Daily Archives: December 28, 2015
Looking Back At The Pace Of Play In 2015
On February 20, 2015, MLB announced a series of initiatives aimed at quickening the pace of play in Major League games, the key changes were:
- Umpires will enforce Rule 6.02(d), which requires hitters to keep one foot in the box during an at-bat, subject to certain exceptions.
- Timers will be used to ensure that the game resumes promptly at the end of inning breaks.
- Managers will no longer come out of the dugout to initiate a replay challenge. A manager will also keep his challenge after each call that is overturned. Last year, a challenge was retained only after the first overturned call.
So how did those changes pan out for you? Did you notice if the pace of play sped up? Did the pace of play speed up at all?
I can’t say that I noticed if a game was any quicker or not, I did notice the new rule about stepping out of the batters box because the announcers kept harping on it.
I also became aware of the clock between innings when I missed a home run because the game resumed before the television was back to the game from its barrage of commercials.
Check out the rest of the story at Twinstrivia.com.
Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – December 28, 2015
AP File
The man who gave me one of the greatest moments of my youth passed away.
Today I pay tribute to the immortal Dave Henderson.
RIP to the hero of 1986 in this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
Arizona Diamondbacks State Of The Union For 2016
The first big surprise of the winter came when the Diamondbacks signed Zack Greinke. The organization followed that up with trading a heavy price tag to acquire Shelby Miller to back him up. Dave Stewart has taken a lot of crap for a lopsided deal. I think that is very speculative to talk like that. Besides Free Agent Pitchers are expensive, and a way for small market clubs to negate that is to trade for a controllable player. La Russa also knows that his club is set up for a winning window of approximately 3 – 4 years. Keep the aggression when it comes to upgrading this team.
Chuck Booth (Owner/Lead Analyst) Follow @chuckbooth3024
Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports
You simply couldn’t have asked for a better start to a winter in 2015 for Arizona. They are legitimate contenders in the NL West, and still should have the wherewithal to spend another $20 – $25 MIL on salaries for 2016.
I love the aggression set forth by the management. I hope they keep the pedal to the metal on this one. A nucleus of a team lasts 3 – 4 years for a mid market club, and by the acquisitions the team has done here completely reflects that.
We have discussed how the Houston Astros developed their young club for a few years now. It is clearly the best way to rebuild a team.
Another reason why the team has had the financial flexibility to create these maneuvers is that they have Paul Goldschmidt on perhaps the best valued contract in the game of baseball right now.
The other Infielders in the mix for the Diamondbacks need to step up the production for he Arizona squad in 2016. Whether it is Chris Owings at 2B or Nick Ahmed at SS, these positions were not league average for the slots, as was third base either.
Arizona was carried offensively by Goldschmidt and a great productive OF in A.J. Pollock, David Peralta and Ender Inciarte.
The club dealt Inciarte in the Shelby Miller deal, but could pick up the slack with giving his OF position to Yasmany Tomas full time in 2016.
Welington Castillo was one of the most prolific Catchers in the Majors least year, featuring a 3 slash of .255/.317/.496 with the Diamondbacks, clubbing 17 HRs and knocking in 50 RBI during his 254 AB for the club.
In a roundabout way, he bettered what the club had previously in Miguel Montero, who incidentally was the reason why Castillo was flipped to Seattle initially.
That trade made up for the previous fiasco that was the trade for Mark Trumbo the previous season. Read the rest of this entry
MLB Reports 
You must be logged in to post a comment.