8th? BBTF Central Park Softball Game: July 25

Let’s start planning for this year’s game. First questions:

1. Who is submitting the permit request? (Answer: Hysterical & Useless)

2. What dates should we aim for? (Answer: July 25)

3. Where is the post-game destination?

Sun-Times: Longtime White Sox broadcaster and former pitcher Ed Farmer dies

White Sox broadcaster Ed Farmer, who grew up on the South Side and pitched in the major leagues for 11 seasons before embarking on a 28-year broadcasting career, died Wednesday night.

Call to arms: Compressed schedule could mean more pitchers

NEW YORK (AP) — When and if opening day comes around this year, New York Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake anticipates a brimming bullpen.

Major League Baseball and the players’ association have talked about a compressed schedule to get in as many games as possible. That will set off a call to arms.

“I think if you have 15 guys it gives you some depth,” Blake said Wednesday.

Active rosters were to expand from 25 to 26 from opening day through Aug. 31 in exchange for the limit dropping from 40 to 28 from Sept. 1 on. When a strike delayed the start of the 1995 season until April 25, teams were allowed 28 players through May 15.

And, should things end up poorly for a good hunk of the pitchers, A Farewell to Arms.

This Day in Sports History: MLB Players Go on Their First Strike

In the long history of Major League Baseball, there have been eight work stoppages. Most were relatively unsubstantial: Five of the eight resulted in no games missed, with the 1985 players’ strike lasting a mere two days from Aug. 6-7.

Others have been more consequential. The infamous 1994 strike stands out among the rest, as it resulted in the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series. When the next work stoppage will occur is anybody’s guess, but the first will always be the 13-day players’ strike that began on April 1, 1972.

The MLB Players Association wasn’t even six years old heading into the 1972 campaign. But with the expiration of the league’s three-year pension agreement imminent, an opportunity existed for the players to ...

MLB Can’t Afford to Come Back Too Soon

The efforts of Nippon Pro Baseball to resume playing are underscoring concerns of Major League Baseball officials about the difficulty of a potential return in the wake of the pandemic.

Teams in Japan began playing practice games in empty ballparks on March 20 with an Opening Day target of April 24. Within a week, three Hanshin Tigers players tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting the team to order players and staff to self-quarantine.

After the announcement, NPB secretary general Atsushi Ihara told reporters regarding the proposed April 24 Opening Day, “We do not plan to reconsider the date because of this.” But last night Sports Nippon in Japan reported that officials are now considering a later start.

The sequence of ...

Baseball Question of the Day: What’s your favorite piece of memorabilia?

Most people who are into baseball have, at one point or another, owned some memorabilia of some kind. Maybe they’re not hardcore collectors, but most of us have had an autograph, a baseball card or 10,000, some pennants, posters, or something along those lines.

I’ve written before — a very, very long time ago — about how I’m not a big fan of autographs. I have some, all of which were obtained when I was a kid, and I think they can be neat on a certain level, but I find the whole process of getting someone’s autograph to be an odd one, at least if you’re an adult. I realize I’m in the distinct minority with this. I’m not judging you if you like to get autographs. I’m just saying that autographs aren’t for me.

I also ...

Today in Baseball History: Umpire John McSherry dies after collapsing on the field

Opening Day in Cincinnati is special. Everything basically shuts down. A big parade is held and a party atmosphere pervades the city. The Reds have not gotten the honor of hosting the absolute first game of each year’s baseball schedule for some time, but the first Reds game each year — always at home, always a day game — is a special experience.

Opening Day 1996, however, was a tragic one, as home plate umpire John McSherry, working his 26th season as a major league umpire, collapsed and died during the first inning of the Reds game against the Montreal Expos.

McSherry was in good spirits before the game, jokingly telling Reds catcher, Eddie Taubensee, “Eddie, you can call the first two innings.”  A few moments later, however, ...

MLB reportedly discussing a 100-game season that would include a neutral-site World Series at Dodger

The COVID-19 pandemic has the sports world on hold. We have no idea when and *if* there will be professional sports in 2020. The MLB season was supposed to begin last Thursday, and there’s no way they will be able to play close to 162 games with the way things are going.

At this rate, a best-case scenario would seem to involve the MLB season starting in late June or early July, and having roughly 100 games (keep in mind a ramp-up period/second spring training that will be needed too; it’s not like things clear up with COVID-19 and the regular-season MLB games can immediately start).

Well, 670 The Score’s Matt Spiegel reports that, according to “a well informed source that does business with multiple MLB execs,” MLB is ...

Giants’ Gabe Kapler playing popular video game to help stay in managerial shape

With Major League Baseball on hiatus, Giants manager Gabe Kapler and his staff are using a cornucopia of technologies to stay on top of the game and keep players as ready as they can be, including videos, statistical tools, video games, virtual-meeting sites and …

Wait. Back up a minute. Video games?

