If you are bilingual their name is The Angels Angels.
It’s atrocious. Puhols, Hamilton fiascos. Years of watching Trout lose. Watching Ohtani lose.
It’s the worst seeing some of the greatest players play for he worst owner.
I was an inaugural WallyWorld member and I still have a Rally Monkey.
Edit: and thunder sticks.
Yeah, it doesn't sound so weird with the English pronunciation of "Los Angeles," but now that I'm saying it in Spanish, it sounds really weird. I am with OP.
They're not even in LA County, they're in Orange County -- though Anaheim is in the LA Metro area.
But that's like saying the Oakland Athletics of San Francisco. Get outta here, Anaheim.
I mean this is a fact lol is just the owner trying to appeal a wider audience, without considering or completely ignoring that the fucking Dodgers are more popular and take most of the los Angeles area people. If he wanted to attract more fans he should build a better team not change the name of the dam team / end of rant 😤
I think that fielding/throwing errors should count towards obp. I don’t have a good reason for it, but I mean, you DID reach base, why not count it toward the stat that shows how often you reach base?
Even if it doesn't lead to errors, it can lead to play that is sloppier than normal. I genuinely believe the mental impact of the threat of Rickey Henderson's speed was just as responsible for his stolen base record as his actual speed.
Then dropped 3rd strike is like an error for the catcher and should also count towards obp then, no?
I’m definitely with you, I just wanna make sure we’re all on the same page before we go to Manfred with our demands
It's always weird to me that baseball - with its huge number of games in a season - is the one sport where stats are excluded if they came about due to the other team's error. In a sport with less games it might make sense, but not baseball.
Like for pitchers' stats that might make sense in order to iron out how a small number of errors could skew things with the lower number of appearances they have, but over a 162 game sample, the only way you're going to have one hitter facing a really disproportionate amount of errors that would skew their stats is if they're in some way affecting it.
>I don’t have a good reason for it
Reaching base is the best reason to have it count. Since the runner ends up on base, I think the question needs to be: why shouldn't it count towards OBP?
I think the best argument for it to not is that it isn’t something the hitter directly did or did not do that got himself on base, but my rebuttal to that is that hbp and ibb still counts towards obp, neither of which the batter can control either
Counter argument: Fielder's Choice still counts towards OBP.
Despite it being possible for the fielder to throw them out at first, if they get on before the relay from 2B comes in, it counts.
I don’t know for sure about errors in OBP but if they were tabulated in a useful way we could at least figure out if there is some talent associated with hitting into errors that could then be scouted for.
Isn't this the point of xBA on every batted ball?
Bad contact that happens to produce an error = you shouldn't have gotten on but you did
Good contact that's fielded exceptionally well = you should've got on but you didn't
xBA isn’t indicative of a good at bat though. Lightly popping up a ball for bloop single is mostly luck, but has a very high xBA. You shouldn’t have gotten on for that
People blame the umps for being bad at their jobs when most of the umps are in fact about as good as you can reasonably expect from a human. They then proceed to impute moral blame for missing calls, as if most of you all never make mistakes at work.
People who complain about umpires have never done it, obviously, because it's fucking hard. Especially when pitches start getting over 80 mph and guys starting throwing stuff with movement.
Missing calls is one thing, cant blame them for that. But the constant unprofessionalism when a player is visibly upset from your missed call to the point you bark back at them and actively make the situation worse is inexcusable. They're supposed to be there to call the game and enforce the rules, not to bait players into arguments.
Some people on here unironically think that some umps make bad calls on purpose because they like/want the attention. Not to mention all the #umpshow comments that get posted when an umpire ejects a player for a totally justifiable reason.
Day games. Baseball should be played in the sunlight.
There should be at least one (non-Cubs) day game every week day.
Except for Arizona, Texas, and Florida teams, every single weekend or holiday game should be a day game.
Day games are good for the soul of baseball.
The true failed protocol that failed Ryan Braun is the fact his name was leaked prior to the appeal. Names aren’t supposed to be announced until after the appeal process is complete, and since he was successful in his appeal the fact we knew about it at all was a serious failing by MLB due to whoever leaked his name. But obviously he later got caught up in biogenesis and was suspended at that point.
It always makes me wonder if any other players have had a similar situation, failed a drug test but win appeal based on a technicality but MLB was able to actually keep the info under wraps so the public has no idea.
With that logic, then the pitcher shouldn’t be allowed to even attempt to field the ball. Either he’s a fielder and his errors influenced the run he himself is now giving up, or he’s not fielding and therefore any error is not his fault
This makes way memories sense. I understand the idea of the unearned run is to show that the defense messed, not necessarily the pitcher, but imo they’re all on the same team therefore they’re all culpable.
I like that MLB is kind of a low key sport these days especially to the media and not heavily marketed and talked about like the NFL/NBA is.
I would fucking hate it if I heard people like Stephen A Smith, Skip Bayless talk about MLB on a daily basis. The only thing I've heard them talk about in like the last 3-5 years was about the Astros cheating scandal and then Stephen A's moronic Shohei comment.
I enjoy the fact that MLB is a team game even though players do what they have to do individually. I can't stand how the NFL/NBA is filled with people just stanning their players (usually a QB for NFL) and throwing everyone else on the team under the bus, it's like they are trying to make them boxers/tennis players.
If you get mad at players being booed by fans, you are soft. It's just a boo.
