NFT - Major League Baseball 2023

[Jolly Blue Giant]

As a Yankee fan, I'm psyched that Anthony Volpe made the roster for the Yankees and will be their starting shortstop. He excelled in Spring training (.314 BA, 3 HRs, 5 SBs, flawless fielding) beating out Oswald Peraza and Isiah Kiner-Falefa for the starting shortstop. Peraza played flawless in the field and even showed a bit better that Volpe, but his bat was a little too light

First game: March 30 at home against the San Francisco Giants

Volpe is a New Jersey boy who grew up idolizing Jeter and now he's going to be in Jeter's spot. I hope he kills it because I bought all of Volpe's rookie cards and spent the extra on highly graded ones. Who knows, maybe it will work and maybe not. I have a box of rookie cards that I speculated on that never came to fruition. I remember stocking up on Will Clark's rookie cards 

Anyway, let the season begin

Anthony Volpe robbing a hit

[Gmo11]

This kid is an absolute stud and I can't wait to watch him play.  I was convinced the Yankees would do what they always do and play the expensive guys while sending this poor kid down to the minors again for no good reason.  I'm glad I was wrong.  If they want to pretend that they're playing for championships every year then they damn well better play their best players.  I think Judge speaking out publicly on his behalf really helped save the team from themselves in this case.

[AZGiantFan]

NFT?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

A hype clip of Volpe. One of the things I like about him, is his ability to hit to the opposite field. You can see him drop his elbow (very Jeter-lie) to drive it to the right. And he can hit it out while doing so. Kid's gonna be a star

[TONKA56]

Please add NFT to thread title. I thought this was about middle linebacker.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Just look at the prices on Volpe's rookie card. Ridiculous 

[AZGiantFan]

Just look at the prices on Volpe's rookie card. Ridiculous 

You are generally one of the most reasonable and responsible posters on this board, so I really don't understand why you aren't following the NFT: rules even after it was pointed out to you twice.  Changing MLB to Major League Baseball doesn't fix it.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Nice start for the Yankees. Judge homers in his first at bat. Volpe works a walk in his first at bat and steals second. Cole strikes out 7 of his first 8 batters

[Jolly Blue Giant]

 

My 9-yr old granddaughter is the best player on her little league team and is the only girl. She plays catcher (of all positions) and, on occasion, SS. So the other day, I asked her how much she loves baseball and she said she really loves it. So I asked her who her favorite baseball player was (expecting Judge, Jeter, etc.) and she said, "Patrick Mahommes" 

[DaveBrown74]

This rule of only letting pitchers throw to first twice (unless the third throw is a successful pickoff it's a balk) is interesting. Some interesting strategy there. I'm watching the Mets right now, and they are clearly trying to bait non-base stealing threats into going for it after two throw-overs.

And then with legit base-stealing threats who are really taking big leads, sometimes the right thing is to throw it over a third time and risk the balk if the guy is really taking a greedy lead. You're almost definitely going to concede the SB anyway in that spot most of the time so you might as well take another shot at him and see if you can nail him.

Interesting stuff. Kind of fun.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

This rule of only letting pitchers throw to first twice (unless the third throw is a successful pickoff it's a balk) is interesting. Some interesting strategy there. I'm watching the Mets right now, and they are clearly trying to bait non-base stealing threats into going for it after two throw-overs.

And then with legit base-stealing threats who are really taking big leads, sometimes the right thing is to throw it over a third time and risk the balk if the guy is really taking a greedy lead. You're almost definitely going to concede the SB anyway in that spot most of the time so you might as well take another shot at him and see if you can nail him.

Interesting stuff. Kind of fun.

I watched the Yankee game and the stealing bases was interesting. Volpe and Torres both stole a base in today's game. What the opposing team did do, was have the catcher fire a ball to first base - a whole lot. A pitcher who threw over to first once, didn't throw over a second time unless it was a sure fire out...so no second throws over to first. Interestingly, Volpe takes almost no lead, but starts to take the lead during the windup so he's already moving, and then can tell if the pitcher is committed while he already has momentum and then takes off like a bat out of hell once it's a done deal. I guess he likes to take off with a running lead or something. Anyway, the new rules does make the game interesting and I expect a ton of stolen bases this year and batting averages should go up with no more shifts. Another interesting thing today: The game took 2 hrs 33 minutes    Third shortest opening day baseball game in history

[DaveBrown74]

What's going on with this Volpe kid? People were hyping him up to the point that a Jeter type career would be the base case with him, and that he could be even better. I even heard talk comparing him to DiMaggio talking about how he is going to be a Hall of Fame caliber, great Italian-American sports icon for the ages.

