sk7326

there is plenty of fodder for ejections anyway

They allowed 142 runs in the 26 games ... an 885 run pace which is more runs than any ML team in the United States scored last season, and more than any ML team - at any elevation - allowed. It ain't the lineup.

There are rules governing fan interference - umpires are there to apply them. Game conditions are what they are. Balls and strikes is about errors - lapses in competence and accuracy. It is the equivalent of the 1985 Denkinger call. The case is just not comparable.

Groome would risk going back into a better draft year. Now he might leave - but the Sox tend to not lowball. Almost all of the first rounders sign now - those who haven't, it's on the org for being silly.

Also - for a lot of teams, their best defensive coaches are higher up the ladder - Butterfield is known as an elite infield instructor for instance. You want to keep the guy on the premium position as long as possible. Moncada might eventually move to 3B or something, but there's no rush - stay with the harder up the middle spot until you have to leave.

Yes, although the players playing vs the rule enforcement seem like distinct deals.

Now this is interesting. Your previous defense as a jobs program to give Angel Hernandez something to do I am pretty cool with. The Dickensian nightmare of unemployed umps bums me out. But the principle here - that a person should do this job which can be done with technology better, in a manner that would be easy to implement, just because - is harder to go with. Now this is not something like kiosks replacing workers at a restaurant - we are talking about roughly 12% of an umpires workload over a season - it's simplify a human task. Since the home plate umpire will be there, and be solidly busy - I am not sure how idiot-proofing a part of the job violates the spirit of the endeavor.

Oh - could no disagree more. Sportswriters playing morality police - especially since many abetted the stuff in the first place - is the height of hypocrisy and shaming. The Hall has been derelict here giving the writers much too much leeway. There should be a strict rule - no failed test, then you can't talk about them as drug users. You were happy to let Gaylord Perry in. Bagwell is clearly feeling the guilt by association here.

I think you make a lot of sense here. I envision it more as the home plate ump gets a signal (or in Joe West's case, perhaps the home bat boy can come from the on-deck circle with a cattle prod) when the pitch is a strike and he makes the call - or something like that. The guy at the plate still has more than enough to do. Having the officials fully computerized would detract from the game, although I don't really see that as a meaningful end state to talk about - it's a practical impossibility. I have some traditionalist views (don't like 6 division format or interleague play, and I imagine I would have hated the DH if I were alive in 1974, although now I am amazed people want to watch pitchers hit), but I think the state of balls and strikes compared to publicly available information is so comical that at some point it will be hard to keep talking about the emperor's clothes.

Since he played SS in Cuba, I'd say yes. Indeed, he is so big that 3B makes more sense than 2B longer term.

That's what (many, many, many) she said

Vasquez is a bad hitter - but probably good enough to let the rest of his virtues play. It's a bad you can live with. Hanley and the LF pu pu platter is more problematic.

No, no, no - they are not ignoring the strike zone - they flat out cannot see it. It's like a blind person driving. He's going to probably hit a mailbox or seven - it's not someone blithely ignoring Garmin - it is a guy doing something that is way way way over his head.

The strawman is strong in this one. The Roberts steal was exciting - and it was a call at 2nd base which the human ump is best equipped to do in 2016 with 2016 tools. There are all sorts of those calls each game - and the umps do a marvelous job with it. Ball and strikes - the umps cannot do it well. Every game, there are pitches right down the middle called balls, and pitches at the shoetops called strikes. The umps try, but they have to use lazy crutches, like relying on the catcher's position, to even get it to "consistently wrong". Giving them some meaningful help in the 12.5% of their job (since an ump works the plate 25% of the time) part of their job that is the most difficult and most frequently botched. I see you are making a bit of a slippery slope argument - where does this end? And this is true - since if technology allowed plays at the plate to be called correctly then hey, whaddya know. But that stuff is cost prohibitive, and has not been proven. The Pitch F/X technology is actually far enough along to use in real life.

Benintendi is .350/.400/.675 in his last 10 games (small sample, but effectively the second half of his month there. Obviously prospects take time and such, but if he puts something good out in the next month or so, moving him into Holt's position is still very much on the table. They are being slower with Moncada just because of the comparative lack of experience. But yes, 3B or an outfield corner start to look likely for him.

In RC+, 2nd place is closer to 29th than to 1st ... 1st is Ortiz

well, by the definition you imply, most valuable becomes a commentary on your teammates. I think value creation in baseball is appreciably more straightforward. Wright has been an enormous surprise.

Papi is a fair choice. He has been the best offensive player in baseball by a mile. The gap between him and #2 is bigger than the gap between #2 and #29. Bogaerts moves a little above once you consider position and the total package. But Papi is surely on the podium. Definitely in contention for a podium spot with Betts, Bradley and Wright. Price, Pedroia, Kimbrel all get honorable mentions.

Ah, the appeal to the mob. There are lots of problems which are not popular causes - so that does not address the issue one way or the other. The umps are the best at what they do. The subtask that is calling balls and strikes - a crucial but hardly only thing an umpire does, they are destined to do it poorly. I, as a civilian am destined to do it worse. We know Pitch F/X does it better. I don't mind umpires making calls - but that the umpires do it is not an important driver to baseball being what it is. Sports are very human endeavors, and that is why 2004's Game 4 would not have been the same with the PapiBot 3000 hitting that homerun. The homerun would not have lost much of anything if the ump at the plate was sent the ball-strike signal automatically.

It is - I think you have to thank the SABR movement for much of this ... MLB has been very free with their data. This is the flipside of it.

Bogaerts leads the majors among position players in fWAR at 4.1 - so either cut he's an elite MVP candidate so far. Kershaw has led everybody with a Pedro-esque 4.9 so far.

I think right now - the Sox with their rotation are in an interesting place. Farrell has two luxuries - mainly that Price and Wright have been good bets to go deep into games. Additionally Porcello largely has as well. Until Dombrowski solves the rest of it, I do think Farrell needs to be particularly vigilant with the other two starters. 18 batters tops for the starters - doesn't matter score. Turn the lineup over twice and then hand it off to Hembree or Barnes. I would be tempted to think of a quasi-tandem approach there. Use the cover which Price and Wright offer to be flexible with those last two guys. Right now, E-Rod's feel is not there, and while he needs big league reps to learn his thing, the Sox need to treat him like a 4-6 inning pitcher and let him figure it out.

Wright has been outstanding - probably #3 on my ballot. Fortunately baseball's individual contributions to the team are easier to glean than others. Bogaerts has been arguably the league's best player - and that trumps the rest for me.

Dead - because they'd be completely unable to score

Here is what I don't understand about the "part of the enjoyment" argument ... It seems to me that "we like the imperfections" is the same sort of macro hand wave, placing a quaint notion of big picture poetry above a game played by extremely well trained adults, and something which means way too much to a lot of people. Now, while flawed umps might - for some - improve the show (and I acknowledge that is important), it seems unfair to the men on the field who have worked awfully hard at this. When Livan Hernandez struck out McGriff to end a CG in the 1997 NLCS, I remember thinking "it would have been nice if McGriff had a fair shot" when a pitch at this mid-shin was called a strike. Furthermore, as the live tracking on TV continues to proliferate, the yawning gap between visual evidence and what the ump is doing is a real credibility gap. I am impressed by the restraint shown by TV networks - I would have used a laugh track to go with particularly awful calls.