Starfleet Command

That’s not what’s being argued here. Everyone knows that’s been happening and that’s precisely why MLB is cracking down. I argued that MLB screwed up by not in the past developing and enforcing a sensible policy on foreign substances in view of common practice for decades and which would prohibit the usage of the kinds of substances that have cropped up in the past few years specifically intended to create a substantial competitive advantage. The kind of substances which have the capability of turning a pitcher with average stuff into a pitcher with elite stuff. This argument was apparently 100% wrong for reasons that have yet to be elucidated itt.

He was slow out of the gate both hitting and pitching but he’s turned things around in the field dramatically and he’s trending towards a .300 wOBA which is plenty good. Could end up being a 3 WAR player if he can keep hitting.

What exactly are you arguing? No pitchers are using spider tack because they can’t otherwise grip the ball. Pitchers caught using it and substances like it should be punished accordingly. Pitchers have been using a mixture of sunscreen and rosin for much longer than spider tack has been around, and isn’t linked with the type of spin increase associated with spider tack. That banning of the sunscreen/rosin mix is what the players are mad about as it’s used almost universally by pitchers.

Based on the decline in spinrate over the past month, it appears the majority of MLB pitchers can't control the ball without cheating. I also don't think pitchers are lying when they say they use substances like mud, rosin, and sunscreen to get a decent grip on the ball. If those pitchers were really intent on gaining a competitive advantage through the use of foreign substances then they would join the 10-15% who are using something like Spider Tack which gives a much greater advantage. Indeed, based on Sawchick's experiments it's debatable if sunscreen + rosin provides any kind of increase in spin.

I think it's odd how badly they lowballed Correa in the off-season. They could have offered him $180-200M or something and while he probably would have turned it down it might have at least been worth considering. The $125M offer even with the high AAV was jus a non-starter when there was potential for him to land $250-$300M. I don't think Crane is cheap but I think he is shrewd and doesn't want to pay Carlos Correa $20+ M a year 8-10 years from now when there's a good chance the Astros are not competitive and he instead can cut payroll down to the bone. Still though, the Astros can offset the loss of Correa with the right upgrades at SS and CF.

I think the trick with these score cards is that although they are based on run expectancy, they are outcome independent. It's not like with errors where a pitcher is not penalized for a runner even if that runner later scores on a home run or something. With "favor" they don't care what happens after the bad call is made by the ump. So if the bad call results in a walk the hitting team is credited with the same amount of "favor" points irrespective of whether the next guy grounds out to end the inning or if the pitcher gives up a two run homerun even though obviously the hitting team benefited more from the bad call in the latter scenario.

I can understand the players' gripe about all substances being banned. I believe the rosin/sunscreen users were concerned with obtaining a decent grip on the ball to avoid HBPs/WPs and not specifically to increase spin rate. The spin rate increase from those substances appears to be fairly minor in the 100 RPM while stuff like Spider Tack is more in the 200-400 RPM range. You can tell by perusing the player breakdowns each night on Baseball Savant exactly which pitchers were cheating with something like Spider Tack and which were using nothing or some kind of sunscreen/rosin mix. Years ago MLB should have come to an agreement with the players about what substances are okay to use and which substances aren't, and they should have seriously enforced that policy. Instead they didn't seriously enforce their policy and with the amount of money at stake the players pushed it until it began to hurt the game and MLB had no choice but to act. This isn't all that different from sign stealing although increasing spin 200-400 RPM is a much greater performance enhancer than stealing signs.

lol they're salty on twitter

Shitty game. I feel like when you’re facing elite pitching it’s better to be a bit more passive but the ump had a huge zone so that strategy didn’t work. We just had to do a better job of pitch recognition against their starter. We only really were competitive when their starter and reliever were each getting worn out. It may not have helped in preparing for this game that our competition in the regional and super regional were so weak. However, at the end of the day we lost because of a billshit triple that should have been foul but for a strong wind pulling it fair.

Doing some cursory research, it seems Bednar spins his low 90s fastball up to 2600-2700 RPM and his slider up to 2900 RPM. Lol we had no shot against that. That’s shits elite

I think I'd rather face the Domers as Bednar would be a much tougher matchup than Kohlhepp.

I believe they lost their best pitcher to injury back in April along with another starter who projected to be in their weekend rotation.

Imagine sitting in 106 degree sun for hours to watch this lol.

The numbers on this reliever do not look good. I guess Tech is waving the white flag and saving their better relievers for tomorrow.

Good grief. I hope this game isn't what MLB looks like in a few years.

Agreed. He has around a .400 xwOBA and is an elite defender. I think if anything this season has shown that he can be the star we all hoped for. He’s having a breakout season that’s being obscured by some extremely poor luck in April and early May.

He’s just not very good. The fastball has good velo but the command isn’t good enough to make it that dangerous and his splitter is too inconsistent to be a real weapon. Framber, though, he’s an ace.

Yeah, based on his SwStr% if anything his K% should be lower than it already is. Hopefully they give him an extended look at some point.

The Skeeters have been pretty dominant. I went Saturday and Solomon dominated.

Did you see Bermudez pitch? He's been killing AA this season and I wouldn't be surprised if the Astros give him a shot before the trade deadline if he keeps it up.

He's been very good outside of his first couple of appearances. I'm excited for Framber's return but a little worried about his start tonight. He was a little shaky in his AAA rehab and he doesn't seem to be all the way back yet.

It's unfortunate that McCormick is on the 40 man but not either Siri or Meyers. It doesn't look like McCormick will be a viable alternative to Straw should he continue to to hover around 40% below league average as a hitter. It's looking more and more likely that the Astros will need to trade for a CF at the deadline.

A false flag zoom meeting gun brandisher? That's heavy.

He’s fine against LHB but you can’t let him see good RHB. Baez being hurt and Smith being garbage is really hurting the Astros. I’d like to see them try fresh blood until at least Paredes returns. No point in rostering Raley, Scrubb, and Emanuel.

I'm not very familiar with the Braves' farm but that's quite impressive for him to be the opening day starter in A+ considering his age and lack of pro experience. Will be interesting to see if he has picked up any velo since leaving Texas.