2021 MLB Season Thread

[Barnes]

In 2021, pitchers had a batting average of .110 which was actually a middling year for BA.

.142 SLG, .293 OPS, .217 BAbip and had a SO% of 44.2% and a BB% of only 3.8%.

These guys stop hitting in high school, don't do it in College and are forced to sometimes hit in AA or AAA only when both teams are NL affiliates. It's time.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

You're old!


In the past yeah, but now pitchers don't go past 5 innings.


Just think of all the by-the-book intentional walks to #8 hitters, sacrifice bunts, failed sacrifice bunts leading to strikeouts, and pinch-hitting by below-average position players (who are still better at hitting than pitchers) that will get missed.

But, yeah, we'll miss out on some AL manager ####ing up a double-switch once every three years.

Starting pitchers may even pitch a little longer because they don't automatically get lifted for a pinch-hitter someone is on base.

I'm with Trout here too. I'm old too. It seems most NL fans don't like the DH though.

The biggest thing I'll miss is the bench being an important part of success over a season. I always enjoyed when my team would have a bench guy that could be counted on for some late inning heroics.

I don't think AL pitcher pitch deeper into games do they? Bullpenning seems to be more of a thing in the AL, where you don't have to worry about wasting a bench bat in the 3rd or 4th inning. Also with 9 hitters in the lineup, it's tougher for a pitcher to go deeper.

There's strategy far beyond double switches and removing pitchers too early that we'll lose in the NL. It's things like managing a bench, building a good bench, Pitching to or around the 8 hitter, having a real leadoff guy that will leadoff a few inning, making sure you cash in before getting to the dead #9 spot..... Just so much more games within the game that is missing from 3 true outcomes baseball.

[Barnes]

In 2021...
AL pitchers averaged 5.01 innings per start
NL pitchers averaged 5.02 innings per start

NL pitching is better and they have more quality starts than AL pitchers so it will be interesting to see if NL IP/GS increases in 2022

NL pitchers also see slightly less run support per games started vs AL pitchers. Is it because they take ABs?

T'was a weird year though with late starts and we expected pitchers to be kept in games less in both leagues.

2020 had universal DH

So in 2019...
AL pitchers averaged 4.99 innings per start
NL pitchers averaged 5.37 innings per start

NL averaged 63.8 QS vs AL 55.8. Would those quality starts gone longer into games if they didn't have to bat?

[mrkajz44]

But....

With no DH, NL pitchers had it much easier as they get close to 1 free out every time through the order. Roughly 90% of the batters NL pitchers face are actually batters, the other 10% or so are pitchers.

So I think you won't see a big change as there are two effects offsetting each other:

1) NL pitchers will go deeper into games because they avoid getting lifted for a PH when they could continue to pitch longer
2) NL pitchers will go less deep into games because the batting line-up is now more difficult to pitch through as the "easy out" is gone

[Samonadreau]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

How does cutting cable prevent you from reading news?

I dont watch anything other than Flames games in the Winter.

Apologies for trying to hit the easy button and ask about the Negotiations in an MLB thread lol.

[GirlySports]

Doesn't look good for the season.

The players made a comprehensive proposal. It was the kind of package MLB officials have insisted the players must propose if there was going to be any kind of a deal. And it was a package that made considerable movement towards the owners’ position.

Specifically:

The players dramatically reduced their demands regarding the number of players with two-plus years of service time who would qualify for arbitration, dropping from 75 percent of those players to 35 percent. That’s only 13 percent more than the number of players who qualify under the current Super Two setup;

The players decreased their demands regarding competitive balance tax thresholds by $2 million each in the second, third and fourth years of an agreement; and

The players dropped their request for a revised revenue-sharing policy that would penalize small-market teams for losing, instead focusing only on their request to reward small-market teams that increase local revenue on their own with more shared revenue.

Anyone who has followed these negotiations even remotely closely knows that this represents a significant ratcheting-back of demands on the part of the players. Indeed, given how revenues have grown and given the inflation rate, these demands, such as they are, would arguably result in a deal that is better for the owners than the 2017-2021 CBA that just expired. It promises to give the owners more in revenue than they even had before.

And the owners rejected it almost completely out-of-hand.

The owner basically want a salary cap that is untied to revenues.

[GirlySports]

Espn.com has unlocked Jeff Passan's latest today and it is straight fire

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...adline-arrives

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL is in a crisis of its own making, a self-inflicted wound borne of equal parts hubris, short-sightedness and stubbornness from a class of owners who run the teams and seemingly have designs on running the game into the ground. Barring a miracle eleventh-hour agreement Monday on a new labor deal that ends its lockout of the MLB Players Association, the league has said it will cancel Opening Day games. That baseball finds itself on the precipice of such an ugly denouement is no accident. It is a study in the consequences of bad behavior -- of indignities big and small, of abiding by the letter of the law while ignoring its spirit and, worst of all, of alienating those who make the sport great.

[KelVarnsen]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498105734176722947

[KootenayFlamesFan]

A deal tonight? Wishful thinking I'm guessing, but dare to dream.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498530551401222146

[KootenayFlamesFan]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498532212991352836

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Sounds like 12 team playoffs is a done deal, now just trying to agree on some other issues. Still talking, which is a great sign. From MLB rumors........

Specific terms of the format being discussed are unclear. Hypothetically, it seems the likeliest scenario would see the top two teams in each league receive a bye through the first playoff round (similar to the format utilized in the NFL until that league expanded its own playoffs two years ago). That’d leave the division winner with the worst record and the three Wild Card teams in each league playing some kind of series to advance to the second round.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

No deal yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498565211648897028

[Strange Brew]

Amazing what a deadline can do. A day ago all hope was lost and the owners were unwilling to negotiate.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Ugh. That turned ugly again fast. Damn.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498771379721748482

[Strange Brew]

Their best and final offer?

Guess we move to the next deadline. Pro sports labor negotiations are brutal on fans.

[KelVarnsen]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498769687307563019

[flamingred89]

Damn. Knew it was too good to be true when things were seemingly progressing.

These negotiations really are a roller coaster for fans. Owners want more money. Star players want more money. The ones who lose out are the young players/utility guys who just want to carve out a little career and make a little cash while doing so.

[Senator Clay Davis]

MLB's committment to destroying their own sport is pretty impressive you must admit.

[KelVarnsen]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1498787338671038467

[flamingred89]

Manfred is a POS. I'll never get over how he completely ####ed up the cheating scandal and divided fans and players alike. Now watching him navigate in to a work stoppage is infuriating.