LOCKOUT '22: When will we see baseball again?

[Motor City Sonics]

4 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

Ron Blomberg by the way was just a young kid and just happened to be the first DH.  He had played parts of 2 seasons before that and was a guy that almost no one outside of New York had ever heard of.

So he becomes the answer to a trivia question.

On the other end of that, who was the last pitcher to bat?  

 

(I understand that there may be pitchers that pinch bat in the future, but who was the last pitcher to bat as the pitcher?)

[Jim Cowan]

13 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

So he becomes the answer to a trivia question.

On the other end of that, who was the last pitcher to bat?  

 

(I understand that there may be pitchers that pinch bat in the future, but who was the last pitcher to bat as the pitcher?)

Someone in the last game of the prior World Series?

[Tigermojo]

Maybe they can make it all the way to 20 minutes on Monday.

[Motor City Sonics]

32 minutes ago, Jim Cowan said:

Someone in the last game of the prior World Series?

World series had pitchers bat in Atlanta.   So game 5 Kyle Wright batted in the bottom of the 3rd.   And that was that.  

[Motor City Sonics]

10 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

World series had pitchers bat in Atlanta.   So game 5 Kyle Wright batted in the bottom of the 3rd.   And that was that.  

Sorry, the next game was in Atlanta and it looks like A.J. Minter is the last pitcher to bat in the bottom of the 4th, he bunted a pop up behind home plate that was caught...............how pitchery.  

Zach Greinke actually didn't pitch that game but he did pinch hit in that game - and got a single !

[Tiger337]

Ohtani will still bat.  Also, there is a rule where if a team is forced to move a DH to a defensive position they lose the DH for the rest of the game and the pitcher has to bat.  

[Motor City Sonics]

9 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Ohtani will still bat.  Also, there is a rule where if a team is forced to move a DH to a defensive position they lose the DH for the rest of the game and the pitcher has to bat.  

Once it's announced that the 2022 season is cancelled, Ohtani will be going to Japan to play and he won't come back. 

[IdahoBert]

I sure am glad that spring training season has only been delayed by one week; that must mean that we have lots of reasons to be optimistic. 

[casimir]

21 hours ago, chasfh said:

I like your idea of lumping together the west coast teams, and I think you might be able to add Arizona and a Vegas expansion team to that. That’s eight Pacific time teams you could put into two divisions, maybe within a time-zoned conference. Maybe SEA, OAK, SFG, LAA in one division and LAD, SDP, LAV, ARI. That would leave the other 24 teams back east, including an expansion team in Nashville, with all but one in the Eastern and Central time zones.

If they were interested in evening travel out, something I’m guessing is low on their radar, I was wondering whether there’s a way to set up divisions for the 24 teams that would create as close to equitable travel as possible. Putting NYY and BOS in a division is a no brained, I agree, but putting NYM there too would create far too easy a travel situation for those teams. I’m thinking a way to even that out is to put Central and Eastern teams in a division together. For example, maybe:

• NYY, BOS, CHW, MIN
• NYM, PHI, DET, CHC
• BAL, PIT, CIN, MIL
• MIA, TBR, ATL, NSH
• TOR, WAS, STL, CLE
• COL, KCR, HOU, TEX

I didn’t think the configuration here through for more than a few minutes or measure distance, but as an example, if Baseball wanted to even out the travel more equitably, this might be a way to approach that. Nothing can be done about all the miles out they have to travel out west, especially Seattle, unless maybe they put a team in Portland instead of Vegas, which, lol.

Let's get this 4 teams per division malarky out of here.  The one good thing of the 1994 strike ending the season was that it prevented a playoff team with a losing record (I'm looking at you 4 team AL West).  The fewer teams per division leads to more chances that a losing team becomes a division winner (its just straight math, homey) and it also becomes tougher to set divisions up with some semblance of all around logic.

So, if/when expansion occurs, I'd go with 4 divisions of 4.  Las Vegas/Portland and Nashville seem like reasonable choices.  I'd like to see Montreal get back into it because I miss Youppi, but that's just me.  (Baseball in the gambling capital of the world, yeah, let's keep going with the about face on the cardinal sin of the sport).

The two western divisions are easiest to set up.  Maybe these teams 

• Pacific/Western - SEA, OAK, SF, LAD, LAA, SD, AZ, LV/POR.  This has everybody on the west coast accounted for.  Everybody is in the Pacific time zone except for Las Vegas which never sleeps anyway.  And it doesn't matter which locale the western expansion team lands in, both cities fit comfortably here.
• Central/Midwest - CO, TX, HOU, KC, SL, CHC, CWS, MN.  The pretty much takes care of everybody else west of the Mississippi.  It keeps the Cubs and Cardinals together.  Lets be honest, along with realignment, there needs to be some tradition upheld, and that's easier to handle with 8 team divisions rather than 4 team divisions.

