Tag: Rob Manfred

The sorry state of baseball today

Ever since I started following baseball almost 65 years ago, I have been led to believe that you need to have great starting pitching to win it all. Is it true or is this been a falsity all along? I have been fortunate to watch some great starting pitching over the years and I still wish I could have seen the great Walter Johnson pitch in person but those kinds of starters are disappearing. Ace starters are getting paid big bucks but at the same time they are quickly becoming as extinct as dinosaurs.

Here is my problem. Baseball pitching today is about throwing less than 100 pitches, don’t face the line-up a third time around, openers, and bullpen games and God knows what else they will dream up. You pay the starters huge dollars and then you don’t let them pitch. Aren’t starter’s supposed to be your best pitchers? Starters have been throwing over 100 pitches and going through the opposing lineup multiple times in games since baseball started and now all of a sudden that is not a good idea?

Continue reading The sorry state of baseball today

Are Rob Manfred and MLB serious?

It appears that yesterday MLB released another trial balloon offering to play the players their pro-rated pay in 2020 but the season would be only 50 game long. Is this some kind of a stupid and sick joke?

I have stated in the past that baseball is like a marathon and not a sprint. I find it ironic that a game with no clock tests teams in every way possible during its 162 game schedule but time is the final true test in determining the champion. Teams having winning streaks, teams go through pitching and hitting slumps, teams suffer long losing streaks, players get injured and players no one has heard of sometimes unexpectedly rise from the minors to help carry their team to victory. This is what makes baseball such an interesting game.

Now MLB is proposing a 50 game season? What a joke. I know that I miss baseball as do all baseball fans everywhere but who in the heck wants to see a 50 game season? I know I don’t, and I have little to no interest in following baseball and my favorite team, the Minnesota Twins in 2020 if that they don’t play a minimum of 100 games. A 50 game MLB season would be a sham and Rob Manfred and his cohorts should be embarrassed to even throw out a proposal like this.

As for the players side of this, if the players accept this proposal and are willing to play this short schedule and risk their health for this proposal, you are not as smart as I thought.

MLB could become America’s pastime again if they …

The 2019 Forbes MLB team valuations are out and as always they are an interesting read. The average operating income for a MLB team in 2014 was $21 million and just four years later in 2018 it was $39.7 million per team. Every single MLB team is worth at least $1 billion.

Baseball Team Values 2019_ Yankees Lead League At $4.6 Billion

As much as I disagree that MLB players are overpaid, it seems that there is plenty of money to go around for ownership and the players. The only part of baseball that seems to get the short-end of the stick is the fans, who are forced to pay higher and higher prices every year for tickets and concessions.

Continue reading MLB could become America’s pastime again if they …

Keep the “shift” in baseball and quit crying about it

(Original Caption) This photo diagram shows the positions of the Cleveland infield and outfield in the so-called “Cleveland Shift” defense against terrible hitting of Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox during the game in Boston. This photo was made after Williams had found a chink in the defense and slapped one to the left for a single. Left fielder case of the Indians recovered the ball to hold Williams on first. The Indians won the game 6-3.

I am not a huge fan of the shift in baseball but now that it is here and used as often as it is, MLB should keep its hands off of it. I know there a lot of players that don’t like it and there are rumors floating around that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred would like to see it be eliminated. I have no idea if this rumor is real or just fake news but I think baseball should just let it be.

As a long time fan I think it is odd to see the team in the field set up so different then I have normally seen baseball played but we all need to be willing to see our game change. Some changes are for the better and maybe some are not but that is how life goes.

The pitching mound was lowered in the past and the strike zone has been adjusted several times. Players in the field used bigger and better gloves now then they had in the past.

The bottom line in a baseball game is that you need to score more runs than the other team to win the game. The players in the field should be allowed to line up any way they want to best get the batter out. 

Hitters need to adjust and learn how to counteract the different shifts. MLB players are professionals, they need to quit crying and start learning how to hit the ball the other way or maybe just bunt now and then. Baseball is not just about hitting the ball over the fence. What happened to “there is no crying in baseball”?

Why Baseball Revived A 60-Year-Old Strategy Designed To Stop Ted Williams