S5Dewey

I agree that it's in our expectations. Some seem to think that in order for it to be valuable it would have to work ~100% of the time when in reality anything > 30% would be success.

I'm not disputing that... but IIRC it isn't uncommon for a pitcher to come back from TJ surgery with better arm strength than before. But in a related thought... TJ surgery is often the result of bad mechanics. Has anyone heard or observed a pitcher's mechanics changing after TJ surgery? Or do they just let him keep doing the same mechanics that caused the need for the surgery?

Nope. Not a piece of cake. But we're not looking for a 100% success rate. We're only looking to improve on that 30% success rate. I can't believe that a player with the skills to play MLB and some training can't be successful 50% of the time when bunting to a defenseless 25% of the field. But I agree. I think it's amazing they don't do it more often.

I have no doubt that you're right about the courts enforcing the contract - or in this case the lack of any language prohibiting an activity. Many players have specific clauses in their contracts prohibiting certain activities. I've heard of players who aren't allowed to ski or even play pickup basketball due to the injury risk. IMO teams should contractually require players to be granted permission to play in the WBC. If a player requested to play in the WBC and that permission was granted they may even consider that as an indication that maybe their future isn't as secure with the team as they wish it were - and reconsider the WBC.

When the purpose of batting is two-fold, getting on base and not making an out, I've never understood why those hitters whom the defense shifts against aren't given a crash course in bunting. Obviously the bunt would have to be used situationally but in the right situations it could reduce the number of outs a power hitter makes. As an added benefit, once the defense figures out that they're essentially giving a free pass when they shift they may want to revert back to a more conventional defense which would open up the rest of the field for more hits. In short, beat 'em at their own game. While bunting takes skill and isn't infallible it doesn't have to be in order to be a plus. If a player can get on base half the time by bunting against a shifted infield (which IMO is a very conservative goal) it's better than the ~.3 of the time that results from swinging away.

It isn't often that I feel badly for owners but in this case I do. The owners are caught in the middle. On one side they have the MLBPA, a union with too much power (and this is coming from someone who was a union member all of his working life!) demanding that the player has a right to "play for his country". On the other side they have MLB who's trying to promote baseball world-wide by wanting the best players to play in the WBC. The owners are taking all of the injury risk when an injury would not only hamper their team's chances of winning - which translates directly into $$ - they would also have to continue to pay an player who gets injured in the WBC. I see that as an untenable situation for the owners. It would be a bit fairer if the players who agree to play in the WBC would agree to terminate their MLB contract if they got injured while playing in the WBC. Then we'd see how badly they want to "play for their country". The saving grace for the owners is that there's (apparently) so damn much money floating around in MLB that the owners can afford to lose a key player, but there is no saving grace for we fans.

Random thoughts... Great come-from-behind win today although I was convinced that the game would run into tomorrow during the 3rd inning. Here are a few updates from the Mets game that the Sox posted today - some of which I hadn't realized. The Sox pitchers issued no walks after Henry Owens walked the leadoff hitter in the 1st. Each Boston pitcher had at least 1 K and Abad, Noe Rameirez and Kyle Martin all had perfect innings in relief. Brandon Workman gave up a hit put pitched a scoreless 8th after coming back from TJ surgery. We still haven't seen any of our top 5 starters and it looks like we won't until at least Tuesday with Velaquez scheduled to start tomorrow and Brian Johnson on Monday. Here's what's going on with our players in the WBC: Bogaerts leaves on Tuesday to play for the Netherlands in South Korea. His first game is 3/7. Hanley leaves on 3/3. He'll be playing for the DR, whose first game is on 3/9 vs. Canada. Abad and Erod have been placed in the Designated Pitcher's Pool. They're not on an active roster for the first round but can be added in subsequent rounds. Having Bogaerts in the WBC makes me a bit uneasy. We have to hope he doesn't get injured - we have a lot of eggs in that basket! Sam Travis got some time at !B today so the medical team must feel that his knee is strong enough for him to play defense. He and Vaz each had doubles today. Elias hat a good two-inning outing allowing only one hit. OK.. it was a HR, but still..... Other than that one pitch he looked to be in command. Castillo was late on about five swings in a row before pulling a ball down the LF line for a double. He seems to have a knack of doing just enough to keep people interested. For all you gurus.. who is Steve Selsky and how did we get him? The program here doesn't even list him as an invited non-roster player but IIRC he's played in all three games thus far. And so has Alan Craig. Maybe the FO is hoping someone will take a flyer on Craig. Craig's throw from LF to cut down a run late in the game was impressive and he contributed to the offense by getting HBP twice. The Sox are on the road going to Port Charlotte tomorrow followed by the Cards on Monday and the Yankees on Tuesday. Monday and Tuesday's games are both at Jet Blue.

I'm in Ft. M.My seat is about 20 rows directly behind HP so I don't have the greatest angle on Fair /Foul. Against NU Travis hit a,ball that was clearly heading foul down the LF line but the wind brought it back for a HR. Then the next day the wind switched around and Hanley hit one to LF that was easily going out fair until the wind blew it foul. The wind giveth and the wind taketh away, I guess. BTW, Hanley & JBJ both spent alot of ti.e signing autographs before the game.Its good to see the stars taking time for the fans.

