f13.net

Because it's time for a new one, I guess?

Anyway, I thought of Paelos when I read the Times piece on lack of fundamentals. Kids can hit, and pitch, but fielding grounders and simple throwing and catching are suffering.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/sports/baseball/they-can-hit-400-foot-homers-but-playing-catch-thats-tricky.html

Yep! New season, and the Braves are already 0-1! Yeehaw our bullpen sucks!

I learned up close and personal kids aren't doing the fundamentals when I watched two college programs a few weeks back and UGA committed 8 errors in one game.

Ridiculous. And the Braves lost their first game because our catcher didn't know to stand on top of the plate when applying a tag.

Curious to see how Cleveland fucks things up this season.   :oh_i_see:


Go Tribe....

Cleveland will likely still be quite good this year. Not to jinx things, but I don't find it unlikely that we get a World Series rematch this year. OTOH, it's the Tribe and the Cubs and fucking up a good thing is kind of in their DNA.  :why_so_serious:

This is fucking unforgiveable. I played catcher, that is literally the first thing you learn for the position.

I'm telling you, there are routine screwups in the majors now on stuff that should be relatively simple.

Putting the ball in play with a runner on 3rd and one out? They'll fuck that up routinely instead of shortening up their swing.
Bunting to beat a shift? Forget it, they just swing as hard as they can and keep hitting into the shifts.
Hitting the cutoff man instead of gunning it up the line to home? Nope.
Holding runners as an Ace pitcher? Nope, I can just strike my way out of this.
Executing a hit and run?
Catching with two hands?

I could go on and on about how the reason scoring is down is because this current crop of players has no fucking clue how to actually play the game.

I don't know..I see all of that still. If a guy isn't doing something like shortening his swing it's usually a top hitter so I have to assume the coaches just want him free swinging because that's what he's paid 20$ million for.

But hey, at least you have all the knuckle ballers.

The Sox bunted against the shift on opening day..:D So far we think John Farrell might have been body switched by aliens. He's actually managing like a semi-competent human being.

Right, but if I have a runner on first and you're shifting over my best hitter who I assume is in the 3 slot? I can then bunt and give my cleanup guy the shot to drive in a run with a single.

I understand not bunting if the bases are clear and you're in a tie game.

So it's time for a new baseball season! The Cubs are starting really fitfully - their pitching isn't as good as last year, which is something I expected and they are blooding a few new guys in everyday/mostly everyday roles like Contreras and Almora and Schwarber. I expect the playoffs but I'm not sure I can expect them to repeat this year but I didn't expect them to make it last year either so who knows?

I went to my local minor league team's game last night - the Mississippi Braves (Atlanta's AA affiliate). It was a fun night, the Braves won 9-4 and I got to see at least 2-3 guys I think have a chance of making the Braves major league roster in 2 years time. Kade Scivicque will probably make it - he's young, has a cannon for an arm, is a catcher which is a position the Braves have no other long-term options at AAA or the majors and so far he can hit (hitting .340+ so far this year). Carlos Franco might make it - his career minor league stats are nothing too impressive but he's already hit 7 homers so far this year as DH/3B, which is a position that the Braves also have no long term options. He's 25 and since he was DHing, he may end up somewhere else, but if his power numbers stay consistent, he could make his way up.

There's a thread already.

Because I am both blind and retarded, I'll repost this in the proper thread.

So it's time for a new baseball season! The Cubs are starting really fitfully - their pitching isn't as good as last year, which is something I expected and they are blooding a few new guys in everyday/mostly everyday roles like Contreras and Almora and Schwarber. I expect the playoffs but I'm not sure I can expect them to repeat this year but I didn't expect them to make it last year either so who knows?

I went to my local minor league team's game last night - the Mississippi Braves (Atlanta's AA affiliate). It was a fun night, the Braves won 9-4 and I got to see at least 2-3 guys I think have a chance of making the Braves major league roster in 2 years time. Kade Scivicque will probably make it - he's young, has a cannon for an arm, is a catcher which is a position the Braves have no other long-term options at AAA or the majors and so far he can hit (hitting .340+ so far this year). Carlos Franco might make it - his career minor league stats are nothing too impressive but he's already hit 7 homers so far this year as DH/3B, which is a position that the Braves also have no long term options. He's 25 and since he was DHing, he may end up somewhere else, but if his power numbers stay consistent, he could make his way up.

Well at least the Jays have stabilized, sorta..

Bautista and Martin still hitting below .200, at least Martin provides value to the pitchers as a veteran catcher but Bautista looks done. Glad that contract is just 1 year (+ option). Batspeed is just slowing down too much he can't keep up. Travis is under .200 also but he'll bounce back and probably be .300 by August. really good young hitter.

The good news is the pitching is holding up, even with Sanchez and Happ injured, and the bench guys are hitting well while Donaldson and Tulowitzki are on the shelf for the next few weeks.

Looks like all the massive sell off talf was premature although at 12-20 they're going to have to do some heavy lifting just to get back to .500 let alone wild card discussion. Just extra difficult for them to make ground when they play so many games against the AL East where you're a .500 record against the other 4 teams is basically the norm and the best you can  hope for when they're all pretty good and play each other tough.

Wow. Someone screenshot a mod fuckup. :D

Did you see Travis Demeritte play? He's getting all the talk in Atlanta about coming up to play 3rd eventually. Also Kolby Allard and Max Fried as pitchers get a ton of coverage here because they are doing so well. Also Ronald Acuna in the outfield.