Indeed.

Kapler said he and some of his coaches are employing a PlayStation baseball game called “MLB: The Show” to study tendencies of major-league players, an idea suggested by hitting coach Justin Viele.

Things are going to be rough on us Giants fans if the team ever takes the field again, aren’t they?

DirecTV, AT&T Customers Will Finally Get to See LA Dodgers Games — Once Baseball Season Starts

And now, for a bit of what I hope is legitimately good news:

DirecTV, U-verse and AT&T TV customers will finally get to watch Los Angeles Dodgers games again, after six years of blackout. AT&T and Spectrum Networks have announced a carriage deal that will bring the Dodgers’ regional sports network, Spectrum SportsNet LA, to those subscribers for the first time.

DirecTV/AT&T and Spectrum had failed to come to an agreement for six years, which left the Dodgers with only partial coverage in the Los Angeles market. Under the new deal, DirecTV customers will receive SportsNet LA starting today on channel 690, while AT&T TV and AT&T TV Now customers will start to see the channel on April 8.

The news comes, however, as the baseball season ...

Shin-Soo Choo donating funds to Rangers minor leaguers

Rangers veteran Shin-Soo Choo is helping out financially strapped minor league players with the season on hold, giving $1,000 each to 191 of them who are in the Texas organization.

Choo, 37, said Wednesday that he remembers the financial struggles when he was in the minors. The outfielder-designated hitter hopes the gifts will help ease those worries for the current minor leaguers, most of whom he has never met, allowing them to stay focused on their baseball careers instead of having to figure out ways to make money.

“I’ve done it before, minor leagues, seven years,” said Choo, who was 18 when he left South Korea to join the Seattle Mariners organization before the 2001 season. “I know right now the minor league system is better than ...

London Series featuring Cubs, Cards canceled

ST. LOUIS—The cancellations and postponements of Major League Baseball’s season has now reached the Cardinals’ series against the Cubs in London this summer.

The Mitel & MLB Present London Series has been canceled due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, MLB announced Wednesday morning. The Cardinals and Cubs were scheduled to play at London Stadium on June 13-14. The London Series website states that the series will not take place at any time this season.

The series had been in jeopardy since concerns about international travel and the spread of COVID-19 in Europe began to take shape. In early March, the Cardinals had hoped MLB would wait on a decision until closer to the scheduled date of the series. But when the coronavirus began ...

Toronto’s 3-month shutdown doesn’t bode well for any pro sport

The announcement Tuesday that the city of Toronto has banned all public events through June 30 is not a good sign that games in any North American professional sports league will be back by then.

This is the longest-ranged shutdown any city has enacted, a span of three months. What is more likely: That only Toronto makes this decision, or that by the end of April many cities in the U.S. have followed suit?

In Toronto, this pertains to city-permitted events such as festivals and parades, city-led conferences and cultural programs, and major mass participation events organized by external groups at civic centers and squares, parks and public spaces. It’s logical that sporting events could follow.

Previously, we knew that MLB’s regular ...

O’s slugger Davis expects return to spring form after return

BALTIMORE (AP) — Following three straight frustrating seasons that led him to consider retirement, Chris Davis was in the midst of an outstanding spring training when Major League Baseball came to a halt because of the deadly coronavirus.

Now, as the slugger strives to find ways to keep his three daughters amused while confined to his house, Davis remains confident that he’s poised to return to the form he displayed before signing a much-publicized and subsequently criticized seven-year, $161 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles.

Davis got that deal after winning his second home run title in 2015. He hasn’t been the same since then.

Davis has seen his long ball production dwindle in each of the last three years, down to a ...

When the Game Cannot Go On

It’s becoming clear that leaving your jacket behind was a mistake.

The sun has been giving this mid-March day a Fourth of July tint all afternoon, and you’ve been waiting all winter to brave the outdoors free from layers. That sun was still out when you got to the ballpark just before 5 pm, and the air felt mild, so you left your jacket in the car. You should have known better. The high school baseball game you’re watching probably wasn’t going to end until 7:30, when the sun was nearly gone — along with whatever lies it promised you about warmth.

Now, that 7:30 final out is beginning to feel wildly optimistic. One of the starting pitchers had trouble throwing strikes in the first inning, needing 33 pitches to get through it, ...

Updating the Pinch Hit Penalty, with a Few Rules of Thumb

Pinch hitting is hard. Baseball is a rhythm game, and pinch hitters are denied any semblance of routine. They’re on the bench, swinging a bat back and forth to get the blood pumping in their arms, and then just like that, they’re in the game. They might have been daydreaming about what they plan on ordering from room service, and here’s Jacob deGrom throwing 92 mph sliders. Good luck!

