|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Mar 31, 2024 5:45:46 GMT -5
Some Things I Think I Think: On baseball’s losing battle with injuries and more
Published: Mar. 31, 2024, 5:15 a.m.
By
Sean McAdam | sean.mcadam@masslive.com
* Every year, baseball teams spend more and more money on medical staffing, equipment, testing and nutrition. They hire massage therapists. They use data to monitor and measure activity and detect fatigue. There’s new and improved technology to study biomechanics, which is supposed to ensure that players don’t place too much stress on any part of their bodies.
Meanwhile, none of it seems to matter. Injuries pile up at a record pace and, at least anecdotally, players miss more games than ever before. It seems that we know more about why injuries happen and are better prepared to detect the them occurring, but somehow, less is done to prevent or avoid them altogether.
On Opening Day, 166 players — or enough to field more than five full teams — were on the Injured List. To put that into perspective, there are 780 active players on major league rosters at all time. That translates into almost five players per team being unavailable because of one physical ailment or another.
Unsurprisingly, more than three-quarters of injured players were pitchers, meaning, on average, about three major league-caliber pitchers were being replaced by minor leaguers who would not otherwise be on major league rosters.
The Red Sox, as an example, were without, among others, their No. 1 starter (Lucas Giolito), their starting second baseman (Vaughn Grissom) and extra outfielder (Rob Refsnyder). Other teams in the division — the Yankees, Rays and Orioles — were hit far worse.
Where this all ends is anyone’s guess. But it’s become blindingly obvious that, as an industry, baseball is asking more from its players — and pitchers in particular — than they’re capable of giving. In the endless search for more velocity, more movement, more everything, the limits of the human body are being tested, in some cases beyond the breaking point.
Fans, ultimately, are being cheated, nightly fed rosters of players who aren’t major league caliber. The product suffers as a result.
Teams will keep expanding their training staffs and investing in facilities. But they’re only fooling themselves. As currently constituted, no amount of personnel or innovation can stem the tsunami of injuries.
Instead of squabbling over arcane economic issues, it would make sense for MLB and the MLB Players Association to form a commission to study the issue and present real, practical solutions.
* It’s not true, as some have argued this past week, that Boston is a poor college sports town. In fact, it’s a terrific college sports town when it comes to hockey, probably the best in the nation. (Just try and find something with the passion and following of the Beanpot Tournament.) It’s just not a big college basketball town.
* Robert Kraft was stunned, stunned I tell you, that the Patriots facilities weren’t up to par. For a guy who has his stamp all over his organization, from top to bottom, it’s more than a little odd that so much goes on that he doesn’t know about. Let’s not forget: the Patriots finished near the bottom in player surveys the year before, so none of the failing grades should have come as news to him.
* A few days into the season, it would seem that a few umpires could use some time in extended spring training. Some of the ball and strikes calls have been jaw-dropping.
* Tampa Bay recently gave Kevin Cash a five-year, $24 million contract extension according to the New York Post’s Jon Heyman. At nearly $5 million per year, that’s significantly more than what Alex Cora (approximately $2.75 million per season) is currently earning on the final year of his deal. If a small-market, budget-conscious organization like Tampa Bay is paying its manager like that, Cora’s in for a big pay raise somewhere. And likely not in Boston.
* Neither the Bruins nor the Celtics can protect late-game leads, a trend that has been apparent since the start of both their seasons. At this point, the only question seems to be: which team will be done in first in the postseason by their failure to close out games?
* The fact that just six percent of all players on MLB Opening Day rosters are African-American is troubling. That’s one-third of the number from 1991. To its credit, MLB has funded a number of initiatives to attract African-American participation in a number of programs. But more needs to be done. Baseball is losing a whole generation of African-American athletes to the NBA and NFL.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the game featured a number of Black stars, including Andrew Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Tim Raines, Dave Winfield, and Kirby Puckett. Now, try naming five.
* Maybe if NESN wasn’t obsessed with inserting drop-ins and dabbling in self-promotion, it wouldn’t find itself locked out of a big moment as happened in Thursday’s season opener. The network was so busy hawking another show on its schedule that it couldn’t include a call of Tyler O’Neill’s record-setting home run.
* Pet peeve of the week: people insistent on getting into an elevator before anyone can exit. Are they giving away prizes for the first person gaining entrance?
* What, precisely, is taking so long for the NBA to address the Draymond Green problem? Adam Silver and the NBAPA should work together to get Green off the court and find him the help he needs. There’s a whole lot of enabling going on, and everyone — the Warriors, the league and the union — is dirty.
* I can’t shake the feeling that someone other than The Big Three of Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye is going to emerge as the real star of the quarterback class of 2024. My money remains on Michael Penix Jr., who likely has the strongest arm of the bunch. And shouldn’t that mean something?
* Pete Rose continues to whine about his exclusion from the game and the Hall of Fame, and this past week, made unfunny jokes about wishing he had had a translator, just another example of his xenophobic “sense of humor.” You can take MLB to task for its sudden embrace of gambling and the hypocrisy within, but Rose’s sins against the game are unmatched and he deserves every bit of his lifetime ban.
Once more for those who don’t quite get it: Rose bet on games in which he played and managed, and while there’s no evidence he ever bet against his own team, he effectively did so on nights when he chose not to bet.
|
|
|
Post by scrappyunderdog on Mar 31, 2024 19:56:57 GMT -5
Some Things I Think I Think: On baseball’s losing battle with injuries and more
Published: Mar. 31, 2024, 5:15 a.m. Sean McAdam | sean.mcadam@masslive.com * The fact that just six percent of all players on MLB Opening Day rosters are African-American is troubling. That’s one-third of the number from 1991. To its credit, MLB has funded a number of initiatives to attract African-American participation in a number of programs. But more needs to be done. Baseball is losing a whole generation of African-American athletes to the NBA and NFL. I have no idea why the writer is troubled that African-Americans are choosing FB and B-ball over BB. AA's have a competitive advantage in those two sports. 1-African-Americans are slightly larger, which is useful, and much, much faster. The more a position requires speed, the bigger the advantage. It's why the best WRs and DBs are African-Americans. BB is still largely about eyesight and eye-hand coordination, which hasn't been shown to be an advantage to African-Americans. 2-BB is much more global sport. Therefore, much more competition for spots. 12 of the RS 26 slots have gone to foreigners-one short of 50%. How many foreigners on the Celtics and Pats? You can build programs: that's always a positive. But if I were an African-American HS player that was 5'10", 175, and run a 4.6, I'm going to play football.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 4, 2024 11:13:31 GMT -5
Jackie Bradley Jr. Signs With Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks
By Darragh McDonald | April 4, 2024 at 10:55am CDT
The Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League announced that they have signed outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr.
