(KMAland) -- For the first time in 2017, I am posting a blog in the month of July. Yes, July is here, and as a friend of mine is known to say: "College football starts next month!"
While the college football season is still over 40 days away, he is technically right when he says that…..
Seven Points on a July Monday.
Point 1: Let the tournament trail begin!
The dog days of summer have turned into the most entertaining days of summer. Tonight, the tournament trail gets underway with two Class 1A regional softball first round games. Brent Barnett has Fremont-Mills/East Mills from Malvern on FM at 5:30, and Bryan Clark will call Bedford/Essex on AM at 7:00. Outside of those two games, here are my top three games involving KMAland teams this evening:
3. CAM at Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton – Yeah, Exira/EHK has outscored CAM 14-1 in the two games they've played this year, but you never know what could happen in the postseason. Also, the IGHSAU does a pretty good job of aligning teams so there aren't a lot of heavyweight bouts in the opening round.
2. Stanton at Lenox – The Tigers went to a regional final a year ago, but they lost some pretty solid contributors, including both of their pitchers. Of course, 8th grader TJ Stoaks has become a thing and struck out 229 batters in 183 1/3 innings. Both teams have had years with plenty of positives, but you'd definitely have to say the Tigers are the favorite after beating the Viqueens 10-0 earlier this season. Although, that was in a weekend tournament, and things can get funny in those babies.
1. Southwest Valley at AHSTW, Avoca – AHSTW posted another winning season, and they've been able to claim victories over the likes of Missouri Valley and Treynor while doing it. Southwest Valley, meanwhile, went from 3-20 last year to 9-13 this year and has a very nice win over Nodaway Valley this year. The winner gets Treynor.
As always, we'll have all the scores and all the post-game coverage from our broadcasts later tonight right here at this very website.
Point 2: The NBA and all their billions of dollars
For the second straight year, NBA free agents are signing contracts for crazy amounts of money. And for the second straight year, dummies are whining about it. Let me see if I can make this clear for the people that just don't get it:
-The NBA's 9-year, $24 billion television contract began last season, meaning they will make roughly $2.6 billion per year on the television deal alone.
-The NBA collective bargaining agreement stipulates that players receive between 49 percent and 51 percent of all basketball-related income.
-With all the new money and with the new CBA, the salary cap has risen well over $30 million per team in the last five years.
So, the NBA is making a large amount of money, and the CBA says the players need to get around half of that….do you get it now? Heck, the reason the NBA was able to sign that television deal is because the players have done such a great job of making their league such a marketable product. Don't you think they should be paid in kind for that? Or would you rather the owners just line their pockets?
Point 3: Tyler Flowers was robbed
Yahoo! Sports listed their top 10 All-Star Game snubs yesterday. They had folks like Lorenzo Cain, Jacob deGrom, Chris Devenski, Jimmy Nelson and Alex Wood. While I don't disagree with some of those guys, I think the biggest snub of them all is Atlanta catcher Tyler Flowers. And possibly unlike those other names, I can look at the National League catchers and find an easy replacement.
Follow me here. Baseball Prospectus currently and has been tracking "framing runs" for several years. It's a pretty simple statistic. Basically, it tracks the amount of strikes a catcher steals or loses per chance. In simpler terms, it shows what catchers do the best job of duping umpires into calling balls strikes by their framing abilities. And vice versa. Well….
The best framer in Major League Baseball this year is Flowers, who has been worth roughly 15.5 runs purely on his framing alone. Not only that, when you combine his framing with his blocking with his throwing, Flowers is the best defensive catcher in baseball with 12.2 fielding runs above average (12.2). Flowers has also had a very good season at the plate, hitting .318/.413/.458 with a 136 wRC+ - which means he's been 36 percent better than a league average hitter. Again, I can't bring up a snub without someone he needs to replace. Well, that someone is Yadier Molina.
I took a long hard look at Flowers and Molina last night, and I was just really confused. Is Yadi retiring following this season or something? Why was he thrown this bone? After all, Molina ranks 29th in framing runs and is hitting just .273/.308/.419 with an 86 wRC+ - or 14 percent worse than a league average hitter. Heck, if you don't even include Baseball Prospectus' great work on catching, Flowers still ranks ahead of Molina in FanGraphs' WAR (1.5 to 1.0).
