Emerging from the Stone Age

[scOtt]

1 hour ago, Tx Oriole said:

Glazed or  chocolate doughnut holes you like the best? 

Probably the chocolate ones. Cinnamon sugar too.

[OsEatAlEast]

11 hours ago, 24fps said:

And a 22-point single letter score in Scrabble.  Sure to be greeted with skepticism by any and all opponents.  I love it.

Heck I used the plural of Eon(Aeon) once and got questioned by all three people I was playing with.

[LookitsPuck]

20 hours ago, oriole said:

Baseball is going to be in trouble if they don’t adopt some live in market streaming services. I have barely watched any games the last couple of years because cable is too much and I have to deal with long contracts. I can’t be the only one. I don’t think the analytics will be much of a problem, especially if it’s helping your team win.

 

Though baseball did get less exciting when home plate collisions and stuff like that was implemented. It’s like live chess. Which is fine and I love it all the same but the human species is a sucker for a blood sport. 

*Americans are a sucker for a blood sport. Internationally soccer is about as chess matchy as it gets, yet it's popular as all get out. For some reason, however, Americans have a propensity for the NFL, MMA, etc. over MLB. Which is a shame.

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

*Americans are a sucker for a blood sport. Internationally soccer is about as chess matchy as it gets, yet it's popular as all get out. For some reason, however, Americans have a propensity for the NFL, MMA, etc. over MLB. Which is a shame.

Curling is way more chess matchy.

 

[AceKing]

This kind of explains (confirms) the reasons for last year’s train wreck season.  Bad team chemistry with few cheerleaders, and many of the same types of personalities.

 

Guys like Manny and others being a ME guy, and our saviors coming in the late signings of Colby Rasmus and Chris Tillman for 3mm ea.

 

Recipe for disaster.  We witnessed it.

[weams]

3 minutes ago, AceKing said:

This kind of explains (confirms) the reasons for last year’s train wreck season.  Bad team chemistry with few cheerleaders, and many of the same types of personalities.

 

Guys like Manny and others being a ME guy, and our saviors coming in the late signings of Colby Rasmus and Chris Tillman for 3mm ea.

 

Recipe for disaster.  We witnessed it.

Interesting take.  I think it was less about chemistry and more about talent myself.  Very poor team on the field. Schoop. Davis. Mancini. Sisco. All of the pitchers. All of them. Really. A bad team playing poorly. 

[DrungoHazewood]

On 2/18/2019 at 10:16 AM, Going Underground said:

Has the game improved for the fans? More strikeouts,games are slow and not that entertaining. Baseball knows they are in trouble.

It's not the analytics fault that the game has evolved into three true outcomes.  There are processes to change the rules and the environment when the game starts to deviate from an engaging product, it's just not really used.  When information and analysis says un-entertaning strategies are successful it's up to the powers-that-be to tweak things to make it more interesting.  

[weams]

7 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

It's not the analytics fault that the game has evolved into three true outcomes.  There are processes to change the rules and the environment when the game starts to deviate from an engaging product, it's just not really used.  When information and analysis says un-entertaning strategies are successful it's up to the powers-that-be to tweak things to make it more interesting.  

For instance.  Foul balls be strike three.  Ball three a walk. 

[Luke-OH]

13 minutes ago, weams said:

For instance.  Foul balls be strike three.  Ball three a walk. 

Those things would just increase three true outcomes though. If you want to move away from three true outcomes, the solution is a dead ball. That would select for more balls in play.

I don't really think that would be a good thing, I love baseball the way it is. The only problem with driving interest is the poor marketing strategy by the league.

[weams]

1 minute ago, Luke-OH said:

Those things would just increase three true outcomes though. If you want to move away from three true outcomes, the solution is a dead ball. That would select for more balls in play.

I don't really think that would be a good thing, I love baseball the way it is. The only problem with driving interest is the poor marketing strategy by the league.

I am all for raising the mound,  universal DH.  Removing all replay, except at the playoff level.  I'm pretty good as things are.  I agree. MLB marketing is awful. 

[Can_of_corn]

12 minutes ago, Luke-OH said:

Those things would just increase three true outcomes though. If you want to move away from three true outcomes, the solution is a dead ball. That would select for more balls in play.

