Random news and notes for MLB 2018

[pacopete4]

Speaking of TB:

 

http://www.tbo.com/blogs/rays/2018/03/07/rays-pitching-prospect-jose-de-leon-headed-for-tommy-john-surgery/

 

First Honeywell and now De Leon. Gotta feel bad for the Rays.

Oh, wow. That's a rough start to your season well before it even begins.

[ecjimg]

Cardinal's rookie pitcher Jordan Hicks throws 100-102 MPH, and has a good off speed pitch. DARN IT.

Why not throw him in closer role? I know, I know, not for rookies.

[Eye Black]

The Astros shift against Joey Gallo (4 deep outfielders, and 3 players on the right side of the infield)...

 

[Eye Black]

Another way to view the positioning involved with the shift shown above...

 

[LouisEly]

Tanking isn’t really the issue more so than teams being more willing to go into rebuild.

Yep - the tanking occurs prior to the trade deadline and during the offseason.

 

The players on those eight teams are playing for their jobs next year, especially the guys called up in September, so I highly doubt there's a lot of tanking going on in August and September.

[jerichoholicninja]

The Gallo shift - love it!

[wildcat83]

Absolutely no reason for Gallo not to bunt against that shift. If nothing more than just to get opponents to stop doing it to him.

[Eye Black]

Apparently the Dodgers scoreboard now lists OPS+ and WAR. I liked when the Miller Park scoreboard switched from BA to OPS, and I could get on board with OPS+ listed somewhere, but I don’t think WAR fits that well as a scoreboard stat. It will be a while into the season until players accumulate enough WAR to even distinguish themselves, and there is enough variance between the different offensive and defensive measures for WAR calculations that it carries too much ambiguity for a “scoreboard stat”, IMO. I actually really like WAR (prefer fWAR slightly over bWAR), but more as an end of the season comparison between players.

 

Well that’s my “get off my lawn” rant for the start of the season. I do really like the fact they added “pitch type”..

[Fear The Chorizo]

Absolutely no reason for Gallo not to bunt against that shift. If nothing more than just to get opponents to stop doing it to him.

 

Not even bunt, just put the ball in play to the left side of the infield and that shift would have problems limiting it to a single.

 

I get that slugging is a premium compared to batting average, but at some point there's a benefit to hitting 'em where they ain't even if it sacrifices power to get on base.

[trwi7]

I mean, if it was easy to bunt a ball or hit a ball in a certain direction but it's not. Once pitchers realize that's what he's trying to do they're going to bust him inside. Then Gallo will adjust and start pulling the ball which will play right into the shift.

[Fear The Chorizo]

If hitters like Gallo adapted a bit and simply hit the ball to where it's pitched, they'd be 0.400 hitters. Shifts exist and are effective because hitters try to do too much with pitches on the outer half and wind up rolling over outside pitches (thus the 3 infielders on the 2b side), or when they do get the ball in the air to the opposite field, not hitting it that way with authority due in large part to their swing's launch angle (thus the two lazy fly ball outs Gallo hit to Bregman in ~LF on pitches located over the outer 1/2 of the zone). Gallo has tremendous power, if a pitcher comes inside to him he's going to hit the ball 450 feet into the upper deck somewhere - shifts aren't put into place to set a defense up for a pitcher to work in a hitter's happy zone.

 

Most shifts aren't as insane as that one to Gallo was yesterday because most hitters aren't as all or nothing as he is, but when shifts start getting that nuts it's almost the equivalent of an NFL defense playing 11 DB's 30 yards downfield at the snap in order to prevent a big play. Hitters not trying to take advantage of it winds up looking like an NFL offense refusing to just run a draw play to gain a guaranteed 1st down and instead try to run a pass pattern 30 yards downfield. There was essentially 1.5 defenders covering the entire left side of the field (IF + OF)

[TooLiveBrew]

Giancarlo Stanton's second HR from yesterday. Ball go very, very, very far.

 

https://streamable.com/7tiba

[wildcat83]

Why on earth is Trea Turner hitting 6th?

[trwi7]

Why on earth is Trea Turner hitting 6th?

 

The only player you could make a case of moving him up for is Kendrick, who was hitting 5th and outside of one seemingly outlier year in 2016 is just as good a hitter as Turner is.

[Eye Black]

Apparently the Dodgers scoreboard now lists OPS+ and WAR. I liked when the Miller Park scoreboard switched from BA to OPS, and I could get on board with OPS+ listed somewhere, but I don’t think WAR fits that well as a scoreboard stat. It will be a while into the season until players accumulate enough WAR to even distinguish themselves, and there is enough variance between the different offensive and defensive measures for WAR calculations that it carries too much ambiguity for a “scoreboard stat”, IMO. I actually really like WAR (prefer fWAR slightly over bWAR), but more as an end of the season comparison between players.

 

Well that’s my “get off my lawn” rant for the start of the season. I do really like the fact they added “pitch type”..

The Reds scoreboard this year includes WAR, OPS+, BABIP, and ISO.

[Eye Black]

So unless Marcell Ozuna has some sort of arm injury this seems like an inexplicable move by Tommy Pham... Video Link

[trwi7]

So unless Marcell Ozuna has some sort of arm injury this seems like an inexplicable move by Tommy Pham... Video Link

 

Saw on twitter that Ozuna has some sort of arm injury that dates back to last year.

[Eye Black]

Got it, I see that now via Derrick Goold. Apparently Ozuna has a shoulder injury. Should be interesting to see how that plays out during the two upcoming Brewers-Cardinals series.

[TURBO]

...and the announcers are flabbergasted because Ozuna has a "great arm."

 

Not sure if Pham was trying to save a throw on Ozuna's arm, or he just did something really stupid.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Arm injury or not, Ozuna didn't exactly look pleased that Pham ran a 3K to cut in front of him to make that catch and then throw the ball 25 feet up the third base line.

[wildcat83]

Gallardo gave up a 2 run home run in an inning out of the pen today for Cincy.

[B-Train]

Yes, I saw that too. Even on cold days in Cincy the ball carries like few other places. Felt bad for Gallardo though because it appeared he didn't have much life on any of his pitches today (or the past 2 years for that matter).

[stoutdude04]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23001797/minnesota-twins-upset-chance-sisco-baltimore-orioles-bunted-vs-shift-9th

 

This is so annoying. So, you can shift to try to take away a hit, but he isn't supposed to bunt in that situation? If it wasn't an important situation to get an out, then why did you shift?

[young guns]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23001797/minnesota-twins-upset-chance-sisco-baltimore-orioles-bunted-vs-shift-9th

 

This is so annoying. So, you can shift to try to take away a hit, but he isn't supposed to bunt in that situation? If it wasn't an important situation to get an out, then why did you shift?

From the article, Berrios added to reporters: "I don't care if he's bunting. I just know it's not good for baseball in that situation. That's it."

 

What kind of logic is that? Players doing what they can to give their team a chance to win is not good for baseball.

[jjfanec]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23001797/minnesota-twins-upset-chance-sisco-baltimore-orioles-bunted-vs-shift-9th

 

This is so annoying. So, you can shift to try to take away a hit, but he isn't supposed to bunt in that situation? If it wasn't an important situation to get an out, then why did you shift?

 

Twins look really bad with this in my opinion. It didnt break up a no-hitter. They ended up loading the bases - albeit not scoring. And like stout dude said they were implementing a shift! How is that any different?