That’s the classical conception of a pinch hitter, and it explains why Tom Tango, Mitchel Lichtman, and Andrew Dolphin found a significant pinch hitting penalty in The Book. They found a 24-point wOBA penalty for pinch hitters, which is a large cost. That’s roughly equivalent to the platoon advantage a lefty gets when facing a right-handed pitcher. ...Read More...

QLE Posted: April 01, 2020 at 01:27 AM | 0 comment(s)
  Beats: pinch hitting

6-man rotations? Piggybacking starters? Pitching, post virus

SEATTLE (AP) — Even with major leaguers likely to receive some semblance of another spring training to get ready, teams are going to have to be creative with how they handle starting pitchers whenever baseball returns.

The last thing anyone wants is arm problems to arise almost immediately after baseball restarts—whenever that ends up being because of coronavirus outbreak.

“Possibly having a six-man rotation or something along those lines. Maybe a piggyback situation for us just those first couple outings,” Seattle left-hander Marco Gonzales said during a conference call on Tuesday.

NCAA throws baseball coaches a curve with added eligibility

For those curious as for how the current situation is affecting the college game:

Widely hailed as the right thing to do for student-athlete welfare, the NCAA’s decision to extend spring sports athletes’ eligibility a year because of the coronavirus pandemic is causing consternation for baseball coaches.

Ohio State’s Greg Beals said Tuesday he isn’t worried about 2021, when the 35-man roster limit will be relaxed to accommodate seniors choosing to return for another season.

The problem comes in 2022, when the limit is back in force. Beals has 11 freshmen coming in this fall, and they will join nine players who will be reclassified as freshmen because the 2021 season ended abruptly March 12.

“So I have a freshman class of 20, ...

Sports Networks Should Focus on Nostalgia During This Time: TRAINA THOUGHTS

Jumping to the most relevant content:

1. Dear ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports Network, CBS Sports Network and any other sports network I may have missed: I know I’ve already provided you with a list of 10 shows/events I’d love to see you re-air, but since I have so much time on my hands these days, I have another request.

I know you are in a very tough spot right now trying to fill hours and hours of programming, and I sympathize with the fact having no live sports has left you in a difficult bind, so I’m not here to criticize. I’m here to help with some free advice.

When re-airing games, please stick to the ‘80s and ‘90s as much as possible. I’m sure this isn’t easy because of rights fees and contractual issues, but I beg you to do what ...

This Season Promised to Be Mike Trout’s Greatest. Now It May Never Come

Every baseball season at its start is a blue Tiffany box tied with white satin ribbon in the palm of your hand. Something special will be revealed, guaranteed. The mysteries are in only the particulars and magnitude of its bejeweled splendor.

We could have made one easy guess about this season. It promised to be the greatest season of the greatest player of this generation, Mike Trout.

Instead, the coronavirus pandemic has stolen the probability of such a gift—the gift of one full season of peak Trout. It is one of a million small consequences that today mean nothing against the global threat to human life. But within the baseball community it is a consequence that will have aesthetic and historical import.

Trout turns 29 on Aug. 7. ...

Today in Baseball History: The Seattle Pilots get their name

Professional football, long second or even third or fourth or fifth fiddle to baseball behind horse racing, boxing, and college football, had grown greatly popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. The 1958 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts — which ended in sudden death overtime and was subsequently dubbed The Greatest Game Ever Played — was seen as the moment when pro football took its place as the top dog in American sports. As the 1960s dawned, football was ascendent and baseball was in the process of falling off its perch as “The National Pastime.”

It would, in fact, fall off that perch and has basically remained off that perch, subordinate to the NFL in the national consciousness, in all but ...

Evan Gattis Confirms He Is “Done Playing”

Burly backstop-turned-DH Evan Gattis confirmed that his playing career is now finished in an appearance on the 755 Is Real Podcast with The Athletic’s David O’Brien and Eric O’Flaherty (audio link; profanity warning). The 33-year-old says he’s “done playing” professionally.

This news was obviously expected. Gattis did not play in 2019 after wrapping up his tenure with the Astros. Last we heard, he was not seeking playing opportunities. His productivity waned in 2018, though surely Gattis would’ve caught on somewhere had he pursued a deal.

Baseball Question of the Day: What’s your best Little League war story?

Today’s question is open-ended: what’s your best Little League war story? Or Babe Ruth or high school baseball war story. Or softball war story. Or even your best sandlot war story. Basically, I want to hear about your greatest baseball (loosely defined) triumphs and tragedies.

I played Little League and Babe Ruth baseball and, as I have said in the past, I was not very good. My enthusiasm got me through age 15 or so, but my talent was never really there. I never hit a big home run. I probably only had one or two defensive plays that were notable. My absolute highlight as far as displaying good baseball skills go was the time when my Babe Ruth team was facing a pitcher who had an unusually good-for-the-ninth-grade breaking ball. He ...

