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Nine of twelve

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Everything posted by Nine of twelve

  1. I didn't take the time to read all the comments yet. But I'll say that letting Ryan go for the no-hitter would have been tantamount to giving up on the season. The Twins' only chance to make the rest of the season relevant is to win the next 7 games. That means Ryan needs to be at full strength on Sunday. For those who feel he should have continued to pitch we'll just have to agree to disagree about Rocco making the correct decision.
  2. Next season we will play the Yankees 7 times and the Astros 6 times. This season we played the Yankees 7 times and the Astros 6 times. The decrease in intra-division games next year is to make room for more inter-league games.
  3. The mound was lowered during the 1968-1969 off-season and has not been adjusted since then. The first TJ surgery (on TJ himself, of course) was in 1974. So there's no way to correlate the change in the height of the mound to the rate of surgeries.
  4. I'm against any restriction on positioning of fielders, other than the rule that has been in place almost since the beginning that the catcher is the only player allowed to set up in foul territory. There is no argument that will convince me to change my mind. There are many other ways to counter the perceived problem of too little action and too little offense that make more sense. The most obvious of these is to move the pitching rubber farther from home plate. I would suggest starting out with a 6 or 12 inch increase and evaluate how that affects the game. This makes it easier to hit a pitch (including to direct the batted ball) and to steal a base. I would also be in favor of lowering the mound. To balance the advantage those changes would give the batter I think a larger strike zone should be put in place. This also has the benefit of reducing the number of bases on balls. More balls put in play, fewer walks, fewer strikeouts, more stolen bases. And also consider softening the ball a touch so that home runs don't get easier. I like the larger base size because it makes plays around the bases safer. And don't lose sight of the fact that larger bases are a bit of an advantage for fielders too--it will be easier for a fielder to touch a base on a force play. And, of course, electronic pitch calling. NOW!
  5. Nope. If a pitch clock can be implemented a transition clock can too. One minute is enough. Between the plethora of coaches in the dugout and players not in the lineup each player who is on the bases, batting, or on deck can have a designated equipment handler to facilitate a quick exchange. Hustle in, hustle out, and resume the game. Bathroom and water breaks can be done at other times. This is feasible and it's the simplest, most logical, and most efficient approach to minimizing in-game down time because the duration of the between-half-innings break is the single biggest contributor to the problem. My understanding is the minimum length of a break is 2:15 so in reality I suspect it's about 3 minutes from third out to first pitch almost every time. With 16 or 17 such breaks in a 9-inning game, going to a 60-second break would decrease the running time of a typical game by 32-34 minutes. Of course, the obvious flaw here is that minimizing in-game down time is not the goal these rule changes are seeking to address. MLB's one and only objective in everything they do is to maximize owner profit. Any and all changes made are done to further that goal and that goal alone.
  6. I was only off by 1 run.
  7. Tommy John is an elbow procedure. Mahle's issue is with his shoulder.
  8. The Yankees do not have a soul. Or at least they don't own it outright after the deal they made at the crossroads.
  9. Here's positive and creative thinking: It's not just which team you play it's when you play them. The Yankees have been playing bad baseball. Starting with July 31 their record through yesterday (when they won) is 11-20. And there was even a 5-game winning streak in the middle of that stretch. In their last 8 games since that streak they are 2-6. To compare, the Twins are 15-17 during the same time period. Based on this a split should be the expectation.
  10. In spite of all the this team's shortcomings (some real, some perceived) today's win moves us into first place. Well, a tie for first place. Well, a tie for first place in the AL Central. In other words, we're no more mediocre than anyone else in our division.
  11. I realize Pascual was before the time of many of us here, and I was too young to appreciate his deuce while he played for us. But I do remember going to a game in 1980 when he was pitching coach. Before the game he was in the outfield with the pitchers during batting practice. When BP was ending and the balls were being rounded up he picked one up and threw it to another player. And let me tell you, even at age 46 he could still make the ball bend big time.
  12. I made a post to this effect on the game thread but I'll say this here too. On the broadcast AJ Pierzynski said during the ninth inning that he thought Cease should have walked Arraez. If I were Cease I wouldn't have done so. First of all, the outcome of the game was not on the line so there was no strategic reason to walk Arraez. But I'll bet he felt that it would cheapen the no-hitter to dodge the hitter with the league's best average. He went for it but Arraez got him. That's baseball. Good on both players for giving it their best shot.
  13. I'll disagree. A manager's job in the regular season is to try to win as many games as possible. This sometimes means giving up one game to try to improve your chance of winning the next. It was obvious by the middle innings that the Twins had essentially no shot at winning this game. So it was the right move to give some of his players a bit of rest for the next day's game. The win-loss record doesn't care whether a game is a no-hitter. Whether it is or not you put it behind you and move on.
  14. Santana deservedly won the Cy Young in 2006. But before Liriano's injury Santana was the second-best pitcher in the rotation.
  15. He was designated as LHP on gamecast on the Twins website when I was looking at it. Maybe you misread it, or maybe you were monitoring a poor game viewing site.
  16. Ryan Pressley's results badly trailed almost all of his metrics during the season that he was traded to Houston. Next thing you know, he's a reliable late-inning guy--often a closer--for a team in the World Series. Not saying Pagan will turn out to be like that but this helps me to understand why the team is willing to keep him on the roster.
  17. The conclusion of the Atlanta/St. Louis game was broadcast during the rain delay so I watched that. As a result I saw two walk-off walks on one night. What are the odds?
  18. The official MLB rules are not clear to me on whether the umpires must notify the manager that a mound visit has been credited. While it appeared to me that Baldelli did make a mound visit as the kerfuffle was winding down, if the umpires did not notify Baldelli that a mound visit had been credited then Baldelli has a legitimate beef.
  19. The teams would have the same number of 3-game series and 4-game series either way. The only difference is who the opponents are. Teams fly between cities on almost every road trip anyway, so this is essentially a non-factor.
  20. Incorrect. There are 13 games against each division opponent.
  21. OK, here's a quirk that causes dissonance in the symmetry portion of my brain: The schedule would exactly accommodate 14 games against each division opponent, 6 games against each non-division team in the same league, and 3 games against each team from the other league with the exception of 4 games in the so-called rivalry series. Almost perfect symmetry, 162 games. Pleasing. But instead, the schedule calls for 13 intra-division games and 64 games against other teams from the same league. As a result, home-and-home within the division is unbalanced. It further means playing 7 games against 4 non-division teams in the same league and 6 games against the other 6. Disturbing. Can we get an explanation for this distressing situation? I can even accept the explanation that it was done simply to bug me personally, but someone please tell us why. Edited to add: I just thought of one possible explanation. In the event of a tie-breaker being needed for postseason seeding MLB wants there to be an odd number of games against each of the other teams in a division. This is weak (IMHO) because I'd rather see a second tiebreaker used in the rare event of a 7-7 split. A small but worthwhile price to pay for symmetry.
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