New to Baseball (Questions, etc)

[robert terwilliger]

baseball can be played every day and because of its schedule it pretty much has to be.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

I forgot to mention the timing aspect. You have guys play a game, then take a few days off and then play again and a day off and then two games in a row and then 3 days off. Your timing is all messed up. It's not easy to just stand in the box and catch up to a 95 mph fastball after only taking BP for the last few days. It's almost impossible to try to determine a 95 mph from an 88 mph slider from an 86 mph changeup while just doing BP for a few days.

 

[PG Canuck]

I mean baseball isn't as overly taxing as contact sports like the NHL and NFL. The MLB is taxing in its own way but not enough to the point where they need a couple days off like other leagues.

The NHL and NFL could never follow a schedule like the MLB.

 

[ChiGuySez]

Most advanced levels can hit a 95 mph fastball. Its when an offspeed pitch is mixed in that kills many prospects/players. Many cant deal with a curveball.

Baseball is NOT a contact sport outside of an occasional crash play at the plate or second base. Its all hand eye coordination. Catchers, its the knees. Pitchers, arm ligaments.

 

[BigMac1212]

Which MLB teams have home run horns?

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Which MLB teams have home run horns?

Blue Jays do. Or maybe that's just after a win. I think they have one after a HR though.

 

[BigMac1212]

Where's the 2nd best place to hit triples, the 1st being Triples Alley at AT&T Park?

 

[gilfaizon]

Where's the 2nd best place to hit triples, the 1st being Triples Alley at AT&T Park?

Houston maybe?

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Houston maybe?

Petco and Comerica maybe? Fenway if you hit it into just right of Center I think it's like 420 ft and can have wacky bounces.

Also probably Marlins Park.

 

[MurrayBannerman]

Don't sleep on the LF alley in PNC.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Don't sleep on the LF alley in PNC.

Hmmm... probably haven't watched enough games there to catch that one. Bit odd to see a triples alley in LF but that's kinda cool.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Any park with big gaps or deep right field corners. Colorado just because there's so much room to cover in the outfield. Chase Field. Whatever the Rangers park is called I think has deep gaps.

 

[BigMac1212]

Why are SF included in the On-base Percentage formula?

 

[rangerssharks414]

Why are SF included in the On-base stat procedure?

All plate appearances count towards OBP.

 

[BigMac1212]

In honor of the Golden Knights big day, how does MLB handle expansion drafts?

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Seems kind of weird that you could protect additional players after each round instead of just giving teams a set number that they could protect.

Similar to the 1992 expansion draft, both expansion teams selected 35 players. The draft was divided into three rounds. Each team would select 14 players in round 1, 14 players in round 2, and 7 players in round 3. Tampa Bay general manager Chuck LaMar and Arizona general manager Joe Garagiola, Jr. oversaw their teams' selections.

The Devil Rays and Diamondbacks could pick any player not on the protected lists of the 28 other teams, although no team could lose more than one player in a given round. The protected list for each team consisted of:

For the first round, 15 players from the rosters of their entire organization—both their 40-man roster, plus all minor league affiliates.


Each team could add three more players to its protected list after each round.


In addition to the above, players chosen in the 1996 and 1997 amateur drafts were automatically protected, plus players who were 18 or younger when signed in 1995.


Players who were free agents after the end of the 1997 season need not be protected.

As with the 1992 expansion draft, the order was determined by a coin toss. The winner of the toss could choose either: (a) The first overall pick in the expansion draft or (b) allow the other team to pick first and receive both the second and third overall expansion draft picks and the right to pick first in the subsequent rounds of the expansion draft. Tampa Bay won the toss and chose to select first.

 

[BigMac1212]

Man, if I was a superhero, I would be the Fat Question.

What's the purpose of Sabermetrics?

 

[bluesfan94]

It's a way to understand the impact a player has on winning a game better than traditional stats.

Basically they're better evaluative tools

 

[BigMac1212]

In honor of this afternoon's Marlins-Brewers game, a double shot:

1: What's the rule about pine tar on the bat?
2: What's the history about the Royals-Yankees' "Pine Tar Game?"

(I might need to be temporary locked from this thread just to avoid spamming. )

 

[garnetpalmetto]

In honor of this afternoon's Marlins-Brewers game, a double shot:

1: What's the rule about pine tar on the bat?
2: What's the history about the Royals-Yankees' "Pine Tar Game?"

(I might need to be temporary locked from this thread just to avoid spamming. )

1. You can have pine tar on the handle of the bat extending up 18". Anything past that and the bat has to be removed from the game and the umpire will order the batter to use a different bat.

