you know the more that guy does anything the more I think dodger management knew stuff we didn’t …
There have been 3 ejections over pitcher substances since they started cracking down. All three have been from the same ump. He got Scherzer coming back onto the field after having had to switch his glove out. I think what we have here is a good old fashioned Ump Show.
Right. And unless you get so many of them that they become commonplace and, therefore, boring, you’ll never have enough of them to render a game interesting if they’re the only interesting thing that ever happens.
(Also, home runs tend to dominate highlight reels, but I don’t find them all that interesting to go back and look at after the fact.)
Scherzer says he washed his hand in front of an MLB official before going back out. I’m sure there is video of this. It’s ridiculous, it is a completely subjective judgement. What the hell is too sticky?
Yet more news in the A’s to Las Vegas saga.
I assume it will eventually get done one way or the other
There probably isn’t video if this was done behind the locker room. And he didn’t just wash his hands - he was asked to wash his hands with alcohol. How does that official not say “hey, he did everything I asked him to do”? That ump needs suspended.
It was probably something like this.
Currently the average MLB team has stolen 13 bases in 19 games. That would project out to an average of 111 steals per team for the whole season, an increase over previous years of roughly 80 steals per team… so I’d say it’s working perfectly. We are seeing a significant increase in steals, but it’s not a ridiculous number. That is actually below the heyday of the stolen base in the late 70s and early 80s.
1976: 127; Oakland stole 341, the live ball record
1977: 116
1978: 116
1979: 115
1980: 127
1981: 78; would have been 118 in full season
1982: 122
1983: 128
1984: 117
1985: 119; Cardinals stole 314, the live ball record for the National League
I love this. Love it. The baseball of the 1980s was great because you had a variety of strategies and roster compositions. In the 1982 World Series you had a team that hit 216 home runs and stole 82 bases versus a team that hit 67 home runs and stole 200 bases. Isn’t that awesome?
I expect the number of steals will climb a little higher in the next few years. Teams now have more reason to have basestealers and may prioritize having a guy or two who can run, but more importantly, the success rate is incredibly high now; they’re still at an 83 percent success rate, which is well above the break even point. It is clear teams are not attempting quite enough stolen bases. (The Twins have only stolen one base - man, how slow is that team?)
After that, we’ll likely see a plateauing and maybe a slight decline as strong armed catchers become more common.
As an aside, one thing I am curious about is what the best team of all time is in terms of homers AND steals, as expressed by its power-speed number. I can’t figure out how to find that though and Google isn’t any help but I brute forced it. It may be Colorado in 1996, which I believe is the only team in MLB history to hit 200+ homers and steal 200+ bases, with 221 and 201 respectively, a PSN of 211. That mark would have been roughly tied by Cleveland in 1994 had the season been completed; they were on pace for 211. The only other team to hit 200 was the 1998 Blue Jays; the 1995 Reds would have come close had the season been 162 games long.
Highest Team Power Speed Numbers, I Think, Adjusting Shortened Seasons
1996 Rockies - 211
1994 Cleveland* - 211
1998 Blue Jays - 201
1995 Reds* - 196
1996 Cleveland - 185
1999 Reds - 184
1982 Athletics - 181
1995 Cleveland * - 181
2001 Yankees - 180
Definitely agreed, even if the wrong team won that World Series. 
Also agreed. Teams will likely also start to prioritize giving their faster baserunners more training in stealing than they have been, while defenses will be optimizing for throwing out or picking off runners, under the new rules framework.
In short, it does look like the new rules have increased stealing to a good, but not historically atypical, level.
Interesting location choice, not where I expected. I thought they’d go east of the Strip on Tropicana, north of the airport.
The A’s appear to be committed to moving but apparently they are aiming for their first season there to be 2027. If you think crowds in Oakland are bad now, hoo boy. We may be in for YEARS of crowds where instead of saying a number you just list people’s first names.
Please. God, make the guys with the stupid drums lose interest quickly. It’s fucking impossible to watch a broadcast from that stadium without turning off the sound.
Baseball Reference has a new page, which shows the impact of some of the rule change on pace of play.
For the season to date, compared to 2022:
- An average 9-inning game is coming in at 2 hours, 37 minutes, a decrease of 26 minutes
- 34% of games are being completed in 2:30 or less (compared to 4% last year), while only 0.4% of games are going 3:30 or longer (compared to 11% in 2022, and 19% in 2021)
- The average time between the beginning of plate appearances is down by 24 seconds
- The average time between balls put into play is down by 32 seconds
Me, too. But the chosen site is decent. Puts it right across I-15 from T-Mobile Arena. Minimal overlap with the NHL season, so traffic won’t be more insane than normal. Let’s see if MGM/MLife starts offering Game Day packages for home games.
The limiting factor for stolen bases will continue to be emphasis on hitting home runs.
The 2021 champion Braves had only two members of their starting lineup in double figures for stolen bases. Four starters between them attempted stealing a base just once (and was thrown out) By contrast, only one starter for the 1909 champion Pirates failed to achieve double figures in SBs (the catcher, George Gibson, who had 9).
It seems like virtually all the good players in the early years of the 20th century had impressive SB totals compared to now* (which was essential given the “dead” ball and focus on “scientific baseball”).
*some of this goes back to “Moneyball”, which actively discouraged base-stealing.
I 100% would go to a game on one of my Vegas trips. What a fantastic thing to do to break up my poker sessions.
Basestealing was actually MUCH lower for a really long time between the 1920s and 1960s than it was in the Moneyball era. It has always been subject to disincentives. In 1950 the average team only stole 36 bases a year.
I was curious about this, as that’s an era I don’t know a lot about.
In 1950, Sam Jethroe of the Boston Braves led the majors with 35 stolen bases, double the total of the next-highest guy (Pee Wee Reese, with 17). Jethroe was a 33-year-old rookie (and won the NL Rookie of the Year), and was the Braves’ first black player; he had previously played for the better part of a decade in the Negro Leagues.
Dom Dimaggio led the AL in steals, with a whopping 15. Only eleven players stole 10 or more bases in 1950.
In 1982, Rickey Henderson stole 15 bases in the first 15 games of the season.
And Rickey batted right-handed but threw lefty. Everything about Rickey was Rickey.
You got what you asked for.