MLB Offseason 2018-19: SIGN KIMBREL AND KEUCHEL YOU FUCKS

[cardinal biggles]

Sorry to sound old fashioned but do we really need all-caps f-bombs in thread titles?

I find it interesting that your first post in not just this thread, but the entire Sports & Fitness forum, is not a comment about a trade or a signing or Spring Training or the upcoming season, but a complaint about an F-bomb in a thread title. Go be a gormless moral scold somewhere else.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The reason players like Harper and Machado deserve so much money is that they put asses in seats, both in-person and on television. It's just like the primary KPI of hotels: Getting heads in beds. Labor provides the value that earns MLB record levels of revenue every year.

Bleah. I still think the whole thing is obnoxious but I'll drop it.

 

[Herbert]

Harper and Machado both took insane contracts instead of going to a team that actually cares about winning. I don't think either will ever see a world series title.

Of course not. Those teams spent so much damn money on them that they won't be able to build an effective team around them unless they get lucky in the farm system.

I have no idea what will happen but both the Padres and the Phillies have very highly rated farm systems. That doesn't mean they will eventually be good but it certainly helps. They will likely either get help from their own farm systems or trade away some of those chips to make their teams better. The Padres seem pretty far away from contention but the Phillies could make serious noise this year.

 

[Yanks]

Collusion, bro.

Not.

Collusion would be something like noone signs any contract for more than say ... 5 years.

These 10/13 year contracts are ludicrious. They aren't "putting butts in seats" if they are broke.

5 years is a much more acceptable time frame for health risk.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Tom Seaver has been diagnosed with dementia. Link

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Damn, that sucks.

 

[Herbert]

That's a shame. Seaver is one of my favorite players.

 

[BillJ]

The 2018 AL Cy Young award winner is going to make $574,000 in 2019.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/03/rays-expected-to-renew-blake-snell-for-573700.html

What a joke.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

What the fuck?

Snell should get the hell out of Tampa because it's clear they don't appreciate him.

 

[Timby]

What the fuck?

Snell should get the hell out of Tampa because it's clear they don't appreciate him.

Pre-arb players routinely get fucked.

Kris Bryant has already made it clear that he fully intends to go straight to free agency the minute he can because he's still sore about the Cubs fucking with his service time.

 

[BillJ]

MLB and MLBPA agree to single trade deadline of July 31st beginning this season.

 

[Timby]

MLB and MLBPA agree to single trade deadline of July 31st beginning this season.

And in 2020, pitchers will have a three-batter minimum (, RIP LOOGYs), rosters will go to 26 men, there will be a limit on the number of pitchers a team can carry, and September roster expansion is restricted to 28.

Fuckin' Tony Clark.

 

[BillJ]

And in 2020, pitchers will have a three-batter minimum (, RIP LOOGYs), rosters will go to 26 men, there will be a limit on the number of pitchers a team can carry, and September roster expansion is restricted to 28.

Fuckin' Tony Clark.

I dislike the three-batter minimum. I would've just liked that when a guy came into a game, he had to get someone out before being pulled.

 

[Franklin]

How does a three batter minimum for a reliever speed up the game if the manager of the team at bat can take advantage of the match-up and the result in the aggregate (over the course of many match-ups like these across many teams) is longer innings because of more hits or walks extending the inning?

There are only two real ways to meaningfully speed the game up, and only a few people really talk about it:
1. Fewer strikeouts = fewer pitches = shorter at bats and more balls in play. More balls in play = more action, which is also a good thing. Forget a pitch clock culture and try to recreate the culture among batters of swinging to make contact and get rid of this 182 strike outs is OK if you hit 45 HR mentality. More Charlie Lau and less launch angle.

