MLB: June 2018

The Game Room
101

There is no reason at all to believe this is true. Pitching is better than ever. These are objective facts:

  1. Pitchers throw harder than ever.
  2. Pitchers are dominating the game through strikeouts to an extent never before seen, but aren’t walking any more men than they ever have.
  3. Scoring levels are not high, despite conditions for home runs being extremely favorable.
  4. Improvements in fielding cannot explain any of this.

The idea that expansion makes pitching worse baffles me; it should make hitting worse too. AAA isn’t a hitter’s paradise, so the notion that the talent level below MLB has a disproportionate amount of capable hitters and incapable pitchers isn’t really supported by common sense. I went and looked at offensive levels in expansion years but it’s hard to tell what happened. Sometimes things did not change to any significant extent (1961, 1962, 1998) and sometimes they went up, but the times they went up there’s either

  1. Conflating factors: offense went way up in 1969, but they changed the rule to make that happen, or

  2. It just makes no sense. In the 1977 AL and 1993 NL expansions offense went up a lot - but it goes up just as much in the league that DIDN’T expand, and you can’t explain it by saying that league lost good pitchers to the expansion teams. Indeed, in the case of 1977, the Mariners and Blue Jays had probably the most restrictive expansion draft rules ever, and they got pretty much NO good pitchers from any other team. Why would the Seattle Mariners being shitty cause the Phillies to score more runs? Weird.

102

Which means we’re due for a major rule change, because TPTB like scoring, not strikeouts.

RickJay - A couple of your ideas are non-starters. No city or team would allow another team into its market in the same league. NYC already has one in each. And don’t bring up the Dodgers and the Giants. That was pre-TV, when you rooted for the team in your neighborhood. LA could get an AL team, I’ll admit. If only because it would send those up-start Angels back to the hell-hole of Orange County where they belong. Your dreams are nice, but since MLB can’t come up with 30 decent owners now, just where are the new ones going to come from?

I can see some of those cities you mention supporting teams, but Las Vegas will need to build a dome before they can field a team. A 1pm start in August in Vegas is a death sentence.

103

The baseball commissioner has said no expansion until the two ugly ballparks are made pretty.

104

I’m going to be in Washington DC on September 24, and the Nationals are at home against the Marlins. How difficult are tickets going to be? As of now, there is good availability. Is there any particular part of the ballpark I should sit in? Usually, I like to sit along the third base line. As of today, I don’t know how many of us there will be, it could be just me or as many as 3.

I know there were articles about public transit not running late at night during some of the Nationals playoff games, is this still an issue? I haven’t picked a hotel yet and I’d prefer not to have a $50 (or more) cab ride because the train isn’t running.

105

Teams, nearly all teams are short of pitching now. The staff size is now 12+. Hard to think 10 more teams won’t make the situation worse.

106

Nats commit four baserunning goofs in a row! Adams doubled off second on a line drive, then Soto picked off first. Then Eaton out trying to stretch a single, and then Turner picked off first.

Guess they figure they might as well spot the Yankees some runs, it’s not like they’re any good…

107

They have more pitchers but they’re short of pitching?

108

Of course they would oppose such a thing. My point was that NY could support another team, not that it wouldn’t piss off the existing ones. You could have teams in Brooklyn, Manhattan (if space can be found) or New Jersey, which is close enough.

If I was commissioner this is how it would be.

109

Warm bodies. Quantity =/= quantity.

110

6 team expansion. Mexico City, Havana, Montreal, Las Vegas, Austin…Charlotte?

111

Portland OR wants a team

112

They can have Miami’s.

113

I like Dan Duquette and he’s done a good job patching together a serviceable roster with minimal resources during his time with the Orioles, but he seriously needs to be fired, and possibly given a mental checkup for giving Chris Davis that ridiculous $100+ million contract. It stinks of Peter Angelos’ word from on high of course, but unfortunately we have to wait for God to fire Angelos.

114

From newspaper reports, it looks like the Portland baseball group is concentrating on getting the A’s. But I’m sure they wouldn’t turn down the Marlins if they became available first.

115

I thought the A’s were looking at Vegas.

116

They’re looking for a stadium. Whomever builds it first gets the team.

God bless them, they have tried like five places in the Bay Area, and all have fallen through. It’s not about the market. The East Bay is a big market. It’s about a stadium.

117

To non Yankees and Mets fans, is there a trade for them to make that sends Degrom to the Yanks.

I’m thinking you start with Sheffield and/or German. Include a young bullpen arm, then their choice Frazier or Hicks. Then add Drury and 3 more prospects.

118

Here’s how I would do it. Start by giving Montreal an NL franchise, and give Portland an NL franchise. Then split into divisions as follows:

AL East
New York
Boston
Tampa Bay
Baltimore

AL Central
Detroit
Chicago
Cleveland
Toronto

AL Midwest
Kansas City
Texas
Houston
Minnesota

AL West
Seattle
Oakland
Los Angeles
Portland

NL East
New York
Philadelphia
Miami
Washington

NL Central
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Montreal
Atlanta

NL Midwest
Milwaukee
Colorado
Chicago
St Louis

NL West
Los Angeles
San Diego
San Francisco
Arizona

Each team plays the other 3 teams in its own division 16 times = 48 games

Each team plays the 4 teams in the assigned other division 12 times = 48 games
That would be East v Central and Midwest v West

Each team plays the 8 teams in the other two divisions of its league 8 times = 64 games
So East would play Midwest and West 8 times,
Central would play Midwest and West 8 times,
Midwest would play East and Central 8 times,
West would play East and Central 8 times

That makes 160 games. To that we add one home and home game with the natural rival of the other league. If there is no natural rivalry, we create one. Now we’re at 162 games.

You could even set it up so the division that you play 12 games against would rotate every year. Year one East v Central, Midwest v West, Year two East v Midwest, Central v West, year 3 East v West, Central v Midwest

119

The assigned division thing is interesting. You’re setting up a lot of 4-game series but oh well.

120

Instead of the Mets giving up a prime arm for peanuts, how about the Yankees taking Jay Bruce, Jose Reyes and another underperforming veteran or two for a batch of good prospects? :smiley: