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Front Office Chat: 8/16/24
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Anthony Franco
4:00
Hey all, hope you've had a great week!
Let's get started
Manfred League Baseball
4:01
Forcing pitchers to stay in the game, these potential rule changes could end badly for baseball. Why don’t they just increase roster size to allow 6 man rotations similar to the Japanese schedules? Please don’t say $
Anthony Franco
4:02
Yeah I can't imagine that requiring pitchers to throw a certain number of innings is going to be a serious consideration. That's such a drastic and ham-fisted solution, even though I'm sympathetic to the league's goal of reducing bullpen usage to increase offense and the overall value of starting pitching
4:06
I'm partial to the double-hook DH rule. I think it's a much more manageable shift that would give teams a legitimate incentive to try to let starters work out of jams while also pushing managers to use their bench late in games. That makes roster depth more important without forcing pitchers to hit with any kind of regularity, which I'd personally support
4:07
As for the roster size question, money's a part of the consideration for owners but the bigger issue is that it wouldn't stop teams from just adding a ninth or tenth reliever without going to a six-man rotation. I guess you could limit a starter to pitching once a week, but then teams work around that with an opener or something and you've got a ton of rules dictating pitcher usage again
mlbfan
4:07
Why is there all of a sudden so many people thinking clase should get the cy young? Do they not want it to go to a player on a non contender like the tigers that badly?
Anthony Franco
4:09
Clase is having an all-time great reliever season. He's an elite closer who's anchoring a bullpen that is a huge reason a team that few people expected much from this season (myself included). Blake Treinen and Zack Britton got some Cy Young love when they posted a sub-1.00 ERA themselves
4:11
I'm with you overall. I'd vote Skubal, but I don't think support for Clase is about penalizing Skubal for being on the Tigers so much as a judgment about the value of overall innings total vs. the leverage of always pitching late in close games
Playoffs
4:11
How many seasons do we need to evaluate the benefit/cost of byes in baseball? So far it's 50/50 for teams earning a bye losing in their first round I think... How long before we can look at the results and definitively say byes make no sense in a sport where momentum and everyday action play such a massive role?
Anthony Franco
4:14
I don't know what the number is but it's way higher than two. Baseball's playoffs are just really variable. There was no bye in 2021 and the top seeds in both leagues lost in the Division Series while the NL's worst playoff team (by record) won the championship. I'm still firmly a believer that the bye's a huge advantage for teams and we'll see that play out over time
4:15
I'd probably need 15-20 years of middling results from those teams before you could convince me that losing momentum with a few days off is a bigger detriment than the benefit of skipping a round that could get you eliminated
TheMan3
4:15
is Derek Shelton’s job as manager of the Pirates in jeopardy and how long, do you think, it will take, assuming he can’t right the ship, before he’s fired?
Anthony Franco
4:17
This will be five years without a playoff berth. This season is the only one where they were really in the mix into August (largely because the NL Wild Card race was mediocre) and they've completely collapsed. That feels like a danger zone for a manager
4:20
I don't think it's Shelton's fault really. The roster has just never had enough offensive talent despite all the high draft picks, which I'd put more on the front office and player development staff. (Ownership is a huge problem obviously but Bob Nutting isn't firing himself.) The sword tends to drop on the manager first.
UncleMike1525
4:20
After the 3 game sweep by the Guards, Should Hoyer throw in the towel and lose some of the obviously bad bench players they still insist on keeping? Wisdom, Madrigal, Mastrobuoni, Wisdom etc.? Now would seem like a good time to firm up some 40 man openings since the Cubs top 6 prospects are all at AAA. Is anybody at MLBTR willing to admit that Hawkins is GM in name only? Thanks as always.
Anthony Franco
4:21
Hawkins is clearly the #2 there behind Jed. No one's doubting that. Most teams' actual general managers are GMs in name only at this point because of title inflation around the league
4:23
I don't know that it matters whether they move on from the players you mentioned at this point in the season, but they'll probably part with all three next winter. Maybe they give Madrigal one more shot and chalk this year up to injury, but Wisdom and Mastrobuoni are fringe 40-man guys at best
Clayber
4:23
The Yankees will be eliminated from the playoffs when Holmes loads the bases with two outs and Torres boots a ground ball right at him to allow the winning run to score. Neither Holmes or Torres should be on the field in an elimination situation.
