# MLB Hotstove: 2014-2015 Offseason **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 30, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019 "2014-10-30T15:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/121 "2015-01-28T17:14:00Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > If I was a semi-moronic commissioner, all that would be necessary would be to put in a rule saying the shortstop must play to the left of 2B. Can’t believe you’d dictate where CF stands, though, right? I make my CF the right side rover, put my LF in CF and my SS in LF. 3B covers the left side of the infield. I mean, you’d literally have to define a limited area for each defender to start in to eliminate the shift. It’s just a terrible idea and I can’t believe the commissioner of baseball suggested it on day 1 of the job. I have to think Bud Selig face-palmed hard after hearing that. I do not think he would have been on board with this. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/122 "2015-01-28T17:23:32Z")
I’m only part-way through [this article](http://m.mlb.com/news/article/107573504/players-coaches-discuss-impact-of-the-infield-shift), but it looks like the Commish may have “clarified” his comments a bit, and the article contains some interesting statistics and discussion. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/123 "2015-01-28T19:24:26Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > I’m only part-way through [this article](http://m.mlb.com/news/article/107573504/players-coaches-discuss-impact-of-the-infield-shift), but it looks like the Commish may have “clarified” his comments a bit, and the article contains some interesting statistics and discussion. From the article: > [@](#): > > Scoring certainly has decreased in recent years. In 2006, there were 23,599 runs scored during the regular season. In 2014, there were 19,761. Those who fundamentally object to the shift point to it as a reason for the decline, and most anecdotal evidence supports that claim. The idea that the shift is “a reason for the [run] decline” is supported by “anecdotal evidence”? What the fuck does that mean? “Pete Jones, of Galveston, Texas, went to an Astros game on May 17 and saw the Astros get an out by putting a shift on a left-handed batter. Carolyn Grady of Framingham, Massachusetts, watched David Ortiz hit into the shift for an inning-ending double-play on July 3. This anecdotal evidence supports the claim that the shift is a reason for the 3,838-run decline in MLB since 2006.” Yes, it might a one contributor for the decline in runs, but just a couple of paragraphs later they tell us that, according to Bill James: > [@](#): > > Across baseball, the shift saved a total of 195 runs overall, not really enough to be blamed for baseball’s decrease in scoring. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/124 "2015-01-29T00:23:50Z")
Something about pretty much every pitcher being able to throw 100 mph or close to it may be a factor too. It used to be amazing when Bob Feller did it even once. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/125 "2015-01-29T00:36:30Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Something about pretty much every pitcher being able to throw 100 mph or close to it may be a factor too. It used to be amazing when Bob Feller did it even once. Really? I go to a lot of games and watch the radar gun numbers, and it’s still pretty unusual for a pitcher to hit 100 MPH. A fair number (probably less than a majority) can hit 95, but not 100. I’d say that 85 MPH fastballs are more common than 100 MPH fastballs. [Here is a site](https://www.statwing.com/demos/baseball#workspaces/20499) with information about all the pitches thrown in the 2014 season. As you can see by the scatter chart, only a small proportion of pitches was 100 MPH or more. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/126 "2015-01-29T00:56:04Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Really? …A fair number (probably less than a majority) can hit 95, but not 100. And that’s why I added “or close to it”. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/127 "2015-01-29T01:09:33Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Something about pretty much every pitcher being able to throw 100 mph or close to it may be a factor too. It used to be amazing when Bob Feller did it even once. I’ve never seen better overall pitching in my life; the quality of pitching, pitch for pitch, is incontestably awesome. As you point out we’ve got all kinds of pitchers now who throw 100 MPH, but they also don’t walk anyone. I’d assume this is due to modern video capabilities, training techniques and the like allowing coaches to perfect pitchers’ motions. Yeah, most pitchers can’t throw 100 but it’s clear they throw much harder than they used to; throwing 100 MPH was once the exclusive domain of a tiny handful of men, but now a number of