Bradley, 34 this month, has played in the past 11 major league seasons, carving out a career as a superb defender in the outfield who could occasionally chip in with the bat and on the basepaths as well.
There were some whispers over the winter that Bradley was considering retirement but it was reported in February that he was open to continuing his career and was working out in the hopes of finding a club for the 2024 season. It seems he didn’t find an opportunity to his liking from an MLB club but will get some game action with the Ducks. The Atlantic League is an official partner league of MLB so perhaps Bradley can use this signing as a platform to getting back to the big leagues.
Bradley is within range of 10 years of major league service time, currently with a tally of nine years and 57 days, putting him 115 days shy of that milestone. It’s a significant marker for players both due to the fact that there are significant benefits in the MLBPA pension plan for those over the ten-year line and due to the symbolism of reaching a feat that fewer than 10 percent of players get to.
He has played in 1,182 major league games to this point, racking up 78 Defensive Runs Saved and 62 Outs Above Average in the process. Both of those figures place him in the top 10 among outfielders from 2013 to the present. Even as he’s moved towards his mid-30s in recent seasons, his glovework has continued to receive positive grades.
The offense has been less consistent. His best stretch at the plate was with the Red Sox in 2015 and 2016. He hit 36 home runs over those two seasons and slashed .262/.345/.489 for a wRC+ of 119. For the next three years, he settled in as a subpar hitter, but just barely. He combined for a line of .234/.318/.409 for the 2017 through 2019 seasons, with a wRC+ of 90 over that stretch.
He then had a well-timed surge in the shortened 2020 season, hitting seven home runs and batting .283/.364/.450 for a 118 wRC+ just as he was going into free agency for the first time. He was able to parlay that into a two-year, $24MM deal with the Brewers but his offense crashed after signing that pact and never really recovered. He has hit .176/.238/.275 since the start of the 2021 season, wRC+ of 40, while bouncing from the Brewers to the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Royals.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 4, 2024 18:46:02 GMT -5
Moving to shortstop is just the latest amazing accomplishment for Mookie Betts By Alex Speier Globe Staff,Updated April 4, 2024, 2:35 p.m.
LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts isn’t supposed to be doing this.
In a season-opening nine-game stretch, the Dodgers superstar is not supposed to be able to hit .485 with a .595 OBP and 1.091 slugging mark. He’s not supposed to have five homers and nine extra-base hits, or have more than twice as many walks (9) as strikeouts (4). He’s not supposed to be leading baseball in virtually every offensive category.
Yet above all, he’s certainly not supposed to be undergoing a mid-career shift to shortstop — the position that comes with arguably the highest degree of difficulty on the field.
This. Is. Not. Normal.
“True,” Betts said. “But I don’t view myself as a normal person, either. I see myself as a really good athlete who can do anything — especially on the baseball field.
“Going back to short, I think the learning process is really fun for me. I didn’t really get to express that when I was with the Red Sox.”
Betts actually started his Red Sox career as a shortstop, though there were early questions about whether his arm was light for the position. His initial performance at the position in pro ball was sufficiently disconcerting — three errors in his first game, six more in 13 games with the Lowell Spinners in 2012 — that he was shifted to second base, deferring to first-round shortstop Deven Marrero.
Betts played just once more at shortstop during his professional tenure with the Sox — a two-inning Arizona Fall League appearance in 2013 in which he committed an error.
With Xander Bogaerts clearly on track as the Sox shortstop of the future, there was little reason to shift Betts back there. And with Dustin Pedroia entrenched as the second baseman, Betts ended up moving to right field, the position where he won six Gold Gloves in seven years for the Sox and Dodgers.
At the time of his big league debut — June 29, 2014, almost 10 years ago — could Betts have imagined a return to shortstop a decade later?
“Hell, no,” he said. “Definitely not. It’s not that the Red Sox said anything, and this is not a shot at anybody, but there was a feeling that I couldn’t do it.
“There was that perception that I put on myself that I really couldn’t do it. They didn’t really take a whole lot of time to teach me how to do it, either. They may have had their reasons.
“I’m not saying anything negative about the Red Sox organization. They got me where I am today. But in my heart, I knew I could [play short]. In my head, there was the feeling that maybe I can’t really do it. I’m glad that I said in my heart that I could.”
That difference — between the head and the heart, between early-career self-doubt and mid-career conviction that anything is possible — crystallizes the evolution of Betts. Driven by self-doubt
In his time with the Red Sox and even in the initial years of his tenure with the Dodgers, Betts was a relentless self-critic. Coaches and teammates were amused whenever he emerged from early batting practice or a bad at-bat by declaring himself a failure, awful, hopeless.
Others saw one of the best players in the game, dazzled by his far-reaching talent. But Betts seemed almost apologetic about his abilities and accomplishments, and obsessed with his self-identified shortcomings.
“That’s what kept me going — insecurity,” said Betts. “Coming up, I was always the smallest. I wasn’t ever really a top prospect until I came on the scene really quick. So there were always so many guys that were ahead of me.
“I was like, ‘Dang, I’ve got to be as good as this guy. I’ve got to do this. He’s hitting home runs, so I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that.’ I was busy trying to keep up with everyone.”
The exacting standards of the Red Sox fan base amplified Betts’s natural tendency to self-critique, and created a feedback loop that pushed him toward greatness.
“That’s one thing I really, really, truly appreciated about Boston,” he said. “They were hard. You had to show up ready to play every day. That little extra focus, that little extra pressure, that little insecurity of being scared that the fans are going to boo you if you don’t play well, that there’s no excuses about anything, I think that definitely helped shape the man I am today on the field and off.”
Betts readily and proudly acknowledges that he is now a different person. Most of the players he was chasing when he was coming up have retired — some after their own impressive careers. With seven All-Star appearances, one MVP award from 2018 with the Red Sox, and three additional MVP runner-up finishes, Betts has surpassed all of them.
