MLB News & Notes - 2024 Season

[andyb]

I think it's more about the increased velocity pitchers are using in shorter stints now.

Clearly the increased velocity and max effort pitching is the cause of all the injuries. This is not to say the shorter pitch clock does not have a minor role as some of these max effort pitchers would rest up to throw each pitch before the clock. That does not mean the pitch clock is bad. Just players and teams took advantage to increase velocity a bit more.

There is no good solution here unfortunately. Analytics tell us and will likely always tell us that more velocity and more spin produces better results. My solution is still to deaden the ball. Make the penalty for throwing strikes less than it has been in the past. A smaller strike zone is also something to consider as velocity makes it harder to throw strikes, though I do fear a parade of walks if that happens.

The livelier ball and the ease of hitting home runs has changed the game though. I think MLB is lying when they say nothing has changed. But even if they are not, deaden the ball to make it harder to hit home runs and the whole game will be better. Hitters will need a more contact-oriented approach and pitchers will do likewise (pitch to contact).

[allentown]

MLB long ago decided HRs are sexy and low-scoring games turn off fans. Baseball has always juiced the ball or made other changes, like lowering the mound and eliminating the high end of the strike zone. Relievers being required to pitch to 3 batters is another step in that direction as was the aborted stealth attempt to lower the seams on the standard baseball. Both the time clock and the many attempts to boost HRs and offense are part of an on-going attempt to maintain fan interest. If these changes are deleterious, then MLB will have to persuade fans that they love pitchers' duels.

I see damage to pitchers also coming from allowing pitchers to throw an unreasonable number of pitches (for them or for the time in the season -- very early or very late) in order to qualify for a W or to try for a no-hitter. Nola suffers from throwing too many waste pitches, needlessly inflating his pitches per inning.

[zambonir]

I'm not sure pitch counts are much of a problem per se. Most managers will pull you before you can get a W if the situation/analytics calls for it. Ego makes pitchers want to go long, but at this point most of them know their W-L isn't what gets them awards (be that from the BBWAA or the arbitrators).

I think more than pitch counts it's high-stress pitches (both situationally and in terms of repertoire). I'm guessing Nola has been so durable because he just does not throw the kind of gas some of these other guys do, and his curve ball isn't as damaging as some of the other breaking pitches.

Certainly nothing is sacred in baseball despite the game preferring to act as though it is. (Best joke last weekend about the women's NCAA tournament games being played with different three-point lines at either end of the court is that baseball's like that every time).

Three-outcome baseball means higher pitch counts, which then also means more reason to pull guys before they face the order three times. And yeah, "chicks dig the long ball," as they said in that (dated) commercial, but nobody's really digging the strikeouts and walks, so that's why andy's idea makes sense as a way to actually make the game more "sexy" again.

[andyb]

They should just get rid of the 5-inning rule for a starting pitcher to get a win. I never understood how a pitcher could pitch 4.2 shutout innings, leave with a big lead, and then the reliever that gets the last out in the 5th gets the win. Whomever is the pitcher of record when the lead is established should get the win regardless of how long they go. Hockey does this I think for goalies. It is not as important in that sport, but in this world of openers the next 20-win pitcher might be the guy that finishes the 5th inning all the time and that is silly.

[bkox]

There are lots of issues with the Win stat. The fact that a reliever can come in and blow a lead, then their offense can retake the lead in the next frame, and that gets them a win, is absurd.

Just like a pitcher pitching 7 shutout innings but their offense not putting up any runs in those same 7 innings.. they leave and a reliever that pitches to 3 hitters get the win because thats when their offense broke through.

[zambonir]

The natural progression from the devaluation of the win stat would be to revise it or do away with it entirely. It's kind of funny that the number was ever as low as five to begin with. A quality start (which is itself a dubious measure of quality given one can have a 4.50 ERA and make one every time) is six and the average start was still six or longer until 2012. So now it needs to be lower.