guys can do it, and throwing 95 was once super impressive and now is common. Last year there were 14,020 walks against 37,441 strikeouts. That’s a phenomenally high ratio. As recently as 2004 there were fewer than two strikeouts for every walk - more walks and fewer strikeouts, by the way - and in 1984 the ratio was lower still. Even in 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, the K/W ratio wasn’t as high as it was in 2014. Pitchers are hitting the strike zone with filthy stuff. There is no other explanation. Individually amazing things are being done too. Last year Phil Hughes had a K-W ratio of eleven to one and hardly anyone noticed. It was the best in major league history, \*\*but another three of the 25 best ratios in MLB history happened last year. \*\* In fact, if you discount the 19th century, almost ALL the best K-W ratio years by a pitcher in major league history have happened in the last fifteen years. That is what’s driving the scoring down; pitchers are throwing nasty stuff and they’re not giving up free trips to first. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/128 "2015-01-29T03:39:04Z")
And at least some of the decrease in walks (and also increase in strikeouts) is the umpires calling a larger zone. Which, at least in part, is due to them being evaluated by PitchFX. Some really neat charts and data (from early 2014) here: [The Strike Zone During the PITCHf/x Era | The Hardball Times](http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-strike-zone-during-the-pitchfx-era/) Calling the low strike has really hurt hitters and helped pitchers. I think a 5% larger strikezone has to be a bigger impact than the handful of outs caused by the shift. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/129 "2015-01-29T19:48:09Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Really? I go to a lot of games and watch the radar gun numbers, and it’s still pretty unusual for a pitcher to hit 100 MPH. A fair number (probably less than a majority) can hit 95, but not 100. I’d say that 85 MPH fastballs are more common than 100 MPH fastballs. > > [Here is a site](https://www.statwing.com/demos/baseball#workspaces/20499) with information about all the pitches thrown in the 2014 season. As you can see by the scatter chart, only a small proportion of pitches was 100 MPH or more. I highly doubt that more pitchers’ fastballs top out at 85 than 100. Also, your graph includes off speed pitches, so it’s not really a fair representation if we’re talking about fastballs. RickJay pointed out the much better K/BB ratio these days, but velocity is way up, too. PitchFX velocity only goes back to 2009, but in that year there were 26 pitchers whose fastball averaged 95+. In 2014 that number was up to 43. [LINK](http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=10&type=10&season=2014&month=0&season1=2014&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/130 "2015-01-30T02:26:12Z")
Getting back to the hot stove, Toronto bumbled its way into re-signing President Paul Beeston for a year, with the understanding he is gone at the end of the 2015 season, after weeks of apparently courting Kenny Williams and/or Dan Duquette. They then denied having done any of that though Williams admitted it had. It was a disgraceful fiasco that embarrassed the team and Beeston and raised the perfectly legitimate question in everyone’s mind as to why they wish to employ Beeston at all if he’s no longer welcome after 2015. I’ve spent the last month or so wondering why on earth the team went to such expense getting a third baseman and a catcher when they already had men at those positions, but have done nothing to acquire a center fielder, second baseman, DH or new relief pitchers despite having gaping holes at those positions (and in many cases allowing low cost options to leave Toronto and sign elsewhere for affordable prices.) Well, I know why now; they have no idea what the hell they’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/131 "2015-01-30T15:22:57Z")
Duquette’s an interesting one. Boston fans turned on him pretty fiercely, but if you look back, he actually made some pretty good moves that set them up for 2004. Theo gets a lot of that credit. And obviously, Duquette has turned around Baltimore pretty well. I wonder what happened that the trade didn’t come to fruition for Toronto. The Jays wouldn’t part with a top pitching prospect? Seems a bit short-sighted when they could have landed a top executive and avoided this awkwardness. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/132 "2015-01-30T17:39:34Z")
