Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 06:34:25 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Baseball 2021 - we defy you to care

Started by Famous Mortimer, January 22, 2021, 05:41:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ferris

Ohhh, right yeah. If the home team is already winning after top of the 9th then they don't bother playing the bottom half and it's just ruled with a dash. I think it's a rule inherited from cricket?

BlodwynPig

Yes, I knew that before, but this morning there was a missing 4 and the errant -, so I thought this may have been where the 4 should be (not noticing the 9th innings). Odd

Ferris

Quote from: BlodwynPig on May 10, 2021, 06:24:03 PM
Yes, I knew that before, but this morning there was a missing 4 and the errant -, so I thought this may have been where the 4 should be (not noticing the 9th innings). Odd

Ah, got it.

Famous Mortimer

Padres fan knocks a Rockies fan out with one punch, gets mobbed by other Rockies fans

I hope knocking that guy out was worth the severe beating he no doubt received, and possibly a nice arrest too.

El Unicornio, mang

Damn. Although I like that at baseball such incidents are incredibly rare despite no fan segregation, alcohol freely served, and people trash talking each others teams throughout games.

Ferris

Yeah that's horrible.

One of the things I've always liked about baseball (doubly so at games) is the collegiate atmosphere. I've had nice chats with people from all over the US and recommended bars and things to see in Toronto, and they have likewise been pleasant to me. Unthinkable in football.

Famous Mortimer

Another stupid unwritten rules kerfuffle in baseball, but this time grumpy old man Tony La Russa is directly involved, rather than just shooting his mouth off to the press. His White Sox are beating the Twins in a blowout, so the Twins send backup catcher Willians Astudillo out there to pitch. Yermin Mercedes, feel good story of the Sox season, hits a homer on a 3-0 pitch.

La Russa criticises his own player, apologising to the Twins, showing, as Jomboy says in this excellent breakdown video, that these tough old-school guys are actually a huge bunch of babies. I'm glad that opinion seems to be swinging against this nonsense, and hopefully the media response to this will get baseball to have a word with its old men, telling them to shut their mouths for the good of the game.

BlodwynPig

What was the problem? No understand american sporrs

Bernice

Quote from: BlodwynPig on May 20, 2021, 07:04:45 AM
What was the problem? No understand american sporrs


I'm a  neophyte baseball fan, but:

The Twins had no hope of winning the game, so to save their pitchers' arms they sent a backup position player out to gently lob the ball vaguely in the direction of the plate for the last inning.

I gather etiquette here is for the batting team to... Not swing? Bunt it? Catch it and say 'aw shucks, nice pitch'? Either way, not to twat it out of the park. Old man gets angry at breach of unwritten rule, and has a go at his own player.

El Unicornio, mang

Yeah the Twins made a tactical decision to save one of their pitchers arms, and quite rightly shouldn't be spared. I'm all for sportsmanship but you don't take your foot off the pedal against an opponent.

Reminds me of this thing from 1993 that was newsworthy enough to be on Transworld Sports one Sunday morning

QuoteCanseco asked his manager, Kevin Kennedy, to let him pitch the eighth inning of a runaway loss to the Boston Red Sox, and becoming the first ever positional player to pitch for the Rangers; he injured his arm, underwent Tommy John surgery, and was lost for the remainder of the season.

El Unicornio, mang

Speaking of pitchers, Shohei Ohtani currently leads the majors in home runs as well as:

• Batting second while being the starting pitcher (hadn't been done in the AL or NL since 1903)
• Leading off the day after being the starting pitcher (hadn't been done since 1916)
• Becoming the third player ever to play the field in the same game as striking out 10 batters
• Becoming one of just two players on record to throw a ball 100-plus mph and hit one 100-plus mph in the same game).

Absolutely incredible.

Ferris

Quote from: Bernice on May 20, 2021, 09:13:41 AM
I'm a  neophyte baseball fan, but:

The Twins had no hope of winning the game, so to save their pitchers' arms they sent a backup position player out to gently lob the ball vaguely in the direction of the plate for the last inning.

I gather etiquette here is for the batting team to... Not swing? Bunt it? Catch it and say 'aw shucks, nice pitch'? Either way, not to twat it out of the park. Old man gets angry at breach of unwritten rule, and has a go at his own player.

