2022 Baseball Thread

[slikmar]

Angels fired Maddon, because you can't fire 40 players apparently. Strangely, despite what most think, that Bench Coach Ray Montgomery was not named interim manager, Phil Nevin was. Most think Montgomery, who moved from the front office to bench coach, was the manager in waiting. I suspect, they want to give him a full year, starting next year. On Maddon, pretty sure he isn't the guy up their throwing gopher balls and swinging and missing fast balls.

[unclevlad]

I wonder if Montgomery is being passed over because he doesn't have the on-field decision making experience.  Nevin's been a manager, IIRC.

 

It's not surprising, tho.  MVP-Past and MVP-Present, and under .500?  Angels have the 8th highest payroll in baseball, but with this losing streak, it's not that surprising.  But their injury list is loaded...and overloaded with pitchers.  2 starters went on the long-term DL...one's reported as having suffered a setback and had to shut down throwing.  The other is looking to avoid (back) surgery and hopes to return this season...suggesting he probably *won't*.  Those are from late May.  3 more starters are on it too;  a couple are listed as day-to-day now...but that, I believe, just says they're eligible to be taken off the injured list, not that they're close to coming back.  2 relievers look to be gone long-term as well.

 

Another factor this year is that Syndergaard is a free agent after this season.  Debatable what he'll get;  granted that he *can be* exceptional but the numbers show some notable declines, and he's already lost most of 2 different seasons from injuries.  Also, and worse:  Ohtani's contract goes to arbitration next year.  That's gonna mean another major chunk of cash.

 

Looking at the Angels team stats...on offense, they have no depth.  Matt Duffy's hitting, as a utility IF, but a lot of em are .220 and lower.  That's a factor in why they haven't been able to sustain the start, I suspect.  Maddon did well with the Rays because, IIRC, they had young, versatile rosters.  That's not the Angels.

 

 

[Pariah]

So I'm sitting here on my couch watching the hapless Rockies lose to the Cleveland Guardians, which I consider a pretty lame name. They should have gone with the Cleveland Spiders. Partially for historical reasons, and partially because the name would be funny. You know, because they're out in the field catching flies.

[unclevlad]

Well, if catching is part of the requirement for that team name, the Phillies are disqualified...

 

Phillies give up 4 in the 1st...but score 8 over the next 6 to go into the 7th up 8-4.

 

Bullpen implodes....3 run homer, solo homer.  Game tied.  Phillies take the lead...9-8 going into the 9th.

 

Leadoff man grounds to third.  Throwing error...he's on.  Pinch runner steals 2nd.  
Walk.

Walk.

Bases loaded, none out.

Single to short left...everyone moves 90 feet.  Tie ball game, bases still loaded.

"Closer" Corey Knebel gets pulled.  New pitcher gets a short fly out where no one can advance.

Next guy up, the pitcher gets him to foul a pitch off, high foul pop, over by the dugout.  NOT a hard play...but it DOINKs in and right out of the catcher's glove.

Batter slaps a 2 run double a pitch or two later.

 

Phillies lose 11-9.

 

They had their run...they'd won 9 in a row.  But this was exactly what was killing them.

 

OTOH, the Braves slammed 5 more dingers tonight...after 5 last night.  13 straight wins.  They've gone from 4 under, to the last WC slot...and chasing the 3rd best record.  Also chasing the Mets;  they were 10 back, now it's only 5.

Best be careful there, Mr. P, or the Reds are gonna pass ya.

[unclevlad]

Perhaps the single most unusual, impossible event happened last night.

 

An immaculate inning for a pitcher is 9 pitches, 9 strikes, 3 strikeouts.  RARE, as you might imagine.  Tony Reali on PTI said about 1 inning in 40,000.

 

So last night, Astros pitchers had not one, but 2 of em.  First time on record....which go back to, apparently, 1902.  There've apparently been 105...and since this is each inning, that's TINY.