Baseball brainstorm: How MLB’s stars could play a bigger role in deciding the season

The fate of Major League Baseball’s 2020 season is up in the air as the world reels from the coronavirus pandemic. At the very least, its form will have to be altered. That is not what anyone wished for, but if public health eventually stabilizes enough to allow for sporting events, an unusual season could carry a small opportunity for America’s most tradition-bound game. A season that is already inherently different is a chance to float a trial balloon, to see how different the sport can be before we denounce it as too different.

So, we assembled the Yahoo Sports baseball staff in Slack, put the more pressing pandemic-related questions to the side for a moment, and took to the whiteboard, so to speak: What experiments could baseball ...

Major League Baseball to Pay MiLB Players Through May Amid COVID-19 Hiatus

Major League Baseball teams will continue to pay their minor league players through at least May 31 amid the suspension of play because of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, all minor league players will receive $400 per week and medical benefits as part of the plan. Per Passan, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper noted that the pay represents a raise for lower minor league players, while veterans will make less than they otherwise would have.

Minor League Baseball officially suspended its seasons March 12 following Major League Baseball’s decision to do the same.

Two weeks ago, Major League Baseball announced its intention to pay minor league players through April 8, but with no immediate end in sight to the ...

Diamondbacks’ Nick Ahmed trying to make do with baseball on hold

Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed came across a photo from a recent professional baseball game in Asia. The picture was of a runner on first base, with the first baseman and the first-base coach also in the frame. All three were wearing masks.

“I’ll be up for anything at this point just to be able to play,” Ahmed said during a Zoom conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “If they said, hey, you can start games, whenever it is, May 15 or June 1, but you have to wear masks, if that’s the only thing holding us back, then, sure, guys would do it.”

Ahmed said his life already feels strange enough with baseball shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic – and the sport is only five days delayed from last week’s ...

Astros owner Jim Crane says MLB ‘exonerated’ him in sign-stealing investigation

Astros owner Jim Crane claims MLB’s investigation into the team’s sign-stealing “explicitly exonerated” him. Crane made the claim in a legal filing in response to a lawsuit brought by former MLB pitcher Mike Bolsinger against Crane and the team. Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reports that Crane’s filing is an attempt to avoid being deposed and either dismiss the case outright or move it to Texas from California.

Per Kaplan, the relevant part of Crane’s filing reads: “I was not involved in any alleged rules violations by the Astros. Major League Baseball conducted an investigation into potential rules violations by the Astros. That report explicitly exonerated me and stated that I was unaware of and had no involvement in any rules ...

Paul Lo Duca rips Alex Rodriguez as ‘one of the fakest people out there’

It’s safe to say Paul Lo Duca is not fond of Alex Rodriguez’s rehabilitated image.

The former New York Mets catcher called A-Rod “one of the fakest people” during an interview Monday on the WFAN Sports Radio.

“People know I’m not a fan, and I’m sorry,” said Lo Duca. “Never will be a fan. I just think he’s one of the fakest people out there. ... The way he gets put on a pedestal now is beyond me.”

Lo Duca, now a horse racing analyst, blasted A-Rod when they were discussing Rodriguez’s live Instagram conversation with Mets slugger Pete Alonso over the weekend.

Mr. Lo Duca either wasn’t asked if Mr. Rodriguez’s status as a centaur changes things, or chose to ignore that question…..

  ...Read More...

A FanGraphs Update: We’re Asking for Your Help

This is not how I planned to begin FanGraphs’ 15th year.

I wanted to take a moment to personally inform all of our readers about what’s been going on at FanGraphs these past few weeks, and to share our plans going forward.

Starting March 12, after the announcement that Opening Day would be postponed, we have seen a steep decline in our site traffic that has lead to a correspondingly dramatic decline in revenue. Every piece you read and tool you use at FanGraphs is free to access, but they all take money to create. We are a small business. We rely on the revenue generated by site traffic.

....

As a result of these declines, I’ve had to make fairly aggressive budget cuts to try to keep FanGraphs viable as a company until the ...

MLB Isn’t Losing TV Revenues Yet

Underpinning the agreement between the players and owners about how to approach this season is an acknowledgement that revenues are going to be down in 2020, no matter when this season starts. To start, the season itself is in jeopardy as the country and world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. And even if games are played, there are likely to be fewer than the typical 162; some of those games might not have any fans in physical attendance at all. Baseball teams are bound to take a huge loss at the gate compared to previous years. Whether MLB and its individual teams will take similar losses with their television partners isn’t as clear.

Before getting to the television money, though, let’s do a quick hypothetical on ticket sales. ...