The Swamp

Paging Rush...

Now I'm confused. My youth of watching Spaghetti-Os commercials led me to believe that Franco-American meant Italian-American, not French-American.

When there's a 30 MPH wind blowing out to left at the new stadium in Las Vegas (like for the home opener tonight), it's going to make for some comical final scores. New stadium is also 1,000 feet higher than Cashman and sits on the west side of town, which is a wind tunnel for most of the spring. I honestly haven't seen the dimensions, but anything less than about 350 to left field foul pole will be completely unfair to pitchers.

I was at this game yesterday. It was bananas.

Nunez's Three-Homer Game Ignites Isotopes to Historic 23-2 Win

The 8th inning grand slam by Ramos really made me happy because I wanted 20 and got 23.

7 runs in the 1st and 3rd innings was hilarious. And seeing 18 runs after the 4th made me think that Tacoma just needs to be annexed to Canada, ASAP.

Overall #1 pick in last year's MLB draft is off to a strong start this spring. Three starts without a ball landing in the outfield.

brian wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:13 pm When there's a 30 MPH wind blowing out to left at the new stadium in Las Vegas (like for the home opener tonight), it's going to make for some comical final scores. New stadium is also 1,000 feet higher than Cashman and sits on the west side of town, which is a wind tunnel for most of the spring. I honestly haven't seen the dimensions, but anything less than about 350 to left field foul pole will be completely unfair to pitchers.

Are they using a humidor? I learned from a ticket rep that they have been using the humidor here.

I mentioned this in the Kids in College threat, but I am stoked that my kid got a job at the ballpark. He basically learned to read from the scoreboard there - the first three words he could read were Ball, Strike, and Out.

Ryan wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:21 am Paging Rush...

Those are quite nice.

Will they be selling Spaghetti-Os at the concession stands?

Funny goings on in my hometown...

Oh my future hometown...

Miss Pawtucket already and white city pizza and spags are gone so doubtful

Lexington’s affiliate was on the list of 42 teams that might get cut. Bbref had a post that showed attendance and legends were highest total attendance and work out to almost 4K a game which seems about right based on my experience. So I wonder if they’d be a candidate to take cincy a AA team (Chattanooga) which was also on the list and drew less. The stadium was built to AA standards many moons ago but not sure if it still rates as such.

The pitching mound changes in the Atlantic league for the secnd half of the season intrigue me. Will try to check out a couple of games and see if the casual fan can tell a difference. Seems to me fastballs my be slightly easier to hit, but will the bigger impact be on cutters and sliders? I don't know, don't ask me.

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 1:15 pm The pitching mound changes in the Atlantic league for the secnd half of the season intrigue me. Will try to check out a couple of games and see if the casual fan can tell a difference. Seems to me fastballs my be slightly easier to hit, but will the bigger impact be on cutters and sliders? I don't know, don't ask me.

I like the Double Hook DH rule if it'll make starter go deeper. Starters can clearly go deeper, we've had to no-hitters this year already.

Imagine you're the home team and your starter is getting shelled in the 1st. Do you take him out and lose your DH even before one AB?

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 1:15 pm The pitching mound changes in the Atlantic league for the secnd half of the season intrigue me. Will try to check out a couple of games and see if the casual fan can tell a difference. Seems to me fastballs my be slightly easier to hit, but will the bigger impact be on cutters and sliders? I don't know, don't ask me.

Its going to ruin arms and fuck up hitters' timing. Just a mess of an idea.

Would moving the mound in by a foot save pitchers arms?

Yes. No one would ever get hurt again.

Yeah i don't buy it. It's not like the ball just stops and drops to the ground at 60'6".

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:16 pm Yes. No one would ever get hurt again.

The mound is way closer than that in t-ball and my kid never played baseball again after breaking his arm rounding third. Talk out of turn much?

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:21 pm Yeah i don't buy it. It's not like the ball just stops and drops to the ground at 60'6".

But the ball isn't traveling on a straight path into the glove, there's movement all over the place and they've all calibrated to a exact distance. Changing the box they're pitching into by a foot is a massive difference, especially for a pitch like a splitter to relies on later movement out of the zone.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:06 pm

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:21 pm Yeah i don't buy it. It's not like the ball just stops and drops to the ground at 60'6".

But the ball isn't traveling on a straight path into the glove, there's movement all over the place and they've all calibrated to a exact distance. Changing the box they're pitching into by a foot is a massive difference, especially for a pitch like a splitter to relies on later movement out of the zone.

I think you might be missing the point of the experiment. I think they want more hittable balls to increase contact. Of course, it can also lead to more walks/wild pitches if pitchers don't adjust.

I should add, I don't think this is coming to MLB anytime soon.

But they're experimenting on human arms without any real time to adjust.

Fair criticism to be sure.

Pitchers would adjust quickly after griping a lot. Just aim for a spot 2 inches higher. It is the best way to increase contact and make the game more fun, just rather drastic after a century plus

I have a really hard time imagining that one extra foot makes any difference whatsoever to the pitchers or their arms.

There's already enough variation in pitcher strides and motions, and they're already throwing the ball past the plate to the catcher anyway.

They will have to adjust how much spin they put on the ball, or the precise launch angle when they throw. But the adjustments will be minor and instinctive anyway.

I think the mound needs to be moved back more than one foot anyway. Pitchers are just throwing too damned fast.

Listen guys, maybe you all have four years experience* pitching in city ball and I'm unknowingly talking to peers, but you're not throwing a backdoor slider past the catcher. You throw through the first baseman or whatever, but any pitch with movement is intended to be at a certain place at a certain time and for major league pitchers, those distances have been constants since they were like 13.

* Non-consecutive, as I was pretty miserable at it and didn't even pitch my first two years after Little League

Maybe I'm completely wrong and Stephen Strasburg will be like "60.5, 61.5, 65, who gives a shit, just give me the damn baseball", but I'm expecting to hear the opposite.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:24 pmI'm expecting to hear the opposite.

Oh, I'm expecting to hear the opposite also. I can't imagine any pitcher will be in favor of a change that helps hitters.

Greg Maddux wouldn’t give a shit.

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:36 pm Greg Maddux wouldn’t give a shit.

Just pitch Alice

Home opener tomorrow for my legends. Brandon philips an ownerr and also playing. Buddy bought season tickets. It beats no baseball I guess

Extra foot doesn’t apply until later this summer though.

A_B wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 8:53 pm Home opener tomorrow for my legends. Brandon philips an ownerr and also playing. Buddy bought season tickets. It beats no baseball I guess

Extra foot doesn’t apply until later this summer though.

Home closer tonight. This will be my second game all season. Bookendin' it!

Went to the home playoff opener. The Legends have this thing where whenever the first legend of the night hits a homerun they pass around a helmet to drop Tips into to go to the player. Last night, in the bottom of the first, the leadoff hitter got on and the next guy mashed one deep to left. That player? Brandon Phillips, he of the $99.7 million in career earnings.

As an aside, Phillips had three at bats when I left and had faced three pitches. He battled through a long at-bat in the 7th, running the count to 2-0 before grounding out in in the 7th.

Did you guys push him over $100M or what?

brian wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:43 am Did you guys push him over $100M or what?

You know, it was a good crowd, but I don't think it was THAT good.

The new baseball team in Lexington is the fucking Genomes.

"replicating" probably would've been more accurate

The swamp pedants strike again!