Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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But you don't want to spend dumb money just to spend it.

That adequate hitter catcher just isn't there. There is JT Realmuto and then everyone else for the most part. He's locked up with Philly.

If you want a SP you have Thor, Stroman, and a bunch of older guys (Kershaw, Verlander, Greinke, Scherzer). Should we break the bank to Thor coming off of TJ? Stroman is solid. He may be worth looking into. Without signing anyone we'd run a rotation of LMJ, Framber, Odo, Javier, Urquidy, and then Gacia/Ivey/Abreau as the next man up. Its serviceable. Money IMO would be better spent on the BP.

If you want an OFer... well there ain't much there. We need a CF. We're going to need to trade for one.

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Personally I want nothing to do with Stroman, the way he ran his mouth with all of the scandal studd...he can EAD for all I care

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Conversely, I'd love to hear him do the 180 and spin how awesome the organization is.

Ok, as far as dumbass rules go, eliminating the DH b/c you pull a pitcher is right behind starting extra innings with a guy on 2nd.

LOL, what exactly is that DH rule designed to fix?

The "problem" of teams not "expecting starters to by God, expect to throw all 9 innings, 200+ pitches or until their arm falls off like back in the old days?"

I swear, it's like Manfred views the minor leagues like a book of mad libs for him to just play around with whenever he wants. He's gotta go.

Holy crap!!

One foot is no joke. That's gonna result in a ton of crappy pitching, lots of pitches, walks, and essentially slow games.

On one hand, I like seeing new things tried. Let's figure out what makes the game better. Be proactive. Be innovative.

On the other hand, some of these rules sound so ridiculously terrible why even try them. Plus you're screwing with minor league guys. Maybe this guy stuff plays at 60-6, but not 61-6. Maybe a hitter can mash with 61-6, but not 60-1.

Ag_07 said:

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Holy crap!!

One foot is no joke. That's gonna result in a ton of crappy pitching, lots of pitches, walks, and essentially slow games.

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Yeah, I let the DH thing overshadow that a bit, but that's a pretty drastic change. Why not start at 6 inches? Or even fewer?

The Atlantic League is an independent league (its what the Skeeters were in, I think?), so these are not technically minor league players. This is basically MLB paying off a league with unaffiliated players to try things out (and probably things that are more extreme than what they would want to try out with minor league players).

Farmer1906 said:

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On one hand, I like seeing new things tried. Let's figure out what makes the game better. Be proactive. Be innovative.

On the other hand, some of these rules sound so ridiculously terrible why even try them. Plus you're screwing with minor league guys. Maybe this guy stuff plays at 60-6, but not 61-6. Maybe a hitter can mash with 61-6, but not 60-1.

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Completely agree

What doesn't make sense to me is making these changes in the middle of a season. I don't think that's setting up anyone for success or even getting a good, accurate sense of what the real ramifications are.

Why not wait until the off-season to give guys time to acclimate and have real results to use?

I know Dusty's use of Machete/Castro is diving a lot of people insane so I did some research into Dusty's previous management stops and what his catching situation looked like. With rare exception, he seems to prefer a defensive catcher who can call a game to an extreme over a catcher who can hit - while it's nice having one that does both, they are few and far between.

Here's a breakdown - sorry for any spacing issues. Other than Michael Barrett's strong run with the Cubs, he's not had a catcher for more than 1 year in a row that was a real offensive standout. The best was Wilson Ramos with the Nats in '16, but they let him walk to free agency. Santiago had a big year with the Giants in 2002, but that seems like a potential steroid situation, considering he was 37 at the time.

93 Giants: Kurt Manwaring .275, 5 HR, 49 RBI
94 Giants: Manwaring .250, 1 HR, 29 RBI
95 Giants: Manwaring .251, 4 HR, 36 RBI
96 Giants: Tom Lampkin .232, 6 HR, 29 RBI
97 Giants: Rick Wilkins .195 6 HR 23 RBI
98 Giants: Brian Johnson .237 13 HR, 34 RBI
99 Giants: Brent Mayne .301, 2 HR, 29 RBI
00 Giants: Bobby Estrella .234, 14 HR, 53 RBI
01 Giants: Benito Santiago .262 6 HR 45 RBI
02 Giants: Santiago .278, 16 HR, 74 RBI

03 Cubs: Damian Miller .233 9 HR 36 RBI
04 Cubs: Michael Barrett .297 16 HR 65 RBI
05 Cubs: Barrett: .276 16 HR 61 RBI
06 Cubs: Barrett: .307, 16 HR, 53 RBI

08 Reds: Paul Bako .217, 6 HR, 35 RBI
09 Reds: Ryan Hanigan .263 3 HR 11 RBI
10 Reds: Ramon Hernandez .297 7 HR 48 RBI
11 Reds: Hanigan .267 6 HR 31 RBI
12 Reds: Hanigan .274 2 HR 24 RBI
13 Reds: Devin Mesoraco .238, 9 HR, 42 RBI

16 Nationals: Wilson Ramos .307, 22 HR, 80 RBI
17 Nationals: Matt Wieters .225, 10 HR, 52 RBI

Reading an article on The Athletic about the new baseballs. I'll post some more later when I'm back at my pc, but found this interesting. Correa is currently 3rd in the league in max exit velocity change from 2020. Max in 20 was 109 and max this year is 116.4

Yermin Mercedes has gone from 90.9 to 113.3

Correa is smoking so many balls right into the ground.

