Wednesday, March 18, 2020

MLB Season Preview 2020 Part 1


So does this mean nobody wants to hear my picks?

This seems like an odd time to do this.  Part of me is considering this a lost season, whenever they decide to play it.  I don’t want to write about baseball or even care.  The part of me with the wallet though went out and bought my usual season preview magazine today.  (It’s the latest issue of Baseball Digest, by the way.  It was a bit of a compromise.  The Sports Illustrated preview wasn’t out yet and I didn’t want one of the three more comprehensive magazines available.  I just wanted an overview.)  Also, I had already written up a bunch of stuff earlier for this, so why not finish it? 

MLB has shutdown Spring Training and delayed the start of the regular season because of a politically-motivated hoax . . . err . . . they’re a bunch of virtue-signally pricks trying to appease the media and avoid harassing lawsuits from fans that might claim to have gotten sick from going to a game . . . err . . . there’s a nasty cold going around.  Whatever.  It’s been done.  The MLB wasn’t kidding about shutting down.  They even stopped sending me their daily update e-mails.  Was I in danger from getting infected from those?    

It could be worse.  My Aunt Judy and Uncle Don had plans for a road trip to see the Cardinals in Florida.  Spring Training was cancelled right before they left.  They’re still going on the trip, but did get their money back for the game.  I’d peeked in several Spring Training games.  It looked like full houses in Florida and Arizona, so it was good they did get tickets in advance.  A co-worker was also planning on making a quick trip to Arizona for a game just to see one. 

Random Thoughts
The new three-batter minimum rule for relievers is being implemented this season.  This is theoretically a big deal in how the game will be played from now on, but there’s been little said about it.  The Players Union was surprisingly supine about allowing this, while still insisting that they won’t allow a pitch clock.  I don’t quite understand this.  As for the rule, we’ll see if this helps to move the game along.  We can only hope.

I’m surprised.  The Rockies still possess Nolan Arenado and the Indians still have Francisco LindorJoc Pederson still being with the Dodgers after his trade blew up is even more surprising.  All of these teams are going to have get rid of these very good, but likely miffed players this season.

I couldn’t believe I was hearing ESPN Radio advocating for Aubrey Huff being invited to the Giants’ 2010 World Series anniversary, which the team had publicly excluded him from.  The commentators don’t approve of him, but they wanted player accomplishments to be separated from politics and political correctness.  I had to recheck the radio settings to see if I was really listening to ESPN.  They were actually right in their opinion.  (Yep, a stopped clock is right twice a day.)  Huff’s comments that I saw were not bad, but they were opinions that don’t agree with the liberal mainstream.  Then again, I didn’t see every comment.    

The thing I’m really looking forward to most this new season (whenever it happens) is hearing Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks describe the new Rangers’ park.  It’s a big unknown right now how it’ll play and I can’t wait to see it on TV.  (I’m vaguely worried I’ll lose my El Paso radio affiliate for games and that FOX won’t show a game there when I’m at home on a weekend.)

Lastly, there was a story that Canadian and new Hall of Famer, Larry Walker, was going to fulfill a life-long dream and be designated an honorary emergency goaltender for the Avalanche for a game.  I hope Larry’s still in good shape.  We’ve already had an emergency goalie enter a game this year.  I’m sure Larry would like nothing better than to come in and win a game between the pipes, like the Hurricane’s emergency goalie did.  I saw a video from an hysterical Maple Leafs about that game.  He wasn’t just mad that his team had lost to a Zamboni driver, but the driver was in fact an employee of the Leafs. 

This emergency goalie rule is a really weird.  The closest baseball analogue I can think of was during a Rockies game in the 90’s.  They’d subbed out their starting catcher and their emergency catcher during the game.  The backup catcher was injured in the ninth and had to come out.  Manager Don Baylor went out on to the field and asked for a volunteer.  It didn’t go well, but I appreciated Juan Pierre’s bravery.

Sign-Stealing
[The bit I’d written beforehand was a rant about a controversy that just doesn’t seem that important right now.  Well, at least some good has come from this Corona Virus.  I’ll go ahead and post it anyway for some amusement.  Hey, remember back-in-day. like a month ago, when we all cared about this crap?]
 
