ashbury

Astudillo seems nice and quiet behind the plate. And Gonsalves's command is, shall we say, marginal, yet no balls to the backstop as yet, 39 pitches into this young game. So far, I'm not seeing what gives the dugout braintrust qualms about him as catcher.

Anyone on the roster shouldn't play "never". On page 8 of a thread still nominally about Paul Molitor, I'm fine with this degree of accord reached.

I think if the first base umpire called a double play on a ball struck with two outs, he'd have more to worry about than a simple challenge and overturn. There'd be a Joe Torre voicemail waiting for him on his cell phone at game's end.

He's got Caveman on the back of his jersey, but he's no Gloveman. Nice recovery to get the lead runner, though.

Ball 2, to start the game. Season over.

The old Powder Blue uniforms (sorta) are back for tonight? Is this 70s Disco Night?

SABR stalwart David W Smith relates the following nugget which might be interesting to the folks here: I did not do an exhaustive search, but I believe we had a first in Anaheim last night. In the bottom of the 5th inning, the Angels had the same situation on CONSECUTIVE plays and both were overturned. Summary: Bottom of the 5th, 0 outs, Rene Rivera on first after a single.Jefry Marte grounded to third baseman Alex Bregman, who threw to second baseman Jose Altuve to force Rivera and threw to first baseman Yuli Guriel. Marte was called out to complete the double play.The Angels challenged the call at first, which was overturned, leaving Marte on first.The next batter, Taylor Ward, did exactly the same thing and was called out at first to complete the double play.Once again the Angels challenged and the call was overturned, leaving Ward on first.The first base umpire who was overturned twice was Bruce Dreckman. All replays are listed on the Retrosheet web site at: https://www.retrosheet.org/Replay.htm

In conjunction with the other answers provided, let me offer this approach. I think I did something similar with LoMo, a while back. J.D. Martinez and Khris Davis lead the majors in RBI as of this morning with 110 and 103 respectively. Let's break it down to playing time, opportunity by team mates, and home runs: Martinez: 534 plate appearances Davis: 518 PA Mauer: 412 PA So Mauer hasn't played as much, in aggregate. That's going to cut into the RBI. Next, here's how those PA break down, as to whether men are on base or not: Martinez: 279 PA bases empty, 255 PA with someone on Davis: 258 PA and 260 PA, respectively Mauer: 256 and 156, respectively So Mauer's team mates are not setting the table for him the way the other gentlemen's comrades do. Next, Mauer's less of a power hitter than them: when the bases are empty, the only way to get an RBI is with a homer, and he's a poor candidate. Martinez: 313 BA, .621 SLG, 20 RBI bases empty Davis: .247 BA, .562 SLG, 20 RBI bases empty Mauer: .238 BA, .322 SLG, 2 RBI bases empty So, with nearly equal opportunity, RBI are as expected - and you can knock Mauer for that, but you can also imply poor RBI skills about most hitters in this regard, when you compare them to league HR leaders Martinez and Davis. Finally, how do these three guys perform comparatively, bases occupied? Martinez: .363 BA, .693 SLG, 35 BB, 18 HR, 90 RBI (again, 279 PA) Davis: .271 BA, 574 SLG, 24 BB, 19 HR, 83 RBI (260 PA) Mauer: .344 BA, .472 SLG, 26 BB, 3 HR, 37 RBI (156 PA) When talking about RBI, a lot of what we think of as "driving in baserunners" is "driving oneself in with a homer". It's no accident that the leaders in HR this year lead in RBI. I know there is a tendency to equate low RBI with failure of will (and I don't think that was your point here). Mauer does better with men on base than empty, as do the other two, as do the leagues in general. But mostly it's the home runs, and opportunity. Everything else (Mauer walking a little much) is close to noise, by comparison.

Players have ups and downs during a season. If Grossman wants to be useful, the highs need to be higher and/or more numerous, or else the lows less low. He's not a big cog in the machine but his first three months, while the team was burying itself for post-season relevance, contributed.

