Upon further review
Does anyone else find it strange that baseball commissioner Bud Selig has never taken a good photo in his life?
OK, that wasn't my original question, but I couldn't resist. The guy always looks like he just sucked on a lemon.
What I meant to write was, does anyone find it strange that Selig wants to begin using instant replay during the 2008 season? He seems intent on starting the experiment next month, rather than waiting until the Arizona Fall League or spring training.
The only logic behind the move would involve wanting to make sure the system worked properly before the playoffs. Otherwise, why now?
Some of you might be asking, "Why at all?"
Fortunately, replay would only be used for fair-or-foul disputes and home run calls. Nothing on the basepaths. Nothing involving balls and strikes, or whether Jim Leyland put out his cigarette before making a pitching change.
All in favor of replay in baseball, raise your hands (the only time I'll ask that you do so in my school).
NO NO NO NO NO, also Arrieta is scheduled to pitch game 4 in the pool play.
Peter - Steak dinner says Wieters has more abs from the bottom third of the order than cleanup. In fact, I don't believe that he will get one ab in the cleanup spot next year.
I hope it is so they can get the bugs ironed out before the playoffs.
I am sitting on my hands.
There should be NO instant replay (and no I am not a Jeffrey Meyer fan). I love baseball, but it is a slow game. I can't imagine making it even slower by watching the umpires duck their heads in a little hood thingy to determine whether Huff just hit a fair ball down the line or not. Talk about a rally killer. But, just think, Budweiser will make a cute commercial with Clydesdales playing baseball.
I could live with replay as long as it's not as time consuming as the NFL variety.
My issue is why won't they call the strike zone thats in the rules of baseball. In the game last night the Ump called a belt high pitch a strike and the Cleveland announcers had a fit.
Your guy Lou is looking good. Lets hope they keep him in the lineup.
And can we stop all the Penn talk. He hasn't really done anything since the appendix operation to warrant a call up. He's getting passed on the depth chart and without a lights out spring training he's probably gone.
Lets start a pool on the exact time Matusz signs. I'm going with 10:31PM.
Ray - You're on.
No to instant replay especially starting it mid-season.
I might be up all night watching baseball too many games
Arrieta for USA
Hagerstown in Little League WS
O's v. Tigers gotta see how Waters fairs
What about for fan interference too, so we won't have another Jeffrey Meier incident?
We play in the AL east, and i have constantly stated because the other lineups in our division are stacked, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY we can aford to give up darn near automatic outs every time the 9 hole comes up to bat. none of the other teams were competing against 18/19 times per year have a consistant weak link who you surely know will bat .220 at best, which is what Castro would be. having said that, as for Lue, well. heres my logic... the Os have a servere hole at shortstop, which is borderline catastrphic for the team. Lue was drafted a SS (& its not like 26 is old guys, it just takes some longer) and was converted in 05, which means as early as 3 and a half years ago, the guy was an everyday SS and was so for about 3 years. if were not able to find a suitable SS in the offseason (and its likely we wont ,given there arent many good ones, and most who are decent, arent available unless you wanna give up the farm for Kalil Greene) you give Montanez the shot to convert back to his natural posistiuon in spring training. under the circumstances why would you not do that? even if this year is a fluke for him statisticly, he can still at least hit .235 with 12-15 Hr which is ok for a #9 hitting SS. he surly will hit for higher avg then Castro, and give you more then Castros 2-3 homers over 500 ab's. as for PAYTON, THERES NO WAY HE BELONGS ON THIS TEAM NEXT YEAR. HE SHOULDNT EVEN BE PLAYING NOW- WERE REBUILING. that means were looking @ young guys, which means as good as Lue is doing this year, you cant play him every day if he cant play center, and we know Reimold can play center so why did he not get the promotion and be the everyday Jones replacement???? wheres the teams logic? next year paytons contract goes free agent unless we can dump him in a trade now. Reimold and Scott should platoon in left, Montanez at SS, Huff DH, and Tiexierra at 1b (or Dunn as a second choice- with the short scoreboard you can add 10 hrs/2b to his #s and the Avg goes up a bit). if you can find a spot for Millar on the bench and he accepts that role then MAYBE you resign him at a lower rate because he keeps it loose. Castro and Cintron should battle for a utility role in the spring, and maybe even throw Fahey in the mix as a super sub, with Weiters catching and Quiroz backing him. and sign a good pitcher (Sabathia/Mussina)..thaughts? roch?
Roch, I just dont want instant replay at all. Its the reason why Carlton Fisk emphatically tried to coerce the baseball to stay fair in that famous clip... It wouldn't have been so cool if he had the confidence of video replay to ensure the accuracy of the call. Its why there are so many cool water cooler discussions at the office the next day, its just a part of the game; a beautiful game!
Im a huge O's fan, and would still rather see terrible calls made, like poor Tony Tarasco unable to plea his case to an umpire because of Jeffery Maiers sticky fingers than to have to change what has always been, a big and important part of our pastime.
Care to share your personal opinion Roch?
