MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

[JF_Gophers]

54-year-old Rafael Palmeiro just re-signed with the independent Cleburne Railroaders.

Him trying to redeem himself for how his MLB career ended is one of the more interesting sports stories of the last few years.

I dont think its interesting. He should go back to being out of the news. Its not like hes going to have a new career at this point.

 

[Hammer]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

It's going to be interesting to see if he can hit better than about .127. In less than a month, when he figures out that he can't, then this will all blow over.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

A few things:

List of rules MLB will be testing in the Atlantic League.

Vlad out three weeks with oblique strain. Also missed time last year with a knee injury. Really hope he can stay healthy.

Also, a Spring Training oddity: Tigers and Twins played their first Grapefruit game since 2012 and the first at Ft Myers since 2006. I know the Grapefruit league has longer travel times than the Cactus, but I still figured everyone played each other at least once.

 

[joecct]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

@AP_Sports: Veteran Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker got a playoff share worth $123,000 from the players and was 'shocked' by it.

He donated it to charity.

h/t @Haudricourt http://apne.ws/QHi3nQy

 

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

@AP_Sports: Veteran Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker got a playoff share worth $123,000 from the players and was 'shocked' by it.

He donated it to charity.

h/t @Haudricourt http://apne.ws/QHi3nQy

Jesus F-ck. That deserves the Genuine Nice Planet thread.

 

[TovarishchLisa]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

It's going to be interesting to see if he can hit better than about .127. In less than a month, when he figures out that he can't, then this will all blow over.

He slashed .301/.424/.495 last year but only played 31 games due to injuries, for the record, but the AA is probably between A and AA quality pitching. But he wanted to end his career on his terms and playing with his kid in an independent league is as good as any way, I guess.

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

Lots of new rules in place for 2019 and 2020.

1. No pitch clock thru 12/1/2021.
2. Extended minor league assignments/injury time for pitchers. (2020)
3. No waiver trades post deadline. (2019)
4. Minimum 3 batters per pitcher. (2020)
5. 26 man roster. 27 for double headers. (2020)
6. Elimination of 40-man roster in September. Will now be 28. (2020)
7. $$$ bonus for HR Derby. (2019)
8. Change in selection of All Star starters. (2019)
9. Reduced mound visits to 5. (2019)
10. Limited inning breaks. (2019)
11. Two-way player designation. (2020)
12. Reduced number of pitchers that can be carried. (2020)

 

[ScottK]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

Lots of new rules in place for 2019 and 2020.


4. Minimum 3 batters per pitcher. (2020)

It's actually 3 batters or the end of the inning.

 

[JF_Gophers]

It's actually 3 batters or the end of the inning.

In any case, im not in favor of it. I hate pitching changes, but this is just going to cost teams games, and players jobs.

The two-way player thing is dumb also. Created soley because of another rule change about when position players can pitch.

 

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

In any case, im not in favor of it. I hate pitching changes, but this is just going to cost teams games, and players jobs.

I love it. F-ck LOOGIES. Pitching changes are a war crime.

 

[Swansong]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

Lots of new rules in place for 2019 and 2020.

1. No pitch clock thru 12/1/2021.
2. Extended minor league assignments/injury time for pitchers. (2020)
3. No waiver trades post deadline. (2019)
4. Minimum 3 batters per pitcher. (2020)
5. 26 man roster. 27 for double headers. (2020)
6. Elimination of 40-man roster in September. Will now be 28. (2020)
7. $$$ bonus for HR Derby. (2019)
8. Change in selection of All Star starters. (2019)
9. Reduced mound visits to 5. (2019)
10. Limited inning breaks. (2019)
11. Two-way player designation. (2020)
12. Reduced number of pitchers that can be carried. (2020)

Ugh.