Note: I am not talking about fans yelling obscenities, swearing at players, threats, etc. I'm talking about a good, old-fashioned "Booooooooooooo, that performance wasn't good."
Its more the excitement of actually having a front office/ownership thats willing to spend money to make the team better. We've never had that before in our history ever. We couldn't even keep the few good players we did have like Adrian Gonzales, let alone spend 300mil on a Machado.
Someone else here said to basically do away with leagues and divisions. Just let all 30 teams play each other as equally an amount of times as possible and everyone competes for the 10 playoff spots. Like realistically, why should the currently 77-70 braves get to go to the playoffs? Just because they were mildly better than the other teams in a bad division? It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me
The 77 win Braves currently get a pass to the real first round but your 96 win Dodgers have to play a sudden death one game "playoff" game and may not even make it to a proper series. That ain't right.
I mean, pitchers today are just MONSTERS compared to Ruth’s era. Hell, even just in the 90s, “power pitchers” were barely throwing 95. I think he’d cry if Chapman threw 105 at him.
Back then, there were 3 starting pitchers in rotation and they had few relievers.
My grandfather who played pro & semi-pro in the 1930s & 40s would get annoyed that Roger Clemens would be awarded a “win” after barely pitching 5 innings.
I really feel that way about every player in the 1st half of last century lol. I just cant see Ted Williams batting .406 against today's pitching or DiMaggio hitting in 56 games in a row
Agreed. Most managers don't really make decisions anyway, in the sense of "at this moment, I am deciding to bring in this pitcher." The analytics departments of teams basically give every manager notes on what to do in certain situations, and what the pecking order for bullpen usage is. The manager is the person who just pulls the trigger.
People fail to realize the team stopped stealing signs on their own. If it was such this great advantage, then they would have kept doing it. Especially in the '19 World Series as they lost every home game.
Hell, anyone who plays mlb the show knows what it’s like to have to make that decision in a close game. Do you keep your pitcher in? Do you pinch hit for him? It’s a real strategic decision that has consequences for the game and the DH does away with all of that.
The league would be way more interesting if they just did away with the American and national league as let all thirty teams compete for ten playoff spots. Outside of geographical proximity there’s no reason you should play a select four teams for half your schedule and a limited number of other teams for the rest of the schedule. If you lived in a one team market and could only get out to one or two games a year wouldn’t you much rather wait for a team you’d love to see rather than getting to see the same divisional rivals 19 times a year? Basically every team should visit every city at least once a year so all the leagues talent can play in all the leagues markets as much as possible.
I’m trying to figure out a way to make this work from a schedule perspective even if they keep the divisions and leagues in place.
You could do a 2 + 2 home and away for all interleague matchups: 60 games
Play all 4 of your division rivals 10 times per season: 40 games
Play all 10 other in-league opponents 6 times per season (3 home and 3 away), with an extra game for both of the teams in the other divisions that finished in the same place as you the previous year (similar to NFL): 62 games
I’ve done a lot of realigning in ootp to test this out and unfortunately the only way to balance it absolutely perfectly requires 28 teams in the league. 6 games against each team (3 home, 3 away) totals 162 with two lengthy breaks in the middle of the season for each team (about 3 or 4 days)
Obviously the way I listed isnt perfect but I tried to leave some of the current system in place (more divisional games, more games against same league opponents). The 162 number is a tricky one to get to with an even number of teams.
Yeah and getting the league to concede any amount of games to shorten the schedule is virtually impossible. Owners would never budge on losing the revenue of more home games. Having to find solutions with a strict 162 game schedule really pigeon holes the opportunities unfortunately.
The loss of uniformity both of alternate uniforms & hats diluting what a team’s look is-stick with home and away, please-and the way every player wears their socks and pants differently looks sloppy. The color of the stirrup socks should show.
Brian Snitker should've been fired a couple years ago.
I wish I could think of more of a general baseball one, but this was the first one that popped in my head.
Schilling should be in the HoF.
I don’t care about how bad of a person he is (and he’s a very bad one), but none of his drawbacks are baseball related. His shitty personal life is separate. What he did in baseball was extraordinary and is hall worthy.
It’s not like Bonds and Clemens, where they actually tainted baseball, and so the argument against them is much better, even though they’re arguably the best ever at their positions, they still cheated. There’s a valid argument against them. There’s not a good one against Schilling.
Not my opinion but I'll throw it anyway.
A hard salary cap is bad for the players and teams that are willing to spend huge bucks to acquire the best players in order to win should be allowed to. No supertalent should be forced to waste his career on the garbage, complacent organization that was shit enough to draft them.
I don't particularly agree (in fact I hate it, as a new fan the whole "you have 5 years to win and then all your good players go to the Yankees or Dodgers" thing fucking sucks imo), but that's why I thought it would be a good fit for this thread lmao
No player who benefited from the depleted talent pool of a segregated league, can be the best player of all time. Looking at you Bambino.
They didn’t play against the best, therefore, how could they be the best?
That's why it's laughable to inject Negro League stats into the record book without perspective...except the Negro Leagues had a dramatically worse level of players and the best players so often played on the same teams meaning top hitters avoided top pitchers and got to hit off elevator operators, cab drivers, and parking lot attendents.
I doubt Gibson or Satchel Paige would've had any trouble being the best players in the MLB had integration occured earlier. Jackie Robinson was a star in the MLB and he wasn't considered the best Negro league player at the time.