Now the two east divisions have some more choices to make.  I think this is where looking at teams in smaller pools of teams does help make those choices.  So you've got NYY, NYM, and BOS together.  You've probably got PHI, BAL, and WAS together.  TB & MIA.  CLE & CIN.  

• Div 1 - MIL, DET, CLE CIN, ATL, TB, MIA, NAS
• Div 2 - NYY, NYM, BOS, PHI, BAL, WAS, PIT, TOR

or

• Div 1 - MIL, DET, CLE, CIN, NYY, NYM, BOS, TOR
• Div 2 - ATL, TB, MIA, NAS, PHI, PIT, BAL, WAS

In any of the above, I guess Milwaukee looks out of place since they aren't in a division with the Chicago teams despite their proximity.  But there's going to have to be a line somewhere, and Milwaukee isn't completely out of place with DET, CLE, and CIN.  Its not nearly as goofy as when CIN & ATL were in the NL West and CHC & SL were in the NL East.

Sadly, this kills the Leyland Ash Tray as a traditional divisional battle trophy, but again, lines have to be drawn somewheres.

[casimir]

17 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

 

So much urgency that they are taking the weekend off from the negotiating table?  I guess what else what else should we expect from a sport that won't address its lackluster pace of play issues. 

Manfred is strolling around the mound, gets back on the mound.  Clark steps out of the box, plays with his batting gloves, gets back in the box.  Manfred needs to go through the pitching signs again with his catcher because he can't remember what the one is and what the two is.  Once the catcher gets back behind the plate, a midge flies in Clark's eye, so he steps out again and the trainer has to visit him with some eye wash.  Clark gets back in, but Manfred now has to get the rosin back.  Clark then needs some more pine tar.

But I guess this us more activity than there was in December and January, so do we call this progress?

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

So he becomes the answer to a trivia question.

On the other end of that, who was the last pitcher to bat?  

 

(I understand that there may be pitchers that pinch bat in the future, but who was the last pitcher to bat as the pitcher?)

Logan Webb might go down in history as the last pitcher to homer in a big league ballgame.

[chasfh]

12 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Ohtani will still bat.  Also, there is a rule where if a team is forced to move a DH to a defensive position they lose the DH for the rest of the game and the pitcher has to bat.  

I assume Angels will just do what they do in the NL when the hitting pitcher comes out of the game: if the game is within a slam, they’ll double-switch their way out of having the pitcher’s slot come up, and send up a parade of pinch-hitters if/when it does. In late-inning blowouts, they’ll just have relief pitchers stand in the back outside corner of the box and take three pitches down the pipe for the out.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, casimir said:

Let's get this 4 teams per division malarky out of here.  The one good thing of the 1994 strike ending the season was that it prevented a playoff team with a losing record (I'm looking at you 4 team AL West).  The fewer teams per division leads to more chances that a losing team becomes a division winner (its just straight math, homey) and it also becomes tougher to set divisions up with some semblance of all around logic.

So, if/when expansion occurs, I'd go with 4 divisions of 4.  Las Vegas/Portland and Nashville seem like reasonable choices.  I'd like to see Montreal get back into it because I miss Youppi, but that's just me.  (Baseball in the gambling capital of the world, yeah, let's keep going with the about face on the cardinal sin of the sport).

The two western divisions are easiest to set up.  Maybe these teams 

• Pacific/Western - SEA, OAK, SF, LAD, LAA, SD, AZ, LV/POR.  This has everybody on the west coast accounted for.  Everybody is in the Pacific time zone except for Las Vegas which never sleeps anyway.  And it doesn't matter which locale the western expansion team lands in, both cities fit comfortably here.
• Central/Midwest - CO, TX, HOU, KC, SL, CHC, CWS, MN.  The pretty much takes care of everybody else west of the Mississippi.  It keeps the Cubs and Cardinals together.  Lets be honest, along with realignment, there needs to be some tradition upheld, and that's easier to handle with 8 team divisions rather than 4 team divisions.

Now the two east divisions have some more choices to make.  I think this is where looking at teams in smaller pools of teams does help make those choices.  So you've got NYY, NYM, and BOS together.  You've probably got PHI, BAL, and WAS together.  TB & MIA.  CLE & CIN.  

