2013 Major League Baseball Thread: A Grand Finale

[NewYorkSpider]

Roy "Doc" Halladay to retire.


http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...reportedly-will-retire-with-toronto-blue-jays

I thought he would have tried to pitch another season or two. I think injuries had a lot to do with this.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

First crop of Hall of Famers for class of 2014:

- Tony LaRussa
- Bobby Cox
- Joe Torre

More to be announced next month.

Two steroid enablers and a wife beater!

I thought he would have tried to pitch another season or two. I think injuries had a lot to do with this.

Unbelievable how quickly he just lost it. He was so dominant in 2010. Good guy, class act. Nice to see him retire a Jay.

 

[runawayboulder]

Two steroid enablers and a wife beater!

Oh, knock it off.

 

[Duke]

So, it appears MLB is going to be banning collisions at home plate.


http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9847962/ban-mlb-plate-collisions-likely-team-officials-say

 

[jacobed]

Dumb. I understand that injuries can happen but they can happen anywhere. How do you even enforce this, who's responsibility is it to move out of the way. I suppose the runners but why should they if the catcher is blocking the plate. Just dumb

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I understand the rule change, but it's the catchers responsibility to get out of the way if he doesn't want to get hit. Most runners when they hit the catcher lead with the shoulder anyway.

 

[Liam_H]

I'm guessing the runner is to be given an unimpeded path to the plate even if the catcher has the ball. Should favor the runner in general.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I guess catchers are just gonna have to keep one foot on the plate and hope the throw is percisely accurate to throw out the runner. It's basically gonna be like a catcher throwing someone out at second.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

I get the new rule and it's starting to become a rule at just about every level of baseball now. I thought it should have always been this way, treating home plate with the same base-running rules as any other base. There really is no reason for baseball to turn into a contact sport at just one spot.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

You've never been able to block the runner from getting to any other base, it never made sense that you could do it for home plate. Think that was just one of those things that evolved in the game over time and was never addressed. We can probably all thank Buster Posey for this. I'm sure Johnny Bench and Ray Fosse will come out in the media against this before telling you to get off their lawns.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Joba Chamberlin? Oh boy.

 

[jacobed]

Chamberlin is nothing more than average. Quite overrated, though the Tigers need to improve their bullpen badly

 

[Tony Clifton]

Who gets Tanaka?

 

[jacobed]

Well deserved hall of fame winners this year. Too bad about Biggio, he will get in next year

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

Biggio missed by like 2 votes. Too bad.

Also, I love the fact that Le Batard gave his vote Deadspin. It's also great that the Deadspin ballot was actually better than most submitted by most of the writers. (They actually pegged all 3 elected plus a few others that shouldve made it in). Who knew that crowd-sourcing would produce better results than a bunch of old crones too in love with themselves and full of personal bias?

 

[jacobed]

I don't understand how they picked better than the actual ballot. Only 4 deserved to be in it. Biggio will go in next year for sure. Le Batard lost his privilege, one he didn't deserve to begin with. Also I'm pretty sure the bbwaa is actually quite a bit of younger guys and writers don't usually have personal bias, never understood that complaint. The NFL voting now that is nothing but bias

 

[Spidey-Bat]

Also I'm pretty sure the bbwaa is actually quite a bit of younger guys and writers don't usually have personal bias, never understood that complaint.

The BBWAA has over 600 voters. Once they get a vote, they have it for life, even if they retire or stop covering baseball. There are some votes who haven't followed baseball in decades. The majority aren't young.

There is bias. If a player was a media darling, they'll get in easily. If they weren't, it will take years, if at all.

 

[jacobed]

Of course there's a bias but with over 600 voters that bias is thrown out the window. This year there was only 4 that deserved to go and 3 got in and the fourth just barely missed it. So I'd they're doing a pretty good job

 

[Spidey-Bat]

The bias shouldn't be ignored just because there are a lot of voters. There weren't "only" 4 guys who deserved to go in this year.

