Around Baseball 2020

[Jimcanuck]

A spreadsheet listing with covid and opt-out player lists, among other things.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WA37lkF6DNpjw_t_e_Sq08RyBYiTSKcHxoPILcGso2o/edit#gid=737458229

[Ex Player]

Nashville has some baseball Heavy hitters backing the bid for a franchise... I see Nashville as a great place for a team, and if this COVID has taught MLB anything, having teams in other countries is a PITA. I see Nashville's bid/location for surpassing Montreal IMO

Nashville is way too small a city. Montreal or Las Vegas would get a franchise before they would. Only thing LV has going against them is that hot summer weather, so they would probably have to build a retractable dome.

 

Montreal also would have to build a new stadium if they got their team back

[Jimcanuck]

Aaron Hicks is off the IL..... for how long this time, who knows. Guy is snakebit.

[Ex Player]

A spreadsheet listing with covid and opt-out player lists, among other things.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WA37lkF6DNpjw_t_e_Sq08RyBYiTSKcHxoPILcGso2o/edit#gid=737458229

There are more players that tested positive than that, but because of privacy laws in some States and Canada they are not allowed to be identified

[Boxcar]

The relationship that BTS has with Nick Markakis is deeper than most people understand. Nick is a focal point of BTS’ development as a baseball fan. Keep this in mind.

 

He is the quintessential BTS guy

[Slade]

 

Good to see Joe West in midseason form with the bad calls.

[BTS]

Now Soto and Robles being isolated under covid protocol.

[Boxcar]

 

Good to see Joe West in midseason form with the bad calls.

 

I thought these were illegal. Anyway, he isn't really wrong and mocking him for making his own decision that is ultimately good for MLB seems weird but I guess that's the popular position these days, for whatever reason.

[Slade]

I thought these were illegal. Anyway, he isn't really wrong and mocking him for making his own decision that is ultimately good for MLB seems weird but I guess that's the popular position these days, for whatever reason.

 

You think I am mocking him for his decision to work?

 

I'm mocking him for his completely dumb statement. Joe West: “I don’t believe in my heart that all these deaths have been from the coronavirus."

[King]

Now Soto and Robles being isolated under covid protocol.

I think this is going to be a regular thing moving forward.

 

What can't happen is what happened to Adam Haseley.

 

Teams will be rightfully pissed if a player has to miss a week because people in Utah are f***ing around with the lab test results.

[Spanky__99]

I think this is going to be a regular thing moving forward.

 

What can't happen is what happened to Adam Haseley.

 

Teams will be rightfully pissed if a player has to miss a week because people in Utah are f***ing around with the lab test results.

 

Yikes!

[King]

[Boxcar]

You think I am mocking him for his decision to work?

 

I'm mocking him for his completely dumb statement. Joe West: “I don’t believe in my heart that all these deaths have been from the coronavirus."

 

If you die from a heart attack while having coronavirus, that counts in the statistics. I don't know how many of these cases there are, but he isn't really lying.

 

Being said, Joe is a prime candidate to die of a heart attack while having covid.

[Orgfiller]

 

God damn that is sexy. The echo is top notch.

[Captain Adama]

I thought these were illegal. Anyway, he isn't really wrong and mocking him for making his own decision that is ultimately good for MLB seems weird but I guess that's the popular position these days, for whatever reason.

 

Him umpiring does no good for the MLB in any way.

[Orgfiller]

Forget your opinions on masks, this is a dope logo and very clever design.

 

 

(shamelessly stolen off Reddit)

[Brownie19]

How do we feel about the Cano/Kelenic trade these days?

[Orgfiller]

How do we feel about the Cano/Kelenic trade these days?

 

It was bad then and it's hilariously awful now. Justin Dunn looks quite good too.

[Brownie19]

It was bad then and it's hilariously awful now. Justin Dunn looks quite good too.

 

I thought there were several people on here who thought it was a good trade for the Mets.

[King]

I thought there were several people on here who thought it was a good trade for the Mets.

Allow me to step up to the mic for a second.

