Wishing your dad the best from the many CoC readers!
...
Getting the time between pitches down is good. Getting the time between balls in play down would be better. Rules changes addressing the latter are harder than a pitch clock.
...
The CBA talk dragged on so long with so many versions going around that I could be mistaken but I think the 45 day unilateral implementation thing doesn’t kick in during this season.
I wonder if the pilot of that plane is in the military, and if so, is that a court martial offense.
I for one WILL die on the "everyone needs masks" hill, in part because I don't want to die for real. But next time someone asks why you are wearing one, take a page from my friend's book (but not literally since my friend is an author and you should leave her books intact) and tell people "oh, I have a mutated airborne form of syphilis."
On the field...
- Last night was sure deflating for the Mets after a great twinbill sweep on Tuesday. But the Giants are pretty good, too.
- Severino wasn't spectacular but managed to hold the Tigers to one run despite allowing seven hits. He seems to be quite on his way to recovering, even as Cole has been pretty iffy so far.
- Watched part of the Blue Jays-Red Sox game, and watched Pivetta left on the mound longer than he should have been since they are playing a day game today. To his credit, he stabilized himself, but the damage was done.
- And now, the Sho Show...six innings pitched, twelve strikeouts, no hits or walks allowed till the sixth; two for four at the plate with a walk and two RBIs. As the Astros didn't manage a hit or walk off the relievers, Sho had a better night at the plate than the entire Houston lineup. Just another night for Ohtani.
Nats had a couple of potential trade chits make injury news yesterday. Sean Doolittle, who's given up only one hit so far, went on the IL with a sprained elbow ligament, while Josh Bell left the game early for unspecified reasons. Bell doesn't seem too worried about his situation, while Doolittle is going to try to rehab his way back to the bullpen, but at 35 you wonder how long he might try before giving up.
As for the pitch clock, I'm not opposed, but I do wonder about something...
If there's a pitch clock while runners are on base, doesn't that make it really easy for a guy to time the pitcher's delivery and attempt to steal second? I get that the pitcher could pitch before the clock expires, and that pitchers like to vary their time to home with a runner on, but doesn't the clock make that strategy less effective for pitchers as it caps just how long they can hold the runner?
Full disclosure: I was going to come here this morning and give you grief for not giving us an open comment thread yesterday… Needless to say, never mind.
Best wishes to your dad and everyone else in your family… You all have had one hell of a rough ride lately and I’m hoping it smooths out in a good way very soon.
Even with the warnings, I admit to still being sprinter van-curious… Not because of social media but because of the allure of traveling with almost no stuff. That’s all probably years away for me, though, so I’m sure it will pass 😎
Also - through 5 innings last night, Shohei Otani had a double, a walk, 2 RBI, and watch tossing a perfect game with 11 strikeouts. He ended up with 2 hits and 12 Ks over 6, and the win.
Even though Otani is not exactly unnoticed, we probably don't talk enough about how amazing he is.
Some random observations as I pursue bb-ref this morning:
-- Does anyone else look at the random players whose thumbnail picture are in the top left every time you refresh to see how many faces you remember? This time, I was just 2 for 12.
-- That 2 for 12 has me batting under the Mendoza line. No big deal anymore I guess. The entire league is batting .230. In the Year of the Pitcher, 1968, the league hit .237. Then the OBA / SLG were 299 / 340 while now it is 309 / 369 so a couple more walks and a little more power, but not much.
-- And individual players are there too. By my count, there are currently fifty-four (!) players who have qualified for the batting title and are under .200 BA. There are thirty-nine players over .300
-- Those under .200 include several MVPs: Christian Yelich (.195), Mookie Betts (.178), Josh Donaldson (.174), Jose Altuve (.167), Paul Goldschmidt (.162), and Joey Votto (.121). Ooft.
-- Carlos Correa will need to start hitting if he wants to opt out of his unusual deal with Minnesota. His current slash line is 190 / 277 / 310.
-- Two of the pre-season picks for AL ROY aren't off to great starts either. Bobby Witt (128/150/231) and Julio Rodriguez (154/233/179) aren't doing anything. A third is looking good only in comparison: Spencer Torkelson (194/359/419)
-- At the other end of the spectrum, Jose Ramirez, with two grand slams already, is off to one heck of a start. Yeah, I know it is stupid, but he is on pace for 295 ribbies while at .429 batting a smidge better than Rodgers Hornsby's "modern" record.
