2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

I read that this morning. I had no idea so few teams put on the shift. I assumed everyone did and that it's been something teams have done forever. Boy, was I way off.

 

Blue Jays have been doing it more this season than I can ever remember.

 

It was extremely rare when I was a kid. You might see it a couple of times a season, and when you did, they would talk about how teams implemented a shift against Ted Williams!

So, it wasn't unprecedented, but it was rare enough to point out the most famous example of it, which was decades earlier.

The way every play -- every pitch -- is charted these days, it just makes sense to do it.

 

The Braves are the only team I see with regularity, but I know teams have been shifting on Brian McCann for the last three or so years, and now they're starting to do it on Freddie Freeman. He hit a line shot up the middle last night vs the Cubs that should have been an RBI single, but Starlin Castro was playing right behind the bag and turned it into a routine line out (and nearly a double play).

The Braves have also been shifting on Ryan Howard for a couple of years. I'm sure other teams do it, too.

 

56runs sounds like a typo.

 

I don't think the Jays are unique in that. Seems like it's becoming the norm around MLB this season.

 

Sorry if this already was asked, I didn't read this whole thread, but can someone explain to me why broadcasters keep saying Cole Hamels will miss a start because of his five-game suspension?

Since he pitches every fifth game, he will only have his next start pushed back by one day.

In my thinking, for a starter to truly miss a start, he would have to be suspended for 10 games.

What am I missing?

 

Harper batting second tonight with Zimmerman and LaRoche back in the lineup. Espinosa (!!!!) "hitting" fifth.

 

With the obvious exception of Espinosa, that's a great idea.

 

1. It's comical because dotting Harper where Hamels did shouldn't make the short list of biggest offenses of the last 30 years. “I’ve never seen a more classless, gutless chicken [bleep] act in my 30 years in baseball." Overreact much? Let's be a little reasonable, maybe.

2. Yes, Hamels dotting him was stupid. Yes, it was even stupider to mouth off about it. But let's not act like this is the first time in history somebody's been hit for little or no reason.

3. Clear hatred for the Nats? Holy cow, man, you've gone full fanboy. I'll have to give a shit about them before I can hate them.

Oh, and if you're gonna get all pissy every time somebody misspells one of your pitchers' names, it's gonna be a long season.

 

I can't claim to have been hit with 93 mph fastballs, but is there a difference between getting hit in the small of the back and in the ass? Because everyone keeps saying Harper got beaned in the ass. Which is wrong. He was hit in the back.

Again, maybe it's all the same. I don't know. I'm assuming there's a better chance of shit going wrong when you get hit in the back as opposed to getting hit in the ass.

 

Yeah, he got hit right in the kidneys. Seem like that could be harzardous.