I figured this would happen and it makes a lot of sense. I guess Cashman was waiting for the prices to drop or for Gleyber Torres to force his way into the lineup.
Excellent pick up for the Yanks, when Torres is ready, Walker at <$5m will be easy to move. I know his glove is somewhat substandard, but so was Castro’s.
Royals outfielder Jorge Bonifacio suspended 80 games for using horse steroids.
Remember, kids: just say neigh.
So I guess minor league baseball will be starting extra innings with a runner already on second (weirdly, defined as the “result of a fielding error” but with no error credited to any player or team). The stated intent of this rule is to increase excitement and speed up the games. Leaving aside the fact that the sport seems intent on fixing problems that only exist in the minds of people who don’t like the sport:
Does this particular solution actually solve either problem? I definitely can’t see how this will increase excitement; in practice you are going to see a lot of the following sequence: sacrifice bunt; sacrifice fly; groundout. Rinse and repeat. I’m not sure a rule change which increases the motivation to perform a sacrifice bunt is going to increase excitement.
But even more than that, will it really speed up the games? I’m not competent to do the actual math, but from a lay perspective it would seem that this rule would simply increase the run expectancy by the same amount for both teams. So on average you’d have fewer scoreless extra innings, but not a reduction in the average number of innings it takes to reach a conclusion. Right? And in fact, by increasing scoring without increasing the likelihood of a quicker resolution, you might actually be elongating the game time-wise. What am I missing here?
This is incredibly stupid and I have no doubt that eventually MLB will adopt it. If you want to speed the games up, cut back on the between inning break and change pitcher break. Anything else is peanuts. What’s next- 3 ball walks and 2 strike strikeouts in extra innings?
The rule is fucking stupid, and i agree that it will probably result in a whole lot of sac bunts.
Hopefully it’s not that absurd idea floating around a few weeks ago about creating excitement by allowing anyone to bat (out of order) in the 9th inning. MLB to allow any player to bat in 9th? Let's discuss the dumbest rule proposal ever - CBSSports.com
Probably the worst rules change I have ever heard (yes, even worse than the DH). Fortunately, the idea seemed to be quickly dismissed.
Stats is hardly my best subject, but if the change increases the variance of runs scored, I believe you’d see games concluded more quickly on average even if the expected runs for both teams remains equal.
Of course, the reason MLB is making all these stoopid changes is because the ones they could make that would speed up the game are off the table.
In theory at least: The proposed change would definitiely make it more likely that the two teams would score an unequal number of runs.
The reason is that most innings end up with no runs scored. According to Expected Runs in an Inning, about 74% of the time a team doesn’t score with no 0one on and no one out. Multyiply that by itself, .74 x .74 gives you .55. So 55% of the time no one scores in any given inning. Then there’s about a 14% chance of scoring exactly one run, so .14 x .14 = about .02, and add that in… .55 + .02 = .57, so 57% of the time the game will remain tied after the tenth inning. (There are very very small chances that both teams will score excatly 2 runs, or exactly 3 runs, etc., but we are already outside the realm where that matters. So 57% is good enough.)
But if you look at run scoring possibilities with man on second and no out, you see that it’s pretty evenly split between no runs (38%) and one run (35%), with two runs (not surprisingly) being about as common as one run inn the original scenario. So:
chances that both teams score 0: .38 x .38 = .14
chances that both score 1: .35 x .35 = .12
chances that both score 2: .14 x .14 = .02
total chance of scoring the same number (plus a tiny bit extra for both scoring 3, 4, 5…) .28 or 28%.
So about twice as likely that the game will end after the tenth inning under the new rule.
Of course, that’s not necessarily what will happen. If both teams play for a single run by bunting, for instance, the chance of scoring the same number of runs will increase. There are other considerations too which is why I say “in theory…”
I don’t like the rule at all. I take time of gasme very seriously, and wish it would speed up. Like others, I think enforcing the rules you’ve already got is a good idea. Plus I like a pitch clock. So I don;t WANT to say antyhign good abotu the change. But it probably would do what it says it would do–ending games earlier.
I find the proposed rule change absolutely imbecilic, for precisely the reasons stated.
Furthermore, as I think I may have said in some other thread, this solution doesn’t solve a problem. I absolutely do agree that the pace of play is too slow, but extra inning games aren’t the problem. Pace of play is not the same thing as game length. A nine inning game that goes three hours twenty minutes because the umps aren’t keeping the game moving and guys spend all their time stepping out of the box to screw around with their batting gloves can be really boring and that needs to change. A twelve inning game that goes 3:35 because it’s twelve innings isn’t boring, it’s exciting.
I am quite fine with rules changes, even radical ones, and I’ve got some radical ideas I think make a lot of sense, but this one just doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s like a doctor giving you an arm cast for a sore throat.
Yep, i agree.
If more runs are scored, it increases the likelihood that, at the end of any given inning, one team has scored more than the other, and the scores are not tied. Which is the required condition for ending the game.
Still a stupid rule, though, for the reasons RickJay notes about pace of play versus length of game.
Thou shalt not screw around with the length of commercial breaks. What is this, soccer or something?*
I agree that arbitrarily putting someone on second to start an (extra) inning is a dumb idea. A better idea (alluded to by RickJay) would be to ban batting glove and other wardrobe adjustments during at-bats, or maybe if they instituted a 5-second pitch clock for Red Sox-Yankees games they could get them over with in under 3 1/2 hours.
*I was watching a Cactus League game last night in which one team’s uniforms sported a commercial (GE) logo. Is this the start of soccer-style ads plastered all over uniforms?
I hadn’t seen that, though I know that some (most?) NFL teams and NHL teams have had sponsor logos on their practice uniforms for at least the past few years.
Holy crap - Astros and Altuve agree to a 5-year, $150 million extension. I had honestly assumed he was going to walk when he went free agent.
Why would he walk? Houston has money.
This is a great contract for the Astros, even if it looks wicked expensive. Altuve is locked up for the remainder of his prime. When he is 32 or 33 and the contract ends, they let him walk instead of shelling out another contract for legacy performance.
It was not yet clear to me whether the Astros management intended to ultimately spend the money when the players all got to be expensive. (I guess taking on the Verlander contract was the moment they showed they were really serious about that.)
I can’t imagine wanting to live in such an oppressive climate when one could make an extremely good living someplace more livable. As long as you never venture outside air conditioning, you can stand it but step outside and you’re covered in sweat.
Altuve’s from Venezuela. I think he can handle it.
Actually, the contract extends through his age-34 season. It is an extension to the existing contract, which has Altuve in Houston in 2018, and gives the team a $6.5-million option for 2019. There’s no way that they don’t exercise that option. So the new contract actually begins in the 2020 season.
Firstly, tens of millions of people manage to live in that sort of climate without getting the vapors. And the vast majority of them do it without having millions of dollars to buy nice air-conditioned cars and houses, and pay other people to do their sweaty work for them. Hell, Altuve even gets to play in an air-conditioned baseball stadium.
But more importantly, Altuve was locked up in Houston for another two years no matter what happened. By signing this contract, he guarantees himself a mountain of money, and creates a massive insurance policy for himself against injury or decline.
It’s a no-brainer.