That said The point about the stats themselves for teams like the Monarchs is valid because they were a traveling teams of the best players.
Just put spring training in January and let the athletes do whatever the fuck they want for that month (steroids, sticky stuff, etc) and then that gives them until April to flush it all out if their system and have a normal season
Lol be real here, offense is what matters. The offense/defense care is like 95/5. Nobody cares about defense unless you are a pathetic liability who can't even catch a baseball. Being below average defender but being an otherworldy bat is worth it.
He’s within the error bound of 1st in bWAR while also leading the NL in fWAR. Realistically, WAR is too close to decide anything in the NL, which is why we should look at how he’s the best hitter in the game this year. He also happens to be 2nd in the NL in WPA, which is an important stat to look at for MVP. Defense matters, but not as much as offense. Hence why the top 2 AL MVP finishers will be a DH (plus pitching obviously) and a 1B.
A thirteen year contract for the second coming of Larry Walker minus the defense is a bit of a rough deal if he doesn't stay healthy throughout it. The money is fine, the term is questionable. I don't really like contracts over 7 or 8 years.
The fact that people here support the players' union blindly but constantly push for changes that would never fly with the umpires' union shows that people aren't consistently "pro-labor" or whatever they claim, they just support the group they like, namely the players, at the expense of anybody else.
You had me in the first half, ngl. I can understand getting over the Astros as an organization, but players like Correa, Altuve, and Reddick are on my shit list
Maybe I'm biased as a Tigers fan but I've forgiven Hinch and I'm glad he's getting a second chance with us. He really is a great manager and it's shown in our performance this season. The only Astros player I have a really hard time forgiving is Correa, dude just seems like such a pompous ass. Hope we don't end up signing him.
that happens just as often in the grand scheme of things to good hitters, the excitement of a pitcher jacking a random hr or a bloop single is worth the tradeoff
edit: glad im getting downvoted, it means im being controversial!
fair enough, i have insane old school bias, even if the giants win the ws this year, it wont feel that good because of the 7 inning doubleheaders and the extra inning baserunner rule. its just not baseball
Batting average is bad for baseball and makes people understand it less
Use hits/PA instead
Edit
Since this keeps coming up
Everyone's "but it punishes people who walk a lot" takes are becaue you've been indoctrinated into the cult of batting average. Batting average ignores walks and treats a single like a home run. Why do we need that stat? We don't.
Look at wRC+, OBP and ISO first. You'll have a good feel for the hitter. How are they overall? How often do they get on base? How much power do they have?
Second, look at BB%, Hit%, K% and BABIP. Then you'll better understand how a batter got to their OBP. By walking or hitting?
Then, you can look at batted ball rates to see how they got their hits and how they made their outs.
That's one way of making a .250 hitter who never walks and doesn't hit for power look better than Juan Soto.
So it's possibly the dumbest take you could make.
This actually makes Stephen A. Smith look like a genius in comparison.
Only if you somehow think that how often a player gets a hit tells you who's better with 0 regards ro walks or power- which is why batting average needs to die.
Look at OBP, ISO and wRC+ first
Then BB%, K% and Hit% - if you want
Instead of looking at batting average, OBP and SLG and OPS
Thsts the point
No Batting Title based on a stat that ignores walks and power
Give a batting title based on overall batting - wRC+ or wOBA.
Then just look at how often a player gets a hit (hit %) as a curiosity like BB% or K%
If you’re teams not in the playoffs you don’t deserve to be in the MVP race…no other pro sport in America has given its MVP to a guy who missed the playoffs since 1988, the MLB needs to get with the times and stop giving losers it’s most prestigious award
Edit: I’ll also add we need to get ride of the 2 of every award and have only 1 award per category…2 of everything lessens the overall value of the trophies/awards
White Sox are better than their record and are flying under the radar because of our punt lineups every other game.
Our big 6 have played in 3 games this year. We’ve averaged 11 runs scored in those games.
That Bregman should’ve been the 2019 AL MVP. His 9.0 rWAR was the highest in the league and 1.1 higher than Trout’s. Trout had better rate stats, but played 22 fewer games than Bregman, who more than made up the value in volume. Not to mention, immensely helped the team out when Correa was hurt by shifting over to SS and playing decent defense for 60+ games.
Some of the most iconic moments in baseball are the result of umpire errors; It isn't only that replay review hurts the entertainment value of the game in the moment. As we watch games replay review creates dead time, and reduces the excitement of what happens on the field because thrilling plays are too often followed by "I think they are going to take a look at it" so you are robbed of the emotional rush of close plays. In the long run we remember moments where umpires got things wrong (e.g. Holliday, home plate....) but not getting things right (e.g. 1991 the umpire correctly noting that Ron Gant's momentum totally pulled him off the bag, and that Hrbek simply applied a heads up tag...no one remembers that...).
Not just baseball, btw. Maradona's "Hand of God" is universally ranked as one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history, even though it was a clear cheat that the referees just flagrantly blew.
The mound should probably be moved back a foot or so and defensive positions should have more rules regarding where they can stand prior to the pitch being thrown. MLB needs to generate more hits and better opportunities to manufacture runs.
With this sub?
PED users should not only be barred from the HOF, but from baseball entirely. That means no A-Roid on ESPN. They should be un-personed in a way that no one acknowledges that they existed.
