watching baseball
 

the coaches are all in the dugout with tablets calculating pitch locations and pitch counts.

in 1975, i watched Luis the senor Tiant make 163 pitches to probably the best baseball lineup in the history of the game against the big red machine (Cincinatti Reds), Tiant won the game!

you will never see that today.

In legion ball, I threw 142 pitches and the guy that I pitched against threw 172 pitches in 9 innings. I pitched 4 days later and threw a one hit shutout against one of the top teams in the state.

Analytics were cool when only 2-3 teams doing it. Now probably 25 are heavily invested and it has destroyed the game. The obsession with pitch velocity has led to more strikeouts, more walks, more foul balls and far less balls in play, along with longer games. For hitters, the obsession with exit velocity just encourages more bad habits; trying to pull every pitch, even when there is a shift on. Now the game is a combination of wall ball and softball.

I enjoy watching baseball, catch probably 80% of the Jays games (which are hard to watch right now, but it's the price you have to pay to be a fan). My main problem with the game though is the shift and the batter's refusal to lay a bunt to an open field to get on or even just trying to hit it into the space. They rather just rare back and swing for the fence and most times pop out or ground out to the shortstop playing behind the second baseman in front of the right fielder. I scream at the tele!

Loved Tiant! Even though I was, Reds fan.

Who opens doors for you nowadays?

Looie liked 2 bet greyhounds! Gave him stamina

I agree its frustrating when they can get almost a guaranteed single by laying down a bunt against the shift and still swing from their heels. I did see someone lay down a bunt a couple nights ago. Not even close. The defense didn't even bother throwing.

Good HITTERS use the whole field. The guys who've always hit with power usually can't adjust. Guys like Betts, who is just a great hitter, added the power as they advanced.

Pitch count prevents a few token accomplishments. Now days if even the best throw 2 shutouts he may at seasons end lead the league or tied with maybe 5 others. Even complete games are a rarity. When a team pays a pitcher 15-20 million a year, they could care less about those two stats. 200 innings is considered above average. If a pitcher can give a team 200 innings for 2 or 3 seasons consecutively, he'll get a huge contract anywhere regardless of his other stats. Those days of 300+ innings and 30+ complete games are long gone for good. Gibson and Jenkins both did it several times each...along with dozens more in that era.
Records that are soundly safe for both career and seasons include : shutouts, complete games, innings pitched, victories, losses, strikeouts, bases on balls, and a few others I can't throw in right away. Career no-hitters perhaps.

Watched a few Orioles games w/ father-in-law.

League is watered down. The Orioles have about 3 guys who can hit, and only one guy who looks like a natural ballplayer at the plate. Scarcity of skilled hitters.

Plenty of competent fielders. Abundance of competent fielders. There seems to be two competent latin fielders at every position.

Huge difference between the rare guy who knows how to pitch and the rest of the league. 50? league-wide? Scarcity of competent pitchers.

The O's look like they held a tryout and signed anyone with a 95mph fastball and a beard (and didn't concern with anything else whatsoever).

Not many good/great pitchers league-wide who don't possess a fastball, and I mean that in terms of how these players are selected and developed, not in terms of a hard fastball actually being more important than skill.

Game is very 'situational' and some of the players and pitchers seem to understand the situations, and some seem to be habitual. At a glance the competence there could be improved, but is within the expected range.


I have no idea (suppose there is not) whether there are many available in-game prop bets. I would make a killing at those, and/or significantly improve some of the teams or players if I was compensated as a coach, but I do not see more opportunity than in horse racing. There is some betting value to be had on the over/under and/or point-spreads, same deal with it not being enough to divert horse racing time and attention. I don't even know the legal betting options, other than Vegas. Also seems to take a lot of patience, as the action is slow and the plays are strictly long-term advantages, as the players are unreliable, and much can depend on a starting pitcher.

I'm a curmudgeon who doesn't enjoy the game much anymore, although I do get some sense of entertainment and feel as though I'm contributing to the family when I watch with my older father-in-law.

Pitch count is an excellent point.

At a glance, noticed that pitch-count and positioning-of-fielders are both exercised 'willy-nilly'. The basis for both tactics is sound, but we are seeing a cookie cutter heuristics-based approach.

In attempt to be 'smart', and game-the-system, much of these decisions have instead become the rule-bound rather than rule exploitative.

I was watching a great game last night - best I've seen in years.
Then realized I was watching DYI and they were covering paint drying. :bang:

There's MANY of betting options. We now have sports betting legalized in over 10 states, and many believe that number could get as high as 30. There's also no lack of betting props on MLB games, whether its matchup bets or fantasy type bets (total hits, runs and rbis for a particular player).

I still love the big horse racing days, but I see no reason to bet a Thursday afternoon card at a Hawthorne, or Parx. Racing needs to adjust its takeout to a more competitive level.

You couldn't pay me to watch a baseball game on TV...and then I started wagering on these games. And now I even try to watch the pitchers as they warm up before the start. It's the best gambling game going, IMO...assuming, of course, that you can secure a 10-cent line for yourself.

i like watching baseball and hockey without betting money on it when you have good teams playing each other. the funny thing is that when i used to bet the games, i never watched them, i used to watch the ticker in Nevada or CNN when they had the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

honestly Gus, it has become so tough to win at anything, i don't miss betting on it.