-- Seiva Suzuki is giving Cubs fans a reason to tune in plus it makes me long for Harry Caray and wonder just how, after too many Buds in the Bleachers, he would have pronounced the name. His OBA is .565 and his slugging is .839, or roughly what Barry Bonds averaged during the silly seasons from '01 to '04.
-- Nolan Arenado is getting paid how much by Colorado to slug .895 for St. Louis?
-- Any game with Wander Franco (1024 OPS), Vlad the Junior Impailer (1062) and Juan Soto (962) can't have too bleak of a future. 21, 23 and 23 years old. Just wait for the health of Acuna and Tatis!
I’ve had a few times I wanted to tell someone to F off when they made a comment about masks, although each time it’s been more directed at my child wearing one than me. I’m a tall, bigger, athletic looking dude so I imagine that has factored in to why no one has said anything to me directly even though I live in a conservative, majority maskless area.
My 3 year old was running ahead of me at Target last year, mask on, as I tried to corral him. He almost ran into a couple who looked like they were in their 50s, maskless. I apologized to them and we all chuckled at a 3 year old doing things a 3 year old does.
Then as we started to continue on our way past them, the lady said to her husband, “The boy probably couldn’t see where he was going with that mask on.” I really wanted to turn around and ask them what part of his mask was covering his eyes, but alas, I’m not confrontational enough to push it any further.
What a year for you Craig. I hope it gets better. No worries from me about missing a day or not doing full recaps; it will be a while before your words-per-dollar ratio falls below replacement level.
Phillies 9, Rockies 6: Some people might be tempted to say "the Phillies broke out of their 1-7 skid with a win against the Rockies yesterday", ignoring that a 2-7 mark over the last nine games is still pretty bad. Nevertheless, it counts as a win all the same. Kyle Schwarber homered for the second consecutive day, while Johan Camargo had four wins and knocked in three.
Brewers 4, Pirates 2: The key to Milwaukee's success is dominant pitching from Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff. One day after a tremendous start from Burnes, Woodruff followed his lead with six innings of one-hit, nine-strikeout ball. Rowdy Tellez and Keston Hiura both went deep for the Brewers. Milwaukee completed the sweep against the Pirates.
Guardians 11, White Sox 1; Guardians 2, White Sox 1: Let's play two! Game one was over very early on, as Cleveland scored nine runs in the second inning to make it 10-0. At one point, eleven consecutive Guardians reached base. Jose Ramirez's grand slam was the biggest blow. I'm sure they're glad they locked him up. Game two featured much less offense but the same result, as five Guardian pitchers teamed up to allow one run and three hits.
Dodgers 5, Atlanta 1: One day after seeing their win streak get snapped, the Dodgers bounce right back with a win. Tony Gonsolin filled in for Andrew Heaney, who recently hit the IL, and was great, with six innings of one-hit ball. His ERA through thirteen innings is 0.69. Nice. Freddie Freeman and Edwin Rios both homered for the Dodgers.
Padres 6, Reds 0: A sad season gets worse for the Reds, who have lost nine in a row and were outscored by the Dads 16-3 in a three-game sweep. Jurickson Profar broke a scoreless tie with a two-run shot in the fourth. Ha-Seong Kim also went deep for the home team. MacKenzie Gore got his first MLB win with five shutout innings. Despite Tatis being on the sidelines, San Diego has started off a very solid 9-5 and are in prime form entering a series with the Dodgers this weekend.
Orioles 1, Athletics 0: Round three of the Battle of the Vowels goes to Baltimore, as the O's beat the A's. Baltimore got their lone run in the fifth inning, following a double by Ryan McKenna and an error by Oakland shortstop Elvis Andrus. The real story in this one was the attendance, as only 2,703 people paid for a ticket for that game. The Las Vegas Aviators, the triple-A affiliate of Oakland, drew almost twice that last night. I know some will say that the start time was moved up and that threw everyone off, but that's *paid* attendance, meaning that the likely number of fans in the ballpark was probably much smaller. Shades of the 2001 Expos here. Those are bad shades.
