2015 Baseball Thread

[not_a_wings_fan]

The defenders are positioned to stop the ball and get outs... if they need to shift to best do that, then it's part of the game. I have no issues with it.

More teams need to burn the shift and then it will stop happening. Again, this is more about shitty hitters who don't know how to work the baseball than about defensive tactics.

[not_a_wings_fan]

Interesting idea - make a reliever throw to more than one batter unless it ends an inning as a way to speed up the game.

Article here

[glen a richter]

Getting closer, gentlemen.

My Mets have no luck. Just in time to get Harvey back, Wheeler is out. What's next? DeGrom breaks both his legs falling down the stairs?

[abc789987]

Interesting idea - make a reliever throw to more than one batter unless it ends an inning as a way to speed up the game.

Article here

I hate this idea. I hope they never do this... Yes it would speed up the game, but pitcher/batter matchups is part of the game.

[glen a richter]

Speed up the game by making commercial breaks during every pitcher change a thing of the past. Seriously, if the reliever has just spent X amount of time warming up in the bullpen it's a glorious waste of time for him to continue warming up on the mound and allowing time for "a word from our sponsors". He'll throw 15-20 in the pen, another 8 before the batter during the commercial and then throw one or two pitches, pop up, batters out and change pitchers again? Come on. Commercials at the end of the half inning only.

[dmiles2186]

Speed up the game by making commercial breaks during every pitcher change a thing of the past. Seriously, if the reliever has just spent X amount of time warming up in the bullpen it's a glorious waste of time for him to continue warming up on the mound and allowing time for "a word from our sponsors". He'll throw 15-20 in the pen, another 8 before the batter during the commercial and then throw one or two pitches, pop up, batters out and change pitchers again? Come on. Commercials at the end of the half inning only.

Troof. 100% troof.

[cardsfan04]

Agreed on the quick pitching changes. That's a good way to speed it up. I think that might be one of the changes they made too, but don't have it in front of me.

[dmiles2186]

Agreed on the quick pitching changes. That's a good way to speed it up. I think that might be one of the changes they made too, but don't have it in front of me.

If so, that would be great. I know one of the changes they are making is that there will be a clock between innings and when the commercial is over, the pitcher will need to be ready to pitch. Something to that affect, at least.

[glen a richter]

All games on the last day of the season will be played at the same exact time. This is a great idea if there's any question about who is and isn't getting a playoff berth. Hopefully there's still seeds in doubt at the end of the season because this will make it very interesting.

[cardsfan04]

Agreed on the quick pitching changes. That's a good way to speed it up. I think that might be one of the changes they made too, but don't have it in front of me.

If so, that would be great. I know one of the changes they are making is that there will be a clock between innings and when the commercial is over, the pitcher will need to be ready to pitch. Something to that affect, at least.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12351 ... play-rules

I looked it up and while they made a rule for pitching changes, it's not what I thought it was. They're just applying the new in between innings rules to pitching changes. That means 2:25 for a local telecast and 2:45 for national. For some reason I thought it was shorter than in between innings.

[dmiles2186]

This is a great idea. If you've never seen this, do yourself a favor and watch...

[youtube][/youtube]

It's worked wonders for the EPL, and obviously, the final day in 2011 in MLB was something that was wildly fun.

http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/mlb-is- ... n-game-162

Going into the final day of the 2014 MLB season, there was still a lot at stake for a few teams. The NL Central title was still up for grabs between the Cardinals and Pirates. The AL Central title was still on the line between the Tigers and Royals. The Mariners still had hope of forcing a one game playoff with the Athletics for the final AL Wild Card spot.

But there would be no drama on the final day of the season. The Reds beat the Pirates 4-1, handing the division title to the Cardinals before their game in Arizona had begun. The Tigers clinched the AL Central title behind a complete game shutout by David Price while the Royals weren’t even halfway done with their contest with the White Sox. Sonny Gray sent the A’s to the playoffs with a complete game shutout of his own, leading to an emotional exist from the mound by Felix Hernandez in Seattle in the sixth inning.

This year, MLB is attempting to make the final day of the season more dramatic. All 15 games will begin at 3:05 Eastern (12:05 PM Pacific). Not only will this force all teams still on the brink of the playoffs into must-win situations, it will also effectively stop teams on the edge of contention from resting starting pitchers to set up their rotation heading into the playoffs. Last year, Adam Wainwright was scheduled to start the Cardinals’ last game against the Diamondbacks. After the Pirates lost earlier in the day, St. Louis scratched Wainwright and started him against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLDS.

Syncing all of the times also has an effect on less important parts of the game like the batting and ERA titles. Jose Altuve went into Game 162 with a three point lead in the AL batting average race on Victor Martinez. Altuve could have sat and still finished with the league lead. Both men started, Altuve went 2/4, Martinez went 0/3, and Altuve added an exclamation point to his great year. Felix Hernandez also clinched the AL ERA title in the final game of the season, throwing 5 1/3 shutout innings to drop his ERA just ahead of that of Chicago’s Chris Sale.

At the very least, this will add an interesting wrinkle to the end of the season. The Barclays Premier League does the same thing with synced start times on the final day of the season, and it’s resulted in some tremendous drama in recent seasons (much to my pleasure as a Manchester City supporter). MLS will be also be adopting the practice for the 2015 season, hoping to capitalize on the chaos and excitement.

I’m all for this. The last day of the regular season usually ends up as a mere formality once the 1 PM games end. Starting everything at the same time will introduce some drama to the day, and make all of the relevant games worth paying attention to at once. I can only imagine the chaos at MLB Network studios if playoff spots are on the line.

[cardsfan04]

Yeah, that sounds awesome.

