TWiB Notes -- June 16 thru 22

[Frayed Knot]

So the big news today is that Shohei Ohtani will be tonight's starting pitcher for the Dodgers against the rival Padres. This all despite Dave Roberts saying, just a week or two ago, that the most likely return to the mound for him would be post-ASG. But such is the state of LAD pitching these days.

Now he's essentially being slated as an opener tonight and it's highly likely he only goes one inning. But it's not like they were about to send him out on a rehab stint in the minors since that would rob them of their best hitter so this sounds like a good way to break him in. It will be his first game on the mound since ditching that other SoCal team for the Dodgers at a rate of $16.85/hr for the next decade or so before finally collecting, like, $10 billion in deferred cash during the 2040's

The Dodgers, still two games behind the Mets despite our lost weekend, lead the Giants by 2.0 games, the Pads by 3.0, the DBacks (now 36-35) by 6.5 and the Rox by 137.48



Tonight's other debut will be Giancarlo Stanton for the Yanx as they host the (surprisingly-not-so-terrible) Angels (33-37). And though I may have to investigate further, this might be the first time Stanton and Mike Trout will be on the same field at the same time as Trout has now played every LAA game since returning to action on 5/30.



Phils will be slumming in Miami for the next four nights whilst we tangle with the Braves to start the week.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Zack Wheeler, who is having one of baseball's best pitching seasons this year, will retire at the end of this season.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=195473 time=1750106936 user_id=68]
Zack Wheeler, who is having one of baseball's best pitching seasons this year, will retire at the end of this season.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wow. He has two years left on a three-year $126 million contract.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Oops, I just looked it up. He plans to retire at the end of the 2027 season, when his contract is over and he'll be 37 years old.

[Edgy MD]

Gerritt Cole may be the last pitcher to win 200 games for a long while. And Cole is no lock.



If Wheeler drops out of the running, the next guys who seemingly have a chance are a long way off — guys like Logan Webb, Tarik Skubal, and (I guess) Paul Skenes.

[metirish]

Wheeler will retire after the 27 season, that covers the current contract

[batmagadanleadoff]

If it's 2027, it's not nearly as big a deal as I first thought.

[metirish]

Right, and several teammates aren't sure he wil



Anyway here's one article



https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/zack-wheeler-plans-to-retire-after-2027-mlb-season-is-phillies-ace-headed-for-hall-of-fame/https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/zack-wheeler-plans-to-retire-after-2027-mlb-season-is-phillies-ace-headed-for-hall-of-fame/

[batmagadanleadoff]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: =batmagadanleadoff post_id=195473 time=1750106936 user_id=68] Zack Wheeler, who is having one of baseball's best pitching seasons this year, will retire at the end of this season.

Goes into the Hall of Fame as a Phillie.

[Frayed Knot]

Certainly a Madoff casualty and possibly also of the 'Pons risk-averse ways. Who knows if they sign him even w/o the Madoff troubles.

That said, he's been a much better pitcher in his '30s/as a Philly than he ever was in his 20's/as a Met



NYM: Never an ERA under 3.25 and only once a WHIP under 1.26 [2018 = 1.12]

PHI: Only once an ERA over 3.00 [2023: 3.61] and only once a WHIP over 1.1 [2019 = 1.17]



Career NYM: 126 games, 3.77, 1.29

Career PHI: 147 games, 2.92, 1.02 and has essentially never missed a start [31, 11 (Covid), 32, 26, 32, 32, 14 (to date)]





That he'd retire after the end of the contract/'27 season certainly makes more sense than four months from now.

But even then I wonder why he'd make that public now.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Wheeler finished in the top 10 in FIP in each of his last two Mets seasons and over the last half of 2019, was one of the NL's half dozen or so best pitchers. He had overcome terrible injuries to the beginning of his career and was a pitcher obviously on the rise when he signed with the Phillies after the 2019 season.



https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=nl&qual=y&type=8&season=2019&month=1000&season1=2019&ind=0&startdate=2019-07-01&enddate=2019-11-01&team=0&sortcol=18&sortdir=default&pagenum=1https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=pit≶=nl&qual=y&type=8&season=2019&month=1000&season1=2019&ind=0&startdate=2019-07-01&enddate=2019-11-01&team=0&sortcol=18&sortdir=default&pagenum=1

[batmagadanleadoff]

We're about halfway through June and Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil are arguably among the 10 best NL hitters this month, so far. Alonso is having one of the league's best months and you can make the case that Soto's June -- he has a .508 OBP -- is even better than Alonso's.



