Shelton

I think this makes sense but it’s also something that could probably be documented fairly easily via those “umpire scorecard” things. I’d be very interested to see if this is actually true or not. For it to be true, it would mean that umpires knew they were calling a bad zone before and only now are calling a better one. And that could definitely be true. Umpires are stubborn. I’m sure the data is there. Or there may be some other reason for walls being up and aka being level relative to last year. Could just be that the pitchers are worse.

I would think that all else being equal, a increase in walks would increase scoring, of course. Are strikeouts down? I’m surprised that batters would necessarily be the ones to use the challenge system to their advantage relative to pitchers. And I’m also surprised that umpires would call the zone differently to the batter’s benefit now that challenges are a threat. I guess we will see.

Is it true that ABS is expected to increase scoring?

Does this include extra inning attempts with the placed runner on second?

I kind of feel like when you suck like McKinstry sucks, does it matter that you suck against both lefties and righties equally?

I live too far from Detroit to get Fox over the air without a lot of trouble. And I don’t subscribe to anything that includes Fox. So I don’t have access unless someone else logs into my tv. However, I can watch the dodgers on FOX broadcast just fine via mlb.tv. I’m watching McGreevy pitch to pages right now. They did away with the weird Fox national blackout thing for the game being shown outside of your market. So the Tigers should be available to you via mlb.tv.

Fortunately Jansen only threw 11 pitches last night closing out the game so he will be available again today. I think my app is buggy though because it does not give Skubal the win, and as far as I know we don’t have a pitcher named Lopez. Gonna look into it.

Yes, the is the boring and obvious solution, especially if McKinstry is nearing a return (and it sounds like he is). I think it certainly means they aren’t going to put a guy like gage workman on the 40 for such a short term need. Same goes for potential Mize replacements. I hear sammons name thrown around and that just isn’t happening. If sammons is called up I will eat my hat (nacho hats allowed).

The boring part of speculating is it could be for naught within the next few hours, so it hardly feels worth it. That said, it’s a low bar. So, I will say that I’m not sure a hot start by workman so far this year is enough to justify a 40-man spot, and I think Scott Harris is “loathe” to give those up without good reason. We know that Clark is likely to occupy a 40-man spot in the near future anyway, and for a long time to come. If you add workman now, that requires a move. If you add Clark in six weeks, that requires another move. I’m not sure giving a 40-man spot to workman for what might be a short term need is worth it. As for Clark being “ready,” I’m not going to put too much weight into GM speak. Even if they would prefer waiting, things changed last night. They can always send him back down when other options become available (and/or if he is struggling). He can play CF and bat 9th and we can see what happens.

I saw that yesterday and couldn’t find details of how the play-in round would work. If it just means eight more bubble teams get in, and they have to play against the other 8 at large teams that were on the 9-11 seed line, then whatever. Even better, get rid of the play-in round for those two 16 seed spots. 76 teams. 24 at-large in the play-in. 52 byes. 13 seed lines with a bye. Three seed lines for bubble teams needing a play-in round. Protect seeds 1-8 and 12-16, with seeds 9-11 being the play-in teams. Seeds 12-16 can simply go to the 20 lowest ranked auto-bids. The at-large vs AQ line usually falls right at 11/12 line.

I think Kevin actually could just play SS everyday. If something happens that prevents that, you can get through the rest of the game with an emergency option (Torres? Lee? Vierling? Wenceel?). If it is going to be six weeks until a true backup SS option is available, then fine. But in the short term I think you can just ride with Kevin. It’s also true that our starting nine is without a CF now. So I think it is definitely an option to consider calling up Clark. Vierling and Wenceel can fake it there, but I’d rather have a fake backup SS than a fake starting CF.

Cannot tolerate this my chemical romance commercial any longer.

The catcher wears special equipment and there is a narrow rule related to issues arising from this special equipment. What else is there to discuss here? If a pop fly in foul territory falls through the neck hole of the catcher’s jersey it is ruled exactly the same as what we saw here with the pitcher. No need to get all twisted about in play and out of play etc

It’s not an out. The rule is right there. You can’t use your jersey to make a catch, just you can’t use your hat. It makes no difference that it wasn’t intentional. And, no, it’s not the same as pinning ball against your chest with your arm or whatever and the ball happens to touch the uniform. I’m sure there are some borderline cases where the rule could be argued but this wasn’t one of them.

I think one factor that gets lost in the lineup order discourse is that it really just doesn’t matter what position you bat in (for the most part). The larger factor is more who is actually in the lineup. After that, batting 3rd or 7th makes very little difference. Of course, you have to give guys enough PAs to find out how good they are so that you can make that decision. Paradoxical. I think the faster you can determine who is good and who is bad, and then actually acting on that as opposed to falling victim to inertial roster construction, will have a big effect on your success.