2021 MLB Regular Season thread

One of the suggestions off of that video was this one, where Nolan Ryan spends a couple minutes explaining his pitching grips. Literally inside baseball stuff, but interesting to hear him break it down, especially the part about the curveball. He makes it sound like he mostly used a different grip for it and didn't torque his elbow too much, which might explain how he lasted so long.

 

Ryan was a freak, he put incredible torque on his shoulder but was rarely injured.

Also, Al Leiter's son struck out 16 and tossed a no-hitter for Vandy vs. USC. Missed a perfect game with a leadoff walk.

 

Obligatory lede-in ...

Where does the time go? Seems like Big Hurt was playing just a few years ago.​

 

Starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani bats leadoff vs. the Padres...should he do this in the regular season, he’d be the first pitcher to bat leadoff in an NL game since 1901.
Oh, and he smacked a single.

 

@Songbird you know what would be great? If you started a new thread to post these rando historical posts in. That way everyone interested in them could discuss them freely and the regular season thread could motor on with that topic.

 

You mean the regular season started and I didn't know about it? Wow. Who's in first place?

 

The Braves!

 

We should dissect top-5, when the game became official in case the rains came.

• Davidson at first base.
• GONSOLIN PITCHING FOR LAD
• Crawford grounded out to second.
• CLEAVINGER PITCHING FOR LAD
• Slater singled to right.
• Dubon singled to left, Slater to second.
• Dubon stole second, Slater stole third.
• La Stella struck out swinging.
• Yastrzemski tripled to deep right, Slater scored and Dubon scored.
• Solano singled to center, Yastrzemski scored.
• Flores grounded out to shortstop.
• 3 RUNS, 4 HITS, 0 ERRORS

I believe this means Yaz 3.0 could be considered clutch -- CLUTCH! -- this season and penciled into the 3-slot, maybe cleanup, because these are where some of the best RBI hitters occupy the lineup, traditionally. And the fact Solano followed Yaz 3.0's 2-run triple with a run-scoring single means that Yaz has protection behind him and will see many more good pitches. Not sure how park conditions and VORP/BABIP play into things this season for the Giants but by-gum, things are on the up and up for the San Francisco Giants based on the top of the 5th inning of a game 10 days before Opening Day. And this should give fans great enthusiasm because the Giants were 7-9 before yesterday's game and the defending champion Dodgers were 10-5. What a regular season we're going to have in 2021!