I think Stephen Hawking can play Bud Selig in a made for TV movie. He'd give the character some life.
I think everything should be reviewable except for balls and strikes. Each manager should get a certain number of replays per game, like maybe two. If MLB wants to stay relevent, especially with tech-oriented youth, they need some kind of system in place. When you blow a call in a tight game, that brings into question integrity. If a player hits a ball over the fence then its a home run, if millions of people can see that at home and make a judgement so should the umps. Umps do a pretty good job overall, but mistakes are still made from time to time. The human error argument is ridiculous, I hate when old codgers say that. Errors and bad calls are never an intention only a by-product and one that is best kept to a minimum if not entirely eliminated. Nearly every replay is an easy call when watched in slo-mo, unlike football.
I'm only going to raise my hand if we get to go back today and replay Game 1 of the ALCS from 1996. For what its worth, I think we could take them now.
We would have Mussina, Arthur Rhodes, Cal, Brady, Surhoff, and Palmeiro. (I bet Hoiles can still hit too.)
Their only hitters would be Jeter, Bernie, and Girardi. We could take them! (Of course they do have Mariano, Pettitte, and Rogers)
I thought Selig's look was from another problem but I didn't want to go there & incur the wrath of the blog purists here with potty humor....
Ray....he isn't in Balt. yet & probably won't be until Sept call ups. He would get 5 starts probably at most. I stand corrected on the A ball AA ball time period, but I think you get my pt there. Why rush him up? I think it's premature to say he will be in the starting 5 NEXT year as well. There are several guys ahead of him & he hasn't thrown one pitch above AA ball yet.
I completely agree with you about Sarfate in the rotation. He has middle relief written all over him.
I am undecided on instant replay, but for disputes on out or not HRs ...maybe, but that's it. I agree why now??? Try it out in Az Instructional OR ST.
I'm gonna predict the deal gets done at 5:00 ET, and 5:00 AM Beijing time.
That way they can break out the champagne and coffee in Beijing for Team USA!
Have you heard if Matusz passed his physical?
As for Instant Replay, I'm gonna have to say they need to cover some kinds of interference, like fan, fair/foul on home runs, and that's it. If they do other things than the ones I mentioned, baseball will be even more slower than Ramon Hernandez running the bases. They need to have a limit on instant replay in these situations, and give each manager limited opportunities for the replays. How about 2? maybe 3 in a playoff game?
No replay period. What next...standardized ballparks ? Stop it.
Everybody ready for tonights suffering ?(I mean waiting for Matusz). My sense is that if they get him inked it will be a watershed draft.
Glad to see the ever smiling bob lancione has finally arrived .
The Olympics have instant replay. So they get as much correct as possible. Having a guy in a booth somewhere letting the Umps know is not a big deal in my eyes. Its just MLB is too stubborn. Kinda surprised any instant replay has been so long in coming from the Commish who brought us the Wild Card and Interleague play.
The Players are the human element. The Umpire screwing up a call is not what people tune in to see.
Why in the world would the commish interrupt a baseball season with a rule change? Makes no sense. Selig should wait until next season.
Roch - Beyond his numbers, what if anything do you know about Sean Gleason at Delmarva. 10-1 with a 2.80 ERA. Most impressively he has given up only three homeruns in 132 innings. Sinkerballer?
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That's my guess, but I've never seen him pitch. Going to find out and pass along more info. - Roch
As far as instant replay goes, baseball has an advantage that other sports don’t have: a minor league system to use as a testing ground. Why not test it extensively there, even work different methods and see what works and what doesn’t before implementing it in the majors? I think I can get behind trying it sight unseen if there are some reasonable parameters, like limits to how many replays allowed per team, penalties for teams that request replays that don’t get overturned, and a small list of things that are reviewable. The reality of it, though, could be a horror. It’s major league baseball, so I expect it to be disastrous at least at first. This sport always seems to be behind on everything or does things in a nonsensical way.
Gr8est: Adding 10 HRs to Dunn’s numbers? Don’t do it! See Glenn Davis, Albert Belle for guys people predicted to hit 40 or 50 home runs in Baltimore.
No to instant replay.
Even in limited use as mentioned above or used to review fan interferance, it still is a judgement call. How many times have we seen instant replay not work in College Football or the NFL.
How many times do you allow a manager use it? What if it is used and the manager is wrong -- do you lose a relief pitcher? You lose a timeout in football, seems like you also should have some penalty in Baseball.
What is you are limited, you are out of challenges, and the ump blows an HR call that everyone else knows is wrong? Nothing can be done and you bcak in the same boat as we are today.
Finally, how long before they start using it for outs? or strikes? or something else?
Leave the game be and do not add Instant Replay. Selig has already screwed the game up enough with the Wild Card and interleague play.
If it means the difference between a call being right or wrong, I guess I'm OK with the instant replay. I really hate the way the NFL does it--it takes way too long and is way too much of a "production" as the ref goes and stands under that hood.
I do feel, however, it should be tested in the minors first or possibly during spring training games, and not introduced in the middle of a season in progress.