 

Here is the discussion

 

https://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/8091-Around-Baseball-2018?p=1315122&viewfull=1#post1315122

 

Everyone liked it for the Mets

 

"I don't think Cano is gonna have many opportunities to DH for the Mets unless something drastic changes lol." - Orgfiller 2018

 

boy do I have the news for you

[BlueRocky]

[Brownie19]

It was bad then and it's hilariously awful now. Justin Dunn looks quite good too.

 

So the complete opposite of your original thoughts on the deal Org?

[Orgfiller]

Allow me to step up to the mic for a second.

 

Here is the discussion

 

https://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/8091-Around-Baseball-2018?p=1315122&viewfull=1#post1315122

 

Everyone liked it for the Mets

 

"I don't think Cano is gonna have many opportunities to DH for the Mets unless something drastic changes lol." - Orgfiller 2018

 

boy do I have the news for you

 

Boy I am dumb.

[Orgfiller]

So the complete opposite of your original thoughts on the deal Org?

 

Yes. I am not a smart man. This is why you should never take my opinion on anything seriously.

[Boxcar]

Him umpiring does no good for the MLB in any way.

 

This is true, but he's still one of the most senior umpires in the league. Him stating he will ump because could have a positive effect on other umpires.

[Brownie19]

This is true, but he's still one of the most senior umpires in the league. Him stating he will ump because could have a positive effect on other umpires.

 

I don't know man. I have to think most umpire in baseball realize that Joe West is a dinosaur who's awful at his job. I surely hope he doesn't influence their own decisions. I have to hope that Joe is more of the laughing stock of the profession and not a respected leader that young umpires look up to.

[Boxcar]

I don't know man. I have to think most umpire in baseball realize that Joe West is a dinosaur who's awful at his job. I surely hope he doesn't influence their own decisions. While I'm sure there are issues with the COVID death totals - his comments suggest he's somewhat of a non-believer in the concerns about the pandemic and I have to hope that Joe is more of the laughing stock of the profession and not a respected leader that young umpires look up to.

 

Since the virus first appeared, we've learned a lot of ways to deal with it.

[Deadpool]

Did roboumps get rolled out for this season, I know that was being talked about, but I haven't heard anything in a while...

[Slade]

Did roboumps get rolled out for this season, I know that was being talked about, but I haven't heard anything in a while...

 

It was suppose to be implemented into the Florida State League this year but obviously no season this year.

 

Here's an article on how it went with Atlantic League, essentially it still needs work but it's promising.

 

At its best, there are moments at an Atlantic League game when you believe you're watching the future.

 

The game hums along and it's easy to forget that the balls and strikes are not being called by the home plate umpire. The calls come quickly enough that if you didn't notice the Secret Service-style earpiece, you'd never know that TrackMan's eye in the sky has turned the men behind home plate into its conduits.

 

Other times, the future seems far away.

 

Sometimes it's a high pitch called a strike even while both the batter and catcher seem a little baffled. Other times it's a called ball on a pitch that looked like it caught the corner.

 

The truly frustrating times are when the technology breaks down and the umpire returns to his normal role as the final arbiter of the strike zone. It happens enough that a new set of rules has been implemented—if the ABS (automated balls and strikes) system goes down for two or more batters in one half-inning, it has to be shut down for the other half of the inning as well in the interest of fairness.

 

When the system works again, the umpire informs both dugouts that the computer has once again taken control of the strike zone.

 

That back-and-forth is a part of the normal Atlantic League game in the robo-ump era. When the umpire rings up a hitter on a called third strike, hitters often will ask the umpire if he called it or if it was the ABS.

 

The ABS system is not ready for the major leagues. You can find players who say it's not ready for the Atlantic League. But if Major League Baseball is ever going to switch to a computerized strike zone, it is going to want to have gotten rid of all the bugs ahead of time.

 

It will want to make sure that the mechanics of getting the pitches called quickly and accurately are cleared up as well. The Atlantic League's players are dealing with issues so big leaguers won't see those problems.

 

The Atlantic League is serving as MLB's laboratory. And the experiment is showing that, even if all the imperfections are fixed, adding computerized balls and strikes will make a significant impact.

