Baseball 2017 Season Thread

[Barrister]

I just want to emphasize that playing catch in the snow in the middle December was really creepy.

Yet you'd think nothing of putting metal blades on your feet to walk on a frozen lake.

There I nothing so delightful in the world than skating outside.

So god damn this global warming and above freezing temperatures that are ruining our outdoor rinks.

[derspiess]

Out of the blue, Timmy asks if he could play baseball next year.

I say "well, it's the same time as soccer, so you couldn't play soccer then".  He loves soccer.

He says that's okay.

I have no idea where this is coming from.  Yesterday he asked to play catch, which we delightfully did a couple of times in the summer - but playing catch in the middle of December was just plain creepy.

Is 8 years old too old to start playing baseball?

That's when my kid started.  You'll need to work with him a bit on the basics (there's no better way to bond IMO), but he should be fine. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Jack Morris and Alan Trammell elected to the hall

https://sports.yahoo.com/jack-morris-alan-trammell-finally-voted-hall-fame-233134486.html

Poor Sweet Lou.  Should have gone in with Trammell instead of Morris.

[derspiess]

I'm glad Stanton went to the Yankees.  If the Cards couldn't have him, no NL team should. 

[crazy canuck]

Out of the blue, Timmy asks if he could play baseball next year.

I say "well, it's the same time as soccer, so you couldn't play soccer then".  He loves soccer.

He says that's okay.

I have no idea where this is coming from.  Yesterday he asked to play catch, which we delightfully did a couple of times in the summer - but playing catch in the middle of December was just plain creepy.

Is 8 years old too old to start playing baseball?

If anything it is a bit late. He is a bit too old for T-ball so he would likely be starting with coach pitching.  If he is coordinated and learns to catch and throw with team mates (which can sometimes be a bit of an adventure) he will do fine.  If he waits much longer he will find it a lot more difficult to start as he will be dealing with player pitching and that would be a steep learning curve for him.  At that point baseball would only be fun if he is a good athlete and quick to adapt.

[The Minsky Moment]

Judge and Stanton in the same line up...

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-should-we-fear-giancarlo-stanton-in-pinstripes/

If you use The Baseball Gauge’s adjustment and extrapolate Stanton’s 2017 homers to a typical park, he’d project to have hit about 66 homers — easily shattering Maris’s mark. What’s more, Yankee Stadium ranked as the third-most-favorable park in baseball for right-handed home run hitters last season. Continuing our exercise above to project Stanton’s season into Yankee Stadium, he would figure to have hit around 73 homers (!!!) if he’d played in the Bronx instead of Miami. Now, the obvious caveats apply: Park factors are imperfect measurements that don’t account for each park’s exact dimensions, instead inferring the effect in a somewhat noisy way by looking at the change in home runs between a team’s home and road games. But even so, Stanton is probably going to get some kind of assist in his power numbers simply by upgrading his park situation.

I saw a recent projection of a combined 82 HRs.  That seems on the high side.  Last year is the first year Stanton ever got above 40.  Judge's minor league records, while excellent, show more of a 30 HR guy than a 50-60, and he's already had hints of injury issues.

[Benedict Arnold]

I saw a recent projection of a combined 82 HRs.  That seems on the high side.  Last year is the first year Stanton ever got above 40.  Judge's minor league records, while excellent, show more of a 30 HR guy than a 50-60, and he's already had hints of injury issues.

Stanton is an injury issue guy as well.  While not happy with the move, it isn't as doom and gloom as a lot of people think.  A lot has to go right to reach the mindboggling levels of power people seem to be predicting.

[Barrister]

Out of the blue, Timmy asks if he could play baseball next year.

I say "well, it's the same time as soccer, so you couldn't play soccer then".  He loves soccer.

He says that's okay.

I have no idea where this is coming from.  Yesterday he asked to play catch, which we delightfully did a couple of times in the summer - but playing catch in the middle of December was just plain creepy.

Is 8 years old too old to start playing baseball?

If anything it is a bit late. He is a bit too old for T-ball so he would likely be starting with coach pitching.  If he is coordinated and learns to catch and throw with team mates (which can sometimes be a bit of an adventure) he will do fine.  If he waits much longer he will find it a lot more difficult to start as he will be dealing with player pitching and that would be a steep learning curve for him.  At that point baseball would only be fun if he is a good athlete and quick to adapt.

Well that was my concern - that he would be too old.

Remember I come from the world of hockey parenting, where kids start as early as 2 or 3, and I felt guilty starting Tim at 6 (parents were surprised when I said it was his first year of hockey).

We've worked a little bit at throwing and catching, and if he still wants to do baseball (being 7 his desires can still change a lot day by day) we could work on hitting a bit before baseball would start.