• Div 1 - MIL, DET, CLE CIN, ATL, TB, MIA, NAS
• Div 2 - NYY, NYM, BOS, PHI, BAL, WAS, PIT, TOR

or

• Div 1 - MIL, DET, CLE, CIN, NYY, NYM, BOS, TOR
• Div 2 - ATL, TB, MIA, NAS, PHI, PIT, BAL, WAS

In any of the above, I guess Milwaukee looks out of place since they aren't in a division with the Chicago teams despite their proximity.  But there's going to have to be a line somewhere, and Milwaukee isn't completely out of place with DET, CLE, and CIN.  Its not nearly as goofy as when CIN & ATL were in the NL West and CHC & SL were in the NL East.

Sadly, this kills the Leyland Ash Tray as a traditional divisional battle trophy, but again, lines have to be drawn somewheres.

Looks fine to me.

I think four-team divisions, instead of eight, is a forgone conclusion for a couple of reasons: (1) Four-team divisions gives more teams more opportunities to be in division races and playoffs, which should be attractive to gamblers. (Oh, and I guess sucker fans, too, whatever.) I don’t think Baseball cares about sub-.500 teams playing in the playoffs, even if they pretend to care in press conferences. More teams in it means more interest. And (2) nobody wants to try to market a team that’s languishing in seventh or eighth place after the All-Star break. I know some people completely reject the entire idea that teams care about that, but they certainly do. Avoiding high-number finishes is one of the reasons they went to divisions back in 1969 in the first place.

[Motor City Sonics]

We aren't seeing MLB until June, if at all.   

Baseball is not in a position to fuck with secondary fans because their loyal fan base is dwindling fast.   

Stupid, stupid, stupid.  

[Tigeraholic1]

 

Block or foul?

[Motor City Sonics]

8 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

 

Block or foul?

Intentional.  You can tell by his lack of surprise after the collision.      I wouldn't drill the next guy, but I would have a word with my pitchers about every time that batter comes to the plate.  

[gehringer_2]

15 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

 

Block or foul?

LOL, running with your head down is always a good way to make an out. Actually it sort of looked like the batter didn't know/understand the interference rules - it almost looks like he's asking for 2nd because the 1B was in the run out lane.

Edited February 19, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

Big divisions are better than small divisions, but with half the teams making the playoffs, it's not going to matter anyway.  The regular season is going to meaningless.  

[1984Echoes]

4 hours ago, casimir said:

Let's get this 4 teams per division malarky out of here.  The one good thing ... was that it prevented a playoff team with a losing record (I'm looking at you 4 team AL West).  The fewer teams per division leads to more chances that a losing team becomes a division winner... and it also becomes tougher to set divisions up with some semblance of all around logic.

So, if/when expansion occurs, I'd go with 4 divisions of 4.

Wait, What?

[1984Echoes]

4 hours ago, casimir said:

Let's get this 4 teams per division malarky...

PS: I know the rest of your post was extolling the virtues of 8 teams each in 4 divisions...

Just picking on your typing skills...

[casimir]

18 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Wait, What?

 

17 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

PS: I know the rest of your post was extolling the virtues of 8 teams each in 4 divisions...

Just picking on your typing skills...

It is because I'm an idiot, but you people should already'of picked up on that.

[Tiger337]

51 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

Wait, What?

He was dividing the league into two levels, so we can have relegation.  

[casimir]

18 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

He was dividing the league into two levels, so we can have relegation.  

The thing that I love about the idea of MLB & promotion/relegation is that if you ask anyone on favor of it how it should be handled, there is not recommendation on how to do it.

Edited February 19, 2022 by casimir

[Motor City Sonics]

Okay, I heard this on the radio today during Pat Caputo's show while I was driving around doing errands and swearing left and right about winter.  They said that Dan Dickerson can't say the names of the players on the Tigers roster.  Is this true?  If it is, we've gone way beyond ridiculous here.    I don't know if they were joking, but is Dickerson employed by the Tigers or by WJR?  

 

now granted it was Pat Caputo and for a sports writer his use of vocabulary is limited and as recently as 3 years ago he thought the NFL wild card teams played each other in the playoffs (and he was the Lions beat writer for the Oakland Press for several years). 

[oblong]

Growing up I only knew Caputo from the Tigers shows that were on channel 4 with Eli. No joke but for a long time I thought he was blind.  Only memorable thing I heard him say was around 1995 or 1996 when he wondered if  they would change the name of the road at the palace to “Two Lottery Drive”.