2026 MLB (Non-Tigers) Thread

[chasfh]

Incentivize pitchers to avoid throwing at max effort on every pitch from pitch #1, as well as to lay up on the bottom of the order, and you will get more complete games.

[gehringer_2]

14 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Incentivize pitchers to avoid throwing at max effort on every pitch from pitch #1, as well as to lay up on the bottom of the order, and you will get more complete games.

I think one aspect of this is that It seems pitchers don't even think about adding and subtracting on the fastball for change of speed anymore. Pitchers used vary their fastball to achieve change of speed, now it seems all change of speed is achieved by changing pitch type with all pitches thrown more or less at max effort. Maybe it's just harder to command a fastball at different speeds than to throw a change? Or over time the data just supports not doing it.

Edited August 10 by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

23 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I think one aspect of this is that It seems pitchers don't even think about adding and subtracting on the fastball for change of speed anymore. Pitchers used vary their fastball to achieve change of speed, now it seems all change of speed is achieved by changing pitch type with all pitches thrown more or less at max effort. Maybe it's just harder to command a fastball at different speeds than to throw a change? Or over time the data just supports not doing it.

I think it’s because they want to do more than just vary speed—they also want to vary movement. Throwing a completely different pitch at max effort can do both more effectively than simply laying up on a four seamer. 

[Tiger337]

I wonder if all the changes in the way pitchers pitch is ultimately worth all the injuries it is causing? The game seems to be getting more and more random with team win totals being more influenced by how many injurires a team has over a season than it is by talent.  From a fan perspective, I don't think that's a good thing.  

[gehringer_2]

46 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

The game seems to be getting more and more random with team win totals being more influenced by how many injurires a team has over a season than it is by talent

Football has already gone down this path. The arc of any recent  NFL season isn't really much more than waiting to see who gets hurt vs who survives.

Apropos of this, Kyle Whittingham has said when he arrived at Michigan his strength and conditioning staff found the team was not training to maximum strength and he's changing that. Of course the flip side will be to watch and see if Michigan football's injury experience takes a turn for the worse.

[SeattleMike]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

Football has already gone down this path. The arc of any recent  NFL season isn't really much more than waiting to see who gets hurt vs who survives.

Apropos of this, Kyle Whittingham has said when he arrived at Michigan his strength and conditioning staff found the team was not training to maximum strength and he's changing that. Of course the flip side will be to watch and see if Michigan football's injury experience takes a turn for the worse.

For two years Indiana has been almost injury free. Maybe Cignetti's has found something--or maybe Indiana has just been supremely luck with injuries.

[monkeytargets39]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I wonder if all the changes in the way pitchers pitch is ultimately worth all the injuries it is causing? The game seems to be getting more and more random with team win totals being more influenced by how many injurires a team has over a season than it is by talent.  From a fan perspective, I don't think that's a good thing.  

It’s worth it for the players who sucker teams into giving them big contracts.  No one is giving a Jamie Moyer 400 million….

Until the market corrects on some of these huge contracts being given, I’d expect pitchers to continue risking it by throwing high stress pitches.

Edited August 10 by monkeytargets39

[Sports_Freak]

Boston lost again but.....they scored their only run in the top of the 7th inning on a very, very bizarre play. They call it the 4th out rule. A baserunning mistake that rewarded them. Very strange play....

[Sports_Freak]

Boston had 1st and 3rd, one out. Hitter hit a pop fly to CF. Runners BOTH thought there were 2 outs and just ran, never tagged up. Toronto threw to first base for a double play. But the runner from 3rd had already crossed home plate. And since Toronto ran off the field, they couldn't appeal the no tag up from 3rd base. Run counted. We always talk about weird plays...go ahead and top that one! 😅😅

[IdahoBert]

Watching Skubal against the Royals in Dodger Stadium. Tarik keeps shaking off the Dodgers catcher because they don’t freaking know him. Their catcher has not earned his confidence. The announcers say they’re going to have to figure him out. I want both teams to lose.

The Dodgers announcers talk about how Skubal has allowed only five stolen bases all season and how he controls the running game and Bobby Witt Jr. abruptly steals a base by a mile. They attribute the success to Witt, which is probably mostly true but quickly dismiss the pitcher or the catcher having any chance of stopping him. Seems like rank homerism and I don’t know how long I can stand watching this game.