2. They've cut the time between half innings from 2 minutes 20 seconds to 2 minutes. Fine. No make sure that's enforced. Anecdotally, when I've paid attention to radio breaks in games, they can approach 3 minutes. Just going 30 seconds over every half inning can add almost 10 minutes to a game (where nothing happens). Have umpires order the first pitch thrown even if the people on the dugout are still shooting t-shirts into the crowd; don't wait even if the sausages in the hot dog race haven't crossed the finish line yet; and start even if the TV announcers are trying to get one more ad or promo in.

 

[Kronos]

Love all the changes, things can only get better.

 

[Jayson1]

How does a three batter minimum for a reliever speed up the game if the manager of the team at bat can take advantage of the match-up and the result in the aggregate (over the course of many match-ups like these across many teams) is longer innings because of more hits or walks extending the inning?

There are only two real ways to meaningfully speed the game up, and only a few people really talk about it:
1. Fewer strikeouts = fewer pitches = shorter at bats and more balls in play. More balls in play = more action, which is also a good thing. Forget a pitch clock culture and try to recreate the culture among batters of swinging to make contact and get rid of this 182 strike outs is OK if you hit 45 HR mentality. More Charlie Lau and less launch angle.

2. They've cut the time between half innings from 2 minutes 20 seconds to 2 minutes. Fine. No make sure that's enforced. Anecdotally, when I've paid attention to radio breaks in games, they can approach 3 minutes. Just going 30 seconds over every half inning can add almost 10 minutes to a game (where nothing happens). Have umpires order the first pitch thrown even if the people on the dugout are still shooting t-shirts into the crowd; don't wait even if the sausages in the hot dog race haven't crossed the finish line yet; and start even if the TV announcers are trying to get one more ad or promo in.

I can think of another thing. Umpire's need to loosen up their strike zone. More strikes called means you have fewer walks or you make the hitter more aggressive which means quicker hits or outs or strikeouts. Whatever happens it will simply happen, faster. Even if someone does strike out it won't be like a dozen strikeouts with the hitter in 3-2 count. I was also wondering what people thought about a limit on foul balls. Maybe 3 foul balls simply count as a out?

Jason

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I can think of another thing. Umpire's need to loosen up their strike zone. More strikes called means you have fewer walks or you make the hitter more aggressive which means quicker hits or outs or strikeouts. Whatever happens it will simply happen, faster. Even if someone does strike out it won't be like a dozen strikeouts with the hitter in 3-2 count. I was also wondering what people thought about a limit on foul balls. Maybe 3 foul balls simply count as a out?

Jason

The problem is, many umps can't call a consistent strike zone based on set parameters (width of the plate x numbers to the knees). Asking them to call, say, 4" inside and/or outside would be a disaster.

 

[BillJ]

Guess I'll be tossing the MLB into the same pile as the NFL soon. Something I lost interest in because they just couldn't leave the game alone.

 

[Timby]

The thing is, the average game length has only gone up 30 minutes since 1979, and only 10 minutes since 1995. It's all about pace, not length, which is why so many of the proposals that were brought up a while back about killing extra innings and stuff were so dumb. And as I've said before, if you want to speed up the game, you don't need a pitch clock or a stupid three-batter minimum rule for pitchers, you order the umpires to enforce the rule requiring batters to keep one foot in the box at all times, instead of letting them call their own time and stepping back and adjusting their hat, gloves, jersey, re-tying their shoes and scratching their nuts after every pitch.

Nobody stopped watching baseball because it's 3:04 for an average game instead of 2:54 like it was back in the "good old days," and less time watching baseball isn't going to draw in the people who want to spend zero time watching baseball.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I remember an Onion article, "New sabermetric algorithm is able to calculate precisely how much joy it sucks from the game".

Speeding up the game a little isn't going to suddenly make people want to watch it again. It's a game where 70% of plays result in disappointment. Baseball is a game that requires attention span. And...UGGGHHH this post is so boring I'm going to do something on my phone. Bored with phone, playing a game. Bored with game. UGGHHH I guess I'll look at cat pictures. What was I doing again?