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.

Weekend OMNICHATTER for September 22-23, 2018

Wainwright impresses Giants’ Bochy

Count San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy as among the many intrigued to see how Adam Wainwright’s start goes Saturday in the wake of the brilliant six-inning, nine-strikeout, two-hit, no-run performance turned in by the 37-year-old Cardinals righthander Sunday against Los Angeles.

“Amazing,” said Bochy. “That’s what great athletes are able to do. They never stop learning or they never think they’ve arrived.

“They’ll try things. They’ll reinvent themselves and because ...

Detroit Tigers’ Victor Martinez: Saturday will be final game of career

Victor Martinez plans to end his career at Comerica Park.

Martinez said his last game will be Saturday against the Kansas City Royals, according to a Tigers spokesperson.

Martinez, speaking to a scrum of reporters, thanked Tigers fans on Friday for their support over the years and said, according to MLive, “after tomorrow, it’s going to be it. That will be my last game. This is one way to thank everybody.”

Yuli Gurriel has 7-RBI night as Astros clinch playoff berth

In a season with little doubt that the defending World Series champions would return to the playoffs, Yuli Gurriel and Gerrit Cole ensured on Friday night that the Astros will compete in October again.

Gurriel harassed pitchers with his two home runs and seven RBIs. Cole bullied batters with 12 strikeouts in seven innings. George Springer’s three-run homer in the eighth dealt a gratuitous blow.

The Astros overwhelmed the Los Angeles Angels 11-3 at Minute Maid Park for a win that clinched ...

Jaime Jarrin Inducted to Dodger Stadium Ring of Honor

Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Jaime Jarrin became the 12th inductee into the Dodger Stadium Ring of Honor Friday evening, recognized for his 60 years with the team and helping boost its following among Southern California’s Spanish-speaking population.

Longtime Dodger outfielder, coach and broadcaster Manny Mota removed the blue curtain covering a microphone with Jarrin’s name near the left field foul pole. It is next to the 10 jersey numbers that have been retired, which are displayed ...

How Pitch-Framing Became More Important—and More Common—Than Ever - The Ringer

Amid this heightened focus on framing, the league-wide strike rate on taken pitches is no higher in 2018 than it was at the dawn of the PITCHf/x era in 2008, but pitches were thrown in the strike zone at a higher rate back then than they are today. On pitches taken inside the rulebook strike zone, the called-strike rate has climbed from 74.7 percent in 2008 to 87.3 percent this season. That’s partly—or maybe even largely—a product of umpires getting graded on their accuracy and hewing ...

Jeff Banister fired as Texas Rangers manager

The managerial merry-go-round strikes again.

In the span of four years, Jeff Banister went from first to worst.

He will not get a chance to reverse the club’s course again.

With the Rangers headed for a last-place finish and the team’s second consecutive losing season, the Rangers decided to make a change, the team announced Friday. Banister, 54, will not return for a fifth season in 2019. Banister is due $950,000 for 2019, according to a salary survey from USA Today earlier this season.

This ...

Red Sox Fan Dies Climbing On Top of Train Leaving Yankee Stadium

A Red Sox fan was killed on his way home from Yankee Stadium Wednesday while trying to climb his way onto the top of a train, NBC10 Boston reports.

Michael Vigeant, 24, was electrocuted during the act. The car on Metro-North was heading from Yankee Stadium to New Haven, Conn. His brother also attempted to get on top of the train, but was safely removed by officials.

And you thought the two guys with the banner were the dumbest Sox fans of the week.  Build a better mousetrap…

Addison Russell’s Ex-Wife Releases Detailed Allegations Of Abuse

It’s the second time that allegations have been brought forth against Russell. The first instance came when a friend of Reidy spoke out on Instagram; [Melisa] Reidy, in the process of separating and filing for divorce at the time, did not cooperate with MLB’s investigation. Now, it stands to reason that this latest account from the alleged victim herself will bring forth a second and more serious investigation from the league. It’s unclear whether the relevant law enforcement authorities ...

It’s not the full moon that excites OMNICHATTER! for Sept. 21, 2018

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-21-2018

Washington Herald, September 21, 1918:

For pitching nine innings against the Hartford, Conn., club last Sunday, Babe Ruth received more money than he got out of the world series with the Cubs. For working that one game Ruth was given $1,300, while in the six world series games his share was less than $1,100. Ruth is in big demand throughout New England and the independent club which played against Hartford had to bid high to get the big Red Sox hurler to pitch the game.

I’m sure there’s a valid ...

Hearing WFAN’s John Sterling home run call on WEEI was a weird juxtaposition

For years, it seemed possible that someday Red Sox fans would hear a giddy announcer call a Giancarlo Stanton home run from the Boston radio booth.

After all, in the eight years he spent walloping homers for the usually hapless Florida/Miami Marlins, Stanton’s name often came up in Red Sox trade rumors.

Stanton, who signed a 13-year, $325 million contract extension in December 2014 that practically priced him out of Miami before the ink was dry, never got to call Fenway home.

Unless ...

