Tony-OH

9-0 and Purdue coach calls a smart timeout, if if were the other way around Turgeon wouldn't have called a momentum change TO until we were down by 15 or more. Good start after missing that first shot. Purdue looks out of synch so far.

Quick question, has MD hit their first shot of the game all year?

Well let's see what they can do at home.

Pretty interesting piece overall.

You never know. I'm not saying Buck is a not a good manager for a playoff ready team that needs stability, just that it would be a major transition from where they were going as an organization. Young managers and analytics are all the rage. Not exactly Buck's strengths. Who knows, maybe he's trying to convince him to let him be GM since that's what he wanted to act as here as well.

Haha, I believe you are referring to "Actions speak louder than words!" My wife and I have our shows we watch together and out shows we watch apart because the other won't like it. Buuuuuttttt, we are getting way off topic here. Back the cheating Astros!

Connolly was and apparently still is literally Buck's PR man, so I'm not surprised by his thoughts on this matter.

The game is moving away from hiring guys like Buck, despite his immense experience and baseball knowledge. I would find it pretty funny that if they did hire Buck, he would now be reunited with Sarah Geller who was a Duquette hire to lead Orioles analytics, the same analytics Buck ignored for his own version. Chalk me up as someone who would be surprised if the Astros go this route, but Buck would certainly be the straight and narrow opposite of what they had.

Fairly certain it is possible in this day and age to watch a movie without your wife around. But I could be mistaken!

This is a great point. Precedents have been set for players caught cheating. Cheating by using electronics to steal catcher signs is certainly cheating and all of the players that can be proven that cheated should be suspended some amount of games.

That's a good idea honestly. Make them root themselves out.

This is what he said. He had a handful of incidents over a 100 years of baseball that he tried to use to prove his weak point that getting hit by a pitch causes "brain trauma" or could cause a person to kill themselves after having CTE. Both of which are extreme examples and as I proved with Freel, it wasn't getting hit in the head by pitches that caused his CTE. I understand that the game polices itself, so I don't have issues with guys getting hit on occasion after they went afoul of the "inside baseball rules" as long as it's no where near the head. Just like fighting is part of hockey, I have no issues with a guy getting hit if he deserves it. If that makes me irrational on your eyes or others, that's fine. The Astros players clearly cheated and they potentially cost other players/coaches money or maybe even careers. I could understand if that home run they hit off a guy sent him to the minors, that guy could have potentially lost 100s of thousands of dollars. I certainly could understand that pitcher, if given the opportunity in a non game altering way, drilling that player. I wouldn't blame him a bit.

Haha, apparently they forgot the part about cheating to be good as well!

Not everyone lives in a little fragile world. I played 100s of baseball games, have probably watched 10000 at every conceivable level. I've been hit in the head, arms, ribs, knees, and even my face by baseballs at various speeds up to probably 90+ MPH. I've seen players get hit by pitches up to a 100 MPH. I've jumped out of airplanes in the army and smacked my head on the ground on more landings than I'd like to admit due to wind changes at the last second or just plain high winds. I've played tackle football down the street with my friends with no helmets and I've played tackle football against adults in the army. I've been within 100 yards of a 120 mm rocket coming down on us and within 500 yards of a 240mm rocket landing that felt like the whole world was coming down even though I was inside a house. Despite all that, I'm just fine. Just like the 100,000 of baseball players around the world that have somehow found a way to not have CTE due to getting hit with baseball while at bat. So yes, the risk is minimum, even if someone was trying to hit you on purpose.

It certainly is embarrassing that their World Series winner clearly cheated to get there. Honestly I think they should take away their World Championship, and suspend any player who was involved. They need to come down harder to make sure this doesn't happen again.

"Zimmer, who wasn't wearing a helmet, " Your case is weaker than wet toilet paper.

None of this proves a systematic issue with players getting hit by baseballs getting concussions. No one was suggesting anyone should be hit in the head. Even people who use bean are not talking about getting in the head. You are looking for something to be outraged about here. I'm not taking the bait. Yes, players have been hurt by getting hit with baseballs in the head, but considering the amount of pitches that batters have faced over the last 60 years and the limited amount of actual injuries, few of which were life altering makes this a non issue.

I didn't say I believe him, I just said that's what his excuse was. Seems like weak sauce to me.

Again, refresh my memory of systemic evidence that getting plunked causes brain damage. Brian Roberts had concussions too. they were caused by him hitting himself on the head with his own bat and then sliding head first. I have never seen anyone even vaguely suggest getting hit with baseballs have caused CTE. Ray Chapman is the only player to die as a result of getting beaned and that was before helmets. Even Freel, who said he up to 10 concussions, got them from crashing into walls, othere players, and getting hit on a pickoff throw. No where has anyone suggest that getting plunked is a major cause of concussions. In fact, I would argue catchers have a much better chance of concussion while wearing their mask. Your suggestion that pitchers plunking guys (particularly when no one throws at anyone's head) is some kind of concern for brain injury is hysterical at best. No one should joke about CTE or brain injuries, nor should anyone get all upset over someone suggesting players will provide their own justice to the known cheaters.

I remember they asked him about it after the game, and he said his wife didn't want to see him shirtless out there.

Refresh my memory of all the brain trauma that has occurred from baseball players getting plunked? I must've missed this major concern.

Not sure if this was shared, but here are some videos of them cheating:

For me personally, I find the "wins" metric to be a flawwed. Even WAR doesn't really mean you will win "x" amount of games more or less. This is why defensive metrics have traditionally used runs saved, but I've never been convinced that it very accurately depicts actual runs saved. I believe OAA is just a way to see whether players are better or worse then average compared to their peers. I like the percentile metric to give you an idea where they stand against their peers, however it doesn't necessarily tell you how much a 9th percentile SS hurts you vs a 60th percentile SS. I also like using the success rate added to see the real impact. If they have a -5% success rate added, that means they would get 5% less outs than an average fielder at his position. Over 100 chances that's 5 outs.

I just don't think fielders take their time because they see the runner running at different speeds. I think fielders play each play as quickly as they can with some variances of knowing the average speed of the runner. In other words, fielders will rush a play when Hamilton is running compared to when Pujols is running.

But it doesn't matter. If a guy is dogging it down the line and the infielder sees it and tossed it over, they still get the out. The difficulty of the play would be measured by the average sprint speed because that is the actual difficulty. I would still argue a difficult play would not see a runner dog it down the line.