REFLECTIONS ON 2024

October 31, 2024, 11:46:31 AM

As the successful few enter the playoffs and the rest of us sharpen our pencils in anticipation of the arrival of Soto, Ohtani, and Harper, among others, on the free agent market, your humble servant has some observations on the just concluded 2024 flesh and blood MLB season.

Strike Zones
We are fortunate to be able to watch at least one game nearly every day of the MLB season. We view them early on the morning after on the MLB live streaming app. So, we are able to skip 2 or 3 minutes between innings, 20 seconds after every recorded out, and 10 seconds between pitches. Viewing time is cut in half. It also enables us to back up and review ball and strike calls. Since the middle of August, we have been keeping track of ball and strike calls by home plate umpires. We do not fault them for missing borderline pitches. Only for egregiously bad calls. Try to get behind the catcher and call a game perfectly. Won't happen very often. With those (admittedly subjective and inconsistent) parameters in place, there are around 5 bad calls per game. The worst game I watched was by Sean Barber- 13 bad calls. David Rackley and Andy Fletcher both recorded 10's. On the other end of the spectrum, Alex Mackey recorded a 0 and a 2, Chad Fairchild a 0 and a 3, and Adam Hamory a 2. There were many, many good performances. Angel Hernandez retired before we began this project. Our conclusion: we oppose the imposition of an electronic strike on the game. Rare is the bad call that changes the result of any game. We add that we don't like the presence of coach's challenges in any sport at all. Whether it is a t-ball game or the 7th game of the World Series or the Super Bowl, it is just a game. The fans will enjoy the games, the players will all be paid regardless of the results, and we don't give a flying bleep about the gamblers.

PLAYOFF SCHEDULING
We couldn't help but notice the frankly religious fervor of the network broadcasters in describing the arrival of a "classic" World Series staged between the Yankees and Dodgers. Most Americans probably weren't alive the last time that happened. One broadcast team even suggested that series staged the best teams in each league don't happen often enough, and that changes should be made to the rules to correct this problem. We are sure that the network moguls would agree. After all, who wants to sponsor or watch a series between the Snakes and the Rangers? The solution, of course, is to eliminate the playoffs. But then, interest in the final 5 or 6 weeks of the regular season would disappear. That's not gonna happen. The real problem in our mind is the frequency of "travel days" during the post season. The relatively weak pitching staffs, of low-income teams are not so vulnerable when their better pitchers can throw a higher than usual percentage of innings. And strong bullpens are way more affordable than highly paid superstars. How many teams could afford to pay Ohtani 3/4 of a billion dollars? Solve that problem by having the teams play 6 or 7 games a week during the post season instead of 4 or 5. Teams fly between cities all season long without off-days. Make them do it in October, too. The stronger teams will prevail more often.

BOB COSTAS
For heaven's sake, ban him from the broadcast booth.

Thanks for your attention.

Re: REFLECTIONS ON 2024

Reply #1 – October 31, 2024, 05:19:42 PM

Costas retired today. Good prediction there Nostradamus

Re: REFLECTIONS ON 2024

Reply #2 – November 01, 2024, 08:26:34 PM

I typically don't watch a ton of baseball but I think the shorter games got me to watch more (also the Tigers got exciting so I jumped on the bandwagon). I was impressed with the strike calling and remember being frustrated in the past? Has the threat of electronic calls got umpires to actually try? Any technology that allows us to remove randomness, luck, and wrong calls from a sport is always welcome by me. I'm here to watch the best in the world play a sport with a set of rules. Those that do it best should win. I know a Tiger pitcher that had a perfect game taken from him; Such an amazing effort that lives no where in the record books.

I don't understand why baseball plays such short series. I'm sure the statisticians have to be screaming about the variability in baseball being the highest of any sport. You need like 20 game series to figure out the better team ... but still, at least do 7 in all rounds.

Re: REFLECTIONS ON 2024

Reply #3 – November 01, 2024, 08:34:33 PM

That was the gist of the broadcast team's suggestion. A 7 game divisional series.

The Tigers and Royals were fun, for sure.

I love it when the cannon fodder rises to bring down the royalty.

Re: REFLECTIONS ON 2024

Reply #4 – November 02, 2024, 11:57:30 AM

I love it when the entire teams salary is lower than the guy who blows the save! But Tigers need to think about writing some good contracts if they want to build anything real! Didn't even get an average player with that Baez money.