MLB: April 2021

[RickJay]

@LSLGuy

You’re certainly a knowledgeable student of the game, far more so than I. I’m curious what your proposals are and what their individual and collective rationale is. Though that might be better as a different thread. We’ve talked about a couple ideas at random here or there in passing in one thread or another, but it’d be fun to see the whole package in one place. If you’re so inclined.

It’s worth a thread if for no other reason than I tossed that comment off without bearing in mind that I’m 49 and have the memory of a budgie, so now I forget half my ideas and need time to figure out what they all are.

I have to agree with Munch on the DH vs strategy issue. I have seen very, very few ballgames in my time in which the decision as to whether to let a pitcher bat or not was in any way in doubt. Kids can figure out a double switch. It adds DECISIONS to a game and decisions are a good thing, but honestly, not very many, and they aren’t usually hard to make.

[LSLGuy]

@RickJay

without bearing in mind that I’m 49 and have the memory of a budgie, so now I forget half my ideas and need time to figure out what they all are.

Just you wait Sonny!! {shakes cane sorta-vigorously in @RIckJay’s direction then wonders why he’s doing it.} I’m hungry. Must be nap time.

[madsircool]

2021 is so weird. Thanks to MLB Extra Innings I can watch the Angels game listening to the Blue Jay announcers. Im enjoying them. The game is being played on a spring training field in Duneadon, Florida. Its like living in an OOTP fictional universe.

[LSLGuy]

It’s almost, but not quite fantasy baseball done in full VR. Don’t laugh, it’s coming.

Ref my earlier comments, being able to watch NYY or ATL games as announced by their opponents might render those games tolerable. Those two teams’ announcers’ “We naturally deserve to win and have already won” attitude before the first pitch was a lot of why I refused to watch those games on national TV or the TBS superstation back when it was on.

[Superdude]

They did tally 11 hits against Pittsburgh today.

[friedo]

Controversy!

The Mets won against the Marlins on a walk-off HBP that should not have been a HBP. Conforto leaned right into it and probably should have been out. (I’m surprised it wasn’t Nimmo. That guy is an expert at sticking his body in front of fastballs.)

Even Keith and Ron seemed pretty disgusted by the call, as well as the arcane and contradictory rules and what is and is not reviewable and what calls can be overturned.

I don’t mind instant replay reviews in baseball, but get it right. Yeesh.

[storyteller0910]

See, that’s exactly why I’m not a fan of instant reply in baseball. If that play isn’t reviewable and reversible, then there’s no point to having the whole thing. I’m a Mets fan, so I am biased in reverse, and this was egregious. The pitch was practically a down-the-middle strike, and Conforto stuck his elbow halfway across the plate. Carnac the Magnificient predicts that he will register another HBP sometime today.

(That said, the Marlins did choose to walk Francisco Lindor to load the bases and set up a situation with no margin for error. Sometimes when you do that, you’re gonna get burned).

[Jackmannii]

@storyteller0910

See, that’s exactly why I’m not a fan of instant reply in baseball. If that play isn’t reviewable and reversible, then there’s no point to having the whole thing. I’m a Mets fan, so I am biased in reverse, and this was egregious. The pitch was practically a down-the-middle strike, and Conforto stuck his elbow halfway across the plate. Carnac the Magnificient predicts that he will register another HBP sometime today.

Conforto has a loong way to go before challenging the Mets’ record-holder for HBP in a season (or career).

The Year Ron Hunt Got Hit By 50 Pitches

[Thudlow_Boink]

@friedo

The Mets won against the Marlins on a walk-off HBP that should not have been a HBP. Conforto leaned right into it and probably should have been out.

Even the ump who called it admitted it was the wrong call.

The home plate umpire who gave the Mets a win Thursday by ruling New York’s Michael Conforto was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded subsequently said he erred on the call.

“The guy was hit by the pitch in the strike zone,” umpire Ron Kulpa said via a pool reporter after the Mets’ 3-2 home win over the Miami Marlins. “I should have called him out.”

[dalej42]

Some of the baseballs used by Trevor Brauer are being investigated by MLB MLB: Officials pull suspicious baseballs from Trevor Bauer

I don’t get outraged about pitchers messing with the ball since that’s been done as long as baseball has been played. It’s not using modern technology for sign stealing

[BlankSlate]

The body armor makes Conforto’s infraction worse. That shouldn’t even count as a HBP when he’s not shoving his elbow into the strike zone.

[ISiddiqui]

@dalej42

I don’t get outraged about pitchers messing with the ball since that’s been done as long as baseball has been played

And it’s always been against the rules…

[BlankSlate]

There are degrees of tampering. Pitchers have long put substances on various parts of their bodies to help grip the ball better. Shaving foam rubbed on the forearm between innings was popular for awhile. Pine tar never goes out of style. Is that what Bauer is doing, or is he putting substances onto the ball with the aim of altering its trajectory? They’re two very different things.

[madsircool]

The Padres Musgrove has a no hitter through six. It would be a possible perfect game but he hit Gallo.

[dalej42]

What’s the story behind the Orioles firing the public address announcer? Orioles dismiss public address announcer Ryan Wagner – Baltimore Sun

Politics? Saying something dumb on a hot mic?

[madsircool]

From the linked article:
‘According to The Athletic, which first reported the story, Wagner’s social media was at issue and led to the decision.’

Without further evidence it is an insane firing.

[madsircool]

Now 7.

[madsircool]

now 8

[RickJay]

Due up for the Rangers are Eli White, Leody Taveras, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

Musgrove, who has never even pitched a complete game in the majors before, was the winner of that insane 13-12 World Series game in 2017.

[RickJay]

Padres out in the top of the ninth when Ha-Seong Kim is picked off first, kind of a weird situation for him to be that inattentive in.

David Dahl pinch hits for Eli White. Musgrove has thrown 103 pitches; he is trying to be the first Padre to ever do this, by the way. He starts Dahl with breaking balls; Dahl rips one, but at second base, caught on the line. One out.