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2021 MLB Season Thread

I wonder what the feelings are in the clubhouse after the team President made an ass out of himself over the weekend?

I'm amazed (and disappointed) that he was still in charge after being flagged as a guy that sexually harassed employees. Good riddance.

Mariners are apparently slow in responding or oblivious. The Zoom speech was delivered Feb 5, according to reports. It was uploaded to the internet over the weekend of Feb 20-21.

One question not answered is whether any Mariner's employees heard and saw the speech in real time and didn't say anything. Where I worked, it was generally protocol to attend public appearances of the boss if logistics made it feasible. It should have been easy with a Zoom meeting.
 
Mariners are apparently slow in responding or oblivious. The Zoom speech was delivered Feb 5, according to reports. It was uploaded to the internet over the weekend of Feb 20-21.

One question not answered is whether any Mariner's employees heard and saw the speech in real time and didn't say anything. Where I worked, it was generally protocol to attend public appearances of the boss if logistics made it feasible. It should have been easy with a Zoom meeting.

It's a front office culture problem that has been there forever fed by decades of ownership that didn't have a presence.
 
With the State of Texas lifting all COVID restrictions, the Rangers may sell out opening day. Wonder if MLB steps in.
 
I would guess the players union will at least make them block off the seats within the first few rows to the players.
 
Aaron Boone got hospitalized today to have a pacemaker inserted. I didn't know that he had open heart surgery at the age of 39, and now this. It sounds like he's recovering now and could be back in a few days.
 
JBJ signs with the Brewers 2/$24 with an opt out after 1 year. Brewers have done a good job grabbing talent towards the end of the offseason - adding JBJ in center and Wong at 2B is a huge upgrade defensively for them.
 
In a couple of years, real baseball history could be made. The Nats signed Jacob Boone in 2019/20/. If he makes the bigs, the Boone family will have had four generations in the majors.
 
JBJ signs with the Brewers 2/$24 with an opt out after 1 year. Brewers have done a good job grabbing talent towards the end of the offseason - adding JBJ in center and Wong at 2B is a huge upgrade defensively for them.

Agree. NL Central is a winnable division. Brewers seem to find a way to remain competitive.
 
Read an interesting article on the impact the very short season in 2020 would have on the ability of starting pitchers to pitch "starter innings " which is 160 plus innings. His bottom line is that most mature pitchers who have pitched this level of workload before would probably be OK. It would be similar to an injury season, without the injury. There is a good track record of guys in that situation pitching a full load the next season.

The concern was young pitchers who have never thrown 160 innings, and maybe not even 120 innings. Last year few, if any pitchers reached even 100 innings. Many pitched 60 or fewer. It will be interesting to see how teams manage the young guys they might need to pitch double or triple the innings they pitched last year and the year before.

How will the teams handle those guys? Push them to 180 innings? Limit innings? Limit innings per game? Different clubs will probably adopt different philosophies. We'll see what works.
 
Mariners are planning on doing a 6 man rotation with that in mind
 
MLB testing some possible rules in minor leagues this summer. Bigger bases - 18 inches square instead of 15.
No shift. All four infielders on the dirt or infield grass.

One thing being tried in low A ball that is potentially big is limiting pitchers to two attempts to pickoff a runner per at bat. With that rule, most batters who get to first will get to second. Possibly that will be reduced to one in the second half of the league season. Put that into the major leagues, and you will see a new stolen base record in two years.
 
MLB testing some possible rules in minor leagues this summer. Bigger bases - 18 inches square instead of 15.
No shift. All four infielders on the dirt or infield grass.

One thing being tried in low A ball that is potentially big is limiting pitchers to two attempts to pickoff a runner per at bat. With that rule, most batters who get to first will get to second. Possibly that will be reduced to one in the second half of the league season. Put that into the major leagues, and you will see a new stolen base record in two years.

The rule change would help base-stealers for sure. However, analytics have deemphasized stolen bases to a massive degree (particularly in the AL with the DH and that is likely coming to both leagues) that I'm not sure if we ever get back to the day when someone steals over 100 bases. These are the last 6 stolen base leaders in the AL:

2015: Altuve 38
2016: Rajai Davis 43
2017: Merrifield 37
2018: Merrifield 45
2019: Mallex Smith 46
2020: Mondesi 24 (shortened season)

Compare those totals to the 80s when the leading base-stealer in each league had over 70 almost every year, and Vince Coleman and Ricky stole over 100 six times. Would love to see speed re-emphasized rather than walks and homeruns, but not sure the rule change would be enough to do it.
 
The rule change would help base-stealers for sure. However, analytics have deemphasized stolen bases to a massive degree (particularly in the AL with the DH and that is likely coming to both leagues) that I'm not sure if we ever get back to the day when someone steals over 100 bases. These are the last 6 stolen base leaders in the AL:

2015: Altuve 38
2016: Rajai Davis 43
2017: Merrifield 37
2018: Merrifield 45
2019: Mallex Smith 46
2020: Mondesi 24 (shortened season)

Compare those totals to the 80s when the leading base-stealer in each league had over 70 almost every year, and Vince Coleman and Ricky stole over 100 six times. Would love to see speed re-emphasized rather than walks and homeruns, but not sure the rule change would be enough to do it.

One other change that is being tried is requiring left handed pitchers to fully step off the rubber before going to first. This would be a big change.

With the limit on throws to first, base stealers could get much bigger leads than the 15 feet or so. Runner could be 30 feet off the bag with no consequences.

Draw two throws, and second base is yours.

ETA: Difficulty of successfully stealing has de-emphasized it as a weapon. This was tried in the Atlantic league one season and steals skyrocketed.
 
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Chris Christie has been added to the Mets Board of Directors.

Rumblings are he will be in charge of food and beverage options at Citi Field and will be compensated with all the Pat LaFrieda Steak Sandwiches he could possibly dream of.
 
Chris Christie has been added to the Mets Board of Directors.

Rumblings are he will be in charge of food and beverage options at Citi Field and will be compensated with all the Pat LaFrieda Steak Sandwiches he could possibly dream of.

Mets will run a deficit.
 
Really intrigued by the Royals over at 73.5. Talk me into it/out of it!
 
Really intrigued by the Royals over at 73.5. Talk me into it/out of it!

I feel like taking that bet is more about thinking the rest of the AL central is going to continue being terrible as opposed to being about the Royals actually improving
 
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