I saw he was at the Rangers game last night having a great time, and that game went to OT late last night. He's free to do as he pleases in his spare time obviously, but he has to know that when he goes 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and an error in a day game the next day against a division foe they're neck and neck in the standings with, that people are going to start to talk. Maybe not the best look when you're hitting .180 and your team is only tied for third. I get it's only April, and it's not a big deal, but he should be careful about what types of habits he gets himself into. Matt Harvey was a big out on the town guy, and we saw what happened there.

The Mets have all kinds of problems but are off to a pretty decent start regardless. Alonso's 10 HRs has certainly help the equation. 14-8 with 16 of their 22 games having been played on the road. Not bad at all.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

What's going on with this Volpe kid? People were hyping him up to the point that a Jeter type career would be the base case with him, and that he could be even better. I even heard talk comparing him to DiMaggio talking about how he is going to be a Hall of Fame caliber, great Italian-American sports icon for the ages.

I saw he was at the Rangers game last night having a great time, and that game went to OT late last night. He's free to do as he pleases in his spare time obviously, but he has to know that when he goes 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and an error in a day game the next day against a division foe they're neck and neck in the standings with, that people are going to start to talk. Maybe not the best look when you're hitting .180 and your team is only tied for third. I get it's only April, and it's not a big deal, but he should be careful about what types of habits he gets himself into. Matt Harvey was a big out on the town guy, and we saw what happened there.

The Mets have all kinds of problems but are off to a pretty decent start regardless. Alonso's 10 HRs has certainly help the equation. 14-8 with 16 of their 22 games having been played on the road. Not bad at all.

He's having really good at bats...a lot of walks, a lot of stolen bases, and stellar defense. Many on the team are below the Mendoza line. Bats are starting out slowly this season for most of the team, and injuries to the pitchers are taking its toll.

Yesterday's game was a hard win for the Yanks. 8 innings and the score still 0 - 0. No one could hit. Then Volpe hit a home run to get the bats started. Only his second HR, but it was at the perfect time to get something going. A lot of games this year having low scoring games, many no-scores going into late innings 

Those low scoring games hurt everyone's average. Volpe has become a bit of a walk master (4 most walks in MLB) to go along with 8 stolen bases. Since he's having good at bats, the average will come. He's hit a lot of solid shots that are right at someone...frustrating 

Regardless, he's going to be good. He's just getting his feet wet on the big stage under the brightest lights

[Gmo11]

What's going on with this Volpe kid? People were hyping him up to the point that a Jeter type career would be the base case with him, and that he could be even better. I even heard talk comparing him to DiMaggio talking about how he is going to be a Hall of Fame caliber, great Italian-American sports icon for the ages.

I saw he was at the Rangers game last night having a great time, and that game went to OT late last night. He's free to do as he pleases in his spare time obviously, but he has to know that when he goes 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and an error in a day game the next day against a division foe they're neck and neck in the standings with, that people are going to start to talk. Maybe not the best look when you're hitting .180 and your team is only tied for third. I get it's only April, and it's not a big deal, but he should be careful about what types of habits he gets himself into. Matt Harvey was a big out on the town guy, and we saw what happened there.

The Mets have all kinds of problems but are off to a pretty decent start regardless. Alonso's 10 HRs has certainly help the equation. 14-8 with 16 of their 22 games having been played on the road. Not bad at all.

As with most rookies, especially rookies that haven't played higher than double A (outside of about a month last year) the book is throw off speed out of the zone and watch them swing and miss. Well Volpe is taking those pitches pretty consistently and getting a ton of walks. It's why he's leading off a lot now after starting the season in the 9 hole.

Now that teams are learning that this is is willing to take his walks they'll be forced to start going after him and that's when the hits will come. I don't k know if this 21 year old kid is gonna hit .300 this year but he's already done more good things than the SS last year did in a full season.

[DaveBrown74]

Any Mets fans here been more excited recently after what had been an utterly dismal season up until a week ago?

While I have always loved the sport of baseball, I usually don't watch a ton of games intently (I may have them on in the background) until the postseason or September if there is a tight race. It take a lot to actually get me somewhat excited to attentively tune in for a Mets game in the middle of the summer. But this Alvarez kid on the Mets has done that for me. He is unreal. I can't remember the last time I was this fired up about a player who was 21 or younger. Maybe Jose Reyes? He is an absolute menace at the plate, and I feel like it's been going on for long enough now that it is not one of these flash in the pan situations where pitchers just haven't figured him out yet. This kid hits absolute bombs. I love his intimidating, tatted up look too. The Mets have a number of guys who are decent enough hitters but don't really scare anyone. This is the type of guy who will scare pitchers. Fun to watch.

The team still has a long way to go though to get me excited about any sort of postseason potential. They were horrid for the first half of the season.