Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.

[sveumrules]

Obviously super early still, but league average BA was at .248 entering today vs .231 in April of last year.

Ball might be a little juicier again this year too with a .161 Isolated Slugging and 12.6 HR/FB% so far. Last few Aprils for reference…

2022: .137 ISO | 10.0 HR/FB%
2021: .157 ISO | 13.3 HR/FB%
2019: .176 ISO | 14.4 HR/FB%
2018: .156 ISO | 11.9 HR/FB%
2017: .160 ISO | 12.8 HR/FB%

[KeithStone53151]

This looks much more reasonable than the shift we saw in spring training. Anything in the RF corner is a triple even for slow guys, and there's a ton of room in the outfield. If you have fast OF it's probably not a huge deal and this shift is probably a net positive. We could pull this off on days with BA, Wiemer, Mitchell in the outfield. Yelich is pretty meh out there so I wouldn't want to risk trying it on days he's in LF(most days).

[nate82]

On 4/7/2023 at 9:52 PM, sveumrules said:

Obviously super early still, but league average BA was at .248 entering today vs .231 in April of last year.

Ball might be a little juicier again this year too with a .161 Isolated Slugging and 12.6 HR/FB% so far. Last few Aprils for reference…

2022: .137 ISO | 10.0 HR/FB%
2021: .157 ISO | 13.3 HR/FB%
2019: .176 ISO | 14.4 HR/FB%
2018: .156 ISO | 11.9 HR/FB%
2017: .160 ISO | 12.8 HR/FB%

Maybe they fixed the drag issue they were having with the ball last year. 

[jerichoholicninja]

 

In reference to a post from earlier, yes, Manny did deserve to be ejected.

[jerichoholicninja]

 

Also, Tim Anderson is a Manny level turd person.

[KeithStone53151]

19 minutes ago, jerichoholicninja said:

 

In reference to a post from earlier, yes, Manny did deserve to be ejected.

I know my viewpoint is minority, but I almost always disagree with ejections decisions. I can understand it in this case, especially when applied to current precedence. What I'd really like to see is them implement a warning option before an ejection. At the end of the day it hurts the product and is disappointing for fans to see top players get ejected from games. This is completely not a thing in basketball, football, hockey, etc...it happens rarely if ever that you might go to a game and 1/4 through the game your favorite player gets ejected. In baseball, it's about 1 of every 10 games that a player or manager is ejected.

[CheezWizHed]

On 3/31/2023 at 6:45 PM, Brock Beauchamp said:

Actually, this would be hilarious, as you do not lose your challenge if you're successful. They could basically shame the umpire into calling the correct zone by successfully challenging over and over again and it'd be wildly entertaining to watch.

After the 3rd time the Ump is ejected?  Or swapped out with someone else?  That would keep them a bit more honest.  Ump last night would've been gone by the 2nd inning.

[MrTPlush]

#1 Machado being a clown to the new rules to make some weird point is bad for the product too. 

#2 So the umpire has a bracelet that buzzes instantly at 8 seconds...but the NFL has referees looking at the scoreboard, then looking at the ball, then looking at the scoreboard again to figure out if there is a delay of game? How dumb.

[SeaBass]

1 hour ago, MrTPlush said:

#1 Machado being a clown to the new rules to make some weird point is bad for the product too. 

#2 So the umpire has a bracelet that buzzes instantly at 8 seconds...but the NFL has referees looking at the scoreboard, then looking at the ball, then looking at the scoreboard again to figure out if there is a delay of game? How dumb.

I get your point and honestly it makes tons of sense for the NFL to adopt something similar. For myself though, I just don't mind the "extra second" on delay of game calls. Both teams benefit from the extra beat before a flag is thrown and I don't feel like the game suffers for it. Maybe I could be convinced to see it the other way, maybe I'm just conditioned to not care so much because of its commonality.

[MrTPlush]

51 minutes ago, SeaBass said:

I get your point and honestly it makes tons of sense for the NFL to adopt something similar. For myself though, I just don't mind the "extra second" on delay of game calls. Both teams benefit from the extra beat before a flag is thrown and I don't feel like the game suffers for it. Maybe I could be convinced to see it the other way, maybe I'm just conditioned to not care so much because of its commonality.

I’m only annoyed when there is an issue and the NFL makes up some dumb explanation.

I just chalk it up as there is simply an extra second on the play clock. Most teams benefit from it here and there. I would not mind a hard 0 is 0 fix like the MLB is doing, but I also don’t enjoy 5 yard petty flags…so I’m okay not trying to increase the number of those.