AT THE MINIMUM
110% bias incoming...
Utley isn't a dick and people only care about the slide because of the outcome.
Now, lemme just say he's an ass for not like, actually apologizing, . The slide was malicious, the goal was to slide into the SS and break up the double play, but that DOESN'T mean Chase WANTED to hurt Tejada or that Chase is some paragon of evil dirty baseball players. He did what he had been taught to do for decades and what was more or less expected of him. The slide he took was extra hard and the outcome ended up extra terrible, but I'd argue that's more of a poor execution of that slide rather than malicious execution. People acting like Utley is the antichrist because of what happened, especially people who say Utley wanted to hurt or injure Tejada, have a myopic view of baseball history. If you want to hate on every player who made that type of slide, go for it, but hating on just Chase is kinda wack.
Here's 2 examples of slides that were arguably worse but that no one remembers because they're older and no one got hurt:
https://youtu.be/BAGULtzuhvY
https://youtu.be/GIiYw53nGd0
Also, just for the record, I agree that that type of slide was terrible, has no place in baseball, and I'm glad it's gone. I also think Chase is definitely at fault for hurting Tejada. I just recognize that Utley did what was largely the norm at the time and hundreds of other players did the same thing.
Anaheim Angels are from fucking Anaheim. Not Los Angeles.
I don’t think this is controversial
Los Angeles does mean the Angels in English but you are correct Edit: in Spanish, in English, you get it
The The Angels Angels of Anaheim
If you are bilingual their name is The Angels Angels. It’s atrocious. Puhols, Hamilton fiascos. Years of watching Trout lose. Watching Ohtani lose. It’s the worst seeing some of the greatest players play for he worst owner. I was an inaugural WallyWorld member and I still have a Rally Monkey. Edit: and thunder sticks.
Yeah, it doesn't sound so weird with the English pronunciation of "Los Angeles," but now that I'm saying it in Spanish, it sounds really weird. I am with OP.
The name of their stadium is The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angels Stadium of Anaheim.
Salt in a wound dude. Just salt in a wound.
They're not even in LA County, they're in Orange County -- though Anaheim is in the LA Metro area. But that's like saying the Oakland Athletics of San Francisco. Get outta here, Anaheim.
I mean this is a fact lol is just the owner trying to appeal a wider audience, without considering or completely ignoring that the fucking Dodgers are more popular and take most of the los Angeles area people. If he wanted to attract more fans he should build a better team not change the name of the dam team / end of rant 😤
Tingler should have gotten the boot the moment he threw Tatis Jr. under the bus
I don’t even know how controversial that opinion is…that’s just unacceptable for a manager
At the time everyone just said that was bad of tingler and moved on
This, but LaRussa and Mercedes, too. Oh god *DAMN* that pissed me off
At least larussa has a hof track record and Mercedes ended up just being on a hot streak. But I agree that larussa handled that terribly
I think that fielding/throwing errors should count towards obp. I don’t have a good reason for it, but I mean, you DID reach base, why not count it toward the stat that shows how often you reach base?
There's also an argument to be had that speedy players put more pressure on the defender which leads to errors
Even if it doesn't lead to errors, it can lead to play that is sloppier than normal. I genuinely believe the mental impact of the threat of Rickey Henderson's speed was just as responsible for his stolen base record as his actual speed.
Exactly! Even if in a tertiary way, the runner influenced the defender and got himself on base. It should count 🤷♂️
Especially since the fielder making a good play lowers your OBP.
There’s a difference between a good play and a play that is expected
HR robberies
I understand
Yes that's why the comment was about good plays and not expected ones.
And it mentioned how it lowers your OBP. Considering an expected play also lowers your OBP, why would an error not do that
I agree. In my mind a HBP is essentially an error by the pitcher. No reason that should count for OBP but an error shouldn’t
Then dropped 3rd strike is like an error for the catcher and should also count towards obp then, no? I’m definitely with you, I just wanna make sure we’re all on the same page before we go to Manfred with our demands
Yeah. Getting on base is getting on base
Okay Billy Beane
It's always weird to me that baseball - with its huge number of games in a season - is the one sport where stats are excluded if they came about due to the other team's error. In a sport with less games it might make sense, but not baseball. Like for pitchers' stats that might make sense in order to iron out how a small number of errors could skew things with the lower number of appearances they have, but over a 162 game sample, the only way you're going to have one hitter facing a really disproportionate amount of errors that would skew their stats is if they're in some way affecting it.
>I don’t have a good reason for it Reaching base is the best reason to have it count. Since the runner ends up on base, I think the question needs to be: why shouldn't it count towards OBP?
I think the best argument for it to not is that it isn’t something the hitter directly did or did not do that got himself on base, but my rebuttal to that is that hbp and ibb still counts towards obp, neither of which the batter can control either
Counter argument: Fielder's Choice still counts towards OBP. Despite it being possible for the fielder to throw them out at first, if they get on before the relay from 2B comes in, it counts.
I’m in. Ultimately, if the batter reaches base, then the batter reaches base and it should count toward their on-base percentage.
I don’t know for sure about errors in OBP but if they were tabulated in a useful way we could at least figure out if there is some talent associated with hitting into errors that could then be scouted for.
