Yu Love to See It: MLB 2021

[Hot Pepsi]

I don't think just the "Veterans Committee" should vote for it. I would give the vote to every player in the hall or possibly every player who ever played more than 500 games in the MLB.

[anton pulisov]

Discovered a new weird baseball rule. Rays hit a nearly home run with a runner on first in the top of the 13th, hits the very top of the wall, bounces down and back off the outfielders arm to go out over the wall again. Now, I had assumed that this would be the equivalent of an own goal in football. Tough shit, outfielder.

But no, umpires rule the ball went dead and decide to award a double to the batter, putting runners on second and third. The only thing is, the two runners were fast. A freeze frame clearly showed that the first runner was going to score anyway, even if the outfielder hadn't knocked the ball over the wall. So Rays punished for Red Sox mistake. Bizarre.

[Hot Pepsi]

That will be one of those things that Rays fans are haunted by for as long as there are Rays fans.

[ursus arctos]

It is a stupid rule that is now likely to be changed

There were a number of parks with low fences when I was a kid, but Fenway is now a real outlier in that respect

[Greenlander]

My mate is distraught. I actually woke up to hear it called and it was almost inevitable what would happen next.

Boston are so going to win the series now.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/codifybaseball/status/1447704275342163969?s=21

[Patrick Thistle]

In other news. TBS just showed Barry Bonds in attendance at the Dodgers-Giants game. I've been thinking about Bonds lately given the early expectation that Shohei was on pace to break Maris' record. I in no way shape or form endorse players using steroids unless it's some kind of steroid that has been prescribed and is legal under the join agreement. But I think critics of Bonds overestimate the impact of steroids on his game. There were hundreds (?) of guys who were juiced. Nobody was close to Bonds' talent. This guy had seasons where he was able to control the strike zone at Ted Williams levels. He was walked constantly and when he wasn't the ball was in the seats. I'd assume what steroids did for him was keep him on the field. He clearly ballooned in size but so did other guys. And nobody, except maybe Votto, had anywhere near the the ability to discern strikes from balls. Again, none of this is meant to condone what he did and none of this is to ignore the serious health problems that followed for players who juiced (Camenetti being the most extreme case if memory serves me correctly) but to attribute Bonds' spectacular control of the zone ignores all the other players who juiced and only experienced mild improvement if any improvement at all. I assume there were a lot of punch and judy players who juiced and went from 1 home run a season to a whopping four or five.

Do you mean Ken Caminiti? It wasn't steroids that killed him.

Tony Gwynn said Barry Bonds should be in the Hall. That's enough reason for me.

[danielmak]

Do you mean Ken Caminiti? It wasn't steroids that killed him.

Yes. I mis-remembered. I just looked at the wiki page: speedball did him in. I thought the death was a post-steroids related death but was wrong.

[ursus arctos]

Rays are not going to go out quietly

[Greenlander]

This is some game.

[Greenlander]

Oh well. Time to try and get some sleep.

[Greenlander]

Or listen to the Dodgers and Giants. I like the commentary from LA but the adverts get me as now I'm hungry for In and Out burger and intrigued by 'Great Shake Out' on the 21st.

[Hot Pepsi]

Goddamnit

[danielmak]

Short series so it's hard to identify key games but for me game 3 was rough. The Rays burned through their pitchers too fast and could not recover. It's disappointing. They're a fun team. Well, 50% of my bracket prediction is gone. I am hoping the White Sox can come back because the thought of either the Red Sox or Astros in the WS is not enjoyable.

[ad hoc]

There's a Giants reliever (Rogers? I think) who has a really unusual pitching action. Are there any rules defining how you pitch? I'm also intrigued by how he got to this point. I presume through his youth, coaches will have tried to make him more orthodox, but in the end and at some point they must just have realise that this is how he pitches and he's good at it so leave him be

[ursus arctos]

Tyler Rogers is what we call a "submariner"

https://twitter.com/pitchingninja/status/1447769825158340610?s=21

In stark contrast to cricket, the rules on a legal delivery in baseball are much less restrictive. "Throwing" is obviously fine, as are Rogers' deliveries and full underarm pitches (which one never sees). The only real limits are that one has to keep one's back foot in contact with the "rubber" (a slab of vulcanised rubber set 60 feet 6 inches from the front edge of home plate) before releasing the ball and that one cannot "balk" (essentially deceiving the batter that one is going to deliver the ball when there is no intention to)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balk

Rogers has an identical twin (confusingly named Taylor), who pitches for Minnesota and has a standard motion



Tyler developed his submarine motion at university in the hope of deceiving hitters, and has modified it through his pro career

https://www.knbr.com/2019/08/29/how-...rine-delivery/

[ad hoc]

Thanks ursus

(that last link gives me this slightly odd message:
Access denied
Error 16
www.knbr.com
2021-10-12 12:02:50 UTC
What happened?
This request was blocked by the security rules)

[ursus arctos]

Note to our resident cap and jersey aficionados that Ebbets Field Flannels are currently offering 20 percent off everything except those sweet jackets.

