MLB and Union talk major rule changes

[Beef Supreme]

On 2/7/2019 at 1:55 PM, atomic said:

Baseball isn't going to give you diabetes.  Really I don't drink soda but Coca Cola never really changed their formula back.  When they went to new coke they went from using Sugar to Corn Syrup. When they supposedly went back to the old flavor they still used Corn Syrup.  So I am not sure what your example is supposed to prove. Maybe interesting in a business class but has nothing to do with the situation.  Unless you want us to trick you into thinking nothing changed. 

And originally Coca Cola had cocaine in it.  

Baseball has issues. You can ignore them and by the time you got around to fixing the issues it would be too late to save. 

No, Coca-Cola switched from cane sugar to high-fructose corn syrup in the late 1970s, long before the introduction of "new Coke" in 1985. The U.S. government was subsidizing GMO corn, making HFCS cheaper than cane sugar. Additionally, legislation had been passed in the mid-1970's mandating that domestically grown sweetener comprise @ 50% of total sweetener sold.

Coca-Cola was trying to make its product taste more like Pepsi with the change of its formula to "new Coke" in an attempt to steal market share. What they failed to imagine was that many of its customers disliked the taste of Pepsi.

[Bahama O's Fan]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Who are your top 10?

I am curious about this too

[Beef Supreme]

10 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'm sure the combination of no warmup pitches and a dasterdly 2 degree difference in the slope of the mound will have catastropic effects that the game will never recover from.

I'm trying to figure out why you think that pitchers can automatically adjust to pitching off of a new mound without at least three warmup pitches. Maybe it's just something that is not in your personal experience, but warming up on one mound and then pitching from a different mound is a significant adjustment to make. I guarantee that first-pitch balls by mid-inning relievers would explode. If first pitches by mid-inning relievers have been strikes 60% of the time, I would be willing to wager that abolishing warmup pitches would result in more first-pitch balls than strikes. 

[Beef Supreme]

On 2/7/2019 at 8:14 AM, DrungoHazewood said:

3. I don't really care about the mound.  I don't think we have enough data to know the impact.  We have stories about huge mounds corresponding to low runs, but little actual evidence.  When they started enforcing the mound height in '69 (?) they also tinkered with the strike zone, right?  Hard to tell which was the  predominant cause of the offensive blip, espeically since offense stayed low in the early 70s.  What was it... '73, '74? when the O's allowed 450 runs all year and didn't even win the division?

The Orioles won the AL East in both 1973 and 1974. They lost to Oakland in the playoffs both years.

Maybe 1972? Or 1975, when Jim Palmer threw 10 shutouts?

[OFFNY]

o

In the strike-shortened 1972 season, the Orioles had a collective ERA that was considerably better than that of the legendary 1971 team, which boasted four 20-game winners. They also had a slightly better WHIP than did the 1971 Orioles.

Their collective ERA that season was 2.53 (compared to the 1971 team's 2.99), and their collective WHIP was 1.102 (compared to the 1971 team's 1.182.)

That 1972 team went 80-74 overall, with 8 unplayed games due to the early-season strike. They allowed 386 Earned Runs in those 154 games that were played.

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BAL/1972.shtml

 

The Tigers won the division that year by only 1/2 of a game. I remember being puzzled when I read the newspaper the afternoon after the final game of the season, wondering how a team could win a division by less than a full game (I was in 2nd grade.) One of my older brothers later told me that that was allowed because of the early-season strike, which cancelled a different number of games for different teams.

 

http://www.shrpsports.com/mlb/stand/1972finaldiv.htm

 

Quirk in Schedule Helped Tigers to the A.L. East Division Title in '72

(By Dan Holmes)

https://www.detroitathletic.com/blog/2013/07/12/quirk-in-schedule-gave-72-tigers-the-al-east-division-title/

 

o

[DrungoHazewood]

11 hours ago, Beef Supreme said:

I'm trying to figure out why you think that pitchers can automatically adjust to pitching off of a new mound without at least three warmup pitches. Maybe it's just something that is not in your personal experience, but warming up on one mound and then pitching from a different mound is a significant adjustment to make. I guarantee that first-pitch balls by mid-inning relievers would explode. If first pitches by mid-inning relievers have been strikes 60% of the time, I would be willing to wager that abolishing warmup pitches would result in more first-pitch balls than strikes. 

Fine, give them three warmups, but still give them 45 seconds from call of "new pitcher" until the batter steps in.  Even better, give them as many warmups as they can get in, in 45 seconds.

[Tx Oriole]

12 hours ago, Beef Supreme said:

No, Coca-Cola switched from cane sugar to high-fructose corn syrup in the late 1970s, long before the introduction of "new Coke" in 1985. The U.S. government was subsidizing GMO corn, making HFCS cheaper than cane sugar. Additionally, legislation had been passed in the mid-1970's mandating that domestically grown sweetener comprise @ 50% of total sweetener sold.

Coca-Cola was trying to make its product taste more like Pepsi with the change of its formula to "new Coke" in an attempt to steal market share. What they failed to imagine was that many of its customers disliked the taste of Pepsi.

I try to buy Coke made in Mexico. They use real sugar not the artificial sweetener crap. Also try to buy foods that don't use GMOs if I can.

[Beef Supreme]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Fine, give them three warmups, but still give them 45 seconds from call of "new pitcher" until the batter steps in.  Even better, give them as many warmups as they can get in, in 45 seconds.

