SU is back from some R&R up in Cape Cod and has been checking out the baseball action. Some early observations:
- SU likes the FOX broadcast where they (at least in Wrigley Field) show a fake crowd for any foul balls hit down the lines. It’s a computer produced crowd of real people. I suppose that they could also do this for home runs.
- The home ballparks are piping in crowd noise at the appropriate times. Another good move.
- Too much A-Rod. Ready to move on to the local broadcasters.
- SU hates the Yankee all right-handed line up. Enough chatter of how big they are although Voit and Stanton clearly stayed out of the weight room for a number of months now. Especially Voit who must have lost 50 pounds. I can’t believe I am even saying this but they should start Tyler Wade at 2nd base and play LeMahieu at 1st base. They have too many hitters that are clones of one another: Judge; Stanton; Sanchez; Voit; Hicks. SU says it’s hard to win with only 2 left-handed bats in the line up (Hicks, Gardner).
- The Generational One is off to a great start. The trick will be to keep him healthy now. Paxton’s velocity on his fastball was down 5 mph from last year – not a good sign as he is still recovering from surgery on his back. With Severino out for the year, one of the youngsters needs to step up.
- The Mets already had their first blown save from Diaz. Glad to see him get that out of the way quickly. SU says in a 60-game season, you cannot afford those nor the early exits like Paxton gave them last night. You have to try and win every game. Sure, the number of teams in the playoffs is expanded (which is great) but you also want to have home field for that first round 3-game series.
- Greg Bird was so bad in preseason that he did not make the Texas Rangers’ roster. And to top it off, they have moved Todd Frazier from 3rd base to play 1st base. Disappointing for SU but Bird earned it in his career. No one to blame but himself or perhaps as some on this blog say he was never that good.
Bottom line: great to have baseball back and SU will ease into it. But Boone needs to sprinkle in the contact hitters to the line up like Tauchman and Wade (ugh, still hard to even say that). Balance is key.
SU has tried to watch the MLS games but to be honest, I can’t hang in there for a 1-0 game. I have watched several games and still have not seen a goal. Excited about the return of the NBA. SU predicts that with no fans in the stands, it will feel like a scrimmage and the pace of play will be very fast and up tempo. Defense will be secondary.
Are you ready for some live games? Or too funky for your tastes?
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Too much A Rod is right. I cringe whenever I hear his voice. He tries way to hard to be clever and knowledgeable. As I was a big fan of his when he was young in Seattle and thought he could be the G.O.A.T, he disappointed me by being the biggest ass on the planet and I guess I am not the forgiving type so I wish him well with all his money, but just go away.
Give A-Rod credit though for pointing out that Stanton is thriving when he doesn’t have to play in front of live fans. Yankees probably won’t pipe in the sound of the crowd groaning when he swings and misses at the slider two feet off the plate.
Forget about Wade- give Ford some more reps. Even though he is a big guy he has a great eye and hits the ball hard most of the time.
Yes, I like Ford. How many players can you suit up for each game? Is it actually 30? The season is too short to ride the cold starts of some of the players who aren’t guaranteed the spot. Or maybe they can play Didi? Or right, he’s gone to the Phillies with home runs in his first 2 games. That was definitely one of the bad moves of the off season.
I don’t mind MLB trying different things this season. Playing games during a pandemic is theoretically only to keep people occupied and maybe bring them a little happiness. So out with tradition, and in with the DH and runner on second, more teams in playoffs, etc. Go for it, and we don’t have to like every idea they come up with. But I’m willing to go with the flow for this season.
Agreed. I would also have been in favor of a pitch clock that was enforced or making the batter stay in the box. If baseball wants to attract the younger generation of fans, they need to innovate so all of these moves are definitely worth a shot.
Covid outbreak on the Marlins could be a huge deal. MLB either needs the solution today or will be packing things up. There’s no way they can have the Marlins sit out for a couple weeks and the Phillies too and all the teams that are supposed to play against those teams. Seems like there are only a few choices here:
1) Eliminate teams with a certain number of cases until there’s one left that will be crowned World Champions.
2) Fully isolate players somehow but let the teams play through outbreaks.
3) Cancel the whole thing.
But the one thing you can’t do is start postponing games 3 days into a 60 game season that is only going to have more surprised crop up as time goes one.
After watching the first weekend and seeing all the ways the game is being adapted to account for the virus, nothing bothers me as much as the shift and watching players hit into it.
Howard, hope you enjoyed the Cape. I am in the Berkshires for the summer, back to Florida in the fall, hopefully after Florida flattens out.
Todays Times has “How to make Sports Better:60modest proposals. Stuff that you will probably love.I look forward to a SU where you endorse the top 10 proposals.Mine are: enforces the strike zone in the rule book with electronics, for NFL replay decided by three person panel of retired officials, 60 second limit, golf stop the shushing, soccer clock on the scoreboard counts.