MLB

Analytics baseball kind of sucks

 

Where have you gone, Suzuki Ichiro?
A weary nation turns its eyes to you
woo woo woooo

 

Move the mound back a foot

Eliminate the shift.

Quit making pitchers hit for [uck fay]s sake.

 

Quit hitting into the shift. Slap it the other way.

 

I think just saying “there must be at least two defenders on each side of second base” is fine. I don’t like what baseball is right now, but I don’t want it to devolve into 8 slap hitters and a bopper either

 

I guess my attitude is this: It would be like if the Germans just slammed into the Maginot Line and then complained that the French put all their fortifications just where they were going.

You don't need 8 slap hitters. Anyone at the major league level, seeing the shift, can just slap it to the opposite field for a free base hit, hell even a power bunt. That breaks the shift and then they can go back to doing what they always do, dead pull hitting.

 

I don’t either, but this would be better than this K/BB/HR nonsense

 

I want to think this... but if it was so easy wouldn’t the shift have been made irrelevant by now?

 

Never underestimate the ego when it comes to the king kong hitters and their swing for the fences or bust mentality. I guess that is how I see it. I just hate modifying rules because players are too stubborn or prideful to slap it the other way once a game just to break the shift.

And the love of OBP and the walk sucks nuts, as is the uppercut swing for the fences style play. But it is what it is.

Moving the mount back would just exacerbate this as well, imho.

 

I can’t stand the way pitchers are coached and managed right now

Get up in the count? Nibble nibble nibble

Oh thanks for the 6 shutout innings on 70 pitches but we can see that your numbers decline on your third trip through the lineup so let’s hand it to this two pitch guy that can consistently locate one of those two pitches. Never mind that no one is less hittable their third time through the lineup

I think there is some legitimate good that comes from an analytics approach in sports BUT it leads to overmanagement far too often.


I will say though, the rule change regarding pitchers having to throw to multiple batters, killing both the asinine concept of the LOOGy and using 3 pitchers in an inning, has been a nice change of pace

 

I guess I just don’t understand this mentality. Why, especially in professional sports, would somebody want to go to or watch a game and root for less offense?

I want hits and runs. I don’t want a bunch or slappers or bunts the opposite way.

 

Matt Carpenter is hitting about .080 despite having a really high avg contact speed because he hits right into the shift pretty much every time

 

Bring back the juice and hit the long ball.

 

Here you go dooz - MLB experimenting in the Atlantic League again.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...e-experiment-moving-back-mound-double-hook-dh

 

It’s not supposed to be easy; it’s why they get paid millions of dollars.

Shifts should be considered an advantage to the batters, considering there is an entire half of the field that is wide open. Figure out how to hit it there.

 

A shift should be a free base hit for the batter. The very definition of lots of offense. And once the shift is beaten, then the defense will stop doing it, and then regular baseball will continue.

 

I have never understood how a professional hitter isn't able to wait on a ball, get his hands in and hit it to a 50 foot wide open space where there is no defense.

 

Good luck putting a 95 mph on the inside corner to the oppo side of the field with anything but a weak grounder.

 

Then step away from the plate. They are pros and it shouldn't be a big issue

 

That are facing million dollar pitchers who are just as good at their craft as the hitter is theirs.