Dusty Baker did his best to sit him out enough games in September that I thought it was in doubt, but AR hit a 3-run homer in the 1st inning today to give him 25 homers and 100 RBI for the season. He's pretty much set career highs in every statistical category this season, and should finish over .300 for the season too. BTW, Rendon still has a ways to go to match Lance Berkman's RBI totals (Lance went over 100 RBI six times in a season in his career).

Should be a fun MLB postseason with 4 Owls in the postseason (although one wonders how much any of the others will play besides Rendon).

1x3 so he ends the season batting .301. He's also 4th in the majors in WAR (wins above replacement, don't ask me how they determine this), behind Aaron Judge, Jose Altuve, and Giancarlo Stanton. I kind of think Stanton will win the NL MVP, especially if he gets homer #60 this afternoon. But Rendon is getting some attention, although the Nats pretty much have 4 stars in him, Harper (who was hurt the last month of the season), Murphy and Zimmerman. It wouldn't shock me if Rendon finishes 2nd in the MVP race.

I think Rendon is still off the radar for MVP -- maybe will finish 5th, at best. Stanton, Votto, Goldschmidt, others getting more talk.

If the Nationals can advance, and AR has a good postseason, he will be better known going forward. The tone of announcers and color commentary on AR has changed a lot during this season, much more positive.

Regarding Cingrani: Do we know yet if he has made the postseason roster?

(10-02-2017 09:12 AM)grol Wrote:  Regarding Cingrani: Do we know yet if he has made the postseason roster?

Newspaper and fansite comments have been favorable. For example:

1) http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la...story.html

Quote:The [Dodgers'] playoff bullpen should be:

Tony Cingrani: He has pitched well in September, with a 1.04 ERA and a 0.923 WHIP to go along with 12 strikeouts in 8.2 innings.

2) http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la...story.html

Quote:The team is likely to carry left-handed relievers Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani, ...

3) https://www.truebluela.com/2017/9/28/163...rld-series

Quote: Tony Cingrani has been fantastic, pitching himself into contention with a 3.00 ERA, 26 strikeouts and only five walks in 18 innings. Left-handed batters are 4-for-28 (.143) with a walk and 13 strikeouts against Cingrani since he joined the Dodgers.

“The slider has been better. The fastball command has been very good. He’s been able to locate it to different quadrants,” [Dodgers manager Dave] Roberts said of Cingrani. “With Tony, it’s a bad visual for a left-handed hitter.”

Cingrani's a lock. Exactly as I'd hoped, the Dodgers did a much better job of utilizing Tony than did the Reds.

(10-01-2017 04:39 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  1x3 so he ends the season batting .301. He's also 4th in the majors in WAR (wins above replacement, don't ask me how they determine this), behind Aaron Judge, Jose Altuve, and Giancarlo Stanton.

He's actually tied with Stanton in the Fangraphs' version of WAR, but well behind in Baseball Reference's version. Without going into too much detail, WAR calculates a player's contribution, mostly in terms of runs (either created through offense or prevented through defense) and then compared to a "replacement" player, that is a hypothetical sub from the bench or minor leagues (i.e. he's about average defensively and below average offensively). It's more than a little frustrating that when we talk about WAR we have to specify whose WAR we're talking about because they can be very different. Sort of points out the problems with an analysis like this.

Quote:I kind of think Stanton will win the NL MVP, especially if he gets homer #60 this afternoon. But Rendon is getting some attention, although the Nats pretty much have 4 stars in him, Harper (who was hurt the last month of the season), Murphy and Zimmerman. It wouldn't shock me if Rendon finishes 2nd in the MVP race.

You're probably right about Stanton. And grol may be right about voting but that'd be a terrible oversight. On the other hand, he's getting more recognition this season than he did in 2014 when he finished 5th so I'm hopeful he'll get more votes. He actually has a legit argument for winning the award but his contributions aren't as flashy as Stanton's 59 HRs.

We forgot Minnesota....

Is Duffey a lock for the postseason? His September was not very good.

(10-03-2017 01:08 PM)grol Wrote:  

We forgot Minnesota....

But who's the second Owl on the Twins? I guess they are counting Chargois with the caveat it is 40-man roster, not the Playoff roster.
https://twitter.com/Twins/status/9152277...12/photo/1

May become academiic. I'm predicting NYY beat Twins tonight.

Which Huskies team is that? Certainly not HBU?

(10-03-2017 03:41 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Which Huskies team is that? Certainly not HBU?

Springer went to UConn.

Yes it's UConn. I'm not sure if they have 5 either but they definitely have 4 in Springer, Matt Barnes of Boston, Nick Ahmed of Arizona, and Scott Oberg of Colorado.

Tyler Duffey is on Minnesota's roster for tonight. But as someone else said, we only have 4 in the playoffs and not 5. Cool graphic nevertheless.

The graphic didn't say they were in the playoffs. Just that these schools had players on the 40-man roster of a playoff team. It's a very liberal interpretation, to help pump up the numbers.

AR's 2017 Stats

AB AVG HR RBI SB OPS OBP
508 .301 25 100 7 .937 .403

Avg. up 20 points above his career, first time to 100 RBI