A Team that is "Fun to Watch" ........ It's All About Wins and Losses, Nothing More, Nothing Less

[Frobby]

The Padres have the most baserunning runs in baseball.    The Braves are 3rd.    How exciting they must be to watch!   I'd hate rooting for Houston (23rd), Cleveland (24th), or Boston (25th)!

[weams]

47 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The Padres have the most baserunning runs in baseball.    The Braves are 3rd.    How exciting they must be to watch!   I'd hate rooting for Houston (23rd), Cleveland (24th), or Boston (25th)!

Hooray. Finally. Clarity of mind and spirit. 

[weams]

56 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Per BP, the O's are -3 in Baserunning Runs.   The best team in baseball is +13 and the worst is -11.     It's a pretty overrated part of the game if you ask me.    Aesthetically pleasing but operationally not very important.   

The absolute most overrated. The one element I do respect, of course, is the defensive boost. 

[weams]

1 hour ago, Babypowder said:

I haven't latched on to any of these teams because I don't enjoy the playing style. Even the years they've been good I haven't really thought of them as being particularly fun to watch. 

I enjoy pitchers who strike people out and hitters who work counts and get on base. These teams have lacked both.

I loved Bob Gibson. And Roger, until I realized it was all the roids. 

[weams]

1 hour ago, tntoriole said:

It has become a different game since the steroid era and with the conventional analytic wisdom of 75 percent success rate for SBs being the minimum acceptable for many teams and the focus on time to the plate etc, speed is now a novelty.  And the number of stolen bases and attempts has markedly decrased over the last 30 years

 

The days of a Maury Wills, a Lou Brock, Rickey Henderson or Vince Coleman are gone probably for good.   It makes  the game that much less appealing a sport overall to me.  The intense pressure that a guy like those above put on another team's pitcher and the excitement they brought were amazing to watch. 

When the mounds were high and you could throw at guy's heads with impunity the sport was different. The concrete covered by plastic fields were a different challenge as well. 

Obviously, all those guys were exceptional. And they were an extremely rare breed. 

 

[tntoriole]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

The Padres have the most baserunning runs in baseball.    The Braves are 3rd.    How exciting they must be to watch!   I'd hate rooting for Houston (23rd), Cleveland (24th), or Boston (25th)!

No argument that in today's game having big guys who strike out at record paces and hit a lot of home runs is a key.    And the winning teams have pitching which always wins.   Just sitting around and watching strikeouts and homeruns day in and day out  is lots of fun too.  

[tntoriole]

47 minutes ago, weams said:

When the mounds were high and you could throw at guy's heads with impunity the sport was different. The concrete covered by plastic fields were a different challenge as well. 

Obviously, all those guys were exceptional. And they were an extremely rare breed. 

 

Yes and watching guys strike out 200 times a year used to be extremely rare too.  And paying them 160 million...even rarer.