Rays 8, Cubs 2: This one was called off halfway through the sixth inning due to rain, but no one probably minded too much. Seven out of Tampa's nine hits were for extra bases. They took two of three from the Cubs and now go home to face the Red Sox.
Yankees 5, Tigers 3: Luis Severino was a bit shaky, but he got through five innings while allowing just one run despite giving up seven hits. Anthony Rizzo went deep for his team-leading fourth home run of the year. Miguel Cabrera got three hits on the night, giving him 2,999 in his career. He's in prime position to break the record at home sometime this weekend.
Angels 6, Astros 0: What a day for Shohei Ohtani! He retired the first sixteen Astros batters, and struck out twelve of them in six innings. Jason Castro broke up the perfect game bid with a single on a 3-2 pitch. The pitch before could've been called ball four, but instead Castro got another chance. If it was called a ball, Ohtani still would've lost the perfecto, but he (with possibly some help from his friends) probably would've gotten the no-hitter. So it goes.
Cardinals 2, Marlins 0: It was scoreless until the top of the ninth inning, until Nolan Arenado hit a two-run blast that put the Cards ahead for good. Four pitchers, led by Miles Mikolas and his mustache, held the Fish to five hits. Paid attendance in Miami was 8,655. Not a great crowd, but a downright madhouse compared to Oakland.
D-Backs 11, Nationals 2: Going into this game, Arizona had scored 22 runs in the first eleven games of the season. Here, they scored eleven runs in one game. Baseball! Seth Beer had three hits and three RBI, while Daulton Varsho also knocked in three.
Giants 5, Mets 2: San Francisco avenged the doubleheader sweep to start the series with a win here. The Mets brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning, but Mets folk hero Wilmer Flores made a great leaping catch to save two runs and end the threat. Live by the Wilmer, die by the Wilmer.
Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 1: Boston struck first on a JD Martinez single in the first inning, but Toronto quickly answered with a five-run second inning that could not be topped. The rubber game in this series will be played this afternoon.
Royals 2, Twins 0: After a much ballyhooed off-season, the Twins are stuck in the mud. After splitting the opening series, they've lost six of eight. Still time to turn it around, of course. Bobby Witt Jr, who is also off to a slow start, knocked in a run by hitting into a double play. He doesn't get credit for an RBI, because reasons. Adalberto Mondesi drove in the other run on a bunt single. Small ball FTW.
Mariners 4, Rangers 2: The Mariners hit into the season's first triple play, as Jesse Winker hit a liner to Nathaniel Lowe in the first inning which turned into a three-out play. Didn't matter much for the M's, though, as they put four on the board, one of them through an error, and withstood a ninth-inning threat from the Rangers to score. Logan Gilbert threw 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball while striking out only four hitters. More old-time baseball!
I've gotten into following several families on You Tube that RV full-time. In looking at their Patreon subscriber count and making some guesses about YouTube revenue these families are pulling in at least $150K a year, and one of them may be closer to $250K, by posting videos of their travels.
But it all looks like an awful lot of work. I'm sure the act of hiking would be completely ruined for me if I spent the entire hike thinking about camera angles and re-walking a section of trail 3 times so I could film myself doing it with just the right light. I suspect these folks put in close to 40 hours a week editing video, messing with cameras, re-shooting scenes, etc. If you love doing it, it might not feel like work, but I'm fairly certain I'd hate it quickly. My Instagram and Twitter followers will have live with getting the occasional selfie from the summit of the hike, and a campfire photo in the evening.
I always knew people were publicly pretty filthy, but the last few years have confirmed just how gross they are. I like the idea of not breathing in everyone else's unfiltered aerial backwash quite a bit actually. And my allergies have been a bit better without inhaling so much pollen, so that's a definite plus.
Also no one can see when I'm silently mouthing "fuck you" if I have a mask on. Haha.
Wishing your dad the best from the many CoC readers!
...
Getting the time between pitches down is good. Getting the time between balls in play down would be better. Rules changes addressing the latter are harder than a pitch clock.
...
The CBA talk dragged on so long with so many versions going around that I could be mistaken but I think the 45 day unilateral implementation thing doesn’t kick in during this season.
All the best to your dad and your family.
