Regarding Zack Geinke---3,000 strikeouts is about one-fifth the significance and pull to keep going as 3,000 hits. Maybe he can be the Sam Rice of hurlers. Sam was 13 hits shy of 3K when he hung it up, though there was considerably less hoopla about that milestone during the Mezozoic Era.
Joe, have you written anything about the structure of the MLB playoffs? Especially with them balancing out the schedule and phasing out division games, it seems insane to me that if the season ended today, one side of the bracket in the AL would be the top 3 teams and the other side would be the bottom 3, and the 4th best record gets a bye and the 6th best record gets home field advantage for a round.
Joe, what do you think about Zach Grienke playing the last game of the season as DH for the Royals? Any way you could ask him what he thinks of the idea? I think it would be a lot of fun for everyone.
Anyway, I love the book, and best of luck to your daughter at Wake. I bet she loves it. I am a Demon Deacon, class of 1987!
Alright so I don’t like posting but I want Joe to write about this and I don’t really know how else to reach him: Joe talked earlier this week about how the changing role of the starting pitcher has made them much harder to evaluate for the Cy Young. I have a bigger question: how will this affect valuations when it comes to the Hall of Fame? There are the crop of veteran aces who are Hall worthy (Verlander, Kershaw, Scherzer, and Greinke), and then Gerrit Cole is maybe building a case, but after that, who else? The way starters are used nowadays, it seems like no one is going to reach the traditional metrics for the Hall of Fame. Does that mean that we won’t see any pitchers enter the Hall anymore? That doesn’t seem right, does it?
The metrics change, and evaluation methods will follow suit. If this wasn’t the case, then no reliever would ever have ever been elected to the HOF. The evaluation methods have already changed in Cy voting, because starter Wins have been carrying less weight for several years now - King Felix, de Grom.
That’s a very good point. I guess I’m interested to see how the metrics change. These days WAR plays such a big component, but I do wonder if the low number of innings will make it harder for pitchers to reach the WAR thresholds used nowadays, to say nothing of more traditional stats like wins. I think some of this might already be occurring—Mike Petriello found three years ago that only two pitchers born in the 1970s had gotten in (and this wasn’t because they weren’t eligible yet). Here’s the article where he discusses this: https://www.mlb.com/news/missing-hall-of-fame-pitchers-born-in-1970s. In any case, my concern is that this trend will be exacerbated by recent trends in usage, but we shall see!
As a 2nd year empty nester (my son goes to school 2000 miles away) it is a mix of sadness, relief, pride, loneliness, and relaxation. Sometimes all within a few minutes.
Dropped my oldest off at college last month, by youngest is in high school. We miss my oldest terribly, the family dynamic is just not the same, but we are thrilled for her. She is doing well and loving things on campus.
I don’t think it is as bad when you drop them off now because we text virtually every day. So there’s still plenty of contact. We are going for parents weekend next month
Joe, you are about four or five years older than me, and we both have two daughters spaced about the same, but my oldest is the same age as your Katie. Your personal columns are some of my favorites. Thank you for sharing!
Interesting analysis of the Padres. When this winning streak started, I did the math to see where they would end up if they, indeed, finished the season on a 16 game winning streak. With 84 wins, I figured there was still no chance. Now, it seems that maybe there is, if they can win 16 in a row, which seems a little unlikely to me. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic...
What can I say, Joe's analysis has given me hope that if they do win 16 in a row, that could be enough. They'd certainly be the hottest team coming into the playoffs...
200 innings is becoming a big ask. However 33 starts at 6 innings a start is 198. Our Seattle Mariner #1 Luis Castillo currently has thrown 188 1/3 innings in 31 starts (a minuscule average just over 6 innings). He has two starts left and if he goes 6 innings in each of his two remaining starts he will get just over the line. Two of our other starting pitchers have a good shot at 190 in their remaining 2 starts. Even with the shorter innings per starter, expect every year for each league there will be at least one and perhaps 2-3 pitchers per league threatening the 200 inning mark. In 2022 there were three 200 inning pitchers in the AL and five in the NL. These won't necessarily all be Cy Young candidates. Last year three Mariner pitchers started 32 games and pitched more than 180 innings. None received a single vote for the Cy Young and none of the three deserved a vote. I don't think the 200 inning season is about to disappear.
