Sessh

I wouldn't say it's needless if it means getting the call right. Besides, take away replays and you'd just have delays in the form of managers arguing with umpires for a couple minutes. I would prefer to make the replay process better and faster as opposed to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It's a good idea, but it is not implemented as efficiently as it can be. The problem is the people at home can determine what the right call is five minutes before the replay judges do. The problem isn't replay itself.

My thoughts exactly. It's quite bizarre what is being bandied about these days. The direction things are going right now is not good IMO. Baseball is in trouble especially with Tony Clark being perfectly fine with another strike in 2021 and that such an idea is gaining traction with players from what I've been reading. Another strike will kill baseball, again, JMO. It will certainly be over for me and I'm already hanging on by a thread, it seems. Some of these changes are drastic and I don't think I have the energy to really dig in, but I will say I disagree with forcing the DH with a rule. I think it should be decided by the home team before every game whether or not both teams will use or not use the DH in both leagues. I don't understand why it has to be enforced one way or the other. Give teams the option and see how it shakes out. Many of these other proposed rule changes are just depressing. Prioritizing game time over everything else can't possibly end well for the sport.

So, what all has he done now? He grabbed the leg of the guy turning a double play while sliding into second base twice, didn't hustle on a play that he may have beaten out if he did and intentionally kicked the first baseman's leg when running past him. Sounds pretty dirty to me and the lack of hustle is something we saw plenty of when he was here. He comes out publicly and flat out says he doesn't hustle and isn't going to start hustling more (the new Manny being Manny), so what precedent is that going to set when he (likely) gets the biggest contract of the offseason? Also, Machado saying he was "trying to step over" Aguilar's foot when he kicked him sounds a lot like Roger Clemens not being able to tell the difference between the barrel of a broken bat and a baseball and forgot that he wasn't supposed to throw the ball at the runner after fielding it. Machado dragged his foot on the ground (presumably to slow the momentum of his leg so he didn't kick Aguilar too hard) and deliberately kicked him. It's not throwing a bat, but he intentionally kicked a guy when it could have easily been avoided. How do you try to "step over" him by dragging your foot on the ground right into his ankle? He's lying right to people's faces about something completely obvious to everyone else. It's a classic "don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining" situation IMO. I never cared much for Manny's attitude and he has really let it all out this postseason. Meh, I'm glad he's gone. I only wish we would have dealt him a year or so earlier. BTW, a 10 grand suspension is a joke. MLB might as well have fined him $1. What message is a $10,000 fine supposed to send to a multimillionaire about to break the bank? I am sure Manny being Manny is going to be in the headlines more and more especially after he gets paid.

Not anymore. :)

This is about right. Almost everyone on here overvalued these two especially Gausman. His FIP has been lower than his ERA two years in a row now. He had a 1.50 WHIP last year which wayy below average and downright horrible for a starting pitcher. This year, it's closing in on 1.40. He has been a different pitcher overall these last two years. Maybe he finds it again once he gets out of this mess in Baltimore, but most folks on here were expecting way too much.

Not surprised at all with Ohtani. Throws 100mph and has a full inverted L at footstrike. Personally, I don't think he'll last long as a pitcher especially throwing that hard. Not surprised with Harvey either nor is "instability" a very good word to use. Sounds like big trouble to me. Haven't seen much of the other guys, but looking at Santana's delivery there, pretty obvious where the problems are. Arm injuries will continue to increase as proper mechanics are sacrificed for velocity by "stretching the rubber bands" as VATech put it. It is the biggest reason for the likely continued increase in pitching arm injuries. Increased velocity is killing the arms. Even the strongest rubber bands wear out and break eventually if abused like this for long enough. Since I doubt any of this will change, perhaps maintenance PRP injections (HGH would be better) in pitching elbows/shoulders first thing in the offseason could help keep the rubber bands healthy. Doing nothing will change nothing.

I double checked this and it was actually 1961. The injection was amphetamines and steroids apparently.

