The 2022 MLB Season (?)

[Lathum]

If you had check Joe Musgroves ears on your bingo card you win.

[Jas_lov]

Not a good look for Buck. Seems desperate to call that out.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Jas_lov

Not a good look for Buck. Seems desperate to call that out.

Even my wife noticed there was something weird with his ears, not to mention the PAdres have been fucking with Mets pitches every AB. All is fair...

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Even my wife noticed there was something weird with his ears, not to mention the PAdres have been fucking with Mets pitches every AB. All is fair...

Agreed

Spin rates have been creeping up since early in the season too. Pitchers should be checked more often. I have no problem with it. The data is there that shows a pitcher potentially using an illegal substance, use it.

[Ksyrup]

Perhaps Buck should be more concerned with his team's pulse rate than the opposing pitcher's spin rate.

[Ksyrup]

Yay Phillies. Effen Astros.

[Ksyrup]

Charlie Leibrandt still got that juice I see.

[miami_fan]

Welp , that backfired for the Mariners.

[Ksyrup]

Costas and Darling are A+++.

[Lathum]

Uh Oh- Wheeler just hit Acuna in the hand and it doesn't look great

[Lathum]

dola- actually got him on the elbow and he is staying in the game

[Ksyrup]

Braves having a middle school softball 6th inning to score 2 runs (so far).

[Ksyrup]

Unfortunate that the Yankees game got postponed because I was curious to see what kind of ratings a putrid TNF matchup on a streaming service would get versus a Yankees postseason game.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Unfortunate that the Yankees game got postponed because I was curious to see what kind of ratings a putrid TNF matchup on a streaming service would get versus a Yankees postseason game.

It is really gross here.

[Lathum]

The amount of talent the Astros accumulated makes it hard to argue against a few 100 loss seasons. Obviously you need smart baseball people but the plan clearly worked.

[JPhillips]

But without spending money they'd just be the Pirates.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Lathum

The amount of talent the Astros accumulated makes it hard to argue against a few 100 loss seasons. Obviously you need smart baseball people but the plan clearly worked.

Not to downplay the benefit we received from our tank job, but the vast majority of our current team were not high draft picks with the Astros. Bregman and Tucker are the only ones who fit that profile. The rest of our starters/pitchers we either traded for (and didn't trade high-pick prospects), we signed internationally or as ML free agents, or we developed in the minors. Say what you will about Luhnow, but that man developed a winning program on all facets, not just by drafting high.

Edit: OK, after taking a closer look, I forgot about Lance McCullers Jr. Plus, even though he isn't on the team any longer, Correa obviously helped build the winning culture that helped make the team a draw to ML and Int free agents. I won't count Springer in this...he was drafted after a season where we were simply bad, not tanking and horrendous. That started in 2011.

Trades
LF/DH Yordan Alvarez (For RP Josh Fields)
Utl Aledmys Diaz (For AAA RP Trent Thornton, 5th Round Pick)
SP Justin Verlander (For AA SP Franklin Perez, Int FA; A CF Daz Cameron, 1(31) 2015; A C Jake Rogers, 3rd Rnd 2016)

ML Free Agent
C Martin Maldonado
LF Michael Brantley

Int Free Agent
1B Yuli Gurriel
2B Jose Altuve
SP Framber Valdez
S/RP Cristian Javier
SP Luis Garcia
SP Jose Urquidy

Draft Pick
3B Alex Bregman 1(2) 2015
Jeremy Pena 3rd Round 2018
RF Kyle Tucker 1(5) 2015
OF Chas McCormick 21st Round 2017
CF Jake Meyers 13th Round 2017
SP Lance McCullers 1(41) 2012

[JeeberD]

Dola - Yordan f'ng Alvarez is a BEAST.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, I had completely forgotten (or didn't know, because at the time it didn't mean much) that the Dodgers traded Alvarez to the Astros in 2016 for a reliever.

[miami_fan]

Are pitchers still throwing the split finger?

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Yeah, I had completely forgotten (or didn't know, because at the time it didn't mean much) that the Dodgers traded Alvarez to the Astros in 2016 for a reliever.