 

[jacobed]

There always going to be a bias no matter what type of voting system you do but by having so many voters that bias just gets crushed. Plus saying they're bias makes no sense and hasn't for a while, that complaint only works if someone was voted in that probably didn't deserve it which hasn't been the case for awhile. it's the hall of fame not the hall of very good. Only 4 deserved to go this year and 3 of them went. Le Batard deserved to lose his right, the only reason he did that crap was because he wasn't getting his way. He didn't make a point, he did nothing but just prove that he is immature and this is his way of whining because things aren't going the way he wants them to.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

I don't understand how they picked better than the actual ballot. Only 4 deserved to be in it. Biggio will go in next year for sure. Le Batard lost his privilege, one he didn't deserve to begin with. Also I'm pretty sure the bbwaa is actually quite a bit of younger guys and writers don't usually have personal bias, never understood that complaint. The NFL voting now that is nothing but bias

That's your opinion, which seems to be based mostly on the voting results. One could easily make the claim that guys like Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, and Sosa deserve to be in since PED's have been around since the 1960's yet the BBWAA isnt doing any moral grand-standing about those players. (Not saying I agree with this.)

You can also make a case for Edgar Martinez, if you're not one of the crotchety lot who has a bug up their rears about the DH.

The point was that the guys that went on to Deadspin's ballot, were all guys who can at minimum have a legit argument be made that they should be in the Hall, and all of the guys they voted for had at least 50% of the total vote. There weren't any terrible selections like Jacque Jones, Hideo Nomo, or Armando Benitez on there, who some of the actual BBWAA had on their ballots. I think one clown even submitted a ballot with only Jack Morris' name on it and nothing else to protest the fact he hasnt been elected yet. Where's the moral outrage at that guy?

There always going to be a bias no matter what type of voting system you do but by having so many voters that bias just gets crushed. Plus saying they're bias makes no sense and hasn't for a while, that complaint only works if someone was voted in that probably didn't deserve it which hasn't been the case for awhile. it's the hall of fame not the hall of very good.

Purely statistically speaking, 600 isnt a large sample size, and wouldnt discount inherent voter bias, especially with all of the BBWAA being in the same profession (group). You want to completely discount bias, you'd have to at least triple that number and have randomly selected voters each year from different sports-related areas (broadcasting, former players, writers, stats people, management, etc.) so you dont have the same people shilling for or railing against the same candidates. Statistically speaking you probably couldn't have a WORSE sampling process.

Le Batard deserved to lose his right, the only reason he did that crap was because he wasn't getting his way. He didn't make a point, he did nothing but just prove that he is immature and this is his way of whining because things aren't going the way he wants them to.

Yup, because in normal years where 3 of the most deserving, yet vanilla guys of their time get elected to the HoF, we talk about it this much.

Hard to say what the impact of Le Batard doing this is will be. There wasnt a particular candidate he wanted in or out here, keep that in mind. He did it because he felt the voting system was out-dated and terminally flawed, which it is. People have been slamming it for years and nothing's changed. Effectuating change from the inside may not be a bad idea.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

There always going to be a bias no matter what type of voting system you do but by having so many voters that bias just gets crushed. Plus saying they're bias makes no sense and hasn't for a while, that complaint only works if someone was voted in that probably didn't deserve it which hasn't been the case for awhile. it's the hall of fame not the hall of very good.

So you're admitting there's bias but saying it makes no sense. Andre Dawson and Jim Rice are fringe HoF who don't really belong. Bias isn't just "I hate that guy." There are guys who never vote for anyone on the ballot the first time or won't vote for someone because "Player X wasn't unanimous so no one should be." Bias is any stupid reason.

Only 4 deserved to go this year and 3 of them went.

There weren't "only" 4 and there's no maximum for the number who can be elected any given year. Bagwell, Piazza, Schilling, Raines, and Mussina all have a legitimate case for being in the HoF.

Le Batard deserved to lose his right, the only reason he did that crap was because he wasn't getting his way. He didn't make a point, he did nothing but just prove that he is immature and this is his way of whining because things aren't going the way he wants them to.

He doesn't deserve to lose his right to vote because he didn't transfer his vote or sell it. He basically crowd-sourced it and other writers have asked for fan input on their ballot in the past. He did make a point, otherwise no one would be talking about what he did.

 

[KalMart]

A-Rod ruled suspended for 2014 Season:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/nyy...md=20140109&content_id=66433260&vkey=news_nyy

He'll appeal in federal court.

 

[craigdbfan]

Damn dude.

 

[SpideyVille]

I just saw the news in an e-mail from MLB.com. Man, how the mighty have fallen.