2013 MLB Regular Season running thread

The fans don't want doubleheaders? OK.

 

Maybe you want to spend eight or nine hours at the ballpark, but could your mom afford to drive you there and stay with you for the trips to the bathroom?

 

I went to a doubleheader in DC last season, it was fun, but it's a really long evening.

 

No argument there on the twin bills, even the split day-night DHs. Sometimes ya gotta do them, though. The early days off are nice, but what do you do with a situation like the Indians and Yankees losing two dates?

 

Doubleheaders were fine when games were 2 hours long and teams averaged normally 10,000 fans a game. A doubleheader would draw more fans Now, with games 3:15 long, and teams averaging 30K fans per game and up (well, maybe not the Marlins), doubleheaders aren't really financially good, and the players don't like them.

 

If you think fans want doubleheaders, tune in to the start of the first game of a twi-night twinbill -- not that you find many of those any more. You can generally count the fans in the park without needing a fourth digit. Or a third.

 

People are at work? Sunday doubleheaders fill up the dang joint.

 

And I'm sure you have a broad body of evidence for that, given that there has been exactly one traditional daytime doubleheader in the past decade.

 

How long has it been since there's even been one scheduled doubleheader going into the start of the season? 15 years? 20?

 

Zach Greinke is out with a broken collarbone after Carlos Quentin charged the mound. Quentin should be suspended for as many games as Greinke will miss.
It was clear the pitch just got away from Greinke and it certainly was not intentional. What Quentin did was ridiculous for anybody who saw the play and understands baseball. Because of his stupidity, the Dodgers are now without one of their best pitchers. The Padres should be without Quentin as well.
If Quentin's been hit that many times over the course of his career, then maybe he should alter his stance, or just simply go to first base as his reward for "taking one for the team."
Injuries from non-game-related actions or from illegal on-field contact should result in suspensions equal to the amount of time the injured player misses. This should be applicable in all sports. You take a cheap shot at somebody and end his season, you're done for the season. It sure would minimize the number of dirty plays.
http://sulia.com/ron_clements/baseball/f/a6272c98-c5ba-472c-a242-d66c48bd5f76/?source=twitter&type=tag

 

After a little research, the Angels and A's had one in 2011 after the All-Star break ... but then I say to myself, "Self, why am I feeding the troll?"[/flipwilson]

EDIT for link: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Let-s-play-two-Athletics-schedule-traditional-d?urn=mlb-284723

 

Jayson Stark with a very good column on the Greinke-Quentin situation. Among the nuggets, I did not know that Quentin is apparently the Don Baylor of his day and then some:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9164643/dodgers-padres-brawl-repercussions

• But if you're interested in applying for Quentin's defense team, here's a stat to ponder, even though it looks more ominous out of context from this particular situation: Since 2008, Greinke has hit Quentin with a pitch three times in 31 plate appearances. That comes to one HBP every 10.3 trips to the plate. Greinke has faced 4,279 hitters not named Carlos Quentin in that span -- and hit just 19 of them. That comes to one every 225.2 trips to the plate. Your witness.

• Here's the response of one executive after I ran that stat past him Friday morning: "It's not like he's only been hit three times [since '08], all by Zack Greinke. All the guy does is get hit. He missed half the season last year, and he still got hit 17 times." This would be true. Of all players since 1900 who have been drilled at least 100 times in their careers, guess who has the highest rate of HBPs per plate appearance? That would be Quentin -- one every 24.1 PAs.