2018 regular-season game chatter

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Joey Gallo grounded out to the Houston Astros Right Side Monster. pic.twitter.com/x8u3heRUtj

— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) May 12, 2018

i know i sound like a stodgy ol' broadcaster but...is there any possible way to hit it to the left side? i know hitting to the opposite field is harder than it looks (i have a hard time doing it even when i'm playing softball) but even a really weak swing or a strong bunt toward 3rd could be a double

yeah I'd try a swinging bunt/baltimore chop but that just flies in the face of the anti-launch angle trend-metric zeitgeist we live in.

anti-

baseball fans who boo pitchers who throw over to first drive me insane. if i were a professional pitcher i would quickly face a class action lawsuit because someone would boo a throw over to first and i'd lose my shit and throw the ball as fast as possible into the crowd and ask them if they could at least understand that, and knowing my luck i'd probably hit some children. it turns me into rob dibble. just stfu baseball fans, you goddamn idiots

imagine booing every field goal attempt of the opposing football team

imagine joey votto as a pitcher being booed for throwing to first

I keep thinking that it would motivate pitcher to throw to first again.

I always think the crowd is booing the pace of play slowdown, and I do agree with them there.

new pace of play initiative: no more throwing over to first, or any base. once you're on base, you just run around the bases carefree

It’s not a slowdown, its baseball.

baseball fans who boo pitchers who throw over to first drive me insane. if i were a professional pitcher i would quickly face a class action lawsuit because someone would boo a throw over to first and i'd lose my shit

Ha I agree it's stupid but this sounds like a sound argument for for doing it, if indeed there's even an infinitesimal chance it somehow rattles the pitcher

reds' first four-game sweep in LA since 1976

Freddy Peralta 5th pitcher all time to strikeout 13 in his major league debut (last one was Strasburg, of course)

probably the only one to do it in a spot start though

I slightly complained about them last week (over Molina's legacy) but really I don't mind the sunday night baseball broadcast team, Mendoza is terrific of course and I like when Rodriguez discusses hitting.

pretty good braves / cubs game going right now

joey bats!

4th lead change of the game

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon is open to trying anything that will heal a cut on his middle finger and keep him on the mound, including urinating on it.

Taillon told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he's received that suggestion as a possible remedy.

"I said if it helps, I'll put a sign-up sheet and everyone can come and pee," he told the newspaper.

"I don't care. I just want (the cut) to go away."

kole calhoun is slashing 158/.187/.195

he has 21 hits, 5 walks, 37 strikeouts

he hit a triple and homer on opening day & HASNT HAD AN XBH SINCE

More like Cold Calhoun.

bah-dum tssshh**

his wRC+ is......2

NL is 36-18 in interleague play so far

jays and cards poised to add one to each side

#Rays news: Sergio Romo to start Saturday, part of another new pitching idea to play matchups in first inning, get Yarbrough deeper. https://t.co/KfWIFOFJzz

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) May 18, 2018

ts: canny managing move vs. attempt to fuck with 'starters' stats in arbitration

if i could be baseball god for a day, i'd change the entire arbitration process

moron with the glove touched a live ball that was headed for the corner and cost the home team a run. his girlfriend/wife/a total stranger is absolutely unloading on him pic.twitter.com/PO9KiSbpiD

— Productive Outs (@ProductiveOuts) May 19, 2018

gf/wife/total stranger otm

The expression on the kids face with the hat and the guy in the blue shirt next to him makes the shot.

when you bring a glove and sit in the first row, you have to approach every at-bat like a fielder -- given the opportunity, do i want to create a ground-rule double? or take away a flyout, or a home run?

has bartman taught us nothing

braves released bautista, maybe the end of his career?

Wow, I'd hoped for that but wasn't sure they'd do it so quickly. He stunk it up pretty bad.

where does jason heyward rank on the albatross contracts list? crazy that this guy is now an unquestionably bad player

i'm not sure, but he's gotta be up there. baseball is really, really weird

Jordan Hicks just hit 105 mph

somehow his K/9 is 3.48

everyone thinks the Rays are blazing some new trail but the Orioles have been using one-inning starting pitchers for years

— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) May 21, 2018

haha

poor qualx

what trout and betts are doing right now is pretty insane. and then there's ohtani! very cool season so far

don't forget your NL-leading Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Barves, just like you predicted

and the Rockies can take the lead tonight.

~105 mph is apparently the limit for pitchers?

Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks became the second pitcher ever (after Aroldis Chapman) to hit the 105mph mark, tossing two fastballs at that epic speed during an appearance against the Phillies on Sunday. As The Athletic’s Mark Saxon writes in a subscription-only piece, Hicks’ feat may represent the virtual limit of how fast a human arm can throw a baseball. “The maximum can’t go up, because the ligaments can’t take it,” said Dr. Glenn Fleisig, research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute. “We’re at the limit, based upon what ligaments and tendons can take….What’s happening is more teams have more guys near the top of the limit, but the limit is just going up nominally. It really can’t go up. Maybe at the top it will go up one mph or so, but never will it be 10 mph faster. It’s just more crowded near the top now.”

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/05/quick-hits-hicks-swihart-reyes-nolasco.html

idk seems like only a matter of time before pitchers just start getting doctors to weave horse ligaments into their elbows so they can throw 150

for real though, if humanity survives for another few decades, at some point baseball will have to figure out how to deal with prosthetic limbs that are more powerful than human arms, cyborgs, and probably a million different PEDs. after seeing how much they've struggled to deal with pace of play and the endless agonizing of certain broadcasters about the issue, i'm assuming this will be living hell

if someone lost their arm, today, and then got a powerful prosthetic arm that could throw 120 mph with perfectly reproducible mechanics as a replacement, what would Keith Hernandez say? this one's all up to keith

keith would definitely mention how hard j.r. richard used to throw; not sure about the rest

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-impact-of-the-nfls-anthem-rule-on-baseball/

hanley is DFA'd

Very abrupt. I go by the building-sized billboard of Hanley that’s 1 block from Fenway at least twice a week

i guess a lot of it had to do with his 2019 option for $22 million, which was going to vest if he hits 497 PAs this year (all of which makes it unlikely that any other team will want to trade for him)