2021 MLB Regular Season Thread

[tennbengal]

does. not. get. cheated.

clearly living his best life.

[EdRomero]

Reminds me of Tony Pena swinging so hard and falling. He was such a fun player to watch.

[HaulCitgo]

Why would anyone do that. He actually used to swing like a guy that wants to hit the ball.

https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2021/ ... r-leaguer/

Really wonder if this is the right path. You do still have to hit the ball right?

And Tony pena was one of everyone's favorites and a master behind the plate but definitely hit like a guy that swung too hard.

[tennbengal]

Why would anyone do that. He actually used to swing like a guy that wants to hit the ball.

https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2021/ ... r-leaguer/

Really wonder if this is the right path. You do still have to hit the ball right?

And Tony pena was one of everyone's favorites and a master behind the plate but definitely hit like a guy that swung too hard.

I don't even care. I have no idea if he's a prospect (probably not). But he's resplendent, with the hair, and the I don't give a fuck cut. It all rules.

[mister d]

Are there other videos of his swing? Because its really not all that bad (or different than a max guy like Pedroia was) except for the ending where he's completely off-balance, probably because he was late.

[mister d]

And Tony pena was one of everyone's favorites and a master behind the plate but definitely hit like a guy that swung too hard.

If you ever want to get annoyed, check out some of the career WARs for catchers over the past 40-50 years. Its clear there's a flaw (or advancement) in defensive metrics that skews in favor of modern players but there's no correction.

[HaulCitgo]

Too much front leg for me. Couldn't he have made all the other swing changes without a leg pump and giant step forward? Seems like hell always be late or early or fooled. How do you adjust that?

[mister d]

If you pause the video at 0:13 he's actually really well balanced, there's just a lot going on before and after. Maybe he's just one of those guys who needs to have movement to be comfortable and get his timing?

[mister d]

I just watched the drive-line video ... the original is pretty ugly, no?

[HaulCitgo]

Definitely. That's why I wonder why they didn't stop at basics. I'd rather a great fundamental swing base to work from for 5-10 years than something that lets me hit bombs but needs to be revamped again later.

[mister d]

Maybe he needed the tear down and excess shit to stop that drift? That's a super tough bad habit to break.

[HaulCitgo]

You've got to find your own way but adding stuff to solve one problem just creates new ones. That looks like a quest for power and bat speed but at what cost. Like throwing 97 but missing all the time. I'm sure there's tons of pressure on the guy to get noticed and it worked but you still have to produce. Type of stuff looks good against a machine.

[mister d]

Ehhh ... what about Sosa? There's a ton of excess movement with the step back and everything but it got him where he needed to be when the ball was in the zone. Same with Davis and his low/moving hands to slow the bat down. Sometimes your brain has to stop your body from doing what its always done.

[HaulCitgo]

Muscle memory or no, still get it right. Not rigged up. That kick and finish way too extreme to be a fix for anything.

[tennbengal]

[mister d]

Yankees are now really at seven positives, all reportedly vaccinated, which is both "HOLY SHIT" and also probably about right for a group of 50(?) people getting J&J and being in daily contact with each other and the general public?

[Rex]

7 positives is pretty close to 1 percent of all new cases in a day in New York City right now, assuming that they picked it up there and not Tampa. Pretty odd.

[mister d]

Recorded positives. If J&J is 70% effective and those that do contract are almost 100% asymptomatic, people are getting it and not testing positive with decent frequency, right?

[Rex]

Maybe. It’s an interesting case study for what outbreaks might look like for vaccinated people. Did the Yankees bring someone in to administer to everyone or did they visit a mass vaccination site? If it’s J&J, I assume the former. Might be a bad batch or improperly administered or something like that.

Or more likely, Hal ordered the placebo.

[mister d]

It was a mass J&J in the beginning of April.

[HaulCitgo]

I have a new favorite minor league player to root for...

Speaking of pena, this catcher got the one leg out stance too.

