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MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

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Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

MissThundercat said:
Mookie Betts is good at baseball. 3 HR so far tonight!
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Ruthian.

Before Friday's game, Betts met with a child from the Make-A-Wish foundation, 10-year-old Nico Sapienza, who asked him to hit a home run for him.

"I'm glad he came," Betts said. "He's our good-luck charm. He's a great kid. I think him and his family had fun down at BP. If I can use the platform I have to make people smile like that, then I know I've done something well."

"For [Betts] to walk him around and meet everybody, it was a great day for everybody," manager Alex Cora said. "I know that Mookie feels good about what happened. I don't know if he promised anything, but if he did promise, well ... it was a great night for everybody that was involved with that."
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

I came across this a few minutes ago on Twitter. Copying and pasting from JJ Cooper, Executive Editor for Baseball America:

1. Yep, I'm Tweeting about the AAA ball again.
In AAA right now, players are hitting HRs at 159 percent of the rate they hit them in 2018. Already, AAA hitters have hit 788 more HRs than AAA hit in all of 2018.
Here's what's amazing. At AA/HiA/LoA, HR rates are actually down.

2. AA hitters are hitting HRs at 91% of 2018's rate. HiA? 94%. LoA? 95%.
With the same training, the same "find a pitch you can hit hard in the air" approach that AAA hitters have, HRs aren't up elsewhere in the minors.
It's the ball. And I'm not sure if it's anything else.

3. Of the 29 AAA teams that haven't moved this year, 22 have already topped their HR total for all of last year. Six of them have already hit 50+ more HRs than they hit all of last year.

4. If anyone hasn't been following me I should clarify. In 2018 all the minors used the MiLB ball. This year, only AAA switched to the MLB ball. So we have an experiment with (arguably) one variable and the HR rate has skyrocketed, only at the level with the changed ball.

5. Runs Per Game

AAA: 6.0 (121% of last year)
AA: 4.1 (94% of last year)
HiA: 4.2 (95% of last year)
LoA: 4.3 (100% of last year)

6. Avg Time of Game (9 inning game)
PCL 3:04 (up 12 minutes from last year)
IL: 2:51 (up 9 minutes from last year)

The Texas League is up 9 minutes from last year among non-Triple-A leagues. The Cal League is up 7 minutes. All other full season leagues are up 4 minutes or less.
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In a nutshell, it's the ball, stupid.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

I'd say the majority of it is the ball. However, with analytics taking over, that is also contributing. No one wants a guy like Ichiro anymore (relatively). It's all about launch angles and HRs. For the time being, you won't see a team like the Twins "piranhas" for the next few years, if ever again.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

The Rube said:
I'd say the majority of it is the ball. However, with analytics taking over, that is also contributing. No one wants a guy like Ichiro anymore (relatively). It's all about launch angles and HRs. For the time being, you won't see a team like the Twins "piranhas" for the next few years, if ever again.
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I don't put this on analytics at all. They switched balls in AAA and homers went bat**** crazy. Up almost 60% They didn't change balls in the lower levels, and HRs are down. They're not teaching different things in AA than AAA all of a sudden.

Its ALL the ball.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

Hammer said:
I don't put this on analytics at all. They switched balls in AAA and homers went bat**** crazy. Up almost 60% They didn't change balls in the lower levels, and HRs are down. They're not teaching different things in AA than AAA all of a sudden.

Its ALL the ball.
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Minor leagues, sure. I was referring to ramping up to MLB. I should have clarified.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

The Rube said:
Minor leagues, sure. I was referring to ramping up to MLB. I should have clarified.
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Sure. But I'm talking about a one year change. A 60% spike in ONE YEAR should raise red flags everywhere, especially when all other lower levels are flat-to-down. If it was all analytics, you'd see a jump in homers across the board, but we're not.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

It. Is. 100%. The. Ball.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

I don't think MLB ever got past the "chicks dig the long ball." Since we can't juice players, we juiced the ball instead.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

Speaking of the ball, Las Vegas set a Pacific Coast League record with 11 home runs in one game the other night (including three from Sean Murphy). It's flatly absurd.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

How much is the ball playing a part in fans getting hit with foul balls hard enough to require medical attention? Livelier balls get into the stands a blink of the eye quicker and arrive with more force. I know people sometimes spend too much time looking at their phones, but that has been going on for a decade now almost, and it just seems like people getting hit a lot has been over the last 2 or 3 years.

As much as I hate interleague play, the DH and 4 hour nine inning games, I'd like to see a less lively ball more than the elimination of any of those things. I miss the variety of styles of play in the game before juiced balls and bodies became a thing. Teams still hit home runs in the 1980s when the Cardinals were winning games hitting singles and stealing bases.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

WeAreNDHockey said:
How much is the ball playing a part in fans getting hit with foul balls hard enough to require medical attention? Livelier balls get into the stands a blink of the eye quicker and arrive with more force. I know people sometimes spend too much time looking at their phones, but that has been going on for a decade now almost, and it just seems like people getting hit a lot has been over the last 2 or 3 years.
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This might be a cause-and-effects issue as well. By the eyeball test, there does seem to be an uptick of foul ball incidents in the last four years (when the MLB balls started to become problematic) but without someone digging into the stats, it's hard to confirm.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

WeAreNDHockey said:
How much is the ball playing a part in fans getting hit with foul balls hard enough to require medical attention? Livelier balls get into the stands a blink of the eye quicker and arrive with more force. I know people sometimes spend too much time looking at their phones, but that has been going on for a decade now almost, and it just seems like people getting hit a lot has been over the last 2 or 3 years.

As much as I hate interleague play, the DH and 4 hour nine inning games, I'd like to see a less lively ball more than the elimination of any of those things. I miss the variety of styles of play in the game before juiced balls and bodies became a thing. Teams still hit home runs in the 1980s when the Cardinals were winning games hitting singles and stealing bases.
Click to expand...

From what I've been reading, seeing, hearing...people rarely go to baseball games and focus on the actual game. It's more a background for a social gathering. I'm guilty of that, too. They are not watching every pitch, every movement by the fielder, etc. Now, if I were in the "danger zone" of a foul ball, I'd pay close attention, because I don't want a head injury. *shrug*
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

Rumor

Thor to the Padres for players and prospects

Stroman to Mets for part of the above package.
 
Re: MLB 2019: Every Year at Playoff Time, The Dodgers Find A Way to Choke.

aparch said:
It. Is. 100%. The. Ball.
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And now we have more data to back that.

We've got a doozy for you today folks. Wait until you see this one on TV. Trevor Bauer gave up a 2-run go-ahead single. Terry Francona comes out of the dugout to remove him from the game. Bauer proceeds to turn around and heave the ball over the CF fence. From the mound. If you can read lips, from another angle you can clearly see Francona ask "what the **** is wrong with you?" as Bauer exits stage left.

That toss still went farther than anything the Tigers have hit in the last two months.
 
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