So you advocate fucking with pitchers further so that we can have
K,HR, K, W, K, HR, K instead?

The issue isn't the mound or the ball, the issue are hitters that close their eyes and swing hard on the off chance they make contact.

Which - to my surprise tbh - is roughly what today's ESPN article says as well


How the 'K' became the most destructive letter in Major League Baseball

That new turf is fantastic. Our HS BB team had their 2nd district game at an all turf baseball field when it rained an inch during the day.

You would never have a rain out again.

Is it quicker? Because that's what I think would be good to see -- more balls getting through the infield, shift or not.

Also, move back the fences and/or make them higher. If you don't want swinging for the fences, disincentivize swinging for the fences.

The problem is that the math shows that this style of offense offers a better chance to win than does a more small ball approach.

Well yes; the trick is to tweak the possible outcomes in a way that changes the math. Find a way to make it twice as difficult to hit HR, teams may try a different approach.

Right. It's going to take rule changes, because there's no way to change strategies that lead to a greater chance of winning.

They have to do something. Baseball is hard to watch right now. Has been for several years.

I watch a ton of baseball. Play a lot of DFS and sweat the games.

The thing that drives me the craziest is there is no situational hitting. For example, runner on third, tie game, 1 out, late innings, guys still swing for the fences instead of making contact the other way.

Makes me nuts.

I was a big Russell Branyan fan back in the day. Now the average hitter in MLB is essentially Russell Branyan with less power. I’m less of a fan of the average MLB hitter these days.

Well you know this was gonna make me curious

Branyan career:
.232 / .329 / .485 (OPS+ 113)

MLB 2021 avg:
.232 / .313 / .394 (OPS+ 97)

Damned fine comparison

Thanks, I was too lazy to look up the numbers when this convo came up but I had looked a few weeks back when the thought popped into my head and sure enough....

I loved Branyan as a novelty. A guy that struck out, walked, or hit a massive bomb. Three true outcomes to the core. But when the whole league turns into Russell Branyan, it just makes for less compelling baseball IMO. Batting average may not be the best indicator of player performance but I've come around to the idea that it makes for more entertaining baseball. I'd much rather see the league BA somewhere in the .250-.260 range. How we can achieve that is not something I can answer.

Another day, another no hitter. Corey Kluber just threw one.

Adam Dunn would be a much bigger star now.

No, I advocate MLB doing something about the blatantly obvious abuse of substances being used that is reflected by the spin rate guys churn out now.

I also would not care if they deadened the ball even more to make hitters be hitters and not HR derby champion wannabes.

I don't really care how they get there, the game is broken now and allowing it to go on as it is now is only going to further turn people off. These are deadball era averages, without the excitement if the ball at least being in play and it is ruining the game.

And why not fuck with pitchers, it's not like they haven't initiated subtle changes in the past to restore balance. A 95 MPH fastball used to be special, not average.

I love pitching and all, but really? Sort of crazy how we're here now after the roid days.

TB just hit its 13th HR in the last 4 games. Well, 3 games and 2 innings. I expect that's not at all out of the ordinary. HRs and no-hitters. Weeeeee!

I agree. Statistically, they're going to look and see the all HR/K batters aren't worth it anymore beyond a certain elite percentage. Then they'll start making adjustments. Look for Nick Madrigal to become more valuable, LOL.

So, yeah, six no hitters this season so far.

But.

The same three teams have each been victimized twice.

Not to say that baseball doesn't have an offense problem, but I think I wanna see the no hitters cluster s little less before I hop on board the "symptom of the illness" train.

Look at the league-wide batting average stats I posted earlier. If every team averages, say, 4 hits a game, it'd still be a problem even if only a few teams got no-hit.

This year is really low, but it may just be a small sample size/post Covid year.

2019 the BA was .252. 2018 it was .248. 2017 it was .255 and before that BA has been over .250 for a while.

Those numbers aren't too far off from the BA numbers in the 50s and 60s (and yes, I know they lowered the mound at the end of of the 60s).

Granted the batting average numbers aren't close to they were in the late 90s (.260s, .270s), but let's back up a second.

I'll also note this year is way down on league SLG which you wouldn't expect if this is due to everyone swinging for the fences.

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I'd attribute a good chunk of it to the historically highest Ks per 9 innings and lower BABIP than normal. Fewer balls in play, and a lower average on balls in play.

It's definitely early, but the last 2 years of data - even if partial years - are not trending well. The game is still hard to watch regardless of whether the numbers end up on the lower end instead of historically the worst.

You can definitely see the game change looking at just basic offensive stats by year. Runs per game is similar to the 80s, but with more Ks and HRs and a lower batting average.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/l.../MLB/bat.shtml

That's exactly the list I used when making my comparison. The 90 and early 2000s (and a bit of the 80s somewhat) are the different numbers when it comes to post war BA (and pre war, they resemble the 1930s). Prior to 2020, BAs were back in the .250s which were 50s, 60s, and 70s numbers.

Btw, one can argue that the reason the 80s-00s saw such increases in BA were the massive rate of expansion and dilution of talent that resulted. One can try to lower the mound as well if you want.

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1990 and 1991 had some abnormally high no-hitter numbers and right after that, the ball/players were juiced...

The new steals rules in the minors have jumped stolen base rates so that could be interesting.

But how do we get BABIP up and how do we just get more "BIP"?

SI

Yeah, if we can get more balls in play, it will reduce pitch counts, get more innings for starters, and less pitching changes.
I'm not really liking where things are going right now. The all or nothing K/HR combo is starting to veer away from batters advantage and definitely moving to pitchers. Batters (or teams) are going to have to make adjustments to maximize their offensive potential.

