2022 Baseball Thread

[unclevlad]

7-1 Phillies going into the 9th.

Rockies get a lead-off triple early in the game...and strand him.

 

They did bring up the Angel Hernandez incident in the 8th.  The HORRIBLE!!!!! call was earlier in the game, apparently.  Hernandez called a pitch a strike...when the machine measured it at over 6 inches out of the zone.  

 

Phillies might be back to .500...but they've played 13 home games and 7 road.  They're 2-5 on the road.

The Rockies...I think we need a "dead horse" rule.  And it doesn't help that 3 other teams in the division have the 2nd, T-3rd, and T-6th best records in baseball right now.  It's a group of death.

 

And hey, it could be worse.  The Reds are trying to be mathematically eliminated by the 4th of July.

[unclevlad]

Clayton Kershaw just tied the Dodger franchise record for career strikeouts.

 

Granted, the strikeout numbers are grossly inflated in the current game, but that's still impressive.

[Pariah]

Chad Kuhl scattered three runs across 7.1 innings - his deepest start ever - and the Rockies hammered out a four-run sixth inning to beat the hapless Reds 4-3. Colorado finishes April with a winning record, which is not the way the season usually starts for the boys in purple and black.

[unclevlad]

7 minutes ago, Pariah said:

Chad Kuhl scattered three runs across 7.1 innings - his deepest start ever - and the Rockies hammered out a four-run sixth inning to beat the hapless Reds 4-3. Colorado finishes April with a winning record, which is not the way the season usually starts for the boys in purple and black.

 

Yeah, by this point, they're usually black and blue.

[unclevlad]

I missed this.

 

MLB has finally reached a decision in the Trevor Bauer case.  Prosecutors refused to file charges, but there's quite a bit of ground between criminal (and provable beyond a reasonable doubt) and acceptable under MLB's domestic violence and personal conduct policy.

 

Friday, MLB suspended Bauer...which means, without pay...for 2 years.  While he was on administrative leave since this started, he got paid.

 

Writing in the NY Post, Jon Heyman, who's an old school baseball writer, offered up the severity may in part be due to Bauer's rejection of wrongdoing in any form.

 

This is going to arbitration.  If Bauer loses there (and I suspect Heyman's right...MLB probably has an avalanche of evidence to levy a punishment like this)...he'll probably sue MLB.  Probably not to overturn the arbitration results;  courts VERY, VERY rarely interfere there.  But for something like defamation.  Heck, he'll probably sue, regardless.  He's got what I think is a meritless lawsuit against The Athletic, filed at the end of March, for defamation by omission.  

 

One can never be 100% certain...DeShaun Watson and the Browns have proven that owners with no scruples and less judgment exist, after all...but it seems difficult to envision Bauer pitching again.  Unlike Watson, Bauer's age will be an issue.  He'll be 33, and out of pitching for close to 3 years.  There's much less mid- to long-term upside to the risk.  

[Grailknight]

Bauer is a disturbing case.

 

While I hate to do anything that borders on victim blaming, he avoided the latest criminal case not because he didn't do many of the "rough sex" acts alleged but because he had evidence that his partner had requested those acts via text and she came to his house for them. Faced with those facts the judge had to find the acts consensual.

 

But that raises doubt about the other accusations. There is a chance that those accusers also requested "rough sex" and regretted the extent after the fact but in this case he has no texts to support his claims. What evidence will the women have that the interactions were nonconsensual other than their word against his? The fact that he has been shown to be honest in a similar case would seem to boost his credibility somewhat but Baseball is in a tough place here. Apparently they feel that they have enough to support their guilty judgement from a legal challenge.

[unclevlad]

Plus, ethically, permission can be withdrawn.  Legally, this may create a reasonable doubt situation.  Bauer is being punished under the domestic violence policy.  They can enforce that without ground for a criminal conviction;  the standards are quite different.

 

And this happened not long ago.  Story is that MadBum and the HPO were...not on the same page.  But the umpire here, is the first base umpire.

 

 

My take:  the umpire seriously overreacts.  MadBum was walking away, looks like the ump had to get the last word in...and it blew up.  The umpire, Dan Bellino, doesn't appear to have a hair trigger most of the time;  he only issued one ejection last year.  (I saw at least 3 umpires who had 4.  One was Angel Hernandez, so...it may not reflect a hair trigger alone.  Incompetence would clearly create more situations leading to ejections.

