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.

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 ...

Umpire Laz Diaz Picks A Fight With Bryce Harper Out Of Sheer Ego

This was dumb. The article has video.

Braves organist continues trolling Bryce Harper over impending free agency

Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminski is famous for having fun at the expense of opposing players through is his walkup song selections.

Friday night was no different as the veteran jazz musician and ballpark entertainer continued picking on one of his favorite targets — Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper.

The source of Kaminski’s motivation this season has been Harper’s impending free agency. The six-time All-Star will enter the open market following his age 25 season, and ...

Buehler, Dodgers blank Cards to draw even in wild-card race

In a pivotal series for the Dodgers, rookie Walker Buehler came through with a masterful performance.

Buehler allowed two hits in eight innings, Yasiel Puig homered twice and Los Angeles drew even with the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL wild-card race with a 3-0 victory on Friday night. The Dodgers also moved within one-half game of first-place Colorado in the NL West.

Buehler (7-5) pitched beyond the seventh inning for the first time and earned his first victory since Aug. 17. He retired the ...

Pete Rose: I can ‘barely walk or travel’ but he’s appearing tonight in Albany, NY, theater

Former Big Red Machine great and Hit King Pete Rose says in new divorce court filings that he is “in poor health and disabled.” The filing is the latest salvo in a bitter divorce struggle between Rose and his estranged wife, Carol.

TMZ Sports reported Friday that the 77-year-old Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer says in the documents it obtained that he “is currently disabled and can barely walk or travel.”

Yet Rose is scheduled to appear tonight at an Albany, New York theater where fans can hear ...

Weekend OMNICHATTER for September 15-16, 2018

Report: MLB looking into umpire’s bizarre interference in Mets celebration

Veteran umpire Tom Hallion has some explaining to do after seemingly attempting to block the New York Mets walk-off celebration on Thursday.

According to the New York Post, Major League Baseball officials are expected to question the veteran umpire for what writer Mike Puma termed an “apparent attempt to show up Todd Frazier” after Frazier launched the game-winning home run in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Miami Marlins.

The Mets obviously haven’t had much to celebrate in 2018. ...

If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s gonna OMNICHATTER! for September 14, 2018

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 9-14-2018

Sid Mercer of the New York Globe, quoted in the El Paso Herald, September 14, 1918:

The greatest outfielder and the greatest first baseman have played their last games on the Polo Grounds. But how different are the circumstances of their exit! Tyrus Cobb passed out [of baseball] standing on the roof of the Detroit dug out as he made a plea for the sale of War Savings Stamps…Hal Chase is passing out under a cloud. The charges [of match fixing] against him may never be fully proved, but Chase has ...

Prospects who had big seasons in 2018

Someone for everyone.

As another season ends in frustration, Mariners are stuck in worst kind of limbo | The Seattle Times

Pessimism for the Mariners.

They have $122.5 million tied up in just seven players – Felix Hernandez, Robinson Cano, Kyle Seager, Mike Leake, Dee Gordon, Jean Segura and Juan Nicasio – most of whom underachieved badly in 2018 for a variety of reasons.

They have few minor-league prospects on the horizon coming out of a farm system that continues to rank last in MLB in virtually every poll. And they play in a division with the Astros, who look to be elite for a few more years, and the A’s, ...

Red Sox, Nationals only teams on track to pay MLB’s luxury tax

NEW YORK—The Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals are the only teams on track to pay baseball’s luxury tax this year, according to opening-day payroll totals compiled by Major League Baseball and obtained by The Associated Press.

Boston’s payroll at the start of the season for purposes of the tax was $233.9 million, which would cause the Red Sox to pay a $9.4 million tax. Washington’s payroll was $201 million, which would result in a tax of $1.2 million.

San Francisco was just below the ...

David Wright to suit up for Mets one last time

Fighting back tears at an emotional news conference Thursday, Wright announced he will return from a 2 1/2-year absence to start at third base on Sept. 29. He does not expect to play again after this month.

I bet he’ll get a pretty good ovation, and he deserves it.