OK, I’m stumped. Why?
I’m guessing because the Astros moved to the American League in 2013.
Ha ha. Talk about overthinking something. I was trying to figure out what weird bias MSN had against the Astros. Although if they went back to the NL, that would be great too.
well considering the dodgers have had a lock on said division since the middle of April …
that would be good since both teams are doing well …a bit of rivalry would have spiced up the season but it would have ended up with the same results .
As an Astros fan I still think they got screwed over when that happened. It should have been the Brewers who moved back to the AL since they had the history of having been in the AL.
kenobi65:
Not to mention that when there WERE in the NL, they were in the Central Division, not the West. The Astros have never been a part of the NL West.
Sure they were. They were part of the NL West from 1969 (when the NL West was created) to 1993 (the year before the NL Central was created).
The idea, FWIW, was to get "natural’ geographic rivals in the same division. The Selig-owned Brewers went to the same division as the Cubs to try to get more viewership and visiting-fan tickets than they were getting with either the White Sox or the Twins. Still don’t know why KC isn’t in the NL with StL and Colo, though.
BorgHunter:
:smack:
ElvisL1ves:
The Royals were given first choice to move to the NL, but declined. Kansas City was never an NL city. Really, Selig wanted to move the Brewers, since Milwaukee had an NL history and the Cubs would be a big draw in Milwaukee (more so than the White Sox had been). But he offered the chance to the Royals first so as not to appear to have been abusing his position as Commissioner to help the team he owned.
Often times the answer to “why didn’t they do this” really is just “because they didn’t want to”.
Well, Ned Yost announced yesterday that he’ll retired at the end of the season. I’ll be sorry to see him go. I wasn’t a huge fan of his to begin with, but a World Series Championship certainly helps to turn things around. He was one of the few managers I can remember to really change the way he thought about things - he’s been very flexible to the role of the reliever, the shift, etc. He’s become more and more a manager who lets younger players get more reps in the majors, and could be a tremendous asset to the new core that’s coming up through the system.
And it’s looking more and more like Mike Matheny is going to be the next manager. Which sucks - his last year in St. Louis was a disaster, and it seems players really dislike him.
Care to guess Dante Bichette’s career WAR? In 14 years, with four all star selections, four times receiving MVP votes (once a runner up), he amassed a career WAR of 5.7. Playing in Colorado helped him immensely, but not being able to DH just killed his defensive WAR. In '95, his MVP runner up season, he hit .340, 40HRs, 130 OPS+ and his WAR was 1.2. Unbelievable.
Rumor has it that Joe Maddon is on his way out of Wrigley Field, and that David Ross will take over.
I knew his WAR was surprisingly low. I do not happen to believe it; I think he was a measurably better player than WAR says he was. For one thing, the restrospective analysis on his defense is most of the reason his WAR is so low - according to the stats sites, in 1999 Bichette was FORTY RUNS BELOW REPLACEMENT as an outfielder. I simply don’t believe that. Dante made a lot of errors that year but he can’t have been that bad. There is an odd illusion in Coors Field that makes outfielders look bad in the advanced metrics; according to BBRef, Larry Walker wasn’t a very good outfielder and that is insane. He was a terrific outfielder. The list of Colorado outfielders that BBRef and Fangraphs say sucked - in many cases they were good with other teams, started sucking in Colorado, and magically learned to play outfield again once they left - is very long. **In the last 25 years, most of the worst defensive WAR seasons by outfielders have been Colorado Rockies. ** That can’t be true; it is just nuts to think the Rockies have, for 26 years, been putting a dozen or more guys out there who were worse outfielders than Greg Luzinski or Dave Kingman, but if you accept defensive WAR at face value that is literally what it says. Even in years the Rockies had playoff teams, BBRef and Fangraphs say their outfield defense is catastrophically bad.
Having said that, having a positive WAR at all over a career of 1704 games is nothing to sneeze at.
Bring on the robots. That he’s so damnably arrogant, and incompetent, makes it an especially bitter pill to swallow.
West is also far too old to be an MLB ump. It’s ridiculous to have a fat senior citizen out there; they should force retirement at 55-60.
There is no good reason not to have strikes and balls called by the machine that’s ALREADY DOING IT ANYWAY. None.
It is tragic that West doesn’t see it.
He should step down. Maybe the ump retirement pension isn’t that good?
The “tragic” part is second-guessing which doesn’t take into account camera angle and where the ball crossed the plate (not where it hit the catcher’s mitt).
Looked like a reasonable strike call to me.
Assuming you actually care, and aren’t just being contrary for the sake of it, the overhead camera showed it missing the plate by at least 4 inches.