MLB 2024

[TheIntruder]

Bush league ownership playing in a minor league park. Quite fitting.

The city of Oakland has its issues, no doubt, including leadership, but it shouldn't have taken this long for local officials to tell the A's (or Raiders) to go pound salt.

Also good that the citizens of KC recognize that it's not their role to help rich people ("trust us") make themselves richer, no matter the entertainment value their teams bring.

 

[pachyderm]

to early to tell i mean the Angels were in first place yesterday, so yeah ha we all know that isn't going to stick

We really suck

 

[pachyderm]

Bush league ownership playing in a minor league park. Quite fitting.

The city of Oakland has its issues, no doubt, including leadership, but it shouldn't have taken this long for local officials to tell the A's (or Raiders) to go pound salt.

Also good that the citizens of KC recognize that it's not their role to help rich people ("trust us") make themselves richer, no matter the entertainment value their teams bring.

Maybe but I'd love to go to an MLB game in a minor league park.

 

[jeremz1ne]

Maybe but I'd love to go to an MLB game in a minor league park.

i cannot wait... saves me 7-8 hours going down to Orange Country to see the Angels play its 2 hours away from me and ill be at every Angels A's game plus i used to live in Sac right as they were building the Golden 1 Center for the Kings...

 

[Herdfan]

Maybe but I'd love to go to an MLB game in a minor league park.

Me too.

Also good that the citizens of KC recognize that it's not their role to help rich people ("trust us") make themselves richer, no matter the entertainment value their teams bring.

I understand what you are saying and why you are saying it.

But how are the citizens of KC going to feel if both the Chiefs and Royals leave town. Don't discount how much pride there is for a city to have one or more of of the big 4 sports leagues.

 

[Rafterman]

Me too.


I understand what you are saying and why you are saying it.

But how are the citizens of KC going to feel if both the Chiefs and Royals leave town. Don't discount how much pride there is for a city to have one or more of of the big 4 sports leagues.

Oakland already knows their pain. Oakland has to be the largest US city without a Big 4 sports team, once the A's leave. The current is Austin TX.

 

[dannyyankou]

Anthony Volpe is having a special start to the season. May win MVP at this rate.

Extreme overreaction in mid April, but he's just that talented. He's truly turning into a 5 tool player.

 

[Don Quixote]

Anthony Volpe is having a special start to the season. May win MVP at this rate.

Extreme overreaction in mid April, but he's just that talented. He's truly turning into a 5 tool player.

wow!

Think I saw an article over at espn about him being better than Jeter.

 

[Gregg2]

Oakland already knowstheir pain. Oakland has to be the largest US city without a Big 4 sports team, once the A's leave. The current is Austin TX.

Austin might be bigger than you think, and Oakland smaller. But, TX and CA have more than their share of pro sports teams, plus lots of big universities. Granted, they both have a good number of large cities also.

 

[Rafterman]

Considering their payroll, 11-7 for the Dodgers is not encouraging. Their pitching better improve ASAP.

 

[Herdfan]

This is funny.

 

[Don Quixote]

This is funny.

View attachment 2368892

That is funny.

 

[ucfgrad93]

This is funny.

View attachment 2368892

That is awesome!

 

[jeremz1ne]

This is funny.

View attachment 2368892

thats great ha

 

[Gregg2]

It's beyond ridiculous that the umpire's union is so strong that they can protect the job of a guy whose incompetence is on display during almost every game he works. (At third, he might manage to go a whole game without blowing a call.)

 

[jedimasterkyle]

It's beyond ridiculous that the umpire's union is so strong that they can protect the job of a guy whose incompetence is on display during almost every game he works. (At third, he might manage to go a whole game without blowing a call.)

Yeah but you have to wonder if the rest of the Union is getting sick of Hernandez's BS. Sure they'll protect him but at what point does he become a liability to the rest of the Umps Union to where they're willing to throw him out or under the bus? If the Union wants to delay the robot umps, they would be wise to ditch the bad egg and make a case for themselves rather than letting Angel Hernandez drag them down.

 

[Gregg2]

I wanted to know just how bad umpires are at calling balls and strikes. I know they don't do it well, but here's a link to a study of 11 seasons:

An analysis of nearly 4 million pitches shows just how many mistakes umpires make

Umpires don’t need to be replaced by robots, but some troubling findings indicate that they could use a little help.

theconversation.com

A few highlights:
- Between 2008 and 2018 (inclusive, I assume) HP umps made incorrect b/s calls over 12% of the time
- In 2018 there were 34,246 incorrect b/s calls = 14 per game or 1.6 per inning
- In 2018 there were 55 games (out of 162,830) that ended with an incorrect strike call
- For the study period, the incorrect b/s call rate increased to 29% when the batter had two strikes already
- The highest error rated came from older, more experienced umps. The top performers (best, most accurate) had an average age of 33, and less than 3 years of MLB experience.
- MLB remains top-heavy with aging umpires. The average age is 46.

