Other Baseball

I enjoyed this one: http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/05/03/228100246/brewers-minor-leaguer-pulled-off-the-hidden-ball-trick

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/05/01/orioles-adam-jones-berated-racist-taunts-fenway-park-peanuts/101187172/ From the article "Baltimore Orioles All-Star center fielder Adam Jones was berated by racist taunts at Fenway Park while a bag of peanuts was thrown at him Monday night, calling it one of the worst cases of fan abuse he has heard in his career. “A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me,’’ Jones said, “I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. Thanks. Pretty awesome.’’" Somewhere between 30 and 60 fans were ejected from the game.

When this was first brought up, I was against having a computerized strike zone. I was firmly holding onto my traditional baseball beliefs and thought that anything besides having an ump back there would be a bucket of yuck. But the more and more I think about it and watch players complain, I have changed my views. I wouldn't mind having an umpire remain back there, maybe with an earpiece in with someone/something relaying balls and strikes. With pitch counts being so relevant in today's game, wasted pitches can be a big deal. For hitters, the difference between hitting in a 2-1 or 1-2 count is enormous. Pitchers and hitters shouldn't have to adapt to each umpires individ…

6 for 6 - 3 HRs - 10 RBI. Pretty incredible. I did notice that our old friend Sean Gilmartin did give up 2 of the HRS, 4 of the RBIs.

It appears that MLB.TV has begun lowering the price of MLB.TV Premium subscriptions this year. It's a targeted email, a "special offer for free game of the day users", so I don't have a link to share, but my understanding is that you can probably get the same offer if you follow these steps: Create a free MLB.com account, if you haven't already Sign in with your account to watch a "free game of the day" on MLB.com (I don't think you actually have to watch for any length of time, just loading it up once probably flags you as a "free game of the day user" in their system) Wait for the targeted 50% offer to be emailed to youThat last step could take a few days, or a few wee…

Longtime MLB writer Jayson Stark was among the many fired by ESPN. Bummer, I liked Stark.

Does anybody know where to find individual player game logs for advanced defensive statistics? I couldn't find it in fangraphs. They obviously update season total advanced defense stats daily, but don't have defensive stat game logs.

Where can we find spray chart data for the current season? Fangraphs doesn't have anything and Brooks Baseball appears to be broken. I really want to filter for Joe Mauer's hits after that double to right last night. I suspect the chart will look pretty comical.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/225044864/pirates-starling-marte-suspended-80-games/?topicId=27118122

https://theringer.com/2017-mlb-new-pitches-dylan-bundy-archie-bradley-michael-wacha-147c990446a4 Giving us hope that Kohl Stewart can be saved.

This is a great article about how RP and the save statistic are kind of bad for baseball..... https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/goose-egg-new-save-stat-relief-pitchers/?addata=espn:mlb:index and, it has some nice hearted snark, imo.

I see Alex Meyer starting for the Angels tomorrow. I hope he fares well. Not great AAA numbers at first glance, but FIP and K/BB ratio trending in the right direction.

Headed to the DL because he sprained his shoulder and bruised ribs in a dirt bike accident. I love Bumgarner.

https://twitter.com/MarkBullockNFL/status/854496081060691969/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdeadspin.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-854496081060691969%26autosize%3D1

I'm interested to know the best TD equivalents out there for other teams (particularly AL Central). Not for trolling, but to get their perspective on things. For instance, I'd love to know what Toyals fans are feeland by right now after the opening series sweep. If anyone's in the know, I think it would be fun to visit our doppelganging foes.

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v1299577183/trout-displays-love-for-astros-after-prank-by-orbit Anyone see this? I'm not a huge Astros fan but this was legitimately funny.

This story is right out of a fairy tale. http://news.heart.org/baseball-great-rod-carews-new-heart-kidney-came-from-nfl-player-konrad-reuland/

I have talked about it before around these parts a few times, but I have a pretty extensive history with eye procedures. This past week, I had to have yet another one, and it caused me to reflect on my vision, and with opening day coming around the corner, baseball was on the mind. I decided to put it to an article, and I hope you enjoy! https://calltothepen.com/2017/04/02/mlb-appreciating-visual-beauty-game-baseball/

Driving home from work today, I had Sirus XM on listening to the Braves-Pirates game. The Pirates announcers referenced a play from a Braves game earlier in the week where Kurt Suzuki blocked a pitch in the dirt and the ball stuck to his chest protector "like velcro" raising some questions as to whether Suzuki had something sticky on his chest protector. Suzuki denied this in post-game comments and said he had no idea why a baseball would do that. My conspiracy theorist nature suspects Suzuki may have been assisting a Braves pitcher (Bartolo Colon?) by warehousing some tactical substance to discreetly apply to baseballs. Conspiracy theory number 2 would be that applying …

http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/cardinals-surrender-lead-due-to-yadier-molina-being-ext-1794089040 The headline blames Molina but I'd bet that the pitcher was using a lot of pine tar. If you look at Molina's chest protector before and after, you can see some pine tar after the ball was removed but not before.

OK, day late but here's what I got: Red Sox Blue Jays (WC) Orioles Rays Yankees Indians Tigers Royals Twins White Sox Rangers Astros (WC) Mariners Angels As Mets Nationals (WC) Braves Marlins Phillies Cubs Cardinals (WC) Pirates Brewers Reds Dodgers Giants Diamondbacks Rockies Padres ALCS Red Sox over Blue Jays NLCS Dodgers over Mets WS Dodgers over Red Sox

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/dylan-bundy-made-the-blue-jays-look-silly/ He had a very nice outing against Toronto and it would be nice if he could come back and stay healthy. I agree with the general sentiment that aces are good for baseball and Bundy can absolutely be one.

http://deadspin.com/francisco-lindor-redeems-himself-by-obliterating-the-ra-1794061918 I loved this article. First, Lindor is my favorite non-Twin. He's just a superstar. Hits a grandslam in the ninth that makes a cute Rangers fan cry. And, to it off, someone in the comments section found the Cleveland radio guys call and it was completely over the top. Truly enjoyable.

In honor of Opening Day, here is a fun video I ran across on Facebook. (It's a car ad, but I hope you don't mind.) https://www.facebook.com/Jrockradio/videos/799595993460938/

Happy Opening Day! One of the best times of the year. What games are you tuning into today?

Kind of a nice little article http://deadspin.com/aw-this-career-minor-leaguer-tearing-up-over-making-th-1793880549

Here is a link to an article from the Pittsuburgh Post Gazette that discussed the use of PRP and stem cells as well as UCL repair in current major leaguers. Thought some may find it interesting. http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2017/03/31/How-new-age-medicine-is-helping-Major-League-Baseball-pitchers-avoid-injury.html

Jonah Keri started his annual Trade Value Player Rankings list on Sports Illustrated. The first column is the "Just Missed" and Honorable Mentions list. A Twins player we have high hopes for is on this column. Not sure if any others are going to make it.

No World Baseball Classic thread yet? Come on, guys.

Came across an article in the Boston Globe about stem cell injections in baseball players and thought some here may appreciate it: https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2017/03/20/stem-cell-procedure-could-next-wave-sports-medicine/carVS2aGYL6LqjjvMciKIL/story.html?p1=Article_Recirculation_Pos5