I wonder if the pilot of that plane is in the military, and if so, is that a court martial offense.
I for one WILL die on the "everyone needs masks" hill, in part because I don't want to die for real. But next time someone asks why you are wearing one, take a page from my friend's book (but not literally since my friend is an author and you should leave her books intact) and tell people "oh, I have a mutated airborne form of syphilis."
On the field...
- Last night was sure deflating for the Mets after a great twinbill sweep on Tuesday. But the Giants are pretty good, too.
- Severino wasn't spectacular but managed to hold the Tigers to one run despite allowing seven hits. He seems to be quite on his way to recovering, even as Cole has been pretty iffy so far.
- Watched part of the Blue Jays-Red Sox game, and watched Pivetta left on the mound longer than he should have been since they are playing a day game today. To his credit, he stabilized himself, but the damage was done.
- And now, the Sho Show...six innings pitched, twelve strikeouts, no hits or walks allowed till the sixth; two for four at the plate with a walk and two RBIs. As the Astros didn't manage a hit or walk off the relievers, Sho had a better night at the plate than the entire Houston lineup. Just another night for Ohtani.
Best wishes to you dad, Craig.
Nats had a couple of potential trade chits make injury news yesterday. Sean Doolittle, who's given up only one hit so far, went on the IL with a sprained elbow ligament, while Josh Bell left the game early for unspecified reasons. Bell doesn't seem too worried about his situation, while Doolittle is going to try to rehab his way back to the bullpen, but at 35 you wonder how long he might try before giving up.
As for the pitch clock, I'm not opposed, but I do wonder about something...
If there's a pitch clock while runners are on base, doesn't that make it really easy for a guy to time the pitcher's delivery and attempt to steal second? I get that the pitcher could pitch before the clock expires, and that pitchers like to vary their time to home with a runner on, but doesn't the clock make that strategy less effective for pitchers as it caps just how long they can hold the runner?
Full disclosure: I was going to come here this morning and give you grief for not giving us an open comment thread yesterday… Needless to say, never mind.
Best wishes to your dad and everyone else in your family… You all have had one hell of a rough ride lately and I’m hoping it smooths out in a good way very soon.
Even with the warnings, I admit to still being sprinter van-curious… Not because of social media but because of the allure of traveling with almost no stuff. That’s all probably years away for me, though, so I’m sure it will pass 😎
Good thoughts to you and your family.
Also - through 5 innings last night, Shohei Otani had a double, a walk, 2 RBI, and watch tossing a perfect game with 11 strikeouts. He ended up with 2 hits and 12 Ks over 6, and the win.
Even though Otani is not exactly unnoticed, we probably don't talk enough about how amazing he is.
Some random observations as I pursue bb-ref this morning:
-- Does anyone else look at the random players whose thumbnail picture are in the top left every time you refresh to see how many faces you remember? This time, I was just 2 for 12.
-- That 2 for 12 has me batting under the Mendoza line. No big deal anymore I guess. The entire league is batting .230. In the Year of the Pitcher, 1968, the league hit .237. Then the OBA / SLG were 299 / 340 while now it is 309 / 369 so a couple more walks and a little more power, but not much.
-- And individual players are there too. By my count, there are currently fifty-four (!) players who have qualified for the batting title and are under .200 BA. There are thirty-nine players over .300
-- Those under .200 include several MVPs: Christian Yelich (.195), Mookie Betts (.178), Josh Donaldson (.174), Jose Altuve (.167), Paul Goldschmidt (.162), and Joey Votto (.121). Ooft.
-- Carlos Correa will need to start hitting if he wants to opt out of his unusual deal with Minnesota. His current slash line is 190 / 277 / 310.
-- Two of the pre-season picks for AL ROY aren't off to great starts either. Bobby Witt (128/150/231) and Julio Rodriguez (154/233/179) aren't doing anything. A third is looking good only in comparison: Spencer Torkelson (194/359/419)
-- At the other end of the spectrum, Jose Ramirez, with two grand slams already, is off to one heck of a start. Yeah, I know it is stupid, but he is on pace for 295 ribbies while at .429 batting a smidge better than Rodgers Hornsby's "modern" record.
