re: Josh Bell I've become a fan of Bell this year too, but he's only a 3-tool player. Both Bellinger and Yelich are true 5-tool players who have no peer in MLB except Trout.
re: player pay These guys need to stop listening to their agents. Neither Harper or Machado was worth what they were asking and neither made the All-Star team. Harper couldn't make our team. We have better players than him. Machado was given a chance and refused to run out ground balls and called that "his style." That won't fly on a team filled with 100%, fuel-injected turbos like Taylor, Verdugo and Buehler.
Jim, good point re: Bell. No argument at all re: Bellinger and Yelich. I was looking at Bell's stats at the break and his commanding lead in RBI. There still is a little less than half a season to go. The NL MVP race should be pretty exciting to watch. I'll be in Milwaukee this weekend for a 12U baseball tournament. We're going to a Brewers-Giants game Friday or Saturday night. Looking forward to it.
there's gonna be a lot of stars on the field in that game Sid. The Giants have a lineup that reads like a baseball card collector's dream, but they aren't getting it done. Too much old blood. The Brewers have unreal young talent. That should be a good one.
A fair amount of ND flavor in the game, with Craig Counsell managing and Pat Murphy coaching the Brewers and the Shark pitching for the Giants, although he may not be starting the game we see.
Sort of off topic... But I am watching the American Century Celebrity golf tournament. Top players are Tony Romo who is going to win, but you have another Qb Case Keenum and two former MLB pitcher's in Mark Mulder and Derek Lowe. Pitchers and QB's I wonder if that throwing motion is a factor in being a good golfer.
Well it had to happen. Somebody stole first base, the Atlantic League is experimenting with new rules and the batter can steal first base if the catcher doesn't catch the ball, so a passed ball or wild pitch are fair game. A Southern Maryland Blue Crab was the first! Personally I think this is a dumb rule experiment. SoMD Blue Crabs (@BlueCrabs) | Twitter
Like many things these days, someone came up with the idea that would change the way baseball is played. Pitchers, especially those with lack of control tendencies, would be the prime losers.
The Atlantic League also tested the Robot Umpire in their All-Star game. Doesn't sound like it was a resounding success, might need some tweaking. Tennis has been using computers to call lines for a long time and it's very well received by players and officials alike. I do think that it's going to happen eventually in MLB. Reviewing Atlantic League's Automated Strike Zone | Close Call Sports & Umpire Ejection Fantasy League
On this day in history, July 17 1941, Joe Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak came to an end in Cleveland where Indian pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby Jr shut him out. Ted Williams hit .406 that year, but the Clipper won the AL MVP. DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak: 20 fun facts
Tennis seems to be the only sport whose use of replay technology does not interfere with the flow of the game. There were several replays during the Wimbledon men’s finals of line calls and each replay was completed in a few seconds.
Dodgers and Phillies on Youtube today. Once they got past the shuffle and 'hey look at us' the coverage has been great. I guess this will be a new thing going forward
Not related to any current discussions. I've seen parts of the last few Cubs games. Anthony Rizzo is consistently swinging against the shift toward left field, and it's paying off. The past 7 days he's hitting .476 with 3 doubles. I saw one of the doubles. It was a grounder to 3b, but the 3b was playing SS, so it rolled into LF, and he was on second by the time the LF picked up the ball. If more batters would do what he's doing, it might force defenses to adjust back to - GASP! - their normal positions.
Terry, Mom's not a big fan of change of any sort. Sid, You are preaching to the choir. The shift drives me crazy and it should be exploited every time it's implemented.
Re Robot Umps: You'll see major league hitters often swing and miss early in the count and it appears they are talking to someone. They are. The umpire. They are asking him if that was a ball/strike. You'll also see them asking on a swing/miss on the outside corner. They want to know if that was the outside corner of the strike zone. I'm not saying we couldn't design a robot to do this, but I have a hard time believing they would get down all of the context required of an umpire without several beta versions being tried first.