Prince Fielder is a bit of a special case though because he was forced into early retirement. So the gap between his joining the league and getting on the ballot is unusually short. He’s only 37 years old right now, in a normal career he’d probably still be in the majors as a deep-into-his-decline slugger, maybe an overpaid DH or something like that.
Like, I witnessed Buster Posey’s entire career from start to finish, and hes now younger than me and retired.
Do you have any idea how old I feel typing that?
1 Like
All the ballplayers I loved to watch in the 1990s are going into the hall of fame now, and their kids are in the majors!
2 Likes
I’m fine with the PEDo bunch being kept out of the HOF.
now consider that you are in fact older than you feel.
i’m fine with destroying hof credibility because they literally give writers voting power even though they regularly demonstrate arbitrary opinions and obvious biases.
Son of a bitch!
Speaking of Posey, I really liked this video on him.
Gonna miss the guy next year.
1 Like
Well they offset the terrible biases and unjustifiable opinions of the writers by establishing the Veterans Committees, whose selections are flawless.
1 Like
I’m not saying Scherzer won’t be awesome, but the Mets setting a new contract AAV record makes me a little tingly.
Sup poors
3 Likes
Its just 3 years. That won’t really haunt a team like when they used to give long term contracts to 30 year olds.
LGM!
Or giving a 27yo shortstop a 10yr, 330M deal ((Hello Texas) again?)
1 Like
1 Like
Was it that big a deal if the players couldn’t tell there were two different balls?
Or did the players think something was up and MLB denied it?
Either way this doesn’t seem like an issue that fans will care about one way or another.
I’m assuming (since the article is paywalled) that they probably were consistent with using one ball or another during games so it would be harder for pitchers to notice any differences between them but it doesn’t help the injury risks caused by cracking down on sticky stuff midseason, depending on what the specific differences were.
I’m a fan, and I care, because MLB screwing around with the baseball has been wrecking the game for the last several years imo. They made the ball way too lively, and players like Scooter Gennett were able to hit four homers in a game. Punch and Judy hitters were going for the fences. Everyone was. And they were rewarded by the bouncey ball. Pitchers had to try harder for strikeouts because popups were flying out of the park. ABs take longer and require more concentration from the pitchers. So now the starters are wrecked by the fifth inning. So we see increased K’s, walks and HRs primarily because of the bouncey ball. Deaden the ball, and over the passage of time we’ll likely see contact, and pitching to contact becoming more important again. Manfred doesn’t understand baseball well enough to know that “chicks dig the long ball” was not a smart philosophy for the long-term success of the game.
3 Likes