A 3-0 pitch means the pitcher has no control basically - they haven't been able to throw a single strike in the at bat. Every pitcher at 3-0 will at least try and throw a strike to avoid walking the batter - to do that (and as they're already as far behind in the count as they can get which means they don't have their precision dialled in), they will take some speed off a fastball and throw it middle-middle. If you're a batter up 3-0, that means in all likelihood you will get a slower fastball right down the middle of the plate (a hitter's dream, and in the Majors that's a pretty much guaranteed hit especially if you essentially know it's coming) and if the pitcher misses you still get a walk. Under the stupid "unwritten rules", if you swing 3-0, you're showing up the pitcher[nb]that the pitcher has already shown up himself is, for some unexplained reason, besides the point[/nb]. The thinking goes - the other team sucks, you don't need to run up the score[nb]excelt yes you do because it's sports you lunatic[/nb]. You're supposed to take the 4th pitch and walk, or take the strike and go back to normal next pitch. It's incredibly dumb.

There's so much wrong with that thinking it's hard to know where to begin. There are specifics to this latest case that make it even more mind-bogglingly stupid.

The twins weren't using a pitcher, they were using Williams "La Tortuga[nb]because he's small and round[/nb]" Astudillo. He wasn't trying - sometimes position players pitch in blowout games but they're professional athletes and have their pride. They might not need the stats, but they still want to beat you and can likely throw 80mph+ without too much hassle. I've literally never seen a pitch as slow as Astudillo's 46mph in all my years of watching the game - if he was down 3-0 in the count, he's not even throwing it accurately. Nobody will get "shown up" because nobody gives a fuck in the first place.

Yermín Mercedes (the batter) is a 28 year old rookie. That's very old to be breaking through, he will be on league minimum and every stat matters for his next (and likely, only) contract worth more than a few hundred thousand. For a guy who's been playing pro ball since he was 18, he needs every stat he can get to make his career make financial sense because you earn peanuts in the minors (a disgrace to the sport tbh, and something I could rant about all day - the minor league reliever of the year in 2019 was driving Uber in the off season to make ends meet).

So why is LaRussa so publicly mad? Two possible arguments - the batter ignored the "take" sign and swung anyway, and that's a discipline thing. Ok, maybe, but no need to have that argument in public and that's a stupid sign to give a batter anyway. Two - worried that the Twins might feel shown up, he is being loudly apologetic as publicly as possible to ensure the Twins don't hit anybody with "wild" pitches tomorrow. By making himself look a clown, he's taking one for the team... except the next day, the Twins did throw at Mercedes (and missed lol) and LaRussa publicly said he had no problem with what they did. That's your player, dipshit - if you don't have a problem with them getting beaned you probably should, and you definitely shouldn't say it's fine out loud to the media.

So what's going on here? Basically, LaRussa is a dinosaur. He turned a blind eye to a lot of players juicing in the '90s and early '00s on his teams, then complained they were getting pilloried just for cheating. He has two DUIs on record (including one this year where he was literally asleep at the wheel, and the dashcam footage is public and not a good look). The guy's a clown shoe stuck in the '70s. This incarnation of the white Sox are fun and full of flair so they're the worst possible fit. Basically, because LaRussa is mates with the current owner (who runs his teams like fiefdoms), he's got a job for life regardless of how embarrassing and untenable that becomes. That he's squandering this much talent just makes it worse.

Incredibly long boring rambling post fuck it post.

Ferris

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on May 20, 2021, 10:27:30 AM
Speaking of pitchers, Shohei Ohtani currently leads the majors in home runs as well as:

• Batting second while being the starting pitcher (hadn't been done in the AL or NL since 1903)
• Leading off the day after being the starting pitcher (hadn't been done since 1916)
• Becoming the third player ever to play the field in the same game as striking out 10 batters
• Becoming one of just two players on record to throw a ball 100-plus mph and hit one 100-plus mph in the same game).

Absolutely incredible.

Love these Ohtani stats. He was pitching faster (100mph) than the exit velo on his dinger (99.7mph) the other day.

Bernice

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on May 20, 2021, 11:18:01 AM
Incredibly long boring rambling post fuck it post.

Not at all, very much enjoyed that.

Dex Sawash

Anyone had a go at the radar pitching cage? Have spent a dollar probably 10 times, lifetime record in high 30s and it felt as though I would burst a blood vessel in my hand from the blood whipping down there on the best ones. I bet my form is all wrong though.

