SB Nation User Blog: Just Rope Ball

Instant Replay

Just Rope Ball — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:39:25 -0000

Dear Diary,

Well at least baseball is trying to make progress regarding replay: MLB GM's vote for some replay

The proposal, approved by a 25-5 vote, was limited to boundary calls -- whether potential home runs are fair or foul, whether balls go over fences or hit the tops and bounce back, and whether fans interfere with possible homers.

I would like to see replay implemented where the head umpire could pick up the phone, ask the replay umpire to make the call. One quick question and answer. I could see it expanded to include out calls (i.e. trapped balls or extremely close plays on the bases) but wouldn't want it to be used on every call. Need some way to regulate it usage.

Poll

What should Instant Repley be used for?

Nothing at all, my baseball is precious!

18 votes

Boundary calls as stated above.

22 votes

Any out call.

3 votes

Why not include balls and strikes?

1 votes

Anything the manager asks for.

4 votes

48 votes | Poll has closed

Scheduling

Just Rope Ball — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:24:09 -0000

Dear Diary,

I'm tired of talking about Walt leaving, I don't want to propose any crazy trade ideas to land us some stud pitcher/hitter, plus I saw this really cute boy the other day in the mall, we smiled at each other, wait, what?

No, I want to throw out my idea for a balanced league with balance schedules. The main problem is the difference in league size. My proposition would be to move either one NL Central team the AL (I would say ship MIL back), but I really think moving FLA to Las Vegas and putting them in the AL West would be the best. I don't want to argue whether they should or would move a team to Vegas lets assume they do. Then I would move PIT from the Central to the East so that every division in both leagues has 5 teams. Here is my proposed schedule breakdown:

Against your own division (4 teams): 4 - 3 game series with each team (2 home and 2 away) for a total of 48 games

Against you own league (10 teams): 2 - 3 game series (home and away) for a total of 60 games

Against the other league (14 teams plus your rival): 1 - 3 game series with each team plus an extra series against your rival (7 home and 7 away against the rest plus 1 home and 1 away against your rival) for a total of 48 games

That leaves an extra 6 total games to make 162. My plan is for every 3 game series to run tues-thur and fri-sun like they do now most of the time, with an occasional game on Mondays to make a 4 game set. Specifically on Memorial Day and Labor Day, opening day Monday plus spread the others around to give ESPN their Monday night baseball broadcast.

Advantages:
*    Every team plays the same opponents nearly equally. No crying about playing the AL East in interleague play.
*    A chance to see every AL opponent in your stadium at least every other year.
*    Regular off days on most Mondays.

Disadvantages:
* Interleague play is always going on. No specific interleague weekends.
* Reorganization of the league structure. If FLA doesn't move, who should get sent to the AL.

I also thought it would be fun if during interleague games that the DH would be used in NL parks with no DH in AL parks. But that would get too confusing, so we would just stick to the norm.

I know this will never happen and I was just talking out my back side, but it was fun. Now, commence telling me how stupid this idea was. Aaaannnnd GO!

WPA Allstar Teams

Just Rope Ball — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:42:34 -0000

Inspired by todays main post, I was curious who the allstars were based on WPA. The selection process is bogus but there is no need to argue about it. I just took the player with the highest WPA as of today according to fangraphs. Granted the choice could change with one player getting hot and the other ice cold, but oh well, thats what I did.

The first is the WPA allstar, the second is the actual starter with their WPA if they are not the leader.

NL Roster

C - Martin (1.53
1B - Pujols (3.16) - Fielder (2.67)
2B - Utley (2.24)
3B - Ramirez (2.57) - Wright (1.06)
SS - Tulowitzki (2.65) - Reyes (0.90)
OF - Bonds (3.72)
OF - Holliday (2.35) - Beltran (-0.12)
OF - Hawpe (2.03) - Griffey (1.34)
(If you need a true CF then Rowand (1.64))

AL Roster

C - Martinez (2.79) - Rodriguez (-0.83)
1B - Morneau (1.34) - Ortiz (1.20)
2B - Polanco (1.96)
3B - Rodriguez (3.62)
SS - Jeter (2.81)
OF - Guerrero (3.87)
OF - Ordonez (3.71)
OF - Sizemore (2.34) - Ichiro (1.75)

Poll

Do you like the fans voting?