The reports were that the Orioles wanted Jeff Hoffman, who I don’t think can be traded yet (he was just drafted last summer) so maybe that part was nonsense. I can further understand if Duquette had reluctance in moving to Toronto if the organization is this ham-fisted. Why would he want a job with an outfit that make every appearance of not caring much about baseball beyond it serving as content for a media empire, to the extent that they can botch something like that? What does he tell the GM, Alex Anthopolous? If you’re hiring Duquette, isn’t it to make the decisions Anthopolous is presently making? For that matter, why, if you need a new President/GM, so after a guy under contract to an opponent for four more years? Seriously, there are NO other candidates? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/133 "2015-02-04T00:01:58Z")
Josh Hamilton out for 6-8 weeks for shoulder surgery. Right before spring training this pathetic excuse of a ballplayer needs surgery. Letting down his teammates yet again. > **[Angels' Josh Hamilton set for shoulder surgery, out 6-8 weeks](https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/angels-josh-hamilton-set-for-shoulder-surgery-out-6-8-weeks/)** > > Josh Hamilton is set for surgery Wednesday to repair the AC joint in his right shoulder, putting his availability for the start of the regular season in doubt. ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/134 "2015-02-04T00:03:09Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Josh Hamilton out for 6-8 weeks for shoulder surgery. Right before spring training this pathetic excuse of a ballplayer needs surgery. Letting down his teammates yet again. > [Angels' Josh Hamilton set for shoulder surgery, out 6-8 weeks - CBSSports.com](http://mweb.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25030238/angels-josh-hamilton-set-for-shoulder-surgery-out-6-8-weeks) You’re… kidding? Right? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/135 "2015-02-04T01:23:30Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Josh Hamilton out for 6-8 weeks for shoulder surgery. Right before spring training this pathetic excuse of a ballplayer needs surgery. Letting down his teammates yet again. > [Angels' Josh Hamilton set for shoulder surgery, out 6-8 weeks - CBSSports.com](http://mweb.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25030238/angels-josh-hamilton-set-for-shoulder-surgery-out-6-8-weeks) Yeah, screw him for trying to recover so that he can actually play. ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/136 "2015-02-04T01:29:27Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Yeah, screw him for trying to recover so that he can actually play. Dalej42 is kidding. Right? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/137 "2015-02-04T16:18:23Z")
Hamilton had this injury late last season. He was useless in the playoffs. He should have had this surgery right after the Angels were eliminated. Maybe it’s true that it just flared up. I’m more likely to believe he reinjured it by hoisting cases of beer or else in some kinky sexcapade cheating on his wife again. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/138 "2015-02-04T16:21:46Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Hamilton had this injury late last season. He was useless in the playoffs. He should have had this surgery right after the Angels were eliminated. You know it’s February 3, right? He has time to be ready for the season. As to his being a drunk and whatnot, yes, he’s he is. He’s a weak, dull-witted man who struggles with substance abuse. But a shoulder injury is generally not caused by cocaine. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/139 "2015-02-04T16:27:05Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Hamilton had this injury late last season. He was useless in the playoffs. He should have had this surgery right after the Angels were eliminated. Remind me again, which medical school did you attend? And on what date did you take a look at Hamilton’s shoulder and perform your diagnosis? > [@dalej42](#): > > Maybe it’s true that it just flared up. I’m more likely to believe he reinjured it by hoisting cases of beer or else in some kinky sexcapade cheating on his wife again. Yeah, but that gold-digging whore probably deserved it. Amirite? > [@storyteller0910](#): > > Dalej42 is kidding. Right? Did he answer the question for you with his latest post? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019/140 "2015-02-06T00:33:06Z")
Victor Martinez also to undergo surgery for a torn meniscus. Unlike Josh Hamilton , this is not a lingering injury from last season. Plus, Martinez kicked ass last season. I think his days as a position player are done. I also think this is really going to hurt the Tigers and it will make the AL central a wide open division with the White Sox as my early favorite. > **[Tigers slugger V-Mart has torn left meniscus](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/12284767)** > > Detroit Tigers slugger Victor Martinez tore the medial meniscus in his left knee during workouts, the team announced Thursday. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-hotstove-2014-2015-offseason/703019.md?page=8)