Some might say that Molina deserves the All-Star nod based on his very good career. Well, I'm of the opinion that the All-Star Game is played every year so that guys can be honored for how they are doing in that particular season. The Molina selection makes absolutely no sense even when you don't compare him with Flowers (or Yasmani Grandal for that matter). It looks even worse when you do. Tyler Flowers was robbed.
Point 4: Time to give up on the Royals selling
If you're someone that lives in the here and now, you never wanted the Kansas City Royals to trade Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, Jason Vargas or any of the other core pieces that led them to two World Series and an eventual championship. If you care about the future, though, there has always been that little guy sitting on your shoulder and telling you that it'd probably be best for the future of the Royals organization if they were traded.
Right now, Kansas City has a very bare farm system. They rank among the bottom third of the league. This is due to poor drafting, a lack of actual high draft picks due to signings and wins and to the Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto trades that eventually helped them win the 2015 title. The Royals could have possibly won without one of them or either of them, but I don't know that for a fact – and I wouldn't take those trades back for anything. Flags fly forever.
Anyway, it's time to give up on the thought of the Royals selling. Don't even talk to me about it anymore. It's not going to happen. The Royals could lose 10 in a row starting today, and Dayton Moore would still think they have another run left in them. The 2014 run, the 2015 title, the 2016 late summer streak and this 15 out of 21 current pace has given Moore enough ammo to believe (!!) in these guys.
Along with that, trading these players that we've seen grow up into stars – in the regional sense – would be a major PR hit. There are people out there that really don't understand the business. They see a trade of Hosmer or Moose or Cain or all of them as a "same old Royals" type thing. They don't care if those guys can bring back future stars. They seemingly – without really knowing it – just want Hosmer, Moose and Cain to be the ones to pull the plug…not the Royals brass.
Moore knows this. He knows trading these guys could anger a large portion of the fanbase. He knows that could hurt the ticket sales – and in turn the money coming in. He also knows that they could potentially get a trio of draft picks following the first round if Moosmerain (the combination of the three aforementioned) all sign deals over $50 million (which they all will).
I don't envy Moore's position. I think deep down he knows the smart thing for the future of the franchise would be to sell. I think even deeper, though, he continues to believe that this team has another run left in them. Maybe they do. That would be awesome. I hope it happens. But I also dread the moment they come up short and have nothing but draft picks to show for three (or four or even five) valuable assets.
Point 5: Joakim Soria is good
I think some people still have lingering thoughts from Joakim Soria's nightmare 2016 when he posted a 4.05 ERA and was nothing more than a replacement player (0.0 WAR). That must be the case, because I still see ridiculous tweets and posts about Soria every time he gives up a run. And I'm here to tell you, that has not been very often this year.
Soria has made 36 appearances this year, and he has not allowed a single run in 31 of them. In 17 of those appearances, he hasn't even allowed a hit. After walking seven batters in April, Soria gave away just four free passes in May. And he's been even better since the beginning of June. The Royals right-hander has struck out 18 and walked just two in 13 appearances since June 1st.
Maybe you're still unimpressed and unsold. Well, let's compare him to his peers. Soria, right now, is tied for 9th among relievers in MLB with 1.3 WAR. Only Craig Kimbrel (All-Star), Kenley Jansen (All-Star), Chris Devenski (All-Star snub), Andrew Miller (All-Star), Corey Knebel (All-Star), Roberto Osuna (All-Star snub), Blake Parker (All-Star snub) and Felipe Rivero (All-Star snub) rank ahead of him. Among those nine, Soria's 12.18 K/9 ranks 7th and his groundball percentage of 58.6 percent is 1st. Groundballs are good! They can't go over the fence. Oh yeah, by the way, he hasn't allowed a home run yet this season.
If you are still unimpressed, let me tell you that Soria has 16 shutdowns and 4 meltdowns. These numbers give us a better understanding of how a reliever has performed in important situations. Much better than the sometimes silly save statistic. Shutdowns are good. Meltdowns are bad. For comparison's sake, Wade Davis has 16 shutdowns this year. He's good. And Felipe Rivero has just four meltdowns. He's also really good.
And you want to know the crazy part about it all? Soria has actually been pretty unlucky. When hitters do put the ball in play (not a lot), they have a .375 average on balls in play. That's not because they're hitting the ball hard, either. On balls in play, only 22.7% of them have been identified as "hard hit" by FanGraphs. That's the 16th-lowest percentage among relievers in all of baseball.
