MLB 2018 - SPRING TRAINING~!

[The Man Known as Dan]

On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 4:05 PM, BrianS81177 said:

I'm usually all in favor of players getting their money when and where they can, but yeah in this instance it's really hard to support the players. Hosmer has TWO 7 year deals worth 20+ million a year on the table and that's not good enough? JD Martinez is "disgusted" that he's only gotten a 5 year, 125 million dollar offer from Boston? I do feel bad for the journeyman veteran guys who you see sign 1 and 2 year deals, since even that seems to have dried up, but I just can't drum up any support for guys like Hosmer and Martinez. 

I think the union is very much upset about the wrong things now a days, though they have a right to be upset. The problem is, ALL the teams are doing what the A's did to become a team to pay attention too: Realizing the true value in baseball is on developing your own players. We have had years upon years to see how these big name free agents at age 30 go down. It never goes well for the team, and it always goes super well for the players. So now everyone is adjusting. It's not a collusion issue, it's that the teams have smartened up issue.

 

So, the players union should go into the next labor blah blah (let's be real, it's going to be a strike) with 2 major goals in mind. No.1: A hard salary floor so shit like the Marlins are doing right now can't happen, cause that IS bullshit. and No.2: Shorten the amount of time teams get control of a player before they hit free agency. If you want there to be mega deals for the union, the players being a year or two younger when they hit the market will be the cornerstone of that. It would be a hard negotiation, but I think it's the stance they have to take.

[Hamhock]

12 hours ago, El Dragon said:

So, the players union should go into the next labor blah blah (let's be real, it's going to be a strike) with 2 major goals in mind. No.1: A hard salary floor so shit like the Marlins are doing right now can't happen, cause that IS bullshit. and No.2: Shorten the amount of time teams get control of a player before they hit free agency. If you want there to be mega deals for the union, the players being a year or two younger when they hit the market will be the cornerstone of that.

I like the above ideas, along with a higher minimum salary (makes older players more valued), and a maximum cap set on number of years that can be offered in a contract (limited length of deals helps teams out of bad deals, and drives up money-per-year which helps players).

[The Man Known as Dan]

3 stupid things have happened in the last 4 hours.

 

1. Rays trade for CJ Cron for a PTBNL. That's not stupid, but them DFAing Corey Dickerson in order to make the move is indisputably stupid. Now they have a week to trade one of their best players before he goes to waivers.

2. The Rays then trade Jake Odorizzi to Minnesota for Jermaine Palacios. Jermaine Palacios is a middle infield prospect that hasn't been above High A, and is not one of the Twins 15 best prospects according to basically anyone. Apparently the Rays have taken the Marlins "Fuck it, we are the worst run team in baseball" approach by going "Bitch please, you aren't even the worst run team in your own state!"

3. The San Diego Padres, a bad baseball team whose best player is their 1st Baseman and also, obviously, have no DH, just paid Eric Hosmer 139 million dollars over EIGHT seasons to be their 1st Basemen and, I assume, move Wil Myers to the outfield again. Hosmer has 3 years in the last 6 with fWAR's of 4.1, 3.5, and 3.2, so it's hard to call it THAT bad of a deal.... except the other 3 years in the last six were seasons of 0.0, -0.1, and -1.7 fWAR. 

I don't get any of this.

[Craig H]

That AJ Preller is still the GM of the Padres now 2 or 3 years after that team was dogshit, looked to be dogshit for the foreseeable future, and said he wouldn't make any trade deadline deals because he thought the Padres still had a shot boggles the mind. He is fucking horrible. He makes Kevin Towers look like Theo Epstein. Even Kevin Towers dead could do a better job running the Padres into the ground.

And mind you, this is all before AJ got in trouble for hiding shitty medical records. He's just been nothing but the worst and now Hosmer gets an insane contract and the Padres will still be fucking garbage.

I wish, I WISH I could be this bad at my job, basically cheat at my job, and not get fired. Fucking incredible.

[RIPPA]

Just for the record - the Hosmer deal is 8 years, $144 million

HOWEVER if you look at the details - it is clear the plan is for him to opt out after 5 years.

Basically he gets $20 million a season for the first 5. He then has an opt out. The last three years are $13 million

Either way it is still the largest deal in Padres history

 

[RIPPA]

Also - the Padres standing offer had been 7 years, $140 million

So they clearly finally added the extra year and basically a little extra cash so Scott Boras could save face

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

I am superstitious enough to believe that if I laugh too much at the Hosmer deal (because fuck san diego and also because they are my older brother's team) I will somehow curse the phillies to make a worse move

but sometimes i just can't help myself

hahahahahahahahahahaha

now bring on cobb or some other pitcher knocking us out of the free agent race next year, I can take it

[PetrolCB]

10 hours ago, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

I will somehow curse the phillies to make a worse move

Keep your mouth shut, Lamp. 

