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The biggest thing managers impact are playing time and bullpen management. Excessive platooning can stifle the development of young players who need to get as many ABs as possible, and is often done because of assumptions that they can't hit a LHP rather than any evidence. It doesn't even have to be young players really, in 2007 Joe Torre was sitting Bobby Abreu against LHP to play KEVIN THOMPSON which was just terrible. Bad bullpen management is the worst thing in the world and results in dead pitchers and lost games. Bullpen management that is extremely hands on TLR style also makes the games a lot longer and aggravating for marginal benefits. Bunts are the worst and stupid but they don't come up too much even though it is aggravating as gently caress when someone bunts on a 3-0 count because the bench called for the play.
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| # ¿ Mar 7, 2011 17:31 |
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| # ¿ May 26, 2013 03:22 |
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Pumpkin McPastry posted:Sure we might get a walk - but with a bunt we could move the runner to second base! And you know how much we've wanted that. The worst part of that play was Cervelli loving fistpumping after he got down the bunt I wanted to punch him in the face so badly.
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| # ¿ Mar 7, 2011 17:33 |
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Twin Cinema posted:Why does the MLB draft have so many rounds? Also, why are there so many minor league affiliated teams? They have tons of rounds because each team probably only signs half the guys they draft, and there are that many rounds because of the MiLB teams. Your actual prospects need what are referred to as "org players" to fill out teams. The MiLB structure is very large so that prospects can play in leagues with players that are about the same age. You don't want your 18 year old raw infield draftee from high school playing in the same league as a 23 year old polished college player. Truly outstanding prospects from high school and college players will move faster but generally you move up one level a year.
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| # ¿ Mar 7, 2011 20:03 |
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Nobody asked this but since there's some MiLB chat I figured I'll be proactive. When people talk about prospects you'll hear a lot of tools, raw, polished, etc. It is a whole lot of jargon to take in and can be confusing. I'll start with hitters since they're more straight forward. The 5 tools for position players are: 1. Speed - Carl Crawford 2. Arm strength - Bobby Abreu 3. Hitting for Average - Peak Derek Jeter/Ichiro 4. Hitting for Power - Adam Dunn 5. Fielding - Elvis Andrus Scouts watch young players and try to grade what their tools are now and what they will be. A plus tool means it is above average and a plus plus tool means you're not going to find many people with better ability at that skill. Players who are referred to as raw or toolsy are usually young kids with something about them that makes scouts think they'll get it at some point. A young guy with a slick power swing who will probably fill out and realize that power will get drooled on a lot. These guys are far away from being MLB ready, and raw/toolsy players have a really high bust rate. Polished hitters are either very advanced young players (Jason Heyward, Jesus Montero) who are already realizing their tools at a very high level or more usually college hitters who are close to hitting their ceiling. They go through systems fast and their ceilings vary. Now not everyone has all the tools, of course. A lot of prospects have average tools across the board and profile as utility players/4th outfielders/etc. Prospects who project to start have at least 2 above average tools (this is off the top of my head, correct me if I'm wrong) and depending on the position some of these tools are more important than others. If you're a 1B or a LF with a plus fielding tool and a plus arm tool you're not all that useful if your bat is below average, as an example. The most coveted of all hitting prospects is a five tool hitter. They are really, really rare. Some examples of true 5 tool players in their prime are Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.
