drjohnnyfeva

I'd prefer Wildcard's Disease over covid or the flu, seven days a week and twice on Sundays, tho!

...can we put him in the booth?

No normal broom for this bunch, they'll need a power broom...

Marlins have had a lot of rest... :)

Regarding the drafting, is there a method to the madness progression-wise? Do position players take longer to get major league ready than pitchers? With us being in a total rebuild, if that were the case, wouldn't it make sense to draft heavy on position players for a couple years to get lots of players into development before embarking on pitchers so the development curves of the draftees coalesce into a complete unit? It's just a guess, maybe a bad one... I wasn't able to find any data on time to the Bigs as relates to position players and pitchers as separate groups.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29525916/what-2020-mlb-season-bring-all-30-teams This article was printed on 7/29/20. From, The Tankers section at the bottom... "If the Orioles win the World Series, it won't be because they're secretly better than we thought, and they won't ask us to believe it. It'll just be chaos. We'll love it. ...No bad team has ever won, or will win, a World Series. Except this year, one might. As FanGraphs' playoff odds show, cutting the season from 162 games to 60 increased the Tigers' chances of making the playoffs by 20 times. And that was before they doubled the number of playoff teams. It's still unlikely that the Tigers will win the World Series, and the Orioles are so bad that in simulations their odds of making the playoffs barely moved at all. But this season, for the first time in major league history, teams like the Marlins, Orioles, Tigers, Mariners and Royals have actual chances. In a way, this is history, and the Orioles have a chance to make it." There was another article I read that I can't locate now that was actually insulting to the O's, but very funny too. I think most of us get that dichotomy with our club over the past couple decades. Anyway, it said of our chances something to the effect, "...seriously?!" I laughed out loud. I'm glad so far that it hasn't turned out as bad as what was expected by the "experts." At least it's fun to watch. Go O's.

...Let's not forget his 7 Emmy nominations too...

Given the recent trades, pitch count might be "artificially" low for the vet because they want to deal a healthy guy... With everything going on with covid, I'm sort of shocked there are trades going on. Yet that's a two way street, I guess. We benefit from offloading, especially salary like Cobb's, but the Marlins and others might have a need to on-load. Hot stove in August.

Well, the fat lady is warming up in the wings, for sure.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fancy-stats/wp/2018/07/10/analytics-killed-the-bunt-now-a-new-data-driven-strategy-could-bring-it-back-to-life/ The last paragraph gives some interesting info... "In 2015, there were 59 bunt attempts away from the shift, and hitters were successful 73 percent of the time. In 2018, there already have been 62 bunt attempts away from the shift, with better results (a 76 percent success rate). A soft groundball to the opposite field against the shift, by comparison, is successful less than half the time (49 percent). So, if used selectively, as James advocated in 2014, the bunt could again become a valuable weapon against the shift." 73% effectiveness in 2015... and 76% by July 10th of 2018. The data is there. It should be a tool in his toolbox. At the 2:35 mark, our hero actually demonstrates he CAN do it effectively. In baseball, you win when you take advantage of what you are being given. I don't subscribe to the idea that because he's hitting the ball hard into an out that he's doing something right. CD has been doing that consistently since 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aDG-u2KlWo

There were only a small handful of posters on here that even wanted to consider the what-ifs of an outbreak like this. The impact on scheduling was the thing I could never jive given an outbreak of this kind. There are going to be more positives on the Marlins, mark that... probably the Phillies too. So when you basically take a team or two or three out of the schedule for a period of time it screws every thing else up. There's really no way to plan for that other than to let it happen and attempt to deal with it on the fly. MLB has still made no comment on their website about cancellations etc. that I've seen in the last few minutes or this morning for that matter.

...so 12 players on one team are out for a minimum of two weeks and then have to test negative twice over 2 or 3 days, is that correct? So that team is basically playing exhibition type games for 2 weeks if playing at all. 5 or 6 series in jeopardy.

...and is that Mel Allen at the end too? It sure sounds like him.

...even with a deep cleaning, gotta wonder how anxious the Yankees are to go into Philly. Maybe quarantining the visitor's clubhouse and using another area of the stadium as a team area. This could get really messy.

