Tony-OH

Exactly. I never found NL baseball fun to watch, particularly early in games when there would be a rally going with maybe 2nd and 3rd and one out with the 8th hitter coming up. All the pitchers does is pitch around (basically intentionally walk) the 8th batter and go after the .370 OPS pitcher coming next who wails away before striking out. I really don't have an issue if NL fans like it and they want to play without the DH when it's pure NL playing, but anytime they play an AL team the DH should be allowed.

Fun read, nice job @Eric-OH

Stowers is struggling in Delmarva in my sim.

I don't disagree with that at all. It just hate non-DH baseball at the professional level. I hate watching an automatic out bat and destroy a good rally. I'd rather watch nine actual hitters bat.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/05/12/orioles-bats-stay-cold-in-loss/ 14-28 for these awful Orioles. This team has gone 5-20 in their last 25 games. That's actually not the easy to be that bad.

This is 100% true. The excitement of the home run has been marginalized because of how many are being hit.

I can tell you what, if the player's union ends up bulking over money and the season goes down the drain this year, it could have catastrophic effects on the future of baseball. Baseball has already lost interest in the African-American communities and with online gaming becoming an actual competitive sport, I could see baseball going downhill quickly. Baseball has become such a sport of haves and have nots that we have this whole culture of teams basically losing on purpose for high draft picks. How will the Orioles ever be able to compete consistently on this uneven playing field when they start receiving even less money from MASN, and after losing a generation of Orioles fans to either the Nats or other sports/recreational activities? This team hasn't been to the World Series since 1983 (37 years) and has only really been a true World Series contender once since 1997 (2014). In a world that loves winners, it's hard to find large groups of new fans with their losing ways. When you add in the city's troubles, and you can see why attendance has fallen five straight years since 2014 until it was smallest in Camden Yard history last year. Last year's attendance was the smallest since 1978 over full season. I fear that COVID19 just might be the death nail for the Orioles and potentially baseball unless they can do something to get baseball back on the field this year. People are not going to take too kindly to being cooped up and knowing that baseball players could be out there playing but won't because their union wants more of the share of the Billions.

And commercials. Noticed they really didn't cut down the in between inning times because that's where their commercials come into play. I'd rather see more in game sponsored stuff then the same 10 commercials that I can quote word for word by May every year on MASN. Mostly the game has changed because the strike zones got smaller, guys starter going deeper into counts for the most part, and of course the fact that guys are now all trying to hit home runs which means more strikeouts. Also teams like the Yankees and Red Sox that have lots of guys who will just foul pitch after pitch off until they get a mistake they can mash. I kinda toyed with the idea of starting the count at 1-1 and once you get to two strikes, you get two fouls, on the third you are out. This would encourage batters to put the ball in play more.

Yeah, walking or pitching around the 8th hitter to load the bases so you can pitch to an automatic out is real strategy. Watching your pitcher run around the bases then get tired and come out and get a hammered the next inning is a blast. But man, those double switches, my God those are exciting and takes a genius to pull those off correctly. I agree though, these shortening the game things are pretty bad outside of making the batters stay in the box and pitch clock (which no one ever calls even when it goes out).

One of my self-imposed limitations was to try and be as realistic as possible which meant not cutting Davis or Cobb yet. I'm trying to hold out until Memorial Day and the n I will cut Davis. Cobb of course is injured in my sim so he can't be moved. I also won't play or trade Mancini since neither would happen while he's recovering from Cancer. But, the best thing about these sims is you can create the world you want. I am enjoy my current outfield of Yusniel Diaz, Austin Hays and Aristide Aquino and DJ Stewart at DH has been a nice surprise.