Seems like he is squaring everything up nicely but man it seems like he hits A LOT of hard hit grounders to the SS.

There are adequate hitting catcher available in free agency. Or at least mediocre ones instead of bad. Dunno where you come up with Realmuto or bust.

There are also a bunch of other free agents available of intrigue. Off the top of my head, Belt at 1B, Canha in OF (if you move Brantley or Yordan to 1B), and Lance Lynn as a SP. That's putting aside signing a star player like Freeman. Interestingly the one thing there isn't much of is a high leverage relievers, so I'm not sure we could get that anyway.

I dunno how we would trade for this OF you speak of. Our farm system is depleted and we would have to use our best prospect in your scenario to fill the hole at SS.

https://theathletic.com/2514275/2021/04/14/more-drag-but-more-bounce-the-new-ball-is-having-bewildering-unexpected-impacts-on-the-game/

Still less than a full month of data, but early returns are balls traveling less distance, even though barrels are up.

Year - Avg Distance - Avg Barrel %
2015 - 353 - 5.2%
2016 - 352 - 6.1%
2017 - 353 - 6.2%
2018 - 350 - 6.7%
2019 - 352 - 7.3%
2020 - 348 - 7.6%
2021 - 342 - 8.6%

Also, from a pitching standpoint, strikeouts are up, spin is up, ride on 4 seam is up and drop on curveball is up.

They project that the homerun per 9 innings will be about the same as last year. 1.33 this year, 1.34 last year

Is Castro really a poor defensive catcher though?

I don't get what they are doing. They have increased strikeouts while looking into rule changes to make strikeouts less common. What exactly is the goal here besides constantly tinkering? Seems to me the rule change they need is to keep the rules / parameters the same for a decade rather than constantly fiddle d!cking.

Sounds like the Astros might have a touch of the rona. Dusty hinted at some health issues last night in the post-game presser. Said something about missing 1/3 of the bullpen, and the late substitution of some primary players looks more concerning.

Re-evaluate these statements considering possible COVID impact.

Maybe 2nd vaccine round issues?

agdaddy04 said:

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Is Castro really a poor defensive catcher though?

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he's not, but Baker clearly thinks Maldonado is better.

Ag_07 said:

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Maybe 2nd vaccine round issues?

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Maybe, but I don't think it's been long enough to be time for the 2nd round. They also said they'd try to schedule it around an off day. Maybe that off day was last Sunday. It would explain a lot of the poor play this week.

If you have the ability, stream or gamecast the Cubs-Brewers game today. Corbin Burnes is starting for Milwaukee and is in Gerrit Cole 2019 mode to start the season, although zero wins to show for it.

First outing vs. the Twins, 6-1/2 innings, 1 hit, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 11 Ks
vs. St. Louis, 6 innings, 1 hit 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 9 Ks
today so far vs. the Cubs, 3 innnings, 2 hits, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 6 Ks

As of right now he's thrown 15-1/3 innings on the season, 20 K, 0 BB, 4 hits allowed.

Found this...not sure if true

Edit...another one:

He played 3B, 2B, SS, and outfield in 2019 at AAA. Have to wonder if Robel Garcia is getting DFA'd.

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Ag_07 said:

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Maybe 2nd vaccine round issues?

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Maybe, but I don't think it's been long enough to be time for the 2nd round. They also said they'd try to schedule it around an off day. Maybe that off day was last Sunday. It would explain a lot of the poor play this week.

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Just trying to fathom how they're having a decent sized outbreak after having the first round of vaccines.

I could see maybe a random 1 or maybe 2 but having an outbreak now seems highly unlikely.

htxag09 said:

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Why the hell didn't they just do the vaccines during spring training?

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Because it was still limited to old people....the ones who needed it.

It wasnt until the first weekend of April when the season was starting that (in Texas) anyone who wanted it could get it

And testing was still extremely limited when they began testing players multiple times a week last year.....

What the hell is up with Bregman legs? If it's from the hamstring injury 3 months ago then IL him until he's healthy. He looks like garbage right now anyway.

Am I missing something??? What does test last year have to do with being vaccinated this year? I dont follow your line of thinking

Gotcha, I see what you mean.

I do agree there but glad that they werent. Its a game and entertainment. Also seeing as how I havent heard any publication about teams that have reached that magical 80% im guessing that a large number of players arent taking the shot.