[sancarlos]

Back in his heyday, Canseco had pine tar stains on the back of his uniforms from his swing’s follow-through.

Gary Sheffield was also fun to watch, with his really big swings.

[A_B]

Glenn Braggs would like a word.

[Giff]

Can someone let me know which team leads MLB in OPS? TIA!

[mister d]

Outloud Pail Slammin'.

[Giff]

Thanks for making me laugh while on video on a Teams meeting.

[mister d]

MLB Hits per Strikeout
2012: 1.15
2013: 1.15
2014: 1.11
2015: 1.12
2016: 1.08
2017: 1.05
2018: 1.00
2019: 0.98
2020: 0.93
2021: 0.86

[EnochRoot]

MLB Hits per Strikeout
2012: 1.15
2013: 1.15
2014: 1.11
2015: 1.12
2016: 1.08
2017: 1.05
2018: 1.00
2019: 0.98
2020: 0.93
2021: 0.86

This is why I groaned when someone wanted to give Cashman all the credit in the world for building such a seemingly dominant pitching staff. Um…there’s something else bigger going on here.

[mister d]

The only fix I see working is banning the shift. The launch angle focus won't go away, but knowing you can get a hit on a ball in play will help reduce the extremes. Here's two more data points ...

BABIP
2012: .297
2013: .297
2014: .299
2015: .299
2016: .300
2017: .300
2018: .296
2019: .298
2020: .292
2021: .286

GB%
2012: 45.1%
2013: 44.5%
2014: 44.8%
2015: 45.3%
2016: 44.7%
2017: 44.2%
2018: 43.2%
2019: 42.9%
2020: 42.7%
2021: 43.7%

[mister d]

And that BABIP is worse than it looks since its only actual balls in play, which are also down due to strikeouts being up. MLB batting average is at .234 versus .255 in 2012.

[A_B]

But Mike Trout's launch angle is lower that it's ever been and he's mashing! So it seems like the fix to me is obviously for every player to be the best player in the game.

[L-Jam3]

Could adding a tiny bit of weight to the ball have some positive effect? MLB balls need to weigh between 5 and 5 1/4 ounces. Even if it's just a quarter of an ounce, simple physics would mean the higher weight would mean fastball velocity would have to go down, as well as the flight of fly balls would be reduced.

[Ryan]

Can we get BABIP per batted ball type?

[EnochRoot]

They can tweak the weight of the ball or even go to the extremes of lengthening the distance from the rubber to homeplate.

The only fix I see working is banning the shift. The launch angle focus won't go away, but knowing you can get a hit on a ball in play will help reduce the extremes. Here's two more data points ...

BABIP
2012: .297
2013: .297
2014: .299
2015: .299
2016: .300
2017: .300
2018: .296
2019: .298
2020: .292
2021: .286

GB%
2012: 45.1%
2013: 44.5%
2014: 44.8%
2015: 45.3%
2016: 44.7%
2017: 44.2%
2018: 43.2%
2019: 42.9%
2020: 42.7%
2021: 43.7%

But, I’ve been a fan of banning the shift for the past few years. Well-placed shortstops in shallow right just do not make for exciting baseball.

[mister d]

Same here, man. Same here.

[mister d]

Can we get BABIP per batted ball type?

You have a subscription to B-Ref, right? They do data by Hit Trajectory which can be used to back into BABIP.

[Ryan]

Can we get BABIP per batted ball type?

You have a subscription to B-Ref, right? They do data by Hit Trajectory which can be used to back into BABIP.

GB BA FB BA
2001 0.176 0.125
2006 0.240 0.229
2011 0.237 0.218
2016 0.246 0.174
2021 0.226 0.219


What the hell, 2001?

[L-Jam3]

Did you forget to carry the one there, Turd?

[DSafetyGuy]

Dodgers sign Pujols.

[A_B]

Dodgers sign Pujols.

Weird