[nate82]

Just now, MrTPlush said:

I’m only annoyed when there is an issue and the NFL makes up some dumb explanation.

I just chalk it up as there is simply an extra second on the play clock. Most teams benefit from it here and there. I would not mind a hard 0 is 0 fix like the MLB is doing, but I also don’t enjoy 5 yard petty flags…so I’m okay not trying to increase the number of those.

The only thing I would like to see changed in the NFL would be the penalties at your own endzone.  If you get a false start or delay of game or whatever penalty at the whatever yard line instead of doing half the distance to the goal just move the first down marker 5 or 10 yards further. 

[areacodes]

6 hours ago, KeithStone53151 said:

I know my viewpoint is minority, but I almost always disagree with ejections decisions. I can understand it in this case, especially when applied to current precedence. What I'd really like to see is them implement a warning option before an ejection. At the end of the day it hurts the product and is disappointing for fans to see top players get ejected from games. This is completely not a thing in basketball, football, hockey, etc...it happens rarely if ever that you might go to a game and 1/4 through the game your favorite player gets ejected. In baseball, it's about 1 of every 10 games that a player or manager is ejected.

I think you'd be surprised at how often it happens in other sports.  College football regularly ejects players for targeting but I'm not going to search around to find out how many since there are so many teams.  I really couldn't find any data on NHL in a quick google search but with fighting and game misconduct penalties with ejections I'd imagine they have quite a few ejections too.  If you'd include soccer, they regularly have ejections as well due to red cards but I couldn't find something quick for EPL or MLS.

- NFL had 16 player ejections in 2022-23 regular season/playoffs - about one player every 9 total games.  LINK
- NBA had 70 player ejections in 2022-23 regular season (based on fines for ejection, not sure if all players received a fine for being ejected or there could be more) - about one player every 19 total games. LINK
- MLB had 62 player ejections in 2022 regular season/playoffs (total ejections were 177) - about one player every 40 total games and about one player or manager every 14 games.  LINK

[KeithStone53151]

4 hours ago, areacodes said:

I think you'd be surprised at how often it happens in other sports.  College football regularly ejects players for targeting but I'm not going to search around to find out how many since there are so many teams.  I really couldn't find any data on NHL in a quick google search but with fighting and game misconduct penalties with ejections I'd imagine they have quite a few ejections too.  If you'd include soccer, they regularly have ejections as well due to red cards but I couldn't find something quick for EPL or MLS.

- NFL had 16 player ejections in 2022-23 regular season/playoffs - about one player every 9 total games.  LINK
- NBA had 70 player ejections in 2022-23 regular season (based on fines for ejection, not sure if all players received a fine for being ejected or there could be more) - about one player every 19 total games. LINK
- MLB had 62 player ejections in 2022 regular season/playoffs (total ejections were 177) - about one player every 40 total games and about one player or manager every 14 games.  LINK

Good post. I think your math is off on nfl. 16 player ejections would be one every 17 games. I also would bet heavily that very few of these ejections were due to making a snide comment, or saying mean things to the umpire, or whatever these overcompensating babies are tossing players for these days. In NFL it's almost always a dangerous play or player misconduct. I'm not sure about nba I don't watch much, but I know they have a technical foul system so guys at least get a second chance unless they do something egregious. I watch plenty of EPL and I can't tell you how many times I've seen guys scream 4 letter words at the refs and not get a card of any type. If you get sent off in soccer you almost always earned it through dangerous play. So I'll concede there's more ejections in other sports than I realized, but I still stand by in MLB ejections should be much more rare...and umpires need to set their egos aside and keep guys in the game. Honestly we need more ejections like what happened to realmuto, but in games that matter otherwise nothing will change... you'll still see guys get upset at a strikeout, throw their bat in frustration, and get tossed.

[areacodes]

13 minutes ago, KeithStone53151 said:

Good post. I think your math is off on nfl. 16 player ejections would be one every 17 games. I also would bet heavily that very few of these ejections were due to making a snide comment, or saying mean things to the umpire, or whatever these overcompensating babies are tossing players for these days. In NFL it's almost always a dangerous play or player misconduct. I'm not sure about nba I don't watch much, but I know they have a technical foul system so guys at least get a second chance unless they do something egregious. I watch plenty of EPL and I can't tell you how many times I've seen guys scream 4 letter words at the refs and not get a card of any type. If you get sent off in soccer you almost always earned it through dangerous play. So I'll concede there's more ejections in other sports than I realized, but I still stand by in MLB ejections should be much more rare...and umpires need to set their egos aside and keep guys in the game. Honestly we need more ejections like what happened to realmuto, but in games that matter otherwise nothing will change... you'll still see guys get upset at a strikeout, throw their bat in frustration, and get tossed.