My take-aways:
- The technologies exist to improve this blight on our national pastime. (see linked article) MLB needs to be dragged into the 21 Century.
- Umpires need to be graded, and the bottom performers, even 50% of the total, need to be demoted to the minors or terminated.
- There should be a mandatory retirement age of 50, even if the 49 year old ump has remained in the top 50%.
- There's not a snowball's chance in hell of any of the above being implemented in my lifetime, and perhaps in my grandkids' lifetime.

 

[Rafterman]

I wanted to know just how bad umpires are at calling balls and strikes. I know they don't do it well, but here's a link to a study of 11 seasons:

An analysis of nearly 4 million pitches shows just how many mistakes umpires make

Umpires don’t need to be replaced by robots, but some troubling findings indicate that they could use a little help.

theconversation.com

A few highlights:
- Between 2008 and 2018 (inclusive, I assume) HP umps made incorrect b/s calls over 12% of the time
- In 2018 there were 34,246 incorrect b/s calls = 14 per game or 1.6 per inning
- In 2018 there were 55 games (out of 162,830) that ended with an incorrect strike call
- For the study period, the incorrect b/s call rate increased to 29% when the batter had two strikes already
- The highest error rated came from older, more experienced umps. The top performers (best, most accurate) had an average age of 33, and less than 3 years of MLB experience.
- MLB remains top-heavy with aging umpires. The average age is 46.

My take-aways:
- The technologies exist to improve this blight on our national pastime. (see linked article) MLB needs to be dragged into the 21 Century.
- Umpires need to be graded, and the bottom performers, even 50% of the total, need to be demoted to the minors or terminated.
- There should be a mandatory retirement age of 50, even if the 49 year old ump has remained in the top 50%.
- There's not a snowball's chance in hell of any of the above being implemented in my lifetime, and perhaps in my grandkids' lifetime.

Retirement age of 50 is extreme.

 

[jedimasterkyle]

My take-aways:
- The technologies exist to improve this blight on our national pastime. (see linked article) MLB needs to be dragged into the 21 Century.
- Umpires need to be graded, and the bottom performers, even 50% of the total, need to be demoted to the minors or terminated.
- There should be a mandatory retirement age of 50, even if the 49 year old ump has remained in the top 50%.
- There's not a snowball's chance in hell of any of the above being implemented in my lifetime, and perhaps in my grandkids' lifetime.

I do agree that MLB needs to be dragged into the 21st century but it's a guarantee that they will do it kicking and screaming the whole time. The pitch clock, bigger bases and pitch com were just the beginning but look at how long it took for those to be implemented.

I'm pretty sure Umpires are graded after every game.

Retirement at 50 wont work because then they'll sue for age-discrimination.

 

[pachyderm]

I do agree that MLB needs to be dragged into the 21st century but it's a guarantee that they will do it kicking and screaming the whole time. The pitch clock, bigger bases and pitch com were just the beginning but look at how long it took for those to be implemented.

I'm pretty sure Umpires are graded after every game.

Retirement at 50 wont work because then they'll sue for age-discrimination.

As they should.

 

[Herdfan]

I wanted to know just how bad umpires are at calling balls and strikes. I know they don't do it well, but here's a link to a study of 11 seasons:

I played baseball for a large part of my early life at many levels including college and a summer in Rookie ball.

It isn't good or bad strike calls that are the problem. It is inconsistency that is the problem. As long as an umpire's zone is consistent, the pitchers and hitters will adapt. I remember an umpire in HS that did all our home games. His zone was low. We knew it and adapted (and had an advantage over visiting teams). Now with technology, every pitcher and hitter should know exactly what an umpire's tendencies are.

The problem with AH is that he is all over the place, all the time. A pitch might be a strike one time and an identical pitch a ball the next. Makes for a bad game.

 

[Don Quixote]

I played baseball for a large part of my early life at many levels including college and a summer in Rookie ball.


The problem with AH is that he is all over the place, all the time. A pitch might be a strike one time and an identical pitch a ball the next time. Makes for a bad game

This ^

Color me impressed!

 

[Gregg2]

Retirement age of 50 is extreme.

Yeah, it is. But as long as you allow umps as old as I am to work games, you're not going to mitigate this problem. It's a data-based marker. Managers use "the metrics" to make decisions, why not mine the data to root out lower performing umpires? But yeah, in lawsuit happy America, it would never work. Golden parachutes??

 

[Don Quixote]

Retirement age of 50 is extreme.

100% agreed.

Just give them more tech to help.

 

[pachyderm]

This ^

Color me impressed!

Same