The MLB Thread

vansmack wrote:
A's trade for Adam Dunn.

Billy might be regretting the Cespedes deal,  but I think he's missing the point.  Anaheim has scored twice in this series on balls where Cespedes threw out runners back in May.  His defense is as much of a loss as his offense.

not to mention, cespedes keeps winning games for the red sox left and right.  i think he's had 5 winning/go ahead hit for the sox to date.  is their a stat for that? their has to be to a stat for that.

stevewizzle wrote:
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

A++++++++ would trade again

stevewizzle wrote:
craig is signed through 2017 (team option for 2018), and he's have a remarkably bad year after having 3 straight excellent seasons. not good, excellent.  the past two seasons were MVP-caliber even though he was largely unrecognized.

cespedes is no longer a young prospect and some of his plate discipline is concerning, but he's getting out of a tough division filled with pitchers parks and moving to the AL east where it's practically little league fields in comparison.

yeah, A+ to vansmack for calling OAK.  but my prediction is heads will roll in OAK when it turns out they gutted their team for a win-now mentality and it doesn't work out.  lester is a stud, but this is no roy halladay/cliff lee type of pick-up. 

boston just traded for 2 all-star outfielders, mid relief, and got something in return for two pitchers who were out the door anyways. 

A+ to stevewizzle

stevewizzle wrote:
A+ to stevewizzle

Yes, though Billy Beane keeps his job, if he wants it. 

Lester has been a stud, though.  3-2, sure, but 2.66 ERA and he gave up 2ER in one of those losses and 3 through 6 in the other. 

The loss of Cespedes probably surpasses 2.66 runs every 5 games though, if we combine defense and offense.

seattle has 7 upcoming games against the astros and rangers, and detroit has to play the likes of cleveland, KC, and SF - all wild card contenders.  seattle could gain some serious ground here… regardless, this is going to be a fun couple of weeks leading up to october.

I am 100% in favor of an all AL West wild card game, so long as the Angels aren't one of the teams in the game.

vansmack wrote:
I am 100% in favor of an all AL West wild card game, so long as the Angels aren't one of the teams in the game.

Honestly, as a Tigers fan, I am too. Detroit making the playoffs is only going to end in some absurd ignominy like Scherzer throwing a no-no but us scoring no runs and losing in the 12th inning or our bullpen giving up 8 in the 9th or something else historically dumb.

Julian, wrote:

vansmack wrote:
I am 100% in favor of an all AL West wild card game, so long as the Angels aren't one of the teams in the game.

Honestly, as a Tigers fan, I am too. Detroit making the playoffs is only going to end in some absurd ignominy like Scherzer throwing a no-no but us scoring no runs and losing in the 12th inning or our bullpen giving up 8 in the 9th or something else historically dumb.

there's the whole overcoming adversity associated with wild card teams, right?

"no one thought we would make it this far!" and all that hoorah leading to teams outperforming themselves during the postseason.

POSTSEASON SCHEDULE

Wild Card

Tues., Sept. 30: AL Wild Card Game, TBS
Wed., Oct. 1: NL Wild Card Game, ESPN

Division Series

Thurs., Oct. 2: ALDS A, Game 1, TBS, ALDS B, Game 1, TBS

Fri., Oct. 3:
ALDS A, Game 2, TBS, ALDS B, Game 2, TBS, NLDS A, Game 1, FS1, NLDS B, Game 1, FS1

Sat., Oct. 4: NLDS A, Game 2, FS1 or MLBN, NLDS B, Game 2, FS1 or MLBN

Sun., Oct. 5: ALDS A, Game 3, TBS, ALDS B, Game 3, TBS

Mon., Oct. 6:
ALDS A, Game 4, TBS, ALDS B, Game 4, TBS, NLDS A, Game 3, FS1 or MLBN, NLDS B, Game 3, FS1 or MLBN