[slikmar]

You know when an ump knows he is wrong sometimes. In saturday's game in Chicago, Angels were down 4-0 in 8th inning with 2 outs and 2 on, Marsh takes a pitch that pitch trax clearly shows is at least 3 inches off the outside of the plate and called for a third strike ending the inning. He stands at home plate and argues with the ump, Maddon comes out and argues with the ump as we go to commercial. Come back for bottom 8th and neither was ejected. Oh yea, the guy on deck, Mike Trout. So, when a rookie gets away with arguing a strike call with and umpire and isn't ejected, you know that ump knew he screwed up.

[unclevlad]

On 4/13/2022 at 9:44 AM, Pariah said:

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

 

 

 

Granted it was early...but 2 days before this, the Reds were still .500 at 2-2.

They're 1-20 since.

 

Dead last *in all MLB* by 5 1/2.  11 1/2 out of the WC...the 7th place Cards.  And we haven't hit Mother's Day.  

 

Ownerships deserves this.  SERIOUS question if the team has given up on ownership.  Fans don't.  Complete boycott and lawsuit by season ticket holders time.

[unclevlad]

Postgame host jinx of epic proportions...

 

Mets are playing Phillies;  MLB Network is carrying the Philly (home team) broadcast.  Phillies are cruising, up 7-1 after 7.  Nola has a great outing with 1 bad pitch, but hey, a solo homer is gonna happen from time to time.  

 

So they cut to the postgame hosts, who are all smiling and jovial, and practically bouncing.  One of em makes a comment of the "yeah, we'll have a good time recapping this one" style.  One of the others goes, hey now, don't say that, it's not over.

 

Still 7-1 through 8.

 

Mets score 7 in the top of the 9th.  Including 4 with 2 outs. 

 

Time machine game...as in, I want a time machine so I can place a $10 bet on the Mets to win, after the top of the 8th.    

And the Met closer comes in, 1-2-3 boom.  Phillies lose.

 

 

[slikmar]

20 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

Granted it was early...but 2 days before this, the Reds were still .500 at 2-2.

They're 1-20 since.

 

Dead last *in all MLB* by 5 1/2.  11 1/2 out of the WC...the 7th place Cards.  And we haven't hit Mother's Day.  

 

Ownerships deserves this.  SERIOUS question if the team has given up on ownership.  Fans don't.  Complete boycott and lawsuit by season ticket holders time.

Saw a stat that they have given up more runs then their players have hits.

15 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Postgame host jinx of epic proportions...

 

Mets are playing Phillies;  MLB Network is carrying the Philly (home team) broadcast.  Phillies are cruising, up 7-1 after 7.  Nola has a great outing with 1 bad pitch, but hey, a solo homer is gonna happen from time to time.  

 

So they cut to the postgame hosts, who are all smiling and jovial, and practically bouncing.  One of em makes a comment of the "yeah, we'll have a good time recapping this one" style.  One of the others goes, hey now, don't say that, it's not over.

 

Still 7-1 through 8.

 

Mets score 7 in the top of the 9th.  Including 4 with 2 outs. 

 

Time machine game...as in, I want a time machine so I can place a $10 bet on the Mets to win, after the top of the 8th.    

And the Met closer comes in, 1-2-3 boom.  Phillies lose.

 

 

Remember a few weeks ago when teams were taking offense because the Giants manager basically said we have a no mercy rule, we don't stop playing no matter the score and screw the unwritten rules. then everyone got up in arms about piling on, etc. Well, that is 2 games blown in ninth in last week or so with leads of 6 runs or more. In today's home run happy, don't stop playing. You want the leading team to stop scoring/show respect, then have your players stop trying.

[unclevlad]

10 hours ago, slikmar said:

Saw a stat that they have given up more runs then their players have hits.

 

 

Reds...hits, 162.  Runs allowed, 166.  Wow.  NOTE::  edited, typo earlier.  Gave em 20 more hits.  Fixed.

Lots of teams aren't hitting.  Everyone's right around 25 games today, as it turns out.  19 of them are under 200 hits, or 8 per game.  The TOTAL disaster is their pitching.  5 worst team ERAs...