I don't really think that would be a good thing, I love baseball the way it is. The only problem with driving interest is the poor marketing strategy by the league.

And yet they don't seem to think that's an issue.

[weams]

31 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

And yet they don't seem to think that's an issue.

Marketers never do. Someone thinks that every TV ad is killer. 

[DrungoHazewood]

54 minutes ago, Luke-OH said:

Those things would just increase three true outcomes though. If you want to move away from three true outcomes, the solution is a dead ball. That would select for more balls in play.

I don't really think that would be a good thing, I love baseball the way it is. The only problem with driving interest is the poor marketing strategy by the league.

I think you leave the ball alone, and just make the bats a bit larger and heavier each season for a while.  You'll eventually get to the point where most players can't take the approach they do now with max bat speed to loft/drive everything.  

I'd also think about moving the mound back 6" or a foot a year for a while, too.  Perhaps also limit throws to first to incentivize stolen bases.  In a perfect world I'd make a rule that every park has to have at least one 450' sign, although that's probably an impossibility in many or most modern stadiums.

My hope is that after maybe five years you'd get more players who hit to all fields, and emphasize contact and on-base skills over pulling everything into the seats and striking out 30% of the time.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, weams said:

Interesting take.  I think it was less about chemistry and more about talent myself.  Very poor team on the field. Schoop. Davis. Mancini. Sisco. All of the pitchers. All of them. Really. A bad team playing poorly. 

Let’s compare the 2016 playoff team to the 2018 team:

1B -  Davis went from somewhat disappointing (.792 OPS, good defense) to unplayable (.539 OPS, mediocre defense).   Overall OPS drop at 1B was .190.

2B - Schoop slipped from .752 to .720, and much of the latter came in the last few weeks before he was traded.  He also missed significant time with injury.  Villar (.729) played solidly.    .098 drop overall.

SS - Hardy had his last solid season in 2016.    Manny and Beckham were no match for him defensively, and Beckham didn’t hit.     .103 OPS gain thanks to Manny, but big defensive hit.

3B - Manny ‘16 was vastly better than the Beckham/Nunez combo both offensively and defensively.   .097 OPS drop.

C - Wieters had a decent final season in ‘16 (.711 and many clutch hits); Joseph/Sisco/Wynns didn’t hit.   .057 drop.

LF - Kim, Rickard etc. we’re about a wash vs. Mancini, Rickard etc. (.687 vs. .692).   .005 gain   

CF - Jones slipped from .746 to .732 and his defense got much worse.  Overall drop .008.

RF - Trumbo had 47 homers in ‘16, mostly in RF.    Nobody really took charge of RF in ‘18.   .153 drop   

DH - Alvarez quietly had an excellent season in ‘16.    Performance poor in ‘18.   .152 drop.

I won’t get into the pitchers here.   Let’s just say a lot of the position players performed poorly.   

[weams]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

Let’s compare the 2016 playoff team to the 2018 team:

1B -  Davis went from somewhat disappointing (.792 OPS, good defense) to unplayable (.539 OPS, mediocre defense).   Overall OPS drop at 1B was .190.

2B - Schoop slipped from .752 to .720, and much of the latter came in the last few weeks before he was traded.  He also missed significant time with injury.  Villar (.729) played solidly.    .098 drop overall.

SS - Hardy had his last solid season in 2016.    Manny and Beckham were no match for him defensively, and Beckham didn’t hit.     .103 OPS gain thanks to Manny, but big defensive hit.

3B - Manny ‘16 was vastly better than the Beckham/Nunez combo both offensively and defensively.   .097 OPS drop.

C - Wieters had a decent final season in ‘16 (.711 and many clutch hits); Joseph/Sisco/Wynns didn’t hit.   .057 drop.

LF - Kim, Rickard etc. we’re about a wash vs. Mancini, Rickard etc. (.687 vs. .692).   .005 gain   

CF - Jones slipped from .746 to .732 and his defense got much worse.  Overall drop .008.

RF - Trumbo had 47 homers in ‘16, mostly in RF.    Nobody really took charge of RF in ‘18.   .153 drop   

DH - Alvarez quietly had an excellent season in ‘16.    Performance poor in ‘18.   .152 drop.

I won’t get into the pitchers here.   Let’s just say a lot of the position players performed poorly.   

They were a a couple avacado days past ready.