Laika

Gear switching You literally said "Policy is usually driven by the high earners." The only sensible interpretation of that statement is that the front end starters, through the union, would exert pressure to change policy so they are starting all of the postseason games. I don't think MLB is going to want to create any more inflation on upper tier player salaries, Connor... MLB probably f***ing WANTS teams like Oakland and Tampa to win and be popular. If depth wins flags owners save oodles of money.

wat

No, I am saying this is not even a line of discussion if either side actually wants this. It's all about negotiated off-days for travel. As an aside, I don't agree with you that the union would give a s*** about some "casual friendly" playoff schedule that limits the amount of union members who get to participate and I don't think the union would have any preference for it.

MLB should make the World Series 9 games long. - Way back it was 9 games long so there is historic precedent - It adds games to the playoff slate, which means more TV money and MLB will be happy - The World Series could have a couple of off-days but still require teams to use their depth. The schedule could be three three game sets with two off days. Nine games in 11 days.

No gear switching. It's a clear line of discussion. You think the top talent has a say in policy, which is absolutely not true in this instance. You're right that MLBPA will never likely never hop on board with no off-days in the playoffs but it has nothing to do with "devaluing talent" or really any consideration whatsoever relating to the product on the field.

No it's not. The "high earners" don't have a seat at the table for these decisions. It's MLB and the union. Nobody from the union is going to take a position that LESS of their members should get a chance to play in the playoffs.

It has nothing to do with talent, depth, Aces, or viewership. It has everything to do with the union never agreeing to travel without off days. Also, MLB will never want neutral sites. So it will never happen.

Seeing Kyle Wright get destroyed made me happy. Here is a funny tweet I saw two days ago:

Toronto's depth was too good this year for someone like McClelland to get a chance. They barely had innings for actual prospects like SRF and Murphy. I don't even think McClelland was part of the 60 man pool?

The Rays bullpen is amazing and lots of fun. So many different looks. And many of those players they acquired as finished products or mature prospects. So they hunted refined, unique looks. Kind of the opposite approach of Houston. The Astros have a factory that pumps out RHRPs that pair plus rising fastballs with good breaking balls. It's very uniform and maybe a design flaw. Funny how quickly baseball adaptations can fall behind the curve. Also, Ryan Yarbrough is a poor man's Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Walking the walk baby

Is this like, pro-umpire propaganda? One sign of ******** is when a person or source uses a bunch of acronyms and black box speak that a layperson cannot understand. The general question here as as simple as it can possible be - were the pitches called correctly? You can figure this out with public info. I have no idea why this website's stuff needs to be done with "preliminary numbers" and comparison ratings for "ML Private" and "ZE estimates" and "UEFL f/x criteria for day-of plate scores" and all of these other references but it kind of smells like unnecessary complication to make umps look good, as if to imply that this is all much harder and more complex than it actually is (it's a f***ing binary call - in or out?). Tumpane not only beat the computer using the ZE estimate Oh yes, he beat the computer. This is the dead giveaway that this entire website and sub-culture is either created or funded by an umpire's kid or the union itself. And just to prove that perfection isn't good enough for some people, career ejectee Josh Donaldson took to twitter to complain about Tumpane, tweeting, "Top 3 worst ump in the game" and "Trust me this guy has no idea what the zone is in the rule book. He's never wrong in his words." lmao okay career ejectee made me laugh

Nope. Not unless your definition of "good chance" is like, a 10% probability. (the hypothetical trade is still too much)

They could also consider dealing Hernandez or Gurriel for an established MLB SP. Teo and Lourdes should have a lot of trade value.

I don't really know. People are already complaining about the lighting and the turf... comparing it to the Trop aesthetically. Their previous park seemed pretty solid and was only built in 1994.

On top of being very early, there is a ton of relevant data and information missing right now because of Covid. We will probably see the biggest swings ever in player rankings between now and the actual draft. So, hard to really say. Someone currently in the top 5 could end up being a realistic option at 19; a bunch of players not on the radar will end up as high first round picks. Being said, Ian Moller is one name that sticks out to me. Sort of unique for two reasons: he's a prep school catcher and he's a black catcher. Really great, balanced swing with what seems to be a lot of pop. Reports say he's a really good athlete so he could be a two way player. He seems like one of those players like Nick Bitsko, with as much upside as a top 10 player but will be available outside the top 10 for a couple reasons. Jordan Lawler is another prep position player who I have seen mocked outside the top 15 and is the type of player that in a regular season with lots of looks and data might go like top 5. General point here is that maybe in a weird draft some teams play it safe and Toronto will have the opportunity at 19 to take a calculated risk with some serious upside.

I think it was all about the roof. Putting a roof on the old one was probably about as much as building a s***** new park so they went with the s***** new park

Better team? Not obvious to me, despite 2020 results. Altuve, Bregman, Correa, Springer, Tucker, Brantley is a superior core of hitters IMO. Rays probably have better D and pitching but the Astros have some sneaky good unheralded arms

I wonder if Danny Green will even enjoy this. Back to back rings but he choked on the way...

There are no indications of decline. His DRA was 3.86, his best since 2016. ERA best since 2016. K rate better than 2019. BB rate nearly the best of his career. Velocity back up slightly to 2017 levels, meaning there is no significant velo loss across his whole MLB career. Not sure which Masahiro Tanaka you want to agree to disagree about. This is the type of veteran that someone gets a bargain on. Probably the Yankees on a sweetheart deal though.

Oct 12 Dodgers

The medical stuff is not straightforward. ~200 more IP than Stroman since their careers began at the same time. ~250 if you include the postseason. At what point should people just not care about Tanaka's UCL damage? It has had almost no negative effect on him in his MLB career - maybe it has prevented him from logging heavy innings but that seems to be it. I'd be inclined to think about his injury risk as pretty damn close to Stroman's going forward.

they've been in the league the same amount of time. considering their whole careers, talent is close to a wash. Stroman is younger so preferable there and because he doesn't have the weird arm history BUT Stroman may cost more and is a clubhouse problem / distraction while Tanaka is a total pro. Tanaka would be higher on my preference list as a GM.

What type of f***ing ranking is this that has Tanaka last??? You could argue for him as a target over anybody but Bauer.

Yeah Toronto already has a flaky top of the rotation arm in Ryu. Adding a second flake would be asking for trouble. In an offseason where the SP FA list is deep, maybe you could snipe Paxton in a bargain contract, but this is not that offseason. He will get paid by some team.... unless COVID finances make this that offseason? I dunno.