Oso planning to go pro
...and with all these changes the National League will still not have a DH!
Thank God! I love the added strategy of pinch-hitting for a pitcher (or not), etc.
But football is all about the anticipation building between plays and the intensity of the play once it starts. The entire team is involved. Baseball is different in that way. The "action" can oftentimes involve very few people. This is why when people claim that soccer has 90 minutes of action, and a great deal of that action is a bunch of short passes that don't lead anywhere, that I think these kind of stats are bogus. And I like soccer!Put it this way, pace of play is brought up repeatedly as a problem in baseball. The length of games has grown over the course of the last few decades which means it slower than its "natural" pace. Football games take basically the same time now as they did 40 years ago.
Wow, I'm very concerned for Benny. Being able to mimic Myron Medcalf's writing so closely implies an oncoming case of dementia.
That used to be a thing. They just pinch hit now because pitchers don't go as deep anymore. I guess they may make the decision in the 4th or 5th inning now.I like the DH because whatever additional strategy involved is more than offset by seeing a major league hitter hit instead of a pitcher.
I actually think having a DH requires more strategy by the manager and pitching coach. Pitching decisions are based on pitching rather than when the pitcher will be batting.
In other words, in the AL, pitching decisions are based on pitching. In the NL, pitching decisions are based on pitching and batting.Seems like the AL has it pretty easy.
According to the WSJ, it's 11 minutes for a NFL Game, and 18 minutes of a MLB game. (I'm not sure what they use to determine "game action."https://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=475
Baseball Pace of Play - Big Head Mike Francesca used to bring this up often. Baseball games could easily be shortened significantly if they reduced the number of commercials between innings and pitching changes. TV & radio commercials are a large contributor to the game length but MLB would never do it because it would affect revenue.
I like the idea of the 3-batter rule and I will be interested to see how it affects strategy.
Wow. Bellinger really rips Houston today - clip is on ESPN. Calls them frauds and cheaters and that everyone around the league has zero respect for them. Really goes after Altuve.After the apology fiasco, I don't think things are gonna get better. I also expect there will be more calls for some permanent bans as more and more comes out. A good starting point would be a lifetime ban for Carlos Beltran - a guy who was likely to be a HoF'er and who will certainly never make it now. That would be a punishment with enough meat on the bone to actually be a deterrent.Cora, Hinch, and the guys from the front office should also be in line for lifetime bans. This is no less of a cheating scandal than the Black Sox and should be treated as such.As a lifelong fan for whom baseball was my 1st love (I tell my wife she is, but I may be lying), this has soured me more than anything else ever has in sports. Bregman has been my favorite player since he came into the league - a clone of Paul Molitor who was my fave when I was much younger. Now he is simply a dishonest cheat - a fraud.
Altuve and Bregman are probably on pace to be in the Hall of Fame.Should they be allowed in when they are eligible if they have the stats to back it up?
IMO, nope. Let's see how Altuve the shirt clutcher does without knowing what pitch is coming and the location.
Obviously a lot depends on what happens going forward, but there are more than a few known cheaters in the Hall of Fame. Not sure why these guys should be treated any differently.
I asked because, as we know, the steroid guys have been kept out. The cheating that Altuve and Bregman did is, to me at least, much worse.Personally, I have no problem with the steroid guys getting into the Hall - we certainly have a fair share of drunks and druggies there - but I am torn on these guys from the Astros.