Yes, it a game for the fans.

8 votes

No, most fans have no clue.

11 votes

Maybe, if they changed the system.

9 votes

I have a belly button!!

11 votes

39 votes | Poll has closed

WS Predictions

Just Rope Ball — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 23:39:08 -0000

Wanted to get some predictions for the WS. A good number of you predicted ALL THE WAY BABY!! on LB's poll, but I wanted to see what everyone thought now.

Also, give me us your predictions for series MVP.

Myself: Cards in 6 with Carp pitching 2 gems and winning the MVP. I also expect Rolen to start producing and those DET pitchers to challenge Pujols and give him a change to do some damage.

Poll

Who wins?

Cardinals in 7

4 votes

Tigers in 4

0 votes

Cardinals in 4

2 votes

Tigers in 5

1 votes

Cardinals in 5

4 votes

Tigers in 6

3 votes

Cardinals in 6

15 votes

Tigers in7

0 votes

29 votes | Poll has closed

Game 1: Mizzou - Cal State Fullerton

Just Rope Ball — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 02:34:54 -0000

I figured I could get a thread started for the game.

Top 2nd, Mizzou just scored, lead 1-0 with more chances coming.

Scherzer is pitching, retired the side in order, got one strike out.

Trying to fill the required 300 characters. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

Possible Trades

Just Rope Ball — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 04:39:43 -0000

With the current status of the team, a lot of us have been talking about trading for impact players. We have two "needs" - outfield bat and power pitcher. I wanted to take and early season look at who was available and who could be counted on come October. When eliminating players from the trade pool there were three factors - contending teams, division opponents, and arbitration eligible players. Walt may be able to pull of a trade within the division, but that seems unlikely. Disclaimer - I know not all these players are available, I just wanted to look at what the Cards could do.

On one side of the coin - we "need" an outfield bat to shore up the lineup. To find a big bat lets first look at the available leaders in OPS:
Vernon Wells (.994)
Casey Blake (.963)
Bobby Abreu (.956)
Alfonzo Soriano (.950)
Pat Burrell (.946)
I stopped there since everyone else was below .900. Also if teams like ARI (Green, Gonzalez, Byrnes) or TEX (Matthews, Jr., Mench, Wilkerson) would hit hard times some of their players could become available. Looking through that list I would eliminate Abreu and Burrell for their contracts after this season, sorry but I don't want Soriano, which leaves Wells and Blake. Wells could be a decent replacement of Edmonds in CF. Another possibility would be to find a high OBP player for the #2 hole: Ichiro Suzuki (.387) is about the only person not mentioned earlier. So this brings us to Wells, Blake and Suzuki as possible outfielder upgrades.

On the other side of the coin - we "need" a power pitcher to give us that 1-2(-3?) punch for the postseason. I know there is debate about the need for this power pitcher and what actually defines a power pitcher but I believe in the need. The first stat I looked at was K/9 with 6.5 being the cutoff (since the Cards really lack there):
Johan Santana (9.56)
Jake Peavy (9.35)
?Cory Lidle? (8.14)
Gil Meche (7.38)
Ted Lilly (7.29)
John Lackey (7.22)
John Smoltz (6.93)
Kelvim Escobar (6.90)
Cliff Lee (6.89)
Jason Schmidt (6.86)
Dan Haren (6.81)
Barry Zito (6.72)
Before I kid myself eliminate Santana, Lidle & Meche (career years), Peavy (only $2.5MM, what a deal), Smoltz, Haren and Zito. Comparing the remaining 5 and looking at other "power" stats:

Lilly Lackey Escobar Lee Schmidt
K/9 7.29 7.22 6.90 6.89 6.86
H/9 9.31 7.09 10.42 11.06 6.41
BB/9 5.43 3.11 1.76 2.73 2.81
K/BB 1.34 2.34 3.92 2.53 2.44
WHIP 1.64 1.13 1.35 1.53 1.03
G/F 1.02 0.87 1.21 0.43 0.67

Looking at these numbers, Escobar really looks appealing since he is in the AL (minus that H/9 - his BABIP in `06 is .340 with a .313 career). Lilly is the only other GB pitcher (barely) which Duncan likes. I don't see Lilly or Lackey as power pitchers, but that may be just me. Then again I have heard about some Reyes kid in the system who can't get a decent chance, but without getting into that debate to much, I'd go with Escobar or Schmidt.

Well I think I have convinced myself into Vernon Wells and Kelvin Escobar as the best options for the Cards. The only other question would be what does it take to get them? I'll let you all decide that.

Poll

Who should they get?

Casey Blake

3 votes

Different P - comment

1 votes

Ichiro Suzuki

14 votes

Kelvim Escobar

2 votes

Jason Schmidt

16 votes

Vernon Wells

29 votes

Different OF - comment

11 votes

76 votes | Poll has closed

Just Manny being Manny?

Just Rope Ball — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:38:55 -0000

Due to the lack of news, and to take a break from analyzing the Cards, I would like to pose a question:

If you were Red Sox GM (or whoever is calling the shots), what would you do about Manny Ramirez? Keep him? Trade him? If you trade, who would you expect in return? What to do about money problems (there always is with contracts this large)?

There are always rumors around about him since most everyone wants him (if they had the money to get him). The new one:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2005/12/new_manny_scena.html

A lot of teams have inquired about him: LAA, LAD, SEA, NYM(always), BAL?, but no one can put together the package to get a deal done. With his current contract of $20MM/yr (which I might offer is over half of the current Marlins payroll) can any team absorb that entire contract. Do the Sox want to pick any of it up? The have been asking for an impact player in return. Do you think they could get a big name in return (like Zito, Ichiro, or Vlad just to stir the pot).

I think any deal is going to have to involve 3 (or 4) teams. Usually resembling the deal above, with Manny moving, and a couple established players and a few prospects changing addresses. I personally would not want Manny on my team since he is usually lost in LF, which is why BOS works well for him.

Manny's Career Stats:

34YR, .314BA, 435HR (~40/yr), 1414RBI (100+/yr), 1.008OPS (.409OBP & .599SLG), pretty impressive batting stats. But then there are his feilding stats: 1.91RFg (4th worst in MLB), .729ZR (MLB worst LF). Mabye he should move to DH, where his contract would look more expensive.

Incentive laden contracts

Just Rope Ball — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:48:15 -0000

Something I have thrown around in my head and discussed with friends is the contract with incentives. I don't see why we don't see more of these contracts in MLB (in all Pro sports for that matter). If players would sign for a lower salary (would still vary for quality of players) and then recieved higher payouts for more production it would entice the players to perform better. There are numerous points opposing this stance (probably to many to list) but with this day and age of agents causing the biggest problems, this will never happen. For example lets take Albert: sign for 2 mil per season, with incentives for AB, HR, RBI, OBP%, SLG%, OPS% whatever the GM wants from that player will give the team the true value of their player. He could still make 10+ mil a year after recieving 2 mil for 40+ HR, 2 mil for 100+ RBI, etc. But looking at some of the recent signings like Burnett for example, if he doesn't change into a game winnig pitcher (don't look at just wins but other important stats as well) teams don't throw away millions on players that don't do squat. Some of the bigger market team would still give higher starting salaries to better players which would still hurt smaller market teams. One problem that could arise is when someone they expected to have an average year (say 8 mil total) plays out of his ass and doubles his salary from incentives, he could hurt the teams total payroll. I also think that MLB could set standards for the incentives to make things more even for teams.

But all together this won't happen due to MLBPA and player agents wanting more and more money. Just a little idea in my head.