owbc
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Everything posted by owbc
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The Mariners are being more helpful today (up 3-0), but the ball appears to be carrying well so it might be a high scoring game. -
The worst part is that there's no sign of any decent rain in the extended forecast, so the smoke season is probably going to drag on through the rest of September and possibly into October.
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Guys with elite command of the strike zone like Yelich will thrive with robotic balls/strikes. Think of how many defensive swings there are in MLB because the pitch was "too close to take". How many strikeouts happen because the hitter was forced to expand their strike zone to compensate for inconsistent umpiring?
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Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.
owbc replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
That's part of the appeal of the pitch clock, which should cause the most problems for the power relievers. I could see some of them purposely putting a runner on base in order to get the extra 5 seconds of recovery time. --- The way that Theo Epstein is attacking the rule changes is really, really great. It's hard for me to criticize anything that they are doing. These changes have been thoroughly vetted. When I see comments like "reduce games to 7 innings" (which is a common suggestion not only on this forum but elsewhere) it suggests a misrepresentation of the problem that baseball is trying to solve. Time of game is not the problem. Pace is the problem. These are not one-time fixes either. The rule changing will become a permanent part of baseball as it has in all of the other major sports. If the current changes do not achieve the intended effect, they will almost certainly look to more drastic changes such as moving back or lowering the pitchers mound. -
No help from Seattle. Darvish dominates and the good Hader showed up for the 9th. The Mariners are heavily favored tomorrow with Castillo on the mound.
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That's a big reason why I like the idea of a challenge system. You're not going to want to risk burning your challenges on close pitches unless it's a high leverage situation. So if the catcher frames it and gets a favorable call from the umpire, it's likely to go unchallenged. The framing like you describe from the Maddux era is already gone. Umpires are better than ever and most blown calls are random. My biggest concern with the challenge system is the potential for cheating. With only the pitcher/catcher/batter able to challenge, there's a strong incentive to do something similar to the Astros and signal whether there should be a challenge or not using a secret signal. Another plus is that hitters who have the best eye at the plate are often the ones who get burned the most by bad umpiring. So I think it will increase offense, which is a good thing.
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Call with pitch track. Similar to how it is done in Tennis.
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The ball/strike challenge system that is being tested in the Low-A Southeast league is getting rave reviews. I have a feeling that will end up in MLB as opposed to a full robotic system. The players have to challenge immediately (dugout not allowed to challenge), the umpire makes a signal, and the pitch track plays on the scoreboard. Takes about 15 seconds. After 3 missed challenges you lose the ability to challenge so it adds a strategy element while keeping the art of pitch framing around. And I can already see fun that fans will have roasting players who lose silly challenges.
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Reminds me of a Ben Hendrickson start
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Yeah I know Alexander is the best we've got, that's the sad thing. I also follow the Mariners and they have demoted two starters to the bullpen who are both better than Alexander. Chris Flexen has an ERA+ of 96 which wasn't good enough to stay in the rotation. And even so they are only 2 1/2 games better than the Brewers this year.
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Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.
owbc replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
They shortened the time between innings by 20 seconds in 2019... -
Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.
owbc replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
Guys are never going to hit against the shift without other rule changes. Analytics strongly, strongly discourage it. So there HAS to be a rule change of some sort. The other options besides shift banning would be to... 1. Move back LF and RF outfield fences (too expensive, people seem to hate it when it has been done e.g. Baltimore). 2. Deaden the baseball (tried it, caused too big of a decline in offense). 3. Adjust the height or distance of the pitchers mound (still might happen eventually, but is more controversial than shift banning). -
Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.
owbc replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
They had to close the loophole that allowed pitchers to step off or throw to first if they wanted to reset the pitch clock. -
Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.
owbc replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
Based on the testing in the minors, it sounds like the pitch clock favors hitters since it is faster for the body to recover from a hard swing than a fast pitch. The 100 mph guys are going to struggle the most with these changes. Which will be great. I've noticed that most hitters who recently came up from the minors are already used to keeping one foot in the batters box. It tends to be the pitchers who initiate most of the delays. -
Mortgage rates have plateaued (and are now falling slightly) so I don't think we're going to see any dramatic decline in the housing market, other than the seasonal slowdown. I'm sure it will go right back to being insane again next spring. The massive explosion in rent prices is only further tipping the scales in favor of more people wanting to own rather than rent. I do think we're likely to see a construction boom again as materials costs have plunged and housing remains scarce.
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Just brutal that Alexander is the best we can put out there as we move closer to "must win" territory. A huge disappointment from what was recently one of the best rotations in baseball.
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Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.
owbc replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
I confirmed it is a MINIMUM of 2 infielders on each side. So a 5-man infield is allowed. That makes me feel better about this rule, since the guys who are extreme pull hitters will probably still see a shift in many situations. I also expect that we'll still see the infielders in weird positions -- they might surrender the hit up the middle in exchange for covering the pull direction. -
Ding dong, the shift is dead. Long live the pitch clock.
owbc replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
The shift ban doesn't affect outfielders, right? So in theory a team could still put the right fielder in the shift and have the LF/CF cover the rest of the outfield? -
I applaud MLB for thoroughly vetting these changes in the minor leagues before implementing them. Rave reviews have been coming in from fans who have watched MiLB games this year. I’ve heard that the pitch clock is causing some indirect changes to hitting — less strikeouts, more contact early in counts. It will be interesting to see if that translates to the big leagues.
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I get it, it sucks to lose playing time when you get older. But if it wasn't for the limited playing time he probably wouldn't have even made it to 2022. It was painful to watch him run the bases at times, even going back several years. Respecting veterans does not mean they get an infinite leash when they are costing the team wins. That all said...if we keep hearing complaints about Counsell/upper management, it's eventually going to be a problem. The Hader trade might have been the right statistical move but the consequences to team morale have been severe.
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Season defining game for sure
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Is a stolen base part of slugging % or OBP
owbc replied to Hacksaw Jim Duggan's topic in Milwaukee Brewers Talk
Yep, Adames is arguably the best player on the Brewers this year. Certainly top 3. Wong and Urias are right behind him. I can’t believe we’re having this discussion. The infield is obviously the strength of this team. 1B is our weakest infield position. It’s not even close. -
Yeah the new ceiling for Wisconsin is to get smoked in a quarterfinal which will be essentially a road game somewhere in the south. I would much rather see them play a competitive NY6 game, but I see the appeal of getting a shot against one of the top 4. It just won’t be any fun if they are always at bowl sites. I think they are going to regret doing this unless there is more competitive balance in CFB.
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The moral of the story with Keston is that when your tool is your bat you gotta hit. The dude had a 51 OPS+ for a full season. That’s not going to win you many believers. And yet… he’s only 2 years older than Garrett Mitchell. Keston basically has his whole career ahead of him if he keeps hitting the ball. And we already know he’s capable of doing it.
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Personal attacks are not going to be tolerated on this forum!!!