THEGR8ESTOFALLTYME,
Montanez said he is more comfortable in the outfield and he is not the guy u want at short. For the future u can have Lou in left and reimold at dh. I don't know scotts future as an oriole.
As if we needed more reason to be excited about the guys at Bowie...
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/prospect-hot-sheet/2008/266701.html
I'm still in the leave them in Bowie until the end of the year camp. Let these guys finished what they started and maybe they'll get to have some fun and play in the Eastern League playoffs.
Tillman was Baseball America's #1 prospect this week on their HotSheet.
I don't think they trust these guys anymore. I'm voting no replay even though, it keeps hopes of tampering and betting alive.
Trembley reaches for that red hankie and decided to let D-Cab toss it for practice. But he couldn't find the field with the flag. After multiple tosses, most went astray but three hit opposing players.
Instant replay is the horrible horrible idea for baseball. Only from the crass (and in the best of circumstances under the radar) perspective of sport as a commercial business does baseball compete with the olympics or football or anything else.
Baseball is a traditionlist, pastoral game. IR is technology run amuck. Baseball is for thinking people who can consider and endlessly discuss human frailty and the limitations of certainty. Where failure 70% of the time makes a hitter an all-star. IR is driven from a technocratic and rather facist need to get everything right as decided by science.
The biggest problem with the relatively unobtrusive suggestion to use IR only for fair/foul calls or home run/no home run calls is the slippery slope. Inevitably, once you have opened the door for the horror of horrors, IR will be expanded.
But even if it was only done for the limited decisions on fair/foul, consider this:
Mike Devereaux hit an amazingly exciting incredibly inspiring home run directly over top of the foul pole late one night. It was a magical magical moment. The fact that we can never know if the ball was "truly" fair or "really" foul just makes it more magical. How would we, as fans, have experienced that moment if we had to delay our reaction until long minutes of inconclusive IR reviews were conducted by non-participants? It simply could not be as fun, magic or electric a moment no matter how it came out.
Folks do cheer when an IR review result is announced. (in football) But does anyone list as their favorite sports moment the minute the ref announced that the ruling stood? or that the ruling was overturned? of course not.
The play happens, the ump makes a call. Instant euphoria or depression. Human error and all. Let IR intrude and something is irretrievably lost.
Instant replay is the tool of the devil. keep it the hell away from baseball, please.
If only we had the big picture, traditionalist view to have resisted advertisements on the field and behind the plate, artificial turf, metal bats, and the overturn of the labor economics that has priced game attendance beyond the reach of families, we would be so much better off today.
Introducing IR into the game, where it will become a twice or more a game occurrence in 4800 games a year is a stupid, overreaching and bone-headed reaction to the 3 or 4 games a year where a home run call actually affects a game outcome.
Please.
Oh yeah. One more thing. The fact that Selig is the one pushing it so hard should be a sufficient reason to run in the opposite direction. what has he EVER pushed that has been good for the integrity of the game or good for the fans?
Come on Roch - be the first to break the Matusz news (if there is any)!
Roch, would u give Roberts and sherill for escobar of the Brewers.
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My first instinct is to say "no," but let me give it some thought. I assume you would? - Roch
It's foolish to start replay now. Give it time in the minors, and don't start its arbitration clock before you're really sure it's ready to contribute in the majors. It'd be a shame to rush its development and damage what should be an outstanding career. Wait, maybe I'm mixing up topics...
I'm for it if they name it after Tony Tarasco
The Orioles and first-round pick Brian Matusz have agreed to terms on a major league deal that would immediately insert him onto the club's 40-man roster and toward the top of the organization's list of pitching prospects, The Sun has learned.
Matusz, a left-hander out of the University of San Diego and the fourth overall pick in June's amateur draft, will receive a $3.2 million bonus.
Here comes the next Loewen....
Huff cleared waivers.... if they deal him that will be a mistake. He is only 31 & $igned for next year. I'd wait & see what they have next year. IF they are improved pitching wise, he would be a good fit at DH & infield depth. The others that cleared are not part of the plan next year, or at least should not be part of it.
ROCH, 8/15
As a veteran High School and Metro league Baseball Umpire (28 years) .. I do not SEE the need for INSTANT REPLY.
I have too much Technology in my life now.
When I call about my Phone bill or my CABLE TV... I get a recorded message about WHAT language I would like to use for this Call... ENOUGH.!.
Let the UMPS make the call.. Sure you will get some bad calls..but there was only ONE JEffery MAIR.. and only One Richie Garcia...and only bad call in the 1985 World Series..(Don Denkinger?) It happens so infrequently.. LETS KEEP IT REAL.
Harry O ' Sykesville
mark c..."Oh yeah. One more thing. The fact that Selig is the one pushing it so hard should be a sufficient reason to run in the opposite direction. what has he EVER pushed that has been good for the integrity of the game or good for the fans? "
what about pre-postseason contraction talk? oh wait, yeah that was a bad idea too.
i'm right there with ya on all points, mark. excellent post.