DeGrom shuts out Padres 4-0! 
LET’S GO METS!
yay i hope the mets win the series … now only if the dodgers would win consistently . again …
Tell me about it! The Cards have lost 4 in row which should have staked us a few more games on them, but, no. We’ve lost 3 in a row! Meanwhile, the friggin’ Brewers are 8-2 for their last 10 (3 Ws in a row currently) and have gone from 3rd in the Division to a tie for 1st with us! sigh It can tough being a Cubs fan.
Yeah, but DeGrom is slumping. He went hitless with a strikeout last night, dropping his batting average to .391.
ESPN has the first Sunday night Yankees/Red Sox game this season. They’ve actually done a fairly decent job of showing a variety of teams so far this season.
Could you quantify that? Baserunning stats are easily accessible, and the more esoteric ones that illustrate going for an extra base are all on FanGraphs. I’ve not seen any analysis of the baserunning differences between the leagues, but my hunch is that you’re incorrect.
Lack of sticky stuff caused the rotation on Trevor Bauer’s four-seam fastball to be 222 RPM lower than his season average in the first three innings today (2613 RPM versus 2835); all three of the hits he gave up to the Braves in those three innings were on fastballs. Bauer gave up a total of 6 hits and three earned runs in six innings, and took the loss.
What a chump!
While barely baseball, I want to know how much time and money ESPN spent having King Kong in a Yankees jersey climb a building.
I agree with everyone saying the single biggest change to pick up the pace of games is to stop batters from wasting time getting out of the batters box. Thing is, that’s not a rule issue - the rule already exists. It’s purely a matter of umpire enforcement.
Batters are not supposed to be able to step out of the box unless they swung at the pitch. Take a strike, take a ball, the rule is you stay in the batters box. If you step out, the umpire is supposed to order you back in, and if you don’t … he can order the pitcher to throw and it’s automatically a strike. Problem is, of course, umpires never enforce this rule.
Crack down on batters wasting time, do the same with pitchers wandering around the pitchers mound for no reason, and limit rosters to a maximum of 12 pitchers (I’d actually prefer 11) - game pace will improve dramatically.
I’ll keep repeating: Pitch clock!
PITCH CLOCK!
Mets split their series with the Padres two games apiece. Next up is a twofer against 29th-place Orioles, then another three against the Padres at home. I got one interweb dollar says the Mets win five in a row!
Clocking the pitcher doesn’t work if the batter isn’t in the box. You need to keep the batter in there.
Say the pitch clock is 20 seconds. Once the pitcher receives the ball on the mound, the clock starts. If the batter isn’t in the box (and the pitcher’s on the rubber) when the clock expires, it’s a strike. If the pitcher isn’t on the rubber (and the batter is in the box) when the clock expires, it’s a ball.
I am inclined towards the idea of requiring an actual pitch for a strike - by just having umpires all the pitcher to get in in there by just not calling time.
The games I’ve seen with a pitch clock…it works. No need to throw a pitch if a strike is called. After it’s called one time the batter will be in the box next time.
I took my kids to the Indianapolis Indians game on Friday. You’d be amazed how much crappy food a 5 year old and a 3 year old can tear through! The visiting team was the Columbus Clippers, AAA for Cleveland. Turns out it was a doubleheader, which was great timing - instead of a 7pm start time (and a very early exit for bedtime), it was a 5pm start time. We managed to get there in the 3rd, got through the first game, the intermission, and some of the first inning of the 2nd game before I had to get those kids home.
I was quite surprised by the Clippers’ bat boy - an older kid who appeared to be about 6’5” and 170 lbs - he was the most stick-thin person I’d ever seen, and I was worried a strong gust of wind would blow him away. Turns out it was Tristan McKenzie.
Only 3 games on the schedule today, one of the thinnest days of the year. I guess it is good that today hasn’t been needed for a ton of makeup games.
Give ESPN no credit for that being their first Sox-Yankees game. This was their first series of the year.
On the plus side, SOX SWEEP!
True, but they have done a decent job of showing other teams so far. Obviously, they will hit the Sox/Yankees crackpipe anytime they can.