Mets Aim High For Baseball Operations, Highly Successful Field Clock Experiment, Call Return, More

by



[ad_1]

The American League divisional races are all pretty much decided at this point. The White Sox have a massive 11-game lead over Cleveland and can clinch their Premier League title since 2005 as early as tomorrow. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay and Houston have comfortable (but not completely insurmountable) advances in their respective divisions, but this AL Wild Card run should be a really fun final weekend of regular-season baseball.

Boston, Toronto and New York are bidding for the chance to see each other in the Wild Card game. As of this writing, the Red Sox and Blue Jays are signed up to play in this game, but the Yankees are only 1.5 games away from second place in the Wild Card, and it wouldn’t be the end of September without the A’s. are chasing a Wild Card spot once again. , just two games from Toronto. Seattle isn’t dead yet, but they’re probably a long way off at this point, just four games behind. Stranger things have happened, however.

Like, you know … this:

The Wild Wild (NL) West features Kris Bryant and the Giants leading the Dodgers by one game in what will be the most entertaining division race to watch the rest of the way. The Padres are 20.5 games away in the NL West. Ouch. The Brewers have the NL Central nearly stranded at this point, and the Braves lead the Phillies by just two games with the dysfunctional 5.5 Mets back.

With the soon to be 100 wins with the Dodgers (or Giants), holding one of the two NL Wild Card spots, we have an intriguing battle for the final NL playoff spot between the Cardinals, the Reds. , the Phillies and the Padres. Like the AL Blue Jays, the Cardinals were dead in the water, holding a 2.8% chance of qualifying for the playoffs on September 7. That was just 13 days ago! Baseball is wild, man.

And in case you missed it, as the Padres dream of October, tensions start to mount.

Height clock experiment

Jayson Stark wrote what was a somewhat shocking experience with height clocks in miners. Personally, I don’t have a problem with how long ball games last, but it’s a legitimate issue when it comes to trying to market the game to the next generation of fans (Michael: Well, well on the rhythm gameplay is a key issue, perhaps more correctable).

And if a field clock can reduce playing times, improve pace, and even increase overall offense, then sign me up for the future of baseball as a whole.

Mets President Baseball Ops Gig

I made fun of the Padres falling in their face this season after being crowned offseason champions, but there really isn’t a more dysfunctional team in baseball right now than the New York Mets. The Mets have gone through three general managers since November 2020 and four managers since 2017, so it’s understandable that they are aiming high enough when it comes to finding their next best boss in baseball operations.

Ken Rosenthal wrote that Billy Beane was a potential candidate in Queens in his last column at Athletic, and Jon Heyman recently noted that Theo Epstein and David Stearns are ideal candidates as well.

They say money doesn’t solve all problems, and indeed Steve Cohen can’t cure the toxicity and dysfunction that has plagued the Mets front office for years just with money. He could, however, take a giant step in the right direction by throwing a lot of money at any of the aforementioned candidates, who have a proven track record in cleaning up the messes of others.

If Cohen wants to land one of these guys, it will cost him a lot of time.

Kohei Arihara

The Kohei Arihara era in Texas came to a screeching halt less than a season after the start of his two-year contract he signed in the last offseason. Mark Polishuk explained the financial aspects perfectly in his article on Arihara’s DFA at MLB Trade Rumors.

Arihara was the Rangers’ biggest free agent expense of the 2020-21 offseason, as Texas spent a total of $ 7.44 million to secure the right-hander on a two-year contract. $ 1.24 million of this money went to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (Arihara’s NPB club), while Arihara himself received $ 6.2 million in salary – $ 3.6 million. this season and $ 2.4 million in 2022. Now everything looks like something. of a sunk cost to the Rangers, as it seems unlikely that another team would absorb that cost by claiming Arihara on waivers. If Arihara signed a minor league contract elsewhere, a new team would owe her only the pro rata portion of minimum wage, leaving Texas on the hook for the rest of the money.

Arihara has only started 10 games for Rangers and has a whopping 6.64 ERA.

A great thread from Mark Appel

Remember when the Houston Astros beat Mark Appel one-on-one in the 2013 MLB Draft, allowing the Cubs to take on Kris Bryant with the next pick? It’s fascinating to see the two stark contrasts when it comes to Appel and Bryant’s careers after that day, but as Appel recently tweeted, he believes he has more baseball left in his future.

Thread:

Making a comeback to professional baseball at 30 seems like a big milestone, especially considering he has a North ERA of six in his 44.1 innings with the Phillies Triple-A. That being said, I wish him all the best. I will never trample on someone who is chasing their dreams.

Tips:

• White Sox fans will remember Anthony Gose when he was a center for the Detroit Tigers, and they may see him again this week when they visit Cleveland. However, this time, he will come out of the Cleveland reliever box, and will not play on central court. After the 2016 season, Gose changed positions and finally found his way back to the majors.

• The American League could have problems with the formation of the White Sox finally in full health in October (Michael: Alright, alright, Patrick… take it easy;).



[ad_2]

Source link