MLB News & Notes - 2024 Season

[bkox]

MLB umpire Pat Hoberg reportedly disciplined for gambling violation

[zambonir]

I think the Abreu signing really shows how much the Astros have changed, both analytically and financially. It is crazy they gave him the deal they did at the age he'd reached and he was a liability at 1B too.

But yeah, horrifically bad is right. He made Merrifield and April Nick look like Harper.

[Philsmania]

The irony is that the Astros don't usually play the free agency game, except maybe for undervalued guys like Brantley. They often let their big names who hit the market walk--see Springer, Correa, Kuechel, to name a few.

[phillychuck]

Now the Astros have messed up twice with players named Abreu..

[bkox]

Dodgers lose Mookie Betts to a fractured wrist on a HBP

[phillychuck]

That's a long recovery, usually. 10 weeks? Longer?

[bkox]

yup and they lost this guy too

Dodgers P Yoshinobu Yamamoto out for 'some time' with strained rotator cuff...

[schillingfan]

I broke my wrist for the third time on Friday. First time, my daughter was three months old. Diapering was difficult. Second time I needed surgery. This time, only the radiologist could see fracture. Recovery time would depend on whether it’s displaced or not. A wrist would be hard for a batter I would think.

[DurhamBull]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

[bkeich]

I broke my wrist for the third time on Friday. First time, my daughter was three months old. Diapering was difficult. Second time I needed surgery. This time, only the radiologist could see fracture. Recovery time would depend on whether it’s displaced or not. A wrist would be hard for a batter I would think.

One less option for CF. Hope your wrist is better soon

[bkeich]

What, 10 years after Tennis figured out how to do a review in 10-30 seconds, maybe Baseball can make a step in that direction. We all see it on the screen, seems like this should be almost instant. I am sure they will figure out a way to make it take 5-10 minutes

MLB to fully use ball-strike challenges in Triple-A

[andyb]

I guess I have no problem with the challenge system, but if the batter and catcher are the ones doing challenges relayed by the video guy connected to a coach in the dugout, wouldn't it slow things down since there might be 5 challenges an inning that are obvious? The minors probably don't have the level of real time video technology that the majors has. If that is the case (i.e. not relying solely on the batter and catcher to make the challenges unaided) then why not just go all the way to robo umps?

[BostonRoss]

I attended a game (AAA) last season where they used the challenge system. It was really quick. The batter signaled that he wanted a challenge, and the pitch was immediately shown on the scoreboard (3D representation). If it didn't catch the strike zone, the call was changed to a ball. The whole thing took about 10 seconds. I don't remember any catcher challenges; I'm not sure if that was because they weren't allowed to or nobody wanted to challenge any ball calls. The limit was one per at bat, but there were fewer than 10 the whole game.

[andyb]

But will the dugout be able to challenge? They are not watching the box on TV like we do in the minors. When it is up to the batter or catcher generally there will be few challenges because one will need to be sure. The clubhouse guy is watching video though in real time with a pitch box. 1 per at bat is kind of an arbitrary limit if you have a bad ump that misses two pitches.

[BostonRoss]

I didn't notice any dugout challenges; it was always the batter, who presumably had only a short period to challenge. I can't imagine that the dugout or clubhouse was involved given how fast all the challenges were.

I was surprised there were as few challenges as I saw since every batter could challenge once per at bat, and there was no penalty for being wrong (other than not being able to challenge for the rest of the at bat. Seems like nearly every hitter in MLB complains about a pitch in almost every at bat.

By the way, my recollection was that about half the challenges succeeded.

[andyb]

Seems silly if there is no penalty to challenge.

I just think these things end up with robo umps. The actual umps are usually pretty good. We just see the errors in real time and that will not change (though the boxes could get more accurate and 3D). I think the data shows the umps have improved though I imagine part of that was learning what the electronic strike zone was and how that differed from their original strike zone.

[BostonRoss]

While we’re waiting for robot umps, the challenge system is fine. It reverses some bad calls with really small delays.

[zambonir]

Another wrist fracture. In this case by a guy the Yankees won't miss.

Yankees’ Rizzo could miss 4-6 weeks with arm fracture

Re: the challenge system, is that per game or per inning? it's certainly not once per at bat.

As part of the change, the number of challenges allowed per team will be decreased from three to two in the International League but will remain at three in the Pacific Coast League. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews.

MLB said almost 40% of Triple-A games have had more than six total challenges and that 89% of fans said the optimal number was six or fewer.

MLB switching to challenge system full-time for robot umpires experiment at...

[andyb]

I worry whenever MLB starts trying to decide what the optimal number of anything is. The optimal number of bad calls is zero to most fans.

[zambonir]

I was still confused by the math but I guess the key factor here is that the challenges don't count if they are successful. So you pretty much have as many as you want until you are wrong three times (and now it will be two, for LV).