Baseball 2019

[GrayHare]

Bill James wrote how oddsmakers did not properly account for the dark horse team. They'd give 100:1 or even 1000:1 odds on what appear to be bad teams, but so-called bad teams surprise far more often than that. Two dark horse teams this year are the Padres and Marlins, both of whom have as yet unheralded pitching.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

Bill James wrote how oddsmakers did not properly account for the dark horse team. They'd give 100:1 or even 1000:1 odds on what appear to be bad teams, but so-called bad teams surprise far more often than that. Two dark horse teams this year are the Padres and Marlins, both of whom have as yet unheralded pitching.

If the Marlins finish first in the east I will retire from sports book betting.

 

[Beststash]

Take it Back....Go Stros

 

[steelyman]

I notice that the AtBat and ESPN apps list Seattle and Oakland as having two games notched already. What’s up with that, did they play a couple of games against each other that count in the standings?

 

[RunningBum]

I notice that the AtBat and ESPN apps list Seattle and Oakland as having two games notched already. What’s up with that, did they play a couple of games against each other that count in the standings?

They played 2 games in Japan that are part of the regular season. Ichiro's farewell. I imagine that they played them early to let the teams recover from the travel.

 

[steelyman]

They played 2 games in Japan that are part of the regular season. Ichiro's farewell. I imagine that they played them early to let the teams recover from the travel.

Ah! Well, there you go. Ask and the answer appears. Thanks!

 

[steelyman]

Yesterday was the first broadcast of CHC (vs. TEX) in my area. So nice to have baseball back!

I’m going to see how well it goes relying on the occasional televised game along with updates through AtBat to follow the season. If things heat up over the summer, maybe I might check out some sort of pay offering although the options are a bit confusing.

 

[GrayHare]

Break up the Orioles!

Maybe Baltimore is the 1000 to 1 odds team to bet upon. No I don't seriously think so, but this team of scrubs must be surprising even themselves so far.

 

[steelyman]

To my surprise, I discovered I don’t (didn’t) have a free account on MLB.com. I’d bought things on the web store, but there was no proper account for me. I’ve now fixed that and tested accessing mlb.tv through Roku. All seems to work.

The main motivation is access to the free “Game of the Day”. While most don’t involve teams I follow, some do and, for those summer days when the sights and sounds of baseball seem right, it might be a nice option.

 

[Nick12]

Minimum wage earners Tampa Bay in the house! Putting the high earning Red Sox and Yankees to shame.

 

[easysurfer]

Now that is what I call a double play. To end the game, no less .

The Cubs beat the Pirates on Saturday at Wrigley Field by a 10-4 score -- not exactly the type of game you'd think would be able to end dramatically, given the six-run difference. However, Javier Baez, Addison Russell and Anthony Rizzo teamed up for an impossibly good and very smooth double play to seal the deal:

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/cubs-end-game-with-dramatic-double-play

 

[ziggy29]

About 30 years ago, we started seeing the game where it was likely that even an effective starting pitcher would get pulled for a reliever.

Unless they were pitching a shutout.

Then it became commonplace that even a pitcher who was throwing a shutout would get relieved.

Unless they were working on a no-hitter.

But now, even if someone has a no hitter through 6 or 7 innings, it's probable they will be removed.

I hate to sound like a curmudgeon, but pitch counts, shifts, "three true outcomes" and everything driven by analytics is really hurting my enjoyment of the game.

 

[eytonxav]

It was almost 50 years ago when the mound got lowered. That significantly helped hitters and also brought on more of a need for further relief pitching, as starters became less dominant and able to pitch complete games. Also the conditioning, nutrition and PEDs made hitters stronger.

 

[aja8888]

I hate to sound like a curmudgeon, but pitch counts, shifts, "three true outcomes" and everything driven by analytics is really hurting my enjoyment of the game.

I've been a baseball fan ever since I was a youngster (1950s (early). I also played a lot of organized ball until my early 50's and was a starting pitcher in college.

In my opinion, the analytics of plays and rule changes are ruining the sport of the game and making it not a game of "players" and "umps".

Being second guessed as an ump on a play by three people ,who are not there and probably never payed the game themselves, looking at videos in New York (or wherever) would make me want to quit.


Wait until "they" take the strike zone call away from the home plate umpire....

 

[ziggy29]

It was almost 50 years ago when the mound got lowered. That significantly helped hitters and also brought on more of a need for further relief pitching, as starters became less dominant and able to pitch complete games. Also the conditioning, nutrition and PEDs made hitters stronger.