 

To add to it:  it was the same 3 hitters in each inning.  

Well, they say it doesn't really matter HOW you get your name into the record books, right?

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

13 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

To add to it:  it was the same 3 hitters in each inning.  

Well, they say it doesn't really matter HOW you get your name into the record books, right?

 

Ouch. Yeah, that's not a record they'll be bragging about. 

[unclevlad]

Stupid play ticks me off.  Today was PRIME.  Marlins vs. Mets.

 

Top of the first.  Leadoff man hits a ground ball to third...kind of a tough hop, not handled, called an error.  Then at 1-2 to the next batter, the lefty pitcher steps off, and snap-throws to first.  Runner's picked off.  IDIOT.

 

Bottom of the 1st.  Runners on 1st and 2nd, no outs.  Lindor shatters the head of his bat.  Weak ground ball.  Pitcher breaks to the ball, deviating significantly from his line to 1st.  It gets by him;  first baseman fields, but the pitcher's in no position to make a play at first.  Ball's tossed to him, but he's turned around and never gets close to the bag.  Lindor's safe on what's technically called an infield hit...but it's a bad play by the pitcher.  Bases loaded.  Strikeout.  Walk, forcing the run in.  Flyout.

 

Bottom of the 4th.  Starts with a strikeout, then a walk.  Defense shifts.  Keith Hernandez for the Mets starts going...what???  Why?  The batter's a lefty but with bat control.  Sure enough, he pops one through the vacated spot.  Coaching or scouting mistake...not a player mistake.  (Or arguably, the pitcher missed his spot.)  On the play, the outfielder misses the cutoff man completely, making the aggressive throw to the wrong place.  STUPID.  Runner gets 2nd, so no double play chance, and a second run in scoring position.  Next batter lifts a fly ball to fairly shallow left.  Outfilelder has *plenty of time* to line it up, get his feet set right and oriented to make the throw home.  His body's turned wrong;  he kinda sidearms the throw.  It's nowhere near the cutoff man, it's WAY up the first base line.  Runner only scores because it's so poor.  Runner on 2nd goes to 3rd trivially.  Perhaps not stupid but TERRIBLE outfield play.  Finally, with 2 outs, pitcher bounces one.  Ball only gets about 15 feet or so away from the catcher, who darts over.  But the runner on 3rd, with 2 out, is alert...he's heading home.  The pitcher is twiddling his thumbs;  he's a good 3-4 steps late, and never has a chance to cover the plate.     

 

3 runs scored that should never have been scored.  The run in the first was technically unearned, as the 2nd batter got on due to an error...but that didn't lead to the run.  It still should not have scored, save for the defensive failures.  None were errors by the rules.  But I think defensive metrics people would assign -3 defensive runs saved.

 

Marlins lose 6-0.

[unclevlad]

Astros just threw a combined no-hitter...starter went 7, struck out 13, but was at a career-high pitch count on a hot day.  

 

For those who hate the Astros?   Well, there's solace.

 

They did it to the YANKEES!!!!!

 

Nothing is ever sweeter....

[Cygnia]

Quote

The Coolest, Ugliest, and Straight-Up Weirdest Baseball Uniforms of All Time

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

"Being a Mariners fan must be so chill.  They haven't had a stressful game in like 20 years."

 

Reactions?

[unclevlad]

29 minutes ago, Logan.1179 said:

"Being a Mariners fan must be so chill.  They haven't had a stressful game in like 20 years."

 

Reactions?

 

Weren't they in the race until around game 160, just last season?  Or was it more like a desperate late run that fell just short?  On the flip side, they've missed the playoffs every year for the last 20...

 

Interesting story here:
https://champsorchumps.us/records/most-mlb-wins-since-2000#:~:text=What MLB Team Has The,5 times in 23 seasons.

