Still in….First Place
I only caught bits of the all star game. What I did see didn’t seem that interesting…….
The shift needs to go. Players can’t beat it. Pathetic, but true.
British Open this week, my favorite of all the majors. And Del Mar, too. The summer of Big Favor forages on…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Dodgers picked up Sherfy off waivers…which I think tells you more about state of Dodgers pitching staff than it does the Giants (smiley face goes here).
I used to be against the removal of the shift, but agree. Get rid of it. And while you’re at it, get rid of:
The fucking DH (I know, never gonna happen and will probably be instituted in the NL soon)
7 inning double headers
Runner on 2nd to start extra innings…
Good breakdown in the Athletic on the Giants day 3 of the draft (rounds 11-20). They went heavy on position players after loading-up on pitchers in the first two days. Ended up with 14 pitchers and six position players). Only four HS players drafted…
Giants apparently interested (as it sounds many teams are) in the undrafted FAs.
Richard Sherman arrested on DV charge. The Athletic
TMZ reports a police K9 dog was deployed in order to subdue free agent CB Richard Sherman during his overnight arrest in Washington.
Sherman, 33, was booked for a felony around 2 AM Wednesday morning in King County, Washington when he reportedly tried breaking into a family member’s home after a hit-and-run with a concrete barrier on the highway. He fought so much with the responding police officers that a dog had to be used. It’s unclear how serious the charges will be, but Sherman is said to still be in police custody after being denied bail. Sherman had been angling toward a contract of late, but this will put a snag to those plans for now.
Hopefully it’s just resisting arrest and not assault on a police officer. Probably get a hit and run DUI also. Pretty sure he won’t be Niner again but there is always the Raiders.
Albie Pearson (nice card thx Loo) in 1961 had tremendous season at plate. Hit .288 with .420 OB (ton of walks) and .400 slugging for .821 (rounded up I guess) OPS. That will work in any era.
Getting on base matters when it comes to how best to score runs, vs. shift or not. Up to batter to figure out how to do it. Line drives and long fly balls (and walks) work lot better than groundballs do.
Saw that Xoot. Denied bail, and charged with a felony. Must be some serious shit to deny bail.
Kind of a good feeling the Dodgers are now snatching up some of the Giants former players like Sherfy and Spicoli ( though he was a Sabes draft pick)shows how far the Giants have started to come in evaluating talent..
Might have been Z/Harris/Holmes philosophy in the draft to pick older more experienced players then high school kids to replenish the farm system but also getting them to move up the ladder faster in the farm systems..
Interesting pick the player from Yale? Rohan Handa?
Indian/American accent throws LH but was struggling with velocity( mid 80’s at best)and the Covid 19 wiped out a season at Yale, goes to a Cape Cod league to pitch after getting training at some Athletic compound and all of a sudden his fastball has spiked to a high of 97 hmmm steroids, are in this facility a complete breakdown of his delivery as his release point was to low thus the loss in his velocity..
Denying the shift doesn’t make much difference, according to those numbers James posted. What I find pathetic is guys (BELT!!) constantly hitting into it. I guess the curse of Belt is, he finally started bunting the other way and the baseball Gods smacked him down with another injury.
How about stopping the teaching of the uppercut swing at every level? The all-or-nothing approach has led to this. Home runs and strikeouts. Defending the way hitters are being taught to hit is elementary strategery. It would be like the NFL banning passes to RBs coming out of the backfield.
i didn’t see what James posted. Re-post?
Based on 2020’s numbers, the shift prevents about one single every 4 games, or 600 in a year. Snarkk asked why they bother. The answer is that it could make a difference to the outcome of a couple games a year.
that doesn’t sound right. Can you re-post the article?
Think about it. If there are 12 games in a day, that means every day a whole lot of fans see someone lose a hit to an infield shift. If you consider that the 600 represents a net loss, then you realize that there are of course balls that get through for base hits that would be an out in a more conventional set. That means there are even more than just those 600 balls that result in an out in a shift. The overall impression this leaves on fans far outweighs the actual impact of the lost singles. The shift is a complete red herring.
Here’s the relevant quote and article:
“You would but maybe marginally. Baseball Info Solutions reports shifting caused 213 would-be hits to be turned into outs in last year’s shortened 60-game season, which translates to 575 hits-to-outs over a normal, 162-game season.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/18/baseball-shift-rule-changes/
Baseball is a terrible game, except for the Giants, and only when they have a good team. I can get behind that. If Zaidi and co. slip up, it’ll be a boon to my Spanish and French and the rest of my program to get the education I never got in school, while staving off the Alzheimers for a few extra months, kinda like employing the shift to get a small edge in a losing game.
Lol
James said, on July 13, 2021 at 5:10 pm (Edit)
Old man yelling who likes to yell because other old men believe stupid shit:
“Baseball Info Solutions reports shifting caused 213 would-be hits to be turned into outs in last year’s shortened 60-game season, which translates to 575 hits-to-outs over a normal, 162-game season.”
