Baseball Thread -

[Local Fed]

I can see him signing with some dogshit team just to get his dingers, especially if the Angels end up paying most of his salary. You're right, though, nobody's probably going to want him.

One thing that I had thought of and had written (before backspacing) out before was that maybe the Rockies would sign him if he was willing to go there. There's no better place to try to pad your home run stats than Colorado. The team sucks and will probably suck harder if/when they trade Trevor Story for assets and could use some reason for fans to have some kind of interest in watching. Currently they have C.J Cron playing first base (and hitting well) but if he's still playing decently well I'm sure he'd be shipping off by the end of July to some playoff bound team looking for some depth. But even with that Pujols is best suited to stay in the AL anyway and I don't see many viable options out of the 14 non-Angels teams where he fits.

 

[Ralph Cifaretto]

Taaaaake me out to the baaaaalgame.

I'm pretty shitfaced and the AAA season started today so I bought a ticket on a whim. Albuquerque Isotopes vs the Sugarland Skeeters. My ticket is actually like deep left field but the view was fucking garbage and centerfield is basically first come first serve in the Isotopes park.


Lmao somehow the only yankees contingent in Albuquerque showed up to the fucking game and we've been cheering for Greg Bird like it's a fucking religion.

Apologies for the doublepost

Edit: I'm in fucking tears. The entire first baseline seating section has been cheering on Greg fucking Bird for like the last half hour. Literal chants of "GREG GREG GREG GREG"

Edit again: This was absolutely the best time I've ever had at a baseball game, courtesy of a few yankee jagoffs. I'm probably going to catch a couple more games this weekend, but it certainly won't match my time tonight.

 

[Local Fed]

If any of you see this within the next few minutes, we might have another no-hitter tonight and the second against Cleveland already this season. The Reds are batting with two outs in the top of the 9th inning and Wade Miley has a no-no going with just 1 walk given up.

Edit: he got it. He breezed through the 9th inning getting a shallow fly out to right to sit down Rene Rivera, a strikeout of Cesar Hernandez as the penultimate out, and then ending it with a Jordan Luplow groundout to short.

Edit 2 & 3: actually Sean Manaea of Oakland is no-hitting Tampa Bay at home in the bottom of the 7th inning. He's only thrown 73 pitches so far, giving up just a single walk... and he gave up a double to begin the 8th inning so it's over.

 

[Goyaanisqatsi]

Plate discipline is dead

 

[Mr. ShadowCreek]

So the Angels released Albert Pujols the other day after this rather poor performance so far this year. I grew up with him when he was with the Cardinals and he was always fun to watch. I'll never forget the home run he made in the 2005 NLCS against the Astros. True, he lost some of his magic in his later years in St. Louis but he was still great. When he left the Cardinals for the Angels everyone was shocked and also felt betrayed. It was all the talk of the baseball world for a while and everyone thought the Angels would be a powehouse for a while going to the World Series. That didn't happen. They went to the playoffs once and even had some rather bad seasons. Pujols got worse and worse. He and the Angels made a trip to St. Louis a couple years ago where he hit a home run and got a standing ovation. For the most part it looks like the Angels wasted $254 million on him. As much as I loved him the Cardinals made the right decision not resigning him. It would have hurt more than helped. A lot of people are hoping to see him come back to St. Louis for the rest of the season and retire as a Cardinal. While that would be nice it would also be risky. Other than nostalgia reasons it might be not worth it.

 

[FaramirG]

Plate discipline is dead

I don't think it's that so much as pitching has gotten ridiculously good. Velo is going up around the league and it feels like every decent starter has at least one ridiculous offspeed pitch that tunnels perfectly with his fastball.

 

[Local Fed]

I don't think it's that so much as pitching has gotten ridiculously good. Velo is going up around the league and it feels like every decent starter has at least one ridiculous offspeed pitch that tunnels perfectly with his fastball.

Agreed. It's not even really a spectacle to see a guy hit 100mph anymore with his fastball. I remember back 15 years ago when Joel Zumaya debuted with Detroit how everyone was tuning in to watch him pitch because of his big fastball, and more recently back in 2010 when Aroldis Chapman debuted for the Reds. Now, however, almost every starter seems to sit in the low-to-mid-90s (especially since so many are only expected to pitch about twice through a lineup) with ease and relievers sit in the mid-to-high-90s with plenty of guys hitting triple digits. Pair that with at least one decent and reliable offspeed pitch and it's hard to hit.