 

Number of times in the playoffs:

2:  Mariners, Royals, Marlins

3:  Blue Jays, Padres, Pirates, Orioles

4:  Mets, Reds, Rockies

5:  Phillies, White Sox, Rangers, Nats, D'backs, Tigers

 

Flip side:  6 teams have 11+...or every other season. 

 

16 teams that get to play whack-a-mole...pop their head up, get smacked back down.  6 or so that basically dominate.

 

Course, you could be a Twins fan.  Made playoffs 9 times since 2000.  Won *1* series, ALDS in 2002.  Lost in DS in 03 and 04, 3-1 each time.  Since then, 6 appearances...0-15 in games.  Yep...swept 4 times in DS, lost WC, and lost twice to the Astros in 2020, the weird season.  So 2-21 in playoff games in the last 20....

[Cancer]

9 hours ago, Logan.1179 said:

"Being a Mariners fan must be so chill.  They haven't had a stressful game in like 20 years."

 

Reactions?

 

Well, it means that you can go to other ball parks, root for your team, and people don't glower in anger; it's more like the faint apprehension displayed by folks when they realize a complete, though not apparently violent, lunatic is in their midst. 

[unclevlad]

16 hours ago, Cancer said:

 

Well, it means that you can go to other ball parks, root for your team, and people don't glower in anger; it's more like the faint apprehension displayed by folks when they realize a complete, though not apparently violent, lunatic is in their midst. 

 

As opposed to, say...Philly fans?  

Suspensions from the Angels-Mariners brawl.  Winker got 7 for really kicking it off...but...pitching coach got 5 and manager Nevin got 10 (!).  Why?  The pitcher they were using was a reliever...nothing so new there...but it was his first career start.  Then he drills a fastball square into the backside?  VERY clearly deliberate, and therefore, the clear assumption was...this was planned by the pitching coach and manager.  So this is junior Bountygate...and Nevin gets 10 games.  On some levels, that's minor, given a 162 game schedule, but that's big for baseball, outside violating the drug policies or personal conduct policy.

[slikmar]

You didn't mention the spanish Interpreter for the Angels getting, iirc, 3 games. My first thought when it started was I hoped there were 2 guys, if not coaches, whose specific job was to grab Ohtani and Trout and not let them near anything remotely brawl like. Then, besides Winker, turns out guy who shoved him in the face was Rendon, who is out for the season due to wrist surgery on the non hand he shoved with (you can see the cast on it). And I have no idea what went on with Raizel Iglesias after the fact, which got him 3 games, throwing sunflower seeds and bubble gum out on the field and destroying the dugout.

and not to excuse basically putting Wantz out as a hitman, so to speak, but it was a result of the Angels being pissed that in the ninth(?) the game before, on a 2-0 pitch, a ball almost hit Trout in the head thrown by a pitcher who has hit less then 3% of batters in his career. Then after that pitch, so 3-0, they intentionally walk him.

[unclevlad]

Baseball has a huge issue with batters getting hit...or buzzed high.  I've never heard anyone do anything but blast those high, tight fastballs.  For GOOD reason.  BUT...

 

--hitters dive plateward...a lot.  That narrows the gap between the inside edge of the plate, and the nervous zone.  It also means the batter's almost incapable of diving back out of the way.

--pitchers throw max-effort fastballs ALL the time.  Max effort is almost automatically harder to control.

 

Story here is from 2019, but it's still interesting:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-hit-by-pitch-continues-to-reach-new-heights/

One argument the author rejects is that velocity alone may account for it...but I'm not phrasing it as velo per se, but max effort.  But...perhaps that's not the reason.  The author further reasons that relievers, and the greater number of reliever innings, is a factor.  That makes some sense too;  heck, they passed a rule limiting teams to 13 pitchers this year.  13 per team means that, at any time...last year, over 900 pitchers were used across the majors.  669 pitched 10+ innings;  564 pitched 20+.  That's a WHOLE lot of marginal, at best, pitching.  