He is no longer striving to catch players who once served as his reference points. Instead, he is striving to surpass his own standards — to challenge himself to do things that others can’t. The work to become a shortstop as a 31-year-old is part of that.
“I don’t know if it’s something anyone has really done,” said Betts. “I feel like this is uncharted territory.
“There’s nobody I can really talk to, nobody that can really understand where I’m at and what I’m going through — which is hard, because it’s always better if you can talk to someone who’s been there and done that. But no one has been there and done that.
“So that’s hard, but it’s also neat being a pioneer. There’s a lot of people saying, ‘You can’t do it,’ or, ‘This is unheard of — he’s 31.’ Well, maybe when you were 31, you couldn’t do it, but don’t speak for me. That’s where I’m at.”
That outlook — and the joy and outward self-assurance with which Betts is playing — is striking to those who have seen him in both places. For that matter, it’s striking to Betts himself. More to accomplish
So how has he gotten to this point?
“I think my kids are really kind of what changed me, and how I learned to give myself grace, be my own biggest fan,” said Betts, whose children are 5 and almost 1. “They are going to mess up. They’re going to do stuff that may not be right.
“But you can’t tear them down. You have to build them up, and when they do something wrong, don’t yell at them. Just talk to them. I’ve been learning patience and I just applied it to myself.”
Of course, there are other sources of comfort. Betts understands that he does not need to look over his shoulder. He no longer wonders whether he’ll lose his job or get sent down if he struggles. In his fifth year with the Dodgers and fourth season of a 12-year, $365 million deal, he’s not playing for a contract.
To the contrary, he is reveling in the fact that he’s performing to — and arguably beyond — the expectations that led the Dodgers to sign him for what then seemed like a staggering sum. Is it possible that, at $365 million, he is still a bargain?
“I guess?” Betts chuckled, before his thoughts took an unprompted turn to his failed negotiations on a long-term deal with the Red Sox in the spring of 2019, which set in motion the team’s decision to trade him in 2020.
“There are still so many people that still don’t believe I wanted to stay in Boston,” he said. “I just don’t understand that. I have no reason to lie about it now.
“It’s a negotiation. Let’s have time and talk about it. I said something over here; you said something over there. There’s room.
“The perception is I didn’t want to stay. No — it’s a business. This game is fun, but it’s also a business.”
That, of course, is part of Betts’s past, no longer a subject upon which to dwell. Instead, as he acknowledges his desire to keep pushing to be worthy of an eventual spot in Cooperstown, he is taking delight in the idea that he has more to achieve.
“Even after I signed, I wasn’t like, ‘I’m set. I’m good.’ No. There’s more goals and more things I want to achieve,” he said. “I’ve got eight, nine more years left on the deal.
“I just made a move [to shortstop] at 31. You’d best believe I’m not about to stop. I’m going to keep going until they take the jersey off of me.”
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 4, 2024 19:56:34 GMT -5
Matt McCarthy @mattmccarthy985 .@john_W_Henry , @skennedysox
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 5, 2024 5:44:32 GMT -5
Boston baseball was well-served by Larry Lucchino, and other thoughts By Dan Shaughnessy Globe Staff,Updated April 5, 2024, 1 hour ago
Picked-up pieces while pondering the life and times of Larry Lucchino …
▪ He was the last of a kind — a personable, hard-charging baseball executive who demanded results, never suffered fools, and most of the time made things better for fans. He should be in Cooperstown simply for Camden Yards (which changed everything about the fan experience in every ballpark built after 1993), and he could have been commissioner of baseball, but Boston was best served because Lucchino ran the Red Sox from 2002-15.
The Sox haven’t been the same since he “retired,” and you can be sure Lucchino wouldn’t have tolerated the “let the fans eat cake” message ownership delivered in the recent non-full-throttle offseason.
Larry Lucchino. Think Harry Sinden with a law degree. Think Red Auerbach brawling with NBA owners at Board of Governors meetings. Think Tommy Lee Jones as Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard in “The Fugitive.”
He grew up in the shadows of Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, an all-star baseball player at Allderdice High School (future home of Curtis Martin).
“Forbes Field was across the street from the library, which was across the street from the YMCA, which was across the street from a pizza place,” Lucchino once said. “So you had all your essential elements of life in one system. You had everything together.”
A member of Bill Bradley’s Final Four team at Princeton, Lucchino never lost his love of asymmetrical green ballparks, replete with nooks and crannies, tucked into city neighborhoods. This is why Camden Yards was built and became the most important MLB change since Jackie Robinson integrated the sport in 1947. This is why Fenway Park was preserved when new Sox ownership took over in 2002. This is why Lucchino fined employees a token amount if he heard them refer to Fenway or Camden as a “stadium.”
I met him in 1979 when attorney Edward Bennett Williams bought the Orioles. One of the great trial attorneys of the 20th century and a proud name on Nixon’s enemies list, Williams also owned part of the Washington Redskins and brought Lucchino into baseball as a club vice president and general counsel.
As a reporter covering those Orioles, I came to think of Lucchino as the power behind the throne. Young Larry was involved in all Oriole matters and never shied from a healthy disagreement. When he was particularly angry, he would poke you in the chest to make his point.
By the time he came to Boston as president/CEO with the new Red Sox ownership, Lucchino had already built Camden Yards, broken ground on Petco Park in San Diego, and made a raft of enemies.
In 2002, Red Sox principal owner John Henry (who also owns the Globe) told me, “Larry brought me in, actually. I was working on [buying] the Angels. He was working on this deal [buying the Red Sox with Tom Werner and Les Otten].
“At one point, it became apparent to me that we weren’t going to be able to make a deal for the Angels. And I remember I called Larry on my cellphone, and he was at the Yale Bowl. It was Nov. 3 [2001]. And I said, ‘How’s it going in Boston?’ And he said, ‘We’re dialing for dollars.’
“And so I asked him if there was a possibility for an investor to come in. I told him I was only interested if I could be the lead investor, and he said, ‘That would be great. Let me talk to Tom.’ That’s how it happened.”
A few months after the sale was approved, Lucchino summoned 28-year-old protégé Theo Epstein, who’d been learning the baseball craft under Lucchino in San Diego.