Rockies, 4.56

Royals, 4.57

Pirates, 4.67

Nats, 5.03 

 

and then the Reds.  At 6.86.  Almost 2 runs a game worse.  And almost all earned runs....160.  Staff leads MLB in walks, hit batters, and HRs allowed...that's not the triple crown you want to win.  And here's the cherry on top, as to how BAD the pitching has been.  The Reds have played 25 games.  That means, nominally, 225 innings.  They've played 17 road games, going 2-15.  The staff has pitched a total of 210 innings.

 

Conclusion?  In every road loss, the home team hasn't needed the 9th.  BUT, they've given up the most runs (by about 1.5 runs per game) while dodging around a full game's worth of pitching.  Their 8.4 innings pitched per game is the lowest by a fair margin...obviously, this stat has a pretty narrow range.

 

There's an article in FiveThirtyEight from a couple days ago, comparing the Reds to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders...the absolute, no doubt, worst "major league" baseball team EVER.  20-134.  The quotes are because the team was quite literally, intentionally gutted...because the owners bought a second team and shipped every decent player from Cleveland to the new team. 

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/could-the-2022-cincinnati-reds-be-as-bad-as-the-1899-cleveland-spiders/

 

SOME of this is, it's still just the start of the season.  The D'backs had a stretch like this, that started a bit later.  They only ended up with a bad record, not a complete train wreck.  That said:  they're close to being, for me, statistically eliminated already.  They've got 137 left.  Win 2 out of 3 the rest of the way, that'd be 91 more, so 94 total.  That gets them in, no doubt....but 2 of 3 for 100+ games is RARE.  When they drop under that...this far out...that's when they're statistically eliminated for me.  Granted, for all practical purposes the season's dead already.

[unclevlad]

ewwwww....

 

A's and Tigers playing a doubleheader, first game is a makeup game for one of the games cancelled.  5th inning, a little bloop.  Infielder going out, outfielder charging.  Ball drops betwen them as they both dive.

 

Infielder's foot, meet outfielder's face.

 

No blood...lucky there.  Both stayed in.  But couldn't have felt good at all.

 

Hey, Reds have won 3 of the last 4.  

[Pariah]

Meanwhile, the Rocks have dropped five straight and seven of nine (no relation) to fall to .500 and last in the NL West.

 

That's more like it. 

[unclevlad]

But by the same token, the entire division right now is 96-70, with every team over .500 today.  

 

The teams will knock each other out, but the D'backs and Rockies are only 1/2 and 1 game out of the last WC spot.  Even if they're 4th and 5th in the division.  That's a Group of Death.  

[Pariah]

The Rockies scored 10 runs in back to back games. They won only the second of them.

[unclevlad]

Lots of cases where the pitching is overpowering...until it falls apart totally.  Padres-Braves last night was 2-1 after 7.  Solid pitcher's duel, right?  Padres score 4 in the top of the 8th...then the Braves do the same.

 

More and more, the root problem with baseball is, IMO, how pitchers are handled.  Every pitch at 110% until the arm all but falls off.  A Met pitcher just hit the IL today with right bicep tendinitis...which is an injury from overwork.  Tommy John surgery is routine.  Dead arm is another thing you hear about.  That overthrowing is why no one goes over about 100 pitches;  it's too much.  95% effort is much more controllable and repeatable;  that max effort is inherently less so.  That's when pitchers miss...both inside the zone (that low and in fastball suddenly becoming thigh high down the middle) and outside (PLUNK!!!).  I'm pretty sure trying to take a 97+ fastball the other way is much harder than trying to pull it...and when that's the only thing you ever face......  The hitters get super-specialized.  

[slikmar]

Kind of going the other way, but I see your point, especially now with bullpen guys, but after todays game, Patrick Sandoval has a 1.97 ERA (he threw a 1 run, 6 1/3 despite not having his best stuff) in 33 innings for 6 total starts, meaning 5 1/3 per start. But he does not qualify for the ERA title at this point (he is 6th for guys who have thrown 30+ innings) because the rules state you must pitch 1 inning per game your team has played. So that got me thinking, 162 normal season, how many pitchers last season pitched that many last season - the number was 43. I am surprised to see it that high nowadays.

[Pariah]

The Colorado Rockies, down 6-0 after six and a half, scored seven runs in their half of the seventh inning without any extra base hits. They ended the inning with a 7-6 lead, their first of the game.