1. The one actually tremendously positive thing they defer for 2 seasons.
2. Sure, whatever?
3. Good. Make the trade deadline meaningful.
4. I HATE this. Why do something that so fundamentally changes the game when you can get the same result (quicker game tempo) by a million other little things? This is using a shotgun to hunt squirrels. Plus, there's the injury exception, so "ouch, my elbow hurts" and they're out, and the next pitcher gets all the time necessary to warm up. And now it's even slower.
5. Whatever. Dumb but who cares. Rich teams will heavily utilize this.
6. I don't like this, but not a hill I'm going to die on.
7. Sure, whatever.
8. Not even sure what this entails but I don't give a crap about the All star game.
9. This is positive! Wow, who knew? Make it 2, or make it zero (unless changing pitcher).
10. Necessary, but not even the biggest problem.
11. Not entirely sure what this means. Is it similar to the NHL's version of AHL/NHL?
12. I hate this. Who gives a crap how many pitchers a team has? If a team wants to have 25 pitchers and play 8 of them in different positions, why not?

It seems like the league is hell bent on the curmudgeon old guy "this is how it was in my day and that's how I like it!" nonsense. You want to speed up the game? Here's how you can do it.

• Pitch clock - award balls for penalties. Start it when the play is marked dead by the umpires, to prevent players from delaying by holding the ball at second, or the pitcher wandering behind the mound with the ball or whatever.
• No stepping out of the box for batters - award strikes for penalties.
• No mound visits unless changing the pitcher.

Baseball, at its nature, is a slow game. That's fine. But eliminating or reducing the nonsense between pitches and plays will go a long way to making total game time shorter.

https://www.sbnation.com/a/mlb-2017-season-preview/game-length

That's a fascinating read, comparing nearly identical games from 1984 and 2014. Key findings:

Time between pitches is the primary villain. I tallied up all the pitches in both games that we’ll call inaction pitches — pitches that resulted in a ball, called strike, or swinging strike, but didn’t result in the end of an at-bat or the advancement of a runner. These are the pitches where the catcher caught the ball and threw it back to the pitcher, whose next step was to throw it back to the catcher. Foul balls didn’t count. The fourth ball of a plate appearance didn’t count. Stolen bases didn’t count. Wild pitches didn’t count. Just the pitches where contact wasn’t made, and the pitcher received a return throw from the catcher.

There were 146 inaction pitches in the 1984 game.

There were 144 of these pitches in the 2014 game.

The total time for the inaction pitches in 1984 — the elapsed time between a pitcher releasing one pitch and his release of the next pitch — was 32 minutes and 47 seconds.

The total time for inaction pitches in 2014 was 57 minutes and 41 seconds.

That's 25 extra minutes of garbage.

 

[joecct]

Ugh.

1. The one actually tremendously positive thing they defer for 2 seasons.
2. Sure, whatever?
3. Good. Make the trade deadline meaningful.
4. I HATE this. Why do something that so fundamentally changes the game when you can get the same result (quicker game tempo) by a million other little things? This is using a shotgun to hunt squirrels. Plus, there's the injury exception, so "ouch, my elbow hurts" and they're out, and the next pitcher gets all the time necessary to warm up. And now it's even slower.
5. Whatever. Dumb but who cares. Rich teams will heavily utilize this.
6. I don't like this, but not a hill I'm going to die on.
7. Sure, whatever.
8. Not even sure what this entails but I don't give a crap about the All star game.
9. This is positive! Wow, who knew? Make it 2, or make it zero (unless changing pitcher).
10. Necessary, but not even the biggest problem.
11. Not entirely sure what this means. Is it similar to the NHL's version of AHL/NHL?
12. I hate this. Who gives a crap how many pitchers a team has? If a team wants to have 25 pitchers and play 8 of them in different positions, why not?

It seems like the league is hell bent on the curmudgeon old guy "this is how it was in my day and that's how I like it!" nonsense. You want to speed up the game? Here's how you can do it.

• Pitch clock - award balls for penalties. Start it when the play is marked dead by the umpires, to prevent players from delaying by holding the ball at second, or the pitcher wandering behind the mound with the ball or whatever.
• No stepping out of the box for batters - award strikes for penalties.
• No mound visits unless changing the pitcher.

