Shohei Ohtani belts first major league homer in Angels’ victory | OC Register

Your daily Shohei update.

Just over 48 hours after Ohtani The Pitcher had a breakthrough performance, Ohtani The Hitter delivered a three-run homer as part of three-hit game.

Ohtani pitched six innings to pick up the victory on Sunday, retiring 14 of the last 15 hitters after all three runs came on one bad pitch.

Then on Tuesday, in his first game at Angel Stadium, he belted a homer and then blistered two other singles. He’s now 4 for 9 in two games as the team’s designated hitter.

Baseball Therapy: Bunt, Joey, Bunt! - Baseball Prospectus

A theoretical exercise that doesn’t really tell us anything.

LOC: Branch Rickey Scouting Reports Now Online

The collection includes about 1,750 baseball scouting reports from the 1950s and 1960s, documenting Rickey’s skill in analyzing various aspects of a player’s game and identifying some of the greats. The Rickey Papers are online at loc.gov/collections/branch-rickey-papers/about-this-collection/.

The digitization of the Rickey Papers is part of a larger effort to make historical materials available online. Other newly digitized collections include the papers of U.S. Presidents James ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-3-2018

Washington Times, April 3, 1918:

Dissensions are sprouting in the ranks of Pat Moran’s Phillies. Several players complain that Colonel Baker has not spent any of the money obtained in the Alexander-Killifer deal in strengthening the team, and that they will not long remain with a minor league organization.

Pat Moran is doing the best he can with the material he has, but he refuses to talk of the future.

Moran’s future was better than the Phillies organization’s future. The manager’s contract ...

This 10-Year-Old Cancer Patient Chase Utley Met in 2006 Is Now His Teammate

Must have gotten some dust in my eye.

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OMNICHATTER comes in peace, for April 3, 2018

MLB.tv’s Quad Box Disappears For Now

This is a bummer.

Neon Deion tweets

Somebody tell me who this catcher is so i can make sure he has brand new gear for his next game. Please Please. This is incredible. And I want to meet him. #Truth

Check out the embedded video from Tony Austin.

OMNICHATTER is late, and is very sorry, for April 2, 2018

What we learned about Ohtani’s arm in first start

His stuff is impressive.

Rays owner says if he gets enough naming-rights cash, maybe he’ll only demand $400m in public subsidies | Field of Schemes

No, this isn’t an April Fools prank.

MLB to warn Phillies regarding pitching change

THEY HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

The Phillies will receive a formal warning from Major League Baseball for making a pitching change in the third inning Saturday night in Atlanta without having left-hander Hoby Milner warmed up and ready to enter the game, a source said Sunday.

MLB is still reviewing the incident, but it believes umpire Jerry Layne handled the situation appropriately given the circumstances.

Twins win with 2 Dozier HRs, Berrios shutout | MLB.com

You can’t bunt against the shift?

This is dumb.

Two Truths and a Lie: The Hidden Forces That Affect How Catchers Perform at the Plate - The Ringer

Tyler Flowers and big questions about catchers.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 4-2-2018

Washington Times, April 2, 2018:

Art Wilson, formerly a Cub catcher now with the Boston Braves, on the third trial caught a baseball dropped by an aviator, who was passing over the ball ground at Miami, Fla., at a rate of eighty miles an hour. The ball was dropped by Roger Humphreys. Humphreys and Wilson were some time ago players on a Three-Eye League team.

They had heard of catching a ball thrown from the Washington Monument, but agreed that no one had ever caught a ball from an aeroplane. ...

Apr. 14, 1931 - Scenes at a Yankees vs Red Sox Game, NYC (real sound)

Scenes at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium taken on April 14, 1931 in New York City. These films were taken with early Movietone sound cameras.

OTP 2018 Apr 2: This Opening Day, keep baseball pure—and keep the politics out of it

In a year when American culture seems to be dissolving before our very eyes in the shadow of a political discourse that often seems as turbid as it is abhorrent, there’s always baseball.

