2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[The Buscher]

Add the ground rule double to the ever-growing list of rules that need a reform.  Rays clearly score if Renfroe fields the ball but because it bounced off of him and out, nah runner has to go back to third.

Terrible.

Although Vasquez hit a 2 run walkoff so that made it kinda moot.

[MalaCloudy Black]

 

[The Buscher]

Boston stamps their ticket to the ALCS.  Probably to be joined by Houston as I can't imagine them losing three in a row, but you never know.  Rays were heavily favored to take out Boston but the playoffs are such a crapshoot, especially in the first round.

The Rays are a funny team to think about.  TV networks are glad when they get knocked out.  The league, despite wanting better ratings, also loves seeing them do well because it's proof that small markets/small payroll can't stop a team from winning if the franchise knows what its doing.  The union probably hate the Rays for much the same reason as their model is the justification teams have for suppressing salaries, especially for starting pitchers since the Rays have tons of success even while running multiple bullpen games a week.

[gunnar hendershow]

The Rays are emblematic of everything currently wrong with baseball but also should be the biggest marketing ploy for baseball. It's an expectation only a few teams will win every year but that's basically not been the case. The Yankees dynasty ended over 20 years ago. Boston has 4 titles in that span and does spend a lot but they've never been a true perennial force like those Yankee teams were. Giants won 3 on the backs of a team built almost entirely from the farm system + savvy, low-cost signings. Cardinals have 2 titles, both well-earned through smart management.

Beyond that no team has won more than 1 title since the end of the Yankees dynasty. It's the most wide open sport of all since the postseason is such a crapshoot. And yet you have a ton of teams openly trying to not make the postseason. Multiple teams who try to compete but do so with the most uninspiring baseball on the planet, fueled by analytical assessments of what actually wins games. So the Rays should be the team that the league has on everything. These are the guys, loaded with stars, who are in the mix. Except everyone is interchangeable there. You're only valuable as long as you're cheap. And there's no way to reconcile that with fans who, no matter what, watch sports for the players.

It's a sport that no matter what is just slowly, surely killing itself. It can't get out of its way. I've long been against a spending cap in baseball but it would probably be the most workable thing to fix the problems in baseball. Creating a spending floor and a ceiling together should make each team more competitive and force some shift away from the most base analytical strategies. As the majority of analytics are derived from a need to keep payroll down, forcing it higher would reduce the inherent competitive advantage in it. The hokey rule changes get you nowhere, you have to force a system where teams can't just trot out 8 Joey Gallos and have 3 games a week where they start relievers.

[The Buscher]

Theo Epstein basically admitted as such when he stepped down from the Cubs and went into the league office instead.  He felt he played a part in negatively impacting the game's watchability because he was one of the early adopters of analytics that every team follows.  It's a game filled with strikeouts, walks, infield shifts, and in general just long stretches where absolutely nothing is going on.  Even as a lifelong fan of the game, I find there are long stretches where I'm checking my phone because the game itself is just not holding my interest at all.  It's fun to watch the truly dominant pitchers take over a game, but why should I be excited about a #4 starter fanning 10 batters in a game when hitters have effectively been taught now that striking out is OK and way better than putting the ball on the ground.

Instituting a hard cap would feel like a gut punch personally, since the Mets finally have an owner who seems like he will go into fuck you mode and lap everyone in spending once he gets impatient enough.  But it might be the only way.  The union is said to be firmly against a cap but the reality is without one, the owners will continue to just treat the luxury tax threshold as an unofficial cap anyway.  A floor to go along with it will at least force the bottom-feeders to try to put together a winning team without cutting all costs.

Without a floor in the new CBA, the Rays figure to once again have a major overhaul as they have a whopping 18 players on their 40-man roster that are eligible for arbitration.

[gunnar hendershow]

It was honestly pretty cool when Theo was doing it (and before him Beane). All these guys who we didn't typically think of as stars suddenly getting jobs as starters on major league rosters. Friedman and Maddon were pretty amazing together with all the formulas that went in to lineup selection. Then, yeah, it basically turned into everyone trying to outdo the other with analytics and cost-cutting. Truly a race to the bottom.

NBA is headed the same way and is only really being saved currently by the marketability of its stars.

[gunnar hendershow]

Boy am I sure looking forward to an Astros-Red Sox ALCS. Those guys have been through so much the past few years.

