The Nationals get punished by the fashion gods, losing a spring training game 29-8.
I’m glad some people like them, at least it beats putting ‘Los’ on a jersey and selling it for $$$$$$
Brian Cashman says it’s unfair to talk about the Yankees having a World Series title drought since 2009, since the blame should go to them cheating Astros while the Yankees “did it right”.
Cashman may be trying to be, um, proactive here.
From the article:
Manfred wrote the letter to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, and it is alleged to contain proof of the team’s sign-stealing methods from 2017, when New York was busted for improperly using a dugout phone and the Boston Red Sox were found to be using Apple Watches to pick up on signals from opposing teams.
Didn’t this turn out to be a big nothing since MLB investigated and declined to impose penalties?
MLB announced today the finalization of rules decisions for 2022, most of which have already been discussed here:
- The extra inning “ghost runner” remains for this year, but seems likely to go away next year.
- Team rosters will expanded from 26 to 28 through May 1st for this year, due to the shortened spring training.
- The “Ohtani rule” will allow a pitcher who starts a game in the batting order to remain in the lineup as a DH if he is lifted as a pitcher; it also would allow a DH to enter the game as a pitcher.
- Double-headers will return to being full nine-inning games.
While they aren’t mentioned in this article, I heard on a radio show earlier today that a pitch clock, and larger bases, are expected to be added next year.
They’ll also likely move 2nd base closer to home plate by a couple of inches, netting the distance between 1st and 2nd, and 2nd and 3rd by about 13.5" closer. I think that could actually amount to small bit of added excitement, if teams are aware enough of it.
If it’s a big nothing, why have the Yankees sought to prevent the letter from being made public?
“Yankees team president Randy Levine argued against the release of the letter in December 2020, saying it would raise “serious” privacy issues…Levine also said that the letter would harm the Yankees’ reputation.”
“The Yankees argue that the harm from the unsealing of the Yankees Letter will rise because its content ‘would be distorted to falsely and unfairly generate the confusing scenario that the Yankees had somehow violated MLB’s sign stealing rules, when in fact the Yankees did not,’” the court wrote. “That argument, however, carries little weight. Disclosure of the document will allow the public to independently assess MLB’s conclusion regarding the internal investigation (as articulated to the Yankees) and the Yankees are fully capable of disseminating their own views regarding the actual content of the Yankees letter.”
Speaking of the Nat’s City Connect Jersey:
Is it my imagination, or does announcer Keith Hernandez sound pretty much exactly like announcer Ron Darling?
Kimbrel to the Dodgers, good on fantasy owners who took a chance.
Anyway, the NL seems like it will be dominated by the Dodgers, Braves and maybe the Mets? Think I’ll be watching a lot more AL ball. And, we saw quite an interesting NL West last year so hopefully the Padres and Giants can keep things fun.
deGrom is already displaying signs of fragility (“shoulder tightness” likely costing him at least one upcoming start) so the pitching rotation already has question marks surrounding it. He’s going to be a free agent after this season, and it will be interesting to see who wants to gamble big bucks on a long-term contract.
A few hours after you wrote this, the Mets announced he’s out for a month.
No way I’d give him a huge deal. When he’s healthy he’s amazing, but he’s 34 next year and he’s never healthy.
And didn’t Max miss a World Series start with “tired arm”?
His second start in the 2019 World Series was pushed ahead, so he still started as many games as he normally would have.
Scherzer started games 1 and 7 of that series but no game in between. Believe it or not he isn’t the only pitcher to do that; the otherwise largely forgotten Joe Magrane did that in 1987.
My mistake. I was thinking of Game 6 of last year’s NLCS.
And Max’s Game 7 was less than impressive; he allowed two runs on seven hits with three strikeouts, and left the game with the Nats down 2-0. Patrick Corbin was the winning pitcher in Game 7 as we came back to win the Series.
Speaking of Patrick Corbin, he’s been tagged as opening day starter for the Nats. It’s going to be a long year in D.C. and who knows if Strasburg will ever return.
Yanks had a nice but rain shortened tune up today.
They got 10 runs and 12 hits in 5 innings and most importantly, Severino looked very good in his scheduled 4 innings. 1 hit, 3 Ks and no walks.
Another rule not mentioned is that teams are only allowed to carry 13 pitchers, at least once the roster size drops to 26 (and I presume the added man for a duble header can be a 14th pitcher). So my question is does Shohei Ohtani count of of those pitchers. He played in 158 games last year and he pitched in only 23, so he’s used more as a non-pitcher, but my guess is the Angels have to count him as a pitcher.
Does anyone know?
Ohtani would not count as one of the 13 pitcher roster spots as long as he starts at least 20 games as a position player or DH, with at least 3 plate appearances in each game. This would classify him as a “two-way player.”
A player qualifies for two-way status if he:
Pitches at least 20 Major League innings AND
Plays at least 20 Major League games as a position player or designated hitter, with at least three plate appearances in each game in either the current or previous MLB season.
Once a player has earned the two-way player designation, he maintains that status for the rest of that season and the following season. And while he has that status, his team no longer has to use one of its pitching roster spots on him.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mlb.com/amp/news/two-way-player-rule-explanation.html
MLB is clearly desperately hoping for more two way players. Whether any of the rules set up for it will make a difference remains to be seen. Very few players are naturally good at both things.
When the Blue Jays drafted John Olerud in 1989 (Olerud went straight to MLB, never playing in the minors) he was a standout pitcher at Washington State, going 15-0 in his sophomore year. There was some idle talk the Jays might use him in both roles but they and he elected to just have him play first base, and he never pitched a single inning in MLB. One wonders if they wouldn’t give it a shot now.