I grew up the daughter of a man who loved baseball; over the years my Mom learned to enjoy it just as much. My dad played it, listened to it, watched it, collected cards of players he admired. I can’t even pinpoint my first baseball experience, such is the way the entirety of the game enveloped around and ...

Papke: Twins angry after Orioles bunt against shift in 9th

It’s never too early in the season for the “unwritten rules” to rear its ugly head…

We already knew that bunting for a hit with a no-hitter in progress is against baseball’s so-called “unwritten rules.” This, however, was only a one-hitter.

What’s more, the Twins were putting their shift in action against Sisco, meaning they clearly still saw merit in going out of their way defensively to prevent the catcher from getting on base. If Minnesota feels justified in doing that, why is Sisco ...

Shohei Ohtani picks up victory for Angels in his mound debut | OC Register

OAKLAND — Just like Shohei Ohtani and the Angels had been saying all along, spring training means nothing.

A rough spring had prompted plenty of questions about the Japanese superstar’s readiness for the majors, but his performance in his first outing as a big league pitcher no doubt eased many concerns from outside the organization.

Ohtani pitched six innings in the Angels’ 7-4 victory over the Oakland A’s on Sunday afternoon, completing his historic season-opening series.

A New Chapter At Sports Reference

Along the way, the only consideration has been what would work best for the user. That’s why, after months of extensive research, I’m very pleased to announce:

We’re Pivoting to Video.

Gabe Kapler’s alarming error adds to rough start as Phillies manager

If there was a reset button in the Philadelphia Phillies dugout, new manager Gabe Kapler would have pressed it several times by now.

His first three games have been an out-of-control roller coaster at best, a disaster at worst, with Saturday’s 15-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves providing a low point that the Phillies have to hope will never be duplicated.

OMNICHATTER for the weekend of March 31-April 1, 2018

OMNICHATTER? I hardly knew’er! for March 30, 2018

FSN ‘regrets’ plan to replace Circle Me Bert with Fight Me Gregg - Twinkie Town

Huh?

Official attendance likely to plummet this season for Marlins | Miami Herald

It remains to be seen whether fewer fans show up this season at Marlins Park if the team struggles, as most expect.

But, whether that proves to be the case, official crowd figures announced by the team are expected to plummet significantly — or at least come closer to reality.

The reason: a Marlins spokesman said Thursday that the Marlins will only count actual tickets sold in their attendance calculations.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 3-30-2018

Washington Times, March 30, 1918:

Four cities have been granted franchises in the new International League, it became known today. They are Baltimore, Toronto, Jersey City and Syracuse. Buffalo, Newark, Rochester, Richmond, and several other cities bidding for franchises will have until next Wednesday morning to qualify. President McCaffery, of the Toronto club, said today that the season will probably be opened May 1.

The other four cities that made up the league were Buffalo, Newark, ...

MLB salaries 2018: A 1% raise for major leaguers, but clouds ahead

Bob Nightengale breaks down the dollars.

Giancarlo Stanton homers in 1st Yankees at-bat | MLB.com

What a start!

MLB’s stat-crunchingest video game predicts a World Series win for L.A. - Polygon

OOTP recently released version 19. Although I’ve bought a few versions I haven’t played it much. The options are pretty daunting. Is there an easy way to import rosters managed somewhere else? (I’d like to sim out a league I play in Dynasty League Baseball.)

I’m also curious about online league play. Is there a way for people to play head-to-head live? I see a broadcast to the web option but it seems this is something for GM only leagues where the Commissioner sims the games.

I know a few ...

Top 26 Prospects: Philadelphia Phillies | FanGraphs Baseball

Fangraph’s prospect gurus really dropped the ball this year. The season has started and only 14 teams are done. They either have to get all teams done or just focus on the top 300 or so prospects. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a huge task. They need to involve more people if the goal is to be an alternative to Baseball America and MLB.com.

Kudos to Keith Law for doing such a great job by himself.