Put in the minority but I'd rather they get away with the DH. I love the strategy behind the pitcher hitting and love when you see a pitcher able to knock a hit or better. I understand that this is their long term plan to get rid of it as well as it does shorten games, but still. Sad day for me on this one.
The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to brocoli For This Useful Post:
With a shortened spring training it will be a few starts for pitchers to be stretched out so they will be needing to put in a reliever sooner rather then later. Even with 30 man benches it would be putting a strain on the bench early.
Really good article that breaks down how ugly this negotiation is going to get and how it could end up in a missed season altogether. Also point some of the changes we would see rule wise in a shortened season.
As far as the 50-50 split goes, I suspect the owners blink more than the players on that one, but if the players could get over their fear of a salary cap, they could possibly sneak a much larger long term win into this.
If the owners have to maintain the March agreement with the union, they are going to take a bath this year. Really big financial losses. But, given how poor the overall CBA is for the players, most of that will be made back up in the next few years. The issue for MLB owners here is similar to NHL owners in 1994-95: too many will still make decent money for there to be enough unity. The teams that are going to lose less money not playing just don't represent a large enough group to hold out.
On the players' side though... if they were to work this negotiation into a re-negotiation of the larger CBA with a 50-50 revenue split and the salary cap and floor that would necessarily come with, they would turn a short term loss (2020) into a major win and solution to two of their biggest complaints: the fact that their share of revenues has fallen to the low-mid 40% range, and the fact that several teams don't bother spending on players. Not sure the owners would go for this under normal circumstances, but in a pandemic panic, perhaps the players could sneak a massive long term win through.
Canceling the season seems to be the worst option though. In fact, I'd be really interested to see if MLB could even do that. With various states and localities starting to allow the resumption of sporting events sans specators, the argument for force majeure is diminished. If the owners say F it and cancel because the players won't play ball, so to speak, I would not be surprised if the union considers it a breach of the CBA and sues.
Put in the minority but I'd rather they get away with the DH. I love the strategy behind the pitcher hitting and love when you see a pitcher able to knock a hit or better. I understand that this is their long term plan to get rid of it as well as it does shorten games, but still. Sad day for me on this one.
Does the DH really shorten games? It seems that DH extends innings. I don't like the DH as it does take away strategy and takes away the natural balance of the game.
The theory on a shorter game is that you would have fewer unnecessary pitching changes to replace a god awful hitter with a useful one. IIRC, statistically it makes almost no difference. NL games aren't really any shorter than AL games.
On the flip side, I don't really buy the strategy argument as a defence of pitchers hitting either. The double switch is hardly deep strategy, and I don't think it makes up for the painful nature of watching pitchers flail away uselessly at the plate 4-6 times a game.
The theory on a shorter game is that you would have fewer unnecessary pitching changes to replace a god awful hitter with a useful one. IIRC, statistically it makes almost no difference. NL games aren't really any shorter than AL games.
On the flip side, I don't really buy the strategy argument as a defence of pitchers hitting either. The double switch is hardly deep strategy, and I don't think it makes up for the painful nature of watching pitchers flail away uselessly at the plate 4-6 times a game.
There's all sorts of strategy involved with pitchers hitting. Do you keep a pitcher in the 6th or 7th if he's pitching well? Do you pitch to the 8 hitter? The 8 hitter has the responsibility to get the lineup turned over. Pitchers bunting a guy over to get to the top of the order vs screwing up the bunt is an interesting element. The concept of a lead off hitter is almost irrelevant with a DH. Saving or burning PHs can be compelling in a tight game. Cat and mouse games of matching up pinch hitters and relief pitchers is also compelling. Being a Nationals fan, I watch 95% NL games and all those elements are a big part of the game to me.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to nfotiu For This Useful Post:
I would argue that the DH creates more strategy because of all the strategies you can employ if you have a real hitter and baserunner in the game. Instead, we have wasted at-bats to the point where I believe it’s criminal to charge fans money to see pitchers hit.
__________________
Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to GirlySports For This Useful Post:
There's all sorts of strategy involved with pitchers hitting. Do you keep a pitcher in the 6th or 7th if he's pitching well? Do you pitch to the 8 hitter? The 8 hitter has the responsibility to get the lineup turned over. Pitchers bunting a guy over to get to the top of the order vs screwing up the bunt is an interesting element. The concept of a lead off hitter is almost irrelevant with a DH. Saving or burning PHs can be compelling in a tight game. Cat and mouse games of matching up pinch hitters and relief pitchers is also compelling. Being a Nationals fan, I watch 95% NL games and all those elements are a big part of the game to me.