Mythbusters did a show about corked bats and determined that balls hit with corked bats did not travel as far or as fast as balls struck with normal bats. Corked bats don't help at all except possibly in a psychological way. It doesn't make the ball go further, though. Therefore, not cheating. Second, Mantle got a bad infection in 1953 from an amphetamines injection, so he most certainly used them. We don't really know when steroids became commonplace in baseball. Only that they were rampant in the 60's. Were they in the 50's? We may never know the answer to that, but there likely was increased use throughout the 50's. Mantle certainly was into amphetamine injections, though. Mays admitted to using "something" and Aaron admitted using them in his book. Amphetamines will improve hand/eye coordination, reaction time, concentration levels and energy levels. Steroids make the ball go further when you make contact, but don't help you to hit a baseball like amphetamines do. I would argue the former is more of a performance enhancer than the latter. They don't cause bulk, but they don't need to either. Second, the quality and effectiveness of the drugs increased substantially in the 80's and especially the 90's. The drugs got a lot better and so did the results. I don't even consider it cheating TBH since the whole league was doing something. For the most part, everyone was on an even playing field. I imagine I would try out some of the PED's myself. If I chose to not use, well that's my choice. I wouldn't expect the whole league to change for me. If I don't want to use, then it'll be harder for me. That's fine. I don't really think it's special, though. It's personal preference to use or not to use. The whole "PEDs in sports" thing is hardly a new development. By not using, you know what you're up against. If Griffey really didn't use anything, there's your shining example of succeeding without help. Of course, not failing a test doesn't really absolve anyone of guilt and I would bet Griffey did use early on. He's my favorite player ever either way. Superhuman feats usually require some help since we're not superhuman. Superhuman feats are part of the allure of sports IMO. It's incredible what athletes can do in any sport. I have to wonder whether or not sports without PEDs would have become as popular as they are now. Professional athletes display superhuman abilities and I would bet most of them are on something to help them achieve it. I really have no problem with it. As far as people denying ever using and playing clean, I don't even necessarily believe them anymore. How many guys have claimed with absolute sincerity and indignation that they never took steroids only to find out they were complete liars. What are they supposed to say? Palmeiro went over the top denying his steroid use while knowing the WHOLE TIME he had failed a test already and that this truth would certainly come out soon? Besides, if all the "cheaters" were exposed, MLB would need to start bringing fans in to play games as replacement players because the real players would all be suspended. Again, this isn't a winnable fight. It's already lost. You can't go back now. I think the only way to really get a handle on this is compromise instead of just banning everything. Look at the PED's individually and determine which are too dangerous to take at any dose and keep them illegal while making others legal to use, but ONLY under the supervision of team doctors who will monitor for side effects and control dosage. Any player found taking PED's outside of that restriction are suspended for a year without pay, no appeal. HGH should be completely legal as well and a mandatory part of any injury recovery program, but only under the supervision of a team doctor. Using it outside of that restriction is a one year suspension without pay, no appeal. This has to be a give and take thing. You can't just take, take, take (prohibition) and expect everyone to be cool with that.

Back then, this stuff wasn't that big a deal. You wouldn't expect to see a ton of stories on it. Pud Galvin was the first to use testosterone as a performance enhancer in 1889 and actually saw a brief resurgence in his career. Whether or not the elixir actually did anything is debatable, but it proves that athletes have been willing to risk it all for a longer or more productive career for over 100 years. Ruth using sheep testosterone after this happened is by no means unreasonable to believe nor is it a significant revelation really. To add to the general discussion, Cocaine was legal into the early 1900's and methamphetamine was synthesized in 1887, so that has also been around for a long time. Anabolic steroids were synthesized in the mid 1930's and won a Nobel prize. Steroids were being used by olympic athletes in the 1940's and were rampant in MLB in the 60's according to Tom House. Amphetamines were available in every clubhouse as well. The whole idea of a "steroid era" is ridiculous. PED's are as old as sports themselves and aren't going anywhere. People will just do a better job of not getting caught. There's plenty of undetectable PED's that have been around for years. Why any players still use the detectable stuff is a mystery to me. Drug prohibition doesn't work, it never has and never will. It only creates a thriving black market to meet the demands. Clemens also never failed a test and neither did Bonds. The testing program only catches the ones with the bad chemists. Keeping players out of the HOF now for using PED's is also ridiculous. Mays, Aaron, Mantle and probably just about everyone back then used some form of PED's especially greenies. Both amphetamines and steroids were rampant in baseball for a long time. The HOF is overflowing with "cheaters" and it is hypocritical to decide now to start keeping guys out while considering all the accomplishments of the PED users of the past to be completely legitimate despite having the help of PEDs that players today can't have and whose numbers would immediately be discarded as "tainted" or some word like that. Yeah, that seems fair and logical. I don't care who uses what, it's their bodies. Whether people like it or not, performance enhancing drugs are part of the fabric of sports and have been for a long, long time. People will just get around the testing program, it's easy with the drug technologies today and the smart players can do it and I'm sure they're doing it right now. It's not a winnable fight as the drug wars in general have proven over and over again.

