batting Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Baseball is back, but the DH is everywhere, and that’s awful
There’s only one bad thing about the MLB lockout being over: The game is changing forever....
Devil’s Advocate: Banning the shift shows that MLB is moving in the right direction
I’ve never had too strong an opinion on whether or not Major League Baseball should ban the shift....
Singles were already available
Negotiations in MLB didn’t really get any better yesterday. There was buzz that the players gave up even more in their quest to get the luxury tax threshold raised, even though they still haven’t really asked for any guarantee that more than a few teams would even approach it. This was met with mor...
You’ve got a lot of balls, MLB
As long as you’ve known baseball, it’s been four balls for a walk, but it wasn’t always that way. Today is the 133rd anniversary of the Joint Rules Committee taking away 20% of pitchers’ margin for error, reducing the number of balls for a walk from five to four....
Joey Gallo is this generation’s Adam Dunn
Nothing against him, but New York Yankees outfielder Joey Gallo is irrelevant in Major League Baseball right this second. His team isn’t in the playoffs. He’s never played for any of the teams involved in either Championship Series. He’s at home watching the games from his couch, the same as you and...
Robot umpires would destroy the beauty of the catcher position
2022 will be longtime St. Louis Cardinals’ backstop Yadier Molina’s final season. When Yadi finally calls it quits, he will leave an incredible legacy behind — one of defensive prowess, solid offense, and fear being struck into the hearts of baserunners everywhere....
This was your human element moment
I’m not here to claim that anyone should feel sorry for the Tampa Bay Rays. While MLB would love to position them as the plucky underdog, what they really are is the model that almost every team owner has pointed to while yelling at their front office saying, “Why can’t we win that cheaply?!” while ...
This Juan Soto hot streak is way, way, <i>way</i> better than you realize
Shohei Ohtani is the best player in baseball. Mike Trout is the best pure position player in baseball. Juan Soto is the best hitter in baseball, and as much as I love Mike Trout… he’s not close. Juan Soto is doing something Trout has never done. In Juan Soto’s last 40 games, he has an OPS of 1.253 a...
Step into the batters’ box against this guy… if you dare!
Would you step up to the plate in a Major League game if you knew there was a 10 percent chance you were about to get hit by one of the pitches? Maybe you’d put a foot in the box and stand in the corner and hope the pitcher had enough control this time, but every time that pitcher started his windup...
Why don’t more players bunt against the shift?
This era of Major League Baseball can be defined by a multitude of things: the increased usage of analytics, or perhaps the enormous surge in both home runs and strikeouts. However this era eventually gets defined, one thing is for certain, the bunt is a thing of the past....
Offense is way up since MLB’s ‘sticky stuff’ crackdown
It’s officially been one month since Major League Baseball implemented their guidelines forcing umpires to check starting pitchers for illegal foreign substances. Sure, the All-Star break cost us a few days worth of data points, but in general, we have seen more than enough games, analyzed the spin ...
I for one don’t welcome our crappy new robot umpire masters
Do you remember the part in Iron Man 2 where Tony Stark was in court and the United States government was essentially trying to take the Iron Man technology for themselves and their argument was that other countries were developing the same technology, then Stark hacked the monitors and showed a vid...
The HR Derby field is set so who’s going to take the crown?
Yesterday, the bracket for the 2021 Home Run Derby at Coors Field (the field Home Run Derbies were made for) was filled out when Washington’s young superstar Juan Soto and Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo announced that they’d be competing in the annual slugfest....
How are robo-umps faring in the minor leagues?
The Daytona Tortugas are, in many ways, as average as a minor league team gets....
Yeli and Beli both suck now
Not long ago, the game of baseball was in the hands of young superstars Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich. “Yeli vs Belli” was a debate for two years. The Los Angeles Dodger and Milwaukee Brewer, respectively, were lighting the league on fire and ushering in what appeared to be the next generation...
This is what happens when you’re always reacting
I’ve remarked numerous times that MLB owners can only see the one dollar right in front of their face instead of the three that might be waiting down the road. Most of the decisions that were just about cashing in now are why baseball’s popularity is currently diving down in a way that DC won’t let ...
If MLB wants to fix what’s wrong, all it has to do is watch the college game
Dallas Baptist University is playing the University of Virginia in a win-or-go-home Super Regional game right now, and something I haven’t seen in a while just happened — a runner got on first, stole second, then the batter hit a fly to deep right that allowed the runner to move to third. What is th...
No, armchair Twitter goofs, you can’t hit top-tier pitching
I’m not a professional athlete. I’m not even an athlete. I used to be, back in my youth. You’ll hear a cornucopia of opinions on sports from me, from strategy to execution. When a player does something fantastic, I’ll say it. When a player does something awful, I’ll say it. What you will never hear ...
Connecticut high school phenom tosses fourth no-hitter in a row
If you think the no-hitters are getting out of control in Major League Baseball, you ought to check out the high school scene in northern Connecticut. ...
Why won’t anyone pitch to Yasmani Grandal?
In 2004, the most feared hitter in baseball was Barry Bonds. This mammoth at the plate hit .362 that season and reached base at an incredible .609 clip. That’s a difference of .247, one of the largest ever recorded. In 2021, Yasmani Grandal is hitting .121 with an on-base percentage of .372 — a .251...