You’re right on the NFL maths.  I was calculating the games played for all the other leagues manually so but googled how many total NFL games, added the playoff games and then divided by two on auto-pilot.

I’ll be honest that I wasn’t expecting the numbers to be where they were overall.  I figured there were more player ejections in baseball but managers make up a significant majority of those.

I don’t disagree about umps having thin skin especially when a player tosses a bat or helmet and gets rung for “disrespecting the ump” or whatever BS.  However, if an NBA player was yelling at a ref like baseball players/managers do at umps for most ejections they would get a double T and an ejection.  A running clock and the game not stopping for you to yell at a ref probably plays some role in why you see it less in football.

 

[brewcrewdue80]

On 4/11/2023 at 10:20 AM, jerichoholicninja said:

 

In reference to a post from earlier, yes, Manny did deserve to be ejected.

Just came here to say Jomboy did his thing and explained how the scenario went down, and the choice words that got Machado ejected. So I was wrong and Machado was in the wrong there. Somehow he didn't understand the rule. Surprised if he thought what he did on the rule he hadn't been auto strike with it already through the games he played in ST.

[brewcrewdue80]

20 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

#1 Machado being a clown to the new rules to make some weird point is bad for the product too. 

#2 So the umpire has a bracelet that buzzes instantly at 8 seconds...but the NFL has referees looking at the scoreboard, then looking at the ball, then looking at the scoreboard again to figure out if there is a delay of game? How dumb.

I think the play clock in the NFL when ot runs down to 0, it's a situation like NBA that its 0.9 secs., .8, .7,.6, etc.  Like the official responsible is to count 1 extra Mississippi  when it drops to 0. Course the NFL has that other issue where clock shows 3-5 secs and a QB or official does the 1 hand lift it up pump and resets the clock to 25. As if that playclock started early countdown and wind it back.

[KeithStone53151]

1 hour ago, brewcrewdue80 said:

I think the play clock in the NFL when ot runs down to 0, it's a situation like NBA that its 0.9 secs., .8, .7,.6, etc.  Like the official responsible is to count 1 extra Mississippi  when it drops to 0. Course the NFL has that other issue where clock shows 3-5 secs and a QB or official does the 1 hand lift it up pump and resets the clock to 25. As if that playclock started early countdown and wind it back.

I think this is accurate. That said, maybe NFL splurge and update the clocks to include a decimal place as part of the counter for the last 5 seconds like NBA.

[owbc]

It's starting to look like more rule changes are going to be needed to increase offense. Batting average is only up 4 points over 2022 and the strikeout rate is higher than last year. 

I don't know the exact culprit, perhaps the "sweeper" pitch becoming popular is part of it?? No matter the cause, it's clear from watching MLB this year that hitters are struggling to put the ball in play and there have been a number of speedy 2 hour games where there is almost no offense. 

Maybe some form of robo-umping will help hitters more than pitchers?

[sveumrules]

9 minutes ago, owbc said:

Maybe some form of robo-umping will help hitters more than pitchers?

Not sure where to maybe try and find some numbers, but I would imagine there are way more ball fours called strike three than vice versa.

Also seems like throughout the course of a game there are more borderline balls called strikes than obvious strikes called balls as well. 

[owbc]

1 minute ago, sveumrules said:

Not sure where to maybe try and find some numbers, but I would imagine there are way more ball fours called strike three than vice versa.

Also seems like throughout the course of a game there are more borderline balls called strikes than obvious strikes called balls as well. 

My hypothesis is that in 2-strike counts, hitters are the ones who have to expand the zone. It's one of those unwritten rules that hasn't completely gone away. 

 

[jerichoholicninja]

Aaron Boone suspended a game basically for consistently being a dbag to umpires. I love a good manager tirade and ejection as much as anyone but Boone is a total turd. I've never seen a manager throw more hissy fits over the strikezone than he does. And I get it, some of these umpires really suck, but when you get in an umps face and just yell at him saying he sucks and throw a bunch of expletives in there you're really just a turd person.

[Axman59]

On 5/27/2023 at 10:21 AM, jerichoholicninja said:

Aaron Boone suspended a game basically for consistently being a dbag to umpires. I love a good manager tirade and ejection as much as anyone but Boone is a total turd. I've never seen a manager throw more hissy fits over the strikezone than he does. And I get it, some of these umpires really suck, but when you get in an umps face and just yell at him saying he sucks and throw a bunch of expletives in there you're really just a turd person.

 

Aaron just wants to help umpires be better.