Yu Love to See It: MLB 2021

[steveeeeeeeee]

Charros won the 2nd game 3-2 to go 2-0 up in the series.

The game was infinitely better than yesterday, lasting half the time and containing double plays, home runs, loaded bases. It was just much better to watch. It seemed like both teams had just been told to go for it and try to hit the ball out of the park.

They were advertising chartered packages to the Pan American finals during the game for 950usd, not sure what's included, but oh to be wealthy and without responsibility.

[jefe]

Camden yards is having its left field fence shoved back about 30 feet for next season.

[ursus arctos]

The Rays’ proposed plan to split seasons in Montreal has been killed by Major League Baseball officials, creating even more uncertainty about the team’s long-term future in Tampa Bay.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred informed Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg on Tuesday that the league’s executive council rejected the innovative and controversial plan. The decision stunned team officials, who had spent 2 ½ years on the project and were expecting approval to proceed with efforts to get open-air stadiums built in both markets. The Rays also sought approval from the players union.

This was a bad idea from the start, but MLB never should have let the Rays get that far down the line if they were going to kill it dead.

Meanwhile,

Major League Baseball is expanding its automated strike zone experiment to Triple-A, the highest level of the minor leagues.

MLB's website posted a hiring notice seeking seasonal employees to operate the Automated Ball-Strike system. MLB said it is recruiting employees to operate the system for the Albuquerque Isotopes, Charlotte Knights, El Paso Chihuahuas, Las Vegas Aviators, Oklahoma City Dodgers, Reno Aces, Round Rock Express, Sacramento River Cats, Salt Lake Bees, Sugar Land Skeeters and Tacoma Rainiers.

[Levin]

Is the Bill James Handbook the equivalent to Wisden? Or are there other publications?

[ursus arctos]

There is no Wisden equivalent

There have been a series of different reference works seeking to fill that function during my lifetime (the Sporing News' Baseball Guide holding the title for decades), but most of the action migrated to the Internet (and Baseball Reference in particular) long ago.

The Baseball Prospectus annuals are now generally considered to be superior to the "James" books, while those produced when James was genuinely active remain essential reference works.

In contrast to Wisden, all of these works focus almost exclusively on MLB, rather than covering the minor leagues or baseball outside of North America

[ursus arctos]

Here is a short piece on the guides' evolution over the 19th and 20th century

https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/baseball...i=aa660237496f

[Levin]

It's something I took for granted, not just Wisden but Playfair, and then Rothmans for football.

[ursus arctos]

Whereas to a USian like me, the existence of such tomes was an absolute source of wonder.

[ursus arctos]

As Steveeeeeeeeeeeee has intimated, the Series del Caribe begins this week, with a round robin followed by single game semifinals and a final.

The full calendar is here https://www.seriedelcaribe.net/artic...ie-del-caribe/ and for USians the games are on ESPN Deportes and streaming.

Although the participants are identified by nation, these are not true national teams, but rather the champions of their respective national winter leagues, with perhaps a couple of ad hoc additions to their rosters.

Those clubs are:

Colombia: Caimanes de Barranquilla
Dominican Republic: Gigantes del Cibao
Mexico: Charros de Jalisco
Panama: Astronautas de los Santos
Puerto Rico: Criollos de Caguas
Venezuela: Caribes de Anzoátegui or Navegantes del Magallanes (Caribes lead the best of seven final 3-2)

[steveeeeeeeee]

yes, took my eye off the Charros reporting due to getting Covid and the amazing NFL play-off games this weekend.
Last 2 games were sold out within minutes of going on sale, even with basically everyone catching covid in GDL this last week. Something tells me the infection rate might get a little high in the next few days, I'll be amazed if some of the players aren't infected, it's absolutely rampant here, but thankfully very mild, from the cases I know about.

[Chris1963]

What's the deal with the coaches that stand on 1st and 3rd base? Is that their only role? Surely the batter knows when to run without a special coach helping them. The 3rd base coaches had v ery lonely evenings yesterday.