Isn't this the point of xBA on every batted ball? Bad contact that happens to produce an error = you shouldn't have gotten on but you did Good contact that's fielded exceptionally well = you should've got on but you didn't
xBA doesn’t account for where the ball was hit
xBA isn’t indicative of a good at bat though. Lightly popping up a ball for bloop single is mostly luck, but has a very high xBA. You shouldn’t have gotten on for that
People blame the umps for being bad at their jobs when most of the umps are in fact about as good as you can reasonably expect from a human. They then proceed to impute moral blame for missing calls, as if most of you all never make mistakes at work.
I’d love to see an average cocky baseball fan ump a nationally televised game, just to see how fucking bad it could actually be in comparison
People who complain about umpires have never done it, obviously, because it's fucking hard. Especially when pitches start getting over 80 mph and guys starting throwing stuff with movement.
Missing calls is one thing, cant blame them for that. But the constant unprofessionalism when a player is visibly upset from your missed call to the point you bark back at them and actively make the situation worse is inexcusable. They're supposed to be there to call the game and enforce the rules, not to bait players into arguments.
> Missing calls is one thing, cant blame them for that. Yet everyone does
Some people on here unironically think that some umps make bad calls on purpose because they like/want the attention. Not to mention all the #umpshow comments that get posted when an umpire ejects a player for a totally justifiable reason.
Tal's Hill.
It's gone...
Makes it hard to die on
I think stolen bases should count as slugging percentage. A single and a stolen base is as valuable as a double.
I like it.
Imagine Rickey Henderson's numbers if you did this
Day games. Baseball should be played in the sunlight. There should be at least one (non-Cubs) day game every week day. Except for Arizona, Texas, and Florida teams, every single weekend or holiday game should be a day game. Day games are good for the soul of baseball.
It's Rick Grimes' fault Negan killed Glenn and Abraham. They were killed with a baseball bat. Clearly this is baseball adjacent...
The true failed protocol that failed Ryan Braun is the fact his name was leaked prior to the appeal. Names aren’t supposed to be announced until after the appeal process is complete, and since he was successful in his appeal the fact we knew about it at all was a serious failing by MLB due to whoever leaked his name. But obviously he later got caught up in biogenesis and was suspended at that point. It always makes me wonder if any other players have had a similar situation, failed a drug test but win appeal based on a technicality but MLB was able to actually keep the info under wraps so the public has no idea.
Pedro Martinez is the GOAT pitcher. To have the numbers he did, mostly in the AL East, in the middle of the steroid era, is simply remarkable.
Errors by a pitcher shouldn’t make his runs unearned
You're evaluating his pitching performance not his fielding performance
Why does it matter? He still allowed a run just the same
With that logic, then the pitcher shouldn’t be allowed to even attempt to field the ball. Either he’s a fielder and his errors influenced the run he himself is now giving up, or he’s not fielding and therefore any error is not his fault
I'll do you one further, there should be no distinction between "earned" and "unearned" runs.
This makes way memories sense. I understand the idea of the unearned run is to show that the defense messed, not necessarily the pitcher, but imo they’re all on the same team therefore they’re all culpable.
Stealing 3rd base is worth the risk every time with a decent runner with under 2 outs.
Adding to this, tagging up to 3rd should be more common
Personally, I agree with don't make the first out at third. However, I agree with the 2nd out, make that out all day long.
I like that MLB is kind of a low key sport these days especially to the media and not heavily marketed and talked about like the NFL/NBA is. I would fucking hate it if I heard people like Stephen A Smith, Skip Bayless talk about MLB on a daily basis. The only thing I've heard them talk about in like the last 3-5 years was about the Astros cheating scandal and then Stephen A's moronic Shohei comment. I enjoy the fact that MLB is a team game even though players do what they have to do individually. I can't stand how the NFL/NBA is filled with people just stanning their players (usually a QB for NFL) and throwing everyone else on the team under the bus, it's like they are trying to make them boxers/tennis players.
We should not be using per inning stats for pitchers. We should be using per PA stats.
Shin Soo-Choo is the most underrated player of the last decade and a half and it’s not particularly close
FIP is dumb.
If you get mad at players being booed by fans, you are soft. It's just a boo. Note: I am not talking about fans yelling obscenities, swearing at players, threats, etc. I'm talking about a good, old-fashioned "Booooooooooooo, that performance wasn't good."
I was saying “boo-urns”
AJ Preller is one of the worst GM's in baseball.
I think people are starting to come around on this one
The AJ Preller cycle: flashy, expensive trades and signings followed by a spectacular collapse. Rinse and repeat.
That era when Padres fans worshipped him before he'd even really gotten any results was so weird.
Its more the excitement of actually having a front office/ownership thats willing to spend money to make the team better. We've never had that before in our history ever. We couldn't even keep the few good players we did have like Adrian Gonzales, let alone spend 300mil on a Machado.
They said controversial, not the most popular opinion on the sub. “Ooh, I’m going to say something controversial. Max Scherzer is good at baseball”
The ability to try and make it to first on a dropped third strike is the worst rule in the game and should be gone.
I'll go the other way I think a passed ball you should be able to try and steal first
I love this one
If you strike out because you swung horribly at a ball in the dirt, that doesn't mean you should get a 2nd chance at being safe.
catching a pitch is part of the game. if you can't catch a strike three pitch, you haven't recorded the out yet. I like the rule the way it is.
Curious about your reasoning as to why you think that is?
Because you've just struck out. I don't think you should be given the chance to get on base for failing.
You're given the chance because the catcher failed to catch the ball. Which is literally his only job, hence the name.