I looked up Edmonton minor baseball - apparently he would be too old for t-ball, but they would start out with machine pitching, then switch over to player pitching during the year.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm glad Stanton went to the Yankees.  If the Cards couldn't have him, no NL team should.

Even in baseball, supporting the politics of petulance for the sake of the 1%.  Barf.

[crazy canuck]

Out of the blue, Timmy asks if he could play baseball next year.

I say "well, it's the same time as soccer, so you couldn't play soccer then".  He loves soccer.

He says that's okay.

I have no idea where this is coming from.  Yesterday he asked to play catch, which we delightfully did a couple of times in the summer - but playing catch in the middle of December was just plain creepy.

Is 8 years old too old to start playing baseball?

If anything it is a bit late. He is a bit too old for T-ball so he would likely be starting with coach pitching.  If he is coordinated and learns to catch and throw with team mates (which can sometimes be a bit of an adventure) he will do fine.  If he waits much longer he will find it a lot more difficult to start as he will be dealing with player pitching and that would be a steep learning curve for him.  At that point baseball would only be fun if he is a good athlete and quick to adapt.

Well that was my concern - that he would be too old.

Remember I come from the world of hockey parenting, where kids start as early as 2 or 3, and I felt guilty starting Tim at 6 (parents were surprised when I said it was his first year of hockey).

We've worked a little bit at throwing and catching, and if he still wants to do baseball (being 7 his desires can still change a lot day by day) we could work on hitting a bit before baseball would start.

I looked up Edmonton minor baseball - apparently he would be too old for t-ball, but they would start out with machine pitching, then switch over to player pitching during the year.

What I suggest is get a large bag of hollow plastic balls (with holes) and a thin bat - the type you would use for stick ball.   Start out pitching them to him close up (the reason you use the plastic balls  ) and then move back.  After a few hours of practicing hitting those he will have developed his hand eye coordination for batting.  the real issue is going to be learning to throw and catch.  But that is a great time and as Spicey said, a great bonding experience.  I still miss those days.

[derspiess]

I'm glad Stanton went to the Yankees.  If the Cards couldn't have him, no NL team should.

Even in baseball, supporting the politics of petulance for the sake of the 1%.  Barf.

Just glad the Cards won't have to face him next year.  Sorry about your O's, though

[Valmy]

I don't think the Os have much of a chance next season anyway.

[katmai]

Just glad the Cards won't have to face him next year.  Sorry about your O's, though

Stanton thinks Cards suck!

[derspiess]

What I suggest is get a large bag of hollow plastic balls (with holes) and a thin bat - the type you would use for stick ball.   Start out pitching them to him close up (the reason you use the plastic balls  ) and then move back.  After a sessions of hitting few hours of practicing hitting those he will have developed his hand eye coordination for batting. 

Agree.  I did that with Tommy (used a regular bat but used large and then small rubber wiffle-type balls) and it seems to have helped.  Every kid is a bit different, so you may have to play around with things to find something that works (also helps if it's fun).  Once you have his hand-eye coordination and batting stance/swing dialed in, go for lots of reps in batting.  And since not everyone has a damned batting cage in his backyard (my neighbor took his down ) you have to get creative with how you do that.  We have some nice indoor batting cages a few miles away from my house, and sometimes we sneak on to a local baseball field here & there and I pitch to him.  But when we just want to get a few swings in, I go in the front yard and have him hit this thing: https://www.amazon.com/SKLZ-Trainer-Baseball-Batting-Training/dp/B0019GII3U

Reps are also huge with throwing and catching, of course.  First thing to overcome is usually them being afraid of the ball (that's also a factor in batting).  Even at the 9 & 10 year old level I'm seeing kids in Little League that try to move their bodies out of the way when they catch, which tells me they never conquered that fear.  For Tommy I started out with one of those soft baseballs and told him it wouldn't hurt him if he missed.  Then once he could catch reliably we moved on to a regular ball.  Some kids never seem to have the fear, so you may be lucky with that. 

With throwing and catching you can come up with some games to make it even more fun.  One thing that Tommy & I did when I started teaching him how to pitch, for example, was to play a game we call "Ten Pitch", where the goal is to throw a certain # of strikes out of 10 pitches.  I give play-by-play commentary on each pitch.  We started out with an easy goal of 3 strikes and then over time have moved that up to 6 or 7.  With my kid at least, if you compartmentalize the workout into small games he enjoys it a lot more and looks forward to doing it the next day.

[derspiess]

Just glad the Cards won't have to face him next year.  Sorry about your O's, though

Stanton thinks Cards suck!

Apparently.  The statement the Cards organization made to the fans almost had me in tears