2024 Game Thread

[lou]

That’s a truly awful idea that will at no point ever be implemented for several reasons

It's probably not the right idea but they are trying to account for the issue of SP injuries/RP waves FWIW. I agree with the article the genie is out of the bottle and these guys aren't going to all turn into control pitchers when they've been brought up for a decade to throw max velocity and sliders.

I think the double hook DH is interesting - https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...tlantic-league. SP goes 5 innings or you lose the DH. I don't think awarding draft picks to teams who throw more SP innings make sense. It would have to be some kind of rule change that impacts game strategy. The DH is a natural fit to tweak since its entire inception is based on pitchers inability to hit so its tied to arms already. So earn those PA by throwing 5 innings. Exceptions for guys getting hurt, throwing 100 pitches, etc.

For me, I think the solution isn't messing with SP innings limits, its making the game rolling and get rid of excessive TV timeouts - A "4th inning" stretch (before 4th) to match the customary 7th inning stretch can be the two larger breaks in the game. No TV commercials in half inning changes - Get off the field, get to the plate. Jersey sponsors, overlaid ads on TV that run throughout the game. If European soccer can do it, there is no reason to not have BACARDI real big across the Marlins front jerseys. It'll all offset the revenue with in-game advertising + ideally a better product (hopefully?) to help declining viewership and speeding up the games. Now, you might ask but that has nothing to do with SP health so what's the point in this hard pivot, but along with this set up, is a new innings culture where SP and RP throw innings and mid-inning changes are highly frowned upon. Maybe you get 1 a game and someone has to be on base starting in the 7th inning and it has to be a game tying run, except for an injury sort of thing. Very limited exceptions. If the idea is SP protection, this will *hopefully* make managers think a little harder about throwing out a guy an extra inning understanding they may be trying to sneak a .1 or .2 IP with a good R/R or L/L matchup, but now the ability to swap out for a RP becomes more dangerous as a lineup turns over. This should decrease a volume of pitches on a strategy level, and more notably later game pitches over 80-90 pitches thrown where guys may be more gassed which is a higher injury probability. Basically, it's speeding up the game and managers have to advance the bullpen for the next inning swap when that happens. Maybe combine this with the double hook DH, and all of a sudden SP are going to be throwing 5 innings often, with speed up games.

I haven't worked this all out in my head and this is musing, so this is an ultimate "I don't know the answer" but I like that MLB is thinking about some things and all of this can kind of be pitched together in my view at an owner's meetings as you can tie SP health, to game innings, to speeding up games, to how to advertise if that happens, to DH strategy, etc. It is an interesting discussion point. I am all in favor of all of this ultimately - larger bases, pitch clocks, robo umps (also speeds things up you'd think), less commercials, more ads, penalties for excessive RP waves versus throwing a SP, etc.

[Nick]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ies-tommy-john

They are thinking about making innings limits for SP. 6 innings and can’t come out unless hurt, given up 4 ER, or 100 pitches.

fish16 is going to love this

That shit is not baseball. GTFOH

[fish16]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ies-tommy-john

They are thinking about making innings limits for SP. 6 innings and can’t come out unless hurt, given up 4 ER, or 100 pitches.

fish16 is going to love this

That’s a truly awful idea that will at no point ever be implemented for several reasons

[lou]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ies-tommy-john

They are thinking about making innings limits for SP. 6 innings and can’t come out unless hurt, given up 4 ER, or 100 pitches.

fish16 is going to love this

[lou]

Just to clarify, I don’t mean that they don’t view Bride as a 3B defensively but rather they do not view him as a starter next year at all (and not that I necessarily disagree with it). At least that’s my take away on making the defense worse - if they viewed him as a starting option, he’d get more playing time at 2B*/3B where we actually need starters. It could also just be “we trust how his defense plays, we just need his bat in the lineup to see if it plays so plug him in wherever” but I doubt it with how bad the need is for starters at those positions

*Not saying it’s a position of need, with Edwards balling and multiple 2B prospects in AAA. But Edwards is our SS until he’s pushed off, and still need starters until a prospect properly claims the role - especially if they do keep Norby down until months in next year for service time reasons. Also don’t mean he should be there over Otto, I mean non-Otto days where they have Brujan at 2B and Bride at 1B/DH

Burger has been a 3B since college. About the only argument I can see for him magically getting better at this point in his career is now he has more consistent coaching at the major league level aka better coaching…but if going that route, than Norby should be up for that lol.

