NM. Ninjaed
It still seems like a pretty team friendly deal.
It seems like all the Boras clients are signing earlier this year and aside from Rendon, Strasburg and Cole, his clients have not really gotten overpaid.
I am still boggled by the Moustakas contract unless it was an attempt to thin the 3B market so Rendon could cash in for more.
Lindor would be a great pickup for anybody. Not only talented, but a joy to watch as well. I’d like to see the Yankees pick him up but not sure if he is needed. Torres can play short and LeMehieu can play second and just about anything else.
I’m glad for Romine that he gets to be #1 in Detroit. It must be a bitch to be behind a guy like Sanchez who is such an erratic fielding catcher and can be at times and automatic out in the lineup. Good for Higashioka to finally be able to be on the parent club full time.
About the 3 batter rule. Dumbass move. Just like the no-pitch intentional walk. Neither is going to save any time. I bet what does happen is that some exec will say “Hey, you know what? With all that time that we’re saving with the 3 batter rule we can add another 30 second ad spot between innings!”
That’s honestly quite surprising. I expected Ryu to go to Anaheim.
The good for Toronto:
- They desperately needed a starter. I think they were pretty close to calling up Damuri Ajashi and asking how his elbow was.
- Ryu is REALLY good.
- Toronto probably has more spare money than any team in a major North American sports league (not an exaggeration.) $20 million for four years is a very low risk for them.
The bad is obvious; Ryu gets hurt a lot. He’s a risky acquisition; he has never really has a fully healthy season, so his arm could explode in June.
Still, Toronto needed to provide the fans and their young prospects with some assurance that they’re trying to win baseball games, and they’re swimming in money, so what the hell. Ryu will not help them make the playoffs in 2020, but he could in 2021. Ryu’s contract will end just as guys like Vladdy Guerrero and Bo Bichette start to get expensive.
As to this - almost any MLB shortstop can play at least a passable 3B. It’s not the same; you need less range and agility, but at least as much immediate quickness, a strong arm, and the skill of fielding bunts and dribblers up the line has to be learned. The basic skill set is the same, though.
Lindor has never playing an inning at third in MLB, so it’d take some getting used to. He is a really good fielder, though, he could do it.
It was the NFL, not MLB, but Mike Pereira (former head of officiating in the NFL) was recently interviewed on a local sports radio station about the state of officiating in the NFL. One thing they brought up was age. He pointed out that the better officials are older because they have more experience and make better judgment calls. It was a compelling argument (and he certainly is an authority), and I assume this applies to the MLB as well.
Yes, you do wonder about the ability to see where the ball goes in older age but with an electronic strike zone that should matter less. If your umpires get younger, things will likely get worse, not better.
I really do not think it does. The NFL has far, far more situations where the official must make a judgment call - was that offensive pass interference?
MLB’s primary umpire calls are balls and strikes and safe/out. There are actually very few judgement calls that are not just seeing whether something happened before something else or seeing where the ball went. In theory there are (balks) but in practice it doesn’t happen much.
The impact of poor ball/strike calls is HUGE. It can ruin a game… and that’s why old umps are likeliest to miss. And I’ve never seen evidence younger umps are likelier to blow safe/out calls.
I agree with everything you said except this. IMHO, it happen a LOT more often than it’s called.*
But I’m also against deciding a game on a (relatively) ticky-tack call, so…I guess there’s really no ideal outcome for me. 
- Nowhere near as bad as travelling in the NBA or offensive holding in football, but still.
Fans often think something is a balk when it’s not , they yell about it I know the balk rule changed recently but most fans probably don’t know that either.
So, during the playoff thread we briefly discussed the MLB plan to reduce the minor leagues in order to pay players more.
While I do love the atmosphere and affordable prices of MiLB, I agree that a reduction in the minor leagues is a good idea. This isn’t the 1940s and a bus pulls up with some farm boy from North Dakota who’s got the raw talent for the big leagues, but hasn’t been scouted. Nowadays, a scout can grab their iPad and see footage from 20 angles of a 17 year old kid in Beijing.
A lot of the guys in the minor leagues are there, well, because you need 9 men on the field. But they’re never going to make it to the big leagues and maybe it’s best to end the dream sooner rather than later.
In exchange, though, they do have to get serious about increasing the pay for the players that do remain. This can’t just be a cost cutting measure. Again, this isn’t the 1940s where even the big leaguers worked by selling cars in the offseason.
How to do the cuts? Well, that’s a tricky one since some teams and cities have built nice new parks over the last decade or so while others are still playing in Great Depression era ballparks.
Perhaps college baseball, although it’s a niche, would benefit from the reduced minor leagues. Of course, the drawback of college baseball is that it’s tied to the academic year and thus won’t be an option for the family that enjoyed a minor league game in July or August.
college players can play for summer league teams , the season lasts around 2 months. They use wood bats. We have a local college summer team.
Collegiate summer baseball - Wikipedia
If minor league teams are dropped by the major leagues they could become independent league teams. There are 7 independent leagues now
Mets sign Dellin Betances to 1 year deal @ $10.5m. Seems like a good risk on paper, when he is healthy Dellin is a great 8th inning pressure guy.
You may be right. If they ever actually adopt robo-umpires, the experience may be more important than youth but these days I cringe a little whenever I see some of the older umpires behind the plate.
Just saw an episode of What’s my Line from 1956 with commissioner Ford Frick. The host, John Daly, asked him the ‘Is baseball dying?’ question!
I’ll remember that when I skip the endless columns that will be written about that as we get closer to spring training.
Please, where did you see this? We used to watch this and old episodes of To Tell the Truth on Game Show Network, but they replaced them all with poor modern games. I’d love to see them again.
You’re in luck. Here’s the episode but the YouTube channel has every single episode of the show that’s extant.
And here’s To Tell The Truth
Saw this comment on MLBTR by poster bkbkbk
As an Angels fan I want to love his analysis. Is he right or am I reading his post through rose colored glasses?
Will Harris to sign 3 year $24MM deal with Nationals.
Deal subject to a physical. Daniel Hudson no longer seems to be a likely sign for the Nationals.
If you can’t beat 'em …
Yankees pitcher Domingo German banned first 81 games on 2020 season for violating the MLB domestic abuse policy