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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Friday, October 16 Likely our last day of multiple baseball games this year, unless both Houston and Los Angeles win tonight. 5:07 pm CDT ALCS Game 6 HOU at TB (TB leads 3-2) Framber Valdez vs Blake Snell TV: TBS 8:08 pm CDT NLCS Game 5 LAD at ATL (ATL leads 3-1) Dustin May vs AJ Minter TV: FS1
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    If you have the link, I'd be interested to see that article.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Yup. It's not a new rule either, it's just been extended to 3. The old rule was that a pitcher had to face 1 batter, even starting pitchers: https://sports.stackexchange.com/a/13989
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Interestingly, the Astros took a 2-0 lead over the Rays in their 2019 ALDS matchup, but the Rays won the next to force a decisive game 5 (Astros ultimately prevailed, unfortunately).
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    I think the 3 batter minimum applies to starting pitchers too: "The starting pitcher or any substitute pitcher is required to pitch to a minimum of three consecutive batters" https://baseballrulesacademy.com/official-rule/mlb/5-10-substitutions-and-pitching-changes-including-visits-to-the-mound/
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Now that starters have been announced, I missed this observation: The 4 PM game features TB, starting pitcher TBA, broadcast on TBS.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Thursday, Oct. 15 Dodgers and Astros did their jobs last night, and made each series more interesting! Game times flipped today, and a return to free TV. 4:07 pm CDT ALCS Game 5 TB at HOU (TB leads 3-1) John Curtiss vs Luis Garcia TV: TBS 7:08 pm CDT NLCS Game 4 LAD at ATL (ATL leads 2-1) Clayton Kershaw vs Bryse Wilson TV: FOX
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Huascar Ynoa also pitched last night, in a... well, not-so-close game. (Yeah, I know Ynoa was never technically a Twin, just a Twins minor leaguer.)
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    By WAR, OPS, and OPS+, Kepler and Rosario appear better than both Robert and Merrifield in 2020 too, and don't have quite the playing time problems of Buxton.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    FYI, better to use ISO (isolated power) than SLG, because SLG basically double-counts batting average. Still a drop for Grandal in 2020, but not as big -- and the whole league dropped too. And like the league batting average was near an all-time low, league K% climbed to another all-time high. (Grandal's rise in K% still outpaced that, but it's worth noting, especially in such a small sample -- for example, Grandal was owned by Cleveland pitchers in 2020, which may have had an outsized effect on his overall stats as compared to a normal season schedule.)
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Wednesday Oct. 14 Exact same schedule as yesterday! 5:05 pm CDT NLCS Game 3 LAD at ATL (ATL leads 2-0) Julio Urias vs Kyle Wright TV: FS1 7:40 pm CDT ALCS Game 4 TB at HOU (TB leads 3-0) Tyler Glasnow vs Zack Greinke TV: TBS
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Dodgers last night almost pulled off an incredible comeback -- down 8-2 at the start of the 9th, they came within 8-7 with the tying run at third before falling short. Now down 2-0 in the series so today's game is huge for them. This might make me a bad person, but I might also be an Astros fan for the next few days too, to make the ALCS a little more interesting with the Rays up 3-0.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    It's an interesting look for sure, but I think I prefer the contrast of two different tests -- the regular season testing depth, the postseason testing more top-end talent (among the teams that survive the regular season test). Within reason -- I never liked the random off days between game 1 of 2 of the DS round, for example, which have fortunately been eliminated in recent seasons. But I love the way Madison Bumgarner was used in 2014 -- which wasn't just "start him a lot" either, they got creative with using him at the end. Morton and Corbin are other starters used out of the pen in recent game 7's too (with Gerrit Cole warming up last year as well). There's been a bit of creativity this postseason -- the Rays starting Glasnow on 2 days rest vs Cole on 3 days rest was interesting. Although it's all sort of morphing into extreme "bullpenning" which is tedious at times. Especially as the series aren't staying particularly close, outside of the Rays-Yankees ALDS -- did anyone really want to see 17 pitchers throw in a 12-3 game to complete the Dodgers sweep of the Padres? Expanded bench is cool, though -- hopefully 2021 will keep that, but put a more reasonable roster limit on pitchers.