 

It will likely change the type of pitcher who has success.

 

The human strike zone is shorter and narrower than the strike zone hitters now see in the Atlantic League. Atlantic League pitchers are finding that they get high strike calls much more often now than they did with human umpires. In fact, they were getting so many that the league modified the zone, adjusting it down by a few inches because following the textbook definition of a strike was found to lead to nearly unhittable high strikes.

 

"After the first five or six days, they lowered the strike zone. MLB came back in and changed it. They went below the breastbone and where that line is, the entire ball must be below it. So that part is fixed," High Point manager Jamie Keefe said.

 

 

 

The new strike zone creates opportunities for pitchers. High Point righthander Michael Bowden's first pitch of a late July start was a high fastball, high enough that catcher Matt Jones had to bring his mitt above his eye level to catch it. It was taken for strike one. Seeing that called a strike, Bowden went back there for a called strike two. He elevated a little higher on his third pitch for a swinging strike. Six pitches later, Bowden had thrown an immaculate inning: nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts.

 

The new strike zone has been the downfall of other pitchers. Control artists who focus on widening the strike zone are much better off with a human calling balls and strikes.

 

"There are some pitchers that will never be able to work (to an automated strike zone). I was never an up-and-down pitcher. I was in-and-out. If in the first three innings I established that down and away pitch, by the fourth inning I got a half inch (off the plate). TrackMan won't give that to you," High Point pitching coach Frank Viola said. "Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Frank Viola would not have had their careers because those pitches would have been called balls. We would have been walking everyone instead of getting called strikes that forced hitters to swing the bat.

 

"TrackMan is helping one type of pitcher. It's a power pitcher who is throwing 95-plus. If he's over the plate high he has a better chance than anyone else of getting that call. That's who it is helping. We talk about TrackMan taking the umpire out of the game. It's also taking the pitcher out of the game. You can be a thrower and still get away with it."

 

ScoutJanes

Cooper: Don't Leave Pro Scouts Out Of Baseball's Return

So far, pro scouts are not included in baseball's attempt to return to play. J.J. Cooper explains why that makes little sense for all parties.

 

After just a few weeks, Atlantic League hitters and pitchers have started to adjust to their new normal. Hitters quickly learned that they can't lay off high pitches, but they also learned that that pitch down and in that used to be called a strike now is a ball.

 

Adjusting to the unknown has been tougher. The strike zone is calibrated differently for each hitter in an attempt to draw a strike zone that reflects their batting stance when they are swinging (not their pre-pitch setup). So pitchers are throwing to a different zone from hitter to hitter, and those zones are not made available to the teams. There is no process for appeal. Players say some hitters seem to have been given much bigger (or smaller) strike zones than other similarly-sized batters.

 

More than anything, Atlantic League players and coaches want more data. While TrackMan has been installed at every park (at MLB expense), the teams have not gotten access to that data. Ideally, teams would like to have a visual representation of balls and strikes after the game, so they could get a better understanding of what the computer's strike zone looks like batter by batter. For now, all of that remains a mystery for players and coaches, although there are hopes that will change.

 

It's an experiment now, but a few weeks into the age of robo-umps, there have been no show-stopping issues that would stand in the way of it becoming the new normal.

 

As multiple players in the Atlantic League have noted, it's hard to believe MLB would go to all this trouble if they weren't seriously interested in taking it further than one independent league.

 

If it does, these first guinea pigs can say they were the trailblazers.

 

"It's not ready yet," Viola said. "Can it work? You can't say no. But make sure it's working before you do it. Infants make mistakes. This is in its infancy and it's making a lot of mistakes."

 

"We're going to get there . . . We are true believers that we can get this right. We have seen the positives it can bring," Keefe said.

[Boxcar]

Sorry guys, I'll stick to the rules from now on and agree with the popular, if not factual, stance on Covid and not goad anyone into an argument even if I didn't bring up the topic in question.

 

Can we change this to Bluejaysredditboard.com and implement a downvote/upvote system so we know which opinions are popular enough to have?