2019 Rolling "Hey Chatter Chatter" chatterthread

er the former, sorry.

Phillies' mgr candidates:

Buck Showalter
Joe Girardi
Dusty Baker

2 lols outta 3

Phillies hire Girardi.

It's his next logical stop on Morbs' personal shitlist.

padres hire Jayce Tingler, which i'm pretty sure is a made-up name

I have a real soft spot for Girardi, it's funny he's only 55 but w/ how much the game's changed he might as well be Connie Mack

He'll be good for them

I heard the two fucking morning morons on WFAN interviewing Jon Heyman (who seems like a genius in that context), and they are livid that Girardi didn't go to the Mets. Among other things, it never occurred to them that he doesn't want any part of the Wilpons.

i forget which recent thread (hof?) had some good discussion on catching framing/metrics, including the big boost in fWAR that some players got in the process. but resuming that discussion here, i guess, i share the skepticism about the numbers, and even if they're reliable, i agree that it sucks that it's only incorporated for games back to 2007 (or whatever year it goes back to), for comparative purposes.

but i thought this was a good, simple explanation of how the numbers really can be so dramatic:

http://tangotiger.com/index.php/site/article/statcast-lab-catcher-framing-wowy-at-the-individual-game-level

i'd excerpt some of it here but there are images that are important and i'm lazy right now

Meet Mason Saunders, the secret rodeo identity of Madison Bumgarner

https://theathletic.com/1629527/2020/02/23/meet-mason-saunders-the-secret-rodeo-identity-of-madison-bumgarner/?source=shared-article

Sign-stealing, Reese McGuire--long forgotten.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-catcher-reese-mcguires-court-date-pushed-back-due-pandemic/

Not surprisingly, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame has postponed their scheduled June induction (Olerud, Ward, Morneau) and various other events until whenever.

not the first ward in the canadian hall of fame, my sources say! yes i'm procrastinating at wfh

https://www.mlb.com/news/30-stars-compete-in-mlb-the-show-players-league

the tweet version:

MLB, @MLB_PLAYERS
& Sony Interactive Entertainment have announced the creation of the MLB The Show Players League, the first-ever competitive @MLBTheShow league solely featuring Major Leaguers.

Games start tonight. More details: https://t.co/pMXYrMqTAe

Here are the 30 players: pic.twitter.com/i2ISX393s6

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) April 10, 2020

i will go ahead and predict a WS of tatis jr vs bo bichette, as they are the youngest

they have been playing a version of The Show for most of their lives, or possibly all of it

i'm told kahnle is v. good

i will go ahead and predict a WS of tatis jr vs bo bichette, as they are the youngest

― let me be your friend on the other end! (Karl Malone), Friday, April 10, 2020 10:45 AM (twenty-two minutes ago)

soto is younger than bobich

didn't see soto there!

tbh this sounds kind of fun

lol

(1/3) Odds to win MLB The Show 20 Players League (Bovada):

TB (Snell) +550
CIN (Garrett) +600
MIN (May) +600
SF (Pence) +1000
BOS (Rodriguez) +2000
CHC (Happ) +2000
HOU (McCullers Jr.) +2000
LAA (Buttrey) +2000
LAD (Lux) +2000
NYM (McNeil) +2000
NYY (Kahnle) +2000

— Odds Shark (@OddsShark) April 10, 2020

wait, so half of the guys are at +3500 - are those all the guys who have literally never played the game before? because if there's anyone like that playing in this tournament, they're going to get obliterated. the show is fucking hard

i am currently playing the 2020 season as my beloved st louis cardinals. dexter fowler is having a monster season. it's fun to make the pretend baseball men run around

playing video games the right way

kooky

https://www.amazinavenue.com/2020/4/10/21216359/mlb-realignment-2020-season-cactus-grapefruit-leagues-mets-al-nl-division

manfred is going to use this year's weirdness to justify every shitty change he wants to make in the future just by saying "fans tolerated huge changes in 2020, this is proof they'll tolerate anything"

so, joey gallo is good at the videogames. he went 4-0 last night. eduardo rodriguez, on the other hand, went 0-4 and didn't score in any of the games

i picked a random game to watch, if anyone's interested: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/588772479

that's blake snell v amir garrett

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2020/04/14/16045/heres-when-and-how-sports-leagues-are-pretending-they-will-start-up-again/

just curious - what is everyone's reaction to the whole cactus/grapefruit league, baseball in empty stadiums idea?

i would watch it for sure. but what happens when one player (or staff or coach, etc) tests positive? it seems likely to end in a bunch of build-up followed by shutting it down 3 weeks in or something

i think it's insane, for reasons mentioned by demause above, but the money being hemorrhaged demands that they throw any and all possibilities at the wall

also the idea of being the only sport playing live games is extremely enticing

I think it's a terrible idea, and one that I just can't see happening.

even if you solved the quarantine/testing part -- which is not to my knowledge actually solvable -- there are only 10 cactus league ballparks + chase field in arizona. to air live games in primetime on the east coast would mean starting games at 5-7 pm, when it's insanely fucking hot

the florida parks are more spread out, i don't think all of them are presently equipped for tv, and it rains every damn day

and despite the players very much wanting to play, i don't see that many of them wanting to either quarantine without their families for four and a half months or drag their families into a situation like that

agreed, I highly doubt anything at all is gonna happen

I think the drugs had been reported months ago; the stunt-flying is maybe new.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/us/roy-halladay-ntsb-accident-report-spt/index.html

insane that the red sox won a world series on the back of this guy and steve pearce:

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=29045398

hey it's the 13th anniversary of "here comes the pizza"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufSQMXLO95w

gotta say, this is an okay turn of events for the Astros

thank you maura I had never seen that

scouting florida in 1982

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EV5f2WlVcAMqoGQ.jpg

Damn

“Ralph” = Raffy?

Lance McCullers! There’s a name to conjure with

that would appear to be raffy -- mets took him in the eighth round but he went to mississippi state instead

top five did all go in the first round -- monteleone had a journeyman career (2.6 war over 10 seasons), boderick didn't get out of a ball, ledbetter made it to double a

2010-19 leaders, counting stats edition:

Games
Adam Jones: 1499
Nick Markakis: 1491
Elvis Andrus: 1478

Stolen Bases
Dee Gordon: 330
Rajai Davis: 322
Billy Hamilton: 299

Home Runs
Nelson Cruz: 346
Edwin Encarnacion: 335
Giancarlo Stanton: 308

RBIs
Albert Pujols: 963
Nelson Cruz: 961
Edwin Encarnacion: 956

Runs
Mike Trout: 903
Ian Kinsler: 879
Andrew McCutchen: 868

they're playing ball in taiwan. weekday games start at 6:30am eastern and there are free streams: https://indyballisland.com/2020/04/19/live-baseball-the-cpbl-is-playing

one team (rakuten) even has english commentary