At footstrike, his arm isn't up and he also takes his arm behind his body.

Sure! Another problem with all of this is that applying torque on the shoulder actually increases velocity while also increasing the chance of injury, so "bad" mechanics actually produce desirable results.. for awhile. Unfortunately, it also increases the chance of injury along with velocity. Elbow and shoulder injuries happen due to wear and tear over time and not from a single pitch or anything like that, so the elbow and shoulder gradually wear down until something "breaks". We also notice that velocity is often the first thing to go. This can all be summarized into something called Valgus Elbow Stress and there have been studies done on this. Here is the abstract of one such study if you wish to read it. The following four variables account for 97% percent of variance with valgus elbow stress: Shoulder abduction angle at instant of stride foot contact (positive correlation) Peak shoulder horizontal adduction angular velocity (positive correlation) Elbow angle at instant of peak valgus torque (negative correlation) Maximum shoulder external rotation torque (negative correlation) The second point, for example, basically refers to a pitcher who takes his arm behind his body during his delivery. The arm must get to the ready position in order to throw, so it's further away from where it has to be in order to throw and must "catch up" to the right position before a throw can be made. This produces a slingshot type effect which is where the increased velocity comes from, but it's at the expense of the ligaments whose limits are exceeded over and over again with each pitch until something breaks. Plenty of the guys in the pics above do this. There's also the thing that pitching coaches are hesitant to mess with a pitcher's mechanics for fear of "messing them up". Proper mechanics should be taught at an early age, but there's so much emphasis on velocity that this kind of stuff is facilitated. More and more pitchers are needing TJ surgeries even kids and though the success rates are decent, it's still a big problem and it starts at the little league level IMO.

Yup, that's more or less how a pitcher should look at footstrike. The biggest contributor to arm injuries is the arm not being up in that ready position at footstrike which means it then has to "catch up" to the body very quickly. This puts a ton of strain on both the shoulder and the elbow because in order to catch up, they must rotate forcefully and quickly. Look at these images of pitchers who have had or are having arm injuries and look at where their arm is at footstrike. It's not up. Of course, there's always exceptions, but this is exceedingly common to find in pitchers who have had arm injuries and can be, to some extent, a predictor for the future. I've not much doubt that the biggest cause of arm injuries are bad mechanics that put unnecessary stress on the arm and shoulder. Of course, such things can also cause sudden drops in velocity. Dylan Bundy Jordan Montgomery Mark Prior Shaun Marcum Adam Wainwright AJ Burnett BJ Ryan Stephen Strasburg Hunter Harvey Chris Ray Yu Darvish Joel Zumaya Chris Carpenter John Smoltz Compare that with guys that were able to stay relatively injury free over their careers. Justin Verlander Nolan Ryan Greg Maddux Roger Clemens I can't really think of too many guys that avoided serious arm injuries for an entire career, though. There are certainly other risk factors, but I was pretty serious about researching into this particular thing many years ago and there certainly does seem to be a high level of correlation with this and incidence or likelihood of injury. It's so common in baseball. Others of note: Kevin Gausman Shohei Ohtani (wow is this bad looking) Masahiro Tanaka Chris Sale

Here's his highlights from yesterday's game: Flaherty robs Herrera of a hit Three Run No Doubter Broken Bat RBI Single The question is not whether he can hit .400 or something ridiculous like that, but if he can be a serviceable everyday player over the course of a whole season. The Braves are certainly going to give him the opportunity. Good on him. Let's see what he does with it.

Perhaps. There's also the possibility that he's not trying to hit for power and crank everything out of the park like the Orioles do. He's also striking out less and walking more. Flaherty is probably best suited to be a contact hitter anyway. Of course, it's way too early to draw any conclusions as you say, but there may be more to this than just statistics. It's not like they don't have a book on Flaherty this being his 7th year in the league.

Uh huh, but both are below average and both are really bad seasons. The point is he has played this badly before and it shouldn't be surprising considering how much he was valued by the teams he has played for. That is to say he wasn't valued much at all and now, we have people on here suggesting we do a salary dump on him as well. Also not a surprise. Trumbo isn't a very good overall ballplayer. We would have been better off with Kim in left and Mancini in right than to have Trumbo/Smith in right field. Also, agree about Hays. I don't know why people get so worked up about guys doing well on the farm. It is inferior pitching/hitting they are facing and is nothing compared to what they will see in the majors. I want to see a solid season in the majors at the very least before I start getting excited about someone on the farm. Sure, it's encouraging to see guys doing well, but it doesn't mean anything if they can't replicate that success at the highest level. Most can't. We really won't know if Hays can since it's more important to have him on the bench instead of on the field.