 

If we could say with high confidence that a pitcher intentionally tried to bean a hitter...anything shoulder high or above counting as such...personally, I'd applaud a 20 game suspension for the first offense...that's also costing the player 1/8th of his salary, remember...but proving intent?  Good luck.  The player's assoc is also strongly against major suspensions, when there's ANY doubt, so they'd fight hard.  You could try tossing out something like 5 game suspensions for any buzzing...but that'll get fought just as hard, and doesn't address the root of the problem I suspect:  that pitchers are taught and incentivized to throw in such a way that it *will* happen distressingly frequently.

 

Another option is to penalize fighters.  The NBA has a rule:  leave the bench to even get around a fight?  Get suspended a game.  MLB's consequences for fighting are a joke.  Make them bigger.  Maybe short suspensions but fines based on game checks....as if suspended.  Rendon only got 5 games...should've been 20, for coming off the bench and throwing punches.  (OK, slaps, they were open-hand.)  MAKE it bloody damn PUNITIVE.

 

I'm not in favor of, say, automatically ejecting a pitcher who hits a hitter.  Classic case against this, the curve ball that slips out a bit.  Other side issues...the batters already crowd the plate as much as they can get away with...and we sometimes see clear evidence their feet are going outside the box.  Elbows...with big-time, often projecting, elbow guards that darn near appear to be *in* the strike zone when the hitter's crouched.  So...this may just be another consequence of how baseball is taught, to a degree.  

 

[slikmar]

They used to talk about how Bonds crowded plate but wore so much "armor" he wasn't worried about getting hit. So it's not just crowding plate, it's daring the pitcher to throw inside, and as you say, a lot of marginal pitchers with a slicker ball is going to result in a lot of getting hit. I have seen on these boards and others talk about, if you want to wear the equivalent to a suit of armor to the plate, you have to keep it on when on the basepaths (only exception is I like the new glove thing that protects against jammed fingers and thumbs).

[unclevlad]

The running mitts just show that no one teaches proper base running.  

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12435649/#:~:text=Because of the risk for,study to prove this claim.

 

But you can't break the bad habit when you don't teach people to run the bases in the first place.

 

An absolutely ridiculous, HORRIBLE rules situation is arising right now, Pirates vs. Nats.  Runners on 2nd and 3rd, one out.  Very soft liner to 1st, caught at shoetop level.  The runners had both taken off...but the ball was caught.

 

First baseman, after a bit, throws to 3rd.  The runner on 2nd is standing on 3rd.  He's tagged.  The 3rd baseman then touches 3rd.

 

The ruling is that the run counts...WHAT???

Had there been none out, should it not have been a triple play???  Should not both runners need to return to their bags to tag up???  I don't know the rules well enough, but saying that tagging the runner from 2nd, who's REQUIRED to return to 2nd...and so is the runner on 3rd.

 

That part makes no sense.  At all.  Analyst explains certain aspects of it...apparently there are some *ridiculous* nuances to the situation.  The rule's a major part of the problem.  Multiple rules, actually.

 

Worse, the umpires are denying any appeal because the Nats started walking off the field.  Just STARTED...because they thought the appeal was over, and the umpires failed to make their ruling clear.

 

The game was delayed a good 10 minutes because no one knew what the HECK was going on, or what the rules were.  NO explanation was ever offered.

 

Next half inning showed another side.

Nats down 4-3.  Walk, error, single, and double get us to 2nd and 3rd, 1 out, 2 runs in.  Nats call a safety squeeze.  As the analyst notes...forcing the defense to do unusual things leads to unusual results.  The bunt was poor...catcher jumped on it in fair territory, just a couple steps from the plate.  Runner on 3rd was paying attention...knew he had NO chance, so he went back.  Gold star.  But the runner's busting it down the line...and the first baseman had left his position.  He was badly out of position and off the line too much.  Kinda going...ok, what now....  Looks like he figured the play was at the plate.  Catcher throws him the ball...but the runner's past him, and the swipe tag attempt misses the runner by a lot.  Safe at first.

