While I agree with your view, transporting drugs is a pretty big over-reaction.
MLB Offseason 2020-21: I'm a Hall of Famer baseball person
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While I agree with your view, transporting drugs is a pretty big over-reaction.
"I bought a new camera. It's very advanced. You don't even need it."
While I agree with you on the wage issue, sometimes people are just assholes and do asshole things regardless of how much money they are making.
A little over a week until the regular season starts... anyone want to suggest names for the next thread? I'd like to put the following in nomination:
- Manfred Ruins Everything
- Thank God I'm Not a Pirates Fan
- something something something Yankees Suck (
)
A little over a week until the regular season starts... anyone want to suggest names for the next thread? I'd like to put the following in nomination:
- Manfred Ruins Everything
- Thank God I'm Not a Pirates Fan
- something something something Yankees Suck (
A difficult choice. I am evenly divided at this point.
I await further nominations.
How about, "Choke up and beat the shift." ?
I'm good with Manfred Ruins Everyting.A little over a week until the regular season starts... anyone want to suggest names for the next thread? I'd like to put the following in nomination:
- Manfred Ruins Everything
- Thank God I'm Not a Pirates Fan
- something something something Yankees Suck (
"Pirates Gonna Pirate"
But, "Manfred Ruins Everything" work for me too.
But, "Manfred Ruins Everything" work for me too.
So the Marlins will be keeping their speakers on all season long....
"Where is that danged rosin bag again?"
MLB 2021: I For One Welcome Our New Robot Umpire Overlords
I have been working on an OP for a new thread for the past few days ... I have had a title in mind, but I've seen some good contenders. Keep 'em coming.
Also, the Astros offered Correa 120 / 6 which ... that's a pretty damn insulting offer, and a sign he's going to headline the market this coming winter (assuming labor Armageddon doesn't happen, which it will).
Saw a tweet from Joel Sherman that MLB issued a memo to teams stating that it plans to use Statcast to try to catch pitchers doctoring the ball, which ... raises a whole lot more questions than it answers. Per Jeff Passan, compliance officers will monitor dugouts, clubhouses, tunnels, batting cages and bullpens; as part of their monitoring, they'll take a random sample of balls, and the lab will search not just for foreign substances themselves but the type being utilized. Statcast data will compare spin rate to career norms.
Unless the league is already planning to scapegoat a couple of high-profile guys, like Bauer, there is no way they're going to enforce this. You can pretty clearly see pitchers with pine tar on their hats during any given game, Craig Kimbrel being an obvious one (not that it seems to be helping him). The immediate loophole I'm seeing is MLB is claiming they'll only look at aberrations in spin rate, which means if you use something to goose the ball in every start and on every pitch, then they won't do anything. (Also, the whole thing with Bauer is that he wasn't just using pine tar, but some kind of new substance he hired chemists to cook up for him that is stickier and less visible than pine tar, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say the "compliance officers" MLB hires won't have the savvy to look for stuff like that.)
Honestly, a significantly better solution would for MLB to just acknowledge that pitchers need some grip-enhancing substance, and just say "Okay, you can use pine tar (or Crisco, or Brylcreem, or Vagisil, or bull semen, or whatever the fuck), but only this substance, and only a certain amount," and then start enforcing that strongly. As I recall, there have been plenty of hitters in the past who've said they're fine with pitchers using some a little something to improve their grip, because it means they're less likely to get plunked by an errant pitch, particularly when the weather is otherwise poor.
Of course, that would require Manfred's office to do something sensible, rather than say, "Don't worry, guys, I brought some kerosene to help put out the fire!" Otherwise, this is just as moronic as when the commissioner's office made A-Rod and Bonds into scapegoats for steroids and then claimed it had eradicated the PED issue from baseball ... oh, wait, I just remembered that Manfred was the Selig lieutenant who was in charge of both of those cases. It all makes sense, now.
