MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

Another problem is that it's nowhere near the fix it and forget it solution it used to be, probably b/c most guys who had it pre-2000s weren't then trying to throw a baseball thru a brick wall. Tommy John, of course, threw junk, as did David Wells, who I believe had the surgery in 1985 or so and pitched w/o incident (well, in terms of an arm injury, anyway) thru 2007. Now, the general belief is a pitcher is just as in danger of tearing his repaired UCL 10 years out as someone who's never had the surgery. And that time frame has coincided with Strasburg's career-altering injuries and Jacob deGrom's litany of injuries. It used to be just the random bad luck guy who needed it multiple times. This year alone, it's happened at least to Joe Ross and Chris Paddack.

 

Complete games aren't coming back unless MLB hitters become less threatening. Pitchers can't take batters "off" because even most team's light hitting SS can now power an 85 MPH fastball over the fence easily. Like, look at the Dodgers' 1964 roster, a roughly .500 team. Part of its playing at Dodger Stadium, but they had one guy with 20+ homers, another 3 with 10+, and everyone else under. The team's on-base was .305, and slugging was .340. In 2021, the lowest slugging team in the league was the Pirates at .364. The league average was .411. A lot easier to cycle through lineups if you're just not worried at all about half of the lineup.

 

Are you saying this guy wouldn't have a place in today's game?

 

Well, he is a catcher who sucks at offense, so he would still probably be a back-up for 20 years. I think that was one of Baseball Prospectus' early humorous tenants - that the defensive and "game calling" ability of a catcher was in inverse proportion to his hitting ability.

 

The '64 Dodgers were notoriously light-hitting even for that era. They were without '62 and '63 BA leader Tommy Davis due to injury. They were a .500 team only because of Koufax and Drysdale. This was in the period of overall decline in hitting that led to the mound being lowered in '69.

 

The DH has to factor into this somewhere. No pitchers to throw to anymore.

 

CF playing way too shallow. That ball didn't even hit the warning track.

 

Weak sauce, Rob Parker.

 

Bader is the new Edmonds, he'll get roasted twice for every 'spectacular' catch he makes.

 

In that situation you want to get beaten by a guy who hits the ball 350-plus feet and not the one who hits it 125 feet.