Moderator's note: I've had to remove other posts in this thread for being overly personal, dismissive, or disputatious. Please stick to actual discussion, not sniping at fellow members.

The fact someone would take it seriously speaks volumes about the middle infield pipeline, even though from some perspectives it's a strength.

Mauer also trails Sam Rice, Clyde Milan, and Joe Judge, but alas the franchise record omits mention of time served with the old Senators. Coincidentally, 2086 is also Killebrew's career total, only a tiny portion of which was not with this franchise.

Thanks. Now fixed in the original.

1. Ownership ultimately has the say-so. 2. There is no explicit term. 3. The site's Comment Policy lists the names, which are: glunn, Head Moderator snepp ashburyjohn Riverbrian USAFChief ChiTownTwinsFan* diehardtwinsfan twinsnorth49 stringer bell nicksaviking 4. The moderators self-critique and we take some pains to consider "who watches the watchers", while recognizing it's an imperfect world and we don't always march in lock step. Ownership ultimately has the say-so. It sounds as if you have a concern in mind. You can bring it up here in this forum (thank you for not interrupting a baseball thread with a tangent on this subject), or you can contact any of the moderators including the head moderator, or you can contact one of the owners. Brock Beauchamp is the owner who is tasked to interface with the moderation team, so he would be the first recommendation among them, but there is not a hard and fast rule about that.

I likewise am hoping for your continued good health, Craig.

Yes, and I'll go farther. If your starter is of a caliber where third-time through is a concern (and it is indeed, for probably a majority of starters), then it's a certainty there will be relievers. Those relievers may or may not be "better", but they will be in the game, one way or another, and one of them will perforce be facing the top of the opposing lineup at some point, or probably two or even three. The manager might as well pick his spots in this way. I'm a big believer in the concept of starting with a short-man, preferably one with a different style (and opposite arm) of the nominal starter, to give the other guys a totally different look to think about.

Someone with that kind of profile at a corner position can carve out a few extra years if he's willing to move around the league a bit, particuarly to teams in a down cycle. Someone who wants to play for just one team is at the mercy of where that team happens to be in their own cycle. I just don't see the fit anymore, personally. We need high production along with that defense.

Lewis? He was drafted in '17. Yesterday's news. I want Larnach.

On that throw-out by Rosario, what if Matt Olson wasn't deked by Garver and that actually is his top speed?

(Bet he and Morrison are plenty tired of this reference.) Rarely swings. Home runs. Ended. Got it. It's enjoyable to watch one of our players do well, but he's not part of the future and probably will be part of our past soon enough.

Is Nick Anderson the only reliever being tried out in this "Opener" role? I can't recall anyone else yet. Not sure if this represents an actual strategy on the part of the organization, or just something unique about this pitcher's repertoire that suggests him for such a role.

Guess who's eyes can't, either? These eyes, that's whose.

But that's often how the justice system works. I'm satisfied that there were convictions. Unanimity is difficult to achieve on anything that is contested.

Just lift the runner's leg off of the base with your glove hand. He was off-balance, anyone could see that.

https://baseball.theater/ often has video of the plays we want to discuss, sometimes within minutes. You can watch the Garver tragi-comedy unfold here: https://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/mp4/2018/08/22/2415138283/1534970063990/asset_1800K.mp4 The pitcher Magill hustled down right away and was covering. (For that matter, all three outfielders were on their way in, although maybe not all at full speed - there was the potential for a throw to any base.) I'd be uneasy about a throw to second followed by a throw home, but you have to be willing to make the right play. Maybe a throw to Polanco now covering third was indicated, sooner, but there was a lot of traffic around the bag and a throw could easily have gone haywire. After his throw, where should Sano be? He was backing his way up to the bag, unaware that Polanco was there. He was part of the clutter that maybe caused Garver to hold off and just chase the runner back. The umpire and (especially?) the base coach also were contributing to the clutter. The rule about coaches staying in their box is always ignored. In this case maybe you can see a reason for the rule. Eye heart Baseball Theater. I don't think there were two men on third by the time Garver reached the base. No one to tag out.