Verdugo 6-3
4:23
I'm tired of watching Verdugo hit ground balls right to the shortstop all the time. Get Dominguez up here and stick him in LF. He can't be any worse.
Anthony Franco
4:25
Ha yeah I get it. I still like Holmes well enough but Boone should be willing to use someone like Leiter in the ninth in October if Holmes is having a hard time throwing strikes
4:28
Nothing to be done about Gleyber for now but I can't imagine he's back there next year. Ditto for Verdugo and there's a strong case for going to Domínguez at this point. He's not lighting the world on fire in Scranton but the Verdugo thing just isn't working
CardinalRed
4:28
This current Cards team feels like the Braves teams from like 2006 - 2016. Middle of the road, no true direction, but not awful. I know it's an impossible question to truely answer, but what are chances of a front office shake-up happening? I like Marmol as a person, but not as a coach...it's way past time to see what Yadi has as far as coaching abilities IMO. Albert as bench coach/hitting instructor would also be good to see.
Anthony Franco
4:30
That's a tough one because the Mo/Girsch team has been really good for a long time but things have leveled out over the past couple years. Agree with your characterization: they're fine but neither especially good nor exciting (with the exception of a few players like Winn and Burleson)
4:31
I'd be surprised if they completely nuke the front office but Mozeliak has alluded to potentially stepping away and letting Girsch run the show in the relatively near future. Wouldn't be super surprising if that coincided with a managerial change and a general effort to build a younger roster
RAGBRAI
4:31
an the Mets knock the Braves out of the playoffs? Will they?
Anthony Franco
4:32
I will stand on the Braves are making the playoffs hill until they're mathematically eliminated
4:33
Maybe that's not true. I have finally given up on the Rangers so I guess my cutoff is like nine games out of a playoff spot
BA trends
4:33
It feels like most of the prospects who make it to MLB have no problem hitting homeruns, but have an awful ot of trouble hitting for average. (Yes, there are exceptions, like Bobby Witt.) Just thinking about the AL alone, you have Julio, Kelenic, Holliday, Malloy, Fletcher, Torkelson, Butler, Massey.
Didn't finish. Does making contact and hitting for average count anymore?
Anthony Franco
4:34
It matters to varying degrees by team but none of them value batting average the way they would've even 10-15 years ago
4:35
There's a certain threshold at which strikeouts get untenable even if you've got huge power -- that's basically Tork's problem -- but if you're walking enough to keep a respectable OBP while making some kind of power impact, teams are generally going to live with a low average
Trout's got the Trots
4:36
Over/under 500 games played for Trout over the final six years of his contract.
Anthony Franco
4:38
I think I'll take the over? That's like three somewhat healthy seasons and some change. Obviously wish I had a lot more confidence in it though
Tony C
4:38
Does the league need MLBPA approval for rule changes? Would the union agree to changes that could potentially hurt a lot guys arms?
Anthony Franco
4:40
Union approval for on-field rule changes isn't required. There's a rules committee comprising six league officials, four players reps and an umpire that votes on rule changes. They only need a simple majority, so the league reps can (and typically do) push through whatever they want over player objections
4:42
They do it somewhat in moderation because that rules committee system is built into the CBA and they'll want the players union to agree to keep it during the next round of negotiations in '26. But the players association railed against the pitch clock and continuously floats the idea that it plays a role in pitcher injuries and the league did it anyways
4:43
I like the pitch clock's effect on the viewing experience and haven't seen any compelling evidence that the clock itself is a key driver of injuries, so I'm with the league on that one (at least pending more evidence)
RAGBRAI
4:43
Any prospects coming up for a cup of coffee or are those days mostly over?
Anthony Franco
4:46
Yeah that should happen, especially now that we're at the point where the top guys can keep their rookie eligibility (and potential to earn their teams a bonus pick) into next year
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