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    If the Astros win this year -- well, it would be complicated by the whole 2017 thing -- but I could see that club and its 29-31 regular season record lumped into discussions with the 1987 Twins and 2006 Cardinals as fluke / undeserving champs based on regular season record. But probably not forgotten (and certainly not as illegitimate as 1919). But the other 3 clubs are all generally considered among the best in baseball, not only in 2020 but also 2019 and likely 2021 and beyond too. I think the lasting general public perception of one of those teams winning the title in 2020 will be pretty normal.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I'm not sure this is a meaningful example. Most people probably don't know off the top of their head who won the 1916 World Series either, or 1931, etc. Doesn't mean the 1916 or 1931 champs are any less legitimate than other years. It's just a generic memory effect which applies to everything (although probably less so to the modern game, as compared to 100 years ago, due to media, video, marketing, expansion and league/franchise stability, etc.). 1919 and now 2017 may be the only less-than-legitimate WS champs in the general public's eye for obvious reasons (and I suspect 2017's illegitimacy may still fade with time). Beyond that, I guess baseball historians might discount the WW2 years, when many players could not participate due to military service. But as of now, there are no cheating allegations about 2020, and very few notable players opted out of competition this year. The weird circumstances of 2020 everywhere will be remembered in the public consciousness, but it seems doubtful that the legitimacy of its baseball WS champ will be viewed the same as a cheating scandal or world war.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    But is he as much of a gamer as Trevor May?
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Big story tonight is that Clayton Kershaw is out due to back spasms. Although the Dodgers replacement starter Tony Gonsolin is pretty good, with a good story too: "Tony Gonsolin’s ‘clear talent’ to go from undrafted outfielder to impact starter" https://theathletic.com/2112733/2020/10/05/tony-gonsolins-clear-talent-to-go-from-undrafted-outfielder-to-impact-starter/
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Tuesday Oct. 13 5:05 pm CDT NLCS Game 2 ATL at LAD (ATL leads 1-0) Ian Anderson vs Tony Gonsolin TV: FS1 7:40 pm CDT ALCS Game 3 TB at HOU (TB leads 2-0) Ryan Yarbrough vs Jose Urquidy TV: TBS
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Renteria was also the guy who managed the last year of the Cubs rebuild, before Maddon became available. So there's some precedent for this! Also, Renteria only had a year left on his contract, so the White Sox probably felt like they either had to extend him now or cut him loose. No sense trying to compete with a lame-duck manager.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    ? Obviously Perez had a better season, but we're not seriously saying a hitter "struggled" in 2020 based on a .230 batting average, are we? The whole league only batted .245, and Grandal still had a 113 OPS+ in 2020. For his career, he has a .240 AVG and 115 OPS+. I'd say Grandal simply met expectations, while Perez exceeded them.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Up until last night, Atlanta's dominant postseason pitching had been against some pretty poor hitting clubs. But if they can keep shutting down the Dodgers lineup, that could be a true sign of quality.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    The 2020 World Series champ will be "lost" in history? I'm guessing every reference source will list the 2020 champ between the 2019 and 2021 champs, with no asterisk. The fact that the games were played on a neutral site, or that the winning players didn't soak the clubhouse in champagne, seems far more likely to be "lost" in history than the team that actually won the championship. That's not to say we won't remember the odd circumstances of 2020. But the champion will likely be considered legitimate (especially if the sub-.500 Astros are hopefully eliminated in the ALCS ). Few notable players opted out. The regular season was shorter but the expanded playoffs gave every decent team a fair shot at the title, and only mild "upsets" have occurred so far. Our best comp is probably the strike year of 1981. They played a few more games in the regular season (between 103-111) but their playoff format was considerably more unfair: the Reds and Cardinals actually had the best overall winning percentages in their respective divisions but weren't included in the expanded postseason! The Dodgers finished 4 games behind the Reds overall and wouldn't have qualified for a "normal" postseason at the time -- but in the "annals of history" that has become trivia and hasn't really lessened the significance of the Dodgers WS title at all.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    If you don’t like bullpen games, you may want to tune in tonight — two actual starting pitchers! No guarantee we will see that later in the series...
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Sunday Oct. 11 6:37 PM CDT ALCS game 1: Astros at Rays Valdez vs Snell TV: TBS
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed! I wasn’t trying to counter your post, just going off on a tangent — sorry that wasn’t clear!
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