BBTF ANNUAL CENTRAL PARK SOFTBALL GAME 2018

Date: August 11
Time: 10 AM to 2 PM
Field: Great Lawn, Field 7
Post-game meetup: Mad River Grille, 1442 3rd Ave (near E 82nd St)

EDIT: The above info is up to date as of post #241 (early Friday afternoon, August 10). If plans change, post it in the comments in this thread.

It’s not a tantrum, it’s a cry for OMNICHATTER! for Sept. 19, 2018

Red Sox division title banner falls off truck; its return may cost them - The Boston Globe

Dopes. I’m sure the vendor just printed up a new one.

“We want to return it, we’re trying to do the right thing, but I’m not just going to hand it to them, know what I mean?” Iacuzzi said.

Asked if he wanted cash from the Red Sox, he said, “Yes, financial [compensation], maybe some tickets, we want something. We don’t know what we want. We want to return it, 100 percent, but we would like to get something.”

Iacuzzi didn’t have a specific asking price in mind as of Wednesday ...

Baseball Therapy: Fixing the Service Time Manipulation Problem - Baseball Prospectus

I guess this is an alternative. I don’t see how this suggestion would be a better system. I also don’t see how the owners or players would agree to such a structural overhaul, which Carleton says would be about a wash. Lastly, he’s underselling the consequences for marginal and veteran players.On top of that, guys like Acuna would be **worse** off, not better off.

But then there’s the Ronald Acuna problem. Acuna made his debut for the Braves in late April and has put up amazing numbers at age ...

Cain stars in Directional Outs Above Average

Mike Petriello introduces the metric.

The new leaderboard.

Statcast tool illustrates Adam Engel’s strength, Daniel Palka’s weakness

More interesting work from the Statcast team.

Willians Astudillo Should Be Your New Favorite Player

Just in case you old fogies aren’t aware of this entertaining fellow:

His build can generously be described as “sturdy” and less generously described as “stubby,” all squat and densely packed. Astudillo is 5’ 9” and 225 pounds…

In 20 major league games, Astudillo has been behind the plate scarcely half the time. Otherwise? He’s filled in at second base, third base, left field, and he’s even done a brief stint in center. And, oh, yes, he made a pitching appearance, too…

But ...

Why The Dodgers’ WS Odds are So High

There is no Braves team or Brewers club in the AL playoffs to potentially boost the odds of getting to the World Series. The Brewers and Braves have good teams; on paper, though, they don’t come close to those AL teams. As a result, the Dodgers have the highest odds of any team to make the World Series. They might not be favored if they get there, but getting there provides enough of a boost to their overall odds that they end up with the second-highest championship odds in baseball.

Kind ...

Snell wins 20th, ties Rays record in 4-0 victory over Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas — For Blake Snell, all the setbacks set up all these victories.

Snell became the major leagues’ first 20-game winner in two years, helping pitch the Tampa Bay Rays past the Texas Rangers 4-0 Tuesday night.

Snell (20-5) threw one-hit ball for five innings and tied the Tampa Bay record for victories in a season. David Price also won 20 in his Cy Young Award season of 2012.

So, how many of you would have guessed that Blake Snell had twenty wins before this was posted?

Revived offense could provide the best fix for Cubs’ bullpen

PHOENIX—Perhaps the Chicago Cubs found the secret to playing without a true closer: Dominate the opposition at the plate while taking save opportunities out of the equation. There was no need for any ninth-inning nail-biting on Tuesday, as a team in a hitting slump for much of the second half is beginning to wake up.

“We stacked them one on top of the other,” second baseman Daniel Murphy said of Cubs at-bats after a 9-1 win over Arizona. “Sustained pressure on the opposing pitcher. Traffic ...

The Orioles became the first professional sports team to wear Braille jerseys

The Orioles hosted the Blue Jays for a regular, regular-season game on Tuesday night. Camden Yards looked as beautiful as always, fans were munching on crab dip and waffle fries and baseball players were playing baseball.