That’s one single every 4 games.
Old man I think of Neil Young’s classic timeless song, on how he first acquired his top of Bear Gulch Road Ranch in Woodside and he wrote the lyrics to Old Man being inspired by the care keeper / fence repairs, foreman who kept the property in pristine shape.So he dedicated this song to him..
Old Man look at my life
I’m a lot like you were
Old Man look at my life
I’m a lot like you were
Old Man look at my life
Twenty four and there’s so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of you
Love lost such a cost
Give me things that don’t get lost
Like a coin that won’t get lost
Rolling home to you
Lullabies look in your eyes
Run around the same old town
Doesn’t mean that much to me
To mean that much to you
I’ve been first and last
Look at how the time has past
But I’m all alone at last
Rolling home to you
Have always dug that song…
Used to see his old tour bus parked on Canada Rd for years. Wish I took a pic of it.
One thing I do agree with is, I rarely watch other teams play baseball. SD is interesting, and Otani is certainly cool, but at least with football, I can watch other teams and be entertained. Funny thing is, with Bilasport it is suddenly real easy to see other games.
One other thing to keep in mind in response to the “then why shift at all?” question is that the infield shift is used in concert with the OF. The latter prevents XBHs not just singles. The combo creates more of a case for the overall strategy.
George Will wants rule changes.
https://tinyurl.com/a75nkmcu
“As of mid-June, the .238 collective major league batting average was 15 points below 2019.”
That’s why MLB didn’t wait until the coming off-season to ban the sticky stuff pitchers were using. The Commissioner’s office was in panic mode.
They announced the general plan before the season started and modified to after input from players and the union.
*it
“. . . and writer Tyler Kepner says this season is on a pace for approximately 5,000 more strikeouts than hits.”*
* Three seasons ago when this all began for the first time in baseball’s history, there had NEVER been a month with more SOs versus hits and in the entire season 3 years ago, SOs barely edged out hits (200 or so).
In short, a very bad trend.
George Will regurgitating, failing to mention, like every other baseball is in crisis commentator I’ve read, the strike zone that favors pitchers. You want more balls in play and offense? Don’t give pitchers the outsized corners they now enjoy.
If banning super glue doesn’t pull the SO number down, and it won’t, much, strict strike zone enforcement seems like an obvious plan. Very similar to lowering the permissible height of the mound. Of course, one other way to increase offense is to use the free runner on 2B every inning.
George Will repudiated Trump. Only sensible the fuckers ever done.
Gerson’s columns are a true chronicle of conservative despair. Occasionally, there are the laughable attempts to assert a radical break between the Republican mainstream he championed for years and Trump, but for the most part he’s stayed on course with very well-written diatribes.
still don’t get the point of banning shift (end of last thread question)–you want more singles up the middle? or over 2b head? Putting a player in a position to stop those is wrong?
They could always go 5 strikes and your out and 3 balls takes first. I think Robo ump is the future.
Meant to say 4 strikes
One really strange rule that someone pointed out recently was that you can foul off an infinite amount of 2 strike pitches but if you bunt foul with 2 strikes you’re gone.
WHY???
I don’t know if this is the reason, but long ago when players knew how to bunt it might have been considered much easier to foul off pitches while attempting to bunt than it was to swing. Does that make sense? Of course nowadays, few players know how to bunt.
I think I brought that up.
Bunt and foul off a strike 2 pitch, you’re gone.
But, swing away for the downs on strike 2 and foul it off, then just keep on doing that swing after swing, until you maybe hit a home run.
No problem…
There’s an idea floating around mlb to limit number of fouls.
Another aspect of the shift is the right handed opposite field hitters. The Giants for awhile did very well with going the opposite way (Bam Bam philosophy?). As I recall, Matt Duffy for one really thrived on it, until teams started shifting him like he was a left handed hitter. Even though he was a Giant, at the time I thought it was a good move by the opposing team manager.
I’m not against the shift per say and think it has actually helped the Giants D over the years, but I am against 4 outfielders. So if a manager wants a short right fielder, he should show some balls and put his left fielder there but not an infielder.
I think that would be putting his balls in a vise.
Seems to be an internal conflict between preserving valuable arms and reducing SO spike. Maybe a four foul strike two limit would induce more weak balls in play. Maybe. I’m not sure that’s an innovation that would test well in that independent minor league where they’re going to try moving the rubber back a foot.
G. Will has an interesting point about a pitch clock. Less time for power pitchers to regather their strength for power fastballs.
I’d like to see this plotted against the mean number of pitchers used per game on the Y axis in the same time series…
Any one interested in Mexican music should check out Fandango at the Wall on HBO Latino. Much of it’s bilingual, some of it’s subtitled.
