Baseball Thread - friendly arguments about fWAR and bWAR amongst friends

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Baseball Thread - friendly arguments about fWAR and bWAR amongst friends

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bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Because of their injury situation they didn't have much choice, same reason the Dodgers threw a 'pen game last night and have done so a ton lately.

# ? Sep 5, 2021 06:25

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# ? Jun 11, 2024 07:34

Lux Anima: Apr 17, 2016; Dinosaur Gum

Well now I just feel bad for Buehler

# ? Sep 6, 2021 01:27

DR FRASIER KRANG: Feb 4, 2005; "Are you forgetting that just this afternoon I was punched in the face by a turtle now dead?

Mariners are 4.5 gb the Astros and are about to play them three times.

time to face god and walk backwards into hell

# ? Sep 6, 2021 02:58

Wolfy: Jul 13, 2009

Can't discern who benefited the most from the strike zone in the Dodgers/Giants game but it was very confusing.

# ? Sep 6, 2021 03:57

Cromulent_Chill: Apr 6, 2009

gently caress the Yankees

# ? Sep 9, 2021 04:05

Chamale: Jul 11, 2010; I'm helping!

Killin_Like_Bronson posted:

gently caress the Yankees

I was half-watching the 9th inning, and after that high ball to Guerrero Jr. I said "he's going to throw a fastball down the dick and Vladdy's going to hit a home run." It was more of a top-middle fastball than middle-middle, but still the best baseball prediction I've ever made

# ? Sep 10, 2021 06:44

ihatepants: Nov 5, 2011; Let the burning of pants commence. These things drive me nuts.

Killin_Like_Bronson posted:

gently caress the Yankees

I disagree, although they do suck right now.

# ? Sep 10, 2021 06:47

Shear Modulus: Jun 9, 2010

gently caress the yankees is an evergreen sentiment

# ? Sep 10, 2021 06:47

matti: Mar 31, 2019

matti posted:

are the giants mediocre yet?

.608 huh

let's disappointment

# ? Sep 16, 2021 01:31

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

this is some poo poo

https://twitter.com/ericstephen/status/1438022035658051588

# ? Sep 16, 2021 01:51

General Dog: Apr 26, 2008; Everybody's working for the weekend

If the Dodgers lose the wildcard game to a team that they finished 20 games ahead of, will it create enough popular backlash to get rid of the second wildcard? I'm pretty sure the answer is "no, absolutely not; in fact it would probably have the opposite effect, if any effect at all," but it's still nice to think about.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 15:33

Mustached Demon: Nov 12, 2016

General Dog posted:

If the Dodgers lose the wildcard game to a team that they finished 20 games ahead of, will it create enough popular backlash to get rid of the second wildcard? I'm pretty sure the answer is "no, absolutely not; in fact it would probably have the opposite effect, if any effect at all," but it's still nice to think about.

the underdog story would greatly outweigh the meltdown

# ? Sep 16, 2021 16:15

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

the proper response is to seed the postseason teams based on record, so this year the WCG would be ATL vs STL at the present standings

this would also put LA and SF on opposite sides of the bracket so they could meet in the LCS instead of the DS

but they won�t do that because it doesn�t make as much money for ownership as adding another round/more games to the postseason

bawfuls has issued a correction as of 17:03 on Sep 16, 2021

# ? Sep 16, 2021 16:52

The Pussy Boss: Nov 2, 2004

bawfuls posted:

the proper response is to seed the postseason teams based on record, so this year the WCG would be ATL vs STL at the present standings

If winning your division doesn't guarantee you a full playoff series, then they should just abolish divisions.

The wildcard game sucks. A 162-game season coming down to a one-game playoff is bullshit. But they're not going to get rid of it, so IMO the best solution would be to make it a 3-game series. The scheduling would be a little tight but you could do it.

I still say MLB's ultimate plan is to add a 3rd wildcard and an extra round of playoffs, with the top two seeds getting a bye, NFL-style.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 17:32

DR FRASIER KRANG: Feb 4, 2005; "Are you forgetting that just this afternoon I was punched in the face by a turtle now dead?

I like baseball and I like baseball playoffs so give me more of them yeah.

but also it'd be fun if one year my team wasn't so lovely so that they could try too.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 17:37

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

The Pussy Boss posted:

If winning your division doesn't guarantee you a full playoff series, then they should just abolish divisions.

The wildcard game sucks. A 162-game season coming down to a one-game playoff is bullshit. But they're not going to get rid of it, so IMO the best solution would be to make it a 3-game series. The scheduling would be a little tight but you could do it.

I still say MLB's ultimate plan is to add a 3rd wildcard and an extra round of playoffs, with the top two seeds getting a bye, NFL-style.

I've no problem with abolishing divisions, but I don't think that's mandatory if switching to the method I've mentioned here. Divisions and the unbalanced schedule that comes with them are good for regional rivalries, which are important to baseball. The reason to abolish division would be to avoid the scenario where a team misses out on the Wild Card while having a better record than one of the other division winners. The AL East is threatening to do that this year, if TB/NY/TOR/BOS all finish ahead of the White Sox (latter 3 are currently 1.5 behind CHI). But that scenario is even more rare than the current NL West situation, and all 5 of those teams are within 1.5 games of each other so one of them has to miss out no matter how you pick them.

The Wild Card Game is cool and good, as long as it contains the two worst postseason teams within a given league. If it's contested between teams with like 87-92 wins each, it's appropriate because those teams don't really deserve to be there in the first place.

