8/18 v Orioles

[Slasher9]

#20inarow

[dgalehouse]

I have been watching baseball for a long time. I can say , without exaggeration, that the Orioles are one of the worst MLB teams I have ever seen. It borders on unwatchable. If this was soccer , they would be relegated to the International League. It is a shame what has happened to the American League. The imbalance is unreal. And the dumb commissioner thinks the answer is increasing the number of batters a reliever must face . Yeah, right . That should help.

[moonslav59]

Another 5 runs by our starter. (Yes, I'm going to keep saying it.)

 

Wow! Devers is el fuego! The sky is the limit for this kid!

 

After game season OPS:

 

.976 Devers

.946 Bogey

.946 JD

.894 Betts

 

.839 Holt

.835 Moreland

.830 Beni

.818 Marco

.808 Travis

.797 Vaz

 

.766 Chavis

.711 JBJ

 

.562 Leon

[TylerD]

Off day. I’m gonna eat a danish

[Slasher9]

Off day. I’m gonna eat a danish

 

better get that pineapple pizza ready for tuesday.

[OH FOY]

Off Day but keep the Rally Caps On. Rays play tonight could use a loss there. A's lost last night that helped.

 

Tigers blew it in the 9th yesterday, was really hoping. We could have used it.

[jung]

I have been watching baseball for a long time. I can say , without exaggeration, that the Orioles are one of the worst MLB teams I have ever seen. It borders on unwatchable. If this was soccer , they would be relegated to the International League. It is a shame what has happened to the American League. The imbalance is unreal. And the dumb commissioner thinks the answer is increasing the number of batters a reliever must face . Yeah, right . That should help.

 

Manfred has turned MLB into a farce and with all due respect to many fans, one would have to be a clown to genuflect to his nonsense.

 

So many of these HR's are simply a consequence of the Manfred Missile baseball and hideous pitching and not much else.

 

Plus, MLB does not enforce the rules it has and is entirely wrongheaded about its addresses to pace of play. GET the hitters in the box and keep them there. There is already a rule that keeps them there. Is it enforced...NOPE. Mookie is the only every day first stringer we have that actually STAYS IN THE BOX only taking one foot out and that only on occasion. Mookie got buzzed in this game and never left the box. Hitters regularly did it the way Mookie does it years ago. You rarely had hitters spending all this time outside the box. Some would come in and prepare their footing in the box before the first pitch of the AB. But that was it. Once they had the box and their footing done....DONE...none of this nonsense between every pitch.

 

Vaz strolls entirely around home plate after some pitches like he is picnicking at the Public Garden. JD takes a deep breadth, consults with the cosmos or his deceased ancestors or ponders or what the f*** ever before he even begins to step in....every single pitch, ball, strike, swing, no swing, contact, no contact....every single pitch. Travis steps out of the box entirely after an uncontested called ball in this game. He didn't swing, didn't move, simply watched a ball that neither pitcher nor catcher contested go by and yet can't stay in the box for the next pitch...has to get entirely out of the box TO WHAT....PONDER?

 

Watch in the next game how many of this current crop of MLB goons step entirely out of the batter's box after doing NOTHING and go through the whole damn ritual again or step entirely out after PARISH THE THOUGHT....oh the horror.....a swing and miss. "My God I must rearrange and start all over again. I swung and missed!!!"

 

Villar, an utter embarrassment of a baseball player literally meandered around the batters box for what seemed like a full half minute or more yammering about a strike call that was in fact A STRIKE and then spent another half minute thinking about it!

 

In the meantime the pitchers do NOTHING. They do not go through their pre-pitch regimen's while these goon hitters are performing their antics barely within the same zip code as home plate.The last pitcher that toed the rubber, glove up, ball in hand and stoically waited for the contemporary hitter to get in the damn box was a guy we don't like much around here, Andy Pettitte. Heck at the point when said goon hitter finally got in the box even Andy still had to wait for a sign from the Catcher who surely was not going to go through signs with the hitter dancing around out of the batter's box. That one thing , seeing Andy stone still, toeing the rubber, glove up, ball in hand, ready to go, I truly appreciated about Andy.

 

Andy threw his last ML pitch in 2013, 6 YEARS AGO. The last bunch of ML pitchers that did that or did close to that was the bunch that retired around when Curt Schilling retired. He threw his last MLB pitch in 2007, 12 YEARS AGO.

 

I don't know where Manfred thinks he is going with this nonsense and I don't know what the contemporary fan mostly oblivious to the whole thing thinks he is watching. But I will guarantee you this. The same oblivious fan that does not see any of this as nonsense, the Manfred Missile, the demise of MLB quality pitching, all this nonsense outside the batter's box, REPLAY will be the first fan to abandon this thing called MLB entirely when while he can't seem to fathom why, suddenly the whole thing bores him to tears.

Edited August 19, 2019 by jung

[kenmeister]

I have been watching baseball for a long time. I can say , without exaggeration, that the Orioles are one of the worst MLB teams I have ever seen. It borders on unwatchable. If this was soccer , they would be relegated to the International League. It is a shame what has happened to the American League. The imbalance is unreal. And the dumb commissioner thinks the answer is increasing the number of batters a reliever must face . Yeah, right . That should help.

