GDT 7/5/21 Philadelphia Phillies (Moore) @ Chicago Cubs (Davies)

[Lucky_Beagle]

I think it is very unfortunate that with a 13 man pitching staff teams have to resort to position players to throw the ball across the plate. In this day of 7 inning games why doesn't MLB result to other rules used by various ball leagues across the land and allow for 10 run rule games.
Also if a team has given up on a game by bring in a position player they should just allow the team to concede the rest of the game.

[andyb]

They codified the position player pitching rule this offseason to require only a 6-run lead. Now teams often seem to use it as a rule about when to insert the player as the Cubs did last night. Maybe they should increase it to 8 or 10 runs.

The bright side is all those playoff probability formulas that are based in part on run differential probably look on the Phillies a bit more favorably this morning.

[julio]

I think it is very unfortunate that with a 13 man pitching staff teams have to resort to position players to throw the ball across the plate. In this day of 7 inning games why doesn't MLB result to other rules used by various ball leagues across the land and allow for 10 run rule games.
Also if a team has given up on a game by bring in a position player they should just allow the team to concede the rest of the game.

Fundamentally, I think this is because professional sports are entertainment. People have paid for nine innings of entertainment; cancelling several innings of that entertainment because one team is getting routed would deprive the fans of the other team - the routing team - of several innings that they might be finding highly entertaining. That's entertainment they've paid for. There's also the little matter of paid advertising - and cancelling the last three innings means cancelling a bunch of paid-for advertising minutes.

In Little League and such amateur settings, the games are (or at least should be, helicopter parents notwithstanding) about the participants - they are athletic competitions for their own sake, for the sake of the players (for their egos, or for their development of character, etc.). But professional games aren't about the players; they're about the paying fans (whether in the park, or watching on paid-for television broadcasts), about keeping the flow of money coming, about keeping eyes on the paid-for advertising.

Moreover – always remember "If we lose this game, I'm walking home." Ridiculous comebacks happen... and they're very entertaining, and very memorable.

[andyb]

I guess it is akin to garbage time in the NBA. The stats are meaningless but they count. Time for Baseball Reference to add that "against position player" split.

[bkox]

Position player pitching used to be a rarity. And it was a fun thing when it happened. Now its so common that for the most part its not fun anymore. Brett Philips the other night for the Rays was very entertaining though

[zambonir]

Weren't they going to make the position player pitching rules even more restrictive prior to the pandemic?

To me, position players pitching is always fun, and the game is supposed to be fun. But it does lose some of that fun when it becomes routine.

Playoff odds now 11.3%. XW-L (which actually is based on run diff) and actual now close, 39-43 vs. 40-42.

[bkox]

A Very Phillies stat: The Phillies scored double-digit runs five times before last night. They lost the next game all five times. https://t.co/d3fFquDcIT

— Matt Gelb ( @MattGelb ) July 6, 2021

[Patchmk88]

Let’s change that today. I’ll be semi excited for the 2nd half of the season if we somehow manage to go into the break at .500. Need to go 4-2 for that to happen.