Scholarship table
Mets and Nationals postponed due to positive COVID-19 test on Washington.
Kinda surprised there wasn't a bigger push to vaccinate before the season started.
My expert predictions:AL East: NYYAL Central: CLEAL West: HOUAL WC: TB; CWSNL East: ATLNL Central: STLNL West: LADNL WC: SD; CHCWorld Series: NYY over LAD in 6 games
Cubs lol I assume you took the over on Cubs wins for this season... 78.5
Partly due to being in NC, where there is no MLB, partly due to being a little bored by the HR/KO nature of the game, and partly due to my "sports energy" being tied up these days in the Marquette Shakas, I have paid less attention to baseball this spring than any time in the last 45+ years.I actually was surprised to see a couple days ago that the season was to start today.Hoping all those who root for teams get the results they want.
I said to my wife yesterday morning "I wonder when opening day is...<looked on my phone>. Hey it's tomorrow!"Maybe it's just me but there doesn't seem to be any buzz about opening day this year.
Brewers! Shaw Yelich is back!
Yeah I understand the intention behind the runner on second thing, but I'm not a huge fan. Its just too much a change.It seems like a minor change, but I'd like to see the free runner start on first rather than second. There's more strategy around how to handle a runner on first - you could still try to small ball one across, but you would need either a hit or a steal to score a run. With the runner on second, you can theoretically push one across with two fielders choice groundouts to the right side or a fielders choice and a sac fly. I don't love letting a team score a game winning run without having a net-positive play.
Okay, I've been crazy unplugged and the first game I caught of the post-pandemic era was Brewers-Twins yesterday, so I was mildly confused by (and then vaguely recalled discussions about) the "runner starts on 2nd" thing in extra innings.My initial reactions were 1. It is going to increase the "home field" advantage. and 2. It's going to make K-dominant RPs extraordinarily valuable (more so than usual). Hader Kd the side around allowing the free runner to advance to 3rd on a wild pitch. Brewers won on a single and a fielders choice (their free runner was Cain so he had good speed, but it didn't exactly take a dominant offensive burst in the 10th to scratch a run across). Looking at the scoreboard:4 games went extras yesterday and none went into the 11th.3 games were won by the home teamI'm interested to see how this plays out over a full season and a larger data set.
When I was thinking it through I realized that it's going to hinge a bit on who is your runner (last out of previous inning) and who is up to bat. If you've got speed at 2nd, and a decent contact hitters/bunters, then why not go small ball (especially as the home team)? Bunt, then runner on 3rd with 1 out means there are a lot of ways to win the game (squeeze, sac fly, fielder's choice w/ aggressive baserunning, any hit)?As a strategy nerd I'm very interested to see how everyone plays it.
Looking forward to seeing a pitcher throwing perfect game and taking a loss.
You do realize (I hope) that they did this last year, so there is data to look at. 60 games is not a small amount, so I'm guessing that the data will be similar to last year.It also allows another baseball oddity that never happened until last year. 3 outs in one inning with only two batters coming to the plate.