 

That ball that dropped between the three fielders, the play where the first basemen fielded the ball and had no one to throw to at either 2nd or 1st base. Oh my goodness. They're like a high school team. A bad one.

[S5Dewey]

I agree with Jung's rants. IMO there is a lot of truth in what he posts, but what he's posting about doesn't bother me as much as it bothers him. I have a different pet peeve that I promise not to rail on about after today. Well, maybe a little if this post gains any traction. Which it won't, and that's ok.

 

My pet peeve is that not a minute goes by when there's not some sort of commercial or promo. It used to be that commercials only happened between innings but now they're everywhere, even during play.

"Today's lineup is brought to you by...."

"Now let's look at the defense, brought to you by...."

'The first hit of the game is brought to you by...."

"According to the ..... pitch zone that ball was on the corner"

"Let's look at who's hot and who's not, brought to you by..."

 

This list goes on and on and on and on and on and on, and it doesn't begin to mention the promos.

 

"Tomorrow night Whatshis name and Whatsherface will be in Taunton to sample the food at ____ on NESN at 7:00".

"See The Mad Fisherman tomorrow at 5:00 on NESN".

"Cruising America on Sunday Morning at 10:00 on NESN".

And so on....

 

And these don't mention the little promo boxes ("bugs") at the top or bottom of the screen several times an inning touting something else on NESN.

 

I'm tired of them. I just want to watch baseball and not be inundated with commercials and promos. One of these days I'd watch a game with a clipboard in hand to record how many commercials, promos, and 'bugs' there are during one game but I'm afraid I'd die of frustration if I actually KNEW how many of them there are.

 

I'm old. I remember when we used to watch baseball and the commentary we heard between pitches was all about baseball - the players, the teams, and insight about what's happening on the field, AND WE LIKED IT!!!

 

There's my rant on this topic. Grrrr.

Edited August 20, 2019 by S5Dewey

[Bellhorn04]

I'm tired of them. I just want to watch baseball and not be inundated with commercials and promos. One of these days I'd watch a game with a clipboard in hand to record how many commercials, promos, and 'bugs' there are during one game but I'm afraid I'd die of frustration if I actually KNEW how many of them there are.

 

Well, if they thought there were enough people REALLY interested in commercial-free broadcasts they would probably offer them, at a hefty price of course.

 

We sometimes wonder where all the money comes from to pay the players' astronomical salaries. A huge chunk of it obviously must be coming from all the advertisers.

[Bellhorn04]

The rocket ball and the nonstop commercials are all about the same thing...it's money driving the bus.

[jung]

The rocket ball and the nonstop commercials are all about the same thing...it's money driving the bus.

 

 

Which would make sense if MLB was not turning off the only mass fan base it really has. Check the demographic breakdown for MLB telecasts. Never mind the crowd that shows up for the Fenway Carnival and the other carnivals around baseball. The only mass of people watching are MY AGE or older! Total numbers are down even with the 54+ and 65+ demos.

 

Ain't workin' Manfred....ain't workin'.

[Slasher9]

I agree with Jung's rants. IMO there is a lot of truth in what he posts, but what he's posting about doesn't bother me as much as it bothers him. I have a different pet peeve that I promise not to rail on about after today. Well, maybe a little if this post gains any traction. Which it won't, and that's ok.

 

My pet peeve is that not a minute goes by when there's not some sort of commercial or promo. It used to be that commercials only happened between innings but now they're everywhere, even during play.

"Today's lineup is brought to you by...."

"Now let's look at the defense, brought to you by...."

'The first hit of the game is brought to you by...."

"According to the ..... pitch zone that ball was on the corner"

"Let's look at who's hot and who's not, brought to you by..."

 

This list goes on and on and on and on and on and on, and it doesn't begin to mention the promos.

 

"Tomorrow night Whatshis name and Whatsherface will be in Taunton to sample the food at ____ on NESN at 7:00".

"See The Mad Fisherman tomorrow at 5:00 on NESN".

"Cruising America on Sunday Morning at 10:00 on NESN".

And so on....

 

And these don't mention the little promo boxes ("bugs") at the top or bottom of the screen several times an inning touting something else on NESN.

 

I'm tired of them. I just want to watch baseball and not be inundated with commercials and promos. One of these days I'd watch a game with a clipboard in hand to record how many commercials, promos, and 'bugs' there are during one game but I'm afraid I'd die of frustration if I actually KNEW how many of them there are.

 

I'm old. I remember when we used to watch baseball and the commentary we heard between pitches was all about baseball - the players, the teams, and insight about what's happening on the field, AND WE LIKED IT!!!

 

There's my rant on this topic. Grrrr.

 

yup. its gotten worse each season. the radio broadcast is no better when it comes to during inning ads.

all about the $$$$

that is truly America's Pa$time

[dgalehouse]

I think we would be stunned if we knew how much money John Henry rakes in from advertising, Fenway Park and NESN .