Don

Loaded with guys throwing 95+ isn’t anything to write home about these days

Good point comrade

Which week?

@Jeff Fletcher I certainly get the roster/usage impact argument. And it definitely made sense to implement the extra innings changes during the Covid season. That said, MLB has already expanded rosters, allowing teams to carry an extra pitcher if they'd like. They could continue to address the issue as needed in ways that don't fundamentally alter the way the game is played.

Patrick Sandoval finishes top 10 in Cy Young voting Logan O'Hoppe posts an OPS over .800

I think a lot of it stems from the false narrative that the length of games is one of MLB's biggest issues. It's a minor issue at most, IMO, and changing the extra innings rules will only speed up 8-ish percent of games. If it's something that MLB really wants to address, there are better ways to do it.

Knock at the Cabin: This could have been a good movie. It really could have. There are just a couple massive plot holes that honestly feel like lazy writing/editing more than anything, which has really become an unfortunate feature of a lot of M Night Shyamalan movies. Dude might legit be the most frustrating film maker of all time.

As much as I'd be fine with keeping extra innings play the same as it always was pre-2020, I think they could've gone with other ideas to modify the extra innings rule. Like others have suggested, maybe you wait until the 12th inning or something to start with a runner on 2nd. You could also play around with the idea of a baseball version of a shoot out once you reach the 12th or something. Like a shortened HR derby sort of thing.

Most teams average about 12-13 extra inning games per year, which makes it worth considering in my opinion. Just one extra dude with blazing speed and maybe one more skill (probably defense).

First, I'm not a fan of this. I don't think there was ever anything wrong with extra innings pre-2020, and it sucks we need to change this part of the game to appease the "games are like too slow, man" crowd. But, being as this is the permanent rule now, I wonder if it will affect rosters a bit. Given that we're now at 26 players on the roster, I wonder if some teams will switch to carrying one really high end pinch runner instead of the extra pitcher that most teams tend to use that extra spot for. Like does this rule along with the 26 man roster make the Jarrod Dyson's of the world just a bit more valuable?

As of right now I'm blaming Harrison Ford

Dumbass mistake no doubt, but 258M Euros seems like a drop in the bucket compared to CA's money pit. And at least they have a functional high speed rail system in place at the end of the day. As far as I know we're still about 7 billion dollars in field mouse habitat impact studies away from a train that'll cut your shitbag cousin's meth run from Bakersfield to Palmdale down to 25 minutes each way.

This group scares me because it's probably middle of the pack IF nobody gets hurt or just has an off year. If Loup turns into 2021 Loup again, we may even be a bit above average. But bullpens tend to be pretty fluid over the course of a full season, which is why depth is so important in that area of the roster. So it's really a matter of when some of these dudes get hurt or just start pitching like crap, who do we have that can step in for them? If we manage to find two or three legit dudes via the minors, trades, or the waiver wire, then we've got a decent shot at being good. If we don't do that, then I don't see any realistic scenario where this bullpen isn't a liability.

May I humbly submit KC's own Independence Ave Bridge. The people here love it and are very protective of it. It's like our Lil Sebastian.

I'm obviously not the one making these decisions, but in my mind O'Hoppe would have to perform pretty poorly in ST to not get the starting catcher job. His minor league numbers really suggest a dude that knows what he's doing at the plate .283/.416/.544 last year with 70 BB and 74 Ks in 104 games. And in the brief time he was up with the Angels last year he looked pretty competent at the plate. I know there's the whole defense first thing, which is fine, but I don't think Stassi is good enough defensively to justify keeping his bat in the lineup at this point. Now, it's possible that Stassi just had an off year last year and he becomes a .750-ish OPS guy again while staying healthy. That is the absolute best case scenario possible, and I don't expect either of those things to happen really. Now, if we gave the job to O'Hoppe, it's possible that he fails, sure. But I think he has a much better chance of being a quality offensive player than Stassi, and I wouldn't be surprised at all by an 800+ OPS. And I know I've harped on this all offseason, but the biggest thing the Angels can do to improve the team heading into 2023 (besides adding like a million more bullpen arms) is to simply not give tons of ABs to guys that suck at hitting. Stassi was terrible last year, in a season where he played more games than any other year in his career (102). If I had to bet on who has a better chance of being a black hole in our lineup next year between O'Hoppe and Stassi, it is without a doubt Stassi. And I'm tired of dudes with sub-600 OPSs getting consistent ABs in our lineup.

Yeah, I’d really like to know more about how Neto projects/his general timeline. Because I’d believe a wide range of outcomes and timelines at this point. Gotta admit the AA numbers fresh off of getting drafted are really encouraging though. Glad the Angels are inviting him to big league ST. Hoping we’ll get to see a good number of ABs out of him against high level competition before the season starts. I feel really good about O’Hoppe. I’ll honestly be disappointed if he doesn’t get the starting job out of ST. We already know what Stassi is, and I think it’s highly likely that O’Hoppe will do at least as well as him offensively, and quite possibly much better. His minor league power/BB/K numbers suggest he’s a dude that knows how to hit, and he isn’t just getting by on being more talented than others at his level. I feel like that skill set transitions well to the big leagues.

Agreed that it sucks for Cincy to have that happen in the last ten seconds of a playoff game, but that flag gets thrown (flailing or not) 99/100 times.

This is one of those terrifying signings only because I can see our org talking themselves in to letting this guy start games consistently if we get bitten by the injury bug. This signing is fine if he's a late inning defensive replacement, or starts every week or two. Anything more than that and this dude is a burden.

On the optimistic side of things, I think Detmers steps up and turns into a solid #2/3 starter type, O'Hoppe wins the starting catcher job outright fairly early in the season and posts an .800+ OPS, and Ward/Trout/Ohtani combine for 100+ HRs. Lots of other things I'm not as optimistic about, but all three of those predictions would contribute massively to this team having a winning season, and they all seem very much within the realm of possibility.

Burned through the latest season in a few days. Definitely the best of the three seasons they’ve done so far. Good story line, Krasinski plays a really solid Jack Ryan, and Wendell Pierce is awesome as usual.

I’m really disappointed that this thread isn’t about Nancy Reagan.

Who knows? My immune system is normally pretty solid. The first go around with Covid I just had a headache and was super tired for like a day. This time around has been less bad than that.

Had Covid in June, got a booster in October, have Covid now.

Getting gnarly in KC today too. Lowest wind chill I’ve ever seen here.

All part of the strategy to fill the bottom half of the lineup with guys that aren’t objectively terrible hitters. It’s a massive improvement really. In related news, I sincerely hope O’Hoppe is given every opportunity to become the regular starting catcher next year.