It's not the length of the game that really matters - it's the amount of dead time. These changes decrease the % of wasted time. It makes it more viable to go to the ballpark or sit down and watch or whatnot. Same reason people prefer watching shows without commercials. On the opposite end, for example, college football is trying to shorten their games by having more of a running clock. That keeps the same amount of dead time but reduces the amount of action. It will also shorten games, but in the wrong way that won't make the game more fun.
My way too early opening day lineup and 26 man roster... Altuve 2B Pena SS Alvarez LF Bregman 3B Tucker RF Abreu 1B Hensley DH Meyers CF Maldonado C Bench: Lee, Dubon, McCormick, Matijevic Rotation: Framber, Javier, Urquidy, Garcia, Brown Bullpen: Pressly, Montero, Abreu, Neris, Stanek, Maton, Martinez, Gage Injured List Brantley, McCullers
We'll see how fun it is when a crucial game is ****ed up NFL ref style by one of these rule changes. I'm never in favor of giving the referees more power, and I think it's asinine that a pitcher or a batter can get a strike or a ball without having to do anything.
Am I the only one that is super high on Hensley? From what we've seen from him he puts together good ABs, high walk rate, high contact, should hit for a bit of power, and with his frame maybe way more than he has shown so far. Idk much about him defensively, but he can play a few different positions. At the very least he should be able to be a terrific platoon player and replace some of the value that Diaz brought.
I love watching baseball more than watching players walk around in circles, pontificating the meaning of life, grabbing their nuts, etc. The pitch clock helps me watch baseball. People against the pitch clock are for watching the other stuff.
The rules of Baseball has turned it into a different game. It's like speed chess for those with attention deficit.
No. It has turned back to how baseball was a while back such that anyone who has an attention span can see.
I'm with you. I became a fan of his in the playoffs last year when he had some pretty solid at-bats when the lights were the brightest. He strikes me as a very even-keeled hitter with a pretty good approach at the plate, which will make opposing pitchers work harder even when he isn't getting hits. I hope he gets plenty of opportunity this year to play.
I think he's pretty much penciled in at the Diaz position. I don't know how well he can play shortstop. He was not very good last year in the 2 games he played there in the majors though. He has almost no power with only 29 homeruns in 380 minor league games. That's about the same rate as Dubon.
You mean he has "almost no HR power". He also has 88 doubles and 12 triples in that same 1397 AB sample. Bagwell had 6 HR in 710 AB. So by that logic, he has twice as much "power" as Bagwell had. Now I do not expect Hensley to ever hit 40 HR in a season maybe not even 20 but you can't say he has "almost no power" because of his minor league HR history ALONE. He hit one in 29 ABs last year along with 2 doubles and a triple. He hit one already this spring. My eyes tell me you are wrong, but even if you are right about HR, a guy who gets an extra base hit every 9 ABs (129 in 1397 minor league and 4 in 29 major league) can't have "almost no power"
I am guessing they didn't. The NBA waited to implement the shot clock until a team was literally having one player hold the ball for 4 minutes at a time before passing.
I have scary thoughts about Enmanuel becoming an All Star in return for a half season of a backup, underutilized, non-retained catcher.
I think his ceiling is very low. He is not a great defender and essentially limited to 2B and possibly 3B. He's not replacing Altuve or Bregman until at least 2025 and not versatile enough to be one of 4 bench players. He was imminently replaceable but I wish him the best.
Maybe the posters in this thread that are upset about baseball eliminating...nothing...want the NBA to go back to not having a shot clock so they can watch more basketball nothing. Perhaps we can also petition the NFL to have 90 seconds or 2 minute play clocks so we can watch more football nothing. Then we can create a new television show called Watching Paint Dry where we just watch paint dry for a few hours.
I think he’d be competing with Hensley for the final bench spot if he were still with the Astros. So it’s not like there wasn’t a place for him. His ceiling isn’t that low; I think there’s a fair chance he could end up as a solid everyday 2B. But generally I agree, he didn’t project as a core piece and Houston has plenty of bench bats to plug in. Can’t trade for good players without giving anything up. It was a fair deal.
I agree with this but think Hensley's versatility would have won out. Ironically one of the easiest positions to fill, 1B, might have been the deciding factor. With: b/u C, Dubon, Meyers, and Valdez Vs b/u C, Dubon, Meyers, and Hensley There is no back up 1B.