 

Then, of course, their closer gave up a two-run bases-loaded single in the top of the ninth, and the Rocks lost 8-7.

[unclevlad]

42 minutes ago, slikmar said:

Kind of going the other way, but I see your point, especially now with bullpen guys, but after todays game, Patrick Sandoval has a 1.97 ERA (he threw a 1 run, 6 1/3 despite not having his best stuff) in 33 innings for 6 total starts, meaning 5 1/3 per start. But he does not qualify for the ERA title at this point (he is 6th for guys who have thrown 30+ innings) because the rules state you must pitch 1 inning per game your team has played. So that got me thinking, 162 normal season, how many pitchers last season pitched that many last season - the number was 43. I am surprised to see it that high nowadays.

 

hmm...I'm looking at Baseball Reference, they show 40...no, 39.  They have an entry for league average per 180 IP.  

Of those...only 9 averaged a full 6 innings per start...and only 2 broke 6 1/3.  16 averaged between 5 2/3 and 6.  No one was notably below 5.5.

 

Last year was a bit weird...enough scheduling weirdness that they had to do 7 inning double headers.  LOTS and LOTS of callups.  Fair number of games using openers.  But still....

 

So...I dunno if I'm surprised by that number or not.  Be that as it may...your point that those rules are outdated.  This one;  a starter having to go 5 to get the win is the most obvious other one.  That's a common refrain:  a starting pitcher's win total has very low value.  But, it's darn near certain that nowhere NEAR 40 will get to 162 innings this year.  Every pitcher was reined in due to the truncated spring training...and there's a fair number of doubleheaders and long stretches of no off-days, which leads to temporary call-up starters, or 6 man rotations, or the like.  

 

One of these days, too, these stats will impact how starters get paid.  NO starter averaged 7 (among those that pitched 162 total);  Zack Wheeler averaged 6 2/3.

But that also goes back to throwing max effort.  One pitcher averaged under 6 Ks per 9;  5 were between 6 and 7;  7 were between 7 and 8.  So 2/3 were 8+.......and 15 were over 10.  So that's more over 10 than under 8.

 

To me, this also just makes the purists' argument that "the extra runner on 2nd in extra innings totally destroys stats!!"  I say to them, how about getting your head out of the sands?  The stats have been grossly distorted, starting back in the steroids era.  

In other news....

Giants at Cards tonight.  Carlos Rodon had a bad start for the Giants...quite unusual this year, he's been excellent.  But single, then BOOM!!!  Goldy pops a 2 run.  2-0 before an out.  4-0 after 1.  Quickly enough became a rout.

 

So it was 14-2, Cards up, 2 out, bases loaded.  Giants take their pitcher out...and figure why waste a bullpen arm?  So Luis Gonzalez pitches the 7th...and the 8th, throwing mostly eephus pitches (big looping curve balls that don't break 50 on the gun).  So the Cards have the game totally in hand;  they figure, why not do the same?

 

Sooo....Albert Pujols pitches the 9th.  It's 15-2, why not.  Everyone loves it, actually.  Came CLOSE to not giving up anything...double play ball wasn't turned cleanly, or he would've gotten out of it.  So up comes...Luis Gonzalez.

 

Who hits a 3 run shot.   As the pitcher.   

[Pariah]

Chicks dig the long ball.

[slikmar]

13 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Who hits a 3 run shot.   As the pitcher.   

As an Angel fan and watch all their games, <sarcasm on> So this is unusual?<sarcasm never really off>

[unclevlad]

18 minutes ago, slikmar said:

As an Angel fan and watch all their games, <sarcasm on> So this is unusual?<sarcasm never really off>

 

Your guy isn't a pitcher, he's a once a century freak.

[unclevlad]

And Matt Harvey has been suspended for 60 games for distributing oxycodone.

 

Kind of hard to appeal since he testified he gave Tyler Skaggs some.

And Starling Marte...ugh.  Placed on bereavement leave because his grandmother...who raised him after his mother died when he was 9, passed away.  It adds insult to injury;  tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of the death of his wife.  In a freak way;  she broke her ankle, was awaiting surgery...and had a heart attack, and died.  (I'm thinking, blood clot formed, broke loose, vein to heart........)  Rough time....

 

 

[Grailknight]

Oddity in today's Red Sox- Astros game, a fan sitting on top of the Green Monster caught 2 HR's in the same inning.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=401354783