MLB Off-Topic

[dubcity]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

And they all hate advanced stats

Yeah, Adams Jones had the best take on that. Exit velocity, lol.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

"But when you step between these lines, education means absolutely nothing." Adam Jones

Lol would Greg Maddux agree with you? Would Andrew Miller right now? We're seriously fighting a battle of ignorance. The problem is not the numbers. The problem is that people refuse to allow numbers to tell them things, and they get upset when numbers go against them.

And I wish people would stop saying things like baseball is fun and cool lol. Of course we think so, physicists think the same about their job. The reality is that baseball is not fun in the way that most people use the word, and continuing to insist that it is just makes it easier to dismiss when people disagree. If someone told me I needed to see golf because it's fun, I would ignore them. And that's what happens to us when we try to tell other people the same thing.

[SPTO]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Okay, these are star players so I can understand them not being so open to advanced stats but don't tell that to guys who've used launch angle to become massive HR hitters. I also think that a lot of advanced stats theoretically helps pitchers and the defense though sometimes the opposition can make the shift look awfully silly.

I think it's understandable with a couple of those guys since they play for real old school managers (Jones and Moustakis as well as Trout) so the culture in the clubhouses there aren't exactly embracing the advanced stats movement.

It's interesting what they say about the broadcasting too. Personally, I think baseball in some respects is the hardest to broadcast in terms of translating the on field experience to the home viewer through commentary. There are two schools of TV broadcasting of baseball that i've noticed. One is the "casual conversation" style where the PBP gives very limited information about what's going on while he chit chats with the analyst(s) and the other school (which is the one Sportsnet employs with the Jays unless Shulman is doing PBP as they tend to go the more conversational route with him at the helm) whereby the PBP guy gives a ton of data and calls the game and the analyst is very traditional in terms of adding color.

IMO a little bit of both works best. I know Bob Costas gets a lot of flack but something similar to his style with a dash of Matt Vasgersian's conversational tone would work well. I thought Vasgersian did a GREAT job during the World Series with Buck Martinez who I thought wouldn't work so well with him. It was more traditional in tone than Vasgersian usually does it but there was also some great conversation as well.

[CMH]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Yeah, Adams Jones had the best take on that. Exit velocity, lol.

Price is apparently capable of reading distance with the naked eye.

He actually commented on a ball going 499 feet and said, "it's wrong. It was 500."

I mean, if that's the mentality, it's a lose lose fight. Let's just accept there's two sides to the stats argument.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

They used to do it. But Barry Larkin kept getting hurt. I keed I keed. But there were injuries a few years in a row from the skills competition and not much fan interest, so they canned it. I remember watching Wade Boggs (yeah I'm ****ing old) put on a bunting clinic that was just amazing to behold.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/2015-all-star-game/2015/06/27/barry-larkins-blown-out-elbow-ended-the-skills-competition-at-the-all-star-game/28954059/

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/07/...7640616046400/

Ah yes. I remember having a massive Wade Boggs baseball card collection when I was a youngster. Something like well over 100 Wade Boggs cards. To this day I'm still not sure why it was Wade Boggs I was hording out of all the star players in the 1980s that I enjoyed watching. Must've been a sucker for guys who hit .360

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

**** you, MLB. **** you, **** you, **** you.

New high school softball rules in effect next year:

In Rule 2-65-2, the committee added language to include intentional walks into the fast-pitch game. The rule states that a request for an intentional walk can now be made prior to or during the at-bat by the defensive coach or catcher. This change aligns fast-pitch and slow-pitch rules to keep up with current trends of the sports and maximize the flow of the game.

This is the exact reason I did not want to see intentional walks become automatic in the MLB.

Let me also add one more bit of information: I am really big on this "legal delivery" thing because I don't want this to trickle down to other leagues that still do intentional walks. I coach softball, and the last thing I want me or the other team to do is just say, "Put them on base." As far as ineffectiveness goes for a situation, I would love for so many things to go wrong in this situation, not just wild pitches but also throwing strikes and inattentiveness to the base runners for possible steal situations. All of this happens much more there than it does in the MLB, and if they adopt it as a result of this, I am certainly going to let my powers at be go to the board and protest it, because nowhere does it create a lull in the game. It becomes an ultimate chicken move if we are allowed to just point them to go to first base, and I don't want anybody to have such a luxury. I hate that high school baseball has it now (at least some high schools, if not all), and I will hate this one as well. Hate. Hate. Hate.

[SPTO]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Price is apparently capable of reading distance with the naked eye.

He actually commented on a ball going 499 feet and said, "it's wrong. It was 500."

I mean, if that's the mentality, it's a lose lose fight. Let's just accept there's two sides to the stats argument.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

"sigh"

I'll admit i'm not the biggest fan of advanced stats though I will say i've come around to some of it but it's ignorant, stupid statements like that that make guys like Price look awfully silly.

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Baseball America prospect rankings out for mid-season. Vlad Jr is ranked #2!

Would be nice if Jays could get everything to come together at once. Once Vlad Jr and the other guys are ready for the big leagues, the Jays have a good young roster ready to join them from all the guys they get when trading away the vets this season.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Pretty good article from BR mag.

They asked a few players about baseball being cool. They all agreed it was and don't want to change the game much.

But what caught my eye is every player (Griffey, Price, Betts, Trout, Harper, Fowler, Adam Jones) said they don't watch the game on television because the announcers and coverage doesn't do the game any justice.

Good. ****ing good.

[CMH]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Good. ****ing good.

I knew you'd like that part.

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[TheMatrix31]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I'm just glad to know that I'm on the same wavelength as them, even though I don't quite agree with the advanced stats being completely worthless. And while I think stars should be marketed, they should be marketed as part of teams rather than the "inmates run the asylum"-style in the NBA that I hate.

But yeah, absolutely. The biggest obstacle is the coverage.

[SPTO]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

So I mentioned the blister issues in baseball right now well here's Gregg Zaun's theory on what's going on:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ppXW8nJzp2E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[rkwittem]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Okay, these are star players so I can understand them not being so open to advanced stats but don't tell that to guys who've used launch angle to become massive HR hitters. I also think that a lot of advanced stats theoretically helps pitchers and the defense though sometimes the opposition can make the shift look awfully silly.

I think it's understandable with a couple of those guys since they play for real old school managers (Jones and Moustakis as well as Trout) so the culture in the clubhouses there aren't exactly embracing the advanced stats movement.

It's interesting what they say about the broadcasting too. Personally, I think baseball in some respects is the hardest to broadcast in terms of translating the on field experience to the home viewer through commentary. There are two schools of TV broadcasting of baseball that i've noticed. One is the "casual conversation" style where the PBP gives very limited information about what's going on while he chit chats with the analyst(s) and the other school (which is the one Sportsnet employs with the Jays unless Shulman is doing PBP as they tend to go the more conversational route with him at the helm) whereby the PBP guy gives a ton of data and calls the game and the analyst is very traditional in terms of adding color.

IMO a little bit of both works best. I know Bob Costas gets a lot of flack but something similar to his style with a dash of Matt Vasgersian's conversational tone would work well. I thought Vasgersian did a GREAT job during the World Series with Buck Martinez who I thought wouldn't work so well with him. It was more traditional in tone than Vasgersian usually does it but there was also some great conversation as well.

Didn't Vasgersian and Buck work together on an old MLB the Show game?

[SPTO]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Didn't Vasgersian and Buck work together on an old MLB the Show game?

Yep they did.

[Mabster]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Imagine how fast games could be....

https://streamable.com/s/tha73/mweqyk

Get in the box people!