When you combine this with the approach of hitters now (a lot more going with the launch angle analytics and going for home runs over a more contact oriented approach) the strikeout rates have soared. Defensively, analytics have affected things in a big way too with the shift, and how it seems like every game ends up with about 10-12 pitchers being used between the two teams (although this has nothing to do with one guy throwing a no-hitter), etc.

Just some statistical autism here in the spoiler. It should be noted that I'm less concerned with directly comparing the two players I'm using, but rather the league stats from when they played.

Spoiler

I compared two players, Pat Burrell who debuted in late May of 2000 and played his final MLB game in late September of 2011, and Jose Altuve who debuted in Late July of 2011 and is still playing today. During Burrell's career the league strikeout, walk and home run rates were 17.2%, 8.6% and 2.7% respectively. During Altuve's career (as of posting this) the numbers for the league have been 21%, 8.2% and 2.9% respectively.

Burrell struck out 24% of the time making him pretty prone to it in both eras, but he wouldn't even really stick out in that regard by today's standard; his 14.3% walk rate is elite in any era. Altuve, however, has a pristine 11.7% strikeout rate but his walk rate is below average at 6.7%. The latter is most likely explained by his super high contact ability as he won the batting title three times between 2014 and 2017. His strikeout rate has steadily crept up each year though from just 7.5% in 2014 to 9.5% in 2015 (which is when his home run numbers began to go up noticeably) all they way up to the high mark of 18.6% in 2020.

Edit: originally forgot to state that the yellow numbers were to indicate homer rates.

 

[Goyaanisqatsi]

I don't think it's that so much as pitching has gotten ridiculously good. Velo is going up around the league and it feels like every decent starter has at least one ridiculous offspeed pitch that tunnels perfectly with his fastball.

That is a good point. Like the poster above mentioned, guys like Zumaya were once the exception but now there's probably more guys than I can count on two hands that hit triple digits on speed.

Then you had guys like Kerry Wood and Felix Hernandez ruining their longevity by throwing breaking shit that still hit low 90s.

It's crazy how much pitching has advanced in the last 30 years. I do long for the finesse of guys like Greg Maddux though.

 

[Bassomatic]

Taaaaake me out to the baaaaalgame.
View attachment 2149460
I'm pretty shitfaced and the AAA season started today so I bought a ticket on a whim. Albuquerque Isotopes vs the Sugarland Skeeters. My ticket is actually like deep left field but the view was fucking garbage and centerfield is basically first come first serve in the Isotopes park.

I am jelly AF I am a huge AAA fan, my team is gonna be open.

I rocked my Iron Pigs hat today infact. Also there's really a team named isotopes? LMFAO My boomer ass thinking simpsons.

The Phillies are why I'm drinking on a Monday.

Edit: LAA letting Pujols go, bothers me. He's a first round HOF. Finish him out, he will pay for himself in selling stuff and team morale etc. Sure he's fallen off, I won't deny, but keep him for club house, people like him are near coaches too. IMHO tacky. I'm sorry for him.

 

[Local Fed]

LMFAO My boomer ass thinking simpsons.

You're not foolish for thinking of that, they're literally named after the team that was in that old Simpsons episode from 2001. When the Calgary Cannons relocated to Albuquerque in 2003 there was an online vote in the big local paper and the 'Isotopes' name won with about 2/3 of the 120,000 votes sent in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_Isotopes#Name_origins

 

[BIG BILL HELL'S]

You're not foolish for thinking of that, they're literally named after the team that was in that old Simpsons episode from 2001. When the Calgary Cannons relocated to Albuquerque in 2003 there was an online vote in the big local paper and the 'Isotopes' name won with about 2/3 of the 120,000 votes sent in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_Isotopes#Name_origins

IIRC the owners also publicly endorsed the Isotopes name.

 

[Anusbeard]

That is a good point. Like the poster above mentioned, guys like Zumaya were once the exception but now there's probably more guys than I can count on two hands that hit triple digits on speed.

Then you had guys like Kerry Wood and Felix Hernandez ruining their longevity by throwing breaking shit that still hit low 90s.

It's crazy how much pitching has advanced in the last 30 years. I do long for the finesse of guys like Greg Maddux though.

