Has anybody here watched Manny Machado Recently

[tinman]

I have watched him play this season. And hes basically an absolute boss right now. I would say just from the perspective of my eyes, hes quite a bit better now than he was as an Oriole. 

 

What happened, is what happened. It's a tragedy that he was not a lifelong Oriole. But I doubt we would even be competitive with a peak Manny anyways. 

 

I dont remember him being this good on the Orioles. Seems like hes really kicking things into overdrive. Makes me wonder if hes finally started to mature, grow up and completely focus on his craft. 

 

Saw him get 4 extra base hits the other day and he was flatlining with max effort. 

[sportsfan8703]

That’s what winning goes. Brings out the best in players. Also, SD had Bobby Dickerson with them for awhile too. Re-signing him should’ve happened before a single dollar elsewhere was given out. 

[InsideCoroner]

He's on pace for a career year, absolutely torching the ball and with a .441 OBP. I don't think that Manny is quite the fielder he used to be in his days in Baltimore, but he does seem to have matured (somewhat) and hopefully he can keep up his torrid start.

[jdwilde1]

I agree with what you say except the part about not being competitive with a “peak Manny.”  He is 29 and, as you point out, is really coming into his peak from an offensive amd leadership standpoint. Just think about how much better our line-up would with Manny penciled in at 3B for the next four years.  
 

Regarding the maturity and leadership, I really think we are seeing the influence of AJ, Buck, Markarkis, Weiters, etc.  Manny is in the lineup and brings it every night.  He is “The Man” in San Diego.

[Frobby]

Ken Rosenthal just wrote a great piece on him for The Athletic.  Here’s a few excerpts: 

Baseball people say it all the time about the great ones: It’s almost as if they are playing a different game.

“One of his most underrated baseball qualities is his baseball IQ,” Soto said. “I’ve seen him sit there and talk about situations. He’s trying to pass it on to the younger guys who work with us. It’s freaking insane. It blows my mind.

“I don’t know enough about baseball to understand what the hell he’s saying. But his IQ is crazy. Now that he has the confidence — ‘Look, my speed is there, I have the explosiveness I need’ — it’s just trusting his instincts and mental capacity on a play by play basis. And that’s where that attack mode comes in.”

Machado’s base running might seem like a minor thing when he’s hitting the ball harder than almost everyone in the game and making his usual wondrous plays at third base. But his willingness to seek even the smallest of edges tells us everything we need to know about his evolution. He is a player in full now, who he always was supposed to be.

https://theathletic.com/3330582/2022/05/24/san-diego-padres-manny-machado-mlb-baseball/

 

 

[JimGinSP]

He finally got tired of Tatis stealing the spotlight.  The argument in the dugout between the two and Tatis motorbike accident in the off-season may have lit the “maturity fire” in Manny.  Love to see it!

[StottyByNature]

It still upsets me that they used that money on Chris Davis.  I was saying it at the time, but all long-term money should have been reserved for Machado, a once in a generation player.

Having said that, I'm not sure he would have signed, and I'm not sure he would have lasted through a long rebuild.  I'm glad Manny is having great success and wish him well.

[jdwilde1]

3 minutes ago, InsideCoroner said:

He's on pace for a career year, absolutely torching the ball and with a .441 OBP. I don't think that Manny is quite the fielder he used to be in his days in Baltimore, but he does seem to have matured (somewhat) and hopefully he can keep up his torrid start.

I agree that he’s not quite the same in the field as he was 2012-2016, but he is still outstanding.  Just not quite the must-see TV spectacular play every night.  Again, he is still outstanding defensively and would be the best fielder on the Orioles and a gold glove candidate.  

[Orioles0615]

Just in time for him to Opt out next year and then we can sign him

[Sports Guy]

22 minutes ago, StottyByNature said:

It still upsets me that they used that money on Chris Davis.  I was saying it at the time, but all long-term money should have been reserved for Machado, a once in a generation player.