I’d much rather see him getting reps at 1B where he doesn’t have much experience and could actually gain growth. I definitely understand the 1B/DH potential logjam, but if he’s trying to work a second position I’d rather see Burger getting reps in LF than 3B at this point - possibly just talking out my ass but he’s got decent speed and arm, I don’t see tools lacking it would just be a matter of learning the position/new reads on the ball. Which then gives flexibility to move guys around the field to get them in the line up/off days using the DH

I am inclined to thinking it is that bold with Bride. Maybe it's actually the same thing they are doing with Edwards and Burger - we know he can play 3B well enough as he's been in the minors for like a decade, what's 1B looking like for Bride just so we know? It's the same thing with Burger at 3B (or LF which I am into also) or Edwards at SS. They are trying him out, while they see if he can hit. I mean it's a little dumb as yes, we should know what Burger is at this point and maybe just install Bride at 3B for 6 weeks and pray. But does anything really matter here when we're in hail mary territory for some of these defensive alignments?

I'd rather play Otto at SS too the more I think about this. Just get Edwards to 2B. He is just going to be there. Otto RHP, Edwards LHP at SS here on out. That's my preference just to get a little film on Edwards at SS, but also see if Otto is more of an answer (bench wise as a backup). If he can hit right handers even a little and his defensive range is good even if his arm is bad, Otto starts really crafting a bench role here.

Maybe its this September 1 as I feel moderately confident they are doing a rookie eligibility thing for Norby for next year

C Whoever
1B Burger/Bride split
2B Edwards RHP / Norby or Bride LHP
SS Otto RHP / Edwards LHP
3B Burger/Bride split, maybe some Norby against left handers?
LF Norby RHP / ????
CF Sanchez RHP / Pache LHP
RF Stowers RHP / Hill LHP
DH ?????

Rivera and Brujan are those last 2 roster guys right now (Hensley is there for Norby) for the ????, but maybe they turn into Dane coming back from injury which helps LF/RF/DH and he should play every day for sure and hell, make it CF, and try out Johnston and Conine/Gray. Rosters expand so they could bring up Dane, Johnston, and Conine/Gray and see what happens.

Fun September maybe?

[lou]

Orioles manipulating service time for Coby Mayo during a playoff run - https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/...coby-mayo.html


The interesting note is this move preserves rookie eligibility so Coby could get them a draft pick if he's awesome in 2025.

So now Norby. Didn't think about this aspect as I'm only caring about year 7 and super 2 status. He was up 12 days, and has to be under 45 days.... So he can be up 32 days to preserve rookie eligibility and if he's great next year, Marlins could get a pick. He might hit and get huge quantity stats with clear playing time. There is not a -0- chance here Norby is a top 1-2 rookie if he gets 550 PA next year. This might be what is happening, along with some 3B development time. Basically, August 29th give or take a day is where this lands where Norby can get his feet wet and save rookie eligibility. This is probably what is happening just in case Norby is a quick .270/.350/.450 guy.

Good note MLBTR.

[lou]

Don’t forget, Bruce will have to pay Stanton’s 3/$30M deal from ‘26-‘28.

Yes. And that's in my budgets.... and Garcia.... and Go for next year

[rmc523]

Don’t forget, Bruce will have to pay Stanton’s 3/$30M deal from ‘26-‘28.

[nny]

So I don't think this is about Bride not being viewed defensively at 3B.

