A friend who just went to a Yankee Stadium game said:
Something I've never seen before: every time a reliever was brought in, four members of the grounds crew went into the outfield and stood facing the stands until the pitcher started his warmup tosses.
Last year two pitchers tied for the most complete games - each had three. The last time a pitcher had more than ten complete games was 2011 and the last time a pitcher had twenty or more complete games was Valenzuela in 1986!
Some teams would go through a lot of relievers even in the old days - I particularly remember Pittsburgh and Cincinnati going through 3 or 4 pitchers in a game pretty often - a lot of middle relievers. There were closers like Clay Carroll, Rollie Fingers, Tug McGraw, Mike Marshall (who won the CYA as a reliever IIRC), but you rarely saw them before the 7th or 8th inning.
Blake Snell just threw a no-hitter. At 32, this was his first pitch in the 9th inning. Ever.
"Webb stellar in tossing shutout against A's"
And by "stellar," we mean "threw the third complete game and second shutout of his career."
What did relievers used to do when complete games were normal?
Last year two pitchers tied for the most complete games - each had three. The last time a pitcher had more than ten complete games was 2011 and the last time a pitcher had twenty or more complete games was Valenzuela in 1986!
Some teams would go through a lot of relievers even in the old days - I particularly remember Pittsburgh and Cincinnati going through 3 or 4 pitchers in a game pretty often - a lot of middle relievers. There were closers like Clay Carroll, Rollie Fingers, Tug McGraw, Mike Marshall (who won the CYA as a reliever IIRC), but you rarely saw them before the 7th or 8th inning.
Given all the interleague play that goes on in baseball, what do the divisions and leagues even mean? I mean, shouldn't the teams play within their division until a winner is established, then those teams within their league, then the two champs go to the World Series? I'm quite certain it's somehow all about money.
Of course its about money, but it was also about expansion & maintaining the popularity of the game. I remember the 10 team leagues; only two teams made it to the postseason. When each league expanded to 12 teams, 2 divisions made sense to have 4 teams make it to the PS, which was also a reaction to the growing competition with thr NFL. Interleague play is more complicated, but basically for all the same reasons; money & popularity.
Given all the interleague play that goes on in baseball, what do the divisions and leagues even mean? I mean, shouldn't the teams play within their division until a winner is established, then those teams within their league, then the two champs go to the World Series? I'm quite certain it's somehow all about money.
Yes. The notion of the World Series determining any sort of champion is long past. It IS all about money but for fans of teams who aren't contenders, or not-really fans, going to one or two games a year, it's nice to be able to see all of the players. When I lived in Oakland/SF, I did have a chance to see all the teams at some point or another. But most people would never see the Yankees or never see the Dodgers. I mean, who would want to? Other than that casual fan who doesn't care about rivalries.
And the endless wild cards are a transparent ploy to keep people engaged longer, but demonstrably reducing the ability of the best teams to advance. Any team can get snakebit by any other team at some point in a run of 3 or 4 short series.
Given all the interleague play that goes on in baseball, what do the divisions and leagues even mean? I mean, shouldn't the teams play within their division until a winner is established, then those teams within their league, then the two champs go to the World Series? I'm quite certain it's somehow all about money.
With runners on, they get more time, and he was over that by a full second. Which seems trivial but eh. I thought they were going to implement an "optional" pitch clock, where the umpires or teams or someone could mutually agree to ignore the pitch clock when it's game-on-the-line situations.
It was a ball anyway so no harm done. But the clock should not be in play where there's a runner on third in the 7th inning. Or something.
Yeah...I get it...he was late. But with so much riding on every pitch... the league should want to find a way to see those pitches... not call them off mid-windup because he was a second late. Most umps would have let it go.
As for clock adjustments...getting 5 extra seconds seems like a lot, but it's the same whether there is 1 on in the second or bases loaded in the 9th. One needs to keep moving...the other taking time is what makes baseball great.
He's why we pay to watch...
I understand that by the letter of the law, the pitcher was late.... but 2 outs, a 3-2 count, the bottom of the 9th... you just don't make that call that quickly.
With runners on, they get more time, and he was over that by a full second. Which seems trivial but eh. I thought they were going to implement an "optional" pitch clock, where the umpires or teams or someone could mutually agree to ignore the pitch clock when it's game-on-the-line situations.
It was a ball anyway so no harm done. But the clock should not be in play where there's a runner on third in the 7th inning. Or something.
He's why we pay to watch...
I understand that by the letter of the law, the pitcher was late.... but 2 outs, a 3-2 count, the bottom of the 9th... you just don't make that call that quickly.
Triple-A games to start fully using automated ball-strike challenge system
When an electronic ball-strike system arrives in the big leagues at some point in the next few years, it wonât be used to call every pitch. Major League Baseball made that clear Tuesday, when it sent a memo to all 30 teams informing them that starting next week, that electronic ball-strike technology will switch to a challenge system only in Triple-A games.
The memo was originally obtained and reported on by ESPN.
The automatic ball-strike system, known as ABS, has been used in Triple A since the beginning of last season. But as part of that experiment, the technology was used to call every pitch in only three games a week. The other three games per week employed the challenge system.
But as The Athleticreported last summer, minor-league players, coaches and staff expressed their vehement unhappiness with the way the full-time ABS worked. And last month, commissioner Rob Manfred signaled this change by saying he was in favor of using a challenge system that resulted in only a handful of ball-strike challenges per game.
Speaking at the quarterly owners meeting, the commissioner said that âthose who have played with it do have a strong preference for the challenge system over ABS calling every pitch. And that has certainly altered our thinking on where we might be headed.â
The league then surveyed players and staff in Triple A this season. In its memo to the clubs, the league said that 61 percent of those surveyed preferred the challenge system, while only 11 percent favored using ABS on every pitch. The other 28 percent supported human umpires calling all balls and strikes.
MLB also surveyed spectators at Triple-A games. It said it found that twice as many fans preferred the challenge system, compared with those favoring full-time ABS.
So starting next week, the league will use Triple-A games to try to determine what type of challenge system works best. In the Pacific Coast League, teams will still get three challenges per game, as they do now â and will retain their challenge when theyâre right. In the International League, however, clubs will get just two challenges per game â but also will retain their challenge when theyâre right.
In its memo, MLB said the reduction in the International League was essentially an experiment to determine if fewer challenges could âreduce the frequency of high-challenge games.â Almost 40 percent of Triple-A games have seen more than six challenges. In surveys, 89 percent of fans said they preferred no more than six â and 53 percent said three or four was ideal.
However, baseball will continue to experiment with a full-time ABS at lower levels in the minor leagues. In a memo to minor-league teams and departments, MLB said that the Low-A Florida State League will continue to use the electronic ball-strike technology full-time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, as has been the case for the last several years. From Friday through Sunday, that league will use the challenge system. Florida State League teams will still have three challenges per game.
At the owners meetings, Manfred said that it is now unlikely that MLB will be ready to use any form of electronic ball-strike technology by next season. However, industry sources have told The Athletic that the league is aiming to iron out ABSâ technological challenges in time to roll out the system in the major leagues by 2026 if all goes well.
What Tuesdayâs memo made apparent, however, was that if those robot umps do arrive in 2026, theyâre almost certain to be used only to correct the most egregious mistakes â via a challenge system similar to the one used now for instant replay.