A Pittsburgh guy who’d made his baseball bones in Baltimore and San Diego, Lucchino immediately understood the Boston Baseball Experience. Related: Red Sox manager Alex Cora reflects on Larry Lucchino's legacy.
The old Yawkey/Harrington Red Sox — like the Bob Kraft Patriots — had a frosty relationship with Boston City Hall, but Lucchino put a stop to that immediately, forging a strong relationship with Mayor Thomas Menino. Before you knew it, Menino had a nightly suite at Fenway (I think Lucchino let the mayor make out the Sox lineup a couple of times) and the Sox were getting everything they wanted from the city.
Lucchino embraced conflict. He once called Scott Boras “a liar” — to his face. He openly mocked George Steinbrenner. When he reluctantly agreed to be interviewed for a book I was writing with deposed Sox manager Terry Francona, Lucchino insisted on having a Sox employee record the session. Dueling recording devices. It was like the Nixon White House.
On the other hand, Francona told me that Lucchino was the only member of the Sox ownership trio who called him after Bob Hohler’s explosive story on the ex-manager in October of 2011.
Lucchino’s hate for the Yankees earned love from Sox fans.
“To be a true baseball fan, you’ve got to despise your nearest rival,” he once said. “That’s easy for the Red Sox. I was signing some autographs the other day, and I asked the guy, ‘Would it be OK if I write “Yankees suck” on there?’ ”
Lucchino was briefly considered for a spot on a special “contributors” Hall of Fame ballot last summer, but failed to get enough support.
“I’ve got some scar tissue from the battles in baseball,” he acknowledged. “I think you could round up some of the usual candidates. Judge me by my enemies as well as my friends.”
RIP Larry Lucchino. Boston is forever grateful for your time here.
▪ Quiz: Name four players who pitched at least part of one season with the Red Sox post-1980 and finished their career with at least 100 wins and 100 saves (answer below).
▪ Ninety-five-year-old Bob Cousy delivered a video “play ball!” for Opening Day at Polar Park in Worcester Tuesday. It was the fourth time the Cooz was part of the Opening Day ceremonies.
Cousy relays his own Lucchino story: “My bride and I were with him at a Jimmy Fund dinner 20 years ago and Larry said to me, ‘Cooz, you don’t remember me, do you?’ I told him I knew who he was but did not have a memory and he told me, ‘I was a Greylagger for three years.’ Evidently, he’d come to my summer basketball camp [Camp Greylag] in Pittsfield, N.H., when he was a young player.”
Cousy ran Camp Greylag from 1952-71.
▪ Not enough can be said of Monday’s Elite Eight women’s games that featured tour de force performances by Caitlin Clark (Iowa) and Paige Bueckers (UConn). It was one of those nights when I was reminded why I don’t bet on games. I would have lost my entire 401(k) wagering on LSU to beat Iowa.
Clark certainly wasn’t having any of that. She was Larry Bird — and then some.
I had little interest in the women’s game back in the days when UConn was dominating everyone, because there was no competition. Now it is an almost perfect product (12.3 million viewers for Iowa-LSU) with tremendous parity, star power, and a game that reminds us of vintage men’s hoop in the 1970s and ’80s before the 3-point shot corrupted the NBA.
Seriously … did any of you consider watching Celtics-Hornets while Clark was jousting with Angel Reese? Not me.
▪ More “Mayhem.” By now you’ve seen actor Dean Winters and his real life brother, actor Scott William Winters, in an Allstate ad during NCAA Tournament commercial breaks. It turns out that Scott William Winters is the guy who played “Clark” in an early bar scene in “Good Will Hunting” and gets embarrassed by Matt Damon. He is the Michael Bolton lookalike and the butt of the “How do you like them apples?” line delivered by Damon.
▪ Canada just keeps getting more distant from its cherished Stanley Cup. The last Canadian team to win the chalice was the 1992-93 Canadiens, and the final four teams in last year’s tournament were from Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and Nevada.
▪ NESN seems to be giving us a slight break on Red Sox telecasts thus far. There’s a second or two to breathe after the third out before cutting to commercial. Bravo.
▪ Nick Caserio’s impressive rebuild of the Texans has Bob Lobel asking, “Why can’t we get GMs like that?”
▪ That lost week in Atlanta probably won’t mean anything to the Celtics down the road, but it certainly demonstrates why we question this great team.
Jayson Tatum’s hero ball at the end of regulation of the second loss was a head-scratcher. I went full Forsberg and counted: With 26.7 seconds left and a tie score, Tatum got the inbounds pass and bounced the ball 25 times before a (non-shooting) foul was called. He got it back in the final 6.7 seconds and bounced it four more times before launching a hopeless heave.
If Joe Mazzulla won’t address this, Brad Stevens (king of drawing up great plays after timeouts) needs to intervene.
▪ Eddie House is an aptly named Celtic commentator. He makes Scal sound neutral.
▪ Tom Brady Night is June 12 at Gillette Stadium. If the Celtics are in the NBA Finals, they’ll be at Denver (or some other Western Conference arena) for Game 3.
▪ Last week’s late-night Sox opener in Seattle brought to mind Opening Day in Anaheim on April 2, 1997, one day after a huge snowstorm buried the Hub in white fluff. The Sox trailed the Angels, 5-2, with two out and nobody aboard in the ninth, but they rallied for four to win, 6-5. The winning pitcher was Pat Mahomes, who blanked the Angels in the eighth while his toddler son, Patrick, slept at home in Quincy.
▪ The late Frank Robinson remains the only player to win an MVP in both leagues, but Mookie Betts (second in the NL last year) and Shohei Ohtani have a good shot to join F. Robby one of these years.
▪ Golf fans might enjoy “Rainmaker,” Hughes Norton’s new book about the money-grab explosion of golf from the early days of Tiger Woods to today’s LIV controversy.
▪ Quiz answer: Dennis Eckersley, Tom Gordon, John Smoltz, Bob Stanley.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 6, 2024 9:42:58 GMT -5
SUNDAY BASEBALL NOTES A few thoughts on the biggest storylines to emerge from the early days of the baseball season By Peter Abraham Globe Staff,Updated April 6, 2024, 56 minutes ago
The baseball season has just started and there’s already been plenty of news. Here are some of the biggest topics:
▪ The season of Juan Soto: The Yankees are the third team Soto has played for in the last 20 months, which is a lot of hopping around for a 25-year-old three-time All-Star with a World Series ring and a batting title.
