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Post by inger on Mar 12, 2019 21:33:42 GMT -5
Gio Gonzalez is still out there, but even if he signed this week, would be ready by the opening week of the season? As Yogi used to say, "it's getting late, early." If they want to carry an extra pitcher anyways I wonder if adding a guy like Gio and having him split outings with the likes of a Cessa or Loasiaga or German would be a strategy they are interested in (looking to get 3 innings or so from a couple of guys). But then are you willing to lose a legit bullpen piece to carry the extra guy that can give you those three innings? If you do, you weaken one of the team’s most obvious advantages... We’re not built for that... |
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Post by michcusejoe5 on Mar 13, 2019 8:07:15 GMT -5
If they want to carry an extra pitcher anyways I wonder if adding a guy like Gio and having him split outings with the likes of a Cessa or Loasiaga or German would be a strategy they are interested in (looking to get 3 innings or so from a couple of guys). But then are you willing to lose a legit bullpen piece to carry the extra guy that can give you those three innings? If you do, you weaken one of the team’s most obvious advantages... We’re not built for that... I dont think so. They appear to want to carry an extra bullpen arm and go with only a 3 man bench. How often is that 8th man in the bullpen actually going to throw? And in how high leverage of situations anyways? Figure your main bullpen is something like... 1. Chapman 2. Betances 3. Britton 4. Ottavino 5. Green 6. Holder 7. Kahnle? The last guy in that equation then becomes is someone like Cessa, Hale, etc. (or maybe German when the full rotation is healthy). So I just wonder how much value that last spot adds and how frequently they actually contribute? Could using the last rotation spot + last bullpen slot as a useful dual threat...at least while guys are out at this stage. Figure it could help by not forcing guys like Lasanga or German or Cessa to carry as heavy of a burden, get them out of games before things go south for another sharp arm (who we can also lift before they get flat), help with innings limits of the younger guys, and also not have that final bullpen slot just be a useless guy who pitches mop up once every couple weeks. |
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Post by pippsheadache on Mar 13, 2019 11:35:37 GMT -5
Ever since the game started, baseball has become increasingly specialized. If you look at 19th century teams, players always played multiple positions. The problem now is that pitching has become so specialized and workloads so radically reduced for starters that teams are left with very narrow benches, so that very versatile position players are needed more and more It was not at all uncommon in the 1960s for teams to carry ten pitchers and fifteen position players. In fact it was the norm. Eleven pitchers would have been considered a large contingent.
Essentially you had an entire second team of position players on the bench. I do miss that kind of lineup/replacement flexibility -- it made the game more interesting -- but unless rosters are increased to 28-30 players, that isn't coming back. In fact I think if rosters increased to say 28, most teams would just add at least two more pitchers unless legislated otherwise.
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Post by inger on Mar 13, 2019 12:31:22 GMT -5
Ever since the game started, baseball has become increasingly specialized. If you look at 19th century teams, players always played multiple positions. The problem now is that pitching has become so specialized and workloads so radically reduced for starters that teams are left with very narrow benches, so that very versatile position players are needed more and more It was not at all uncommon in the 1960s for teams to carry ten pitchers and fifteen position players. In fact it was the norm. Eleven pitchers would have been considered a large contingent. Essentially you had an entire second team of position players on the bench. I do miss that kind of lineup/replacement flexibility -- it made the game more interesting -- but unless rosters are increased to 28-30 players, that isn't coming back. In fact I think if rosters increased to say 28, most teams would just add at least two more pitchers unless legislated otherwise. Think about how we all get introduced to the game. We didn’t have a position the first time we put on a glove. Well, except for the fat kids that ask for a catchers mitt (sorry Mich). We sorted it out on our own. The kids that struggled with grounders are sent to the outfield. The ones that couldn’t or catch flies got sent back to the infield and finally the bench. Some of us could play anywhere. Now almost every player has to have multiple positions to own a roster spot...except that some players only have to hit. And you have to have two of the fat kids with a mitt, which further influences who you can have on the roster. The extra pitchers have killed quite a bit of the strategy out of the game. We don’t see near as many pinch hitters, pinch runners, pinch fielders as we used to for fear of having an empty bench. And of course pinch hitters only took a few seconds to implement, whereas relief pitchers must take time to warm up. Do I long for those good old days. Yes. And no. I do think it’s a bit dumb that the sport has evolved and the rosters (and rules) haven’t evolved to adapt. Expanded rosters are a must. It may be a bit more difficult to legislate the number of pitchers on the roster if we begin to see more players that can pitch and play the field... |
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Post by michcusejoe5 on Mar 13, 2019 14:33:08 GMT -5
Its okay inger...I was the fat kid with a catchers mitt and I loved it! I miss catching so much.
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Post by inger on Mar 13, 2019 15:11:47 GMT -5
Its okay inger...I was the fat kid with a catchers mitt and I loved it! I miss catching so much. The ones with talent were few, but quite valuable. You did very well it seems. Not fat, of course. Just “blocky”. Lol... |
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Post by inger on Mar 13, 2019 15:32:42 GMT -5
Its okay inger...I was the fat kid with a catchers mitt and I loved it! I miss catching so much. Actually, since I got started late in baseball, I was the skinny kid that they told to go stand “out there”, which turned out to be left field. I went out and I recall I stood with my gloved left hand at the level of my head waiting for a ball to go into it. The first few batters hit it somewhere else and then there was one hit well over my head and to my right that I simply watched as it sailed over the left field fence. I remember watching several guys scramble over the fence to look for and retrieve the ball while I was still standing there in the same spot. There was an older gentleman that had been walking in the field behind the fence before the ball was hit and I could hear him say sarcastically “That’s some left fielder you boys have there, isn’t it”? Later that day another ball or two flew out that way, and now I knew I was supposed to chase them, so I did. I’d retrieve them and when I threw them some one said “Goddam, he can throw”, so I knew I could do something right. (thankfully I had wasted some of my alone time as a very young kid throwing rocks at various targets like a young cave man child). By the end of the game I had successfully caught my first fly ball at 9 years of age. By the next summer I was already considered a good outfielder. It would take another season for the bat to start becoming livelier, and yet another before I’d say I “broke out”... |
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