2. Picture it, Yankee Stadium, July 24, 1983. The Yankees and Royals are playing the last game of their season series against each other. It's the top of the 9th and the Royals are down 4-3 with 2 outs, U L Washington on first, and George Brett up to bat. Goose Gossage is on the mound for the Yankees. Brett laces one into the stands in right field to turn the 4-3 deficit to a 5-4 lead. Yankees catcher Rick Cerone nonchalantly hands Brett's bat to the Royals bat boy but as soon as Brett crosses the plate, New York skipper Billy Martin comes out to argue to rookie home plate ump Tim McClelland that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat. The umps confer and used home plate's width (17") to measure the amount of tar on Brett's bat. They found that it exceeded the 18" specified by the rule and McClelland called Brett out, negating the HR and ending the game with a 4-3 Yankees win. Brett tore out of the dugout and had to be physically restrained by Royals skipper Dick Howser. In the tumult, Royals pitcher Gaylord Perry took the bat from McClelland and then passed it off to another teammate to hide it in the Royals clubhouse amongst the other bats so that the American League office would be unable to examine it.

The Royals, of course, protested the game, and AL Lee MacPhail heard the protest. He upheld the Royals protest because he felt the spirit of the rule wasn't in any performance enhancing aspects excess pine tar added but in making it so that balls in play weren't discolored by it and made harder to see and clearly that wouldn't matter with a ball hit out of play. That followed precedent of a ruling he made about 8 years earlier when he upheld a crew's decision not to negate a homer hit by John Mayberry of the Royals when he had hit a home run with a bat with too much pine tar in a game against the Angels. MacPhail ruled that Brett's dinger was legit and that the game should be resumed at the top of the 9th with the Royals up 5-4. He also retroactively ejected Brett, Howser, and Royals coach Rocky Colavito for arguing with the umpires and Perry for his role in secreting the bat away.

Play was resumed on August 18th (the Yankees tried to put off resumption of the game as long as they could and there was a secondary lawsuit over their original plans to charge $2.50 for fans to come see an inning and a third of baseball) play resumed with two changes in the Yankees defensive alignment - pitcher Ron Guidry substituted in at center field for Jerry Mumphrey (who'd been traded in the interim) and 1st baseman Don Mattingly was moved to 2nd to replace an injured Bert Campaneris. When play resumed (with Hal McRae at bat for the Royals), Yankees pitcher George Frazier threw to 1st and argued Brett hadn't touched 1st. The umpire (Tim Welke) called him safe. Frazier then threw to 2nd arguing that that neither Brett nor Washington had touched the base. Umpire Dave Phillips again signaled that they were safe. Martin, of course, went on the field to protest how umpires who weren't present at the game and who hadn't seen the original action could make such a ruling. Phillips proceeded to produce a notarized affidavit signed by all four umpires from the original game attesting that Brett and Washington had touched alll the bases after MacPhail had gotten word that the Yankees might try just such a tactic to protest the resumption of the game. Martin announced that the Yankees were playing the remainder of the game under protest and left the field. Frazier then struck out McRae and the Royals reliever, submariner Dan Quisenberry, struck out the side to preserve a 5-4 Royals win. Fun fact - the Royals starter (for the original portion of the game) was none other than Bud Black.

 

[Ziggyjoe21]

Honest question, how come so many MLB logos look so similar? And why are all the uniforms exactly the same? Why aren't there more "unique" logos and uniforms like in other sports?

For example, the 2 teams that met in the last year's finals, Cleveland and the Cubs, have the same exact logo... a red "C".

Toronto, Houston, Oakland have their logo inside a circle with their team name written inside said circle.

Giants, Padres, Royals, Cards, LAD, Rockies, Mets, Yankees also have the same exact logo.

Most teams' baseball caps have just a letter or 2 on the front as a logo.

Why is it like this?

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

I don't think you're paying much attention if you think all the logos you listed as being the same are the same.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

NBA has the worst branding of any league. I think 27 or so teams have a basketball in their logo.

 

[Oscar Acosta]

I love how baseball keeps cap logos simple for the most part. They can have official logos but imagine the Yankees logo on the cap instead of the NY it would look terrible.

Keep it simple and those are the best hats in the world league. I think most people and casuals prefer them that way and sell as such.

Top of head trying to think of the busiest ball cap in history. Can't imagine it sold that well.

 

[robert terwilliger]

team's primary logos are busier and/or incorporate something to do with the city or the team's actual name.

this is too much to try to do on a hat.