Tues., Oct. 7: NLDS A, Game 4, FS1, NLDS B, Game 4, FS1

Wed., Oct. 8: ALDS A, Game 5, TBS, ALDS B, Game 5, TBS

Thurs. Oct. 9: NLDS A, Game 5, FS1, NLDS B, Game 5 FS1


Championship Series

Fri., Oct. 10: ALCS Game 1, TBS
Sat., Oct. 11: ALCS Game 2, TBS, NLCS Game 1, FOX
Sun., Oct. 12: NLCS Game 2, FS1
Mon., Oct. 13: ALCS Game 3, TBS
Tues. Oct. 14: NLCS Game 3, FS1, ALCS Game 4, TBS
Wed., Oct. 15: ALCS Game 5, TBS, NLCS Game 4, FS1
Thurs., Oct. 16: NLCS Game 5, FS1
Fri., Oct. 17: ALCS Game 6, TBS
Sat. Oct. 18: NLCS Game 6, FOX, ALCS Game 7, TBS
Sun. Oct. 19: NLCS Game 7, FS1


World Series

Tues., Oct. 21: Game 1, AL city, FOX
Wed. Oct. 22: Game 2, AL city, FOX
Thurs. Oct. 23: Travel day
Fri., Oct. 24: Game 3, NL city, FOX
Sat., Oct. 25: Game 4, NL city, FOX
Sun., Oct. 26: Game 5, NL city, FOX
Mon., Oct. 27: Travel day
Tues., Oct. 28: Game 6, AL city, FOX
Wed., Oct. 29: Game 7, AL city, FOX

A very weird play in the Tigers/Indians game yesterday. Wish I could find footage because its hard to explain, I really have never seen this happen. Bottom of the 8th, Tigers leading 4-3 with runners on second and third and one out. CC Lee pitching for Cleveland and he gets the signal to intentionally walk Kinsler to load the bases and try to get Torii Hunter to hit into a double play. Catcher sticks his hand out to the right, sure enough, Lee throws it four feet right of home plate, a standard intentional walk ball. Catcher throws it back, sticks his arm out again.

As soon as Lee goes into his windup, the catcher does the traditional two-steps to his right to catch the ball, but Lee throws a fastball right down the middle of the plate (albeit high out of the strike zone). The catcher dives back and misses, the ball goes all the way to the backstop, runner scores from third, turns up being the winning run. I rewound it several times, I have no idea what he was doing. He acknowledged it was an intentional walk with a first pitch five feet off the plate. Did somehow his intentional walk pitch get away from him? It was crazy.

My question, though, is the scoring. They called it a wild-pitch. How is this not a passed ball? A catcher under average ability - positioned properly behind the plate - catches that ball 99.99999% of the time. Shouldn't the catcher being horrifically out-of-position make it a passed ball, not a wild pitch?

Here's how it's scored:

10.13 Wild Pitches And Passed Balls
A wild pitch is defined in Rule 2.00 (Wild Pitch). A passed ball is a statistic charged against a catcher whose action has caused a runner or runners to advance, as set forth in this Rule 10.13.
(a) The official scorer shall charge a pitcher with a wild pitch when a legally delivered ball is so high, so wide or so low that the catcher does not stop and control the ball by ordinary effort, thereby permitting a runner or runners to advance. [EDIT]

(b) The official scorer shall charge a catcher with a passed ball when the catcher fails to hold or to control a legally pitched ball that should have been held or controlled with ordinary effort, thereby permitting a runner or runners to advance. [EDIT]


I think they got it right.  "Ordinary effort" is not the same as "ordinary positioning" and rule 10.14(b) describes an intentional base on balls as when the catcher has his arm out so it would be ordinary positioning to be standing and have an arm out expecting the ball to be outside the strike zone.

vansmack wrote:
"Ordinary effort" is not the same as "ordinary positioning" and rule 10.14(b) describes an intentional base on balls as when the catcher has his arm out so it would be ordinary positioning to be standing and have an arm out expecting the ball to be outside the strike zone.

OK, I guess that makes sense. Thanks.

Julian, wrote:
OK, I guess that makes sense. Thanks.