Also, today's game requires that everyone throw 97 MPH with every pitch. And hitters are more focused on drawing walks and increasing the pitch counts with more foul balls. It's like a dog chasing her own tail.

 

[ziggy29]

In my opinion, the analytics of plays and rule changes are ruining the sport of the game and making it not a game of "players" and "umps".

Seriously, these days you can pretty much have a computer manage the team, at least the decision making aspect of it -- using Big Data to make the lineup, when to make substitutions, where to position fielders, when to go to the bullpen and which arm to choose.

The manager would only be needed for the "soft skills". (And for taking the blame when the computer's decisions didn't work out.)

 

[eytonxav]

Also, today's game requires that everyone throw 97 MPH with every pitch. And hitters are more focused on drawing walks and increasing the pitch counts with more foul balls. It's like a dog chasing her own tail.

Unfortunately velocity gets over emphasized and everyone today wants to be Bob Feller. What is really important is knowing how to setup the batters, changing speeds, and having command of ones pitches.

 

[ziggy29]

Unfortunately velocity gets over emphasized and everyone today wants to be Bob Feller.

And hitters all want to be Hank Aaron. Or maybe like Barry Bonds, because they want to walk a lot, too. It's all about power these days, with the arm and the bat.

I saw a class A game earlier this year and there were four stolen bases. I was shocked. I guess their parent clubs haven't finished telling them that the analytics say stolen bases are a bad bet. What's next, a sacrifice? Or maybe a hit and run?

 

[ziggy29]

Wow. And today, a pitcher was taken out while he still had a PERFECT GAME going. Of course, they were using another newfangled thing, the “opener”...

 

[aja8888]

One thing most batters today fail to learn is how to bunt (the mechanics of it). It's just sad the bad attempts I see.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Wow. And today, a pitcher was taken out while he still had a PERFECT GAME going. Of course, they were using another newfangled thing, the “opener”...

It was a combined perfect game. The Ray's 'opener' was removed after pitching no-hit ball for the first two innings of the game. The next pitcher continued the no-hit perfect game going into the ninth inning. Ironically, the perfect game was broken when a batter got a hit by beating the infield shift.

Removing a pitcher after two innings is hardly the equivalent of taking out a pitcher who is eight innings into a perfect game.

 

[Qs Laptop]

One thing most batters today fail to learn is how to bunt (the mechanics of it). It's just sad the bad attempts I see.

It is pathetic. In today's game there are few reasons to bunt, but when the situation arises most players don't know how to do it.

I predict there will be a resurgence in the skill as batters start taking advantage of extreme infield shifts and bunting into wide open areas for base hits. Just recently Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals bunted for a double.

 

[easysurfer]

The game has change (at least for now). Small ball is out of favor and players up and down the lineup swing for the fence. I miss the days with base stealers like Maury Wills, Lou Brock, Davy Lopes and Ricky Henderson. A single or walk was pretty much like a double or triple with their base stealing ability.

Of course, if small ball stealing was back, the commissioner would probably limit the amount of times a pitcher can throw over to keep the runner close to the bag -- to shorten the length of the game. (As you can tell, I'm not a fan of Rob Manfred!!)

 

[ziggy29]

Removing a pitcher after two innings is hardly the equivalent of taking out a pitcher who is eight innings into a perfect game.

You are correct, of course, the point being to mention another way the game has adapted to analytics, with the so-called "opener".

That said, the way the game is going it's only a matter of time before some starter is pulled after 6 or 7 innings with a perfect game, because he has 100 pitches or the manager won't let him go through the lineup a third time.

 

[Bigdawg]

new rule and a "Why?"

first of all regarding one of the new rules:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ml...ll-history/ar-AAEhOut?return-to-referrer=true

"During the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs’ game against the Lancaster Barnstormers, Tony Thomas became the first player to ever steal first."

The interesting (to me) thing about this event is that I was (almost) the third base umpire for this game. I umpire as a side gig. Mostly highschool and legion ball. I also get some college summer leagues. Every once in awhile guys from one of my organizations get called over to fill in for Blue Crabs games (45 miles away). I am on the list and got the call for those weekend games. At the last minute one of the regular Atlantic league umpires took the assignment. Oh well, almost famous. LOL

The second thing (Why?) is the MLB home run derby the other day. This season the Minnesota Twins set the MLB all time HR record (pre all star break) and yet had not one representative in the home run derby. Hmmm....