I’m going to be a bit shocking here, but I still think this sign-stealing scandal is the best thing that’s happened to baseball in years.  It’s gotten the national sports media talking about baseball for reasons other than to say that’s it’s boring and not worth talking about.  Of course, just because they’re talking that doesn’t mean they’re saying anything worthwhile.  I’d heard a sanctimonious ESPN Radio host pronounce before Spring Training that a “consensus” had determined that the Astros should be stripped of their 2017 World Series title.  He said it like that’s all it took, a “consensus,” and it was going to happen.  (Consensus of who?  People around the network?) 

Let’s unpack that thought for a moment.  Commissioner Rob Manfred has already said that results on the field have to stand.  You’d be kicking open Pandora’s Box with revisionist sports history otherwise.  You’d be no better than the NCAA.  Should the 1919 Reds be stripped of their title since the “Black Sox” threw the series?  Does Pete Rose and the Reds vacate his wins as a manager while he was betting on the games?  And if he was betting on games while he was a player, there go his individual stats.  On that matter, let’s scrub Barry Bonds’ and all the other steroid guys’ home runs.  All those baseball stats before integration are now suspect.  Maybe at least we give Armando Galaraga his umpire-botched no-hitter.

You can argue that in some of those cases that what the players were doing wasn’t against the rules at the time or the current rules weren’t in place then.  Commissioner Manfred had made electronic sign-stealing illegal before the Astros did it.  You could also argue that he’d set the penalty beforehand and Astros players were willing to risk it to the get the advantage.  They got caught and paid the price that was set.

Then again, the stated price only involved the manager and the general manager.  It mentioned no penalty to the players themselves or their accomplishments.  Sure, we’ll risk getting caught cheating under those circumstances.  It came out later, after a multitude of players had expressed indignation and possible retaliation that Manfred said he’d wanted to go after the players involved, but the Players Union would not consent to it.  He had to give blanket immunity to the players in order to investigate what was found out was a “player-driven” scheme.   

Likewise, I suspect that manager AJ Hinch disapproved of the sign-stealing scheme, but there was nothing he could do about it.  He knew it was his job on line if they got caught, but he probably couldn’t punish the players involved without Union consent or exposing what was going on.  Without that, the players were free to ignore any stern lectures, since they were personally benefitting from the scandal.  At that point, Hinch could only blow the lid off the scandal himself.  He could probably live with losing his own job at that point, but not other people losing their jobs because of his decision, including his boss, GM Jeff Ludnow, and hurting his own team.

[My rant petered out at this point.  My new Baseball Digest had a couple of missives about the scandal.  One was a reader letter that suggested allowing pitchers and catchers to use electronic means to relay signs to each other.  Duh.  This should have been authorized immediately after this story broke. 

The other was an article about sign-stealing, current and historical.  It detailed the Giants using a telescope in 1951, which may have lead to Bobby Thompson’s famous home run.  However, the first recorded incident of electronic sign-stealing occurred in ‘98 . . .  1898!  It involved a telegraph wire running into the ground under the third base coach from a player in an office using opera glasses, who would buzz him with the signs.  And a “consensus” wants the Astros stripped of their title over this.  Really?  I feel strangely vindicated.]         

New Playoff Format and Realignment
Before Spring Training, the MLB floated some hair-brained scheme about expanding the playoffs and adding a reality show element to it with a selection show, where a team picks their playoff opponent.  The second half of that I won’t even dignify with a response (just a muffled giggle).  As for expanding the playoffs, as long as you’re showing playoff games on FS1, TBS, MLB Network, Food Network, SyFy, and wherever else these games are getting dumped off to, it’s pointless.  There’s no reason to showcase games where viewers can’t find them or don’t know they’re on.  MLB, either put together a coherent TV package and/or provide an online option for the playoffs, or stop trying.    

During a Cubs/White Sox Spring Training game (I’ve got to go to Spring Training someday), the commentators mentioned the possibility of expanding the playoffs with a contraction to a 154 game schedule.  The loss of four home games would be made up by a radical regional realignment of the teams, which would reduce travel costs.  The commentators liked the idea of the Cubs and White Sox playing for a division title. 

I kind of like that realignment idea, but it’s not going to be clean.  There’s going to be some oddballs.  Moreover, I think MLB really wants to expand to 32 teams.  Right now, they can’t with Tampa Bay’s iffy situation.  I think the A’s, MLB’s other new stadium-desiring problem child, will be getting a thoroughly remodeled Coliseum with the Raiders leaving.  As soon as Tampa Bay figures out whether they’re going to be playing there or in Montreal and how they’re going to get a new stadium, MLB will be taking applications for new franchises.       

On to Part 2.

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