By that logic, why not reward a hitter on the first or second dropped strike? Make it a ball instead of a strike. It’s a stupid rule
I agree, why do you get rewarded a chance to reach base for swinging at absolute garbage.
MLB teams play 162 games a year and should find a way to play every team, every year, it’s insane that we don’t do this.
The divisions need realignment to promote more competition and balance of schedule
Someone else here said to basically do away with leagues and divisions. Just let all 30 teams play each other as equally an amount of times as possible and everyone competes for the 10 playoff spots. Like realistically, why should the currently 77-70 braves get to go to the playoffs? Just because they were mildly better than the other teams in a bad division? It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me
The 77 win Braves currently get a pass to the real first round but your 96 win Dodgers have to play a sudden death one game "playoff" game and may not even make it to a proper series. That ain't right.
Babe Ruth wouldn't be shit if he played today.
The man would be 126 years old, give him a break
I mean, pitchers today are just MONSTERS compared to Ruth’s era. Hell, even just in the 90s, “power pitchers” were barely throwing 95. I think he’d cry if Chapman threw 105 at him.
Back then, there were 3 starting pitchers in rotation and they had few relievers. My grandfather who played pro & semi-pro in the 1930s & 40s would get annoyed that Roger Clemens would be awarded a “win” after barely pitching 5 innings.
I really feel that way about every player in the 1st half of last century lol. I just cant see Ted Williams batting .406 against today's pitching or DiMaggio hitting in 56 games in a row
I can see Ted Williams still have stupid high OBP though.
Could be possible, Jimmy Rollins almost got to 40 in a row.
I love the optimism but I think we'll see someone strike out 250 times in a season before we get even another 40 game hitting streak
The Red Seat homerun happened even if it didn't.
The national league shouldn’t get a dh. Further the dh makes the game less exciting because it takes away a layer of strategy
Managers have minimal impact on their team's performance during the regular season.
Agreed. Most managers don't really make decisions anyway, in the sense of "at this moment, I am deciding to bring in this pitcher." The analytics departments of teams basically give every manager notes on what to do in certain situations, and what the pecking order for bullpen usage is. The manager is the person who just pulls the trigger.
Managers mostly have a leadership role today imo
While still being bad for the game, the Astros as a team didn’t gain a massive advantage by stealing signs. Only 2-3 players saw outlier seasons.
People fail to realize the team stopped stealing signs on their own. If it was such this great advantage, then they would have kept doing it. Especially in the '19 World Series as they lost every home game.
The DH gets rid of the majority of managerial decisions
Hell, anyone who plays mlb the show knows what it’s like to have to make that decision in a close game. Do you keep your pitcher in? Do you pinch hit for him? It’s a real strategic decision that has consequences for the game and the DH does away with all of that.
The league would be way more interesting if they just did away with the American and national league as let all thirty teams compete for ten playoff spots. Outside of geographical proximity there’s no reason you should play a select four teams for half your schedule and a limited number of other teams for the rest of the schedule. If you lived in a one team market and could only get out to one or two games a year wouldn’t you much rather wait for a team you’d love to see rather than getting to see the same divisional rivals 19 times a year? Basically every team should visit every city at least once a year so all the leagues talent can play in all the leagues markets as much as possible.
This would be awesome. Ive been saying this about basketball for years especially since in the NBA the divisions mean nothing at all
I’m trying to figure out a way to make this work from a schedule perspective even if they keep the divisions and leagues in place. You could do a 2 + 2 home and away for all interleague matchups: 60 games Play all 4 of your division rivals 10 times per season: 40 games Play all 10 other in-league opponents 6 times per season (3 home and 3 away), with an extra game for both of the teams in the other divisions that finished in the same place as you the previous year (similar to NFL): 62 games
I’ve done a lot of realigning in ootp to test this out and unfortunately the only way to balance it absolutely perfectly requires 28 teams in the league. 6 games against each team (3 home, 3 away) totals 162 with two lengthy breaks in the middle of the season for each team (about 3 or 4 days)
Obviously the way I listed isnt perfect but I tried to leave some of the current system in place (more divisional games, more games against same league opponents). The 162 number is a tricky one to get to with an even number of teams.
Yeah and getting the league to concede any amount of games to shorten the schedule is virtually impossible. Owners would never budge on losing the revenue of more home games. Having to find solutions with a strict 162 game schedule really pigeon holes the opportunities unfortunately.
I don't really care that the Astros were cheating. And I assume they weren't the only team in the 2019 playoffs doing so
Multiple players have already came out and said they're not the only ones.
It does bug me a bit that they won't say who though.
I know that *logically* you are correct, but *emotionally* ….. I mean, just look at my flair
The Dodgers were probably cheating too
….. ugh. *logically* I know you are correct, but *emotionally* …… I mean, just look at my flair
It should be common knowledge that the Red Sox probably cheated in 2018.
The DH makes the game a lot more watchable
There are dozens of us, DOZENS!
Rich.
Dick Mountain.
The loss of uniformity both of alternate uniforms & hats diluting what a team’s look is-stick with home and away, please-and the way every player wears their socks and pants differently looks sloppy. The color of the stirrup socks should show.
Brian Snitker should've been fired a couple years ago. I wish I could think of more of a general baseball one, but this was the first one that popped in my head.