So, let's put this all together. Soria has thrown a lot of clean innings, he's struck out a lot of guys, he's been pretty good in clutch situations and he's even been a bit unlucky. When we add that all together what do we get? A very good pitcher. So, stop whining about Soria, ya clowns!
Point 6: All-WAR and other MLB Leaders
Here's your All-WAR team one week away from the All-Star break:
C: Buster Posey, San Francisco (3.1 WAR)
1B: Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona (3.9 WAR)
2B: Jose Altuve, Houston (3.5 WAR)
SS: Corey Seager, LA Dodgers (3.5 WAR)
3B: Justin Turner, LA Dodgers (3.7 WAR)
LF: Marcell Ozuna, Miami (2.9 WAR)
CF: Mike Trout, LA Angels (3.3 WAR) – yes, still!
RF: Aaron Judge, NY Yankees (5.1 WAR)
DH: Corey Dickerson, Tampa Bay (2.8 WAR)
SP: Chris Sale, Boston (5.1 WAR)
RP: Craig Kimbrel, Boston (2.4 WAR)
Now, for some other MLB leaders…
Top Overall Player: Aaron Judge, NY Yankees & Chris Sale, Boston (5.1 WAR)
How much would you pay to watch Chris Sale pitch to Aaron Judge for nine straight innings? I think I would pony up a pretty hefty price. Right now, these are the two best players in all of baseball. And one of them only plays every fifth day.
Top Hitter: Aaron Judge, NY Yankees (196 wRC+)
This is currently 30 percent better than the rest of the league, which doesn't include Mike Trout's 208 wRC+ or Freddie Freeman's 203 wRC+ because they got all injured and stuff. Judge is hitting .327/.448/.687….so he's doing it all.
Home Run King: Aaron Judge, NY Yankees (27 HR)
I saw one of these live and in person at Yankee Stadium. They lost anyway.
RIBBIES King: Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona (66 RBI)
One of the worst statistics known to man, but I know some people like it quite a bit. Goldschmidt has had a lot of baserunners on in front of him, and he's taken advantage of that fact. Give Arizona credit – and give Goldy credit.
Stolen Base King: Trea Turner, Washington
Trea Turner's rampage of steals cost Miguel Montero his job. Well, some might say that his mouth cost him his job, but without Turner stealing all those bases off the very slow pitching Jake Arrieta he never says anything. So, it all goes back to Turner. Unfortunately, Pedro Strop hit him and broke his wrist, and now Billy Hamilton's only contender is probably going to be Dee Gordon.
Top Defender: Mookie Betts, Boston (17 DRS)
Since we're past the halfway point of the season we can start to make some sense out of these defensive statistics. I prefer DRS over UZR because it's easier to understand and explain. Betts has saved 17 runs so far this season. Byron Buxton is right behind him with 16.
Top Pitcher: Chris Sale, Boston (5.1 WAR)
He's striking out a lot of players (12.38 K/9), he's not walking many (1.64 BB/9) and other than a fluke here or there the ball is always staying in the ballpark (0.67 HR/9). He's putting together the perfect pitching season. But guess what? Max Scherzer is gaining on him (4.2 WAR).
Top Reliever: Craig Kimbrel, Boston (2.4 WAR)
Let's take a look…yep, Kimbrel is STILL striking out over half the batters he sees. It's down a little, but it's still up at 50.8 percent. Oh, and he's only walking a career-low 4%. That's ridiculous, Craig. Just ridiculous.
Extra Point: HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
Happy birthday this week to former and current KMAlanders…
Today: Marilyn Cepeda, Erica Sherman, Brooklyn Taylor, Jody Vanderholm, Misty Wissel, Ken McBride, Heidi Fichter, Alyssa Proffitt, Don Lyons, Casey Carstens
Tuesday: Brielle Baker, Sarah Harvey, Mikey Barrett
Wednesday: Josh Degase, Moriah Bohlmann, Shelby Anderson, Rob Sampson, Morgan Lammert
Thursday: Madison Paulsen
Friday: Brayten Funke, Sanden Cheers, Hannah Sederburg, Taylor Rogers
Saturday: Roxie Daffer, Adrienne Mahoney, Lauren Stephens
Sunday: Madison Gettler, Sam Gross, Ashley Ewoldt, Kendall Brown, Noah Thornton
Have a great week!
Send your questions, comments and/or concerns to dmartin@kmaland.com.
Source: Seven Points: Tourney trail, NBA money, Tyler Flowers, Royals won't sell, Soria
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