The MLB lockout thread

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by dallaschiefsfan

Analytics isn't the problem - but it DOES tell you the problem. Analytics have effectively told us that bad/boring baseball is what wins games.
You can only change what you have control over. And so...while DJ'sLN is generally doing good work in this thread, I'd like to disagree on the point about the fences. To me, the more controllable thing is the ball. Find the most standard, least juiced ball from the last 30 years...bring the seams back up to size and watch the cheap home runs go away.

When you take cheap home runs away, the hitter can then work towards the obvious advantage the pitchers have with the non-juiced ball and start learning other techniques for hitting besides bombs-away. Maybe even a revival of the Walt Hriniak approach to putting the ball in play. Over all, I also love the shorter base path made by the larger bases, shift-banning and finally, the institution of robo-ump behind the plate so that we can stop making the game about the pathetic low-life umps that enter god-mode and squeeze the pitchers, just because they can. Give pitchers their corners and edges and guys will start learning new ways to get the ball into play.

Again, I don't disagree that a deadened ball is an easier alternative.

But remember - I'm a benevolent God Emperor here.

The problem with just deadening the ball is that it also slows balls hit in play and on smaller fields, those still become outs. And frankly, I don't want to 'rob' hitters on hard contact. Nor do I want to do anything to make it easier for fielders - I want those guys to be badass to do the job.

So a deadened ball doesn't just stop homers, it makes hard ground balls less hard so it gives IFers another step. It takes balls that may have hit and run into a gap slow down so fielders can cut them off. It's the easy way to kill cheap power, but it's not the best way because it doesn't come with the ancillary benefits of creating more grass. More grass means wider gaps and more baserunning. It means OFers have to decide if they're going to play in on balls and risk having liners hit over them off the fence or if they're going to play back and cede those line drives that they may have had a play on.

It's just a better way of doing it. And ballparks don't sell out anymore anyway until the post-season. Nor are those premium seats anywhere but Fenway. So the owners shouldn't have a problem with it (invariably they will).

I'm not saying that un-juicing the balls doesn't have some merit. I'm just saying that it's an artificial way to get a watered-down version of the results I'm looking for.

[dallaschiefsfan]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Again, I don't disagree that a deadened ball is an easier alternative.

But remember - I'm a benevolent God Emperor here.

The problem with just deadening the ball is that it also slows balls hit in play and on smaller fields, those still become outs. And frankly, I don't want to 'rob' hitters on hard contact. Nor do I want to do anything to make it easier for fielders - I want those guys to be badass to do the job.

So a deadened ball doesn't just stop homers, it makes hard ground balls less hard so it gives IFers another step. It takes balls that may have hit and run into a gap slow down so fielders can cut them off. It's the easy way to kill cheap power, but it's not the best way because it doesn't come with the ancillary benefits of creating more grass. More grass means wider gaps and more baserunning. It means OFers have to decide if they're going to play in on balls and risk having liners hit over them off the fence or if they're going to play back and cede those line drives that they may have had a play on.

It's just a better way of doing it. And ballparks don't sell out anymore anyway until the post-season. Nor are those premium seats anywhere but Fenway. So the owners shouldn't have a problem with it (invariably they will).

I'm not saying that un-juicing the balls doesn't have some merit. I'm just saying that it's an artificial way to get a watered-down version of the results I'm looking for.

I understand what you're getting at, but taking the ball back to a prior era PLUS the banning of shifts will actually create more than an off-set effect. The guys who just hammer the ball to the pull side will have no problem with a prior ball. The light hitters will be the ones that suffer...which is parallel to your point on no cheap home runs - no cheap shots through the infield holes or into the gap. Light hitters go back to being who they are.

[MarkDavis'Haircut]

Baseball today has become a strikeout, a walk, or a home run.

I have largely shifted to watching softball because it is a swift moving game, and the ball is put in play.

[Pepe Silvia]

They should just let Gambini get the deal done at this point.

[Zap Rowsdower]

Sounds like they are getting close.

[KChiefs1]

Latest MLB proposal, per source:

Luxury-tax thresholds - $230M to $244M over course of five-year deal. (increase of $2M in final year from last offer)

Pre-arb pool: $50M (increase of $10M)

Minimum salaries, $700K to $780K. (increase of $10K in final year)

3 p.m. “deadline.”

CBT thresholds remain an issue, as they always have been, but gap has narrowed. MLBPA last known: $232m-$250m. MLB $230m-$242m (and could change today). On accounting: does new prearb pool $ count? MLB wants player stipends for ASG, Derby, special events (int’l play) to count too


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[KChiefs1]

Team votes are coming on now (delivered by player reps) and so far they are in favor. So far players are going against the executive council.


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[KChiefs1]

BREAKING: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor deal, sources tell ESPN. While it still needs to be ratified by both parties, that is expected to be a formality, and when it is:

Baseball is back.

Players vote is 26-12 in favor. Baseball will be back!

Union executive board vote was 8-0 against the MLB proposal but teams voted 26-4 in favor of it, carrying the day, Unusual that the general player population goes so far against player leadership.


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[ChiefsCountry]

Thanks for missing two weeks of games Scott Boras you ****ing ass.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Thanks for missing two weeks of games Scott Boras you ****ing ass.

And for what? What was gained causing the missed games?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

And for what? What was gained causing the missed games?

Seemingly not a goddamn thing.

I guess they probably kept the shift ban in there somewhere and the universal DH that could've actually been GOOD for the sport if properly implemented and instead it's just going to be one more place to stick a big lumbering dickhead who can't run, won't field and swings really hard in the hopes he makes contact.

[MarkDavis'Haircut]

Hope the MLB didn't capitulate to the awful MLBPA.

[dlphg9]

Hopefully we get a international draft done, but with how the PA has been I really doubt it.

I'll be interested to see what exactly they did for service time manipulation. I'm hoping not much, because it's just something that screws the small markets.

[KChiefs1]

With the lockout over, the rush to sign free agents is on.

The coming days should be, in the words of one executive, “bedlam.” With that in mind, we canvassed our beat writers to see where the best players still on the market will go.

Who will land Freddie Freeman?


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[TribalElder]

Will local baseball be on the local over the air channels? nope