What on earth is up with this BB season?
 

So many of the best players having bad to mediocre years.
Harper. Machado. Altuve. Jose Ramirez. Sale. Betts. Probably others. What gives?

Have analytics finally gotten to the point that unique vulnerabilities are being exposed on certain more established guys that they simply cannot react to and address very quickly?

Just flyer on that one . . . .

Nobody has figured out how to stop Trout. And I am sure lots of others are having good years. Also, even if you know someone's vulnerability, it's damn hard to exploit it for most pitchers.

Now one place it did seem to work was the heavy overshift against Harper. Is that still going on have not seen a Phillies game this year.

The season is less than halfway over, so some of those players will have better second halves. The one most surprising to me is Chris Sale, because he is having such a bad season. And another under performer is Jacob Degrom. He was unhittable last year, this year maybe a little better than average.

Some thoughts about the season from my perspective: since I spend time in Florida, I've gotten to watch a fair number of Tampa Bay Rays games. Wow, am I impressed. Lowest payroll in baseball, and these guys know how to play the game. Austin Meadows is fantastic and I believe this is his rookie season. If so, shoo in for ROY.

Yankees deserve an award for the best team ever in terms of overcoming almost an entire roster on the IL. I am very impressed by the young kids they brought up as replacements.

And why is the best team so far the Minnesota Twins? I haven't seen them play, but if somebody could explain how they have overachieved to this extent, I would be interested.

Does the NL not count? Best team in baseball is the Dodgers. sucks that just as Seager was heating up he pulls a hammy, plus Bellinger is finally cooling down. With their loaded lineup was kind of hoping it would be a case of "who's next" Their big vulnerability is their pen. Still don't understand the Joe Kelly signing.

You're correct, the Dodgers are great. But they were expected to have a great team. And Bellinger should be MVP. Who picked the Twins to be this good?

It's now all about home runs, strikeouts and deep bullpens. If I was commissioner for a day, I'd lower the mound and dejuice the ball before it's worked before. It's either that of 40 guys hitting 40 home runs.

In the game between the Phillies and Diamondbacks a few days ago, a major league record of 13 home runs were hit.

Meadows had 165 PAs last year, so he's just a super soph. I follow him closely as my Nephew and Niece both attended and taught at Grayson HS, where both he and his brother, Parker played. Parker is also a pro.

Clint Frazier and Austin Meadows were HS rivals and were both drafted in the first round of the 2013 draft. Oddly, they were both traded by the teams that drafted them, only to shine with their second team.

Thanks Raymond. I knew he played some last year but didn't know if he had lost his eligibility.

Here is a great play I saw him make. During one of his at bats he was hit near the knee with a fastball and was writhing in the dirt. First thing I thought was he was headed for the IL. After a couple of minutes of hobbling around he decided to stay in the game and give it a shot.

A few pitches later he stole second base.