I heard people talking about it on Baseball Tonight, but in the context of ruining the dream of speeding up the game.  One of the ideas was to eliminate the intentional base on balls and just give the batter a "free pass" because nobody ever screws that up.  Oops.

In doing my research this morning, I also learned that a batter can refuse a base on balls and be called out.  Hope to see that some day….

vansmack wrote:
In doing my research this morning, I also learned that a batter can refuse a base on balls and be called out.  Hope to see that some day….

I feel like a team once was attempting to be IBB Miggy and threw a pitch too close to the plate and he hit it for an RBI-single. This is quite possibly a very realistic fever dream I somehow had as I cannot provide more details.

My dream sports "call" I want to see is a one-point safety being called against the kicking team on an XP. (Seen it twice on the defending squad.) I would also like to see a successful fair-catch kick flip the outcome of a game. Don't think ones been successfully attempted in twenty+ years.

Golf and baseball are definitely 1 and 2 for obscure rule-based ephemera, but football has some interesting ones.

Julian, wrote:
I feel like a team once was attempting to be IBB Miggy and threw a pitch too close to the plate and he hit it for an RBI-single. This is quite possibly a very realistic fever dream I somehow had as I cannot provide more details.

Nope, you're not crazy.  I remember it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6YzVvtxoaY


There was a College walk off this year with that scenario.  I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT: Here you go:

Julian, wrote:
My dream sports "call" I want to see is a one-point safety being called against the kicking team on an XP. (Seen it twice on the defending squad.)

I remember the Oregon/K-State bowl game a couple years ago where that happened, but that's only one I can recall on defense.  I've never seen it on offense either.

Julian, wrote:I would also like to see a successful fair-catch kick flip the outcome of a game. Don't think ones been successfully attempted in twenty+ years.

The Niners were close a couple of years ago.  Dawson tried from 70+ and missed wide left to end the half.  It was awesome - the whole bar stopped to watch it.

vansmack wrote:
I remember the Oregon/K-State bowl game a couple years ago where that happened, but that's only one I can recall on defense.  I've never seen it on offense either.

Texas v Texas A&M, around a decade ago.

I don't believe it has ever occurred on offense. Its theoretically possible but almost definitely could not happen. A player would have to block an XP, pick it up and run it ~95 yards and start Leon Lett'ing and be stripped of the ball shortly before the goal line. The player who caused the fumble would either (a) have to recover it in the field of play, run into the endzone on his own volition in some insane attempt to return the ball 100 yards for two-points (after just running what was presumably a sprint of close to 100 yards to catch the XP blocker to begin with) and be tackled in the endzone with the ball, or (b) the fumbled ball would have to go into the endzone on its own and be fallen on by either the stripper or another player on the kicking team. It'll never happen, but it technically could. Extra awesomeness if that single-point turned up to be that teams only point of the game resulting in the first modern-era football game to end with a team scoring a single-point.

Julian, wrote:
The Niners were close a couple of years ago.  Dawson tried from 70+ and missed wide left to end the half.  It was awesome - the whole bar stopped to watch it.

I think it was the 49ers/Ravens SB two years ago where if the Ravens had squib-kicked the final kickoff, it was a legitimate possibility for a Super Bowl fair-catch kick. I was openly hoping - despite not caring who won - that John Harbaugh was unaware of the rule and did not kick deep. I maybe haven't wanted anything to happen in a sporting event not involving a team I root quite so badly. It would've been amazing. Make it or miss it, the internet would've exploded.

I meant to say this….

Where did you have "I cheated on my wife"  on the list of reasons Ron Washington quitting the Rangers?

vansmack wrote:
Where did you have "I cheated on my wife"  on the list of reasons Ron Washington quitting the Rangers?

I need a clarification: does cheating on his wife with a bushel sack of Columbian nose candy count as "cheating" for the purposes of this discussion?

I would have had more $$ on him punching or head-butting her or thrashing his grandkid with a tree branch. But cheating doesn't seem too far-fetched.

vansmack wrote:
Where did you have "I cheated on my wife"  on the list of reasons Ron Washington quitting the Rangers?