Baseball 2016

[Grey Fox]

The game has created a system where Starter stop at around the 5th if that inning is not going perfectly or earlier if 100 pitches come creeping in quickly and than use a new pitcher in almost every inning where they'll throw ~15 pitches each.

However, that is harder to achieve in the playoffs since your number of pitcher is severely cut down.

Also, it appears that Maddon didn't trust any of relievers until he didn't have any choice to use them.

[MadBurgerMaker]

No worries, I hear they are bringing it back next year. 

Too long.  I demand new playoffs beginning immediately.

[The Minsky Moment]

I only watched about 7 innings of the game last night, and that was all of the playoff baseball I watched this year.  And now I want to see more.  Dammit.   

OOTP is on sale.  Virtualize it.

[PRC]

I only watched about 7 innings of the game last night, and that was all of the playoff baseball I watched this year.  And now I want to see more.  Dammit.   

OOTP is on sale.  Virtualize it.

I keep thinking I should try OOTP along with the hockey Franchise Manager games. 

[MadBurgerMaker]

OOTP is on sale.  Virtualize it.

  I had forgotten about that.  Nice.

[dps]

Well, only about 3 month till the World Baseball Classic.

[Barrister]

Well, only about 3 month till the World Baseball Classic.

There's a WBC next year? Cool.  I know it doesn't get a lot of respect, but I think they're kind of fun.

[dps]

Well, only about 3 month till the World Baseball Classic.

There's a WBC next year? Cool.  I know it doesn't get a lot of respect, but I think they're kind of fun.

Yeah, they don't have the exact dates up on their website yet, but it's next year.  The last of the qualifiers finished up back in September.  The four teams that made it through qualifiers are Argentina, Mexico, Columbia, and Israel. 

Bet it hurts the Mexican's that they had to go through qualifiers.

[The Minsky Moment]

Some controversy over AL Cy Young, where Verlander had the most first place votes but lost because he didn't get good downballot support from others - and 2 people left him off entirely.

But . . . it was genuinely a weird year with at least 6-7 guys legit candidates.  Leaving out Verlander while a bit sketchy is not totally inexplicable.  In particular Bill Chastain's heavily criticized ballot of Porcello-Britton-Kluber-Sale-Tanaka, while IMO suboptimal, is justifable.  (although the writer that left off Verlander for Happ and Sanchez, less so).

Personally I would've gone Kluber on the theory that in a really close race you go with the best pitcher on the list as opposed to the good pitcher having a bit of a fluky year (the Mike Flanagan effect).   But Porcello is perfectly good choice, good for him.

In the NL i was a little suprised Jose Fernandez didn't get more of a sympathy vote, but again I can't fault the choice.

[PRC]

Kate Upton had a tweet saying: What the hell MLB!?  I'm the only person allowed to fuck Verlander.

[Valmy]

Seems to me that Porcello got the award mostly due to his win-loss record which is weird in this day and age. I thought people had mostly decided that stat was no longer a big deal.

[The Minsky Moment]

Seems to me that Porcello got the award mostly due to his win-loss record which is weird in this day and age. I thought people had mostly decided that stat was no longer a big deal.

There's a slight backlash on that in parts of the stathead world: Bill James recently published a piece on his site arguing they did have some value, although less so over a single season.

Porcello had a genuinely good year, aside from the W-L record, he lead the league in K-W ratio and had the second best WHIP (tiny bit worse than Verlander), second in FIP, second in adjusted ERA+, tied for first in fWAR.

Just based on non W-L numbers alone, he is clearly deserving.  Although so are a bunch of other guys.

[Valmy]

I meant that that was the thing that primarily distinguished him from Verlander but fair enough.

Damn. It has only been two weeks since the World Series ended and I am already getting excited for College Baseball to start

[Eddie Teach]

Damn. It has only been two weeks since the World Series ended and I am already getting excited for College Baseball to start

I'm not very enthused by college football this year either.