To wrap up a quiet day in the transactional world, here are a few interesting links from around the game worth a look:
- Ben Badler of Baseball America provides a breakdown of the recent MLB international amateur showcase. Many of the players on hand already have lined up deals, says Badler, with some even arguing that the event prods players and teams to reach earlier agreements than they would otherwise. In addition to infielder Wander Franco, who the Rays are expected to sign with this year’s biggest July 2 bonus, Badler says that catcher Daniel Flores was highly impressive. Flores has the upside of becoming a top-flight receiver, per the report; the Rangers are expected to land him.
- Shifting remains an intriguing and evolving element of today’s game, but Eno Sarris of Fangraphs analyzes whether it may have reached a saturation point. Hitters have responded with increased lift and more opposite-field groundballs, he says. And there are indications that teams are stretching the concept right to the edge of usefulness. While it’s not quite to a “high-water mark” yet, Sarris posits, that point may be on the horizon.
- As Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports writes, the league is looking into changes to the game ball that would increase its tackiness. The hope, it seems, is to avoid some of the preparation required to get a baseball ready for action — and to forego the need for pitchers to resort to less-than-authorized means of obtaining their preferred grip.
- Meanwhile, MLB and the player’s association continue to discuss ongoing changes and address the implications of the new CBA. In his latest comments, relayed by Evan Woodberry of MLive.com, MLBPA chief Tony Clark rejects the notion that the new agreement depressed player salaries in free agency this winter, saying it’s far too soon to evaluate. He also offered some thoughts on the arbitration process, noting that the impact of various statistics can change without any real warning or explanation from arb panels (which only decide on a number, without setting for their reasoning). “It’s always an interesting back-and-forth, and in some ways you’re throwing darts with what you think is resonating,” he said. “Introductions of new concepts and ideas always happen. Making a one-year determination as to whether or not you have to blow up the entire system doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We’ll have to see how things progress moving forward.”
I just wanted to post this as a discussion topic unrelated to the original post, but Garrett Richards stem cell treatment to treat his partially torn UCL is a really good sign for baseball. Obviously we have to see him go through the season, which none of us know if he can or will, but so far he’s said he’s never felt better. This can be an alternative treatment to TJ and could keep players from long recoveries etc. I’m skeptical if it works on a large scale, but encouraging nonetheless to see that it has made progress to his elbow health
Indeed it worked for Richards, but another pitcher, who’s name I can’t currently remember, also tried the stem cell treatment to no avail.
As with most surgeries, it just depends on the person and their own physical make-up. Although, I will still say, it is definitely something any player should look into, if it offers them the opportunity to avoid TJ surgery.
Andrew Heaney also tried it along with Richards last year, but saw no progress. but you are right. It just gives pitchers another option and alternative to explore
It only is viable with certain types of injuries. It’s not yet an option for all TJ typed injury. Read that some where
Yeah only partial tears, even then there’s no guarantees it works
It begins though to cross a line, right? With all the hand-wringing about PEDs and such couldn’t we reasonably argue that PRP injections and stem-cell infusions are a sort of blood doping? I know they aren’t classified as such now but look at, say, the world of competitive bicycling, where similar treatments are banned.
And I don’t think they should be illegal by the way. Just something to think about.
Remind me again how increased cell regeneration of destroyed, useless tissue is performance enhancing? It’s a treatment that happens to come from a source similar to something that makes you uncomfortable. Being able to recover like Wolverine does not also infuse your tissues with superhuman productivity or act as a trigger for an increase in muscle mass production.
By increasing healing at an unnatural rate it is influencing the game. That is performance enhancing- players can play more often, recover more quickly and play healthier.
Is it a bad thing though? I would argue not.
Performance enhancing drugs enhance their in-game output, whereas this simply is allowing them to perform as if they were healthy as normal. Stem cell is a treatment therapy just like any surgery is. Should we call surgery performance enhancing since they’re not staying on the dl longer by healing naturally?
Blood that has been artificially oxygenated cost Lance Armstrong 7(?) Tour de France victories. I don’t think it rises to the level of anabolic steroids or HGH, but where does MLB draw that line? (Right now blood doping is legal in baseball)
Maybe we can consider treatment as cheating when we start creating cyborgs
I do get your argument, by the way, that why couldn’t these “blank” cells just be modified in some way and injected to form new muscle, but the technology is nowhere near to that yet. You can’t get some doctor at a clinic to find some nice looking stem cells to inject in your ass. Stem research is so young that Richard’s treatment was mostly an experiment, and all they can currently be used for is to repair localized damage of specific tissues at a faster pace than usual.
So kinda like the people who used peds to increase their recovery from injuries?
Now they’re trying to change what a baseball is?
They are trying to make the ball have more grip so players stop using pine tar vaseline, etc to get grip. The ball used in the Japan league is too tacky for the MLB but if you have held a Japan League ball and MLB ball 2 completely different feels. Japans ball is almost sticky it has so much grip. It does not come in plastic wrap and they do not have to rub Mississippi Mud on it that doesnt work in the first place. Japan League balls come wrapped in tin foil type insulation and once you pull it out of that wrap it is ready for game use.
Japanese league baseballs are also smaller in diameter.
Personally, I don’t want to turn the Majors into NPB II. It supposed to be hard. We don’t need to start handing out pre-doctored baseballs. Come on, solving the “cheating” problem by changing to a ball that accurately simulates doctoring the baseball? What kind of logic is that?
Is that the brother of the royals minor leaguer Wander Franco?
Yeah. There is also a 3rd brother, Wander Franco, that plays for the Astros. All three brothers have the same first name, but different middle names. I know the youngest brother mentioned in the above article is Samuel. One of the current players has the middle name Alexander, but I’m not sure which team he plays on and don’t remember the 3rd middle name. Erick Aybar is their uncle as well.
Is shifting really becoming not that useful for teams? It seems like some guys are just to stubborn to go to opposite field and try to keep hitting it straight through the shift. I know there is some good hitter who can go the opposite way like Bautista but it just seems like they are few and far between
Except Bautista isn’t an opposite field hitter. Mauer, Eaton, LeMahieu, Kendrick, Markakis, Ichiro (more so in his prime), are some of the better opposite field hitters in the league. Bautista usually ranks somewhere around 125th-150th in the league.
I think he meant he has the willingness to beat the shift. Sorta like Bryce Harper laying down a bunt when he faces the shift. If more people were like that and were willing to take a single, the shift would be totally useless.
I also saw a lot of balls this year that would have been outs if the defense was playing straight up. GBs to the SS or 3B. Minor shifts is what the MLB should go for not a full shift. Im not saying change the rules but I dont think we see that many shifts in years to come.
The guys who can and will hit the other way to beat the shifts just aren’t being shifted much anymore. David Ortiz, for an example, was always shifted because he refused to sacrifice power to hit the ball the other way, and it’s not like he was going to bunt for a hit.