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MLB General Discussion (Official Thread)

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When Kelly tried to take Jack Morris out in G7
In a game for the ages, Twins skipper almost did the unthinkable

That was the end of the story. But it wasn’t Kirby Puckett’s favorite part. That had to be the scene that played out in the Twins' dugout before the bottom of the 9th, before Jack Morris went out and finished off his extra-inning, 1-0 shutout in Game 7 of the World Series:

When the Twins came off the field, Morris went to sit at one end of the dugout. He put his head down and began to towel off. Tom Kelly was at the other end. Kirby took a seat in the middle, which is where he was when he saw Kelly start to walk down the dugout in Morris’ direction.

Kirby wasn’t sure if Kelly would ever have thought about taking Morris out of this game after the way he’d pitched. Kirby just assumed Tom was going down there to see how Morris was feeling after the 100-plus pitches he’d already thrown, on his way to 126 in total.

“But knowing Jack,” Kirby said, “all I could think of was that this had a chance to be great.”

In Kirby’s telling, Morris still had his head down, towel over his head, before Kelly ever got to him.

“I still don’t know how he even knew Tom was coming,” Kirby told me.

But he did. And when the Twins manager was about halfway to Morris, Black Jack picked up his head, turned toward him and said, “Don’t even freaking think about it.”

He didn’t exactly say freaking. So Kelly turned around, Morris went back out for the 10th and Larkin got his historic hit. Like another old song said: “Oh, what a night.”

Entire article: https://www.mlb.com/news/jack-morris-urged-twins-manager-to-finish-1991-world-series

 
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Dusty Baker is taking out his starters an inning or so too early. The Astros would have lost game 3 regardless, because they didn't score a run and were already down 1-0 when he pulled Garcia in the 4th with 2 outs & nobody on base. Yesterday he pulled Greinke after 4 innings & just 58 pitches, and subsequently lesser arms in the pen gave up 3 runs and they lost a game they were leading. Greinke is the exact type of pitcher who you want to log some innings in postseason starts - guys who throw strikes and know how to set up hitters. Baker pulling Greinke early cost the Astros the game yesterday. Maybe the series. I'm actually not mad about it, I got no love for the Astros, don't mind seeing them lose at all. But pulling your starter in the 4th or after 4 innings is stupid unless you have the most dominant bullpen in the history of baseball, which the Astros most certainly do not.
 
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The other thing to keep in mind is using relievers over and over in a 7-game series wears them out by the end, if in fact the series does go the distance. I think, in general, relievers aren't going to be nearly as effective when they are pitching the 3rd time in 4 days. Sometimes it's better to let a starter work deeper and basically concede the L to save the good arms in pen for the rest of the series, like Braves did in Game 2. They had all of their top relievers well-rested and ready for Game 3 and 4. Resulting in only two runs given up in two full games, both by the 4th inning.
 
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MLB pitchers could bat for final time

There’s a good chance Major League Baseball will bring the designated hitter to the National League next year — likely forever. That means Sunday night's game at Truist Park might mark the final time a pitcher ever appears in a big league batting order.

No more Madison Bumgarner swinging for the fences. No more Bartolo Colon flailing and losing his helmet — or shocking everyone by going deep. No more Greinke grounding a single up the middle, as he did Saturday night in Game 4.

Say goodbye to double switches. Sacrifice bunts would shrivel up and automatic intentional walks to face the pitcher would vanish, too. So would the risk of a $20 million ace pulling his hamstring while running the bases.

Plus, the little nuances that would disappear: the bat boy running out a warmup jacket to the pitcher at first base, the on-deck hitter lingering near the batter's box to give his hurler more time to walk back to the dugout

More than a century of strategy and baseball fabric, ripped away.

“Once it ever changes to no DH, then it will probably never change back, and that’s something that would sadden me,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said.

Good riddance, says Houston shortstop Carlos Correa.

“To me, that’s not real baseball,” he said Saturday. “I want to see real hitters out there.”

Sure, a few pitchers might get an at-bat here and there, maybe in extra innings when teams run out of position players.

So who knows, maybe the Hall of Fame will get the bat Framber Valdez uses when he starts Game 5 for Houston. The Braves plan a bullpen game, so it's possible none of their pitchers will hit.

Entire article: https://sports.yahoo.com/swing-then...source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation
 
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Agent Scott Boras: Tanking, MLB's 'competitive cancer,' led to Atlanta Braves' World Series title

Baseball's most influential agent said the sport was the victim of a "competitive cancer" caused by teams unloading veterans to accumulate draft picks, and that the Atlanta Braves' World Series title was a direct result of tanking.

In an outdoor news conference in front of a steakhouse at the general managers meetings, Scott Boras backed the demands of the players' association for changes in the collective bargaining agreement that expires Dec. 1. The sport is braced for a lockout that would be baseball's ninth work stoppage but its first since 1995.

"This is the Easter Bunny delivering rotten eggs," Boras said Wednesday. "Every team says, 'I need to do this because it's my only option, knowing I can't reach a divisional crest, I can't get in the playoffs.'"

Atlanta made a series of July acquisitions and went on to its first World Series title since 1995.

"We have seen the championship in 60 days," he said. "The rules allow them to be a less-than-.500 team at Aug. 1 and add four players, five players from teams that no longer wanted to compete and for very little cost change the entirety of their team and season.

"And we saw this unfold to the detriment of teams that create at vast expense, planning and intellect and won over 100 games. In doing all this, we have now created an understanding that a fan would not know who the true team is until, frankly, the trading deadline."

Boras blames the turn toward tanking on restraints imposed on amateur spending in 2012. The caps came as the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros undertook painful rebuilds that resulted in World Series titles, informing decisions by other clubs to tear down. Boras represents many top draft picks and has lost revenue because of the system of draft signing pools.

"It created an incentive for the race to the bottom, because now we have half the major league teams at some time during the season being noncompetitive, trading off their players, making the game and the season very different than what it was intended to be, and that was having an incentive to win every game that you play," he said.

Entire article: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...-cancer-led-atlanta-braves-world-series-title

Just a greedy agent whining because some teams (that tanked and are now in a rebuilding process) are not bidding on his free agents which would help drive up the offers, etc.
 
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