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| # ¿ Mar 7, 2011 20:22 |
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TUS posted:Who are some famous reverse busts? Like guys who were drafted late just because; then went on to play well for an extended period of time in the majors? Ignoring Draft and Follows, Mike Piazza
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| # ¿ Mar 7, 2011 20:41 |
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Before the last CBA you had a full year to sign players, so many teams used mid and late round picks on DFE--Draft, Follow and Evaluate. This allowed teams to own the rights to a player for a full year and use that time to scout them and figure out if they wanted to sign them. These were similar to the over slot bonuses given out now except you had time to watch them play for 8 months or so and get a better feel for them. Except that half the draft was spent on DFE whereas now even teams that go bonkers with overslot draft a whole bunch of org dudes they sign right away. If you look up a player who has been very successful and was drafted in the 20th or further out round from 1988-2007 they were probably a DFE. Gene Michael LOVED DFE and at one point drafted something like 100 of them in one year (this was before they limited things to 50 rounds). Some stand-out DFEs are Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Darryl Kile. Here's a BA column that explains things a lot more in depth that I keep bookmarked for when this question comes up: http://www.baseballamerica.com/toda...es/9911dfe.html angrygodofjebus posted:Buehrle was drafted in the 38th round out of a community college. That's because he was a draft and follow 
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| # ¿ Mar 7, 2011 20:50 |
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Pumpkin McPastry posted:I thought Vlad or Ichiro would be the modern example of this. Abreu is the textbook guy who plays in RF solely because of his arm so I thought it was a better example.
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| # ¿ Mar 7, 2011 22:33 |
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gimme the lute posted:But still, there has to be some measurable advantage to all this crap or it wouldn't have been so common, right? You are talking about the same people who wear phiten necklaces and believe that they work as advertised. When you are fighting for a shot at your dream like these guys are you'll do anything that might help.
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| # ¿ Mar 8, 2011 03:48 |
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Hitters do not normally skip AAA completely, the type of pitchers there are different from your AA prospects generally and it's good to get exposure to ~~crafty lefties~~ and all that poo poo before you go to MLB and suddenly have an Andy Pettitte type vet throwing seventeen million different good pitches at you in bizarre sequences. It's not uncommon for pitchers to skip AAA or spend zero time there if their stuff/control/etc is all ready to go.
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| # ¿ Mar 8, 2011 21:14 |
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Gee Wizard posted:Why is this a bad option? I understand that interleague play is special, due to the differences in rules, but wouldn't baseball benefit from more interleague games? Interleague is special because it's rare, if you do it all the time you lose the (usually small) boost you get from it.
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| # ¿ Mar 8, 2011 23:30 |
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stuart scott irl posted:I so badly want this for every network, it doesn't take much room to display and it's pretty important. I don't understand why we have to rely on the announcers mentioning it every 3 innings The way YES does it is that it takes the place of the radar gun measurement between pitches so it doesn't take up any extra space at all, even. Scoobi posted:They should get rid of interleague entirely. No because they would turn that into more Yanks/Sox somehow
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| # ¿ Mar 8, 2011 23:33 |
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barkingclam posted:Can anybody recommend any baseball columnists or blogs? I've generally stuck to ESPN's Sweetspot (it's okay), Joe Pos (rules) and Jeff Passan (meh). I'm thinking this season I should probably expand my reading habits. Jack Curry http://www.myyesnetwork.com/16197/blog/
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| # ¿ Mar 9, 2011 22:08 |
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The AL has the DH because they realized nobody wants to see pitchers trying to hit.
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| # ¿ Mar 10, 2011 18:58 |
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Pershing posted:2) Can anybody recommend a good history of the Braves? I own nothing at this point besides Pete Van Wieren's autobiography (nice guy, but a so-so read). This is on my list but I haven't read it yet http://www.amazon.com/Boston-Braves...99956751&sr=1-8
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| # ¿ Mar 12, 2011 19:07 |
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enuma elish posted:This is the best thing to do for any team, if you can get the timing right. Did this for pretty much the entire post-season this year (with mlb.tv radio and broadcast) - it was glorious. As much as I hate Michael Kay hearing Sterling while actually watching the game would probably make my brain explode since he never has any idea what's going on. Also he calls tight breaking curveballs like what AJ Burnett throws sliders and that for some reason drives me insane.
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| # ¿ Mar 13, 2011 08:13 |
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Tiny Torso posted:that wasn't so bad for either side though, the braves got Drew's one undeniably great season The Braves thought they could re-sign him, so they weren't pleased. Then they went and did a similar thing with Teixeira having not learned their Boras lesson the first time 
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| # ¿ Mar 17, 2011 05:16 |
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The Hiroshima Carp use the Reds C, Sportscenter or BBTN was actually using a Carp hat instead of a Reds hat for a while without realizing it!