Yea, Travis Demerritte looks good too. He was playing that night, he just didn't stand out as much as the other two. There is some talent in the Braves system, but it's 1-2 years out at least. They had a pretty decent pitcher come in for the 6-8th innings who had some hot stuff.

We're sort of banging our heads against a wall now since our MVP candidate went down for 10 weeks with a broken wrist.

I hate this season already.

Looking at the number of 30+ aged no-names in your lineup, I'm pretty sure this was going to be a wasted season anyway.

MLB players and the sport's commentariat really need to stop getting so worked up about batflips, makes the league look ridiculous. People seriously think it's ok to throw a 90mph hard projectile at someone cuz they got pumped after hitting a HR?? Pitchers are such loser hypocrites too, I don't see batters chucking their bat at them when they yell and do a wild fist pump after a big strikeout which they do all the time.

You don't see this in other major leagues. Nobody ever says someone deserves to be punched out for a showy celly after a goal in hockey or a TD in football, maybe just some mockery for being ridiculously over the top or a bit fruity is about it, but no one advocating or delivering physical harm for it.

Yes, the bat flip thing is utterly ridiculous.

Freddie Freeman was on an MVP tear, that was the only thing. He was having a Dale Murphy season. And now it's shot, so we have nothing.

Go Tribe!   :drill:

Cleveland peaked too soon,  :grin:

Probably. I'm not penciling them into the AL championship game. There is a small piece of me that would like to see them take the AL pennant again, but they'll just screw up the Series...again. So they'll probably get bounced in the ALDS.

annnnnnnnnnd done.  :oh_i_see:

And everything is almost back to normal in Cleveland.  Just have to wait for the Cavs to lose and Lebron to take his talents leave town again. :awesome_for_real:

June 2018! Sadly, at that time there will be all the hype about whatever doomed college players the Browns drafted. Seriously, fuck that sports town. No possible way for a town to be that inept across all sports.

I'm glad I'm not heavily invested in baseball this year with the real possibility of a Dodgers/Yankees World Series looming.  Let's goooooo Houston!

I just can't understand scheduling a game 5 for 2 East Coast/Mid-West teams to start at 8 pm Eastern.  By the 6th inning I was nodding off and when midnight rolled around and they hadn't even started the 8th inning yet I just gave up and went to bed.  Sounds like the game ended around 1.  Not as bad as the 13 inning game last year that didn't end until 3 am, but at least that was Giant/Cubs so I understand that the East Coast will get screwed a little bit on the scheduling there.

Anyways, MLB playoff scheduling is dumb.

One of the games got rained out the other day didn't it?

Yeah, Tuesdays 5:30 ET game was rained out and moved to Wednesday @ 4:30 ET, which was a travel day.

Well done MLB you just told the world that it's ok to insult someone for their race if the event is important enough... :uhrr: :uhrr: :uhrr:

The spice advertising revenue must flow.

Uhhhhh, what?

EDIT: Never mind, found it. WOW.

I get what they are saying about the appeals process, I just think that's some pretty low-rent, Mickey Mouse shit to use as an excuse.

Game 7. This one should be a complete doozy given how many starters will be available to come out of the pen.

Also after this I expect the MLB to lay the wood to the Braves over our corruption scandal and steal half our farm system.

The two best teams in baseball going the distance. Pretty good shit. Go Astros?

The games for the most part have been amazing. Great time for my son to start being interested in baseball.  (Unfortunately that means more little league.. ugggggg)

Juiced ball or not, this is as fun as baseball gets.

It's amazing that the game is popular as it is considering how f'ing terrible little league is. I've never met a parent that says 'I love going to little league games! They are so much fun and fast paced!'

Lastros to World Champs. If the last two years don't show you anything is possible in baseball, I don't know what does.

This is an interesting time to be a fan because I've thought the parity was lacking for a long time. I still do in areas, but both the Cubs and the Astros are testaments to complete rebuilds actually working. It's sort of terrifying that we're seeing that in almost every sports league now. Teams are embracing massive loss years for the chance to win a title and reset the organization.

*ahem*

/cry

The thing that's made both the Cubs and Astros' success possible though is that despite the tanking, those teams were still making stupid amounts of money. The same goes for both the NFL and NBA - all these teams (even the ones "losing money") are solvent enough and have enough revenue coming in that they can afford to lose for long enough that their scouting department can hopefully find enough pieces to win.

They also finally hired competent people to run their teams. The Browns have definitely not done that, judging by the aborted AJ McCarron trade on Tuesday. WTF.

Nobody liked going to children’s sports of any kind.  They play them all universally bad (kids soccer may be the worst).

Hot Stove heating up! Even if Giancarlo Stanton hasn't been traded yet, the Marlins are starting the fire sale early. Dee Gordon traded to the Mariners for a couple of spare parts and $1 million in international allocation money (http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21703718/dee-gordon-traded-miami-marlins-seattle-mariners).

Only the Mariners would trade for a Gold Glove 2nd baseman to play center field.

Meanwhile, Shohei Otani is going to the Angels of all places.

Not only not a Mariner, but on a division rival. Extra crispy shitty. Sigh.

The Yankees will MASH, and probably lose in the playoffs to a team with better pitching. :D

Uhg, hope so. Rough day though to be a Jays, Rays or Orioles fan when you know the Sox are gonna respond with a big UFA or two while the former 3 teams are looking at teardowns.