MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

I remember he was always really good in the first half and then faded in the second half, because he was 40 years old, throwing 82 mph and looked like a bowler. Per WAR, he's got an awfully interesting HOF case.

 

Michael, I don't dislike the Phillies and the Padres are interesting - how is this team going to distribute winner shares? - but this is not capturing the imagination. Part of the problem is the average baseball fan has no idea who anyone on the Phillies even is besides Harper and the Phanatic.

 

Mark Whicker is writing via substack. Couple days ago, he wrote about ex-Angels manager Joe Maddon's book. A couple of things he pointed out from the book:

"GM Perry Minasian and analytics henchman Alex Tamin had their own lockers in the clubhouse, just off the coaches’ room. So much for spontaniety and the concept of an inner sanctum.
"Tamin had worked in the Dodgers’ analytics department before he joined Minasian in Atlanta. It is instructive to note that the Dodgers have continued to win 100-plus games without Tamin, and the Angels have continued to miss playoffs and suffer losing seasons with him. Interference from Minasian and Tamin, especially pre-game and post-game visits to Maddon’s office, caused tension that Maddon released when he was fired. He called the firing “liberating” and said Minasian & Co. 'did not read the tea leaves properly.' ”

"Maddon saved some ammo for the book. In this final chapter, he recounts that Minasian ordered him to remove Mike Trout from a lopsided May 9 victory over Tampa Bay. 'That broke a sacred code,' Maddon said. But so did the removal of Maddon’s jurisdiction over his bullpen. Minasian and Tamin began telling the manager who was available on any particular night, based on a 30-day algorithm that Tamin had devised. The relievers themselves were generally stunned to learn, pre-game, that they might as well go home."

 

The Angels being terrible for a 100 years shows you that analytics don’t work.

Do you think the Dodgers went away from analytics once they lost him?

 

Not the concept, but the guy.
All I'm doing is showing how the front office interfered with the on-field manager. That is Whik's point and I agree with it.

 

And it happens in 90% of the dugouts across the league.

 

And it shouldn't.

 

Just texted with a friend who is a Phillies fan. Asked him if he was going tonight and he said yes. Tickets cost him only $700 because he got $100 discount for promising to bring his glove to loan to the infielders.

 

Here’s something you don’t see anymore
I got an Al Kaline model at Bat Day
Does anyone still do Bat Day in this day and age?

 

FWIW, this account is followed by Ken Rosenthal:

 

There’s just something weird about that collection of talent on the South Side. Even the 2021 season.

1+1 doesn’t equal two there when it comes to talent equaling success. Maybe a new manager figures it out.