If you liked Greg Maddux you're gonna love Zac Gallen

 

[thejackal]

Not a huge Durant fan but thought this was cool:

 

[Ralph Cifaretto]

You're not foolish for thinking of that, they're literally named after the team that was in that old Simpsons episode from 2001. When the Calgary Cannons relocated to Albuquerque in 2003 there was an online vote in the big local paper and the 'Isotopes' name won with about 2/3 of the 120,000 votes sent in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_Isotopes#Name_origins

Lmao yeah there's a bunch of Simpsons shit around the ballpark. You can sit next to Marge and Homer statues on benches around the home plate concourse. I was super fucked up on opening day, but I'm p sure the Simpsons benches were covered in saran-wrap to prevent people from catching covid from a statue or something. They definitely lean heavily into pop culture (as they should) at the ballpark. I have an Isotopes t-shirt in the "Better Call Saul" title card style that says "Better Play Ball."

Edit: lol here it is

 

[durdledoor]

Lmao yeah there's a bunch of Simpsons shit around the ballpark. You can sit next to Marge and Homer statues on benches around the home plate concourse. I was super fucked up on opening day, but I'm p sure the Simpsons benches were covered in saran-wrap to prevent people from catching covid from a statue or something. They definitely lean heavily into pop culture (as they should) at the ballpark. I have an Isotopes t-shirt in the "Better Call Saul" title card style that says "Better Play Ball."

Edit: lol here it is
View attachment 2171953

Hopefully they will be uncovered soon

 

[Local Fed]

Albert Pujols' career isn't done yet. Just was announced about half an hour ago that he's signed a Major League deal with the Dodgers.

 

[Ralph Cifaretto]

Another day, another no hitter. This one courtesy of Detroit's Spencer Turnbull against Seattle.

 

[FaramirG]

This whole Mercedes/Tony La Russa incident is basically what everyone was predicting when Chicago hired this fossil;
>Chicago beating up on Minnesota
>Minnesota throws in a position player to pitch
>Mercedes hits a bomb off him because the guy put a 40mph pitch over the plate
>TLR goes out and publicly criticizes his OWN PLAYER for daring to hit a homer in a 3-0 count and threatens that "there will be consequences"
>Mercedes refuses to apologize (and why should he?)
>Minnesota pitcher throws at Mercedes
>TLR still won't stick up for his own player

So much for "let the kids play"

 

[Goyaanisqatsi]

Tony La Russa has no fucking business managing a team in the year of our lord 2021.

With all of the fucking Latino players on the team, they would have been better off giving someone like Eddie Perez a shot.

 

[Local Fed]

I'm more of a fan of tradition and whatnot in sports, but I've never understood this idea that it's "disrespectful" or wrong to keep running up the score in pro sports. Is it not disrespectful to stop trying to score? We're not talking about 8 year old kids who are going to start crying out on the field because they just want to get home to soothe themselves with pizza and their Xbox before school tomorrow; these are grown men who are making over half a million dollars a season minimum if they're full time Major League players. Their job is to go out and perform to the best of their ability, whether that means the score ends up 3-1 or 21-3.

I get it for more physical sports like football or hockey in that maybe you shouldn't be trying to light someone up with a massive hit in a 41-7 game late in the 4th quarter or in a 7-0 game in the 3rd period; no one wants to get hurt in a situation where it's really not going to affect the outcome of the game. Swinging for the fences in a blowout baseball game is an entirely different thing whether it's your best player at the plate or some guy that's an emergency call up from your AAA team. I'd recommend not making a hard slide into a base or something for the reason of a potential injury that I mentioned, but La Russa seems like a bitch for whining about his guy taking a hack at a pitch like that.

---

I assume that everyone has seen by now, late in Monday night's game between the Mets and Braves Kevin Pillar of New York got smoked right in the face by a fastball from Braves' reliever Jacob Webb. It was an obvious accident as the bases were loaded in the 7th inning with New York leading 1-0 at the time with two outs. I was watching as it happened and it was pretty brutal. He was pouring blood out of his nose and it later ended up confirmed that he has a couple of nasal fractures and will be out for some time. Otherwise though he seems okay all considered.

Also that same night, Mike Trout came out of the game in the 1st inning with a calf strain against the Indians. He was then put on the IL and is expected to be out 6-8 weeks. Big time bummer especially as he was off to another MVP caliber season.