Monday, February 27, 2023

Pitchers pitch and batters bat.

It's "the unknown," like that Matthew McConaughey movie where he went into a black hole and found a man-made tesseract which he used to communicate to his daughter back in time but the robot didn't survive the trip into the black hold and then his daughter solved time travel and saved humanity.

"Yet preparing hitters for this change is tricky. They’re used to being able to call time whenever they desired. A particularly stressful plate appearance might have previously entailed stepping out of the box several times. Adjusting their uniform. Taking a few deep breaths. Undoing and redoing the Velcro on their batting gloves. Maybe repeating all of the above."

When you write it down that way, it sure sounds exciting.

 

"Which, of course, is exactly why this rule was put in place: MLB wanted to cut out as much of that dead time as it could. But it means there’s a lot for batters to change—as much psychological as physical."

Get over it.

 

"And given the reactive nature of hitting, it’s more difficult for hitters to know how the clock will feel than it is for pitchers, who have been practicing with the timer all spring. Of course, there’s no replicating the environment of pitching in a real game, with all the attendant stressors that might cause someone to need more time. They can’t simulate a real game even with a sim game—and certainly not with a bullpen or live BP. By using the timer in all of those contexts, however, pitchers can still get a feel for how their delivery works (or not) against the clock."

It all sounds so very stressful. My advice is shut up and hit.


"For hitters … it’s tricky. They can’t set the pace of any given plate appearance the way a pitcher can. While a pitcher can work quickly or slowly, a hitter can only slow him down, and now, he won’t even be able to do that. That’s a hard dynamic to practice. Of course, hitters can use the timer in live BP, too. (Many teams are.) But most hitters already know they can take swings without stepping out of the box in BP. It’s specifically the context of hitting in a faster game situation that feels tricky—and that can’t truly be replicated in any practice or drill."

None of this sounds tricky.

Whatever your job is, anywhere in the world, I can almost guarantee you are faced with trickier challenges on a daily basis. In all likelihood, you've climbed the learning curve and have figured it out by now, but that's my point. Five or six at-bats to figure it out, tops.

Heck, I think a lot of retired people are facing trickier decisions this Monday morning.

The easiest task I can imagine in a workplace is, if I was a batter in a baseball game, standing in the batter's box. They even outline it with chalk.




Saturday, February 25, 2023

Still a lot of discussion about a very bad baseball player.

“The Minnesota market is different than the New York market. The Texas market is different than the New York market. I always just wanted to play baseball, have fun, hang out with the boys. That’s my goal, just to play baseball and win games. I don’t really like it being more than that. I guess this is more my vibe, you know what I mean?”

I remember last year when Gallo said the same thing about the Dodgers. Had an early two-HR game, or whatever. Then he hit .159 with the Dodgers.

More from the referenced article about Gallo:

"I took pride in the fact that I still played. I was still diving for the Yankees, running into walls for the Yankees, running hard for the Yankees. I knew I was getting traded. But I still had the pride, the integrity for the game, the respect for the fans, respect for the organization. I’m still going to go out here and bust my ass. I’m not going to just cash it in."

I mean, I guess it's accurate. I don't recall any behavior that qualified as quitting. He was the worst player I've ever seen intentionally given a starting role on a team for an extended period of team. I also think when one examines his career, there's no reason to think he's going to rebound in Minnesota. But if he wants to pat himself on the back for not literally quitting, I guess that's better than nothing.

 

 



Friday, February 24, 2023

Tom Verducci has nothing to do.

I'd say Judge's breakout season was 2017 and I don't think he will ever have a better season than he had in 2022. It's a very high benchmark.

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Baseball players are graded on a curve.

IKF was not great in 2022. I would say he was a disappointment in the field. A slick-fielding shortstop who hits .260 with 20 stolen bases, 66 runs, and 48 RBI is not bad at all. He just wasn't good enough in the field. Not bad in the field, but not great.

Having said that, he was better in every way than Donaldson (besides home runs) ... and IKF was paid 1/4th Donaldson's salary.

Sunday, February 12, 2023

To my knowledge, I have never met a person who has ever watched the WBC.

For one thing, it's not a big stage because not a lot of people are going to watch. More than a regular season Angels game for sure, but not a lot relative to entertainment events.

Furthermore, I can't imagine that anyone watching would be unaware of Trout's excellence. Like, I'm enough of a baseball fan to watch the WBC, but I  am mostly unaware of the decade's best player.

I suppose Trout keeps a relatively low profile, and in some ways this inhibits his worldwide popularity, but still: How is the WBC going to change his legacy or X Factor in any way?

The rest  of the article is just "Trout is great" and, for different reasons, comparing Trout to Ernie Banks and LeBron James.