2013 MLB Regular Season running thread

I liked the old Rex. He's not going to keep his job by changing.

Mark Kriegel had a good column on Rex:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000234603/article/rex-ryan-lacks-usual-bluster-in-critical-year-with-new-york-jets?icampaign=ATL_newsdriver

 

I do think McGwire should be in the Hall. He hit, what 49 homers as a rookie?

 

That may be true, but that doesn't mean they don't provide you with a performance advantage. A hitter still has to make contact, true, and squaring up a major-league pitch has to be one of the toughest tasks ever ... but if you're a nudge stronger, when you square that ball up it's going to go a nudge faster and perhaps a nudge farther. That nudge could easily be the difference between a base hit (perhaps even a home run) and an out. At the uppermost levels, the difference between being merely very good and being exceptional is so small that PEDs could easily provide that nudge.

 

I find it amazing that he cleared waivers. His numbers are solid. It seems like some team would have made a claim.

 

How does taking steroids not help you execute baseball skills any better? Does it not allow a pitcher to throw the ball harder or a hitter to swing the bat faster?

 

Well, there's some murkiness in that phrase "execute baseball skills" that provides some wiggle room. Because you still have to see the pitch and react to the pitch. One could argue with some credibility that steroids don't help you in those facets of the game. However, if one is benefiting from steroids, the payoff one gets from executing said skills is higher. So a slugger might make really solid contact at the same rate per at bats, but the number of bases he receives, on average, from such contact increases as a result of his steroid-enhanced power. Similarly, a good for-average hitter could see his average increase, because the number of grounders that get past the infielders increases simply because the grounders are just a smidge faster. Again, one is executing as before, but the payoff to execution increases.

I'm not so sure about pitchers. I suspect the effect steroids had on pitchers was primarily on the lower end of the distribution -- i.e., it made major-leaguers out of those who heretofore would not have been major-league material (w.r.t. size, strength). But I have absolutely no evidence to support that supposition.

 

King Felix can't even record an out in the fourth inning. Departs after 78 pitches with an 8-0 deficit.

His all-time record against Texas is 12-19, fixing to be 12-20. Every player has That Effing Team.

 

I'm not following you here. Why is McGwire's rookie year particularly persuasuive for his HOF case?

 

He hit 49 home runs.

 

And that was before there was evidence of him using PEDs. Not that he may not have been using them.

 

Yeah, I get why it's impressive. I just think it odd to cite it as Exhibit A of his HOF case. He phrased it like it was an argument-ender.

 

I read somewhere that they are talking to the Twins about Justin Morneau, who also cleared waivers. That makes a little more sense since he is still set to receive two months worth of his $14 million salary for 2013. Byrd wasn't even owed much with a $750,000 salary for this season.