Do you think to much attention is placed on the number of pitchs, left-right matchups, etc. in the MLB?
444527
I think you're getting at the 'staturation' (my term, or?) of baseball. I think the whole Moneyball analysis is hyper-rational, questionable in its practicality and downright dismissive of the tempo, traditions, and feel of the game. As far as pitch counts, I absolutely agree with you. More on that in a bit. However, as long as pitch counts are relied upon by managers to aid in deciding their pitching changes, I think it's necessary to include in box scores. In fact, I get annoyed when newspapers fail to include pitch counts in their roundups. \n\nBut I have to wonder about the whole notion of pitch counts. I feel like the media often hype high pitch counts  as indicative of a.)a gutsy performance, if the P gets a W or b.)a poor use of a pitcher, if the P gets a L. In the former, you have hero-hyping, which makes good copy. In the latter case you have a classic case of double-guessing, which I'm sure managers hate to no end. In the end, I think managers are cowed into keeping pitch counts relatively low not for fear of hurting their pitchers, but for fear of being deemed my management or media as unable to responsibly harness the talents of the team's "poor, fragile" pitchers (I definitely have wee Pedro Martinez in mind here). \n\nFrankly, SPs should be insulted by this. Any SP worth his cleats wants to hang onto the ball, and it is always a good thing to hear of private spats between P and MGR about a quick hook. At the same time, SPs should protect theit MGR if he is called to task for allowing a high pitch count, if he can attest that he was, indeed, feeling good. \n\nAnd that's the thing about baseball, and the stats therefrom. It's all relative. There is no arbitrary safe pitch limit across pitchers, or even for one pitcher. Factors such as pitch selection, temperature, and field conditions all come into play. One day a P may be spent at 100, the next game he's still pumping at 125. \n\nBut for newbie's information, it seems to me that 120 is often an upper pitch limit. Occasionally you'll see a pitcher crack 130. Livan Hernandez, at least once a year, will hit 150. A lot of times, a manager with a history with a certain pitcher can sometimes get away with using him a little bit more than another might be comfortable with. Interestingly, everyone knows knuckleballers can pitch all day, but for some reason quality knucklers like Wakefield seem to be coddled like any other SP. \n\nI don't buy the 'insurance' or 'fragile arm' arguments. Baseball players today are the strongest, healthiest, most athletic ballplayers in history. This goes for pitchers as much as for hitters. Yet if you analyzed innings pitched, CGs, GS, and pitch counts over the last several decades, you might conclude that within the last 20 years SPs have become spindly weaklings. The hyper-reliance on pitch counts, which might be partly due to the unfortunate development of the professional reliever definitely feeds this trend (that is, trained as such in the minor leagues and before). It is undeniable that pitchers are coddled even more so in the minor leagues, and it is possible that they just don't have the stamina that they once did. If this is the case, then I think we can point blame at the farm systems. Today's pitchers are, however, physically still capable of hard workloads if they are just given the opportunity to work up to that level. \n\nEither way, I would argue that the decline in pitching quality has several factors, chief of which is the expansion of the pitching pool. Teams employ more pitchers now than they ever have in history. 12-man squads are now typical; 10 years ago it was 11-man squads; and that was an expansion from ten. If SPs were allowed (or were capable) to last longer, there would be fewer pitchers needed, and thus you'd have a richer pool. If, at the same time, baseball's best pitchers were groomed as starters exclusively, there would
291550
It's a thinking man's game.  There is a lot of strategy.  Yes, it can be boring to watch at times, but there is so many things going on in the game that the casual viewer misses.  I watch the "game within the game".  For example, when there is a good base stealer on base and a pitcher tries to keep him close to the base.  Baseball is also a numbers game.  Baseball is the best game for satistics.  It is also nice to compare players and eras.
617863
I agree with cooley.  The are not overall fixed.  However, by extending the series, companies can make money on broadcasting and advertisement.  Sometimes, I feel the refs are biased in their calls..but for the most part I don't think they are fixed.  I really feel the first round should go back to a 5 game series.
499981
That the idea in and of itself was not interesting enough to draw attention from North American fans.. It takes more then the novelity of players representing their homelands to draw attention for the N.A. fan. MLB still thinks that it's the predominant sports league and anything it does will be a success. One day, they will wake up and wonder why no one is in the stands, and why they've gone the way of boxing and horse racing.
213898
Why does everyone care so much?  I'm getting tired of hearing and watching and reading Bonds, Bonds, Bonds.   Let's not forget that at 30 teams at a 25 man roster, minus Bonds there are 749 other people playing MLB.  Just once,\n can we focus on the good things?
