Because it would make them potentially more of a threat with a higher payroll? Or because its gimmicky and we should be anti-relocation?
Ok! I didn’t know what county they were in. Mad props to you on that knowledge! Honestly, I’ve been to Knights and Raiders games there…. It’s great as a visiting fan which is why those teams will continue to do well. Not sure about 81 home baseball games though. But they’ll generate more revenue based on attendance… and franchise value will go up even if just transiently. More eyes in the Bay Area though… which leads to their TV deal… that and the revenue sharing is why they’re still profitable in Oakland despite there being more rats in the stadium than people. Despite an annual Astros weekend trip to Vegas being very enticing… I’m rooting for a new stadium in Oakland. That plus just the slightest increase in attendance will be comparable with the potential attendance increase (but viewership decrease) they’d get in Vegas.
Nothing more needs be built around that place, nothing much should have been built there in the first place
Love the new rules and can’t wait for the roboumps. The umps seemed to be especially bad this year, but it is early..
Its the prevalence of every game being easily streamed and captured, and every umpire mistake being captured and shared on social media (with some accounts specifically created just to highlight umpire errors). Every game has a strike zone box. Every game is in HD with more cameras than ever to capture all angles of any play. And people can now score umpires with a similar grading system to what their own governing bodies used. IOW, I don't think they've gotten worse... we just now see or hear about every single mistake they make. The more egregious ones go viral. Not sure what to make of replay errors (which there have been a handful of ones that seemed obvious but didn't get overturned).... they're going to need more transparency there as well as to why certain calls were or weren't reversed.
Overall, umps have gotten better according to grading systems as the old guys retire along with the younger umps being able to use data to improve.
Is there actual data that younger/less experienced umpires are outperforming older ones? That would certainly resonate within their union if its suggested that they possibly have an age where umpires should no longer be working as much. It would basically be the opposite of their current seniority system. Angel Hernandez faints...
I don't think that it's been established that age has something to do with it(although it probably is a factor), but young umpires are vetted far better than older umpires. We have tangible data on balls/strikes in the minors, so just like players only the best get promoted. The old umpires who are protected by the union were likely never very good to begin with, even when they were younger. Some of these guys are holdovers from the Braves 6 inches off the plate days.
Yes, I understand the theories and the "protection" the current system affords. I'm just curious if there is actual tangible data showing all of this. Yes younger eyes/reflexes may lead to better results (or willingness to work/improve that declines as one gets older)... but does experience play any role either in determining sustained success? Certainly somebody can put together an "umpires reference" like website or database of their performance in all metrics... and draw correlations or conclusions (which very well may show age related declines). Pretty sure the league is doing this already... and if they're not, all leagues should be. But baseball has the most trackable stats since every pitch location or hit ball location is recorded down to the mm.
The best thing I can say about Vegas is that they don't waste as much water as they could, they're actually pretty progressive in that regard. The county, however....Lake Mead is very unhappy.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/we-may-never-find-out-how-good-umpires-can-be/ "That is extremely stark. The younger umpires have outperformed the older ones by an overwhelming margin. While I didn’t expect the outcome to be quite so definitive, the direction of the results isn’t surprising. Again, I’m not the first to note that younger umpires tend to outperform older ones, but I do think there’s a way to draw some more nuanced conclusions from the data."
Maybe we'll learn tomorrow that all Bagwell offered Verlander was a case of beer when he cosplayed as GM
Just dreaming about when the Astros will be full strength and in sync: 1. 2B Altuve (IL) 2. SS Pena (Slump) 3. LF Alvarez* 4. 1B Abreu 5. RF Tucker* 6. 3B Bregman (Slump) 7. DH Brantley* (IL) 8. C Maldonado 9. CF McCormick (speed in front of Altuve) Bench 10. Hensley IF 11. Julks OF 12. Salizar* C2 Bats 9th when startig 13. Diaz 1B/DH Starters SP1 Valdez* SP2 Javier SP3 McCullers (IL) SP4 Urquidy SP5 Garcia SP6 Brown CL Pressly RP1 Neris RP2 Montero RP3 Stanek RP4 Abreu RP5 Maton LR/SP Blanco or LR/SP Martinez
Everyone knows Crane was in the driver seat when it came to negotiating deals with JV (surely) and other FAs