Marlins CEO Derek Jeter: Don Mattingly ‘under contract’ for 2019

MIAMI—Derek Jeter signaled Thursday that Don Mattingly is expected to return next year as manager of the Miami Marlins, providing some dugout continuity for a last-place team in transition.

Mattingly has one season to go on a four-year contract he signed when he joined the Marlins for the 2016 season.

“Is he going to be back in 2019?” Jeter said. “He’s under contract. Yeah.”

So, what do we suppose Mattingly did that is leading to him being punished so?

Angels’ Francisco Arcia makes history by catching, pitching, homering in same game

OAKLAND, Calif.—Los Angeles Angels catcher Francisco Arcia began the day behind the plate, did a brief stint on the mound and ended up in the major league record books.

Arcia pitched two innings of relief and hit his sixth home run in the Angels’ 21-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Thursday.

In doing so, Arcia became the first player to catch, pitch and homer in the same game in the modern era (since 1900), according to Elias Sports Bureau.

The things we wind up doing on a night when our ...

Shohei Ohtani may prove to be baseball’s future, and what a future it could be

ANAHEIM, Calif. – While everyone else was rethinking the game, he was rethinking the player.

Shohei Ohtani’s season will end on an operating table. His team, the Los Angeles Angels, are, again, in October’s waiting room. They have over the past decade had enough bad coffee to have sated Manifest Destiny’s every wagon train, paced from here to there and back.

So, it all concludes in its usual mess: a few key players being swabbed in Betadine, Mike Trout brilliant and unrewarded, the ...

Hall of Famer John Smoltz says MLB needs an overhaul and proposes drastic changes

Smoltz proposes that MLB adopt a split-season schedule, just as they do in the minor leagues, in a move that he believes will create dramatic division races again, reduce the number of teams tanking for draft picks, and make baseball great again in September.

He also wants to ban shifts. And he’s on the competition committee, folks.

Alex Cora Laments Demolition of Caguas Criollos P.R. Stadium Post-Maria

Solá Morales, home for nearly seven decades to the Criollos—one of Puerto Rico’s most storied winter league franchise that rostered more than a dozen MLB Hall of Famers—was among the island’s most damaged sports facilities in the wake of devastating Hurricane Maria, to the point where government officials deemed the stadium unusable. The venue turns 70 on Nov. 7. But celebrations and baseball games will instead give way to padlocks and rubble, as dozens of trucks employed by a company have ...

Simon - Why Does Bryce Harper Have -25 Defensive Runs Saved?

Sounded some warnings about Bryce Harper’s defense in April. Here’s a revisit as the season nears an end. He’s at -25 Defensive Runs Saved, among the worst totals in MLB this season.

Jordan @metsfansince02
Do you think a move to first base next season is possible? I heard he was taking a lot of grounders there this year.

Mark Simon @MarkASimonSays
I think the money is in the outfield. The move to 1B comes later.

The Bullpen Day Turns into a Winning Formula

Ok, it’s behind a pay wall, but we can guess as to the contents.

The Rays currently have 2 real starters (Snell & Glasnow), and 2 pseudo-starters (Yarborough & Chirinos). They use true bullpen days - that is, games in which nobody pitches more than about 2 innings - once or twice or three times per rotation turn. They’re also just about the hottest team in baseball.

Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig burglarized for the fourth time

The home of Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig was burglarized on Tuesday night, the fourth time a police report has been filed on a residence owned by the baseball star in the last 18 months.

It’s the third time Puig’s current house in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley has been burglarized, and the second time this month.

Los Angeles Police Department public information officer Jeff Lee told USA TODAY Sports that a home on the 5800 block of Louise Avenue in the Los Angeles ...

Who needs Justice when you have OMNICHATTER! for Sept. 20, 2018

Diamondbacks hitting coach: Struggles due to improper approach, poor adjustments

When the Diamondbacks began a west-coast trip with a series in San Francisco in late August, hitting coach Dave Magadan recalls feeling pretty good about the state of his offense. It had struggled through the season’s first two months but had mostly found its footing into the middle of the summer, scoring the second-most runs in the league over a 75-game stretch.

And then, as Magadan put it, they came upon a “barren desert” of offensive output.

“Just all of a sudden it was ...

Is Red Sox’ slump temporary, or did they come back to earth?

All year, this looked like the revival of the 2016 offense. Some extended drop-offs are starting to make that seem like a mirage.

The Red Sox’ 11 home runs in the month of September are the fewest of all 30 teams. As of midnight going into Thursday, their on-base percentage in September, .317, was middle of the pack at 14th best. Their slugging percentage, meanwhile, was worse than all but four teams, at .362.

“There’s been a few at-bats early in the game, in these two games, that we ...

Dodgers bash their way to MLB history with record-tying seven 20-homer hitters

Home runs are dramatically up in MLB this season and that means some home run history will inevitably be made. The Dodgers fulfilled that idea Wednesday, entering the history books with a booming homer from Matt Kemp in the second inning of their game against the Rockies.

Kemp’s solo shot bumped his season total up to 20 and gave the Dodgers their seventh 20-homer hitter on the season, tying an MLB record for most 20-homer hitters on a team in a single season. The Los Angeles group now ...

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.