Sandoval looks like he's down to his old playing weight, which is probably the best we can hope for. He made a couple of routine plays against NU but those were the only chances he had. Moreland proved he has pretty good power, squaring up on one for a HR against NU The latest excuse for Castillo's not running out the DP ball is that he "lost track of the outs". How does a guy who should be trying to make the team lose track of the outs in the first game he plays?? Re Henry Owens: I'm not sure what to say about his performance today. He didn't walk as many hitters but OTOH he fooled nobody with his pitches. Not mixing them up at all. It looked like he was making an effort to not walk hitters by throwing more FB's but it didn't take long for hitters to realize it so they were sitting on #1. Abad didn't look half-abad today. He was the best of the staff that threw against the Mets. XBo didn't play today. Not sure if he just had the day off or if he's left for the WBC. Sox got no-no'd through 6 today but I promise not to panic, I did that last year saying that I was concerned about their offense and look how that turned out! LOL I know nobody wants to hear this but it's beautiful baseball weather here. Hi 70's and sunny, BUT..,., they say it was 60 degrees in Boston today which also ain't bad.to

Maybe my expectations for Beni aren't as high as some people's. I'd be moderately happy with a WAR of ~2 for a first year player, although I do think that's close to being his floor.

When someone tries to tell me that something I've witnessed and experienced doesn't exist I get a tad snarky too. I'm done.

smirk

You're aware that post made NO sense, right? While I haven't "polled the audience" my best guess is that during that game most people were not only not thinking about baseball they also weren't thinking about whether or not baseball player choke or are clutch.

That begs the question. Did anyone say Brady wasn't clutch when Weller didn't catch the pass?

If Brady hits a player right in the hands and the player drops it is Brady not clutch?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of us who post here are pretty comfortable. Our kids are grown and/or we have a warm bed to sleep in at night and food to eat. I've been fortunate to have a job that had allowed me to provide comforts for my family but at the same time I've held a few public offices and done some volunteering in areas that have allowed me to see how some other people live right here in my community. In addition, my now ex-wife is a teacher and has brought home stories of kids who come to school unfed and without proper winter clothing. I was once in a house that was a homemade log cabin. There were cracks between the logs where snow and cold could blow in, the board floors had collapsed in places so the floor was dirt, the interior doors were nothing but blankets hung in the opening, and they tried to heat it with a wood stove. A father, mother, and three kids lived there. I was pretty discouraged when I went home that night. Discouraged that people in my town whom my kids went to school with were living like that. I didn't identify the family to my kids but I can remember telling them that they should consider themselves lucky because there are people living in our town in circumstances they (my kids) wouldn't want any part of. Don't kid yourself. These people live in your community too and we don't see them because your (and my) socio-economic status keeps us from coming into contact with them and knowing their situation. But they exist.

Interesting word there... "slim". The report that I heard says that he's lost 40 lbs and is down to a svelte 245. As long as he plays well... I don't care.

Brady's performance in the 4th quarter? Completely random. Since neither momentum nor clutch can be explained statistically we have to assume that neither of them exist. Brady is so damn good that any outstanding performance he has can be attributed to randomness and not momentum or being clutch. He occasionally goes on streaks like that. We Patriot fans are just fortunate that the randomness exhibited itself in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl.

I have my tickets in hand and the means to transfer them. If anyone is going to be in Ft. Myers for ST - even for a few days - I have one seat to nearly every game still available @ face. Directly behind home plate and back in the shade. $30.

You're forming a Catch-22 situation. You'e demanding that a clutch-type performance be repeatable in every AB but if it happens every AB then it's not clutch, it's normal. To tone this down a bit, according to what you say, statistically the better a person's regular season numbers are the less chance that he's a clutch hitter. When he gets a hit in a clutch situation it would then be said, "See how good he hits anyway?!" Catch-22 If a person got a hit in every AB no one would say he was "clutch". They would just say he's a great hitter. But when he does get a hit in a high-pressure AB it gets attributed to luck or randomness. While I buy into the luck factor because there is a lot of luck in baseball there is no way I'm buying into "randomness". Randomness is based on having no outside influences -as much as possible. A computer can generate "random" numbers but even then it's miniscually (is that even a word??) influenced by the programming but things like an AB are influenced by a plethora of things -the pitch, the wind, the emotions of the batter, the sun in the eyes, the placement of the defense, maybe he's thinking about the last conversation he had in the dugout or what he did against this pitcher in his last AB, maybe he had a fight with his wife - there's nothing "random" about it. There are too many outside influences to refer to the results of any AB as being "random". Just the fact that a hitter (or foul shooter) recognizes that he's "in the moment" removes any vestige of "randomness". So if it's not random it must be causative - brought on by things other than randomness... like being that elusive "clutch".

No. What this is is a set-up, much like a bar bet with a totally unexpected "right answer". Thanks, but I won't participate.

The Twins lost 103 games last year and probably see themselves in a rebuilding mode. A .500 season for them in 2017 would probably be seen as "successful" because they don't (realistically) expect to win their division. OTOH, if the Sox go 81-81 it will be a disappointment because we expect them to win 90+ games.

Relative to one's expectations. If I play golf and expect to break 90 and shoot 80 I feel like I was successful. If Tiger Woods plays golf, expects to break par and shoots 80 he's disappointed.

I don't expect to change anyone's mind with this but I'll tell you what I know from personal experience. If you've never realized that you are in the middle of something big and had the hair stand up on the back of your neck or gotten 'goose bumps', and then had a calmness settle into you that makes you forget about everything except what you need to do next, and then performed at a higher than normal level.... then I feel badly for you because it's one of the best feelings in the world.

...and I wish this form had a "like" button.