NOW ON TO 'THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR | Baseball Fans

Message 144 of 807

NOW ON TO "THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR

ok.. a few points of interest from my viewpoint
1)...yup the yankees are the best team this year in baseball.... their hitting , pitching, & coaching may have been suspect at times this year but... the team was a model of consistency throughout the whole season
2). for the other fans of other teams.... be happy... we have some really good and almost great teams coming along for next year.... rockies, red sox, reds, cubbies, who knows maybe even cleveland... it is one of the best things about baseball...
3) the decision for the winner of the all-star game to get homefield was huge....matsui did not play in any of the games at philly except to pinch hit... but he was the difference at home in the designated batter position
4) can we end the charade of the designated hitter... either both leagues use it or both lose it
5)... sorry but replay does need to be expanded for review of base running calls... but never for ball and strikes
6) baseball needs to put into place a better grading system of umpires... hte ones with the most seniority should not get to call the playoffs and series... these assignments should go to the umps who had the lowest % of blown calls during the regular season
7) games need to start earlier, season needs to be a whole lot shorter...get rid of the world baseball classic....get playoff games close together....it's the "october classic" not the first week of november games to remember
8) i like inter-league baseball but put the games in a rotating system... every year each division plays a different division of the other league like:
year 1...al east plays nl east
year 2.. al east plays nl central
year 3...al east plays nl west
home and home for 3 games each .. that way each fan in each city will see the other league teams once in every 3 years

ok that's it for me this year.. will be checking in from time to time to see how the discussions are going and trying to keep the bosox fans from committing suicide seeing how the yankees won it all this year....hope to see some of you during the eon's fantasy baseball season next year.... will try to be a more active person here next season... take care all can't wait for winter meetings and spring training to roll around again so we can do this all over.... have a great winter

posted by Pennsy

Oh, Pennsy, you shouldn't leave yet. Hot Stove season starts tomorrow! Only the "nouveau" Red Sox Fans are committing suicide, i.e. the ones who jumped on the bandwagon after the 2004 WS. Those of us old timers know that in game of baseball, you're only great during October. Everything starts new in February, and Hot Stove gives us a look at the future of our teams.

posted by vamunchkin
over 2 years ago

6) baseball needs to put into place a better grading system of umpires... hte ones with the most seniority should not get to call the playoffs and series... these assignments should go to the umps who had the lowest % of blown calls during the regular season

I agree but it's really difficult to figure out exactly what a "blown call" is. I'm not talking about the really obvious umpire gaffs, like Cuzzi's miscall. But a large number of calls (steals of second, for instance), are "bang-bang" calls and the umpire has to make a snap judgement, often from a less-than-optimum angle (and not always because he's out of position). And good umpires call plays at first as much from sound as from vision. (Since sound travels at a constant speed, it is often easier to tell if the ball beat the runner, or vice versa, from listenning to the play as much as observing it) On top of that, most of the replays end up confirming the umpire's decision or, in many cases, fail to offer definitive proof that the call was wrong.

But the one place where umpiring needs more regulation is the claling of balls and strikes. Here's a fabulous article about the varying nature of calling balls and strikes. Take a look at the chart in the article; tyo paraphrase the article, how do half the umpires still have jobs? (Note that we're not sure which half) The chart shows the strikeout/walk ratio of all the umpires. If the strike zone has an actual definition, while there should be some variation in the strike/walk ratio, the spread shouldn;t be anywhere near as wide as it actually is.

This is a lot more important than the odd, but more noticeable, close baserunning play because those occur sporadically throughout the game 9and sometimes not at all). Balls and strikes happen every game, every play.

