2023 WBC Tournament

[Tenacious D]

[oblong]

12 hours ago, Edman85 said:

Wait til you attend your first game, stay til the end, get home and get to bed on time.

My sweet spot for time of games I attend is around 2:45 to be honest.  I can get home around 10:15 and still have time to watch something or whatever.  I live close by though so I understand for others it's an issue.  

 

[chasfh]

I'm glad the pitch clock is at 15/20, I'm glad the batter has to be alert to the pitcher before eight seconds remain, I don't want any special circumstances in which they turn the clock off or expand the amount of time, I'm glad Manfred's proclamation this week didn't change any of these, and I hope they never change them.

[oblong]

If we have to keep the time then I would get rid of the 7 second batter alert rule. Let the pitcher throw a strike and if the hitter isn’t ready then that’s on him.  The pitcher has the ball so he can dictate it. 

[chasfh]

On 3/21/2023 at 9:50 PM, RandyMarsh said:

BTW in that final AB Ohtani blows 101 by Trout, then 102 in the dirt, blows another 101 by him and finishes him off with a slider/cutter that nobody in the history of baseball could've hit. Just absolute filthy stuff. 

It occurs to me that the most important thing that happened that inning leading up to the Trout-Ohtani encounter was the double play Mookie Betts hit into. Remember how Jeff McNeil had walked to start the inning? Had that not happened—had there been a runner on with less than two outs—there is absolutely no way Ohtani would have challenged Trout twice in the middle of the zone, even with 101 in his pocket.

With a runner on, the dynamic completely changes from a mistake ties the game to a mistake loses the game and the tournament in one blow. Up a run with one out to go, Ohtani could afford to take the gamble to try to blow Trout off the plate. Twenty-twenty hindsight said it was the right thing to do, but no one knew that going in.

Even so, Ohtani still went three balls on Trout, including a wild overthrow for ball three, so with a regular out rather than a double play, it seems a likely outcome that there would have been runners on first and second with one out—an outcome Baseball, and we fans, were blessed to avoid.

[chasfh]

1 minute ago, oblong said:

If we have to keep the time then I would get rid of the 7 second batter alert rule. Let the pitcher throw a strike and if the hitter isn’t ready then that’s on him.  The pitcher has the ball so he can dictate it. 

I agree the difference of not having it versus having it would not be tremendous, although I like the eight-second rule because it helps ensure an alert at bat with 100% concentration on both sides, versus whatever gamesmanship (Max notwithstanding) would occur with the pitcher trying to upset or fool the hitter on timing. I think it results in a more honest at bat. Just an opinion.