The unofficial story is the Dodgers were nervous about a possible role in human trafficking in Alvarez's journey from Cuba. But he was a Dodger for a few months

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

The unofficial story is the Dodgers were nervous about a possible role in human trafficking in Alvarez's journey from Cuba. But he was a Dodger for a few months

I've heard from a guy on an Astros board, who legitimately has connections in the front office, that the Dodgers signed him with an under-the-table agreement in place to trade him to the Astros. I guess the Stros didn't have enough international money left or something.

[Ksyrup]

Yesterday/today is some grade A epic-level postseason baseball. All 4 games.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

I've heard from a guy on an Astros board, who legitimately has connections in the front office, that the Dodgers signed him with an under-the-table agreement in place to trade him to the Astros. I guess the Stros didn't have enough international money left or something.

I do know the Dodgers went overboard that year because the rules at the time were that if you went above a threshold in spending, you were limited the following the year. So the Dodgers went out and signed every INT player

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Yesterday/today is some grade A epic-level postseason baseball. All 4 games.

I can't believe I sat through 18 innings straight of baseball. Just an incredible game with some amazing pitching by both teams.

I remember that during the 2005 Astros-Braves NLDS 18-inning clincher my future-wife and I were in the Texas hill country looking at possible destination wedding locations. I remember that we looked at the last location and were about to start the long drive home, and I saw that the Astros had come back from a 6-1 deficit and the game was about to go into extras. I convinced my fiancee to let me put the game on the radio, and just couldn't believe what I was hearing as the game kept going, and going, and going. Roger Clemens came in on short rest in the 16th and played the Luis Garcia role, pitching 3 clutch innings until Chris Burke put one into the Crawford Boxes to walk it off.

[Solecismic]

It's been a long time since I've seen a game, and that won't change in the near future, but I was surprised to see an LCS coming up where neither team won 90 games during the regular season. Short (strikes, lockouts, COVID) seasons aside, that has never happened before. Yet there were three 100-win teams in the NL.

Maybe it's time to halve the season, play a schedule like the NBA. That way you don't get stuck with a constant stream of AAA-quality pitching in the league. With every half-decent team making the playoffs, the frustration with seeing those who truly excel for 162 games getting eliminated so easily is gone (every series could be seven games).

And maybe the absurdity of the best player in the league playing with no rest for months, altering his swing to reach a personal record, as a result going into a deep slump just when he's most needed - that kind of bs would be a thing of the past.

[Ksyrup]

I know the answer is "TV trumps all," but they've known for 24 hours that rain was likely this evening and instead of moving the game up to 1pm or 4pm, they held out for TV and now the tarp is on the field with rain expected.

[JPhillips]

10 pm start time is a disaster.

[Ksyrup]

Ridiculous. Of course, Cleveland fans are suggesting they left the game time as is so it would get rained out and the Yankees bullpen would get another day of rest.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

It's been a long time since I've seen a game, and that won't change in the near future, but I was surprised to see an LCS coming up where neither team won 90 games during the regular season. Short (strikes, lockouts, COVID) seasons aside, that has never happened before. Yet there were three 100-win teams in the NL.

Maybe it's time to halve the season, play a schedule like the NBA. That way you don't get stuck with a constant stream of AAA-quality pitching in the league. With every half-decent team making the playoffs, the frustration with seeing those who truly excel for 162 games getting eliminated so easily is gone (every series could be seven games).

And maybe the absurdity of the best player in the league playing with no rest for months, altering his swing to reach a personal record, as a result going into a deep slump just when he's most needed - that kind of bs would be a thing of the past.

I am catching up on some of my daily sports podcasts and I am hearing a lot of complaining about how the 99-100 win teams were not getting enough of an advantage in a best of five series. As an NBA fan, I implore you MLB, do not change the LDS to a best of 7 series.

[Jas_lov]

The fact that they haven't called it yet probably means they're going to play. This all goes back to that stupid off day between Games 1 and 2.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I am catching up on some of my daily sports podcasts and I am hearing a lot of complaining about how the 99-100 win teams were not getting enough of an advantage in a best of five series. As an NBA fan, I implore you MLB, do not change the LDS to a best of 7 series.

The advantage they got occurred before the LDS - a bye. Then they got home field. What more do they want? A 3-run advantage? An extra out per inning? Removing a random opponent fielder every inning?

We've long decided that postseason tournaments are the way we want to decide things in this country. The more teams we let in, the less it matters how good you are when you get in the tournament. The problem for baseball, of course, is that the grind of the season is its biggest selling point. So they are shooting themselves in the foot with the postseason but...$$$.