But there was one cool, new added element to the uniforms of the home team. The Orioles had their team and player names spelled out in Braille—becoming the first team in professional sports history to do so.

Fans were also given Braille alphabet cards so they could spell ...

Dodgers president on Clayton Kershaw’s contract: ‘We expect to work together for a long time’

There are a lot of questions about the Los Angeles Dodgers as we head into the final week of the regular season. Can they win the NL West? If not, can they secure a wild-card spot? Are they a good enough team to sneak into the playoffs, get hot and go on a run?

There’s a bigger question hovering around these Dodgers, though, one that’s been there all season and that, in the grand scheme of things, might be even bigger than a wild-card berth.

What’s going to happen with Clayton Kershaw? ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-19-2018

Washington Times, September 19, 1918:

A stereotype habit of Boston baseball writers during the bleak winter months is to visit the homes of the various ball-flinging athletes.
...
[Melville Webb tells the story of his visit to Babe Ruth’s house:] “The fire was finally started,” Webb continued, “but after a few minutes Babe took a look at it and was far from satisfied the way it was progressing.

“The big fellow walked over to a corner of the kitchen, picked up a five-gallon can of kerosene and ...

Goin’ to Carolina in OMNICHATTER’s mind, for September 18, 2018

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-18-2018

New York Sun, September 18, 1918:

Baseball, under the splendid management of the Anglo-American League, has taken such firm hold on the British public that plans already have been made for the operation of an eight club major league in Great Britain just as soon as the war is over. The new organization will take in London, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Not only the English but the Scotch as well have become great baseball fans.

Well, good luck with that.

How to fix baseball? Two ways MLB can improve its product without changing the game on the field

Let me start by saying baseball is not perfect. It never will be perfect because everyone has a different idea of what perfect is. Some like small ball. Some like dingers. Some want to return to the glory days when starting pitchers finished what they started. Some like the widespread bullpenning we see today. Everyone has their own platonic ideal of baseball and that is totally cool.

And yet, there seems to be a prevailing narrative in the sports corner of the internet that baseball needs to ...

Who’s in and who’s out of the MLB postseason?

An exciting part of September baseball is watching teams clinch their berths in the postseason and seeing the stories of the playoffs begin to form throughout the month.

Another fun part, for the more cynical among us, involves watching as teams officially get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, with not even a whiff of Wild Card chances. More and more of which are revealing themselves as days pass on the final march to October.

We’ll be tracking teams who have clinched their spot ...

Orioles match club record with 107th loss, 5-0 to Blue Jays before tiny home crowd

Their dubious destiny nearly set, this year’s Orioles team will very likely go down in history as the worst in franchise history, an ugly distinction for a team that owns a proud 65-year history in Baltimore.

This day sneaked up on no one, and it’s now not a matter of whether they will have that title, but how bad the ending will be over the final two weeks of the season.

In terms of losses, they are there. With their next defeat, the Orioles set themselves apart in a way no one wants ...

Christian Yelich makes baseball history with second cycle of season

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich on Monday night became the first player in major league history to hit for the cycle against the same team twice in one season.

Yelich, who hit for the cycle against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 30, accomplished the rare feat again less than three weeks later. He’s just the fifth player ever to hit for multiple cycles in the same season.

“There’s been so many great players to play this game,’’ said Yelich, acquired in an offseason trade with Miami. ...

Heard the song of a poet who died in the OMNICHATTER! for Sept. 17, 2018

Minor league baseball players exploring union as they continue to battle low wages

I call bullshit.

“In terms of the minor league guys, we try to do as much as we possibly can for them, but obviously it’s a major league union at this point,” said Colorado Rockies catcher Chris Iannetta, a member of the MLBPA executive board. “That’s what we focus on. It’s not like we leave them out. We try to set them up so that, when they come to this level, they’re in the best position possible.”

