2022 Baseball Thread

[slikmar]

As an Angel fan, I remember it vividly. It was after the game he started, iirc his first and only, and pretty much cemented him as a force for the Angels pitching going forward.

[unclevlad]

I don't think it was his only career start...it was, tho, as one might guess from the date, his first and only start of the season.

 

The Angels have been seriously cursed with their pitchers so far this century.

[Pariah]

Freddie Freeman consoling a teary José Iglesias at first base was just the sweetest gesture

 

 

Quote

 

Freeman said this on Saturday:

 

“I just tried to be there for him, console him and just know that it’s more than a game,” Freeman said Saturday as he sat in the clubhouse. “You never know what any of us are going through in life. If he didn’t tell me, I would never have known that he had lost his father a couple of weeks ago. So I think it just kind of reminds you to just have some compassion and some humility and just be kind to others.

 

“Because, in that moment, all I wanted to do was hug that guy.”

 

 

Makes me despise the Dodgers a bit less.

[Pariah]

Cincinnati Reds president and chief operating officer Phil Castellini is talking out of his backside:

 

Quote

 

Here's Phil Castellini on WLW Tuesday, when asked about fans who might be frustrated with the team.

 

"Well, where you gonna go? Let's start there. I mean, sell the team to who? I mean, that's the other thing, I mean, you wanna have this debate? If you wanna look at what would you have this team do to have it be more profitable, make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exists, it would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else. And, so, be careful what you ask for. I think we're doing the best we can do with the resources that we have."

 

 

[Pariah]

 

[unclevlad]

No one told the guy the worst thing you can do is tell the truth.

 

Illusions, illusions...Rockies are in the lead in the NL West.  

 

Foreshadowing, OTOH...the D'Backs are off to a 1-4 start.  Astros-Snakes game just started;  Steve Berthiaume, the D'Backs play by play guy, commented on defensive problems just as the pitcher makes a bad throw trying to get the lead runner on a ground ball.  5th error in 5 games plus 1 inning...yeah, that's not good.  Worse?  Team batting average is a *sterling* .130.

 

Yeah...   .130.  50 points below the 2nd worst.

 

It's still ridiculously early in any year, of course, and this year, it's still spring training except that the games count in the standings, but these are not good.

 

OTOH...yeah, ok, Mr. P, it's a Dodger, so turn away.  But...Clayton Kershaw tossed 7 perfect today.

 

NOT surprisingly, he got pulled.  WAY too early to go longer for anyone, and Kershaw's starting to get up there.

 

Pitching is way ahead overall.  10 teams have team averages below .220.

 

Oh...side thought from the other day.  I think it was during a Mets game, they were talking about the fact that shifting is going to be curtailed/banned next year.  If I'm remembering right...it was Keith Hernandez who talked about seeing how young players were being taught...and that with the way hitting is taught, they *can't* adjust.  He didn't elaborate, but we can postulate:  they're taught one swing.  Repeat ad nauseum.  Because, I suspect...it works at those levels.  The pitchers can be overpowering, sure, but even that's only occasional.  That perfect, robotic, grooved swing gives better results MOST of the time...until the pitching funnels down to the ones that can screw that up.  I still HATE banning the shift;  limiting tactical choices is utterly wrong-headed IMO.  Like saying no, you can't throw a curve ball.  That said, if the entire system is that screwed up...if it's going back that far, then changing it will be both incredibly hard and incredibly slow.  It may not be practical to do anything else.  

 

Another factor:  from one of the games last week.  35% of pitches are now fastballs at 95 mph or higher.  I think I remember that right.  Which is a massive increase over even 10 years ago.

 

Braves game was on before this...they showed that replay.  52 mph...:)  d'Arnaud admitted he planned to do it, if the opportunity arose.  Pretty funny Twitter exchange between the two on it.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=33721114

 

Rays OF comes in to pitch and absolutely entertains

[unclevlad]

I love laughing at the occasional, indignant "purist" who decries non-pitchers pitching in cases like this.  

[unclevlad]

Interesting piece of news, watching Giants-Mets (Mets broadcasters).

 

They've implemented a pitch clock in AAA.  14 seconds with no one on base;  18 seconds with runners on.  The batter must be ready to hit by 9 seconds.  

 

Average time of game went from 2:56 to 2:36.  

[archer]

9 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Interesting piece of news, watching Giants-Mets (Mets broadcasters).

 

They've implemented a pitch clock in AAA.  14 seconds with no one on base;  18 seconds with runners on.  The batter must be ready to hit by 9 seconds.  

 

Average time of game went from 2:56 to 2:36.  

 

In your opinion, is cutting 20 minutes off the length of a game worth having a pitch clock to put time pressure on the pitcher/catcher?

[unclevlad]

YES!  ABSOLUTELY!

 

First:  IMO, it's often nothing more than the pitcher or batter jerking around the other.  There's no pressure involved, per se.

Second:  catchers don't call the games anyway, quite often.  Plus, MLB is working on sign-stealing tech;  it's strictly optional.  It should reduce the time the catcher needs.

Third:  it's less about the overall elapsed time, and more about pace of play.  Some pitchers are HORRIBLY slow;  same with some hitters.  Jeter would step out, tug the gloves, knock on the spikes...make the pitcher wait and wait and wait.  It was CLEARLY a head game.  Some pitchers are notorious for doing the same...25 seconds on an 0-2 count, 1 out, no one on, in a 5 run game.  Get real.  

 

And last:  everyone will get used to it.  They may need to clarify when the clock should start;  that's sometimes an issue in tennis, which has had a serve clock for a few years.  (And some players abuse it;  Djokovic is often at the line WELL in advance, and IMO deliberately stalls as long as he can.)