Exactly. Especially when the owners started off with a 50/50 revenue split option. That's sounds pretty fair without knowing all the specifics.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/05/11/angels-hold-0n-for-win-7-5-2/ More pitching moves or as I like to say, rearranging the chairs on the Titanic that is the Orioles pitching staff. Actually that's being kind. The Titanic floated for a bit at least.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/05/11/orioles-organization-sim-stats-after-30-games/ Hays still on rookie of year pace.. Rutschman hitting well Grayson Rodriguez better Mountcastle and Hall have been bad

Tony Clark and the player's union are going to have to get their heads our of their ass and realize that baseball needs a salary cap like every other major sport. Baseball can not continue to exists with the haves and have nots. If the player's union block the baseball season this year, this will be a major hit for a sport that can't afford bad publicity. They have the opportunity to be perhaps the first major sport to start play for a country in need of normalcy, even if it's a no fan or limited fan in stadium experience. Baseball has to be willing to change and that means the Player's union has to be willing to understand that when players are making a minimum of 570K a year while stars are still be handed out $30 million a year contracts (guaranteed despite awful performance sometimes), that they still have it pretty damn good. They are not going to win the fans approval if they destroy a season over greed.

I'm not thrilled with it, but I'll be happy to watch fanless TV baseball instead of nothing.

Good lord yes. They are literally the two worse places to watch MLB. I like the idea of perhaps rotating Divisions a bit, year by year. I do agree though there's a decent chance the players union will end up causing this season to go down the drain. It will be ashamed and I'm not sure MLB can recover from missing an entire season.

The players union is going to have to give as they can't expect players to be paid for the same amount with less games and limited to no fans of concessions. Saying that, the teams are going to have to open up the books.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/sports/mlb-owners-approve-giving-players-union-plan-to-start-season-in-july-source/2299412/?fbclid=IwAR3BGqKds-kDNXBKdymrf61ot2aR6hKVNFbh9hHueNnZVjNBsHLgBdVpPGc I'm all for it! At this point, they can play any schedule under any rules, just get baseball back on the field! I will say I love the fact they want to expand the DH to the NL. That's been needed for so long it's not funny. I also like the idea of playing mostly against regional teams for this short season. That lessons the travel overall and requires less off days to catch up for travel. I'm hoping they change the leagues and Divisions around anyways, going to a more East vs West for leagues or focusing Divisions to being based on region and economic factors.

I'm also going to close this up and start a new thread to focus on the new proposal so we can get away from a lot of the other non-baseball stuff.

I'm all for it! At this point, they can play any schedule under any rules, just get baseball back on the field! I will say I love the fact they want to expand the DH to the NL. That's been needed for so long it's not funny. I also like the idea of playing mostly against regional teams for this short season. That lessons the travel overall and requires less off days to catch up for travel. I'm hoping they change the leagues and Divisions around anyways, going to a more East vs West for leagues or focusing Divisions to being based on region and economic factors.

I'm not a big fan of openers though I won't rule them out. It might be a decent way to use a better pitcher to get through the top and middle portions of the lineup before turning it over to start with the lower half of the lineup, but it just seems like you potentially will burn through your bullpen too quickly using openers unless you stock your pen with long relievers spot starter types.

He's rated three stars and is only 25-years old. Says he throws 91-93 with three average pitches. He more a 1-2 inning guy so won't stretch out, but could be use to setup here and there. For some reason the White Sox have been trying to dump him in trades and when I shopped around Mickey Jannis, I was surprised he was offered up.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/05/10/angels-hold-0n-for-win-7-5/ Minor League trade and moves as well.

Thanks. The new acquisitions have mostly been pretty good so far. Aquino and DeLeon have been good and Sims has been good at AAA. Glenn Sparkman tends to give up homers but is a decent longman, ditto for Wilmer Font (if this guy doesn't have Wingdings for a nickname, his teamates have failed him). Stewart has been really good and will play everyday at DH with an outfield of Diaz, Hays and Aquino. It's a little right-handed heavy but having Dwight Smith on the bench helps a bit for now though I'd like to see Santander hit in AAA and bring him back up. He was basically Cedric Mullins bad so he needs to go down and get his head right. The new guys have been fun to play with and although the wins haven't been often, I like this lineup better than before. Oh, and Velazquez will play everyday against righties at 2B since Alberto has struggled.

This was a fun one. Austin Hays continues his great rookie season. https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/05/08/orioles-bring-out-the-bats-in-a-7-1-win-over-angels/