Get players out of routine situations, and far too often, they just don't know what to do.

 

ARGH!!!!!!  THEN after another soft liner to the infield.  2 out, bases loaded.  Batter hits a clean single to left.  THE RUNNER ON 3rd TAGS!!  The runner on 2nd is charging behind...and DARN near runs past him.  He then runs through a stop sign from the 3rd base coach...which is understandable.  He's assuming that he needs to charge home and that he'll have the room to do it.

 

So many players just don't know how to really play the game....  Then again, the Pirates are 16 under, and the Nats 19 under, .500...

 

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

This is pretty unbelievable. 

 

 

[unclevlad]

Freakish, to be sure, but...you'd think he knew the bat was right by his feet, wouldn't you?  Rather than doing the split step to throw, a crow hop, then get the right foot planted, THEN push off and throw...?  No...he just goes about his business like nothing is going on...  

 

Maybe I'm being too critical, but bats fly through the infield often enough that you'd expect someone with as much experience at SS as he has, to be more aware.  That said:  his fielding percentage is well below average among shortstops.  Looking at last year's fielding stats...among shortstops with 500+ innings at the position, to specify a reasonable sample size...he was 29th out of 33 such players.  His value...when he had any...was from his offense.  Right now he's doing a really good job of playing himself out of the majors altogether...or would, except the Tigers gave him a really overblown contract.  

[BNakagawa]

I'm not going to judge the guy for not handling a situation so rare that it is likely that no player on either roster will ever witness a similar event during the rest of their careers.

[unclevlad]

Something along these lines came up this afternoon, during the Philles-Cards game.  Getting late in the game.  One of the players pulled a defensive card from his back pocket...and this kinda set John Kruk into a bit of a tizzy.  That players should be allowed to make their own mistakes, so they'll LEARN the game.  About how over-coaching doesn't help young players.

 

I'd say something like that Kruk guy is real smart, but...well...it's John Kruk.   Still, I totally agree.  Not just baseball, most sports.  I do think baseball's probably the worst, tho.

[slikmar]

Except those cards, much like you see on the QBs arm in football, basically tell each defender where analytics say on a certain count a guy will probably hit the ball. make mistakes is one thing, the cards are simply positioning, and usually when you see someone go to the card its because of a pinch hitter or pitcher, so the analytics change.

As Brian Kenny, a stalwart for analytics, put it on one of his shows (paraphrasing): the smarter baseball gets the more boring it gets. They are analyzing the fun out of the game.

Oh, and the dead ball thing isn't working. HRs are down, but so is batting average and for the most part scoring. And according to my brother, a lot of the stat sites have been tracking launch angle and speed, mainly to track who seems to be using the new balls and who seems to be still having the "juiced" ball. I will give you 3 guesses which team came up with the most juiced ball games, and 2 don't count. Certain teams seem to still hit HRs on balls with the same angle and speed that many others die on the warning tracks.

[unclevlad]

The point, tho, is all that data is making the player passive...do what the card says to do.  And that only works for initial positioning.  Once the ball's in play, players don't react well, a fair bit of the time.  

 

But you're right.  Hits the same as last year, but runs are down...not quite as bad as 2014 and 2015, about the same as 2013, down 1/2 a run a game from 2019 tho.  HRs are notably down...from 1.28 in 2020, 1.22 in 21, to 1.07.  Walks are down a bit, as are strikeouts, altho they're still notably over 8 a game.

 

 

[Pariah]

The Diamondbacks are wearing their Serpientes alternates tonight. They look good. Sand-colored jerseys and pants, navy name and numbers and a navy logo with a snake in the shape of the leading S; sand caps with a navy bill; dark red trim throughout.

 

The D-Backs should drop their entire existing brand and go with these unis all the time.

[unclevlad]

Don't look now, but......

 

...with the All-Star break almost here.......

 

 

....the Orioles are only 1 game under .500.