It could well be a fourth team at this point next year as Soto will become a free agent after the season.
He’s paving the road so far, having hit .345 with a .924 OPS in his first seven games batting second with Aaron Judge third.
Soto turned down a $440 million extension from the Nationals in 2022. What will it take to sign him now?
“He doesn’t pitch, so not $700 million,” said one executive, referring to Shohei Ohtani’s record-setting deal with the Dodgers. “But it’s going to be a huge number.”
Soto’s swing is built for Yankee Stadium. But there’s little chance he will make a deal to stay in New York before the season ends.
Agent Scott Boras believes in a player finding his true worth in the open market and few players have ever been set up better to prove that than Soto, one of his most-prized clients.
That’s for the winter. For now, Soto’s job is to get the Yankees back into the playoffs.
▪ Somebody you’ve never heard of threw a no-hitter: Ronel Blanco of the Astros, a 30-year-old righthander with two career wins, no-hit the Blue Jays last Monday. He walked two, struck out seven, and threw only 105 pitches.
It was the earliest no-hitter in a season in history.
Blanco joins Tyler Gilbert, Philip Humber, Joe Cowley, Chris Heston, and a few others on the list of previously unaccomplished pitchers who threw no-hitters.
Blanco is a product of Houston’s productive Latin American pipeline. He was signed for a modest $5,000 in 2016 when he was 22, and he made his way through the system, debuting in 2022 as a reliever.
Credit to Oz Ocampo, who ran Houston’s international scouting operation before becoming an assistant general manager of the Marlins.
The Astros have 17 no-hitters, four more than any other team since the franchise came into existence in 1962.
▪ The race to the bottom: The Athletics opened the season with a luxury tax payroll of $61.9 million — $21.3 million less than the 29th-place Pirates. Another 100-loss season is coming in front of small crowds in what will be their last season at Oakland Coliseum.
Or at least that is what owner John Fisher says. He’s been wrong many times before.
But the real disaster could be in Miami, where the Marlins started 0-8 and were outscored by 30 runs.
After finishing 84-78 last season, the Marlins lost general manager Kim Ng when she turned down a mutual option to return after learning she would have less power.
The Marlins then did little to improve the team in the offseason, deciding not to sign any free agents to major league contracts. Related: Reese McGuire emerges from behind the plate to fight for more playing time with Red Sox
They also have four starting pitchers from last season — Sandy Alcantara (Tommy John surgery), Edward Cabrera (shoulder impingement), Braxton Garrett (left shoulder), and Eury Perez (Tommy John surgery) — on the injured list.
New GM Peter Bendix is focusing on improving the team’s staffing and infrastructure. That could lead to the Marlins trading second baseman Luis Arraez, their most notable player.
loanDepot Park drew huge, passionate crowds for the World Baseball Classic last year and the Caribbean World Series this year. But you wonder if the Marlins will ever experience that.
The Rockies, who haven’t had a winning season since 2018, were outscored by 34 runs in their first seven games, going 1-6. Nothing new there.
▪ Mookie Mania: Mookie Betts, the shortstop and occasional second baseman of the Dodgers, had a 1.686 OPS through nine games and already had three defensive runs saved.
For a team with a $324.2 million luxury tax payroll, the Dodgers have a lot of ill-fitting parts. But Betts made the roster work by moving to the infield.
His contract was a bargain when he signed it in 2020, and has become even more valuable since. The Dodgers understood who they had as a player and person.
▪ Uniformly a mess: The new Nike uniforms are said to be designed for better performance. But stylistically they’re a mess.
The names and numbers are oddly small, leaving the top looking more like a cheap knockoff instead of a major league jersey that’s something special. The stitching, belt loops, and other details that added character have largely vanished.
The league and Nike endured criticism during spring training, but the issues haven’t been solved.
MLB won over even staunch traditionalists with the pace-of-play rules. But messing with the uniforms was too much.
HELP WANTED? As starters succeed, depth could be issue
Red Sox starters performed incredibly well through the first two series, allowing eight earned runs over 38 innings and striking out 46 with only three walks.
But with Lucas Giolito out for the season recovering from elbow surgery, rotation depth is nearly nonexistent beyond the five pitchers in the rotation.
Cooper Criswell and Richard Fitts are in Worcester’s rotation. Criswell showed promise in spring training but has only two major league starts in his brief career. Fitts, 24, is in Triple A for the first time.
Josh Winckowski competed for a rotation job in spring training and landed in the bullpen. At some point soon, he will not be built up enough to start.
Injuries or poor performance are inevitable and where will the Sox go then?
It could have been James Paxton. The 35-year-old lefthander considered a return to Boston.
“They definitely had interest and we had interest, as well. It’s just that my family and I decided I wanted to try and stay on the West Coast,” said Paxton, who lives in the Seattle area.
Paxton said it came down to the Dodgers or Red Sox, but location won out along with a chance to play for a World Series contender.
The Red Sox offered Paxton a one-year deal, as did the Dodgers. He ultimately agreed to $7 million with a potential for $6 million in bonuses. A health issue lowered his original guarantee.
Paxton pitched five shutout innings in his Dodgers debut to beat the Giants.
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
▪ Triston Casas is confident he knows his strike zone. But how he displays that confidence may be hurting him.
There were a few instances last season when Casas took a step toward first base believing he had drawn a walk, only to have the umpire call a strike.
Umpires don’t like when young players make such assumptions. Casas isn’t trying to show anybody up, that’s not his personality. But it could be interpreted that way.
Ryan Blakney called Casas out looking on a pitch barely above the dirt in Oakland last Tuesday. Was that a message?
▪ The crowd of 6,618 in Oakland last Monday night was the smallest the Sox played before (excluding pandemic restrictions in 2020 and ‘21) since Sept. 9, 1991, when only 1,695 showed up at Cleveland Stadium for a game rescheduled after a rainout.
Prior to that, it was a crowd of 6,182 in Cleveland on April 19, 1989.
A Red Sox-Orioles game in 2022 drew 2,467, but that was the Little League Classic game at a minor league park in Williamsport, Pa.
Assuming this past week’s series was the last one there, let the record show the Red Sox finished 132-153 at Oakland Coliseum, 134-159 when counting four playoff series.