[glen a richter]

How do your respective fantasy team(s) look this season? Mine is atrocious. I thought I'd signed up for a March 20th live draft. Turns out it was 2 weeks earlier and I just forgot the date so I didn't run any mock drafts, went in cold and came out looking like a bottom half team.

[dmiles2186]

How do your respective fantasy team(s) look this season? Mine is atrocious. I thought I'd signed up for a March 20th live draft. Turns out it was 2 weeks earlier and I just forgot the date so I didn't run any mock drafts, went in cold and came out looking like a bottom half team.

My league drafts tomorrow night, so I'll let you know then (cardsfan is in it too). It's a keeper league (inaugural year), so I'm intrigued to see how the whole thing shakes out.

[cardsfan04]

I fucked up and didn't get in my normal league this year. I forgot to accept the invite. Then, when I tried to accept it 15 minutes before the draft, yahoo wouldn't let anybody else join. Somebody else did the same thing, so at least I'm not alone I guess. But, feel pretty dumb today.

[dmiles2186]

How do your respective fantasy team(s) look this season? Mine is atrocious. I thought I'd signed up for a March 20th live draft. Turns out it was 2 weeks earlier and I just forgot the date so I didn't run any mock drafts, went in cold and came out looking like a bottom half team.

So some of the highlights of my team: I got Puig with the 10th pick, ended up snagging Manny Machado, Starlin Castro, Michael Brantley, Jason Heyward, David Price, Greg Holland, Huston Street, Addison Reed, Michael Wacha, Garrett Richards, Julio Teheran...

I snaggged Wil Myers with a late pick. It's a keeper league so I would love it if that paid off in a big way with a bounce back year for him. My catching is a little suspect (Wilin Rosario and Derek Norris). I did get Dee Gordon at 2B (STEALS BAGS BABY) and backed him up w/ Howie Kendrick.

All in all, not a bad team on paper.

[cardsfan04]

I'm not real crazy about my draft, but my team isn't awful. I made a few mistakes though. I typically have 3 strategies when drafting: don't stray too far from best available, fill all (or most) starting slots before drafting backups, and target positions with big differential between the best and 10th best player (SS, C, etc.).

I didn't draft a C or SS until the 10th round and ended up with Jimmy Rollins and Yan Gomes at those 2 spots. I could do worse, but I'm not real happy with that. As a result I ended up with 2 backups at each position hoping for more chances at a good year from somebody.

It seemed like every time it was my pick, the top few available weren't at a position I was targeting, but I would have to drop more than I wanted to to grab somebody where I was targeting. I have a decent amount of upside still (solid rotation, decent pen, 2nd and 7th ranked players by ESPN). Just wish I had done a few things differently.

[dmiles2186]

I'm not real crazy about my draft, but my team isn't awful. I made a few mistakes though. I typically have 3 strategies when drafting: don't stray too far from best available, fill all (or most) starting slots before drafting backups, and target positions with big differential between the best and 10th best player (SS, C, etc.).

I didn't draft a C or SS until the 10th round and ended up with Jimmy Rollins and Yan Gomes at those 2 spots. I could do worse, but I'm not real happy with that. As a result I ended up with 2 backups at each position hoping for more chances at a good year from somebody.

It seemed like every time it was my pick, the top few available weren't at a position I was targeting, but I would have to drop more than I wanted to to grab somebody where I was targeting. I have a decent amount of upside still (solid rotation, decent pen, 2nd and 7th ranked players by ESPN). Just wish I had done a few things differently.

Me too, I felt I reached for Castro, but I wanted to get a young, good-to-great SS when I could. I had the same problem as you with C. I ended up with Wilin Rosario and Derek Norris at C. I'd rather not have a second C but I just don't know if I can trust either one. So I'm either going to have to work a trade or hopefully pounce on a guy that gets promoted to starter via injury or performance.

[glen a richter]

I don't draft closers or catchers until later in the draft. I had a plan to get Mesoraco, he really came through for me last year as a free agent pick up. Sure enough two guys before I was about to draft him, he's gone. So my next choice was Carlos Santana (for the multiposition eligibility). The guy picking before me takes him. So I got Yan Gomes instead. I guess he'll do.

I did get Jose Abreu who I've been toying with the idea of trading him. I'm bouncing around some stuff including Carlos Gomez and that big hitting DH on Minnesota, Kennys Vargas I think his name is. On the overall my players aren't terrible, but there's not enough quality to compete. I'm counting on a comeback season by David Wright and Justin Verlander, a healthy season by Anthony Rendon and Jason Werth and not everyone to stink all at the same time.

My secret weapon though is Chase Headley. Comeback player of the year for sure. He had that monster year in San Diego in a pitchers paradise and the only reason he fell off after signing the big contract was injuries. He's healthy and playing in a hitters park and he'll have a full time job at 3rd for the Yankees. I'd be shocked if he didn't put up 30/100 this season. Especially if he bats behind Ellsbury and Gardner. With their speed, he'll rack up the ribbies if they can get on base ahead of him.

[cardsfan04]

There's a really cool story by Derrick Goold this morning. 7 years ago, Cards drafted a pitcher, but he was in the Navy. Navy wouldn't let him pursue his MLB career until after he finished his service, so he started his career 2 years ago and looked really bad. Was barely hitting 80.

This year, he's still in ML camp a week before the season, leads the team in appearances and has a 1.35 ERA in 6.2IP. Only run came off a HR to Adam Jones. He's hitting mid 90s now too.

Looks like he'll end up in AAA, but probably will be a midseason callup at some point. No idea whether to expect him to make it in the majors or not, but seems like a really easy story to root for.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball ... 65a99.html