Over the course of any given calendar year, Major League Baseball is full of oddities. The Dodgers gave the largest pitching contract ever to a starting pitcher who'd never pitched in the majors. The Marlins waved the white flag on their season after about five weeks. Rich Hill signed his eighth career free agent deal with the Red Sox. Heck, Danny Jansen played in the same game for two different teams. All that said, Blake Snell has had one of the strangest calendar years of any player in the game.
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Snell looked absolutely HORRIBLE in the first half, i thought there was no way he was opting out of his deal
But here we are, he’s kind of like Chris sale except he has more ride but worse control
I don’t trust Snell to put the necessary offseason work in to deserve a contract over $200M.
Glad he’s pitching well now and good luck to him in his second foray into free agency sans a qualifying offer hanging over his head. But the man said he had been working out in the offseason and he showed up out of shape. Would you want that player for your team?
A tongue in cheek laugh that his second half is lights out. Reminds me of mid-30s David Ortiz
Strike April and half of May from Blake’s career and he’s flirting with Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, Kershaw, Spawn and Carlton as best lefty ever.
Unfortunately, in April and first half of May he’s right in there with Jaime Moyer
269 career wins Jamie Moyer? I think you got Jamie mixed up with someone else, try again.
Whatever red flags Snell had exiting 2023 he’s done a good job in at least turning them yellow. A 5 IP starter does NOT get $200M contract, period end of story, He’s got the walks down from that unsustainable level which has allowed him to not get pitch counted out of games. He’s dominated with a catcher other than Gary Sanchez. More importantly he’s seeing the 7th with more regularity vs his past usage. I’m not sure the reason he was handled in the past that way. It is crazy he sees the 8th AND 9th innings for the 1st time ever in his 10th season, his 1st complete game is a no-no. Still cannot believe Kevin Cash pulled him in WS game 6,
The guarantee gets to $200M, the years will be more a matter of getting to a good CBT #. I wonder if he is the lefty who figures it out “late” ala Randy Johnson. While the IP suggest his workload has been “light” the number of pitches may say something else? While I was NOT for letting Gausman walk, I wanted zero part of Rodon and was mixed on the Snell signing as I preferred Montgomery. If the SFG brass think this 2024 is a Snell for the next ~ 5yrs, pay the man
I was looking for a lefty who was really average to below average but pitched a lot of years. Moyer to his credit pitched 25 years, but not always well. Career ERA and WHIP not great. He gave up 44 HRs one season! 14 years with an ERA above 4.5. Yep, that Jamie Moyer. When Snell is great, he’s Randy Johnson, when he’s not, he’s Jaime Moyer
Understood, in a weird DYK, Moyer is #35 on the MLB All-Time win list 1 ahead of Jim Palmer, 3 ahead of Bob Feller, which is insane.
When Snell is not right he’s far worse than Moyer, he pitches like #5 and not a top of the rotation guy. Lots of BB lots of traffic and not deep into games.
I don’t know if this is more SF staff magic wando that seems on a regular basis to get more out of the pitchers who come here. But if Snell can maintain this new level of consistency of not even getting thru 6 but now thru 7ip with effective pitch counts this is just a different guy. 2023 he had 180IP in 32 starts so less than 5 2/3 a start in which hes “dominant”?
Maybe Snell should get a contract that only pays him after May.
Second half Snell should be on a different team.
Making a ton of $ this year and only 86ip-a fool and his money soon parted if one wants to guarantee him a ton in his 30s off a hot stretch.
And how much money is Boras giving MLBTR to write this puff piece about his soon-to-be FA client?