[Craig H]

MLB decided to not go with pitch clocks this year, but they're going to limit mound visits, which is fucking dumb. The time savings from the reduced mound visits is expected to be somewhere around...

2 minutes and 30 seconds per game. This comes from a friend of mine that's an official scorekeeper who is telling me about how dumb this change is.

Local commercial breaks are being dropped to 2:05 and national broadcasts will have 2:25 commercial breaks.

Don't expect any of this to actually improve the speed or pace of the game because it's still baseball and baseball will ALWAYS be plodding. This is basically being done to appease idiots like Al Yellon. Here's a change we're making! Can't you see that we've cut back on time!

So dumb.

Anyway, honestly, there aren't many pitchers who really milk their time on the mound. It's also obvious when a pitcher is just taking forever because they're stalling. I'd rather just see an ump issue a warning before tossing a pitcher that's stalling, but that's a really extreme solution.

[EdA]

Not having any idea what an Al Yellon is nor do I care...but you two need to hug things out or something.  

I'm quite OK cutting back on mound visits.  Sure it's a superficial/cosmetic change that probably cuts little time off but it sure becomes a chore to watch games when catchers are waddling out to the mound every 5th pitch (case in point - every Yankee-Red Sox game over the past 15 years).

And boy am I not opposed to cutting commercial breaks...in concept.  But I am old and my bladder is not what it used to be so I am sure I will miss quite a few first batters of an inning now.  

Now, mind you, the rest of the speeding things up stuff is already in the books but umps will not/cannot enforce it because generally the league does not have their backs when enforcing rules. 

Umps COULD cut down the dawdling by making pitchers throw or batters get in the box - it's in the rules, honest - and calling a ball/strike depending on who is delaying the game.  But anytime that gets tried there becomes bigger blowups and the league never has the umps backs.  So...yeah.

This is all nothing and I don't know why people are bent out of shape.  But...hey.  Al Yellon, man!  Al Yellon!

[odessasteps]

If Manfred is willing to cut commercials, you know he is serious. 

[sabremike]

2 hours ago, EdA said:

Not having any idea what an Al Yellon is nor do I care...but you two need to hug things out or something.  

 

Imagine a self anointed "superfan" with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. That's Al Yellon.

[EdA]

REPORTEDLY...JD Martinez to the Red Sox:

4:29pm: Details are still emerging, but Alex Speier of the Boston Globe hears (Twitter link) that the deal is expected to be for five years. Gomez adds on Twitter that there’s an opt-out opportunity after two seasons.

Jon Morosi of MLB Network puts the guarantee at $110MM, via Twitter, noting also that it’s “front-loaded prior to [the] opt-out

[RIPPA]

JD Martinez and the Red Sox finally agree to a deal

Appears to be 5 years, $110 million (opt out after 2)

[RIPPA]

Damn You Ed!

[EdA]

Ya gotta be quick, old man.

Supposedly, Martinez is going to get $50 MM over the first two years of the deal with an opt-out after year 2.  Then an opt-out after year 3.

We live in a world where JD Martinez is a $25 M man.  But COLLUSION~~!!!!!!

 

[John from Cincinnati]

1 hour ago, EdA said:

We live in a world where JD Martinez is a $25 M man.  

He's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore! 

[SorceressKnight]

7 hours ago, EdA said:

Not having any idea what an Al Yellon is nor do I care...but you two need to hug things out or something.  

I'm quite OK cutting back on mound visits.  Sure it's a superficial/cosmetic change that probably cuts little time off but it sure becomes a chore to watch games when catchers are waddling out to the mound every 5th pitch (case in point - every Yankee-Red Sox game over the past 15 years).

And boy am I not opposed to cutting commercial breaks...in concept.  But I am old and my bladder is not what it used to be so I am sure I will miss quite a few first batters of an inning now.  

Now, mind you, the rest of the speeding things up stuff is already in the books but umps will not/cannot enforce it because generally the league does not have their backs when enforcing rules. 

Umps COULD cut down the dawdling by making pitchers throw or batters get in the box - it's in the rules, honest - and calling a ball/strike depending on who is delaying the game.  But anytime that gets tried there becomes bigger blowups and the league never has the umps backs.  So...yeah.

This is all nothing and I don't know why people are bent out of shape.  But...hey.  Al Yellon, man!  Al Yellon!

On the mound visits- if things are going quicker, this would probably be the one place where baseball could learn from their video games. 

