LOCKOUT '22: When will we see baseball again?

[Tiger337]

45 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I say this all the time and people think I'm joking but I'm not: but ban velco closures on batting gloves and you take 30 min off a baseball game. (snaps, buttons or zippers only!)

They might get frozen shut during a November playoff game.  

[Evil Roy Slade]

On 3/4/2022 at 2:02 PM, Tenacious D said:

Brilliant…

 

Love the Northwoods league. We spend summers in Traverse City area and they have the Pit Spitters in the Northwoods league.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Evil Roy Slade

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I say this all the time and people think I'm joking but I'm not: but ban velco closures on batting gloves and you take 30 min off a baseball game. (snaps, buttons or zippers only!)

You’re joking.

[casimir]

Just ban batting gloves altogether.  Take the Moises Alou approach to toughening hands.

[chasfh]

They won’t be the only ones.

[buddha]

the real injustice in all this is that they want to cancel the rule v/5 draft.

manfred hears about the parties and wanted to stop those type of shenanigans immediately.

[Tiger337]

52 minutes ago, buddha said:

the real injustice in all this is that they want to cancel the rule v/5 draft.

manfred hears about the parties and wanted to stop those type of shenanigans immediately.

Liston decided to go through with the Rule V even though the Rule 5 got cancelled.  The popcorn was already a year old and he didn't want to wait another year.  So, we had a smaller gathering and without the excitement of the draft to keep us distracted, things got a little out of hand.  Liston got Manfred's cell phone number and told Casimir to make a prank call pretending to be Tony Clark.  It was all in good fun, but Casimir went a little too far.  MLB threatened to sue Liston, but I think he got that straightened out. Nobody is mad at Casimir though.  It was his first Rule V party and he wanted to make an impression.  You can't really blame him.  

[Tenacious D]

10 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Liston decided to go through with the Rule V even though the Rule 5 got cancelled.  The popcorn was already a year old and he didn't want to wait another year.  So, we had a smaller gathering and without the excitement of the draft to keep us distracted, things got a little out of hand.  Liston got Manfred's cell phone number and told Casimir to make a prank call pretending to be Tony Clark.  It was all in good fun, but Casimir went a little too far.  MLB threatened to sue Liston, but I think he got that straightened out. Nobody is mad at Casimir though.  It was his first Rule V party and he wanted to make an impression.  You can't really blame him.  

The bacon-wrapped dates and charcuterie board were standouts.

[Tiger337]

4 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

The bacon-wrapped dates and charcuterie board were standouts.

When Randy Marsh showed up with his date wrapped in bacon, you knew it was going to be a wild day.  She was not too smart, but she was hot.   

[Longgone]

3 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

  She was not too smart, 

Who cares! BACON!!!

[SoCalTiger]

The longer this stoppage goes the harder it will be to settle with player "service time" lost becoming another issue, and both sides trying to recoup lost $$ during the delay. Maybe floating 14 team playoffs will allow owners to meet the higher payroll limits and clear a path to agreement. What a mess. 

[buddha]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33438241/sources-mlb-eyes-pitch-clocks-14-seconds-empty-bases-19-seconds-runners-on

mlb wants 14 second pitch clock with bases empty and 19 seconds with a runner on base.

 

[gehringer_2]

33 minutes ago, buddha said:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33438241/sources-mlb-eyes-pitch-clocks-14-seconds-empty-bases-19-seconds-runners-on

mlb wants 14 second pitch clock with bases empty and 19 seconds with a runner on base.

 

Hallelujah!

[Tiger337]

35 minutes ago, buddha said:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33438241/sources-mlb-eyes-pitch-clocks-14-seconds-empty-bases-19-seconds-runners-on

mlb wants 14 second pitch clock with bases empty and 19 seconds with a runner on base.

 

Get it done.  

I like change...when it's good change.  

[gehringer_2]

5 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Get it done.  

I like change...when it's good change.  

I wonder if as a bonus they also find out that when a pitcher throws 5 innings in one hour instead of 2 he isn't as tired.....

[Tiger337]

They are going to have bigger bases too, but that's the kind of thing I probably wouldn't notice. I have heard the primary reasoning is that it might cut down injuries.  I can see on close plays where a runner is trying to reach the base and the fielder is in the way that a bigger base might prevent collisions (especially at first.  The secondary benefit would be more steals, but I am very skeptical.  

[chasfh]

I am basically for pitch clocks to snappy up pace of game, but I can imagine the players, pitchers and catchers in particular, fighting the pitch clock because they'll want to maximize recovery time after hurling pitches at 100% max effort each and every time. If this goes through, I could see a slight spike in offense, including walks and HBPs, as starters tire in the middle innings.

This might also lead to more pitchers/pitching changes.

[chasfh]

46 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

They are going to have bigger bases too, but that's the kind of thing I probably wouldn't notice. I have heard the primary reasoning is that it might cut down injuries.  I can see on close plays where a runner is trying to reach the base and the fielder is in the way that a bigger base might prevent collisions (especially at first.  The secondary benefit would be more steals, but I am very skeptical.  