Is there? The only actual strategy there is "should I double switch in the 7th with a pitcher having a good-but-not-outstanding game?" Do you pitch to the 8 hitter? Almost always yes. There might be one at bat in a hundred where it makes sense to pitch around someone who is generally the second worst hitter on the other team. Pitchers bunting is hardly strategic. Got a runner on with less than two outs? Almost always bunt. That's not strategy. That's lack of skill forcing your hand. The 'cat and mouse' of pitching changes vs. pinch hitters exists in DH ball as well.
So yeah, it still all comes back to 4-6 useless at bats a game vs. that rare time the double switch has a material impact on the outcome.
The Following User Says Thank You to Resolute 14 For This Useful Post:
Location: Wondering when # became hashtag and not a number sign.
Exp:
So if Blake Snell is any sort of indicator as to where the players thought process is at, you can kiss this season good bye right now.
Quote:
"Y'all gotta understand, man, for me to go -- for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof," Snell said while answering questions on his Twitch channel. "It's a shorter season, less pay.
"No, I gotta get my money. I'm not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that's just the way it is for me. Like, I'm sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I'm making is way lower. Why would I think about doing that?"
Snell, who was scheduled to make $7 million in 2020, said that he "love[s] baseball to death" but is unwilling to accept multiple reductions of his salary.
"Bro, I'm risking my life," Snell said. "What do you mean it should not be a thing? It should 100% be a thing. If I'm gonna play, I should be getting the money I signed to be getting paid. I should not be getting half of what I'm getting paid because the season's cut in half, on top of a 33% cut of the half that's already there -- so I'm really getting, like, 25%.
"On top of that, it's getting taxed. So imagine how much I'm actually making to play, you know what I'm saying?"
Then after being informed how horrendously bad the optics of those comments "may" be, he backtracked...kind of.
Quote:
Snell emphasized in the video that he is concerned about the long-term health effects of possibly contracting COVID-19, saying the damage to his body is "gonna be there forever."
"I mean honestly it's just scary to risk my life to get Covid-19 as well as not knowing and spreading it to the others,'' Snell texted to the Times. "I just want everyone to be healthy and get back to our normal lives cause I know I miss mine!"
"I'm just saying, it doesn't make sense for me to lose all of that money and then go play," he said. "And then be on lockdown, not around my family, not around the people I love, and getting paid way the hell less -- and then the risk of injury runs every time I step on the field."
So Im assuming if he was getting paid his full salary for the half season...THEN the risk would be worth it...I guess?
"No, I gotta get my money", says the guy apparently willing to hold out for $0.
This is going to be like a regular CBA negotiation in the NHL - Eventually a drop dead date gets set and they squabble right up to the 11th hour.
Like how the NHL and the players came to an 11th hour agreement in 2005? Thing is, pretty short timeframe to agree on some incredibly complex issues here for MLB. The whole money issue might make it tough to get an agreement in time to play half a season. You’d need to start “spring training” in less than a month to have a season start on 4th of July.
Snell hopefully doesn’t represent views of many players. “It doesn’t make sense for me to lose all that money and then go play”. LOL
Snell is an idiot. If his manager, agent, publicist, beautician, massage therapist, paying off local politicians, or whatever his expenses are; are on him. Taxes are a burden of all citizens.
If he does half the work, he gets half the pay.
Buttercup needs to make do on $3.5M this season, and accept that he is going to be under higher scrutiny in terms of his health and wellbeing for the rest of the year.
__________________
"We don't even know who our best player is yet. It could be any one of us at this point." - Peter LaFleur, player/coach, Average Joe's Gymnasium
Starling Marte was 10 when his mother passed away and now his kids will grow up without theirs. She broke her ankle and was in the hospital and said to be awaiting surgery when she passed. Heartbreaking.
@Dbacks:
We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic passing of Noelia Marte. Starling and his family are part of the D-backs’ family and we will do all we can to support him and their children during this incredibly difficult time.
Died of a catastrophic heart attack. Considering where she was when it happened, I don't think that there was anything that anybody could do about it.
__________________
"We don't even know who our best player is yet. It could be any one of us at this point." - Peter LaFleur, player/coach, Average Joe's Gymnasium