Dwight Evans had the most hits (94), home runs (14) and RBIs (42). He also played the most games (104).
▪ Jarren Duran became the first player since at least 1961 to have a hit and stolen base in each of the first three innings of a game when the Sox beat Oakland last Monday.
Good for Duran. But it also speaks to how wretched the Athletics are to allow a hitter to come up three times in three innings, reach three times, and steal each time.
▪ Jackie Bradley Jr. joined the independent Long Island Ducks, a team that has long served as a pathway back to the majors for veteran players.
Bradley, who turns 34 this month, is less than a season away from 10 years of service time, a milestone that fully vests the lucrative MLB pension.
▪ The late Larry Lucchino had five World Series rings (1983 Orioles; 2004, ‘07, ‘13, and ‘18 Red Sox), a Super Bowl ring (1982 Redskins as their general counsel), and a watch for making the Final Four with Princeton in 1965.
Lucchino was a reserve on a team that went 23-6 and lost in the semifinals to Michigan and Cazzie Russell. Bill Bradley was Princeton’s star that season.
Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz are already members of the Hall of Fame. It seems inevitable Terry Francona and Theo Epstein will follow. Related: Larry Lucchino, Red Sox president when team won three world championships, dies at 78
Is there room for Lucchino in Cooperstown to further represent this era of Red Sox history? It’s unlikely as a team president, a position that has not merited Hall of Fame status unless paired with other achievements in the game.
But perhaps Lucchino could one day be inducted in recognition for his having built Camden Yards and revitalized Fenway Park, two accomplishments that changed how the game looks and feels.
ETC. Kirby’s tribute to Wakefield
Seattle righthander George Kirby grew up in Westchester County rooting for the Yankees and was able to see a few Red Sox-Yankees games in person at Yankee Stadium.
As a pitcher, he couldn’t help but admire Tim Wakefield and his command of the knuckleball.
“It was always awesome to watch him pitch,” Kirby said. “Even though I was a Yankees fan, l loved to watch him.”
Kirby’s father, also named George, called him last Oct. 1 to tell him Wakefield had died of brain cancer. Kirby was starting against Texas later that day.
As a tribute to Wakefield, Kirby threw a knuckleball in the fourth inning to Corey Seager. It fluttered in at 73.2 miles per hour and Seager swung and missed.
What led to Kirby’s gesture?
“I just thought it was a good opportunity to honor him,” he said. “I hadn’t thrown a knuckleball all year and figured it was the last game.”
Kirby learned the pitch playing catch with his cousin William when he was a Little Leaguer.
“He threw one to me and I said, ‘I want to throw that,’ and I have been throwing it ever since,” Kirby said. “I work on it every day but I’ve only thrown it that one time.”
Could he throw it again in a game?
“There could be a time and a place for it,” Kirby said. “It’s not easy to throw. It takes a lot of reps. But I can throw it.”
Hitters be warned. Extra bases
Kansas City-area voters rejected a proposal to provide public funding for a new ballpark for the Royals and a refurbished stadium for the Chiefs. The proposal lost resoundingly, receiving only 42 percent of the votes. The teams wanted a three-eighths-of-a-cent sales tax for 40 years to pay for their projects. The Royals hope to move into a $2 billion stadium by 2028 with taxpayers picking up half the cost. Now that project faces an uncertain future. That the proposal was so soundly defeated comes in the wake of the Chiefs winning three of last five Super Bowls and the Royals building a promising core of young talent. Presumably the Royals have a backup plan. If not, they could be the next franchise that threatens to move . . . Alex Verdugo was 3 for 24 as a Yankee before hitting a two-run homer in the 10th inning at Arizona last Wednesday. He flipped the bat and took an Ortizian 30 seconds to trot around the bases. John Sterling’s call on the radio was “Alexander the Great.” Kind of pedestrian by his standards . . . Had a chance to meet Tucker, the clubhouse dog in Seattle. He’s a 5-year-old lab/golden retriever mix who came from a rescue shelter in Washington. He stays with a member of the baseball operations staff and occasionally goes on the road. Tucker even has a bio in the media guide, quite fitting for such a good boy . . . It pays to win the pennant. The Diamondbacks drew 171,056 fans to their first five home games, the most since 2004 . . . Forty-year-old Charlie Morton hit 95 m.p.h. with his fastball in his first start for the Braves . . . Ryan Fernandez, a Rule 5 selection out of the Red Sox organization by the Cardinals, struck out the side in his major league debut at Petco Park against the Padres. He had a 4.14 ERA at three minor league levels for the Sox last season as a reliever . . . Justin Verlander is scheduled to start for Triple A Sugar Land on Sunday with the goal of reaching 60-70 pitches. That would line him up to come off the injured list this coming week and throw roughly 80 pitches in his first start of the season for the Astros unless the team decided he needs a second minor league start. He was held back in spring training because of shoulder soreness. Verlander needs 43 victories to reach 300, which seems unlikely at age 41. He could well be the last pitcher to surpass even 200 wins given how starters are used today. The last 300-game winner was Randy Johnson in 2009. He’s 60 now . . . Aroldis Chapman hit 101.2 m.p.h. in his second outing, which should not come as much of a surprise. He averaged 99 with his four-seam fastball last season. The amazing part is that he has hit triple digits for 15 years in a row going back to 2010 . . . Friend of the column Bob Ryan checks in to note that nine of the 10 games played last Tuesday were under 2 hours 30 minutes. The exception was the Red Sox-Athletics game that lasted 11 innings and went 3:04 . . . Rhode Island native Pete Wilk, a longtime college coach who managed the Vermont Lake Monsters in the Futures League, died after a courageous battle with brain cancer that lasted more than a year. Wilk was a good baseball man with a lot of friends in the game . . . Happy birthday to Adrian Beltre, who is 45. His 21-year career included spending the 2010 season with the Red Sox. Beltre hit .321 with a .919 OPS and earned the respect of Sox fans with how hard he played. But the Sox let Beltre walk as a free agent, deciding instead to trade for Adrian Gonzalez and move Kevin Youkilis to third base. Both were traded in 2012 and Beltre went on to a Hall of Fame career.