He put up an almost identical slash line with Arizona in 2014, but in fewer games, so it shouldn't be that surprising. Thing is Trumbo is just the kind of player to suddenly fall off a cliff production wise. I would even say he may not even be in baseball at all in five years. He can't play D, he can't get on base, he doesn't run well and he doesn't hit for average. All he does is one thing and doesn't do it nearly well enough to offset how bad the rest of his game is. What he did in 2015 is basically who he is and he's not going to get better. 2014 (88g) - .235/.293/.413 (.707 OPS) 2017 (134g) - .240/.293/.413 (.707 OPS)

The thing is Trumbo has bounced back. He bounced back to the guy he really is. You know, the guy that was so bad that the M's traded him for Steve Clevinger just to get rid of his salary? We even got C.J. Reifenhauser on top of Trumbo for Steve F'in Clevinger. That guy. The guy that hit 47 home runs last season almost certainly had some help and was not something that would be sustainable. Every team in baseball knew that except the Orioles, of course. This is who Trumbo is... without the help. Of course, I can't prove that he used something, but seems pretty obvious to me. Contract year as well. Even still, it was an anomalous year.. obviously. I can't see how anyone would reasonably expect him to be that player going forward.

I know I am in the minority here, but I've just never been that high on Schoop. I don't see anything "wow" about him. He seems like the typical "boom or bust" hitter with no discipline, BA in the .260-.270 range, OBP south of .300 and slugging around .450. I don't know, I just don't see it or his power holding up. He had very little power above A ball in the minors and he gets to the majors and suddenly, he has power? I still don't know where it came from. Maybe he just "filled out" or whatever, but it strikes me as odd. He currently has a wRC+ of 94 and I know there's a lot of season left, but Schoop does not have the batting skill to make up for his almost complete lack of discipline. He is not as good a hitter as Jones who has been able to get away with it up to this point and I don't think Schoop's "power" is real or sustainable. I know some of you could throw stats at me to show how wrong I am, but until I see something other than what I've seen from him, I don't think I'll budge off of that opinion. He is a good defender at least, but is prone to mental collapses that result in two error innings on a random basis. He's done that at least twice this year already, I believe.

The bat didn't go in foul territory. It went down the third base line in fair territory.

In every country and league where baseball is played, home runs are pimped. Bat flips and pimping is all over the place in the KBO and NPB because they realize baseball is a game and want to see players having fun out there. Who doesn't cry about bad strike/ball calls? Who hasn't and doesn't? No one cries about that more than fans and their cries for "robo umps" and players will always get away with roiding. If you want to place blame for that, there's plenty of people in line ahead of David Ortiz. Anyway, no one's mind will be changed and it wasn't my intention to try to do that, but that's some pretty heavy weight to put on one guy for doing things that are widespread in baseball. In Japan, they juice the ball and don't even try to hide it anymore. The cat is out of the PED bag in MLB and you can't put it back in now, so that's a lot of hate to spread around and a lot of energy wondering who is doing what instead of just enjoying the games which is what I prefer to do most of the time.

I guess I just don't have enough "homer" in me. :laughlol: Gregg kind of instigated that incident, though.

I don't get all the hate for Ortiz just because he went ballistic in the dugout. This is an emotional game and far from the first time a guy has gone ballistic in the dugout in one way or another even with a bat. There have been NHL coaches throwing benches on the ice in protest and what about Bobby Knight throwing chairs? Didn't Machado throw a bat at Donaldson on purpose and then lie about it? How many players have broken bats over their knees in anger? I get that people here hate the Red Sox or any team not the Orioles, but you'd think Ortiz was the only guy to ever lose it over balls and strikes or for any reason and give themselves over to anger in the dugout afterwards reading these boards. Several water coolers have lost their lives in MLB dugouts as well. [video=youtube;L7LKbCWe8Eo] [video=youtube;McNasAVgKxc]

Nor do I.

Who cares? The discussion is what matters. No one cares or remembers who starts the threads. Seriously, who cares? You're going to argue with the mods over this? He asked you to PM him, so why continue the discussion here and derail the thread?

Oops, added the link.