then coronavirus happened, 2020 baseball

i think it's better just to look at their stats in high leverage situations and then consider the rest of the context manually

I interpreted it as Edmonds was a slightly worse (-2 uh... % or some fraction of their index) clutch/high-leverage performer than in his context-neutral ABs...

right, but by itself, that doesn't tell you anything about how good the context-neutral ABs are. it just tells you that he was pretty much just as good in high-leverage as other situations. tony gwynn is the all-time leader in Clutch; he had 12 seasons of positive clutch, 8 of negative. daniel descalso is the #6 Clutch hitter of all time

er...i'm not making any sense, and i understand that you get it, sorry!

clutch/high-leverage seems like a baloney stat in the first place though

but not for the reasons that jim edmonds asserted this evening, lol

Opening day starter Jack Flaherty is scheduled to have his 2nd start tomorrow, 26 days later due to scheduling postponements.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, August 18, 2020 9:50 PM (yesterday)

1.2 IP, 40 pitches... just... lol, did he get hurt? are they babying because of his lack of workload? What a weird season.

also MLB debut tonight for barves 21yo cristian pache: adequate hitter, supposed to be an absolutely incredible andruw-level outfielder

i swear to god the problems with baseball would all be solved by

1) reducing time between innings i.e. fewer commercials

2) pushing all the fences back 100 feet

the first is politically impossible, the second physically impossible. though i do see this proposal written up: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/12200989/new-mlb-proposal-shorten-breaks-innings

did that ever happen?

they just need to put in the damn pitch clock. they've been using it in every minor-league game for like 5 or 6 years now, it works great

yes that too! okay 3. three things.

you know what i would like to see, as an all-star game style novelty event? Pitcher Showdowns. i'm directly ripping this off from the video game MLB The Show 2020, btw.

it works like this. it's just one elite pitcher (let's say gerrit cole) vs the batters of another team. there are no innings. instead, the batters try to score a certain number of runs (say, 3) before making 15 outs. it's very simple but it's actually pretty intense! a pitcher can go on a strong run and just mow through the outs without letting anyone on base, and it's a cool way to give attention to certain pitchers. but when the target number of runs is only 3, you're always a couple baserunners and a home run away from winning, so it remains compelling all the way to the end, even when the pitcher dominates.

also creates lol situations like there runners on 2nd and 3rd for 9 outs in a row, just stranded by poor hitting

typos galore. anyway, know what game i want to play right now? mlb the show 2020

you have just described cricket.

one 'inning' = getting every opposing batter out.

and the batter keeps batting until you get him out. you'll have dudes knock in like 30 runs before they get sat down. (the balance between offense and defense is.... a bit fucked)

johan oviedo starts game 2 of the cards/cubs double-header, making his debut. he will be the 11th cardinal player to make their debut since they started playing again

Longtime Cincinnati Reds announcer Thom Brennaman was caught on a hot mic saying “one of the fag capitals of the world.” He is currently announcing the second game of the Reds’ doubleheader against Kansas City. pic.twitter.com/Uwz07eRIKv

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 20, 2020

eww, wtf

that's a strike against the production crew, too. there are a bunch of people who can hear them when they talk between innings (the director, the producer, the audio team, etc). they must all be cool with it, or at least not be willing to say anything.

Schott Award 2020

He was referring to Kansas City?

What a shitheel, insane that it's all unfolding live on air. He apologized and handed his headset over to another broadcaster.

"I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith. I don't know if I'm going to be putting on this headset again. I am very, very sorry. I beg for your forgiveness."

not actually smarter than marty, then

there's a particular vitriol in his voice when he says it, in the clip, that is really ugly

"I am very, very sorry [to have been caught]."

even hawk never did that, and this guy's been doing national tv for 30 years

ive been to KC, and no, he mustve been talkin bout Akron

“man of faith”, fuck you

not you, morbs, brennaman

him calling a home run while in the middle of his apology was amazing.

Karl: maybe the production guys hate his guts and did this intentionally. i'm sure there's not a lot you can do beyond that when you're some lowly sound board operator vs a well known tv personality.

My first reaction was, well, Brennaman is 150 years old. Then I realized i was thinking of Marty.

xp -- yeah, A Face in the Crowd and "who's playing Patricia Neal in this story?" is the first thing I thought of.

Kyle Tucker's last 5 ABs*: Triple, Triple, Single, HR, Triple

*in Denver, but still...

One player and one staff member of the New York Mets have tested positive for COVID-19, a source tells ESPN..

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 20, 2020

:(

get the fuck out of here thom

I find this...implausible in the extreme...https://t.co/vFZbgPuOsG pic.twitter.com/aR7kzfz3oI

— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) August 20, 2020

wow, that is a bold lie

I always figured Thom would be a jerk. Marty might be smart enough to leave this one like and seethe in private, but then again... WLW radio (Reds homebase) and Cincy always seems to have a streak of angry, cynical and mean politics wound in it. That whole culture seems to be all about finger pointing and talk sxxt once someones back is turned.

Got to wonder if someone on the staff had gotten sick of some of Thom's BS and left a mike open so it could get picked up.

Scary moment in last night’s A’s game. You never want to see a fan get hurt and I really hope he’s ok 🙏 pic.twitter.com/KFbmwbSKau

— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) August 21, 2020

entire NYM-NYY series postponed

that’s ok we’re out of players anyway

Cleveland looks downright scary in a short series... currently 20-1 odds to win WS.

In Milwaukee, 45 minutes from Kenosha, Brewers pitcher Devin Williams @DTrainn_23 just scratched BLM into the pitcher's mound and then struck out the Reds in order. Powerful stuff. @Jomboy_ pic.twitter.com/khsHqutwbM

— Tony Imbimbo (@CTonyI) August 25, 2020

well here we are at the halfway mark and haha it feels like the season just started amirite!

fangraphs has seven AL teams at over 95% to make the playoffs; toronto is the eighth at 62%. poor mike trout

NL is more wide open, with dodgers/cubs/padres/braves over 90%. everyone else except the pirates has at least a 23% shot

Clevinger will start tomorrow

maybe the most heads up play I've ever seen

meant to paste this lol

Did...did Kole Calhoun just intentionally use his head to block a throw??? pic.twitter.com/H0bWoafUUF

— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) August 25, 2020

socrates brito's brother has died from covid