Having said that, I'm not sure he would have signed, and I'm not sure he would have lasted through a long rebuild.  I'm glad Manny is having great success and wish him well.

Manny wanted to sign here and the Os were reportedly 10M apart and wouldn’t pull the trigger.  Is that true?  Who knows but I believe Manny when he kept saying he wanted to sign here.

What I dont believe is that the Os would do whatever was needed to get it done.  If I had to guess, Manny wasn’t the type of player PA would sign off on to sign to a large enough contract to entice him to stay.  Maybe he would have signed him at HIS price but nothing more.  
 

I think his lack of maturity, the gold chain, etc…bothered PA.  Manny was the total opposite personality of guys PA willing gave a contract to.  That has always been my belief anyway.

[Ohfan67]

I watched a Padres game a few days ago. It was the first time I have seen Manny play in a while and he was outstanding. Glad to see he’s thriving and seems more mature. 

[maybenxtyr]

I know he had some growing pains here, but he's one of the best I've ever seen play at 3B. According to Baseball Reference he's been worth 3.2 WAR in just over a quarter of the season.

 

It's hard to say what it would have done to him mentally being a part of this type of rebuild...or how different the rebuild would have went with him here long term but I miss him.

[Moose Milligan]

55 minutes ago, JimGinSP said:

He finally got tired of Tatis stealing the spotlight.  The argument in the dugout between the two and Tatis motorbike accident in the off-season may have lit the “maturity fire” in Manny.  Love to see it!

 

I think there might be some truth to this.  Additionally, Manny might have the advantage over Tatis in the sense that Tatis is always hurt.  IIRC, someone posted on here a week or so ago that Manny has the most games played in the MLB since 2015 or so.  

 

14 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Manny wanted to sign here and the Os were reportedly 10M apart and wouldn’t pull the trigger.  Is that true?  Who knows but I believe Manny when he kept saying he wanted to sign here.

What I dont believe is that the Os would do whatever was needed to get it done.  If I had to guess, Manny wasn’t the type of player PA would sign off on to sign to a large enough contract to entice him to stay.  Maybe he would have signed him at HIS price but nothing more.  
 

I think his lack of maturity, the gold chain, etc…bothered PA.  Manny was the total opposite personality of guys PA willing gave a contract to.  That has always been my belief anyway.

I've always thought and I'll still maintain that the Davis deal prohibited Manny from getting the long-term deal he should have had here.  I know you'll disagree with that but I think we can both agree that the Davis deal, at the very least, certainly didn't  help.  I will agree with you that they could have afforded both but we also know that this team won't spend what it can.

I will agree with your last paragraph 100%, even though there's no evidence to support the claim other than you just have to look at the players they've given contracts to over the years.  None of them are like Manny from that perspective.

I am happy for him that he's found success in San Diego and having a monster year.  It's great to see.  The fact that he's on the west coast and in the NL softens the blow.  If he was playing for the Yanks or Sox, I'm sure we'd all probably be singing a different story.  

[TommyPickles]

I'll always love Manny. It was such a pleasure to watch him over the years with the O's. Arguably the most talented player we've had in the past 20 years.

I'm glad he is thriving. I hope he wins MVP. And I'd happily cheer for the Padres over the Dodgers in the postseason.

[Can_of_corn]

23 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Manny wanted to sign here and the Os were reportedly 10M apart and wouldn’t pull the trigger.  Is that true?  Who knows but I believe Manny when he kept saying he wanted to sign here.

What I dont believe is that the Os would do whatever was needed to get it done.  If I had to guess, Manny wasn’t the type of player PA would sign off on to sign to a large enough contract to entice him to stay.  Maybe he would have signed him at HIS price but nothing more.  
 

I think his lack of maturity, the gold chain, etc…bothered PA.  Manny was the total opposite personality of guys PA willing gave a contract to.  That has always been my belief anyway.

If he had signed that extenstion he would have been traded anyway right?

Unless Manny had a no trade clause and refused to be moved there is zero chance the 2018-2022 rebuild goes on with him on the roster.