It was on this day in 1932 that the Reds made one of the best trades in franchise history, acquiring future Hall-of-Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi as part of a seven-player trade with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Lombardi was coming off a solid rookie season, but since Brooklyn already had Al Lopez behind the plate, Lombardi became an expendable trade chip. The Reds reaped the benefits as Lombardi rose to stardom over 10 seasons in Cincinnati, hitting .311/.359/.469 with 120 homers over 4288 plate appearances in a Reds uniform. His tenure in Cincy included the 1938 NL MVP Award, five All-Star appearances, and a starring role in the Reds’ World Series victory in 1940.
Some items from the modern game…
- Players will once again be able to access in-game video clips this season, with the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writing that Major League Baseball’s central office will be controlling the video footage available to teams. Players and coaches will be able to access footage of a past at-bat or pitching sequence during a game, via dugout iPads, with the league editing the footage to ensure that teams can’t use video for underhanded purposes — like stealing signals, for instance. Prior to 2020, it had become common practice for a hitter to visit a clubhouse computer terminal to review footage from his previous plate appearance, but clubhouse terminals were banned due to COVID-19 concerns last year. This certainly played a role in some hitters suddenly struggling at the plate, since they had gotten to used to making video-aided adjustments.
- Willie Calhoun has been bothered by a groin injury during Spring Training, and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link) believes the Rangers could be cautious and place Calhoun on the injured list to begin the year. An IL stint certainly wouldn’t be welcome for Calhoun considering his injury-shortened and unproductive 2020 campaign, though it might be necessary to ensure that the young slugger is both fully healthy and fully prepared for the season. A former top-100 prospect, Calhoun seemed to taking a step forward with a solid .269/.323/.524 slash line over 337 PA in 2019.
- Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak has already said that the team will use Alex Reyes out of the bullpen this season, but with Miles Mikolas and Kwang Hyun Kim both facing injury problems, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders if the team should reverse course and install Reyes into the rotation. While it makes sense that the Cards want to carefully manage Reyes’ workload given his own lengthy injury history, Frederickson argues that the most optimal usage of Reyes’ projected 80-100 innings would be to use him as a starter until the rotation gets healthy, and then shift him to the pen.
Reyes being pulled between rotation and the ‘pen like that poor girl in the classic “The Hitcher” (1986) — glad to see in a few years, some things still haven’t changed.
i mean he should just be staying in the pen. guy’s made of glass.
Reyes finally looks healthy and has command of his pitches this spring.
If the Cards are planning on getting 100 innings out of Reyes this season anyway—-why not initially put him in the starting rotation to begin the season??
Hopefully with Reyes getting 5-6 starts—- it will give the other starter time to heel. Then Reyes can be moved back to the bullpen upon their return.
Wow I haven’t thought about that show in probably 30 years…a blast from the past LOL
the Astros were just ahead of the curve
Lol – And definitely quicker with the buzzer…..
Huh? This joke makes no sense.
They allegedly wore buzzers so they could signal the pitch from the clubhouse more effectively.
RunDMC –
Wow I haven’t thought about that show in probably 30 years…a blast from the past LOL
Watch out, in-game video could mean a much better offensive year for Baez. Watched his game the other day and he’s just a magician on D. If he could pull it together consistently on O… man.
“This certainly played a role in some hitters suddenly struggling at the plate, since they had gotten to used to making video-aided adjustments.”
Are you sure about that? I know some hitters tried to make that claim, but league-wide stats don’t seem to agree very much.
League-wide OPS by year:
2020: .740
2019: .758
2018: .728
2017: .750
2016: .739
2015: .721
I would argue that, at least according to OPS, it had essentially no effect whatsoever.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/bat.shtml
Drop in OPS despite league wide DH in 2020. Perhaps it does have an affect.
When looking at the NL v AL. The drop was about .029 in the AL while only .007 in the NL, so the added DH helped keep the OPS afloat in the NL, but it tanked hard int he AL. So something definitely affected hitters in a negative way. Maybe it was the nature of the season, maybe it was lack of in-game resources.
You’re only comparing 2020 to 2019. That’s not a fair comparison — you need to look at several previous years, as it goes up and down.
2020: AL: .733, NL: .746
2019: AL: .762, NL: .753
2018: AL: .734, NL: .722
2017: AL:. 753, NL: .748
2016: AL: .744, NL: 7.34
2015: AL: .730, NL: .713
And considering this was arguably the most disruptive season in the history of the game, I don’t see how there can be any conclusion whatsoever that there is a correlation between watching in-game video and hitting over the coarse of a season.
You’re looking at league-wide changes, but there’s no reason to assume all hitters use, or benefit from the use of, video. It very well could have affected some players, especially those who said it did.
This would not necessarily be a league-wide effect. JD Martinez and Javier Baez specifically cited it as an issue last year.
Another decision to help hitters. No reason for this video decision. Hitters should figure things out without the aid of visuals. Video is nice to have but not a necessity. Pitchers will face more punishment.
I can think of millions of reasons for this decision. Guess what new revenue stream just got created and can get your company huge ROI with highly visible placement in dugouts during games AND get you all those sweet photos of stars using your brand?
In other words, there is no reason for this decision. Thanks.
You don’t have to like it, but it’s an incredibly valid reason. We just saw an entire offseason with majority of teams slashing payroll because they didn’t make as much money as usual. This is an instant new revenue opportunity while also eliminating a lot of the variables that allowed some teams to get into shady practices that most of us, pitchers included, did not enjoy being part of the game.
I agree. I’m old enough to remember a time when players worked from memory, or got tips from their teammates and coaches, without the aid of technology.
It’s a tool hitters now have available they didn’t decades ago. Pictures are allowed to use sticky substances to increase their spin rate. The game continues to evolve as it has for over 150 years.
Ah, if only notable Red Soxers like Fred Lynn, Bernie Carbo and Bill Lee had had in-game videos……..”Debbie Does Fenway”……
reyes should definitely start
This in- game video news is good for one guy that comes to mind, JD Martinez. He’s lost without knowing how the pitcher throws, how the ball comes out of his hand and do his best to try to see pitcher’s grip on the ball.
I mean seriously, how many times can you look at your swing and tweak something?
It looks like 2 or 3 Cardinals will be getting rotation opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t.. That could mean the staff will be stronger come All Star break.
So it seems some players, like JD Martinez, would have been career AAAA hitters if they played before availability of in-game video.
Do the people who actually run the game of baseball ever watch the games? Interact with the fans? Have actually played baseball themselves?
The biggest issue is the pace of play. One of the contributing factors to that is it taking 10 minutes between every pitch because the catcher is so paranoid the batter has their signs. How do you not get this? It really isn’t complicated, these are Ivy League executives apparently.
Hoping that the back and forth from rotation and bullpen doesn’t Neftali Feliz the Cards Reyes