 

I've got NO sympathy towards the argument that the pitchers and catchers would feel "pressure" because of this.  

[unclevlad]

On the "pressure"...I *hated* the push to eliminate the shift...which apparently is going to happen next year because to me, it's nothing but surrendering to incompetence on the part of the hitters.  Damn, guys, you're major leaguers.  Learn to hit the other way!  It's totally the wrong approach...kinda like banning the change-up.  Or telling a football offensive coordinator they can't call a screen pass on 3rd and 8....it has to be a 7 step drop.

 

BUT then Keith Hernandez mentioned how young hitters are being taught....they *don't have a clue* how to adjust.  From the coaching.

 

Ewww.  That makes things a whole lot messier.

 

The stalling games that pitchers and hitters aren't baseball, IMO.  

 

Oh...another, more egregious example.  Used to watch a fair bit of poker.  When there was no action clock, it was OBVIOUS that some players abused it...and generated a GREAT deal of animosity.  Major tanks on trivial actions.  Now, in poker, there were reasons why this was actually very abusive.  The action clock got rid of QUITE a bit of BS.  Players got used to it...and preferred it, even.  Same with the serve clock in tennis.  (More recently, they've tightened up between-sets bathroom breaks...there were numerous accusations of players abusing those.)  

 

In all cases I know:  adding the clock has HELPED the game.

[Cancer]

I had no idea that those teaching baseball these days are as bad at their craft as those teaching mathematics in middle and high school.

[wcw43921]

College Ballplayer Hits Home Run, Gets Tackled By Pitcher

 

At the very least, the pitcher should get thrown off the team, and never play for that college again.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Only in Texas is baseball a contact sport.

[Cancer]

I think that's provably untrue, though I don't have a clear incident I can cite.

[slikmar]

16 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Damn, guys, you're major leaguers.  Learn to hit the other way! 

Last night, Shohei Ohtani bunted against the shift as a leadoff man late in the game. My brother thinks he should do it as their leadoff guy everygame. His speed plays and distracts pitchers and catchers from batters - who normally would be Mike Trout (arguably the best player in baseball), Anthony Rendon and Jared Walsh (both all stars). I remember David Ortiz doing it.

[unclevlad]

3 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

College Ballplayer Hits Home Run, Gets Tackled By Pitcher

 

At the very least, the pitcher should get thrown off the team, and never play for that college again.

 

On the face of it, yeah...but we can go back to Chris Rock and Will Smith.  POSTULATE!!!! that the runner is a white guy and is saying "yeah nigga got your sorry black ass good."  

 

Granted, it doesn't look like it;  if the runner's doing something like that, he's most likely going to keep an eye on the pitcher, and clearly, the runner was caught completely by surprise.

 

And a full-speed jumping like that...not off the team, expelled from the school and charged with some level of battery.  I can maybe see plea bargaining;  jail time might not be the best answer.  

 

Cancer:  it's not necessarily that the teaching is bad.  Define bad.  Identify a pitch you can drive.  Groove a swing, so it's repeatable to get solid contact.  That sounds pretty good, right?  I also think, this is not new.  Go back...good gosh, 30 years to those Tom Emanski hitting videos.  Remember those?  They got massive promotion, which means they almost certainly *sold* very well.  Another aspect:  the routine advice to pick a sport and stick with it...it's the only way to get good enough.  There's been pushback in the last few years, but that was the party line for years.  

 

And the system's geared that way.  How do you get a good scholarship offer?  Get a 4 or 5 star rating.  How do you get that rating?  Attend the camps run by the big shoe/gear companies.  What are they gonna be looking at?  What you've got.  So if you have that consistent swing...you look better, so you rate better, so you're more likely to make it into a power program, so you're MUCH!!! more likely to make the pros.

Young players are taught the narrow approach because it's known to work...and work well.  UNTIL you get to the point where it doesn't.

[Starlord]

On 4/13/2022 at 11:44 AM, Pariah said:

Cincinnati Reds president and chief operating officer Phil Castellini is talking out of his backside:

 

 

 

Reds haven't won a game since these dumba$$ remarks.

[unclevlad]

3 hours ago, Starlord said:

 

Reds haven't won a game since these dumba$$ remarks.

 

How can a team be 4 1/2 games out of the expanded playoffs so quickly????

Oh, well, it might get a bit better.  They've played 13 games so far...11 on the road.

 

Oh, wait, they're also 0-2 at home.

 

They're a small market, they don't get that much TV that I can recall, so I think we mostly forget about em.  That might be just as well;  they've been one of the worst teams in the game over the last 8 years.  BEFORE the fire sale, and a moronic exec who should be muzzled.  Fewer than 70 wins for 4 consecutive years in that stretch.  

[Pariah]

[Pariah]

To be fair, it was a horrible call.

 

Phillies' Kyle Schwarber loses his mind, is ejected after bad third-strike call by Angel Hernandez

[unclevlad]

I wouldn't call it horrible.  A ball, yes, but that K-Zone spot isn't *that* far off.  It's also moving across and away from the strike zone;  the track was inside the zone for quite a while.

 

That said, Hernandez is, and has been for a LONG time, rated as one of the worst umps in MLB.  He's a prime example of the argument *for* trying out an automated ball-strike system.  So it wasn't that pitch, perhaps, but the straw breaking the camel's back.  Now that Joe West has retired, thankfully, Hernandez probably has no challenger for status as the last ump you ever want to see behind the plate.

[Pariah]

The Rockie Horror Pitching Show has given up 25 runs in 3 games to the sub-.500 Phillies. Ouch.

 

We'll see if Colorado can avoid the four-game sweep tonight. 

[wcw43921]

I hope not.  My Phillies need the win so they can continue their climb back up to the top of the division.