2022 MLB General Season Chatter: Ghost Runners On The Half-Billion Dollar Infield

i can't wait until a team (probably the rays) finds a way around the shift rules that is even more annoying for the old-school cranks of baseball

I mean you can still line the SS/2B adjacent to 2B and get a huge advantage* vs the up the middle single

*maths needed

Yes I can imagine the “two people on each side of second base” rule will make the shift a thing where the SS is one step to the left of 2B and the 3B is a little closer to the SS hole.

…or vacate LF and put the LF in the 2B shift spot

tbh i’d love to have seen them institute like a 5 foot halo rule or something around second base before the pitch. i hate seeing a hard hit ball up the middle go directly into the glove of a fielder waiting right behind second base

They were considering a pie wedge shaped marker behind 2B to account for this at one point iirc. Also 5’ is not a lot when ur SS is 6’4” and a Total Athlete

Banning the shift will apparently be good for about 500 singles a year, spread out over 185,000 PAs. Mainly from lefties who don't run so great. Sorry i just think it's dumb. You're going to force somebody to stand near third base, when Travis Shaw never hits it there? So that Travis Shaw can get more hits? Maybe if Travis Shaw can't hit the curve we should tell pitchers they have to throw him fastballs??

― Tracer Hand, Friday, September 9, 2022 5:54 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

so we should lower the mound just because cookie rojas can't hit bob gibson's heater? we're gonna do all that? for COOKIE ROJAS???

Mixed feelings. I think the shift has been bad for the game, but I also feel like the hitters--95% of whom refuse to make any kind of adjustment--are getting off easy here.

FREDDIE FREEMAN: “Everyone’s like, ‘Just hit the ball the other way.’ Um, so I’m trying to cover five pitches. They’re all moving. One is like 98 mph. And I’m just going to be able to do whatever I want and hit a ball to the left side? It’s not that easy. I wish it was, or I’d do it more often.”

MORGAN ENSBERG: “A lot of times, the arguments are: ‘Well, why don’t you let the ball get a little bit deeper and then hit it the other way?’ And the simple answer is, it’s too difficult. Your swing is based on how your body organizes. And your contact point is really what it’s been probably for your whole life, because that’s what’s found you success. Your arms are always going to be as long as they are. And you’re going to be holding the bat the same way. So it’s very difficult to all of a sudden become a spray hitter.”

so then the question becomes how does baseball naturally evolve to react to this? if you can't get your current MLB lefty power pull hitters to adapt, you would expect that type of hitter to become devalued over time by teams, right? you'd think that teams would start overvaluing players who hit to all fields, start picking those players higher in the draft, and with the shift dominating the minors as well, you'd think those types of players would naturally rise through the ranks much easier than lefty power pull hitters. it's been 15 years, that's more than enough time for the sport to adapt to the new reality, and it never happened. lefty power pull hitters still get drafted, they still fly through the minors, and they still provide enough value to major league teams to stick on a roster. another value judgment made, the shift simply isn't a big enough deal to completely alter the makeup of major league teams.

but the shift is a big enough deal to make the sport more boring and more annoying for viewers, which is the reason to ban it. the last time the shift seemed like a novel and interesting and praiseworthy strategy to me was when maddon started going nuts with it in like 2008. good for joe maddon in 2008, smart move joe. every shift since then can fuck off, time to kill it dead.

a) i think there are a lot of hitters who simply can't make a significant adjustment. none of these guys are tony gwynn, and tony gwynn wasn't facing 95+ with movement in all of his at-bats

b) the fact remains that dinger guys get paid better than OBP guys

none of this will change the incentives to go gallo

(lol when i was 8 my dad told me he'd give me a quarter every time i pulled the ball to the left of second base -- he wanted me to hit for power, which to him meant pulling. by the time i reached high school the only time i ever hit the ball to right was if i was overpowered -- except for one single beautiful time when i somehow recognized an off-speed pitch and waited and jetered it into right. that one moment was the closest i ever came to understanding baseball)

xp ✖ otm

Hitters regularly cut down on their swing with two strikes and go to the opposite field. Some do it well, some don't--but you don't have to be Tony Gwynn to make it work now and again.

And yet Ted Williams couldn’t/wouldn’t do it either, iirc? Hence the Williams shift

lol okay guys sure i see all that. i still think pitching is just too strong and if you solve that the other stuff goes away. but these are good points you’re making.

Williams wouldn't cede anything, no. But he was Ted Fucking Williams of the Major Fucking Leagues, as he used to remind himself during batting practice. He was a little ornery. And probably the greatest hitter ever.

Obviously, I'm not saying hitters should or can revamp their swings. I'm just suggesting that now and again, they change things up to try to keep the other team honest. Pitchers have game plans that they constantly adjust and tinker with as the game goes on. I feel like screaming sometimes when a guy hits right into the shift for a double-play. Anyway, this will all be moot next year.

I'm "add pitch clock, keep the shift." I think it's fun and interesting to see different defensive configurations for different hitters -- more strategy is better!

^^^ same

I was arguing with a regular about this at the bar last night. His arguments for anything always boil down to "things should go back to the way they were in the good old days," and it really riles me up.

Seems to me it's going to be hard to measure defensive ability accurately when the infielders are wearing weighted shoes (metaphorically).

so far

Hasn't the pitch clock been there for years? Is it more that they're just going to actually enforce it?