The Royals are leading 1–0 after the first inning because Salvador Perez kind of lumbers down the baseline and is easy to double up. Would’ve liked to have seen the inning kept alive.

I’m just I’m going to just have to settle for not really having a stake in this every time he pitches but it’s a hard reflex to get over. 

[chasfh]

2 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

Watching Skubal against the Royals in Dodger Stadium. Tarik keeps shaking off the Dodgers catcher because they don’t freaking know him. Their catcher has not earned his confidence. The announcers say they’re going to have to figure him out. I want both teams to lose.

The Dodgers announcers talk about how Skubal has allowed only five stolen bases all season and how he controls the running game and Bobby Witt Jr. abruptly steals a base by a mile. They attribute the success to Witt, which is probably mostly true but quickly dismiss the pitcher or the catcher having any chance of stopping him. Seems like rank homer and I don’t know how long I can stand watching this game.

The Royals are leading 1–0 after the first inning because Salvador Perez kind of lumbers down the baseline and is easy to double up. Would’ve liked to have seen the inning kept alive.

It is the Dodger broadcast, so there’s that.

While talking about the trouble between Skubal and Feduccia, the PxP guy also declared that Skubals’ catcher in Detroit was Jake Rogers, full stop. Jake caught exactly two of Skubal’s 16 starts. Yet another data point proving that national media and the coasts know nothing about the Tigers.

[gehringer_2]

22 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Boston had 1st and 3rd, one out. Hitter hit a pop fly to CF. Runners BOTH thought there were 2 outs and just ran, never tagged up. Toronto threw to first base for a double play. But the runner from 3rd had already crossed home plate. And since Toronto ran off the field, they couldn't appeal the no tag up from 3rd base. Run counted. We always talk about weird plays...go ahead and top that one! 😅😅

The first replay on MLB I saw didn't show the runner at 3rd, so I assumed he had tagged, in which case I couldn't figure out what all the debate was about. But the longer replay on ESPN showed he hadn't tagged either. So I believe the correct answer here is that they should not have thrown to 1st to double off that runner, they should have thrown it in, announced the appeal the thrown to 3rd for the appeal. Then THAT would have been the third out and no run scores. So the announcer also had it wrong, since he was saying they had to throw to 1st for the DP, but that was actually the wrong play and Toronto's mistake. 

Edited August 11 by gehringer_2

[IdahoBert]

8 minutes ago, chasfh said:

It is the Dodger broadcast, so there’s that.

While talking about the trouble between Skubal and Feduccia, the PxP guy also declared that Skubals’ catcher in Detroit was Jake Rogers, full stop. Jake caught exactly two of Skubal’s 16 starts. Yet another data point proving that national media and the coasts know nothing about the Tigers.

I missed that. I think I was busy composing my rant and didn’t hear that misinformation.

[IdahoBert]

And just to say something about Bobby Witt Jr. Damn he’s good. It would be great if Max Clark could be like him only in CF. 

[Sports_Freak]

13 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

The first replay on MLB I saw didn't show the runner at 3rd, so I assumed he had tagged, in which case I couldn't figure out what all the debate was about. But the longer replay on ESPN showed he hadn't tagged either. So I believe the correct answer here is that they should not have thrown to 1st to double off that runner, they should have thrown it in, announced the appeal the thrown to 3rd for the appeal. Then THAT would have been the third out and no run scores. So the announcer also had it wrong, since he was saying they had to throw to 1st for the DP, but that was actually the wrong play and Toronto's mistake. 

I watched the Toronto feed and the camera showed both runners just taking off when the ball was hit, before it was caught. And yes, if Toronto would have thrown to 3rd base, it would have been a DP. A funny part of it was the runners, the Toronto pitcher and the catcher were all walking off the field as the fly ball was caught. They all lost track of the outs...the umpires had to call New York for a rule clarification. Everybody was confused...lol

[Sports_Freak]

Skubal looks really uncomfortable in LA.

[IdahoBert]

7 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Skubal looks really uncomfortable in LA.

Caglianone just hit a two run homer off him. 