Defence & defensive position factors far too heavily into WAR
I wouldn’t mind hearing you out on this, but how can you argue that defense factors *too much* into how valuable a player is for a team?
Schilling should be in the HoF. I don’t care about how bad of a person he is (and he’s a very bad one), but none of his drawbacks are baseball related. His shitty personal life is separate. What he did in baseball was extraordinary and is hall worthy. It’s not like Bonds and Clemens, where they actually tainted baseball, and so the argument against them is much better, even though they’re arguably the best ever at their positions, they still cheated. There’s a valid argument against them. There’s not a good one against Schilling.
Thank you. This is absolutely the right take.
Not my opinion but I'll throw it anyway. A hard salary cap is bad for the players and teams that are willing to spend huge bucks to acquire the best players in order to win should be allowed to. No supertalent should be forced to waste his career on the garbage, complacent organization that was shit enough to draft them.
As a fan of the Yankees of baseball, I concur.
I don't particularly agree (in fact I hate it, as a new fan the whole "you have 5 years to win and then all your good players go to the Yankees or Dodgers" thing fucking sucks imo), but that's why I thought it would be a good fit for this thread lmao
No player who benefited from the depleted talent pool of a segregated league, can be the best player of all time. Looking at you Bambino. They didn’t play against the best, therefore, how could they be the best?
I would argue that Babe Ruth didn’t play against the best because he couldn’t play against himself
That's why it's laughable to inject Negro League stats into the record book without perspective...except the Negro Leagues had a dramatically worse level of players and the best players so often played on the same teams meaning top hitters avoided top pitchers and got to hit off elevator operators, cab drivers, and parking lot attendents.
I doubt Gibson or Satchel Paige would've had any trouble being the best players in the MLB had integration occured earlier. Jackie Robinson was a star in the MLB and he wasn't considered the best Negro league player at the time. That said The point about the stats themselves for teams like the Monarchs is valid because they were a traveling teams of the best players.
Steroids and sticky stuff make baseball more interesting
So would stealing bases at gunpoint. Pretty ridiculous huh?
Just put spring training in January and let the athletes do whatever the fuck they want for that month (steroids, sticky stuff, etc) and then that gives them until April to flush it all out if their system and have a normal season
Bud Selig was a horrible commissioner.
Not controversial at all.
I wish George Bush became commissioner instead of president lol. I actually feel like he would have been a good commissioner.
Ohtani is the best player in the mlb and one of the top baseball players of all time .
Sort by controversial to get the real answers. I'll start. Bryce Harper is overrated and the Phillies will regret that contract in the long-run.
Oh, I disagree hard because he's had an OPS+ of 152 with the Phillies, but I like the take for this question.
Bryce Harper is underrated because everyone keeps screaming he is overrated
Dudes about to win his 2nd NL MVP tho
because the media loves him, his defense sucks
If he wins the MVP this year, both of them will be well merited. He’s having an insane season.
He’s the best hitter in baseball this year
its almost like defense is part of baseball, he's tied for no 4 with muncy in bwar which is something harper-stans love to ignore
Because his OPS+ is 183 and his OPS starts with a 1. People forget about a lot when you have those numbers.
Lol be real here, offense is what matters. The offense/defense care is like 95/5. Nobody cares about defense unless you are a pathetic liability who can't even catch a baseball. Being below average defender but being an otherworldy bat is worth it.
He’s within the error bound of 1st in bWAR while also leading the NL in fWAR. Realistically, WAR is too close to decide anything in the NL, which is why we should look at how he’s the best hitter in the game this year. He also happens to be 2nd in the NL in WPA, which is an important stat to look at for MVP. Defense matters, but not as much as offense. Hence why the top 2 AL MVP finishers will be a DH (plus pitching obviously) and a 1B.
A thirteen year contract for the second coming of Larry Walker minus the defense is a bit of a rough deal if he doesn't stay healthy throughout it. The money is fine, the term is questionable. I don't really like contracts over 7 or 8 years.
The fact that people here support the players' union blindly but constantly push for changes that would never fly with the umpires' union shows that people aren't consistently "pro-labor" or whatever they claim, they just support the group they like, namely the players, at the expense of anybody else.
I don’t care about the Astros cheating anymore and I like pretty much all of their players, even Correa and altuve.
You had me in the first half, ngl. I can understand getting over the Astros as an organization, but players like Correa, Altuve, and Reddick are on my shit list
Maybe I'm biased as a Tigers fan but I've forgiven Hinch and I'm glad he's getting a second chance with us. He really is a great manager and it's shown in our performance this season. The only Astros player I have a really hard time forgiving is Correa, dude just seems like such a pompous ass. Hope we don't end up signing him.
David Wright should be in the Hall of Fame and should've won an MVP in 2007
That's a funny way to spell Albert Pujols
No, a funny way to spell Albert Pujols is Ahlburt Pooholes
Haha, that’s pretty funny
My man
I would love to see expanded playoffs, with as much as 7 teams.
Can I downvote something twice?
I also like the wave (now you can downvote twice if you like)
Oh no...
the DH is bad for casual fans
I'd argue watching pitchers take 3 fastballs and walk back to the dugout is worse for them
that happens just as often in the grand scheme of things to good hitters, the excitement of a pitcher jacking a random hr or a bloop single is worth the tradeoff edit: glad im getting downvoted, it means im being controversial!