What they need at first base is a safety base extending beyond the foul line for the batter-runner to touch, so as to remove basically any opportunity for a player collision or spike mishap on ground ball plays there. Like so:

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I am basically for pitch clocks to snappy up pace of game, but I can imagine the players, pitchers and catchers in particular, fighting the pitch clock because they'll want to maximize recovery time after hurling pitches at 100% max effort each and every time. If this goes through, I could see a slight spike in offense, including walks and HBPs, as starters tire in the middle innings.

This might also lead to more pitchers/pitching changes.

I would guess pitchers will make more mistakes, which should increase offense, but OTOH, the batter has less time to prep himself as well, and maybe that will play the other way. And of course, who knows what damage it may do to offense when hitters have to start playing through having loose batting gloves......🤣

Edited March 6, 2022 by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I would guess pitchers will make more mistakes, which should increase offense, but OTOH, the batter has less time to prep himself as well, and maybe that will play the other way. And of course, who knows what damage it may do to offense when hitters have to start playing through having loose batting gloves......🤣

I actually think it would work better for the batter. As things stand, the pitcher can wait as long as he wants, and who knows how long that's going to be? Only the pitcher, because he's in total control of the timing. With a pitch clock, the batter knows the pitcher is on a timer, so he better knows when to expect the ball to be thrown, and can better mentally prepare for that.

You know who else is going to like the pitch clock? Fielders.

[Edman85]

There will be a pitch clock loophole that will be exploited.

 

Similar to the 3-pitch minimum leading to managers yanking pitchers with two outs so they can make a mid-inning change next inning.

[Jim Cowan]

8 hours ago, casimir said:

Just ban batting gloves altogether.  Take the Moises Alou approach to toughening hands.

I hope you get a chance to shake his hand some day.

[chasfh]

Interesting newsletter from Mark Simon of SIS earlier this week about a system developed to simulate minor league batted ball data to fashion a Statcast equivalent as a way of projecting performance at the major league level, and as top prospects, Tork and Greene are analyzed.

The takeaway appears to be that Tork's numbers were in lines with their "Synthetic Statcast" equivalents, but that maybe Greene overachieved just a bit.

They are looking only as prospects expected to start in the minor leagues, since they are not on their org's 40-man rosters.

*********************

In 2018, SIS built a machine-learning model, Synthetic Statcast, that was trained using actual MLB Statcast data and SIS internally-collected batted ball data to simulate exit velocity, launch angle and more for MLB players back to 2010, as well as for the minor leagues, NPB (Japan), and KBO (Korea).

The result is a unique perspective on quality of contact for players across levels and how those players measure up to MLB standards. 

Let’s look at a few of the top minor league prospects through the prism of that data. For now, we’ll focus on those not on 40-man rosters at the moment, meaning that they should be playing in the minor leagues come April.

...

Our data also allows us to construct expected batting averages and slugging percentages on balls in play based on where balls are hit and how hard they’re hit. We can then compare a player's actual batting average and slugging percentage on balls in play (BABIP and SLGBIP) to their expected numbers (xBABIP and xSLGBIP)

...

The Tigers have the next-highest ranked prospects among position players not currently on a 40-man roster in corner infielder Spencer Torkelson (No. 4) and outfielder Riley Greene (No. 5).

Torkelson played at three minor league levels last season, finishing with 40 games in Triple-A. Overall, he hit .267 with a .935 OPS (brought down a little bit by hitting .238 with an .881 OPS at Toledo, his final stop).

Torkelson’s .359 BABIP was a near-match for his .365 xBABIP and his .731 SLGBIP wasn’t far from his .714 xSLGBIP.

Torkelson’s 90.1 MPH average exit velocity and 18.7 degree average launch angle are about the same numbers that Mookie Betts posted in MLB last season (90.3 and 18.9).

Greene split time between Double-A and Triple-A last season and handled the latter better than Torkelson did. Between the two levels, he hit .301/.387/.534 with 24 home runs.

However, Greene did overachieve a bit, particularly in slugging. His .775 SLGBIP was 104 points higher than his .671 xSLGBIP. His 89.6 MPH average exit velocity and 8.9 degree average launch angle were a close match to Marlins infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s MLB numbers last season (90.2 and 9.0).

[casimir]

7 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Liston decided to go through with the Rule V even though the Rule 5 got cancelled.  The popcorn was already a year old and he didn't want to wait another year.  So, we had a smaller gathering and without the excitement of the draft to keep us distracted, things got a little out of hand.  Liston got Manfred's cell phone number and told Casimir to make a prank call pretending to be Tony Clark.  It was all in good fun, but Casimir went a little too far.  MLB threatened to sue Liston, but I think he got that straightened out. Nobody is mad at Casimir though.  It was his first Rule V party and he wanted to make an impression.  You can't really blame him.  

Listen, I feel shame about the whole fiasco, but in my defense (defence for our friends up north), I don’t get out much, and so as one might imagine, I’m not all that cultured.

[casimir]

3 hours ago, chasfh said:

What they need at first base is a safety base extending beyond the foul line for the batter-runner to touch, so as to remove basically any opportunity for a player collision or spike mishap on ground ball plays there. Like so:

A lot of people might take umbrage with this, but it makes sense if one considers the location of where the running lane is on the 1st base line.