Just to clarify, I don’t mean that they don’t view Bride as a 3B defensively but rather they do not view him as a starter next year at all (and not that I necessarily disagree with it). At least that’s my take away on making the defense worse - if they viewed him as a starting option, he’d get more playing time at 2B*/3B where we actually need starters. It could also just be “we trust how his defense plays, we just need his bat in the lineup to see if it plays so plug him in wherever” but I doubt it with how bad the need is for starters at those positions

*Not saying it’s a position of need, with Edwards balling and multiple 2B prospects in AAA. But Edwards is our SS until he’s pushed off, and still need starters until a prospect properly claims the role - especially if they do keep Norby down until months in next year for service time reasons. Also don’t mean he should be there over Otto, I mean non-Otto days where they have Brujan at 2B and Bride at 1B/DH

Burger has been a 3B since college. About the only argument I can see for him magically getting better at this point in his career is now he has more consistent coaching at the major league level aka better coaching…but if going that route, than Norby should be up for that lol.

I’d much rather see him getting reps at 1B where he doesn’t have much experience and could actually gain growth. I definitely understand the 1B/DH potential logjam, but if he’s trying to work a second position I’d rather see Burger getting reps in LF than 3B at this point - possibly just talking out my ass but he’s got decent speed and arm, I don’t see tools lacking it would just be a matter of learning the position/new reads on the ball. Which then gives flexibility to move guys around the field to get them in the line up/off days using the DH

[lou]

What Washington has done with Nasim Nunez this year is mind blowing to me. He’s been with them the entire season with them and has 22 ABs. Like they must think highly of him to basically waste a major league roster spot on him for the entire year. But on the other hand, doing this can’t be good for his development, right? I’ll be very interested to see how his career pans out after this.

Totally. I love them doing this for them to get a player, but sucks for Nasim. They can plop him 2 years in AAA after this season so I mean, he can catch up (sort of?). He's probably getting a lot of reps every SP throw day FWIW. It's a wild Rule V move to shelter him this much.

[lou]

I’ve actually been impressed with Edwards hands, throwing accuracy at shortstop. Has made very few errors. Obviously he doesn’t have the range or arm strength for shortstop but I don’t see how he wouldn’t be a good 2B.

Yea, he'll probably be fine there. It's SSS, but FG UZR/FRV ratings are neutral at 2B, abysmal (-6 OAA) at SS which aligns with statcast, and also bad for the short time in CF in 2023. It's 2B.

Stott has an expected slash .260/.337/.382, 64th percentile defense, 55th percentile base running. Fangraphs is giving him a 1.3 WAR over 425 PA. This is a 1.8 WAR/600 PA season pace.

Edwards probably has a slight OBP potential advantage and notable base running advantage. Slugging doesn't mean too much (20 TB for a season) here as everything is low. So if his defense is similar at 2B as a floor, this scales quickly to a 2 WAR starter at 2B for Edwards. And that's based on 64th percentile defense and Edwards hitting .267/.346/.344 (.690 OPS). Tick up the defense if he is better than that and if he's a low .700s OPS kind of guy with that OBP ultimately, 3 WAR land. Either way, this is a piece for years it seems. Hopefully on the better end and he's closer to a .750 OPS than a .690 OPS and the defense lands.

[Nick]

What Washington has done with Nasim Nunez this year is mind blowing to me. He’s been with them the entire season with them and has 22 ABs. Like they must think highly of him to basically waste a major league roster spot on him for the entire year. But on the other hand, doing this can’t be good for his development, right? I’ll be very interested to see how his career pans out after this.

[lou]

Also just to defend Martorella a little, he came out of a long slump on 7/9 (where he had 8 hits in 23 games, yikes!) and since then

107 PA, .266/.355/.468 (.290 BABIP), 5 HR, 12% BB / 19% K. (with 9 hits his last 6 games for some slump perspective).

Not amazing, but that's pretty good. His first 107 PA in SD were a .292/.393/.427 (15% BB / 16% K) so he's really been quite good 1/2 the year and abysmal the other half sandwiched in the midle. Have to judge it as a whole, but shit happens. Maybe the trade impacted him mentally.

I'm real interested in seeing how Berry and Martorella end here basically. Some pretty wild swings for both of them.

[Nick]

Also, I think I’ve watched more games in August than I had in April-July combined.

[Nick]

I’ve actually been impressed with Edwards hands, throwing accuracy at shortstop. Has made very few errors. Obviously he doesn’t have the range or arm strength for shortstop but I don’t see how he wouldn’t be a good 2B.