MLB 2021 Season Thread

[TrueYankee26]

On 5/20/2021 at 2:36 PM, Seadragon76 said:

 

Why do you think I want the hitting coach to be tossed into Puget Sound? No team should be hitting below .200 at worst.

 

Whatever happened to patience and working the count and taking advantage of 2-0 and 3-0 counts?

It utterly gobsmacked me when I saw that stat.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

19 hours ago, NYCdog said:

a lot of teams are doing it

All of those "i HaTe tHe aStRoS" goofballs are going to feel pretty silly when it turns out that every team is stealing signs, and that the Astros were caught only because their method was the crudest. 

 

 

19 hours ago, NYCdog said:

it would undermine the integrity of the league

Feh.  If all teams are doing it, then it undermines nothing.  Better to embrace it as normal.

 

Anyway, the way to stop the use of technological means is by better technological means: a radio connection between the catcher and the pitcher, with a scrambled private channel for each team.

[BBTV]

22 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

All of those "i HaTe tHe aStRoS" goofballs are going to feel pretty silly when it turns out that every team is stealing signs, and that the Astros were caught only because their method was the crudest. 

 

 

Feh.  If all teams are doing it, then it undermines nothing.  Better to embrace it as normal.

 

Anyway, the way to stop the use of technological means is by better technological means: a radio connection between the catcher and the pitcher, with a scrambled private channel for each team.

 

Maybe the first post we agree on.  I suggested this last year and IIRC was roasted for it.  Give the catcher a watch-like device with buttons on it and he just taps whichever one(s) correspond with the location and type of pitch.

 

Can't pretend that technology doesn't exist when 30k people in the stands have 8k recording devices in their hands.  Need to stay ahead of it.  Also if they could just send group texts to the infielders so they didn't have to huddle after every godsdamned pitch and make the game last 4 hours that would be great.

[Red Comet]

You know, it really does feel like the reason people are pissed at the Astros isn’t that they cheated but that they were better at it than other teams. After all, nobody gets ticked off at dirty tactics that don’t work. 

[sky1324]

I'm pissed that they not only cheated, but won the World Series and then faced no consequences, all while their fanbase denies any wrongdoing. The league ed up the results so badly that it's forever tainted the league, the World Series, and especially the Astros. I'll never see the team as anything else other than cheating losers who whined about fans making fun of them for cheating and got away with it all.

[BBTV]

my gods give it a rest with the outrage over stealing signs.  There's no expectation of privacy when the catcher is openly broadcasting the signs in sight of baserunners, everyone watching on TV, and many people inside the stadium.  Using buzzing devices was a little scummy, but I don't think any fan would care if it was their team that was doing it and won.  

 

Hating on Astros fans is absurd - nobody would abandon their team in the aftermath of a championship over something like this - don't even try to claim you would.

[SFGiants58]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

my gods give it a rest with the outrage over stealing signs.  There's no expectation of privacy when the catcher is openly broadcasting the signs in sight of baserunners, everyone watching on TV, and many people inside the stadium.  Using buzzing devices was a little scummy, but I don't think any fan would care if it was their team that was doing it and won.  

 

Hating on Astros fans is absurd - nobody would abandon their team in the aftermath of a championship over something like this - don't even try to claim you would.

 

Yeah, I'm kind of at that point, especially with the whole "vacate the title" crowd. That's just some revisionist garbage. History indicates who won it and no post-hoc "taking it away" will mess with that. USC still won all those football titles, Louisville still won the 2013 NCAA men's title, and Chris Benoit was still a top-flight wrestler.* You can't take titles and recognition away and expect to be taken seriously. Cheating or not, that title was still theirs and Houston sports has suffered enough as compensation since.

 

That doesn't mean I think the Astros, their players, and fans responded to criticism well. They got a bit too "fake news" with it for my taste.

 

*I know it's a leap to go from "giving players proper compensation" to "guy who murdered his family," but you get my point. 