...so that's six today. If that's six more tomorrow, there goes the series. Just wait now for the Phillies guys to start testing positive that impacts 2 upcoming series. It seems almost impossible to me how contagious this thing seems to be that they will be able to maintain a schedule. It's what I was critical of from the beginning. Had to know there were going to be outbreaks like this... btw, I'm not criticizing, they had to give it a go after all of the negotiation-water under the bridge.

Bravo, that's the thing. He's got the whole side of the infield open. It is certainly NOT something he has put any work into. It looks like he's worked to continue hitting into the shift over the past two seasons. In a normal bunting situation, you have 3 players within a playable distance to the ball: 3b or 1b and the P and C. In CD's case there is one player that can make a play on a well bunted ball that could even be a pusher or a slapper not a traditional bunt. If he were to take the time to develop that skill of placing the ball on the grass of the 3b side 1/2 or more up the line, he'd be on base. If he were able to put a little power into it and get it beyond the base he definitely makes it. Just on numbers of at bats 300/ season. If he bunts once every two games and there's 8 ab's and we say that he's successful half of those times that's 1/16 if we factor two more hits in for him to average 3/16 that's .188. Another bunt gets him to 4/16 and a BA of .225. That would best his totals for his last 3 years. The problem with this argument is that most who disagree, disagree with what bunting and the bunting numbers have come to be seen as over the years - - - an automatic out. True enough, but that's with fielders playing shallow and an athletic quickness to the ball. Given. THAT is NOT this situation. The hit is being given, the fielders are saying take it by their positioning, and it is not being taken because of either ineptitude in doing it or outright stubbornness to attempt to adapt to the game and what's being GIVEN. By learning to do it even modestly well and forcing honesty in position play, the right side of the IF would have to be opened up even slightly to him and maybe that's enough to see a little more production. I'm pretty dubious on any changes when it comes his approach tho, or the team really insisting on anything different.

1979 was a heartbreaker. I was 10 that year and being up 3-1 I felt like we had it locked up. One of life's hard lessons that it ain't over til the fat lady sings. In this case it was Sister Sledge and I hated that song so lmuch it was even banned from being played at my wedding. I told the DJ that if he played that song I'd sock him in the nose. He was much bigger than me and I was glad when I didn't have to sock him. My favorite was the 1988 World Series. I've always loved the A's but found myself rooting for the Dodgers after the game one excitement of Kirk Gibson's classic game winning walk off homer off of Eckersley - who I didn't like at all from his BoSox days against the O's. Anyway, I found myself pulling for the Dodgers despite the great season the A's had and how much I had enjoyed seeing that team play that summer.

Bunt singles are not automatic anymore than looking at a third strike. I'd prefer a bunt out.

This is the POV I tend to gravitate toward. I'm not saying to go full on MiL with attractions and stuff - - - altho some of that would be nice - - - but in fielding a rebuilding team, do something interesting occasionally. CD's position could be filled by a feel good story without doing anything to the competitive balance of the team. The Yaz thread is evidence of this to me. He should have at least gotten a showing on our terrible team... one would think.

Brandon Hyde is not going to tell Chris Davis to lay down a bunt. They aren't interested in CD doing that. They are interested in CD hitting HR's and driving in runs. Since he can't do that AND won't take it on himself to try to do something different, we're stuck with him until he decides to go. I just wish they would park him on the bench and move on or just release him. He is the most enormous albatross in the history of albatrosses.

Notwithstanding the drubbing, it was just difficult to watch. I like Scott Garceau, but the commentary was not engaging and made it difficult to stay into it. It was eerily quiet at times. Not that I really expected it to be any different, but it seemed more like a Spring Training game than the real thing.

Yeah, I'll be rooting for this too.

I'm officially entering a vote of 21 wins. I think the fact that we're so Division heavy really hurts us.

I didn't think of that, but if an admin wants to add one that would be cool. 17-18 would be .283 - .300. 19-21 = .317 - .350. 22- 24 .367 - .400 Higher than that seems like bonus territory, but if anyone wants to add higher levels... have at it.