-- Seiva Suzuki is giving Cubs fans a reason to tune in plus it makes me long for Harry Caray and wonder just how, after too many Buds in the Bleachers, he would have pronounced the name. His OBA is .565 and his slugging is .839, or roughly what Barry Bonds averaged during the silly seasons from '01 to '04.
-- Nolan Arenado is getting paid how much by Colorado to slug .895 for St. Louis?
-- Any game with Wander Franco (1024 OPS), Vlad the Junior Impailer (1062) and Juan Soto (962) can't have too bleak of a future. 21, 23 and 23 years old. Just wait for the health of Acuna and Tatis!
I’ve had a few times I wanted to tell someone to F off when they made a comment about masks, although each time it’s been more directed at my child wearing one than me. I’m a tall, bigger, athletic looking dude so I imagine that has factored in to why no one has said anything to me directly even though I live in a conservative, majority maskless area.
My 3 year old was running ahead of me at Target last year, mask on, as I tried to corral him. He almost ran into a couple who looked like they were in their 50s, maskless. I apologized to them and we all chuckled at a 3 year old doing things a 3 year old does.
Then as we started to continue on our way past them, the lady said to her husband, “The boy probably couldn’t see where he was going with that mask on.” I really wanted to turn around and ask them what part of his mask was covering his eyes, but alas, I’m not confrontational enough to push it any further.
What a year for you Craig. I hope it gets better. No worries from me about missing a day or not doing full recaps; it will be a while before your words-per-dollar ratio falls below replacement level.
Sorry to hear about your dad (again). Best wishes for a quick recovery!
Also - I did not get either the original email or the second email you mentioned on twitter.
And That Happened: Wednesday Edition
Phillies 9, Rockies 6: Some people might be tempted to say "the Phillies broke out of their 1-7 skid with a win against the Rockies yesterday", ignoring that a 2-7 mark over the last nine games is still pretty bad. Nevertheless, it counts as a win all the same. Kyle Schwarber homered for the second consecutive day, while Johan Camargo had four wins and knocked in three.
Brewers 4, Pirates 2: The key to Milwaukee's success is dominant pitching from Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff. One day after a tremendous start from Burnes, Woodruff followed his lead with six innings of one-hit, nine-strikeout ball. Rowdy Tellez and Keston Hiura both went deep for the Brewers. Milwaukee completed the sweep against the Pirates.
Guardians 11, White Sox 1; Guardians 2, White Sox 1: Let's play two! Game one was over very early on, as Cleveland scored nine runs in the second inning to make it 10-0. At one point, eleven consecutive Guardians reached base. Jose Ramirez's grand slam was the biggest blow. I'm sure they're glad they locked him up. Game two featured much less offense but the same result, as five Guardian pitchers teamed up to allow one run and three hits.
Dodgers 5, Atlanta 1: One day after seeing their win streak get snapped, the Dodgers bounce right back with a win. Tony Gonsolin filled in for Andrew Heaney, who recently hit the IL, and was great, with six innings of one-hit ball. His ERA through thirteen innings is 0.69. Nice. Freddie Freeman and Edwin Rios both homered for the Dodgers.
Padres 6, Reds 0: A sad season gets worse for the Reds, who have lost nine in a row and were outscored by the Dads 16-3 in a three-game sweep. Jurickson Profar broke a scoreless tie with a two-run shot in the fourth. Ha-Seong Kim also went deep for the home team. MacKenzie Gore got his first MLB win with five shutout innings. Despite Tatis being on the sidelines, San Diego has started off a very solid 9-5 and are in prime form entering a series with the Dodgers this weekend.
Orioles 1, Athletics 0: Round three of the Battle of the Vowels goes to Baltimore, as the O's beat the A's. Baltimore got their lone run in the fifth inning, following a double by Ryan McKenna and an error by Oakland shortstop Elvis Andrus. The real story in this one was the attendance, as only 2,703 people paid for a ticket for that game. The Las Vegas Aviators, the triple-A affiliate of Oakland, drew almost twice that last night. I know some will say that the start time was moved up and that threw everyone off, but that's *paid* attendance, meaning that the likely number of fans in the ballpark was probably much smaller. Shades of the 2001 Expos here. Those are bad shades.