That is much better. I would go 1 minute, instead. 15 seconds for the pitcher to respond to leave the bullpen and jog at a good clip to the mound, 15 seconds to discuss signs with the catcher as well as the upcoming batter, 5 seconds for the catcher to run back behind the plate and crouch...that leaves, hopefully, 25 seconds to deliver 3-4 warmup pitches. That's a quicker change than we normally see plus it still allows time to squeeze in one or two 15-second screen-in-screen commercials -- which will be crucial to expand if baseball is serious about shortening games while maintaining advertising revenue.

[Camden_yardbird]

23 hours ago, Tx Oriole said:

The game was so much better back in the 50's and 60's. Mays, Brooks and players of that era are ones I grew up watching. MLB safer? It's safer now than it was. The batting helmets are stronger. Isn't brush back pitches illegal now? Gibson didn't give a damn if he hit a batter. Now a pitcher can be tossed from the game if he accidentally hit the batter. Yes I guess the game has to change to bring younger folks into the audience. 

I was talking football but sure, baseball too.

[Beef Supreme]

20 minutes ago, Tx Oriole said:

I try to buy Coke made in Mexico. They use real sugar not the artificial sweetener crap. Also try to buy foods that don't use GMOs if I can.

It's almost that time of year when certain local Coca-Cola bottlers will be selling "Pesach" Coca-Cola. This is as close as we can get to domestically produced, cane sugar-based Coca-Cola. Especially if you live near a predominantly Jewish area, Pesach Coca-Cola, i.e. "kosher for Passover," uses "sucrose" as its sweetener rather than the unctious, cloying, goopy HFCS. Whoops, I forgot "far more unhealthy" HFCS. The difference in flavor is shocking! In a blind taste-test, only a tiny fraction of people would not be able to tell a significant difference between the flavor of the two different sodas. But you can tell there is a difference even before tasting Pesach Coca-Cola. Pour a glass of Pesach Coke and you'll witness an explosion of tiny, champagne-like bubbles that maintain a head for an extended period. When  pouring a regular Coke, the bubbles are much larger and they dissipate almost immediately. Apparently, the CO2 gets beaten down immediately by the thick, heavy syrup of HFCS, but is really able to bloom like a beer head when sucrose is employed instead of HFCS.

As for what "sucrose" means in Coca-Cola's labeling, my hope is that it is cane sugar, but it may instead be beet sugar (I believe that information may be proprietary). Beet sugar is nothing like HFCS. Like cane sugar, manufacturing of beet sugar is a "crush, boil, dry" method. The black magic of making GMO corn into HFCS includes numerous reactions with multiple chemical agents including sulphuric acid and GMO enzymes. Meanwhile there is contradictory information online about exactly which sweetener(s) is/are used in  Mexican Coke.

[Tx Oriole]

19 minutes ago, Beef Supreme said:

It's almost that time of year when certain local Coca-Cola bottlers will be selling "Pesach" Coca-Cola. This is as close as we can get to domestically produced, cane sugar-based Coca-Cola. Especially if you live near a predominantly Jewish area, Pesach Coca-Cola, i.e. "kosher for Passover," uses "sucrose" as its sweetener rather than the unctious, cloying, goopy HFCS. Whoops, I forgot "far more unhealthy" HFCS. The difference in flavor is shocking! In a blind taste-test, only a tiny fraction of people would not be able to tell a significant difference between the flavor of the two different sodas. But you can tell there is a difference even before tasting Pesach Coca-Cola. Pour a glass of Pesach Coke and you'll witness an explosion of tiny, champagne-like bubbles that maintain a head for an extended period. When  pouring a regular Coke, the bubbles are much larger and they dissipate almost immediately. Apparently, the CO2 gets beaten down immediately by the thick, heavy syrup of HFCS, but is really able to bloom like a beer head when sucrose is employed instead of HFCS.

As for what "sucrose" means in Coca-Cola's labeling, my hope is that it is cane sugar, but it may instead be beet sugar (I believe that information may be proprietary). Beet sugar is nothing like HFCS. Like cane sugar, manufacturing of beet sugar is a "crush, boil, dry" method. The black magic of making GMO corn into HFCS includes numerous reactions with multiple chemical agents including sulphuric acid and GMO enzymes. Meanwhile there is contradictory information online about exactly which sweetener(s) is/are used in  Mexican Coke.

I didn't know that. I know if I go to Whataburger or McDonalds I'm getting Coke with phoney baloney sweetener. If I go to HEB grocer they sell Mexican Coke. I heard they use cane sugar. I don't know for sure. Next time I buy some I'll check to see if they list a sweetener.

[Beef Supreme]

13 minutes ago, Tx Oriole said:

I didn't know that. I know if I go to Whataburger or McDonalds I'm getting Coke with phoney baloney sweetener. If I go to HEB grocer they sell Mexican Coke. I heard they use cane sugar. I don't know for sure. Next time I buy some I'll check to see if they list a sweetener.

btw: The Pesach Coca-Cola is only bottled prior to Passover in the 2-liter size. Usually, I first see them for sale around Mardi Gras (yes, I know that makes no sense, but it is true). Bottles feature a yellow cap.

[Tx Oriole]

1 minute ago, Beef Supreme said:

btw: The Pesach Coca-Cola is only bottled prior to Passover in the 2-liter size. Usually, I first see them for sale around Mardi Gras (yes, I know that makes no sense, but it is true). Bottles feature a yellow cap.

Haven't seen it.

[Beef Supreme]

13 minutes ago, Tx Oriole said:

Haven't seen it.

Let me know if/when you get to Baltimore and I will hook you up. :-)

[Tx Oriole]

2 minutes ago, Beef Supreme said:

Let me know if/when you get to Baltimore and I will hook you up.

Sounds like a winner.