Baseball, at its nature, is a slow game. That's fine. But eliminating or reducing the nonsense between pitches and plays will go a long way to making total game time shorter.

https://www.sbnation.com/a/mlb-2017-season-preview/game-length

That's a fascinating read, comparing nearly identical games from 1984 and 2014. Key findings:


That's 25 extra minutes of garbage.

Clay Buchholz is soley responsible for 5 minutes.

 

[Rover]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

I like or don't care about all of these. Nothing to disagree with. You absolutely should limit pitching changes, mound visits and other boring and time wasting nonsense. If you don't pretty soon some low payroll team is going to figure out that they can have a constant churn between AAA and the majors of like 20 pitchers who will all pitch 1 or 2 innings at most every game but which will make those games last an average of 5 hours a piece.

All sports deal with this. The NBA had to enforce the rules to outlaw those godawful Pat Riley Knicks teams that were resulting in 58-54 final scores in playoff games. The NHL had to penalize all the clutching and grabbing to let the skill players do their thing. Baseball needs to adapt as well and this is a good start. Banning the shift needs to be next to complete the process.

 

[aparch]

Banning the shift needs to be next to complete the process.

Teach hitters to quit hitting into a shift. Nothing funnier than watching everyone pile into the right side of the infield and watching a hitter put a dribbler up the third base line where it takes three days for the infielders to run it down.

 

[Deleted member 3166]

Teach hitters to quit hitting into a shift. Nothing funnier than watching everyone pile into the right side of the infield and watching a hitter put a dribbler up the third base line where it takes three days for the infielders to run it down.

Exactly. These are major leaguers...if you can't hit against a shift to force the defense to stop doing it to you...that's on you.

 

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

I like or don't care about all of these. Nothing to disagree with. You absolutely should limit pitching changes, mound visits and other boring and time wasting nonsense.

I don't know why pitchers get 6 warm ups anymore. If they replace an injured player give them all the time they want, but don't waste game time with warm up pitches or throwing the ball around the IF. Get out there and play.

I wouldn't mind supplementing the 3 PA rule with a rule allowing only 1 pitching change within an inning except for injury. Or just make the minimum 9 PA (once through the order) before a P can be replaced, unless their spot in the lineup to hit comes up. I love baseball and love, love, love 1-0 starting pitchers' duels, but I hate specialty RP who come in for 1 or 2 outs. That's as boring as a shootout. Kill it with fire.

Ban it in the pros and stop developing kids as RP. Go back to everybody being raised to be complete SP, with the subpar ones getting the RP duty.

 

[RaceBoarder]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

The problem lies with the hitters, not pitchers in regards to pace of play... Get in the box and go! Simple as that. Prevent human rain delays. Specifically, check your batting gloves before your at-bat. If you need to adjust them, or any other equipment, you will be penalized unless it's a total equipment failure. Also, no choreographed pre-pitch routines.

 

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

The problem lies with the hitters, not pitchers in regards to pace of play... Get in the box and go! Simple as that. Prevent human rain delays. Specifically, check your batting gloves before your at-bat. If you need to adjust them, or any other equipment, you will be penalized unless it's a total equipment failure. Also, no choreographed pre-pitch routines.

I agree once the batter gets in that's it for the AB. He should no longer be able to step out unless he gets something in his eye or something. Imagine if you could just stop play on the ice whenever you wanted.

 

[unofan]

Exactly. These are major leaguers...if you can't hit against a shift to force the defense to stop doing it to you...that's on you.

They don't do it more often because it's better to try to hit over the shift than away from it. Ie, they'd rather go 1 for 4 with a homer than 3 for 4 with two infield singles and a double.

 

[SonofSouthie]

Re: MLB 2018.2: Postseason, Free Agency, and Awards

Teach hitters to quit hitting into a shift. Nothing funnier than watching everyone pile into the right side of the infield and watching a hitter put a dribbler up the third base line where it takes three days for the infielders to run it down.

As the old adage goes, "hit 'em where they ain't".