Rays 8, Cubs 2: This one was called off halfway through the sixth inning due to rain, but no one probably minded too much. Seven out of Tampa's nine hits were for extra bases. They took two of three from the Cubs and now go home to face the Red Sox.
Yankees 5, Tigers 3: Luis Severino was a bit shaky, but he got through five innings while allowing just one run despite giving up seven hits. Anthony Rizzo went deep for his team-leading fourth home run of the year. Miguel Cabrera got three hits on the night, giving him 2,999 in his career. He's in prime position to break the record at home sometime this weekend.
Angels 6, Astros 0: What a day for Shohei Ohtani! He retired the first sixteen Astros batters, and struck out twelve of them in six innings. Jason Castro broke up the perfect game bid with a single on a 3-2 pitch. The pitch before could've been called ball four, but instead Castro got another chance. If it was called a ball, Ohtani still would've lost the perfecto, but he (with possibly some help from his friends) probably would've gotten the no-hitter. So it goes.
Cardinals 2, Marlins 0: It was scoreless until the top of the ninth inning, until Nolan Arenado hit a two-run blast that put the Cards ahead for good. Four pitchers, led by Miles Mikolas and his mustache, held the Fish to five hits. Paid attendance in Miami was 8,655. Not a great crowd, but a downright madhouse compared to Oakland.
D-Backs 11, Nationals 2: Going into this game, Arizona had scored 22 runs in the first eleven games of the season. Here, they scored eleven runs in one game. Baseball! Seth Beer had three hits and three RBI, while Daulton Varsho also knocked in three.
Giants 5, Mets 2: San Francisco avenged the doubleheader sweep to start the series with a win here. The Mets brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning, but Mets folk hero Wilmer Flores made a great leaping catch to save two runs and end the threat. Live by the Wilmer, die by the Wilmer.
Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 1: Boston struck first on a JD Martinez single in the first inning, but Toronto quickly answered with a five-run second inning that could not be topped. The rubber game in this series will be played this afternoon.
Royals 2, Twins 0: After a much ballyhooed off-season, the Twins are stuck in the mud. After splitting the opening series, they've lost six of eight. Still time to turn it around, of course. Bobby Witt Jr, who is also off to a slow start, knocked in a run by hitting into a double play. He doesn't get credit for an RBI, because reasons. Adalberto Mondesi drove in the other run on a bunt single. Small ball FTW.
Mariners 4, Rangers 2: The Mariners hit into the season's first triple play, as Jesse Winker hit a liner to Nathaniel Lowe in the first inning which turned into a three-out play. Didn't matter much for the M's, though, as they put four on the board, one of them through an error, and withstood a ninth-inning threat from the Rangers to score. Logan Gilbert threw 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball while striking out only four hitters. More old-time baseball!
I've gotten into following several families on You Tube that RV full-time. In looking at their Patreon subscriber count and making some guesses about YouTube revenue these families are pulling in at least $150K a year, and one of them may be closer to $250K, by posting videos of their travels.
But it all looks like an awful lot of work. I'm sure the act of hiking would be completely ruined for me if I spent the entire hike thinking about camera angles and re-walking a section of trail 3 times so I could film myself doing it with just the right light. I suspect these folks put in close to 40 hours a week editing video, messing with cameras, re-shooting scenes, etc. If you love doing it, it might not feel like work, but I'm fairly certain I'd hate it quickly. My Instagram and Twitter followers will have live with getting the occasional selfie from the summit of the hike, and a campfire photo in the evening.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Just popped by to say the Phillies-Rockies game ended 6-9 on 4/20 which delighted my teenage boys to no end.
I’m here for Tommy Pham threatening Muay Thai on Voit… the Reds are in deep deep trouble. Anything to breathe a little life into these guys.
Best wishes to your dad!
I always knew people were publicly pretty filthy, but the last few years have confirmed just how gross they are. I like the idea of not breathing in everyone else's unfiltered aerial backwash quite a bit actually. And my allergies have been a bit better without inhaling so much pollen, so that's a definite plus.
Also no one can see when I'm silently mouthing "fuck you" if I have a mask on. Haha.
[about the Nashville Stars] "That will, in turn, result in the first majority minority-controlled professional sports franchise in North America."
I don't think that's right... Arte Moreno, Michael Jordan, Shahid Khan all own the majority share of their pro teams.