MLBPA should look to add AA and AAA players to the union. Bump up their minimum ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-17-2018

Washington Herald, September 17, 1918:

Although the flowers are still fresh on the grave of baseball, a movement already is under way for a reorganization of the administrative end of the game at the conclusion of the war.
...
According to the first plan, which is vouched for by one of the foremost men in the game, there is a scheme on foot now by which the commission will be so reorganized that one man will sit as the supreme court of baseball.
...
Several prominent men have been mentioned for ...

OTP 2018 September 17: How Brett Kavanaugh explains his baseball ticket debt

Kavanaugh described the baseball tickets as part of a group purchase divided amongst friends and avid Washington Nationals fans. Kavanaugh estimated he has attended “a couple hundred games” over the period of 2005 through 2017, when he purchased four season tickets, and also playoff ticket packages for the four years the Nationals reached the National League playoffs.

“I have attended all 11 Nationals home playoff games in their history,” Kavanaugh noted in his answers. “(We are 3-8 in those ...

Phillies GM Matt Klentak will continue to push new-school approach he was hired to

The Phillies this season have challenged many old-school baseball ideas. They’ve made frequent lineup changes and used players in new positions. They’ve employed pinch-hitters in the early innings. They’ve rejected the notion that relievers must have assigned roles and some nights make five or six pitching changes.

Buckle up, folks. It’s going to continue.

“When I was brought in here three years ago, I wasn’t brought in here to do things the way they’d always been done,” ...

Twins’ Tyler Austin on nasty spill: ‘The wall kind of snuck up on me’

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Twins first baseman Tyler Austin said he was OK after landing on his back as he made a terrific but scary catch on a foul pop-up in the sixth inning of Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Royals.

Austin, who has been dealing with back soreness that has affected his playing time, was replaced in the lineup an inning after flipping head first over a padded railing and falling about six feet onto concrete in an unoccupied section of sunken seats along the first-base line. ...

Rangers’ Adrian Beltre remains undecided about playing next season. Here’s what he is certain of regarding the end.

SAN DIEGO—He does not want cowboy boots.

As he prepares for the final homestand of the season, Adrian Beltre remains undecided about whether this will be it for him or if he will play again in 2019. What he is certain of: Whatever the decision, he doesn’t want a fuss. Not now. Or, if he plays again, not next year.

He doesn’t want farewell tours and gifts like the boots the Rangers gave to New York Yankees legends Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter on their announced final trips to Arlington.

Memphis Redbirds go to title game

It seems as if most of the Memphis Redbirds already are here, but the Cardinals’ Class AAA club, by virtue of a 5-0 win over Fresno on Saturday night, clinched a second consecutive Pacific Coast League title and advanced to the Class AAA championship game against Durham in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday night. Memphis lost to Durham in the 2017 championship game.

Memphis won the PCL crown despite massive turnover. The Redbirds had a record 66 players on their roster this season, with 18 of them ...

Nashville Divorces Athletics

The A’s aren’t sure where their next Triple-A affiliate will be, but it will not be in Nashville. Instead, Oakland’s top affiliate next season is likely to end up neighbors with the Raiders.

The Nashville Sounds have informed the A’s that the affiliation agreement with the A’s is over, two sources told The Chronicle.

I’m sure the Washington Nationals would like to have a lil chat with Nashville.

Sabrblog: What a Drag it is Getting Old

You can see that old player value has been in free fall in recent years. In 2017, age 35+ players accumulated 15.9 WAR in total, just 1.6% of the value in all of baseball. By percentage, this was the smallest total since 1877 when the major leagues were just getting started….

Setting aside the reasons for the exceptional aging that went on between 1998 and 2007, which has been debated to death, it is interesting to wonder why players are not aging as well today. The most common answer will be ...

Sherman - Statistical Revolution Is Killing The Next Generation Of MLB Fans

Joel Sherman remarked on Twitter:

I realize the pond I am swimming in on Twitter, where columns are so often misstated. For the record, in this piece I point out several times that modern stats are more revelatory and if I ran a team I would use them over the old stats in decision making.

The point is old stats were ligaments that connected generations and were easily digested, thus, tracked thru the course of a season/career. We changed to a better language, but the old language had great ...