They've used it in some minor leagues for a few years but not in the majors.

There is some shit about stepping out of the batter's box that they totally don't enforce.

they've also already tested out the shift ban in the minors as well, right? i didn't read anything explosive about how it changed the game down there, which is why i'm not too concerned about how it will affect the game next year. it will make a difference and affect some players more than others. but the short porch at yankee stadium also makes a big difference, as does the altitude of denver, the wind at old candlestick and wrigley, etc.

also, i think requiring two players to be on each side of second still allows for quite a bit of flexibility?

to that last thought, see this thread:

I thought this might be an interesting way to visualize the new positioning rules. (Fixed an earlier error about outfielders.)

This is it. This is all that matters. Setting aside P/C, you just have to have at least 4 infielders, and 2 on either side.

So ... pic.twitter.com/rzGBzfp1by

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) September 10, 2022

huh! in that case….. why do it at all

All the streams at sp0rt sµrge dot net freeze at the end of every half inning and I have to refresh the page. Is that normal, is there a way around it, is there a better place to watch?

for me, with all the options they have, streameast seems to be the one that works reliably. i have weird issues with almost all of them

among players with >200 PAs so far this year, your 2022 recipient of the GMC Balk at a Walk award is Luis Garcia, who has walked in 1.7% of his 296 PAs. Second is Francisco Mejia, with 1.9% walks over 259 PAs, and 3rd is Yadier Molina, who prompted by this entire stat check-in, and surely must at least be the winner of the Chevy Hybrid Slow Times Non-Walker award, with 2.1 BB%, 233 PAs.

a lot of people have been asking about what the top (low) 50 single seasons of low BB% are (post-integration, >200 PAs)

https://i.imgur.com/0WO7yjw.png

Garcia's 2022 ranks a mere #32

Best player on this list? gotta be ivan rodriguez

and Pudge put up the highest fWAR (1.5) out of this list of 50 low-walk % seasons. It is really, really hard to put up good overall production when you don't walk. it is a sign that something is wrong. that's what i tell the kids out there: "take a walk, kiddo -- you're completely fucked if you can't, ok?"

at yankees-sox…interesting replay review situation where cabrera was just ruled out for not having touched second on his way back to first base on a would-be hit-and-run flyout. would be interested in seeing the rule on this, because cabrera clearly changes his momentum prior to reaching second base and makes no move toward third

pretty great game to be at if I’m honest!

always be honest (with us, anyway)

wild to me that w 18 games or so left so many teams in the AL are not mathematically eliminated yet.

THERE'S STILL A CHANCE FOR THE ANGELS

this feels like a much crazier than normal year

unlikely but legit shot at a triple crown in both leagues
one of those players is gonna beat the maris record
ohtani having possibly a better year than last year and might not get a single #1 vote
pujols doing something 0% of people alive thought he'd do before the season
dodgers are on pace for like 113 wins
mets are actually good, maybe

things i'm rooting for now that my team is more or less out of it:
pujols 700
all AL East teams finish over .500
that a single non-judge or ohtani player finishes with over 8 WAR
goldschmidt gets the triple crown and in typical goldschmidt fashion no one notices because all the attention is on judge
yankees and rays do bad in the playoffs

Don't forget "ragtag group of scrubs and rejects screw up the Orioles'scheduled fourth straight tank by all being good"

i don't *want* it to happen, because i support non-usual suspects being in it to win it . . . but it would still be pretty funny if the padres missed the playoffs after all this (they're 1.5 up on milwaukee for the last wild card)

kinda wanted every AL east team to have a better record than every AL central team, but clevo's pulled away a bit

also i'm happy for long-suffering mariners fans

So I just saw that the Mets have been plunked 101 times this year and are on their way to a record for getting HBP.
What was really surprising is the Dodgers and Reds last year are 1 & 2 on the list and of all the teams that have at least 100 HBP in a season (6 total) none were before 1997!

Why the fuck are players getting hit so much?! I would have thought It’d be happening less these days

Hmmm...maybe more and better padding? More as in more surface area to hit, and better as in the hitter is willing to be hit a little more than in the last?

Beats me though

Mets booth think its case of velocity vs pitch ability / control. Meaning that the league is trending to throwing faster but many (young) pitchers can’t control a ball that fast, don’t know how to pitch inside with control.

anthony rizzo practically stands on the plate and deserves every single plunk imo

It's like Bruce Springsteen said: there's a meanness in this world.

it's like sheryl crow said: all i wanna do is have some fun

i didn't realize that they're giving out a gold glove at a new position this year: super-utility

spoilers, but tommy edman already won the award

Marwin Gonzalez got hit in the head by the throw from the catcher back to the pitcher!

very rude

is there a..penalty or anything for that? haha

Luis Guillorme has got to be in the running for super utility too.

Feeling like the Mets and Braves will end up tied at the end of the year, and the lack of a game 163 is going to be unsatisfying for all involved.

it’s like cyndi lauper said, she bop, she bop a we bop

Orioles turn three!

59 for AJ

True: 300 posts for a wild-card game six years ago.

2016 AL Wild Card: Baltimore Orioles vs.Toronto Blue Jays

surprised i was not 50% of them!