2021 MLB Season / 21-22 Offseason Thread

[Mick]

On 18/12/2021 at 14:55, damshow said:

One extremely glaring mistake in a playoff game doesn't cloud an endless amount of smart in-game decisions.

Bill Buckner: 

[gunnar hendershow]

I'd make an Angel Hernandez joke here but if you go to the replies everyone else already has.

[GhostMachine]

How many of those replies were the obvious one that even a drunk (or drunk AND blind) umpire would still be more competent than Angel Hernandez?

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by GhostMachine

[MalaCloudy Black]

The way baseball's meant to be enjoyed!

[The Buscher]

Kyle Seager retired.

[The Buscher]

Ken Rosenthal has been fired from MLB Network due to him being deemed too critical of Rob Manfred.

[gunnar hendershow]

It's based off something he said in the summer of 2020. If you wanted an example of how thin Manfred's skin is.

[gunnar hendershow]

Assuming there's a season the Sunday Night Baseball games will feature a "Manningcast" on ESPN2 with A-Rod and Michael Kay.

Somehow I don't think this will be as big of a hit as the football counterpart.

[Krabby]

20 minutes ago, damshow said:

Assuming there's a season the Sunday Night Baseball games will feature a "Manningcast" on ESPN2 with A-Rod and Michael Kay.

Somehow I don't think this will be as big of a hit as the football counterpart.

yeahhhhhh - super snooze on that one

[The Buscher]

Joe Judge fired and Keith Hernandez' number retired?  What a day in sports for my teams.

[GhostMachine]

Tbh, I'm surprised it took this long for Hernandez's number to be retired. 

[gunnar hendershow]

It took awhile to clear his name from the incident where he allegedly spat on Kramer and Newman.

[GhostMachine]

Seriously, though, I understand why he's not in the Hall of Fame (and do not agree; he definitely should be in), but it taking this long to retire his number is hard to believe. Should have been done over a decade ago....at most.

Hernandez is my favorite Mets position player of all-time. With Gary Carter second. (Even though Carter played most of his career with the Expos.)

 

[The Buscher]

Once Keith left the team, they still gave #17 out all the time...pretty much every year.  Finally in 2011 they got a new equipment manager who had grown up a Mets fan, he took the number out of circulation.  So it's sort've been in limbo along with #8 which hasn't been issued since Gary Carter made the HOF (but as an Expo against his wishes).

They'd never retired a single number from the '86 Mets despite them being one of the best teams in history.  Keith and Gary were the co-captains of that team but their best days were with other franchises and Gary was only there for five seasons, so that made the team leery of putting their numbers alongside Seaver.  Then you have Gooden and Strawberry whose numbers are also given out every year, they had longer and more productive on-field Met careers than the captains but their careers are still viewed as less than what they should've been.

But when you toss in than Keith has been broadcasting Mets games in some capacity since 1999 and full-time since 2006, an entire generation of fans will know him as one of the voices of Mets baseball.  That's reason enough to give him the honor.

[gunnar hendershow]

I forgot to bring this up, but the Orioles are moving the left field wall back at Camden Yards. I've seen so many routine fly balls cross over the wall in left-center in my time as a fan, and so many go against the O's. You can read the numbers, since it's opened no park has given up more home runs, etc.

The wall will be moved back as much as 30 ft and will also be heightened to 12 feet. So theoretically instead of hitting a 370 ft pop up to left center that leaves the yard you'll need to hit it closer to 390. The low angle line drives that also leave at 335 ft to left field will have a harder time since they'll hit the top of the now-heightened wall.

Assuming the stadium lease gets renewed long-term most of the upgrades will be for revenue. Making a change that eyes changing the park in this way seems to accept they'll need to make it less hitter-friendly to attract and keep pitchers when this long rebuild is finally over. It hopefully keeps Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall from having their confidence shot early in their careers as has happened to so many others.

Also I suppose it's done in mind that most of the Orioles top batting prospects are switch-hitters or left-handed.

[The Buscher]

It’s smart to cater your ballpark to your personnel.  I’ll never forget David Wright hitting only 10 home runs in 2009 because the geniuses running the Mets decided to make the original Citi Field dimensions ridiculously spacious with the deepest part of the park being Wright’s power side.

[gunnar hendershow]

6 hours ago, CM Busch said:

It’s smart to cater your ballpark to your personnel.  I’ll never forget David Wright hitting only 10 home runs in 2009 because the geniuses running the Mets decided to make the original Citi Field dimensions ridiculously spacious with the deepest part of the park being Wright’s power side.

Yeah, contrast that with the new Yankee Stadium which was designed to specifically be a hitter's ballpark so their lineup could excel.

[The Buscher]

The league and union met for the first time since the lockout, MLB made a proposal that was said to be a virtual non-starter for the union.  The union's big ask was shortening free agency from 6 years to 5 and the league has drawn a line in the sand and said that's not happening under any circumstances.  The best the union might be able to get is hitting arbitration a year earlier.

The league's proposal also included a 14 team playoff.  The league is spinning it as "teams have no reason to not compete with more playoff spots available" but the union is interpreting it as "team have less incentive to spend since it's easier to make the playoffs".  Either way it's clearly a big bargaining chip for the union, possibly their biggest one.  Wouldn't surprise me if it ends up being a 12 team playoff...which is still too many, but 14 is a joke.

The one thing both sides seemed to agree on was Universal DH, which I think everybody expected.  If that's not in the new CBA it'd be a shock.

Anyway, they're not even remotely close to a deal.  Passan says it's still too early to worry about the regular season being impacted.  Pitchers and catchers were due to report pretty much right after the Super Bowl, so if there's not real traction in the first week of February there will likely be a delayed start to spring.  Nobody makes any money during spring though so I don't think they really care if they lose a couple weeks of those games, players are likely to start preparing at home anyway.  If there's not a deal by the last week of February or so then I think the odds of the season starting on time aren't great.  So still a month and a half to play with.

[gunnar hendershow]

Yeah we're not even at the point where the supposed lines in the sand end up turning out to have bargaining chips all along. I assume there will be a couple proposals throughout the month that get nowhere and then something in early February that starts to "get everyone closer".

Still expect a delayed start to the season since baseball loves nothing more than shooting itself in the face of course. Maybe Opening Day around Memorial Day? 120 game season?

[The Buscher]

I actually bought cheap tickets to Game 2 of the season though I knew there's a good chance it doesn't happen.  If it gets cancelled, whatever, I'll get a refund.  If it happens though I can feasibly see Scherzer's Met debut.

After all the moves the Mets made and I think more are still to come, a shortened season would piss me off to no end.  Although in fairness, a rotation built on two amazing pitchers in their mid to late 30s, maybe the shortened season could be a blessing