chasfh

There are already certain rules that require appeal, meaning the umpire would call it a certain way but the rules don’t allow him to do so unless it’s brought to his attention. I think this is one of those cases.

I believe it’s because there are unionized people in the game who are against that and that counts for something, so much as we’d like to see this, Baseball can’t simply impose their will on them as it relates to this issue.

Next up: arbitration, free agency, and agent-brokered multiyear contracts?

People hate change. Change threatens people because they're not always sure it won't roll over on them and make things for them much worse. I will forego mentioning the political corollary to that here. I can't see where a rounded strike zone makes things better.

Almost perfect description of 2021, too.

Well, if you’re looking for someone who can mismanage bullpens with the best of ‘em, David Ross is your man.

This is the type of situation where shakeups happen which, to the dismay of most here, will probably start with players and not PBOs.

That’s not the only thing. What’s Manfred talking about when says that the “shape of the strike zone” being round is being discussed? As in, that’s what they might implement with an ABS system? A rounded strike zone? If they’re going to do that, that means either portions above the plate would have to be called a ball, or portions above areas beyond the plate would have to be called a strike—or both at the same time. Exactly how is that going to work? See, this is what you get when you let lawyers shape the game on the field.

We are actually in more dangerous territory with this than even I imagined when I posted this. Getting blown out four times in a row—“blown out” meaning losing by five or more runs—has how happened 156 times in modern ball, which makes it roughly a three-times-every-two-years event. It happened to the Rockies last year. The Angels and Nationals got blown out four times in a row in 2022. So did the Rangers in 2021. You get the idea. However, only 25 teams have ever lost five or more blowouts in a row. That’s a one-in-every-five-years event. That last happened to the Cubs in 2014, though, so that’s almost ten years ago. Before that it was the Brewers in 2010, Royals in 2009, and Marlins in 2002. Before that, it was the Tigers in 2000, although that 5+-streak was actually six blowout losses in a row. Six-plus has happened only six times, the last one before the millennial Tigers being the 1981 Cubs. That was a shortened season, too, so “kudos” to the Cubs for the extra effort. Only two teams have ever lost as many as seven in a row: the 1901 Giants; and the 1911 whatever-the-Boston-National-League-team-was-called-that-year. (According to Baseball Reference, they had no nickname.) Bottom line: we can’t get blown out again tonight.

He reminds me of Waving Wendell Kim of the Cubs from 20-ish years ago.

Four straight blowout losses. That’s not a skid, that’s a thud.

You can’t threaten a coach on camera with his job. That’s got to happen behind closed doors.

If they’re going to start firing coaches, first one to go has got to be Joey Cora.

Give his inexorable decline the last few years, I wouldn’t be shocked to see he’s coming to the end of the road. Most relieving have a short shelf life when it comes to dominance.

Something occurred to me a couple days ago regarding the concept of independents. We tend to think of them as the reasonable middle who could be talked into voting either Democrat or Republican depending on policy shifts between the two. But really, independents are simply those voters who don’t gravitate toward either major party. So yes, that includes the reasonable middle, but it also includes wackaloons who would vote for Stein, or RFK, or write in Bernie or vote for any number of wacky third party candidates, and there are probably more of those than the number of reasonable people who go back and forth. Food for thought.

It was a come to Jesus moment.

lol can’t please some people

The days of Jay Sartori might be numbered.

Kelly Carpenter and Riley Greene are flourishing, too. Mark Canha was before his slump—I like his chances of recovering back to at least average, which I would find acceptable. Colt Keith and Carson Kelly have been on fire for the last two weeks. Andy Garcia has been great for the last 30 days. As much as people want to run Hinch and the hitting coaches out of town, the Tigers wRC+ for the last 30 days has been 97, just a hair below average, and better than Orioles, Braves, and the Guardians. Should the hitting coaches be fired for that? The Tigers’ main problem is that they’re not jacking bombs, and that’s probably less a coaching issue than a talent issue.

Wenceel seems to be doing great under this coaching system.

Hinch barely touched Paredes. He had him for 85 plate trips in 2021 while Paredes had 327 between Lakeland and Toledo. Paredes also hit better in Detroit under Hinch in 2021 than under Gardenhire in 2020. I don't think the problem was Hinch.

He may be one of those guys who needs a change in scenery, coaching, approach. Satisfying though it may be to some, that he doesn't flourish here under our coaching system is not by necessity an indictment of our coaching system. Sometimes certain people don't mesh with certain systems, while certain other people do. Analytical as things may be now, player development is not a science, at least not yet.

I wonder what the level of disconnect between our minor league coaching and major league coaching is, versus that of the other 29 teams. Another thing I wonder but couldn't begin to hazard a guess about.

Or maybe it did hurt his psyche. I don't know that, either, though. None of us know. If I had to say what's the most likely—his psyche was hurt, or he's just not so good, or he's just too stubborn, or some combination of the three—I couldn't even begin to hazard a guess.