[IdahoBert]

So the Dodgers beat the Royals, which is good for us. Skubal went five innings 95 pitches allowed three runs against a team with whom he is intimately experienced. And they with he I guess. I’m sure the Dodgers are hoping he will be the difference maker in the playoffs.

It would be incredibly ironic, and pleasant, if the Dodgers failed in the first series they played and were knocked out.

[SeattleMike]

2 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Caglianone just hit a two run homer off him. 

Odd the trouble, relatively speaking, Skubal has had against lefties this year. Or maybe it’s just small sample size thing. 

[IdahoBert]

12 minutes ago, SeattleMike said:

Odd the trouble, relatively speaking, Skubal has had against lefties this year. Or maybe it’s just small sample size thing. 

I didn’t realize this, and I looked it up and you are right. A Google search gave me the following:

“Elevated Batting Average: Lefties are hitting around .270 against him this season, which is noticeably higher than his dominant marks against right-handed hitters and his career average of limiting lefties to a .223 baseline. 

The Long Ball: Skubal has uniquely struggled with home runs from same-sided hitters. He had historically never allowed more than one home run to a left-handed batter in any single previous season of his career, but he has already surrendered 4 home runs to lefties in 2026 counting tonight‘s game with the Royals. 

[Sports_Freak]

3 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

I didn’t realize this, and I looked it up and you are right. A Google search gave me the following:

“Elevated Batting Average: Lefties are hitting around .270 against him this season, which is noticeably higher than his dominant marks against right-handed hitters and his career average of limiting lefties to a .223 baseline. 

The Long Ball: Skubal has uniquely struggled with home runs from same-sided hitters. He had historically never allowed more than one home run to a left-handed batter in any single previous season of his career, but he has already surrendered 4 home runs to lefties in 2026 counting tonight‘s game with the Royals. 

 

Without looking it up, I remember when he was young, he gave up a boatload of HRs. Like 30+ one year.

 

[Sports_Freak]

Video of the strangest play ive even seen;

 

[4hzglory]

12 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Video of the strangest play ive even seen;

 

The confusion on number of outs existed because of the play before.  Runners on first and 2nd, Vlad “caught” a liner that had really skipped, threw to second and the scoreboard thought it was a double play.  The scoreboard said 2 outs the PA announced 2 outs even though the umps said 1 and runners remained on 1st and 3rd.

 

For some reason, basically all players on both teams ignored what the umps said and went with the PA and scoreboard.

Edited August 11 by 4hzglory

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, 4hzglory said:

The confusion on number of outs existed because of the play before.  Runners on first and 2nd, Vlad “caught” a liner that had really skipped, threw to second and the scoreboard thought it was a double play.  The scoreboard said 2 outs the PA announced 2 outs even though the umps said 1 and runners remained on 1st and 3rd.

 

For some reason, basically all players on both teams ignored what the umps said and went with the PA and scoreboard.

The CF threw the ball into 2nd, he seemed to know there weren't 3 outs. OF's are supposed to give the ball away on a 3rd out.

The really unbelievable one is the runner at 3rd. He had to know it had not been a DP because he would have been the 2nd out.

Edited August 11 by gehringer_2

[Shelton]

40 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

The CF threw the ball into 2nd, he seemed to know there weren't 3 outs. OF's are supposed to give the ball away on a 3rd out.

The really unbelievable one is the runner at 3rd. He had to know it had not been a DP because he would have been the 2nd out.

At the same time, these guys are frequently reminding themselves of the game situation prior to almost every pitch, so it’s understandable that a quick glance at the scoreboard to see 2 outs listed and your brain instantly flicks over to “go on any contact not in front of you.” Even when he should have known from the previous play, there is enough going on that he could have started second guessing himself and thinking he forgot an earlier out. 
 

Also, that throw in from CF wasn’t the most urgent (not that it had to be, but still). The pitcher and catcher also thought there were two outs. Of all the players involved on the field (9 fielders and three batter/runners), I do wonder how many thought in that moment that there was 1 out and how many thought there there were two. We know for sure four of them (two runners and two fielders) thought there were 2 outs. 
 

I think what this illustrates is that the players on the field are likely checking the scoreboards constantly to remind themselves of the game state. 
 

My question is why didn’t any of the fielders or the team know enough to stay on the field and get the 4th out?