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 6, 2024 21:15:08 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe Statement from @mlbpa executive director Tony Clark:
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 7, 2024 5:39:52 GMT -5
Pete Abraham reposted MLB Communications @mlb_PR MLB issued the following statement in response to tonight’s comments by the leadership of the @mlbpa :
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 7, 2024 6:15:29 GMT -5
Some Things I Think I Think: On the Red Sox’ best choice to replace Trevor Story
Published: Apr. 07, 2024, 5:15 a.m.
By
Sean McAdam | sean.mcadam@masslive.com
* The loss of Trevor Story is a significant one for the Red Sox. In the first week of the season, he was catching up to elite velocity again, hinting at a big bounce-back season at the plate. His defense, meanwhile, was typically excellent.
So where do the Red Sox go from here at shortstop? Pablo Reyes isn’t the everyday answer, and moving Vaughn Grissom, when he’s healthy, only ensures too many at-bats for Reyes and Enmanuel Valdez at second base. David Hamilton’s not the solution either, and Marcelo Mayer isn’t close to being ready.
From here, Ceddanne Rafaela looks like the best bet. Evaluators believe he can be every bit as impactful at short as he’s been in center, with terrific range and a strong, accurate arm.
“We see him as a plus shortstop,” said an evaluator with another MLB team. “He has the arm to play there and the quickness, too. He just has to learn how to stay under control on some routine plays.”
This will mean some shuffling of the outfield alingment, of course, with Jarren Duran moved back to center, Tyler O’Neill in left and Wilyer Abreu in right. This isn’t a perfect solution. Duran isn’t nearly as good as Rafaela in center, though he’s playable there. There are questions about Abreu’s readiness as an everyday contributor, though perhaps when Rob Refsnyder is healthy, he can play left against lefties and O’Neill can shift to right, limiting Abreu’s exposure.
Still, that seems like the best in-house solution. It’s highly unlikely that the Red Sox can acquire a starting-caliber shortstop from elsewhere, especially this early in the season.
But Rafaela is a supremely talented athlete who will make all the plays at short while continuing to grow as a hitter.
* There’s a good chance that we’ll look back on 2024 as the year women’s college basketball exploded, thanks to Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers. Going forward, the sport will never be the same.
How much of a foothold did the game make this year? The TV ratings for the Iowa-LSU matchup last Monday eclipsed those of every World Series game last October and all but one of the NBA Finals’ contests from last June. And Friday’s Iowa-UConn game will probably top those. Remarkable.
* There’s something unseemly about two billionaire owners threatening to leave their current cities if they don’t get new taxpayer-financed stadia. Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns MLB’s Chicago White Sox, and Clark Hunt, owner of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, are both threatening to take their teams out of the market if they don’t receive government handouts to replace their current taxpayer-funded homes.
If only Reinsdorf and Hunt had as much shame as they did riches. Reinsdorf’s current playpen is less than 35 years old and came with all kinds of subsidies and incentives from the last time he threatened to skip town. Meanwhile, Hunt’s stadium has been expanded twice and renovated three times. As always, it’s never enough for these guys.
* Fighting is part of hockey, and likely always will be. A bout between two players that takes place organically between two agitated players can be entertaining. But the sort of staged line brawls, like the recent one that took place seconds after the opening faceoff between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils, look like some WWE schtick and sets the game back.
* If you don’t like Drake Maye as a potential Patriots pick and future savior, that’s your right. But people who want to avoid drafting him because Mitch Trubisky shared the same alma mater and proved to be an NFL flop, are embarrassing themselves. What does a bust from seven years ago have to do with any of this? It’s not like schools are positionally cursed. Maybe teams should pass on Caleb Williams because fellow USC alums Mark Sanchez and Matt Leinhart didn’t work out.
* If, as reported, Bill Belichick is working on a book, I would hardly expect it to be a tell-all. After decades of mumbling one and two-word answers to the most mundane questions and treating the most basic inquiry like a state secret, Belichick is all of a sudden going to pull back the curtain? Don’t think so.
* Thing I didn’t have on my 2024 Bingo card: the emergence of Reese McGuire in a job-share with Connor Wong behind the plate. And never mind that they’re both just keeping the seat warm until Kyle Teel is ready to go.
* Around these parts, it’s championship or bust. Anything less is regarded as failure. But that shouldn’t render regular season accomplishments moot. As such, the fact that the Celtics are going to finish as the only NBA team with more than 60 wins should be recognized. In an era of load management, the team’s dominance and consistency over six months is something to behold.
* I can’t think of a worse first-round playoff matchup for the Bruins than the Tampa Bay Lightning. Never mind that the Lightning won three of four regular season matchups. But the Lightning have been the league’s hottest team in the last month, have offensive firepower (second in goals scored in the Eastern Conference) and championship pedigree. Finally, forget about the numbers: you don’t want to face Andrei Vasilevskiy in a big game or series.
* The schedule-maker has made things relatively easy for the Red Sox in the first month: two series with the Los Angeles Angels, two with the Cleveland Indians and one each with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Oakland A’s — all non-playoff teams a year ago. It’s up to the Red Sox to take full advantage.
* Can’t tell you how many times over the last few months I’ve heard some variation of the following from an airline pilot upon landing. “Folks, we’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, we landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The bad news is, our gate is occupied and it’s going to be a while.....” Or, there’s no gate agent available. First of all, the “good” news is immediately negated if you can’t get off the aircraft. Further, it’s not like planes routinely arrive unannounced, like unexpected dinner guests. Is their arrival somehow catching everyone by surprise?