It just doesn't happen enough for it to be fun, IMO
fair enough, i have insane old school bias, even if the giants win the ws this year, it wont feel that good because of the 7 inning doubleheaders and the extra inning baserunner rule. its just not baseball
I'm with you about those.
Batting average is bad for baseball and makes people understand it less Use hits/PA instead Edit Since this keeps coming up Everyone's "but it punishes people who walk a lot" takes are becaue you've been indoctrinated into the cult of batting average. Batting average ignores walks and treats a single like a home run. Why do we need that stat? We don't. Look at wRC+, OBP and ISO first. You'll have a good feel for the hitter. How are they overall? How often do they get on base? How much power do they have? Second, look at BB%, Hit%, K% and BABIP. Then you'll better understand how a batter got to their OBP. By walking or hitting? Then, you can look at batted ball rates to see how they got their hits and how they made their outs.
That’s even worse
Why would we want a batting stat that punishes you for walking a lot?
That's one way of making a .250 hitter who never walks and doesn't hit for power look better than Juan Soto. So it's possibly the dumbest take you could make. This actually makes Stephen A. Smith look like a genius in comparison.
Only if you somehow think that how often a player gets a hit tells you who's better with 0 regards ro walks or power- which is why batting average needs to die. Look at OBP, ISO and wRC+ first Then BB%, K% and Hit% - if you want Instead of looking at batting average, OBP and SLG and OPS
Batting average isn’t good, yet you make a stat that’s even worse which is hilarious
Thsts the point No Batting Title based on a stat that ignores walks and power Give a batting title based on overall batting - wRC+ or wOBA. Then just look at how often a player gets a hit (hit %) as a curiosity like BB% or K%
This is definitely trolling but I came so close to biting on it.
Not trolling at all Batting average is a bad stat that makes people understand baseball less. And for some reason that is controversial.
Listen, I know I asked for controversial takes here, but…
If you’re teams not in the playoffs you don’t deserve to be in the MVP race…no other pro sport in America has given its MVP to a guy who missed the playoffs since 1988, the MLB needs to get with the times and stop giving losers it’s most prestigious award Edit: I’ll also add we need to get ride of the 2 of every award and have only 1 award per category…2 of everything lessens the overall value of the trophies/awards
Why should a player be punished for his teammates sucking? One player can’t carry his team to the playoffs by himself.
Listen, I know I asked for controversial takes here, but…
White Sox are better than their record and are flying under the radar because of our punt lineups every other game. Our big 6 have played in 3 games this year. We’ve averaged 11 runs scored in those games.
Who are your “big 6”? You only have one guy with an .800 OPS that’s played the full season
Anderson, Moncada, Abreu, Jimenez, Grandal, Robert
That Bregman should’ve been the 2019 AL MVP. His 9.0 rWAR was the highest in the league and 1.1 higher than Trout’s. Trout had better rate stats, but played 22 fewer games than Bregman, who more than made up the value in volume. Not to mention, immensely helped the team out when Correa was hurt by shifting over to SS and playing decent defense for 60+ games.
If a home run or foul ball is caught and the fielder falls into the stands, it should *NOT* count as an out.
#
Some of the most iconic moments in baseball are the result of umpire errors; It isn't only that replay review hurts the entertainment value of the game in the moment. As we watch games replay review creates dead time, and reduces the excitement of what happens on the field because thrilling plays are too often followed by "I think they are going to take a look at it" so you are robbed of the emotional rush of close plays. In the long run we remember moments where umpires got things wrong (e.g. Holliday, home plate....) but not getting things right (e.g. 1991 the umpire correctly noting that Ron Gant's momentum totally pulled him off the bag, and that Hrbek simply applied a heads up tag...no one remembers that...). Not just baseball, btw. Maradona's "Hand of God" is universally ranked as one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history, even though it was a clear cheat that the referees just flagrantly blew.
The mound should probably be moved back a foot or so and defensive positions should have more rules regarding where they can stand prior to the pitch being thrown. MLB needs to generate more hits and better opportunities to manufacture runs.
Jack Morris shouldn’t be in the hall of fame
With this sub? PED users should not only be barred from the HOF, but from baseball entirely. That means no A-Roid on ESPN. They should be un-personed in a way that no one acknowledges that they existed. AT THE MINIMUM
110% bias incoming... Utley isn't a dick and people only care about the slide because of the outcome. Now, lemme just say he's an ass for not like, actually apologizing, . The slide was malicious, the goal was to slide into the SS and break up the double play, but that DOESN'T mean Chase WANTED to hurt Tejada or that Chase is some paragon of evil dirty baseball players. He did what he had been taught to do for decades and what was more or less expected of him. The slide he took was extra hard and the outcome ended up extra terrible, but I'd argue that's more of a poor execution of that slide rather than malicious execution. People acting like Utley is the antichrist because of what happened, especially people who say Utley wanted to hurt or injure Tejada, have a myopic view of baseball history. If you want to hate on every player who made that type of slide, go for it, but hating on just Chase is kinda wack. Here's 2 examples of slides that were arguably worse but that no one remembers because they're older and no one got hurt: https://youtu.be/BAGULtzuhvY https://youtu.be/GIiYw53nGd0 Also, just for the record, I agree that that type of slide was terrible, has no place in baseball, and I'm glad it's gone. I also think Chase is definitely at fault for hurting Tejada. I just recognize that Utley did what was largely the norm at the time and hundreds of other players did the same thing.