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| # ¿ Apr 5, 2011 15:30 |
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volatile bowels posted:this is awesome. Another question, how do people make it to all the matinee baseball games? don't people have to go to work? I go to a bunch of day games a year and use some of my PTO to attend. Many of the people who sit around me in season seats do the same. There are also people who don't work 9-5 who go, when I worked the night shift at a comic book store (5p-1:30a) I'd hit up day games. People also give their tickets to retired parents/family friends/etc.
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| # ¿ Apr 5, 2011 15:58 |
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Groucho Marxist posted:Was being a female employee at a comic book store as awkward as it seems it would be? I had perfected my shut down glare of death years before starting there and I'm not very friendly.  Honestly most of the customers were normal, I've dealt with more weirdos manning my boyfriend's booth at comic shows now and then than 5 years at the comic store.
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| # ¿ Apr 5, 2011 19:33 |
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Pumpkin McPastry posted:I think Buck is worse for baseball. He cares less and is frequently categorically, objectively wrong about everything. He just asked Francona if he likes his team 
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| # ¿ Apr 9, 2011 18:33 |
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Be careful what you say about Pearlman, he might call your mom
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| # ¿ Apr 10, 2011 15:47 |
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Nate RFB posted:Don't leave out K-Rod who was by far the most obnoxious closer to watch in the past decade. You thought Papelbon's fist pumping and anus face was bad? Sheesh. The second best thing about YTS was the K-Rod thread I wish I had it bookmarked. It really captured the whole gently caress the Angels thing beautifully.
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| # ¿ Apr 12, 2011 00:21 |
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trem_two posted:Soxprospects.com is a very good single-team prospect site, they update the "News" section every day. For wider coverage, you could go with Keith Law's columns and chats at ESPN (columns are behind paywall), Baseball America (much of it behind a paywall, but good daily blogs and email updates which are free), Kevin Goldstein and Jason Parks articles at Baseball Prospectus (behind paywall), John Sickels, Project Prospect, and if Frankie Piliere is a good follow if he ever ends up with a regular gig now that AOL Fanhouse was shut down. Piliere got a job at FoxSports/Scout.com, I'm assuming that a lot of his stuff whill be behind the scout.com paywall.
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| # ¿ Apr 14, 2011 15:48 |
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If a pitcher throws a high fastball after getting two strikes it is because Jason Varitek is their catcher e: my double fastball is preserved in quotes but was bugging the gently caress out of me leokitty fucked around with this message at Apr 18, 2011 around 17:33 |
| # ¿ Apr 18, 2011 17:15 |
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FlamingLiberal posted:Chris Coste was alright for a few years, he made his MLB debut at the age of 31. Of course I think now he's out of a job, but he did start at catcher for a few years in Philly. He works for Comcast now doing talky stuff before and after Phillies games
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| # ¿ Apr 21, 2011 05:25 |
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Jorge is a guess hitter who happens to be really good at guessing
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| # ¿ Apr 21, 2011 15:26 |
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I just think it's pretty silly to give Ryan Braun a Yankees-esque ~thanks for being a Yankee~ deal. You generally wait and see with those.
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| # ¿ Apr 22, 2011 15:03 |
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When you see a guy referred to as having "old player skills" it means that he is real slow and/or has a "bad body" (is fat). Some guys like that age well, like Jason Giambi. But Jason Giambi has the best strike zone sense this side of Barry Bonds.
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2011 15:28 |
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chrysamere posted:Doesn't Prince Fielder have good OBP and plate discipline though? This is confusing. If a young player exhibits power (Justin Upton), its generally viewed as a good thing isn't? The old player skills part here is that Prince is fat/slow/bad body. That is pretty much it, if he were built like Ryan Braun people wouldn't be concerned about him breaking down the same way. I think the term is a bit misleading, really.