Speaking of “The Open Championship”, I attended the weekend rounds at the 1983 version, held at Royal Birkdale just a bit north of Liverpool. It was a pretty warm weekend, not a lot of wind. Really hilly links course, it was fairly dry, hadn’t had a lot of rain. Great time. The event was like a huge golf sale with a tournament going on the side. Tons of big tents everywhere selling all sorts of stuff. It was the last Open of the 5 Watson won. I remember following him in the last few holes of the Sunday back nine. Coming up the 18th there at the end was awesome, like going into a stadium, almost, with thousands of people cheering and yelling. They really loved Watson. I was there nearby staying in a a house with a buddy from London. We got royally pissed each night at the same pub nearby the digs, it was raucus, pretty crazy. There were some golfers in there, most I didn’t know who they were from Europe. I think Sandy Lyle was in there on the Friday night, unless I’m misremembering, but I think so. He missed the cut. Didn’t seem too perturbed — seemed he was on the piss, too, as they say…
I think this was the pub, in Southport. Tricked up from nearly 40 years ago.
Looks like where it should have been, as I remember it. Was near the train station.
Maybe a mile from the course.
Amazing what you can find online these days…
https://tinyurl.com/3p8txa7r
great story
Missed this yesterday . . . Hah!
https://awfulannouncing.com/fox/white-sox-closer-liam-hendriks-has-expletive-filled-inning-micd-up-on-fox-all-star-game-broadcast.html
Major contributor to Yankee championship teams of the ’70’s.
Tremendous competitor…
When I sat near him, behind the dugout, three years ago to watch BP before a game with the Brewers, he still looked huge and fearsome.
He definitely contributed to the 3 in 5…
https://nypost.com/2021/07/14/richard-sherman-threatened-to-kill-himself-wifes-911-call/
Sounds like bipolarity to me.
The post story accurately summarizes most of the legal details I’ve heard. That’s rare — and not just for the post.
Amazes me how quickly the 911 tape gets put out there…
Something’s not right when you’re doing that kind of thing.
Need to get your act together before playing football again.
I sense no Niner reunion deal…
Hi James.. Bill James says it stops 1 single every 4 days? I’m sure he said it, but my 1st thought is he must be senile. I can’t believe it isn’t one a game. I can’t remember the last time I saw a ball that for many decades was a sure hit up the middle, only to be gobbled up by the SS on the right side of the pitcher, or vis versa. how often a rocket between 1st and 2nd scooped up by the ‘rover’ who used to the shortstop. My eyes say it is more, and my head says no way would teams do it if it was one single every 4 days.
I’m with you on this. The teams aren’t doing all this shifting because it only has a negligible impact.
Except for the “senile” line. 🙂
agreed. Would like to see how they came to that number.
mrsportdude, here’s a scenario that may explain the gap between what you’re seeing and the 600 number: the weak minded Brandon Belt hits a soft line drive to the rover in RF. Then Yaz hits a 105 mph rocket up the middle that’s caught. Dumbass Belt hits a grounder in the hole between 1st and second to the rover in RF for another out. The beloved Craw grounds a single through the vacated SS position. The bat control master Craw later follows that with a ground ball single past the 3B bag.
That’s a total of one of the 600 hits the shift has prevented, but you’ve been able to witness the injustice done to Yaz and the sheer stupidity of Belt.
i’d still like to see the formula they used to come up with those numbers.
I doubt that there’s a simple formula. I’m guessing the following parameters are at play:
-Shift is defined as 3 players on one side of second
-The actual positioning of fielders in standard and shifted IF, treated either as an average or weighted range (visualizations of the data at https://tinyurl.com/yh728fvc)
-Exit velocities
Other things to keep in mind:
-The shift is still employed in far fewer than half of all PAs (32% so far in 2021)
-Many balls hit into the shift would be outs even in a standard set
Zumie, I know consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds or whatever, but I’ll bet you the data folks at Baseball Info are every bit as sharp as the ones the CDC relies on.
40 for Devin Booker so far. Finally good close game tied with 2 minutes left.
Blatant travel not called on Holiday…
officiating was off, especially late game—Booker not fouling out, Giannis with foot still on floor not stepping out of bounds to throw ball in. Paul though screwed up all by himself.
Nice column from Baggs and Brisbee on Giants at trade deadline…good stuff. Cubs could be in mix; Baggs says the more pressing need is for SP over pen, totally agree. And remember, Webb is only guy assured for next year.
The article on Tidrow was really nice also. i remember him as a player but I didn’t know just how valuable to the Giants he was.
I didn’t know Tidrow was part of the Chambliss trade with the Indians, Yanks gave up Fritz Peterson and three nobodies for those two, what a heist.
GM Gabe Paul also robbed Nettles from the Indians who he had previously worked for…
Free agent CB Richard Sherman was released from King County jail on Thursday afternoon.
Sherman must make another court appearance on Thursday morning. He is facing four charges, all of them misdemeanors. That will improve his standing both with the law and NFL when it comes to potential punishment. Sherman must get his personal life in order before trying to find a new home for his 11th season.