[The Buscher]

Astros going right back to being great after the cheating scandal.  Red Sox rehiring Cora and immediately being great again.  Hinch meanwhile served his time and seems to have the Tigers headed in the right direction for the not so distant future.

Somehow Beltran and, by extension, the Mets ended up getting the worst of all of it. Even though Beltran got immunity from punishment as a player on that team, they were PR pressured into firing him, and then they got stuck with Luis Rojas who was terrible.

If everyone else is back, Beltran deserves a shot but the Mets won’t be giving it to him.  The Mets beat writers won’t have any of it after they swung and missed on their hires last year.  “How do you say you’ll do a better hiring vetting process and then hire a know cheater?” etc.

Yet if the Yanks fire Boone and hire Beltran the media will probably turn a blind eye.

[gunnar hendershow]

It's pretty humorous to me they cheated, ruined their reputations, angered fans and fellow players, and it would appear it may have had little-to-no effect on how good the teams actually were.

[Lowerdeck]

2 hours ago, damshow said:

It's pretty humorous to me they cheated, ruined their reputations, angered fans and fellow players, and it would appear it may have had little-to-no effect on how good the teams actually were.

 

It reminds me of the times where the Patriots keep getting caught cheating, even though it didn't make sense since they were good enough to begin with

 

Houston has a solid roster built, and the Red Sox have some stars mixed with a significant amount of grit.  They don't seem to be the ones most likely to cheat, and yet they're affected by scandal.

 

Wasn't Beltran the worst of the bunch?

[gunnar hendershow]

Beltran was considered the "mastermind". He allegedly borrowed ideas for cheating from his time in the Bronx, brought them to Houston, and then Cora took it with him to Boston. I think he was as much a fall guy as anything else. Being the player to punish since he was retired whereas all active players got no punishments to not upset the union.

[The Buscher]

Despite making the playoffs all three years he was the full-time manager, including being the hottest team in baseball down the stretch this year, the Cardinals have fired Mike Shildt.

The team cited "philosophical differences" but rumors are suggesting the players weren't a fan of him.

[GhostMachine]

Sick of St. Louis in the playoffs, so hopefully this means they don't even make it next season.

[Your Mom]

4 hours ago, CM Busch said:

Despite making the playoffs all three years he was the full-time manager, including being the hottest team in baseball down the stretch this year, the Cardinals have fired Mike Shildt.

The team cited "philosophical differences" but rumors are suggesting the players weren't a fan of him.

Was just coming in to ask about this. Despite all my wishes they seemed to be doing awesome. Would have to be something like the players asking for him to go

[Your Mom]

Well the ending sucked because I think that call was botched but congrats Dodgers I guess? With KB now eliminated I guess I'm a fan of the Red Sox? Let's get Schwarbs another ring!

[MalaCloudy Black]

I will now change my prediction to Sox/Dodgers and also root for Kyle Schwarber. 

To be honest, I wouldn't mind a Dodgers WS just so Pujols can get one last WS ring. I still find it hilarious that everyone poo-pooed him and said he wouldn't do any better as a Dodger than he was doing as an Angel, and he went on to have a pretty fuckin' decent One-Last-Run (presumably) with the Dodgers. 

[The Buscher]

So it’s down to an NL East division rival or three out of the last four world champs.

This sucks.  Kinda don’t even want to watch.  Probably will just end up being background noise for me if anything.

[Your Mom]

5 hours ago, Orange CLDY said:

I will now change my prediction to Sox/Dodgers and also root for Kyle Schwarber. 

To be honest, I wouldn't mind a Dodgers WS just so Pujols can get one last WS ring. I still find it hilarious that everyone poo-pooed him and said he wouldn't do any better as a Dodger than he was doing as an Angel, and he went on to have a pretty fuckin' decent One-Last-Run (presumably) with the Dodgers. 

Pujols is a respected rival so yeah I think I'd like to see him get one last win if the Red Sox can't do it. Pretty much anyone but the Astros is fine with me because fuck those guys am I right?  

[gunnar hendershow]

I would be happy for Dusty Baker if Houston won

[GhostMachine]

The Astros' best pitcher is on the taxi squad for the ALCS. Meaning he can only play if there's an injury or positive COVID test. 

So basically, if Houston is down 2 games, one of their pitchers is going to conveniently come down with COVID or fake an arm strain.