For one week only we are offering 20% off with promo code PLAY21 at checkout. So, whether your favorite team is in or out, the only thing as exciting as October baseball is an EFF box waiting on your front porch.

MLB and NFL authentic jackets excluded. Custom orders excluded. This offer expires Monday, October 18th.

They usually do a 25 percent off sale near year end, but this is a good deal.

[ursus arctos]

No idea. It is from the site of the SF radio station that carries Giants games.

Here is the complete text

Tyler Rogers waited a long time to earn a call-up to the major leagues and make his MLB debut.

After being drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 10th round of the 2013 draft and playing in 342 minor league games across seven seasons, he was ready to see if his quirky delivery and minor league success would translate to the next level.

Both did, and the 28-year-old rookie — once given a chance — didn’t have to wait very long to find out.

The Giants were down 3-1 and on the way to being swept for a second time in their last three series. Reyes Moronta and Sam Coonrod had just given up two runs, and the Giants needed a shutdown inning.

Bruce Bochy handed Rogers the ball in the eighth, and while a moment like that might be too big for many rookies making their MLB debuts, the lights weren’t too bright for Rogers.

He threw 11 pitches, nine of them strikes, and none of them resulted in a hit for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Prior to the 3-2 loss, Bruce Bochy said he primarily intended to use Rogers against right-handed hitters, but he let him go for an entire inning rather than only facing the two righties who were due up in the frame. He faced three hitters, only two of them were righties, but all three results were the same, and Rogers was equally effective against all of them.

Adam Jones grounded out, Nick Ahmed grounded out and Alex Avila grounded out.

“These guys, you don’t see a lot of them, so they can be tough,” Bochy said of Rogers’ strong outing and unique delivery. “But he gets a lot of movement and keeps the ball down. He gets outs. That’s what it’s about.”

It may have taken 342 minor league appearances for Rogers to get the call, but it only took one major league appearance to make a strong impact and leave a lasting impression.

Not only did Rogers have a dream debut, but he also accomplished something historic. With his call-up today he became one-half of just the 10th set of twins to both make it to the major leagues. His brother, Taylor Rogers, watched as his brother tossed his 1-2-3 inning with many of his teammates in the Minnesota Twins’ clubhouse.

The two brothers both pitched tonight, they both recorded 1-2-3 scoreless innings, and they did it within minutes of each other.

“That’s a pretty cool feat in itself right there, for twin brothers to pitch at the same time in the big leagues, that’s pretty cool,” Tyler said.

Three hitters, three outs, one fantastic MLB debut that was worth the wait.

“It was everything I thought it would be and more,” Rogers said.

[ursus arctos]

BTW, "submariner" is usually pronounced in the annoying USian sub-mar-een-er, rather than properly

[ursus arctos]

Some sterling defence last night combined with the wind to severely restrict scoring. Scherzer was very unlucky to lose.

Dodgers now have to decide whether they go with Bueller on three days' rest in a game they have to win.

ChiSox and Brewers also have no margin for error.

[caja-dglh]

BTW, "submariner" is usually pronounced in the annoying USian sub-mar-een-er, rather than properly

When asked why they will explain how it will really annoy some British guy in Transylvania.

[ad hoc]

"annoy" is not exactly the verb I'd use.

[ursus arctos]

Indeed

Were Rogers to end up in Seattle, we would have a sub-mar-eener pitching for the Mar-in-ers.

[danielmak]

Some sterling defence last night combined with the wind to severely restrict scoring. Scherzer was very unlucky to lose.
Dodgers now have to decide whether they go with Bueller on three days' rest in a game they have to win.

The wind giveth and the wind taketh away last night. Lux was dumbfounded that what would be a home run any other day, and would have tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, just held up in the wind. But Chris Taylor caught a lot of balls in center field that also would have gone out. The problem for me is that the Dodgers kept launching instead of trying to hit line drives. Of course, the best line drive was caught by Crawford so frustration all the way around.

I would go with Gonsolin for sure. I have no idea why the Dodgers would mess themselves up with Beuhler on short rest. I get that these managers and front offices are way smarter than me, but time and time again they think the name on the back of the jersey represents the guy on the mound. When he is tired, he is not the same pitcher. A tired Beuhler is not as good as a rested Tony Gonsolin. Gonsolin's era is not great 3.25 but certainly respectable and the higher than last season number is a product of early season coming back from injury bloat. Late in the year he was back to his more normal 2.5ish-3.0 ERA. He is an excellent pitcher. And the Dodgers are facing a guy they hammered this year.