Jorge Lopez -- calling it like he sees it

[bk400]

I wasn't familiar with Jorge Lopez until he Antonio Brown'ed himself last night. Didn't realize he's been in the majors since 2015 -- so long enough to know that management and teammates may not like being called out as the worst in the league. But he's also been around long enough to actually know what he's talking about. Man, I miss the 86 Mets.

[D. Bergin]

Yeah, I looked him up after the incident and was actually surprised how long he's been in the league, considering he's had 1 good 48 inning run with Baltimore in 2022 that got him an invite to the All-Star Game, after which Baltimore knew they were playing with house money and dumped him at the top of his market for Yennier Cano (an upgrade in the bullpen since) AND a bunch of prospects.

Reminded me of Luis Tiant throwing his glove in the crowd after getting pulled from a game during his stint with the Yankees.

Luis was an old-grizzled vet by then, and had a lot of leeway on an already pretty combustible Yankees team of that time period.

Lopez is also an older vet, but looking at his lifetime stats, he was lucky to even have a job. He's got a lifetime 5.42 ERA in 9+ seasons of work. Take out his 48 good innings with the Orioles and it's even worse then that.

His minor league stats aren't much better, outside of 1 good season he had as a starter in AA ball.

He must be one of those guys who has "Good Stuff", which keeps teams bringing him back, thinking they can "fix" him.

I'm suspicious of anybody who gets the "Calling it like he sees it" moniker attached to them. They're mostly narcissistic, reactionary numbskulls with bad ideas and worse tempers. I like to call it the "Sober Drunk Uncle Syndrome".

Worst case scenario is when "Sober Drunk Uncle", actually gets drunk on top of it. That's a recipe for a ruined Thanksgiving dinner and family members fist-fighting each other in the front yard.

I'll be curious if Lopez just threw away any semblance of a future MLB career, or if somebody else will pick him up to see if the can "fix" him.

I suspect he may not be good enough to gain forgiveness (or trust) from the rest of the league.

[clydepepper]

He would have been wiser (and I realize that is no longer a 'thing') to at least wait until his pension kicks in (10 years?).


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[steve B]

An article that seems reasonably balanced.

https://sports.yahoo.com/reliever-jo...180609849.html

It looks like the Mets are partly responsible, which would maybe put them in the running for "worst team"

Baseball has gotten way too absorbed with its image. Part of the appeal is the characters who have played over the years. Fidrych wouldn't last today, or Bill Lee. Bob Gibson and most old time pitchers would probably get fined out of the league.

I've seen way worse stuff that never got dealt with. Cito Gaston clearly ordering a rookie pitcher to hit a batter on national tv then literally turning his back on him as he imploded and begged to be taken out of the game was probably the worst I've seen. (The bat fight stuff was worse, but I didn't see it. )

A very frustrated emotional guy throwing his glove into the stands? Not really even on the list.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by steve B

An article that seems reasonably balanced.

https://sports.yahoo.com/reliever-jo...180609849.html

It looks like the Mets are partly responsible, which would maybe put them in the running for "worst team"

Baseball has gotten way too absorbed with its image. Part of the appeal is the characters who have played over the years. Fidrych wouldn't last today, or Bill Lee. Bob Gibson and most old time pitchers would probably get fined out of the league.

I've seen way worse stuff that never got dealt with. Cito Gaston clearly ordering a rookie pitcher to hit a batter on national tv then literally turning his back on him as he imploded and begged to be taken out of the game was probably the worst I've seen. (The bat fight stuff was worse, but I didn't see it. )

A very frustrated emotional guy throwing his glove into the stands? Not really even on the list.

I do feel a bit bad for him. It sounds like a lot of subtext got lost in translation initially. He doesn't sound like the jerk I initially thought...just a guy who is generally liked but with some complicated mental issues.

Him losing his job however, I don't think is necessarily a correlation to anything other then then the quality of his work, divided by the amount of anguish a team is willing to put up with from him.

I think the pitchers you mentioned would have been just fine in the modern game...as long as they were productive. Hell, Bob Gibson really didn't hit that many guys despite the legends about him. Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have both hit more players then Gibson in their careers, in less innings.

The more productive you are...the longer the leash you get...fair or not.

If Luis Severino or Edwin Diaz threw the same temper tantrum, likely they'd just get suspended for a few games and be right back at it.

Jorge Lopez, unfortunately or not, can be replaced by a Triple AAA guy tomorrow, for less money, and probably no worse a performance.

[steve B]

Yeah, there's always that replaceability thing. From what I've read he's one of those guys who is really variable, can be very good, or can be awful.