MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

Releasing Cano was the absolute right baseball move for the Mets. Previous ownership never would’ve done that.

 

I've watched the clip explaining the rules, and I've watched the first clip about five times, and I still can't figure out what the batter did wrong. Did he take both feet out of the box? Take more than 5 seconds to get back in? It looked like he was in there ready to hit when the pitcher was ready to throw, and wasn't taking an egregious amount of time to reset, so why can't there be some umpire discretion and we can just play ball?
Or why can't they just put the onus on the pitcher to throw before the clock expires, and it's up to the batter to be ready whenever that is?

 

I saw it up close and personal at a Mud Hens game a couple weeks ago.

Batter has X amount of time to be set up and ready for the pitch, not just standing around and flexing in the box. If he isn't, the ump calls a strike. It was also strike three for the Mud Hen, who argued and then his manager came out and argued and was later ejected for arguing strikes. Most fans around me didn't know what was going on. On-base hitter Derek Hall explained it to a couple people in the front row.

Minor league games are taking around two hours, 35 minutes now. That one was a smidge over two hours. Being a 3-1 game might have been part of the reason.

 

I think it was 2 minutes, wasn't really paying attention.

The pitch clock, it is 14 seconds with no one on and 18 seconds with runners on. Batter must be ready by the time 9 seconds are left. It's 30 seconds for the first pitch of the AB.

 

The only interesting thing is going to be the 18 seconds with a runner on. If I'm a fast runner, I'm watching that clock and probably going after 16 seconds if the pitcher hasn't gone home yet mostly because I know a) he can't keep holding me and b) he might get flustered knowing he only has another second to throw. Yeah, I could get got by doing this if the pitcher decides to throw over with one second left, but makes things more fun. The other thing to watch is what do pitchers do when they are starting to struggle throwing strikes. Usually, they try to slow things down and be deliberate. Now they are going to be stressed and hurried.

In any case, it will be exciting to watch. Plus, everyone will get used to it. The problem with the substance example the second clip brought up (even though he's absolutely right, they eventually got used to it) there were so many blow ups because they started the rule in June. Start the pitch clock in Spring Training with warnings and then call balls and strikes when the regular season starts.

All in all, I like the idea. We don't need any more Nomars doing that hand dance and foot tap to make sure everything that is already skin tight is still skin tight after every time he stands in the box.

 

Whatever number they announce for tonight’s attendance in Oakland, if it has a comma in it, it’s too high.

 

I have never heard a Sterling game, I only know him from the interwebs.
But I read this year he is 80 years old.

At this point, this is on the Yankees, not on him. Retire him.

 

This happens enough that it requires a separate thread.

 

He's 83. But at this point, the game is a much bigger problem than that jackass.