Also, it was 20 years ago yesterday that Randy Johnson made a bird disintegrate on a baseball field.
Also, the Astros offered Correa 120 / 6 which ... that's a pretty damn insulting offer, and a sign he's going to headline the market this coming winter (assuming labor Armageddon doesn't happen, which it will).
Saw a tweet from Joel Sherman that MLB issued a memo to teams stating that it plans to use Statcast to try to catch pitchers doctoring the ball, which ... raises a whole lot more questions than it answers. Per Jeff Passan, compliance officers will monitor dugouts, clubhouses, tunnels, batting cages and bullpens; as part of their monitoring, they'll take a random sample of balls, and the lab will search not just for foreign substances themselves but the type being utilized. Statcast data will compare spin rate to career norms.
Unless the league is already planning to scapegoat a couple of high-profile guys, like Bauer, there is no way they're going to enforce this. You can pretty clearly see pitchers with pine tar on their hats during any given game, Craig Kimbrel being an obvious one (not that it seems to be helping him). The immediate loophole I'm seeing is MLB is claiming they'll only look at aberrations in spin rate, which means if you use something to goose the ball in every start and on every pitch, then they won't do anything. (Also, the whole thing with Bauer is that he wasn't just using pine tar, but some kind of new substance he hired chemists to cook up for him that is stickier and less visible than pine tar, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say the "compliance officers" MLB hires won't have the savvy to look for stuff like that.)
Honestly, a significantly better solution would for MLB to just acknowledge that pitchers need some grip-enhancing substance, and just say "Okay, you can use pine tar (or Crisco, or Brylcreem, or Vagisil, or bull semen, or whatever the fuck), but only this substance, and only a certain amount," and then start enforcing that strongly. As I recall, there have been plenty of hitters in the past who've said they're fine with pitchers using some a little something to improve their grip, because it means they're less likely to get plunked by an errant pitch, particularly when the weather is otherwise poor.
Of course, that would require Manfred's office to do something sensible, rather than say, "Don't worry, guys, I brought some kerosene to help put out the fire!" Otherwise, this is just as moronic as when the commissioner's office made A-Rod and Bonds into scapegoats for steroids and then claimed it had eradicated the PED issue from baseball ... oh, wait, I just remembered that Manfred was the Selig lieutenant who was in charge of both of those cases. It all makes sense, now.
Also, it was 20 years ago yesterday that Randy Johnson made a bird disintegrate on a baseball field.
Monitoring the use of foreign substances....didn't that used to be the umpires' job? 
Monitoring the use of foreign substances....didn't that used to be the umpires' job?
An announcer in one of yesterday's games said something similar: "Don't they already have compliance officers behind the plate and at first, second and third bases?"
I was watching that game...
It was either Yankees/Blue Jays or Mets/Cardinals.
On a completely unrelated matter:
Is it always a thing that minor league clubs inherit the retired numbers of their parent team? That's the way it is here in Omaha - the Storm Chasers retired all the same numbers that the Royals did. Is this up to the individual minor league club, or is it always true?
It was either Yankees/Blue Jays or Mets/Cardinals.
On a completely unrelated matter:
Is it always a thing that minor league clubs inherit the retired numbers of their parent team? That's the way it is here in Omaha - the Storm Chasers retired all the same numbers that the Royals did. Is this up to the individual minor league club, or is it always true?
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Monitoring the use of foreign substances....didn't that used to be the umpires' job?
^ IT'S ENRICO PALAZZO!!!
Depends on how deep the affiliation runs. The Storm Chasers, as I recall, have been the Royals' AAA club since their inception back in the 1960s, so it makes sense for them to retire Royals numbers. The Kane County Cougars in Illinois, on the other hand, have been affiliated with the Cubs, Orioles, Royals, Marlins and Diamondbacks throughout their history (I think there's one or two other teams that I'm forgetting, too), so they don't really have a strong historical link to any one organization.
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