[Dynasty]

I usually never agree with anything involving revision and changing history. It happened, so all you should really do is give out future punishments that impact them in some sort of way. I haven't been paying attention to the entire Astros scandal and what has gone down in the aftermath, but I'm well past the point on shunning them for some kind of death penalty.

[Quillz]

On 5/12/2021 at 8:18 AM, Digby said:

I don’t know if it’s entirely up to the league, not that they’re blameless either. But Trout has always seemed to be disinterested in that sort of marketing anyway. He’s all aw shucks, I’m good at baseball and like the weather. You can’t force the guy to take the big consumer endorsement deal he doesn’t want. I don’t if any of these guys have the personality for it, not like Griffey or Jeter.

I've commented on this before and come to the same conclusion. I think Trout is very happy where he is, in terms of the team he's on, where he lives, his paycheck, etc. I feel like if he wanted to go all-in on winning a championship, he would have been traded by now. I think he's just a guy who is very comfortable with his scenario and there's nothing wrong with that. If he doesn't want to sell out and do commercials and endorsements, there are plenty of other people in MLB who will.

[Quillz]

On 5/22/2021 at 12:44 PM, NYCdog said:

I think baseball wants to sweep this scandal under the rug because they know a lot of teams are doing it

Remember, the Astros were the ones who got caught because they either went too far, or just weren't as good as hiding the evidence as the others. I don't believe for a second every other team in baseball was doing the same thing. They were just lucky to not get caught.

[DEAD!]

8 hours ago, Quillz said:

I've commented on this before and come to the same conclusion. I think Trout is very happy where he is, in terms of the team he's on, where he lives, his paycheck, etc. I feel like if he wanted to go all-in on winning a championship, he would have been traded by now. I think he's just a guy who is very comfortable with his scenario and there's nothing wrong with that. If he doesn't want to sell out and do commercials and endorsements, there are plenty of other people in MLB who will.

If I made that much money working in Southern California, I would feel damn happy myself. Winning a championship is the responsibilty of management more so than Trout anyways. It is too bad Trout is not on a contender nor does he seem to be the marketable type. 

I can only recall Trout doing a Head & Shoulders commercial.

Baseball really needs to find a way to market their players better. I think they are trying  but something is amiss. 

 

[LMU]

4 minutes ago, DEAD! said:

If I made that much money working in Southern California, I would feel damn happy myself. Winning a championship is the responsibilty of management more so than Trout anyways. It is too bad Trout is not on a contender nor does he seem to be the marketable type. 

I can only recall Trout doing a Head & Shoulders commercial.

Baseball really needs to find a way to market their players better. I think they are trying  but something is amiss. 

 

 

[neo_prankster]

Getting back on topic, how do you guys like the Padres' performance at this point of the season?

[infrared41]

58 minutes ago, neo_prankster said:

Getting back on topic, how do you guys like the Padres' performance at this point of the season?

 

They look good.

[Ridleylash]

https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/05/26/white-sox-face-backlash-after-changing-late-beer-vendors-lorettas-lounge-to-honor-tony-la-russa/

 

Y-I-K-E-S, not a good look for the ChiSox lmfao

[CS85]

 

[See Red]

A run down on a force out at first. Feels like everybody just collectively forgot the rules there, even Baez with the way he celebrates the runner getting home before he runs back to first.

 

What a bizarre play!  That poor, dumb first baseman.

[Ridleylash]

LOLPirates

[MJWalker45]

1 hour ago, Ridleylash said:

https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/05/26/white-sox-face-backlash-after-changing-late-beer-vendors-lorettas-lounge-to-honor-tony-la-russa/

 

Y-I-K-E-S, not a good look for the ChiSox lmfao

Everything attached to LaRussa seems to be about making news rather than improving the team's image. How  do you just throw the other sign away?  Even the Rangers and Indians knew not to do something like this, and they signed off on 10 cent beer nights! 

[Crabcake]

1 hour ago, CS85 said:

 

Man is it nice to see another team in the general news circulation for god awful defense that’s not the Orioles.