https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=nl&qual=y&type=1&ind=0&startdate=2025-06-01&enddate=2025-06-17&team=0&month=1000&season1=&season=https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat≶=nl&qual=y&type=1&ind=0&startdate=2025-06-01&enddate=2025-06-17&team=0&month=1000&season1=&season=

[Frayed Knot]

Ohtani wound up giving up one run in a 28-pitch 1st inning, one which ended a lot better than it started: Single - Wild Pitch - Single - Sac Fly - GO - GO

But the Dodgers hung six on Dylan Cease and rode seven different pitchers to a 6 - 3 win





Yanx lose to Angels 1-0 in 11 innings. Stanton had two hits; Judge went 1-3 (plus 2 IWs)

Judge is currently 3 for his last 20 and his BA has plummeted to .377 At this point he'd have to go 30 for his next 60 to get back to .400 ... which is why no one ever hits .400

He was last at .400 on May 21st





Phils beat the Marlins for their fifth straight win

[Fman99]

Right, and several teammates aren't sure he wil Anyway here's one article https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/zack-wheeler-plans-to-retire-after-2027-mlb-season-is-phillies-ace-headed-for-hall-of-fame/https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/zack-wheeler-plans-to-retire-after-2027-mlb-season-is-phillies-ace-headed-for-hall-of-fame/

Seems like if he finishes the 2027 season, at age 37, and still has good stuff, there's no reason why he might not just sign a sequence of short term 1-2 year deals (not unlike what Verlander + Scherzer have done) to extend his career as long as he's still great. Which he is, to be sure.

[Edgy MD]

Imma guess the Red Sox suspected discontentments of Rafael Devers was potentially contagious.

[Frayed Knot]

Yanx getting ready to send out the Bat Signal for their offense.

Lost their fifth straight tonight which now includes three straight shutouts. Their scoring output over that time has been 1, 3, 0, 0, 0 (and that includes one 10 and one 11 inning game). And if you want to go back to their last win (a week ago Thursday in KC) they won that one 1-0 so that's 5 runs scored over a six game/57 inning span.

[Edgy MD]

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced today that they were https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/dodgers/2025/06/19/dodger-stadium-ice-raid-video-scenes/84277897007/forced to block ICE agents from entering the Dodger Stadium.

[Frayed Knot]

The Mets in the doldrums tends to diminish my interest in out of town baseball goings-on, but a couple of notes from the last 24 hours or so.





- the Yanx broke their six game losing streak this afternoon, 7-3 vs LAA, and in doing so scored as many runs today as they had in their seven previous games combined, a stretch which even includes the last game they won (1-0).



- the Nats broke their 11 games losing streak earlier today and, perhaps even better for their collective psyche, saved themselves from the humiliation of being swept by the Rockies (although it took them 11 innings before they sealed the 'W' at home). Rox now 8-9 in June which, while not good, is a big improvement on their 4 - 24 month of May!!!



- the Rays continue to rack up runs despite having good, though hardly top-notch, offensive stats (14th in OPS). On Wednesday night they got down to Baltimore 8-0 after 2 innings ... and then calmly shut out the O's for the rest of the game while putting up 12 runs on 17 hits for a 12 - 8 victory. So they're not just picking on us.

[Frayed Knot]

Remember that full-out belly flop Chris Sale did to field a Soto bouncer for the 1st out of the 9th inning in Wednesday's game? No? Well probably many of you had quit watching by that point but it seemed like a slightly unnecessary risk at the tail end of a 5-0 game, one which Sale would wind up leaving two batters later still one out short of a CG.

So anyway, turns out he broke a rib on the play and is now IL'd. All of which means we won't have to face him next week.

If I actually believed in Karma I would attribute all this to the Braves rearranging their rotation in order to get him to face the Mets, but it is what it is no matter what you believe.

[Frayed Knot]

LSU gets a CG 1-0 shutout to take Game 1 of the CBBWS over Coastal Carolina (which, as it turns out, is in South Carolina ... that would have been my second guess).

[MFS62]

Coastal Carolina College is in Myrtle Beach, right near the North Carolina border. So your geographical instincts aren't too far off.

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

Juan Soto is heating up.



He now ranks in the NL top 10 in bWAR, offensive bWAR, OBP, Runs scored, HR's, OPS+, times on base and leads the league in walks with more than 10% the number of walks of the next closest player (Kyle Schwarber). He is a strong candidate for June player of the month award.

[Frayed Knot]

Nice of the Braves to not only lose today but two of three to the Marlins over the weekend [2-6, 7-0, 3-5] dropping them to 6 G under .500 despite last week's sweep.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Angels manager Ron Washington out indefinitely with a health issue.