Changing the baseball rule to "you get one mound meeting per pitcher per inning, and if you go above that, you MUST pull the pitcher" would likely cut the mound visits back.

[Tabe]

5 hours ago, EdA said:

 

We live in a world where JD Martinez is a $25 M man.  But COLLUSION~~!!!!!!

 

29 homers in 62 games will do that for you. 

[Tabe]

2 hours ago, SorceressKnight said:

On the mound visits- if things are going quicker, this would probably be the one place where baseball could learn from their video games. 

Changing the baseball rule to "you get one mound meeting per pitcher per inning, and if you go above that, you MUST pull the pitcher" would likely cut the mound visits back.

That IS the rule for visits from the dugout. 

If you want to speed it up, allow one visit per pitcher - total - and include visits from infielders in that total. 

[EdA]

The rule for mound visits from the dugout per pitcher is 2 in one inning, 3 in a game before you have to yank the pitcher, actually.

But yeah.  The mound visits from the dugout have never bothered me since there is some control/limit. 

The unlimited catcher/fielder visits to the mound (especially the catcher visits) SEEM to be burdensome (again, check out any Yankee-Red Sox game over the last 15 years), but that is more of a perception issue.  I honestly don't know if that really sucks as much time as it seems.

Enforcing the rules to keep batters in the box and limiting the time spent adjusting batting gloves would make me equally as happy, to be honest.

[BobbyWhioux]

20 hours ago, EdA said:

Now, mind you, the rest of the speeding things up stuff is already in the books but umps will not/cannot enforce it because generally the league does not have their backs when enforcing rules. 

Umps COULD cut down the dawdling by making pitchers throw or batters get in the box - it's in the rules, honest - and calling a ball/strike depending on who is delaying the game.  But anytime that gets tried there becomes bigger blowups and the league never has the umps backs.  So...yeah.

 

Yeah remember 2 or 3 years ago they tried this (no leaving the box unless you foul it off) complete with fines for batters who didn't comply and David Ortiz basically said Fuck You I'm Doing What I Want and they just gave up on enforcing it again?

[Craig H]

It does not increase the time as much as you think. Again, the impact is close to a commercial break. One commercial break.

Speaking of commercial breaks, the time savings from that is really minimal. There's nothing stopping multiple breaks from happening, but the breaks themselves were shortened by a handful of seconds.

This is all putting a kinda fresh coat of paint on a wall where the studs behind it are rotting. It's just to somehow con the major complainers into thinking they're doing something to speed the game up, which is why I mentioned Yellon. That dude is a Cubs blogger who, probably weekly, complains about how long the games take, but the dude still goes to every home game. That's a similar theme to many of the complainers and/or writers - the game is too long, but they still go or watch the whole thing. 

By the way, there's still no real or meaningful penalty to prevent managers or catchers from going to the mound. A manager will get tossed, sure, but it's just going to look like a shit show.

Baseball is just mostly a slow or leisurely paced sport. You already mentioned better fixes in enforcing the rules for keeping a batter in the box. Doing more to prevent pitchers from obviously stalling helps. Not taking FOREVER to review plays is another way to speed things up. There's easy and clear fixes for these issues that will save more time in a better way while still preserving a manager's or catcher's ability to strategize.

Lastly, this isn't just me talking. A lot of this, most of it really, comes from an official scorekeeper and other scorekeepers he knows. It's a shitshow. He already had to go down to Houston to learn all of this shit about the play clock, how it effects his job, and then they were going to have him and other scorekeepers fly out to Arizona and elsewhere to have active training. He knew the play clock was dead when they cancelled flights a couple weeks ago. It's just a mess, but Manfred won't listen to scorekeepers who have better ideas to speed this shit up since they're the ones paying attention to this stuff for 162 games a year.

[odessasteps]

59 minutes ago, BobbyWhioux said:

Yeah remember 2 or 3 years ago they tried this (no leaving the box unless you foul it off) complete with fines for batters who didn't comply and David Ortiz basically said Fuck You I'm Doing What I Want and they just gave up on enforcing it again?

Reminds me of Derrick Coleman giving the Nets a blank check to cvover his dress code violations.

[Hamhock]

Everyone has their specific pet peeve that they feel adds the most time to the game, but what we feel is subjective. There's at least six or seven factors (time between pitches, stepping out of the box, replay review, multiple throws over to first base, mound visits, commercials) and certainly more. Tackling each of them by themselves saves very little time, but after all of them are eventually addressed over several seasons there will be a cumulative effect.

It's like speeding up a train. Straightening a curve saves 2 minutes, a higher class of speed saves 10 minutes, triple-tracking at a bottleneck saves another 10, a new bridge saves another 5. It's only after it all happens that you get what you want.