Making it a 3-game series misses the point imo, and makes it worse not better. The league simply needs to embrace the WCG as a sort of "bonus" for two teams that didn't really play well enough to make the postseason but are getting a chance to be included. And they can do that by making sure it's always contested between the worst two teams of the 5.

The other reason to re-seed is to avoid the scenario where the two best records in a league are facing each other in the DS instead of the LCS, as is the potential case with Dodgers-Giants this year. The postseason bracket should always allow for the possibility of the two best records within a league to meet in the LCS.

bawfuls has issued a correction as of 17:54 on Sep 16, 2021

# ? Sep 16, 2021 17:49

DR FRASIER KRANG: Feb 4, 2005; "Are you forgetting that just this afternoon I was punched in the face by a turtle now dead?

after talking baseball with my dad the other day I was reading up on the 96 Yankees and holy crap the MVP from that World Series got himself into a real whoopsie doodle.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 18:16

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

The other sort-of postseason related change they should make (which might align with abolishing divisions) is naming the best record in each league the Pennant Winner and awarding a trophy for this.

We should celebrate regular season greatness as we once did, not just with a better postseason berth. Hockey does this, as do most soccer leagues.

I've beat this drum before but I'll keep beating it.

bawfuls has issued a correction as of 18:39 on Sep 16, 2021

# ? Sep 16, 2021 18:36

General Dog: Apr 26, 2008; Everybody's working for the weekend

I�d be fine with eliminating divisions and playoffs and putting the AL and NL regular season champs directly into the WS. A playoff at the end of a 162-game season is just kind of goofy on its face.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 18:43

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

That is never gonna happen because playoff games are worth too much tv money. The number of postseason games/series will never ever go down, only up. So if you want the WS to have the best teams every year, your best bet is to structure the postseason to advantage the best records as much as possible.

I mean until the glorious revolution after which baseball is community/player owned and profit ceases to exist.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 18:50

Lux Anima: Apr 17, 2016; Dinosaur Gum

Frankly if I could make one change for the next year it would be to eliminate pitchers from the batting order entirely somehow. Pitchers should never be at bat - they're basically a free out and there's too much planning around this and/or pinch hitters.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 19:03

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

friend there is an entire league just for you and it is named after AMERICA

# ? Sep 16, 2021 19:16

Lux Anima: Apr 17, 2016; Dinosaur Gum

bawfuls posted:

friend there is an entire league just for you and it is named after AMERICA

I mean that's what I mean: the Leagues shouldn't have different takes on this particular element :patriot:

# ? Sep 16, 2021 19:21

Shear Modulus: Jun 9, 2010

they should add a new league with 15 more teams where the only players who get to bat are pitchers

# ? Sep 16, 2021 21:08

DR FRASIER KRANG: Feb 4, 2005; "Are you forgetting that just this afternoon I was punched in the face by a turtle now dead?

they should relegate every team that has a below .500 average to a lesser league and the you could do a yearly pre-post-season where teams vie to get back into the MLB.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 21:16

RealityWarCriminal: Aug 10, 2016

Lux Animus posted:

I mean that's what I mean: the Leagues shouldn't have different takes on this particular element

it's this

personal I'm split between seeing pitchers get beaned vs. big fat guys jacking bombs to deep left center field. both are valued.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 21:18

DR FRASIER KRANG: Feb 4, 2005; "Are you forgetting that just this afternoon I was punched in the face by a turtle now dead?

Pamela Springstein posted:

it's this

personal I'm split between seeing pitchers get beaned vs. big fat guys jacking bombs to deep left center field. both are valued.

I'm not an NL fan but as someone whose team
occasionally fields a pitcher in the batter's box I like it when this happens:

https://youtu.be/hi0UNUqnPBM

# ? Sep 16, 2021 21:19

SporkOfTruth: Sep 1, 2006; this kid walked up to me and was like man schmitty your stache is ghetto and I was like whatever man your 3b look like a dishrag.

he was like damn.

Lux Animus posted:

I mean that's what I mean: the Leagues shouldn't have different takes on this particular element

the leagues being different is literally one of the only interesting and useful things MLB has preserved and some of the worst creeps who work for MLB or write about baseball want perma-DH. it was trash last year.

# ? Sep 16, 2021 22:06

Shear Modulus: Jun 9, 2010

in the interest of improving pace of play MLB will experiment with a rule change next year where when it's the pitcher's turn to bat the plate appearance is skipped and an out is automatically awarded

# ? Sep 16, 2021 22:19

Wolfy: Jul 13, 2009

I heard an interesting proposal about the wild card basically: make the worst record win a double header. Sounds swell considering this years NL West situation, but pretty harsh in a close race. Got my thinking there could be other ways to reward the team with a better record.

I dunno maybe the rest of the divisions could stop sucking rear end.

# ? Sep 17, 2021 01:18

Shear Modulus: Jun 9, 2010

i'm rooting for a 3 team tie for the two AL wild card spotd and another 3 team tie for the second NL one

# ? Sep 17, 2021 01:42

tinstaach: Aug 3, 2010; MAGNetic AttITUDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSWTyrU8Atk

I feel like I've seen a half-dozen Jomboys on this topic at this point. At this point teams should probably show a quick powerpoint deck in the clubhouse before each game to drill this into players' heads.

Also I'm trying to think if there is a rule in any sport that players are discouraged from learning more than who has the right to the base if two runners are standing on it, because every single coach at every single level will say to just tag everyone and let the umps sort it out.

# ? Sep 19, 2021 05:36