552019
I'd guess that pretty much all of them get hit at some point during the season - foul balls ricocheting backwards are quite common.  There are a total of 68 MLB umpires, so that's probably how many get hit.
394205
yes!\n\nwhy does the WS home field matter from an all star game???\n\nASGs are known for as only an exhibition....\n\nWas there really a need for the Tampa Devil Rays???\n\nthey'll always be a team that'll either move or never have any true talent b/c of mgt there doesn't believe in spending money for a team...\n\nthe barry bonds fiasco...  \n\nhow was he the commish and owner of the brewers at the same time???\n\nno WS in '94\n\ntoo many answers for such a dumbass...
1037331
Not yet.  The problem is that there really is nobody to put up good competition in the Central this year.  I thought it was going to be pretty tough this year with the Astros and the Cubs' lineups, then Cincinnati and Milwaukee started playing well too.  But the Cards are on a 7 game losing streak and are still in first place by 1.5 games.  They have a tough game tonight, but I think they'll pull this one out, then they have one more against the Indians, a day off, then 3 game sets against Kansas City and Atlanta before closing the first half with a 4 game series against the Astros.  They're still looking at 50+ wins in the first half, with 76 to go in the second half.
19393
If you mean how many handle a standard game, there are four. One at first base, one at second base, one at third and one calling the balls and strikes behind home plate. \n\nIf you want to know the total number of umpires working at any one time, that would be 60 per night as there are 30 MLB teams or a maximum of 15 games going on in a day.
972945
I hope so, NL Central had like 10 teams going for it, and AL Central was a fight between 3 really good team, and at the end of it, the Twins climbed from 12 games below .500 to aprx 30 some games above, and won the division by one game.\n\nFun\nFun\nFun\nBoth
309878
Depending on the side of the ball you come from... Based on the way things are going?  Payroll  Because you can buy a great team and build a winning tradition.  The team may not win the World Series every year but they will always be in contention.\n\nIf you want real stats from a analitical point on players:\n\nTraditionally, statistics like batting average for batters (the number of hits divided by the number of at bats) and earned run average (approximately the number of runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings) have governed the statistical world of baseball. However, the advent of sabermetrics brought an onslaught of new statistics that better gauge a player's performance and contributions to his team from year to year.\n\nSome sabermetric statistics have entered the mainstream baseball world. Among statistics that do an excellent job of measuring a batter's performance, On-base plus slugging (OPS) is the easiest to calculate. It adds the hitter's on base percentage ([hits + walks + number of times hit by pitches] divided by [number of times at bat + walks + number of times hit by a pitch + number of sacrifice flies]) to his or her slugging percentage (total bases divided by at bats). Some argue that the OPS formula is flawed and that more weight should be shifted towards OBP (on base percentage). Regardless, OPS still stands as the most direct means of evaluating a hitter's performance using readily available statistics.
1077106
I like it, but I wish they'd reverse the use of the designated hitter during these games -- use it in National League parks, and not in American League parks. This would give each league's fans an opportunity to see the other league's style of play.\n\nI particularly like the local rivalry games (NY/NY, CHI/CHI, SF/OAK, etc.)!
1174359
You could use a bunch of different measuring sticks.  Last year's NL East had the top four teams finish within 7 games of each other, while the West had the last place team only 15 games behind the division winner, the same as the 1996 NL Central.  The 1995 NL West (only 4 teams) had an 11 game gap between first and last, but that season was strike-shortened, as was 1994 when the 4 teams in the AL West were within 5 1/2 games of each other.  The 2004 AL West had the top three teams within 3 games of each other.\n\nIf we're only going to go back to the 3-division format in each league, those have been the closest races.
635116
yes all of the above, but don't forget the wild pitch high fastball.  It keeps going up and up and up until it's over everyone's head.
648127
There are no guaranteed number of games against other teams in MLB, but here is how it roughly breaks down:\n\n(a) 74 gm against own division\n(b) 70 gm COMBINED against other two divisions\n(c) 18 interleague games\n--------------------------\n    162 games in total
120921
No, the sport has spread enough that the USA would be slaughtered by a team of World All Stars.  The World Baseball Classic is different because each nation has some players but to consolidate them all against the USA wouldn't work so lets stick to NL vs AL.  I don't care for the homefield in the WS stipulation though.  The team with the best record should have homefield with the exception of a Division winner vs the Wild Card the division winner should always have homefield.
1071081
seeing that we are talking baseball and not the military---The draft process does continue, although it is a stats and records process that ranks out teams and players in evaluation procedures---implementation of this process only occurs at the proper seasonal time for the formal roster alignments of the various teams