Ferris


Dex Sawash

King of CaB should be obtainable, seems almost everyone over 12 breaks 40

I'm against padding your stats off a jolly catcher-utility man throwing 40 mph. I say plunk away!

BlodwynPig

I thought the walk was on the 3 not the 4?

El Unicornio, mang


dr beat

Quote from: Bernice on May 20, 2021, 11:20:57 AM
Not at all, very much enjoyed that.

Yes thanks also Ferris.

I've been very much getting back into baseball, been enjoying sticking a full game on Youtube of an evening, even if its just an old one.  Whenever I've been in baseball territory on my travels I've always tried to get to a game.  Been to a couple of MLB matches, and a minor league one out in Fresno, but particularly enjoyed the one I saw in South Korea.  Packed stadium and great atmosphere. 

Ferris

Gah! Wrote out a long piece about east Asian baseball (and NPB in particular) only to have to put my phone down to attend to childcare. When I returned, the page had refreshed (?) and my reply was gone!

The basic point was - jealous! I'd love to see a game in Korea or Japan.

And a quick mention of personal hero Larry Doby who played a season in Japan, and ceremonial first pitches in Asia being far more interesting than in North America. Might try and reconstruct my original post later if I get time.

dr beat

Please do if you can, sounds like a good read!

BlodwynPig


El Unicornio, mang

I've only just noticed the Blue Jays are playing their home games in Florida. I like sunny open air grass stadiums but it definitely feels a bit wrong. And then they're gonna be in Buffalo?

Ferris

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on May 24, 2021, 07:34:41 PM
I've only just noticed the Blue Jays are playing their home games in Florida. I like sunny open air grass stadiums but it definitely feels a bit wrong. And then they're gonna be in Buffalo?

Border's still closed so they're playing at the spring training complex in Dunedin. The tiddly capacity isn't a huge deal while no one is really allowed into games but as gathering limits relax, they'll move to Sahlen Field in Buffalo, home of the Jays AAA affiliate the Buffalo Bisons (they've been expanding seating in preparation). It's close to TO so if (when?) the border opens the team won't have far to move.

The uncertainty about where the team would play "home" games (where players buy a house and set their up family up, put their kids in school etc) apparently made some free agent signings difficult this off season so they're hoping to get re-settled as quickly possible.

BlodwynPig

Buffalo Bisons going to be pissed. Ive found a site with archive Bison games from 1995 onwards, apparently Indians affiliated back then. Some great matches.

El Unicornio, mang

Thanks for the info. Nice to see they're winning anyway, the Rays have been on a 10-0 run, Yankees doing well lately, that whole division is tough.

Ferris

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on May 24, 2021, 08:24:08 PM
Thanks for the info. Nice to see they're winning anyway, the Rays have been on a 10-0 run, Yankees doing well lately, that whole division is tough.

Yeah it's not super fun really, if we were in the NL East life would be much easier and we'd make the post season more regularly. As it is, when the Yankees are bad the Red Sox are good. Or the Rays. Even the orioles were making post season appearances a few years back.

Such is life.

Famous Mortimer

The Cardinals are in the news, and...they may not be in the wrong?

Chris Rose podcast segment on the situation

Cardinals reliever Gio Gallegos is asked to remove his cap before he's even thrown a pitch, because old-ass umpire Joe West thought there was a foreign substance on it. There may have been, I take the protestations from the team with a pinch of salt, but Cardinals manager Mike Shildt went nuclear in the post-game presser, accusing MLB of ignoring cheating, pointing out that pitchers have been openly mocking the rules on foreign substances (Trevor Bauer sells a shirt with "legalise pine tar" written on it, for example) and not a damn thing has happened to any of them - so why come and get in his pitcher's head before he's even started? Why pick this moment to suddenly start enforcing the rules?

Of course, Twitter was full the next day of pictures of pitchers, that day, with foreign substances on their caps, and there were tons of videos shared of pitchers very obviously using something, from their glove, cap, arm or whatever.

I think the gradual decrease in offense is slowly killing the game. Before, if one of the Cardinals guys had a no-hitter going through 6, you'd be excited, maybe tell people to start watching the game if they weren't already. Now, it's a boringly regular occurence. Batting averages are lower than they were in 1968, "the year of the pitcher", after which MLB lowered the mound. Something has to happen, and it has to be big. Either drastically increase the penalties for cheating and rigorously enforce them, move the mound back, shrink the strike zone, I don't care - but this is not working.