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2011 16:52 |
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^^ It's weird how much UZR hates Cano when everything else says he's fine or better. Like it causes a 6+ WAR difference between fWAR and bWAR for example.MrBlondeTHC posted:Didn't Kent end up in the OF, though? Kent was a career 2b  Games/GS/CG/IP/blahblah defensive stats leokitty fucked around with this message at Apr 29, 2011 around 03:28 |
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2011 03:23 |
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the popes toes posted:What was that incident a few years back when a player left the dugout to go after the official scorer I think at a Royals game? That was Orlando Cabrera I believe
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| # ¿ May 12, 2011 18:17 |
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You don't see many passed balls in MLB but if you watch minor league baseball you do, and once you've seen a bunch they're pretty easy to identify. Francisco Cervelli had one against the Royals that was like watching an A level baby catcher who was just converted try to catch a ball, but it's not the kind of highlight MLB.com is gonna pull out so I can't link a video. It's basically about whether the ball was catchable under normal conditions. A passed ball means the catcher flat out missed the pitch and it wasn't an AJ Burnett special or similar.
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| # ¿ May 25, 2011 05:33 |
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Pumpkin McPastry posted:Francisco Cervelli loving sucks at everything. jay jaffe posted:On a positive note, wow, Cervelli really did a bang up job handing the pitchers tonight, didn't he? loving useless waste of organs.
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| # ¿ May 25, 2011 18:44 |
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Captain Internet if you're interested in learning the in and outs of basic play, I suggest that you keep score at some games that you go to. You don't have to do any of the fancy things some people do, scoring is a very personal thing and everyone does is differently. The reason I am suggesting this is because it makes you pay close attention to what is going on, and you'll get acclimated to things like differentiating a flyball from a linedrive/etc very quickly. Scoring can be incredibly detailed and nerdy but it can also be very simple. Here is a site with lots of info: http://baseballscorecard.com/ This is the scorecard I use when I print out and go: http://baseballscorecard.com/downloads/pcscorecard.pdf I like it because it has the count and I prefer vertical to horizontal layouts
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| # ¿ May 25, 2011 18:57 |
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Orgophlax posted:Not sure why this just popped in my head, but a little bit ago in a Phillies game there was a pop foul that was going into the first or second row and could've been caught by the fielder, but a fan was reaching for it also and got it first. The umpires still called the batter out for the fan interference. Why was this not done in the Bartman incident? e: Durrr I read Bartman as Maier for some reason 
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| # ¿ May 26, 2011 02:14 |
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stuart scott irl posted:I see that much more in reference to hitter power than pitching velocity That's because you don't read a lot about high school pitchers. Height + long arms = scout drool.
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| # ¿ May 31, 2011 01:53 |
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JediGandalf posted:I think you can have an arbitrary length to the outfield wall but there is a definite guideline as to how the infield is shaped. Personally I wish stadiums would have a 400' arc as the outfield wall and that be a standard across MLB instead of arbitrary outfield walls. That way the only "park factor" is the climate in which the stadium is located. Booo you are the worst baseball fan ever
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| # ¿ May 31, 2011 18:50 |
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tadashi posted:I think the only unfenced bullpens are now the older parks? Newer parks generally have their bullpens behind the outfield walls either separately or in some sort of double-decker configuration. Tropicana Field for some reason decided to have the pen on the field in foul territory. It's dumb and I have no idea why a modern park was built that way. The only other park I can think of off the top of my head with a non-fenced pen is Oakland.
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| # ¿ May 31, 2011 18:56 |
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The Pussy Boss posted:What, you guys don't enjoy seeing the bullpen grab their folding chairs and scramble away like maniacs on balls down the line? It's cute (and common) in baby baseball 
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| # ¿ May 31, 2011 19:11 |
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| # ¿ May 26, 2013 03:22 |
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Indie league ball owns how else could you yell "I THOUGHT HE WAS IN JAIL" so loud Scott Spezio can actually hear you
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| # ¿ Jun 6, 2011 02:06 |
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