So it's been about a week - has anybody checked in on the Twins on how they're emotionally handling that game where they lost by 12 instead of 11? I know there were a lot of people concerned for their well-being. I just hope someone is reaching out.

I imagine they're reasonably okay, 3-3 since they were part of the education process for the two-bit punk wearing the White Sox uniform.

He likely knows that if he does something like that again he's liable to find a baseball in his earhole, which is right where it ought to be.

Maybe these teams should stop sending out position players to throw 50 MPH pitches...just a thought. If you send out a position player to pitch, all bets are off. These guys get paid on stats and I would say it is more of an affront to see 5 games/week with a position player pitching (I know, an exaggeration, but not by much...there were more position players pitching in April than an entire season 10 years ago). Otherwise, move along boomer.

Jeff Passan summed it up


Mercedes is either an idiot or a complete p.o.s., or both.
The odds, in 2021, are on both.

It reminds me of the path NASCAR took during their steady decline, combine idiotic rule changes and add completely unlikable competitors, in an attempt to chase a simple minded short attention span audience that is never going to care anyway.

I think Mercedes was in the wrong, but throwing position players out there to eat innings because you don't want to waste arms on a game that you feel should be over shouldn't be a thing. If a few players tee off on them and embrass teams put of this trend I'm OK with it.

I guess I've just never understood why I'm supposed to be so concerned about the feelings of professional adult athletes. Maybe the teams can all teach them coping mechanisms in spring training, or they can give them special stuffed animals when they lose by too much and are really sad about it.

Mercedes actually was hit by a pitch in the ear hole today. Unintentionally and he was fine but both Larussa and Jon had to be smiling.

Given that guys get paid based on numbers, should there be a surprise that guys want to do things...to improve their numbers?

LOL for sure! If the teams don't like the humiliation of losing by 10+ runs, then maybe they should play better. It's professional sports and not kids sports.

These unwritten rules are stupid. It used to be an unwritten rule that you cant steal bases when you are up 5 runs until it became fine to do. Just use common sense and it will be fine.

If he wants to swing 3-0 against a position player in a 10+ run game how does it effect anyone badly? I am not sure how taking walks in a blowout is any better. I am sure the positional player doesnt care as he isnt paid to be a pitcher. I am sure Rocco didnt care as he is a new school manager and has more important things to worry about than the opposing team tacking on a meaningless run.

I think it was blown entirely out of proportion, however LaRussa needs to have his players backs whether he agrees or not. I think that will be a long term negative effect on the White Sox.

Forgot this wasn't even the worst. Acuna tried to bat lefty against a position player with the Braves up 20-1 before his manager vetoed. Perhaps the best way to handle this is to randomly pick fans to bat against the team throwing out their backup IF to pitch down 19 runs. How else do we protect the fragile egos of a team getting killed so bad they toss out garbage to pitch.

By the way, for the purists out there. Last year 35 instances of a position player pitching in a 60 game season was the highest rate ever, breaking the 90 or so the year before. I guess that is not disrespect...

I had to laugh at this. Years ago an old employer started a coed softball team and the woman organizing was not familiar with league structure, so she signed us up in a B league when we should have been co-rec or D due to the experience or talent. There were literally 3 of us who could play at that level and the first game we got stomped 24-2. (Since it was B league there was no mercy rule)

It was so bad the umpire batted left handed for the other team in the top of the last inning. It was a fun season but we took it like champs LOL.

If the batter isn't supposed to swing on a 3-0 pitch when up by 10 runs, then the opposing pitcher shouldn't throw a strike. Maybe we just make 3-0 counts automatic walks, but then people would probably switch their anger to those who swing on 2-0 counts.

Just like if you're not supposed to bunt during a no hitter, then the opposing team shouldn't be able to play their infielders back because they "know" a bunt isn't coming.

I mean, I think both unwritten rules are fucking stupid, but at least these would be consistent for both sides.

I'm certainly not going to shed any tears about it, I'd have to dig into it to know how much I'd smile though.

There's a great example of what I mean in Atlanta. Nobody in the game (okay, maybe Tatis?) does more to deserve a steady diet of beanballs than Acuna. But I'd only smile if it was related to his behavior, unlike the frequently random stuff between him & the Marlins earlier in his career.

I absolutely despise replay being used to see if a runner came a millimeter off the bag for less than a tenth of a second.

This is maybe the worst play in the history of first basemen.

Couldn’t really put this into words pic.twitter.com/cnOtQs9VNz

— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) May 27, 2021

That shows you the difference between someone who's head is in the game, and someone who's head isn't. Talk about mental makeup, good grief. I've never seen that play out like that.

haha, I was just coming here to post about it. My 7 year old girls softball team know to just step on first base

both those plays were brutal and I totally agree with Ronnie that shit like that isn't the reason replay was invented. Those runners have been safe for the first 130 years of baseball.

What in the name of Fred Merkle was Will Craig doing?

Christ, there were 2 outs also.

At least 80% of the runs I scored in little league occurred similarly.

THIS is why balls in play are so much more exciting than HRs and Ks.

I missed baseball so much last year and have been trying to be a good sport, but I'm not sure if people appreciate how bad the Pirates are this year. I know they don't have the worst record yet, but it's just painful to watch. Bryan Reynolds and Adam Frazier and maybe Jacob Stallings are the only players that are on the roster that could potentially start for another team. I guess Richard Rodriguez and Sam Howard are serviceable relief pitchers.

I especially enjoy when we let our back up SS play 1B and 4th or 5th.

The only reason to look forward to this year is that Ke'Bryan Hayes and Mitch Keller were supposed to get shots. Hayes broke his hand in like the second game of the year and Keller has been horrendous. It's rough.