MLB Season 2024 March & April

[What_Exit]

So as of tonight, Yanks have best record in baseball at 10 and 2.

Great start and thats with Cole due back in a few months.

[DCnDC]

He’s been literally crushing it at every level so far. Let him sink or swim. I have a hunch he’ll be just fine.

There’s a lot of tough decisions that are going to need to be made for the rest of the organization. Their system is so loaded they don’t even have room for other guys that are absolutely destroying AAA like Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Stowers.

[Munch]

I just heard that if he’s on the team all year, the Orioles will still be eligible for the extra draft pick if he wins ROY. I was under the impression they had to be on the roster Opening Day, but it’s actually “just” being on the roster for 172 service days.

[Happy_Lendervedder]

Tigers outfielder Riley Greene slid into home yesterday and tore his… checks notes … pants.

Nice uniforms, Nike.

Riley Greene rips pants sliding into home during Detroit Tigers' ninth inning...

[Hawkeyeop]

There is a recovery aspect to it. I can certainly see having less recovery time causing more strain and mechanics to become more inconsistent leading to more injuries. I don’t think it the main cause, but I would guess its a factor.

Baseball is in a weird spot that pitchers throwing 5 miles slower would solve so many problems, but the incentive for teams is max velocity and spin and treat pitchers as interchangeable. Those are hard incentives to change.

[Superdude]

I was never a big fan of his father (due to his time spent with St. Louis, and I’m a diehard Cub fan), but I appreciate the fact that Jackson is wearing his father’s #7 jersey. That’s a big thing to me. I like those little details, like when Peyton Manning changed to #18 in the NFL (he wore #16 in college) since that was his dad’s number.

[kenobi_65]

@Hawkeyeop

There is a recovery aspect to it. I can certainly see having less recovery time causing more strain and mechanics to become more inconsistent leading to more injuries. I don’t think it the main cause, but I would guess its a factor.

Here’s a gift link to an article in today’s Washington Post on the topic. A few excerpts:

For the past decade or so, MLB has seen the number of Tommy John surgeries required by its pitchers rise steadily. Ten years ago, renowned orthopedic surgeon James Andrews declared the rising prevalence of the procedure, which repairs the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow, “an epidemic.” It has only grown since. When Andrews announced his retirement earlier this year, he summed up his explanation in an interview with MLB.com: “These kids are throwing 90 miles per hour their junior year of high school. The ligament itself can’t withstand that kind of force. We’ve learned in our research lab that baseball is a developmental sport. The Tommy John ligament matures at about age 26. In high school, the red line where the forces go beyond the tensile properties of the ligament is about 80 miles per hour.”

The cause of the problem, most pitchers and baseball insiders agree, is multifaceted — though one would not know it from the way MLB and the players union have recently engaged on the matter. The union issued a statement last week offering concerns that the pitch clock, implemented before last year and shortened ahead of this one, is causing the jump in injuries because pitchers do not have enough time to prepare for each pitch.

MLB fired back in a statement of its own that cited a study conducted by Johns Hopkins, which has yet to be published, that it says found no evidence of correlation between pace and injury. MLB also scolded the union, saying its statement “ignores the empirical evidence and much more significant long-term trend, over multiple decades, of velocity and spin increases that are highly correlated with arm injuries.”

The emphasis on velocity and spin rate at the major league level trickles into the offseason, too. Oakland veteran Alex Wood posted a thread on X in which he said the fact that pitchers throwing at moderate and high intensity through the offseason — presumably to maintain or build velocity and spin rate — is “being overlooked” in the discussion about injuries.

“When I first came into professional baseball in 2012 as soon as the season ended I usually wouldn’t touch a baseball until at least December and I definitely wouldn’t be [throwing] off a mound until at least sometime in January. I knew a few veteran players (All Star types) that wouldn’t even throw their first bullpen until they got to spring training in February!!” Wood wrote. “If you told a young player today that they had to take 8-10 weeks off throwing in the offseason and couldn’t touch a mound until at least the middle of January they would think you were crazy.”

Analysis | Pitchers are buckling and breaking across baseball. What is to blame?

[Mahaloth]

Yeah, I’d say those look cheap-o.

[Superdude]

The White Sox lose Yoan Moncada for 3-6 months.

[nightshadea]

wow the braves got pounded along with the astros … i hope it happens more than once for both teams

[Railer13]

@nightshadea

the braves got pounded along with the astros

Much to the surprise and delight of all KC fans, the Royals were the team that just swept the Astros, scoring double-digit runs in the last two games and winning a walk-off in extra innings in the first game. KC has won 7 in a row and is a 1/2 game out of the lead in the AL Central.

[Superdude]

Zach McKinstry of the Detroit Tigers had a rough day on Saturday. He was responsible for 6 runs scoring. In one inning.

In the 12th inning of the first game of a doubleheader, the third baseman let a ball get by him, leading to three runs scoring.

Detroit manager AJ Hinch, needing to save his bullpen on a doubleheader day when he had already used 5 pitchers, had McKinstry come in and pitch.

McKinstry promptly walked Manuel Margot, then gave up a 3 run home run to Matt Wallner.

[Munch]

It should probably be noted that McKinstry is Detroit’s 3B.

[Superdude]

1. He was responsible for 6 runs scoring. In one inning.

2. In the 12th inning of the first game of a doubleheader, the third baseman let a ball get by him, leading to three runs scoring

I thought it was obvious by the highlighted area of the post. I figured the context made it obvious. I guess not.

[What_Exit]

So last night, Yanks completed a sweep of a pretty good team, Cleveland. This .800 start is without our Ace, Gerrit Cole so I’m beginning to feel much more positive about this season.

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Long-time Yankee Fritz Peterson passed on April 11th, he is probably best known for swapping families with Mike Kekich. Pretty strange stuff for the time.

He had a great year in 1970 for the Yanks going 20-11. But in 1973 following the family trade, he was only 8-15. He did bounce back in 1975 for 1 last solid year for Cleveland.

In a brilliant trade, the Yanks had moved him to Cleveland for Chris Chambliss, Dick Tidrow and Cecil Upshaw. The first two very important to the Yankees World Series runs in 1976-1978.

[Railer13]

@Superdude

I thought it was obvious by the highlighted area of the post.

What was the highlighted area of the post? I saw the hyperlink but didn’t click on it until I read the entire post. The post initially confused me, because I didn’t realize the McKinstry was the third baseman.

[Superdude]

The part that I quoted of my own post, which is in italics in the quote.

[Railer13]

@What_Exit

So last night, Yanks completed a sweep of a pretty good team, Cleveland.

This was a sweep of a doubleheader. The Yanks will be going for a 3-game series sweep today. As a KC fan, I’m rooting for the Yanks today.

BTW, the Royals are in first place for the first time in, well, a damn long time.

[Railer13]

@Superdude

The part that I quoted of my own post

OK. But the original post had no highlights, correct?

[kenobi_65]

The Brewers, who are fielding a very young team this year, are off to a nice start; they’re 10-3, and as a team, hitting .287 (second only to the Braves). Five of their regular players are hitting .319 or better.

Christian Yelich was finally starting to look like the guy he was in 2018 and 2019, but he tweaked his back on Friday night, and it’s not yet clear how much time he’ll miss.