* Sorry, can’t feel too sorry for the fan at Dodger Stadium who felt she wasn’t properly compensated for handing over Shohei Ohtani’s first home run for the Dodgers. When you go to the ballpark as a paying customer, there should be no expectation that you’re going to leave enriched just because a ball dropped in your lap.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmi on Apr 7, 2024 14:40:30 GMT -5
Some Things I Think I Think: On the Red Sox’ best choice to replace Trevor Story Published: Apr. 07, 2024, 5:15 a.m. By Sean McAdam | sean.mcadam@masslive.com * The loss of Trevor Story is a significant one for the Red Sox. In the first week of the season, he was catching up to elite velocity again, hinting at a big bounce-back season at the plate. His defense, meanwhile, was typically excellent. So where do the Red Sox go from here at shortstop? Pablo Reyes isn’t the everyday answer, and moving Vaughn Grissom, when he’s healthy, only ensures too many at-bats for Reyes and Enmanuel Valdez at second base. David Hamilton’s not the solution either, and Marcelo Mayer isn’t close to being ready. From here, Ceddanne Rafaela looks like the best bet. Evaluators believe he can be every bit as impactful at short as he’s been in center, with terrific range and a strong, accurate arm. “We see him as a plus shortstop,” said an evaluator with another MLB team. “He has the arm to play there and the quickness, too. He just has to learn how to stay under control on some routine plays.” This will mean some shuffling of the outfield alingment, of course, with Jarren Duran moved back to center, Tyler O’Neill in left and Wilyer Abreu in right. This isn’t a perfect solution. Duran isn’t nearly as good as Rafaela in center, though he’s playable there. There are questions about Abreu’s readiness as an everyday contributor, though perhaps when Rob Refsnyder is healthy, he can play left against lefties and O’Neill can shift to right, limiting Abreu’s exposure. At the moment, I think I like the idea of putting Rafaela at SS. I am not too enamored with either Reyes or Valdez being our everyday 2nd baseman.
|
|
|
Post by Kimmi on Apr 7, 2024 14:53:03 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe Statement from @mlbpa executive director Tony Clark: As we all know, I'm not a fan of the pitch clock. However, there just isn't enough evidence to say that the number of pitching injuries is due to the pitch clock. I think it has more to do with pitchers trying to throw harder and trying to put more spin on the ball. Either way, MLB needs to look at the number of injuries happening to pitchers. On a different note, last night, the Angels broadcasters mentioned how Schanuel's 30 game on base streak to start his career ended when MLB overturned a called 'hit' and changed it to an 'error' (from a game last week). The probably biased Angels broadcasters thought it was a clear hit. I thought it was one of those judgment calls that could have gone either way. It was not an obvious error by any means. Shame on MLB's panel for changing that call and taking the streak away from Schanuel and Angels' fans. How often do they change calls like this anyway?
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 7, 2024 16:39:53 GMT -5
Some Things I Think I Think: On the Red Sox’ best choice to replace Trevor Story Published: Apr. 07, 2024, 5:15 a.m. By Sean McAdam | sean.mcadam@masslive.com * The loss of Trevor Story is a significant one for the Red Sox. In the first week of the season, he was catching up to elite velocity again, hinting at a big bounce-back season at the plate. His defense, meanwhile, was typically excellent. So where do the Red Sox go from here at shortstop? Pablo Reyes isn’t the everyday answer, and moving Vaughn Grissom, when he’s healthy, only ensures too many at-bats for Reyes and Enmanuel Valdez at second base. David Hamilton’s not the solution either, and Marcelo Mayer isn’t close to being ready. From here, Ceddanne Rafaela looks like the best bet. Evaluators believe he can be every bit as impactful at short as he’s been in center, with terrific range and a strong, accurate arm. “We see him as a plus shortstop,” said an evaluator with another MLB team. “He has the arm to play there and the quickness, too. He just has to learn how to stay under control on some routine plays.” This will mean some shuffling of the outfield alingment, of course, with Jarren Duran moved back to center, Tyler O’Neill in left and Wilyer Abreu in right. This isn’t a perfect solution. Duran isn’t nearly as good as Rafaela in center, though he’s playable there. There are questions about Abreu’s readiness as an everyday contributor, though perhaps when Rob Refsnyder is healthy, he can play left against lefties and O’Neill can shift to right, limiting Abreu’s exposure. At the moment, I think I like the idea of putting Rafaela at SS. I am not too enamored with either Reyes or Valdez being our everyday 2nd baseman.
IMO, U leave him at CF we get what we can bat wise from a SS but the D is more important
|
|
|
Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Apr 7, 2024 16:43:14 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe Statement from @mlbpa executive director Tony Clark: As we all know, I'm not a fan of the pitch clock. However, there just isn't enough evidence to say that the number of pitching injuries is due to the pitch clock. I think it has more to do with pitchers trying to throw harder and trying to put more spin on the ball. Either way, MLB needs to look at the number of injuries happening to pitchers. On a different note, last night, the Angels broadcasters mentioned how Schanuel's 30 game on base streak to start his career ended when MLB overturned a called 'hit' and changed it to an 'error' (from a game last week). The probably biased Angels broadcasters thought it was a clear hit. I thought it was one of those judgment calls that could have gone either way. It was not an obvious error by any means. Shame on MLB's panel for changing that call and taking the streak away from Schanuel and Angels' fans. How often do they change calls like this anyway? I am as old fashioned as it comes and I went into last season with an open mind and actually like the changes just leave it alone now.
I think alot of these injuries are due to the fact that alot of these guys are at it playing/ training etc all year long they gotta take a break and let their bodies heal up
|
|
|
Post by scrappyunderdog on Apr 7, 2024 21:20:31 GMT -5
As we all know, I'm not a fan of the pitch clock. However, there just isn't enough evidence to say that the number of pitching injuries is due to the pitch clock. I think it has more to do with pitchers trying to throw harder and trying to put more spin on the ball. Either way, MLB needs to look at the number of injuries happening to pitchers. On a different note, last night, the Angels broadcasters mentioned how Schanuel's 30 game on base streak to start his career ended when MLB overturned a called 'hit' and changed it to an 'error' (from a game last week). The probably biased Angels broadcasters thought it was a clear hit. I thought it was one of those judgment calls that could have gone either way. It was not an obvious error by any means. Shame on MLB's panel for changing that call and taking the streak away from Schanuel and Angels' fans. How often do they change calls like this anyway? I am as old fashioned as it comes and I went into last season with an open mind and actually like the changes just leave it alone now.
I think alot of these injuries are due to the fact that alot of these guys are at it playing/ training etc all year long they gotta take a break and let their bodies heal upI absolutely loved the pitch clock. It made BB watchable again. But the extra two seconds does nothing for me. We finally have some control, and for me, that's enough. That said, Clark's statement was pure idiocy. The amount of spin now compared to just ten years ago is huge. Seattle brought in an RP in maybe the 2nd game. He started off three hitters with a strike 1 sweeper. It was beautiful. And if I were pitching for a contract, I'd be doing the same thing. You have a handful of years to strike it rich.
|
|