to argue with AP at this point, but there are some other possiblities that MF could argue.
ElevenRingsSTL
Total Comments (3007)
Both. Canadians aren't exactly huge baseball fans in general and Americans don't tend to support teams in another country. I don't recall EVER coming across a Blue Jays fan in the states or an Expos fan anywhere.
C-C-C
Total Comments (4330)
Fair enough. I agree that probably outside of Southern Ontario, no one really cares about the Blue Jays. As for Americans, I guess the only Americans "concerned" with them would be those who are Baltimore or Tampa Bay fans (I'm sure Boston and New York fans aren't really threatened by the success of the Jays). I actually find it amazing how they haven't been to the post season in almost 20 years, and they're still there. But then again I'm amazed the Raptors are still in TO.
nf49erfan
Total Comments (169)
Well, Toronto is Canada's New York or Chicago. It's large enough and diverse enough to support just about anything. The rest of the country, not so much. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Toronto ended up with an NFL team eventually, too.
If you read any of the recent Soccer TD's before they were deleted you know what most American's think about that "sport" but MLS still thrives in metropolitan areas because you only need a very small % of the population as a fan base to be successful. If they tried to put a team in Charlotte or Nashville, however, it would flop horribly even though those cities wildly support more popular sports.
C-C-C
Total Comments (4330)
The NFL would never survive in Toronto. First, the cost of going to a game would be double to triple what a fan going to Orchard Park would pay. Alcohol alone is double or triple, vendors on the streets and in the stadium would charge more, parking would be $20 a car load. Second, tailgating would be a joke. There are designated beer areas to buy and consume beer, and you can't just walk around downtown TO with an open beer can. Third, that market is owned by Argos and (to a lesser extent) Hamilton TiCat fans, who are very loyal, and won't like the NFL on their territory. If you talk to a CFL fan, they are convinced it's better than the NFL. Even the Buffalo Bills games in Toronto don't have the feel of an NFL game.
nf49erfan
Total Comments (169)
And your're right, they love the TFC even though they suck. And TFC gets pretty good European competition, Juve was there for a friendly last year. The game may not have counted, but I bet they drained Little Italy of all residents.
nf49erfan
Total Comments (169)
I don't give into that theory so much. Reason? He came into the NL never seeing many of those pitchers as well but yet he tore them up. I for one DO NOT believe the pitching is better in the AL than it is in the NL.
New surroundings, finding his niche in the batting order with new team mates....He will put up good numbers, he just has to settle in.
OlderthanDirt
Total Comments (2098)
I don't give into that theory so much. Reason? He came into the NL never seeing many of those pitchers as well but yet he tore them up. I for one DO NOT believe the pitching is better in the AL than it is in the NL.
New surroundings, finding his niche in the batting order with new team mates....He will put up good numbers, he just has to settle in.
OlderthanDirt
Total Comments (2098)
flipping double post..............jeez! somethings never change
OlderthanDirt
Total Comments (2098)
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