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“…. the AL Central is up in the air,….”
Going into the season it was the worst division in MLB. 3 weeks ago it appeared that 3 teams from the ALC would make the playoffs – the division winner and 2 wild cards.
With a possible turnaround today, it now looks like Cleveland can’t hit, Minnesota can’t pitch, and Kansas City can’t beat the good teams.
Can one or two of the Red Sox, Tigers, or Mariners squeeze in?
The Royals and Twins are white Sox merchants. The ALC is not beating the poverty division allegations! Except my guardians. They rule
“He’d have to throw SIX more no-hitters just to tie Nolan Ryan’s record. Nobody’s breaking that record.”
Actually, the no hitter record is much more attainable then it used to be.
Modern baseball is about walks and homers. Getting hits (batting average) is no longer valued as it once was and hitters no longer mind striking out regularly.
Going by decades, there had been a pretty steady number of no hitters (with some variance) until recently
’60-’69 = 34
’70-’79 = 31
’80-’89 = 13
’90-’99 = 31
’00-’09 = 15
’10-’19 = 40
’20-’24 = 22
There was a little more then 30 no hitters per decade with a few down decades. But then the 2010’s happened as analytics became entrenched in baseball and we see the largest number of no-no’s.
Now we aren’t quite halfway through the 2020’s and that included a short 2020 itself, and we already have 22. We could well have 50 no hitters this decade.
I’m not suggesting Nolan Ryan’s record is falling next week, but the current style of baseball is the perfect environment for someone to have a great chance to do it.
Canuckleball;
I agree with everything you wrote. But for every action, there’s a reaction.
I believe that Ryan’s record will not be broken unless there are structural changes to the way baseball is played in MLB.
ML Pitchers today are like lottery contestants that have gotten invited to the Big Spin show – or whatever. Almost all pitchers are willing to do anything their management wants even if it means overtaxing their body when throwing to get as much speed and spin on the ball…..not saying they don’t change speed at times. But when a person in their 20’s is faced with the possibility of attaining a long-term contract for 50 to 200 million dollars, most are going to roll the dice knowing that if they get injured in the middle of that contract….so what. Today’s role model isn’t Sandy Koufax (who got injured and had to quit at a young age due to strain he was putting on his body when pitching). Today’s role model is Stephen Strasburg. The man pitched 31.1 innings since 2020, retired, yet will receive $245 million through 2029 for pitching those 31.1 innings.
Maybe he can’t pitch, and yes, he won’t throw a no-hitter, but…..
Canuck – The first ever combined no-hitter wasn’t until 1991.
This decade, 2020-2024, there’s already been 6 combined. It’s a lot easier to no-hit a team using 1-4 fresh relievers out of the pen.
Plus lineups now are much thinner with only 4 bench position players and weak-hitting multi-position players valued more than good hitters.
Nope. The first combined no-hitter was Babe Ruth and Ernie Shore. The A’s had one in the 70s, too.
Bucket – I’m well aware of the Ruth game, what you don’t realize is he did not record an out therefore he did not technically participate in the no-hitter.
My bad on 1991, that was the first in the NL. Thank you for catching that.
LOL at the guy that thinks the O’s are a big market. Maybe they used to not be super small but Washington shrunk them a lot.
Of course, it could be argued that Baltimore shrunk it themselves by being so bad that they lost many of their old fans from the DC area.to the Nationals
It is sort of like how the Ravens took over much of the DC market after they moved in because the Skins were so terrible
Way to bring it yeasties.
Peter Angelos started out just fine. He brought in baseball people to run the baseball operation part of ownership (1990s). They played winning baseball and because of it, drew big crowds to OPACY with regularity.
What happened?
General consensus locally was that Peter’s ego hijacked the good times. Couldn’t stand that GM Gillick and Mgr Johnson were getting the credit. So he chases them out of town. And for the next decade +, crap happens. Losing baseball did open the door for MLB to justify bringing in a DC franchise; indeed.
Peter didn’t come to his senses until he brought in Andy McPhail in late 2000s. The beginning of that nice run of wins from 2012 to 16.
That’s fair. But the point is, they aren’t even a mid market team right now.
Baltimore is certainly mid market.
Mid would be 11-20 and they’re bottom 10.
To follow up on one of the questions and its answer in this chat, the Chicago White Sox are in good shape to get both the AL record and modern (post-1900) MLB record for futility, but not the overall MLB record. That goes to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the NL at 20-134. However, that record isn’t comparable because the Spiders played about 100 of its games on the road due to failure to draw. Also, it was a corrupt situation where the same family owned the St. Louis Perfectos (now Cardinals) and transferred all of their good players, including Cy Young, from Cleveland to St. Louis. The White Sox have clinched a better record than the Spiders, regardless.
phenomenalajs;
Great!
Did you know that pro baseball was played up until the early 1900’s where a batter could bunt foul with 2 strikes and it was fine. The rule to be out on strikes if bunting foul with 2 strikes was put in first by one league, then a year or so later by the other.
Do you know the reasons the rule was put in place? If so, do you see any similarities to what is – and has been happening – in MLB since analytics took over?
Skenes should be ROTY. Another small market screw job.
The season isn’t over, and the voting hasn’t occurred, so it’s too early to say if anyone’s gotten screwed over. Imagine if Skenes has an awful September and Jackson Merrill gets really hot.
Solid answer on the Os probable 2025 draft haul, but the draft picks are likely to be Top 32-35, not just Top 40.
And their probable bonus pool is truly stunning. They’ll have in the range of $23 to $26m to spend. In other words, enough to grab any HS prospect that drops because of signability.
Good thing Harris went to Columbia. He may need more than just a slide-rule to figure out how to make room on the 40…..
Interesting about Baltimores’ draft….Wow.