Just make it scorer's discretion every time. If the opener pitches a perfect inning and leaves with a lead the team never gives up, give it to him. If a starter only goes 3 or 4 (or enters after opener) and leaves with a lead the team never gives up, give it to him. And for relievers the "brief and ineffective" rule should apply more frequently. And if you get a blown save and then your team scores the winning run in the next inning just don't award a pitcher W at all

[bkox]

Red Sox Trevor Story may be done for the year

Updating the Trevor Story injury news... He spoke, and while he said there's a chance he returns this year, it was also clear from how he spoke that there's a real chance he doesn't. https://t.co/A6O7UrM1iG via @BostonGlobe pic.twitter.com/ITFrRYGDH4

— Alex Speier ( @alexspeier ) April 7, 2024

[Lucky_Beagle]

The natural progression from the devaluation of the win stat would be to revise it or do away with it entirely. It's kind of funny that the number was ever as low as five to begin with. A quality start (which is itself a dubious measure of quality given one can have a 4.50 ERA and make one every time) is six and the average start was still six or longer until 2012. So now it needs to be lower.

Just make it scorer's discretion every time. If the opener pitches a perfect inning and leaves with a lead the team never gives up, give it to him. If a starter only goes 3 or 4 (or enters after opener) and leaves with a lead the team never gives up, give it to him. And for relievers the "brief and ineffective" rule should apply more frequently. And if you get a blown save and then your team scores the winning run in the next inning just don't award a pitcher W at all

so a relief pitcher comes into a game with his team up by a run and the bases loaded and no outs and he gets 3 K's in a row but the catcher gets charged with a pass ball allowing the tying run to score the relief pitcher shouldn't have any chance to earn the win? (he already got charged with a blown save which wasn't really his fault.)

I know we can come up with lots of scenario's for lots of different situations many of which may not be "fair" to a players stats.

[andyb]

That is why I hate the scorer's discretion part. Just give the win to the pitcher of record when a lead is established period.

[zambonir]

Well that's why I say just let the scorer decide every time. I would just not award a blown save or a win in the above situation. Heck, give the blown save to the guy who put those men on base (since he'd be rescued from a loss in your scenario).

You could also start marking things as "relief wins" or "start wins."

And how many times does a reliever even enter a game in a save situation with men on base? Especially closers.

If you're a closer and you blew a save that wasn't your fault, you have still been saddled with the stat they judge you by (even if you shouldn't) already. When I see a closer with a 5-2 W-L record I just assume several of those wins were blown saves anyway. 2-2 would look better! Conversely, Craig Kimbrel was 0-2 in the ALCS last year; had he been 2-0 due to the game coming back from his blown save and failure to preserve a tie, but still pitched exactly the same way would it have mattered for him personally?

None of these things are actually problems, unless baseball historians or front offices/arbitrators fail to dig past the context. I don't think any modern relief pitchers are being cheated out of jobs or money due to this.

[bkox]

Well we can look at losses the same way.

Starting pitcher goes 7 innings and gives up 1 run. Leaves down 1-0. Bullpen gives up 4 runs. Bottom of the 9th, team scores 4 runs but still loses 5-4. Who is more responsible for the loss?

[andyb]

Starting pitcher goes 5 and leaves with a 12-10 lead that the team keeps. He gets the win now. That is ok. It is the 5-inning rule that is arbitrary.

[bkox]

Back to Arm injuries... this was tweeted to TMac after they were talking about it on the telecast.

Dr James Andrews.. one of the experts in the field

[zambonir]

Yeah and then Ruben tried to play the, "today's players are too babied and only go five innings" card. Though I think he also said players should throw more between starts not less which was always Leo Mazzone's thing.

Aren't breaking balls supposed to be banned up until a certain age? How long before we view pitching like football?

[julio]

How long before we view pitching like football?

Well, until/unless pitchers start suffering from brain damage and early death, I would say... never.

[zambonir]

Well, fair. But in terms of teenagers there's a movement towards less tackling (and even flag football) and while a torn ligament is not quite so awful, most of youth sports culture is broken, whether because kids never get time off (or play other sports) or because the very end game of trying to get to college and the pros at all costs is mostly costs.

[julio]

I agree with your comments about youth athletics.

The solution (few will like this!) might be for colleges and universities to concentrate on higher education (and research, in the case of major research universities), and get out of the minor league sports business altogether.

[zambonir]

I'm not sure that would change anything at the youth/travel baseball level though. Plus it's heading that way for the revenue sports anyway. It's just that the dang universities still intend to run their own pro teams!

If the college athletics model ended you'd just have that many more IMG and Drivelines and Bishop Sycamores. Maybe better for higher education overall, not necessarily better for teenagers who want to play sports.

[bkox]

Former Dodger Julio Urías charged with five misdemeanors stemming from 2023...

[bkox]

Nationals' Josiah Gray becomes MLB's latest pitcher to suffer a major arm injury