I'm a baseball fan myself (having attended numerous MLB games in the US and Canada while on holiday there, as well as the London game in 2019) but one of the very few things I dislike about the sport is the presence of coaches on first and third base. Because they wear near-identical clothing, it's very easy for spectators to confuse them with runners who are standing at these bases.

[danielmak]

Big Papi elected to the HOF. Only one this year. Bonds, Clemens, and Schilling off after 10 years. Schilling should have been in had he kept his big trap shut last year, asking the Hall to remove his name from the list.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm a baseball fan myself (having attended numerous MLB games in the US and Canada while on holiday there, as well as the London game in 2019) but one of the very few things I dislike about the sport is the presence of coaches on first and third base. Because they wear near-identical clothing, it's very easy for spectators to confuse them with runners who are standing at these bases.

The base coaches have to stand away from the baseline. The runners stand on the base. The coaches are usually 10-40 years older too.

[ursus arctos]

It occurs to be that a now-essential aspect of the first bae coach's duties is to collect all of the body armour and other paraphernalia that the runner does not want to schlep around the bases.

And to think I remember when golf-like batting gloves were considered a radical innovation.

[Patrick Thistle]

Are we waiting to start the 2022 thread after the lock out ends? If it ends.

[Patrick Thistle]

Big Papi elected to the HOF. Only one this year. Bonds, Clemens, and Schilling off after 10 years. Schilling should have been in had he kept his big trap shut last year, asking the Hall to remove his name from the list.

Ridiculous that Bonds isn't inducted. All 3 should be in really.

[ursus arctos]

Are we waiting to start the 2022 thread after the lock out ends? If it ends.

There is a distinct absence f meaningful news until that point, though I am agnostic on a new thread.

Your boyz with another solid coaching signing in Shildt, who should work well with Melvin.

[Patrick Thistle]

Maybe, but the thing the organisation are hyping at the moment is Bad Bunny doing a gig at Petco Park. He's had a shirt made for him and everything.

[Satchmo Distel]

Ridiculous that Bonds isn't inducted. All 3 should be in really.

How often does this issue come up? This is an opposing view, articulately expressed, by Cris Carter four years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPT6...rstThingsFirst

OTOH Ortiz has also had PED suspicions raised so is there a double standard here?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ens-miss-again

I suppose you could argue that Bonds' PED use came out in court (although the jury dismissed the count on his "intentionally" taking the steroids as unproven) whereas with Ortiz it's one NYT story based on a leak.

[Hot Pepsi]

Ridiculous that Bonds isn't inducted. All 3 should be in really.

It’s not ridiculous, but it doesn’t matter.

It seems that the HOF exists not to honor contributions to the game but to give baseball writers something to talk about in January.

[Patrick Thistle]

Satchmo Distel Well it's not going to come up again. He's off the ballot after this year.

It seems bizarre that the sole inductee in 2022 will be David Ortiz, who also has question marks about PEDs in his career.

[Patrick Thistle]

It seems that the HOF exists not to honor contributions to the game but to give baseball writers something to talk about in January.

And people with access to the internet....

[Hot Pepsi]

Satchmo Distel Well it's not going to come up again. He's off the ballot after this year.

It seems bizarre that the sole inductee in 2022 will be David Ortiz, who also has question marks about PEDs in his career.

Yes. It’s hard not to conclude the writers just pick the guys they like.

[ursus arctos]

It has plagued the annual Hall of Fame voting by the writers for most of this century and would have plagued it for several previous decades had they chosen to consider amphetamines the performance enhancing drugs that they are. And that's before one gets to the 60s Yankees ad Dr Feelgood or the various chemical tonics and "monkey gland treatments" that were around since before WWII.

The self-important sanctimony of the Baseball Writers Association of America is matched only by that of the reactionary far right enthusiasts who control the Hall.

[ursus arctos]

Ortiz is the only 2022 inductee voted in by the writers, but will be joined on the dias by Jim Kaat and Tony Olivia, as well as surrogates for Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Minnie Minoso and Buck O'Neil, all of whom were voted in by the Veterans' Committee