[Lathum]

Is there any other sport that hates trying to get exposure to young fans the way baseball does?

[Ksyrup]

Postponed, per Olney.

[Ksyrup]

And the cherry on top is they are playing at 4pm tomorrow. *slaps forehead*

[Lathum]

MLB lost the Mets, Dodgers, and Braves. Can't afford to lose the Yankees. They were never playing this game.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Is there any other sport that hates trying to get exposure to young fans the way baseball does?

I don't know how you'd get a kid interested these days. They'd be reaching for their favored gaming or social media device between every pitch.

The playoff games aren't even on broadcast television anymore. And the "special" NFL Network broadcast at 9:30 on a Sunday morning (6:30 pacific) from England got more of an audience than any playoff game so far this season.

Yet somehow, they're still setting records with new contracts. I just don't know where the money is coming from.

I guess there's nothing to fix, then, but it seems like they're headed into oblivion.

[Jas_lov]

Originally Posted by Lathum

MLB lost the Mets, Dodgers, and Braves. Can't afford to lose the Yankees. They were never playing this game.

It does give the Yankees tired bullpen a day off but Cleveland can now start Bieber on 3 days rest if they choose. Looks like Nestor Cortes will start on 3 days rest for NY.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

The advantage they got occurred before the LDS - a bye. Then they got home field. What more do they want? A 3-run advantage? An extra out per inning? Removing a random opponent fielder every inning?

We've long decided that postseason tournaments are the way we want to decide things in this country. The more teams we let in, the less it matters how good you are when you get in the tournament. The problem for baseball, of course, is that the grind of the season is its biggest selling point. So they are shooting themselves in the foot with the postseason but...$$$.

It was clear from the negotiations this spring that the networks and owners care most about playoff revenue. So if you're going to keep neutering the regular season and, consequently, putting your better teams at less of an advantage, take a page out of a couple of the baseball leagues in Asia and reward the team with the better record with a 1-0 or 2-0 series advantage because a 1 game home field advantage in a best of 5 series is not very statistically significant.

SI

[stevew]

Something like 2 WC playing 3 then winner of that playing #3 division winner for 3, then winner of that playing #2 division winner for 5 then winner of that playing #1 seed for 7 would be awesome but that’s significantly fewer postseason games.

[sterlingice]

It's pretty clear we're headed towards 32 teams once Oakland and Tampa either get their stadiums (or move) and then an NBA/NHL-esque 16 teams in the playoffs (barf). I think they're also going back to 2 divisions so the largest marke-- I mean, best of the best, can bubble to the top more easily. That means 2 division winners and a ridiculous 6 Wild Cards. Bonus for MLB and their stupid way of looking at things: if you make the regular season count more, it will help keep those teams in the playoffs longer so that even when the pesky Indians or Padres sneak in, you can keep them out of the later rounds of the playoffs.

If I'm stuck with this eventuality, I'd probably do something like this:

D1, D2 get byes
WC6 at WC3, WC5 at WC4 - Wild Card games (single game)
WC3/6 at WC1, WC4/5 at WC2 - Wild Card best of 3, all at WC1/2's field and, maybe give the WC1 and WC2 a 1-0 series advantage (so only 2 games max)
WC2/4/5 at D1, WC1/3/6 at D2 - Divisional Round best of 5; give 1-0 series lead to divisional teams; I think some sort of 1-2-1 so each team gets home games guaranteed
LCS, World Series - as before, best of 7, home field goes to team with best record

SI

[molson]

I've lost a lot of interest in baseball with the expanded playoffs. It's tough to invest when it essentially comes down to a series of coin flips.

I saw a list the other day of the biggest Vegas money line upsets in baseball playoff series history. None of them were as big a money line upset as the Steelers/Buccs game on Sunday - which wasn't THAT big an upset - Buccs were 9.5 point favorites. Baseball is just a different kind of game. The Dodgers were -225 to win the series against the Padres - that's about as big a line as you can have for a 5 game baseball series. Same odds as 3-3 Bengals beating 3-3 Falcons this weekend.

[Solecismic]

I don't understand where the playoff revenue is coming from when it takes an entire five-game series on a second-tier cable channel to match the viewership of one regular-season NFL game.

Who is paying for these viewers and why? Surely it's pretty much the same viewership for each game. Which gives you a business model where if you're outside a major media market and there's television revenue sharing, you have very little incentive to field a competitive team.

