2013-14 MLB Hot Stove thread

No one wants to admit this, but Posey's shitty technique was partially responsible for that injury. I talked to a retired MLB catcher once who was livid about it and he broke it down in great detail about how it was clear no one had ever taught him how to properly take a throw and block the plate.

 

For every catcher who gets injured by a runner, 1000 get injured by the baseball.

 

Alex Avila had to leave a World Series game this year after getting run over at the plate.

 

The Tigers made the World Series??

 

Are we counting leaving a game as a major injury?

 

Ah, dang it. I meant Avila had to leave a game during the last competitive series of the year.

Probably not, but it definitely had an impact. Avila also missed substantial time this year because of concussions. That was from a foul ball (or an accumulation), but getting run over doesn't help there either.

As was said earlier on the thread, I think by doctorquant, it's just an unnecessary part of the game that doesn't really fit with what the rest of baseball is.

 

Eh, I don't get the argument that it "doesn't really fit with" baseball when it's been a part of the game since its inception.

I just don't see this having any real impact on player safety. Foul balls and HBPs are far more likely to cause serious injuries.

 

I think we need to ban swinging the bat. Those foul balls have been wreaking havoc on catchers' brains forever.

 

Brian Roberts to the Yankees for 1 year, $2 million plus incentives:

https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/412935168521826305

 

Good deal. Between him & Johnson, you hope you have enough & move on. Remember, the 2b on the '96 team was Mariano Duncan. Better than overpaying for Phillips.

 

So because catchers get injured in one way, being hit by foul balls, that means it should be open season on them to get injured in every other conceivable way?

Come on, guys. Foul tips are inextricably tied to the core battle of a baseball game, the battle between pitcher and hitter. The hazard to catchers can be mitigated with protective equipment, and it has been, but it can't be eliminated entirely. Collisions at the plate, on the other hand, can be excised from the game with a de minimis impact on the heart of the competition.

Think about it this way: In basketball, we can't ban sharp cuts to the basket because they sometimes result in ACL tears. But we can ban elbows to the temple and consistency does not suffer, right? In hockey, clean checks frequently result in upper body injuries. So do hockey sticks to the head. One is permissible. The other is not. Does that bother you guys, too?

Home plate collisions are silly. How much is that one run really worth, in a 162-game schedule, compared to the potential risk of losing your starting catcher for some length of time? I remember a few years ago watching from the press box as Torii Hunter put Jamie Burke in the hospital. Then there's, of course, the Buster Posey situation. Or Ray Fosse.

The posts about foul tips are no different than the posts we see, here and elsewhere, during gun control flare-ups when people think they win the Internet by posting that kitchen knives or staplers or some other recent instrument of a freak injury should be banned now, too. It's not a winning argument there, it's not a winning argument here.

 

Actually, I'm fairly certain tony thinks both of those are winning arguments.