Random Baseball News/Discussion: Heading into the 2020s

by **swishnicholson** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 12:19:31

46 years ago today:

by **Rockinghorse** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 12:28:23

Those Asian baseball leagues will provide plenty of jokes in the next few weeks, but man they have HUGE implications for American sports in 2020-21. Really need them to get up and running, hopefully make it through a season without having to shut down again. Test run for our medical community in terms of what to do when a COVID case pops up, which it surely will.

by **BigEd76** » Thu Apr 09, 2020 18:10:15

Mark Reynolds announced his retirement

by **ReadingPhilly** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:33:42

nightengale said there has been talk of realigning for this season based on spring training location.

GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE

NORTH: New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates.
SOUTH: Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles.
EAST: Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins.

CACTUS LEAGUE

NORTHEAST: Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Oakland A’s.
WEST: Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels.
NORTHWEST: Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals.

by **lowcountry** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:39:32

Sign me up for the Cactus/Grapefruit plan.

And Grapefruit South would be Division of Death.

by **MoBettle** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:46:31

Yankees could win 115 in that division.

by **Rockinghorse** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:53:47

Wonder why everyone is hellbent on spring training sites. The heat in Arizona (plus dust storms!) and the heat/rain/lightning in Florida would cancel tons of games. Play in your home facility where you can pay your home employees!

by **MoBettle** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 11:11:21

Plan is to use the 3 domed major league stadiums too

Article: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/m ... 128935002/

by **Slowhand** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 18:20:52

Josh Hamilton indicted on felony charge of injury to a child

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Former Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton has been indicted on a felony charge of injury to a child after his teenage daughter accused him of beating her.

A Tarrant County grand jury indicted the 38-year-old Hamilton on Monday. He remains free on $30,000 bond after he turned himself in to authorities on Oct. 30. If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of two to 10 years.

by **azrider** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 19:02:42

Rockinghorse wrote:Wonder why everyone is hellbent on spring training sites. The heat in Arizona (plus dust storms!) and the heat/rain/lightning in Florida would cancel tons of games. Play in your home facility where you can pay your home employees!

Dust storms?

This is might be the best idea. Everything is already set up for the teams and the infrastructure is in place while limiting travel. The cost to play in empty mlb stadium vs. minor league park.... huge.

But if you’re able to play 3 games a day in those stadiums, different story of course.

Website · by **Wolfgang622** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 20:00:31

swishnicholson wrote:46 years ago today:

Still think he is somehow an underrated player, for as great as everyone knows he was.

by **stevelxa476** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 21:49:12

He was the most consistently great player for the longest stretch of seasons of anyone in history.

by **Swiggers** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 22:01:35

stevelxa476 wrote:He was the most consistently great player for the longest stretch of seasons of anyone in history.

He never hit more than 44 HR in one season, but he was always in the high 30s/low 40s. Amazingly consistent.

by **Uncle Milty** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 22:11:58

Accumulator who got a young start.

by **Shore** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 22:25:24

Swiggers wrote:
stevelxa476 wrote:He was the most consistently great player for the longest stretch of seasons of anyone in history.

He never hit more than 44 HR in one season, but he was always in the high 30s/low 40s. Amazingly consistent.

I think he exceeded that twice

by **Slowhand** » Fri Apr 10, 2020 22:29:52

Swiggers wrote:He never hit more than 44 HR in one season

LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE. He hit 45 in 1962 and 47 in 1971.

Playing his entire career in Milwaukee and Atlanta in his era he may as well have been playing in Japan. Combine that with the fact that he was quiet, reserved, and not very flashy and it's easy to underrate him.

by **swishnicholson** » Sat Apr 11, 2020 01:41:47

Slowhand wrote:
Swiggers wrote:He never hit more than 44 HR in one season

LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE. He hit 45 in 1962 and 47 in 1971.

Playing his entire career in Milwaukee and Atlanta in his era he may as well have been playing in Japan. Combine that with the fact that he was quiet, reserved, and not very flashy and it's easy to underrate him.

yeah, definitely. Overshadowed by Mays and Mantle, who were obviously great players, but also had that NY cachet. And, course they played in the world series more, when that was all there was. It wasn't really until they faded away that people started to realize what they had.

Hank did get to play in the first NLCS, when they got swept by the Mets in three games. Not his fault, though: OPS of 1.500 with 3 HRs and 7 runs batted in.

by **Titlehungry** » Sat Apr 11, 2020 14:36:58

The Orioles might win 30 games with that realignment haha

by **Slowhand** » Sat Apr 11, 2020 15:42:46

One of my favorite things to do when I’m bored is to go to Baseball Reference and click on one of the random players they have pictured on their front page of guys I’ve never heard of. Usually this is most fun for the real old timers, like guys who played in the 1800s. Even if their playing career was not noteworthy one way or the other, you usually find something interesting about their personal life when you read their wiki page. People lived more eventful lives in many ways back then.

But today was a modern era player, Frank Taveras, who played from 1971 - 1982. He had a whopping two career home runs in 4043 career at bats. BUT, it gets even better. Reading his wikipedia page, his first home run was actually an inside the park home run. So in 4043 at bats, he only hit one ball the went over the fence, and it came on his 2942nd at bat.

This got me wondering if he was possibly the worst home run hitter of all time when you exclude inside the park homers, so I spent some time trying to find that answer. I think it’s Tommy Thevenow, who in 4164 career at bats had no home runs that went over the fence, but did have two inside the park homers, and holds the major league record of 3,347 consecutive at bats without a home run when you include the inside the park homers.

Seems Taveras' strength was mostly his speed. He averaged 42 stolen bases per season, and led the league with 70 in 1977. He also got caught stealing a bunch, and his defense at SS is described, at best, as erratic.

by **Uncle Milty** » Sat Apr 11, 2020 16:22:45

We've learned a lot about stolen base value but I sure do miss the running game as a viewer.

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