A quick look at game times over the past week indicates most nine-inning games still run more than 3:30, and there are more strikeouts than ever. A "pitcher's duel" is no longer between two pitchers - seemingly dozens are involved.

Can't relax and bring a scorecard any more - so much more is available on your phone in an instant.

I don't know that this game can be fixed. Seems like something that worked for a different generation, and analytics and an endless supply of AAA-level pitchers has made even packaging it within three hours impossible. Games used to clock in at around two hours.

I'm sad about this. As I've written before, if the 1994 strike hadn't cured me of my fantasy baseball obsession, I probably would be doing baseball sims. Now, I don't even recognize the game.

[BishopMVP]

Why do they need to get super weird with in series or in game leads? Just give the better team 4-5 of the home games in the 5 game series.

[Lathum]

The higher seed should start every inning with a runner on second, the lower seeded catcher has to wear an eye patch and their shortstop has to play with his shoes untied.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Lathum

The higher seed should start every inning with a runner on second, the lower seeded catcher has to wear an eye patch and their shortstop has to play with his shoes untied.

Or just let Angel Hernandez call balls and strikes when the lower seed is batting

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I don't know how you'd get a kid interested these days. They'd be reaching for their favored gaming or social media device between every pitch.

My 12yo son is a big sports fan. Probably not as big as me at his age, but he's a big Astros and Cowboys fan. However, getting him to sit through an entire baseball game is impossible (the lone exception being his first live MLB game...when we went down to Houston and caught Verlander vs the Mariners a couple months ago). Hell, getting him to pay attention to an entire Cowboys game is hard. He's on and off his phone, goes to his room to play a game of Madden or MLB The Show then comes back, etc. I have to let him know when there are tight situations in Astros playoff games because he won't just sit there and watch with me.

Though...to be fair...maybe it was just me, but I remember leaving the room during tight UTEP basketball games as a pre-teen. In my case it was nerves, and that was my way of dealing with the pressure of a close game. Maybe it's something similar for him. I also STILL have trouble sitting through an entire MLB game, with the exception of the playoffs. Playoff baseball is infinitely more exciting than regular season games.

[Ksyrup]

On a plane from 4 to 8 so thankful they have live TV with TBS.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Why do they need to get super weird with in series or in game leads? Just give the better team 4-5 of the home games in the 5 game series.

More than any other sport, home field advantage just isn't very great in baseball. It's only a couple of percentage points advantage (53 vs 47) and it's been even less lately in playoff baseball, especially if you adjust out that the home team is the better team (using regular season records).

https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcon...t=math_facpubs
To give context to that, with one exception (Colorado), all of the home fields in baseball are worth less than all of the home fields in every single other sport.

But that paper is most important for what it was really going after. How often does the best team win any given game:

The median probability of the best team winning a neutral site game is highest in the NBA (67%), followed in order by the NFL (64%), NHL (57%) and MLB (56%).

So, in baseball, the best team only wins at a 56% clip. And you can add a couple more percentage points to that by giving them home field. But over a 5-game series and even a 7-game series, noise is going to win out /a lot/.

In the NBA, typically one of the best couple of teams wins. Not always, but a large majority of the time. That's because home court advantage is really big /and/ the better team wins more games. By comparison:

We note that in order for MLB to achieve the same lack of parity as the NBA, it would have to play 75-game series in a 16-team tournament.

That's not a misprint: 75-game series to be the equivalent of the NBA's 7-game series.

I guess it depends on the goal. If the goal is to reward better teams, home field just isn't that big of an advantage in baseball. You need to do something more. There are two ways to do it: shrink the playoffs, which are never going to happen so long as it provides more money, or find another advantage.

I absolutely abhor the Manfred Man rules. However, if you really want to reward the regular season, something like a 1-0 series advantage doesn't bother me nearly as much as that. And it would have a very material difference on the results of the series. Philly and San Diego both won 3-1 so, in theory, they would have moved on. But I think the pressure is a bit different if you need to win 3 games to your superior opponent's 2.

(Aside: I would also want to find some way to preserve home games for both teams, if possible, as scenes like what was going on in Seattle - that playoff reward after a drought, is a really valuable thing for helping fan interest in that city)

SI

[Lathum]

Wonder how many ballparks that wouldn't even be a homerun?