This is where umpiring needs to be cleaned up first. (that and speeding up the game)

posted by RockyRoccoco
over 2 years ago

your point is valid however the public perception of what is wrong with baseball is on the basepaths...unlike refs in other sports, the umpire behind home plate is beyond reproach and his decision is THE decision.... the use of the small strike zone camera or pitch tracker could be used to re-inforce the fairness of the strike zone...say each ump gets 5 unspecified games checked when he is behind home plate to see if he is consistent with his calls and that to me is the key... consistency....a ball in the 3rd inning should be a ball in the 7th....(not like the nba)....i don't think that it matters that an umpire has a small strike zone or a large one.... all pitchers catchers, and hitters know how a certain umpire calls a game but what i notice is when a ump deviates from what he has been calling thru out the whole game.. then you get the looks from the pitcher, the mumbled comments from catchers and the "where did that call come from" from the batters and managers... i will be back later to do some more typing on the subject and no i'm not going to disappear for long stretches of time....if my reds do anything this off season it will be a miracle

posted by Pennsy
over 2 years ago

and i want to change my interleague format but will do so tonight...bye

posted by Pennsy
over 2 years ago

To start, YankeeFanatic is truly over joyed with this year's championship. Let's go for # 28 next year.

I love this time of year, the hot stove. Wondering what team's will do and who will be the teams to beat next year. I believe Matusi had a big pinich hit in Phillie also. I love the dh. I remember back to the 60's and early 70's without. Low scoring games. I love the offense. I think the umpire union is strong, so that's why we don't get the best ump's for the playoff's. You can't get rid of these old fat guys. Good luck to everyone's team this winter. I'm hoping the Yankees can get Halladay from Toronto.

posted by YankeeFanatic
over 2 years ago

even though all teams need pitching... i think yankees might want to get some players or young prospects because that team is starting to get old

posted by Pennsy
over 2 years ago

I agree the Yankees are getting old. That's why I wouldn't resign Matsui or Damon. They have some highly regarded minor leaugers. I would like them to go after Granderson and Edwin Jackson of the Tigers. Granderson would be an upgrade in CF and would hit 30 to 40 homers a year. Jackson would be good #3 or 4 starter. That would leave DH spot open to rotate Posada, Jeter, A-Rod through each day.

posted by YankeeFanatic
over 2 years ago

OK - we're floating along here, it's been 3 days, so I'll pitch something in.

Pennsy, I agree with you. The home plate ump. I think the great thing is consistency. As Ron Luciano once said, (I paraphrase) it doesn't matter how absurd your strike zone is, doesn't matter really if it even relates to the plate - as long as once you establish it you stick to it, so it's the same for everybody.

That was a problem a couple of times in this series. There were at least a couple of games where I found myself looking at called third strikes and saying: "what the hell? That pitch in that location wasn't a strike two innings ago - why is it now?" No consistency. And, if you recall, there were a couple of times - in more than one game - when pitchers would be on their way to the mound only to find that the guy behind the plate had decided it was a ball. Same thing: it was a strike last inning!

That's no good. I thought the umpires in general had horrible playoffs, and a horrible series. I mean, the guys in the field blew obvious stuff, right up to and including not knowing the rules, but it wasn't just them. The guys behind the plate weren't much better.

posted by Dagon
over 2 years ago

The home plate ump. I think the great thing is consistency. As Ron Luciano once said, (I paraphrase) it doesn't matter how absurd your strike zone is, doesn't matter really if it even relates to the plate - as long as once you establish it you stick to it, so it's the same for everybody.

I'll disagree with this, a bit. If you take a look at the link I posted uptopic, you'll see there is a(n overly) wide disparity in the strike zones of MLB umpires. While some variation is to be expected (it is human judgment, after all), the amount of variation is far more than might be expected by sheer "randomness." So wide, in fact, that one entire group of umpires (at either end of the spectrum) apparently don't have any idea of what the strike zone actually is! (Note: I'm not saying which end).

Further, why should a pitcher have to guess whether today is the day that the umpire decides that he will have a loose (or tight) strike zone? If the umpire decides that "today is the day I'll do the opposite," by the time the pitcher finds that out, he may well be on the bench, pulled for reliever after giving up six runs.

I am not suggesting that there be absolute consistancy; I don't even think it's possible. But I don't think it's asking too much for there to be greater consistancy in enforcing the strike zone.

posted by RockyRoccoco
over 2 years ago

I hate the DH, I'm a Yankee fan and I appreciate what Matsui did for us but I feel it's not real baseball. I don't like interleague play. I feel it takes away from the Fall Classic which I agree should be played in October.