Is playing the Braves and Brewers really that bad in the next week+? Are either of them really playing for anything right now? They seem pretty well ensconced in the #1 and #3 seeds in the NL.
And especially the Brewers. They are 8 games ahead of the Cubs for the Division, so even if they lost the rest of their games, they almost certainly win the division and they are 7 games behind the Dodgers, so they aren't going to catch them either for the #2 seed.
So if the Cubs come into Milwaukee that last weekend needing to win 3 to make the playoffs, several things are going to happen that will make those games easier for the Cubs: 1) The Brewers will almost certainly be not pitching their top of the line starters, or if they do, only for small stretches, in order to set up their rotation for the playoffs; 2) If any of the Brewers position players are not fully healthy (and after 162 games, who is), they are going to rest; 3) Cubs fans are going to make it seem like the games are at Wrigley, which to some extent happens anyway, but will definitely happen anyway if the games matter to the Cubs and not the Brewers. The Milwaukeeans will be more than happy to have some Illinois dollars be paid to Wisconsin ticket holders for games that don't matter to the Brewers.
When he called you that in the interview, I was so curious how you'd respond. Good job just gently moving past it and not getting bogged down in humility, false or otherwise.
Regarding Zack Geinke---3,000 strikeouts is about one-fifth the significance and pull to keep going as 3,000 hits. Maybe he can be the Sam Rice of hurlers. Sam was 13 hits shy of 3K when he hung it up, though there was considerably less hoopla about that milestone during the Mezozoic Era.
Joe, have you written anything about the structure of the MLB playoffs? Especially with them balancing out the schedule and phasing out division games, it seems insane to me that if the season ended today, one side of the bracket in the AL would be the top 3 teams and the other side would be the bottom 3, and the 4th best record gets a bye and the 6th best record gets home field advantage for a round.
Joe, what do you think about Zach Grienke playing the last game of the season as DH for the Royals? Any way you could ask him what he thinks of the idea? I think it would be a lot of fun for everyone.
Anyway, I love the book, and best of luck to your daughter at Wake. I bet she loves it. I am a Demon Deacon, class of 1987!
Alright so I don’t like posting but I want Joe to write about this and I don’t really know how else to reach him: Joe talked earlier this week about how the changing role of the starting pitcher has made them much harder to evaluate for the Cy Young. I have a bigger question: how will this affect valuations when it comes to the Hall of Fame? There are the crop of veteran aces who are Hall worthy (Verlander, Kershaw, Scherzer, and Greinke), and then Gerrit Cole is maybe building a case, but after that, who else? The way starters are used nowadays, it seems like no one is going to reach the traditional metrics for the Hall of Fame. Does that mean that we won’t see any pitchers enter the Hall anymore? That doesn’t seem right, does it?
The metrics change, and evaluation methods will follow suit. If this wasn’t the case, then no reliever would ever have ever been elected to the HOF. The evaluation methods have already changed in Cy voting, because starter Wins have been carrying less weight for several years now - King Felix, de Grom.
That’s a very good point. I guess I’m interested to see how the metrics change. These days WAR plays such a big component, but I do wonder if the low number of innings will make it harder for pitchers to reach the WAR thresholds used nowadays, to say nothing of more traditional stats like wins. I think some of this might already be occurring—Mike Petriello found three years ago that only two pitchers born in the 1970s had gotten in (and this wasn’t because they weren’t eligible yet). Here’s the article where he discusses this: https://www.mlb.com/news/missing-hall-of-fame-pitchers-born-in-1970s. In any case, my concern is that this trend will be exacerbated by recent trends in usage, but we shall see!
I bet the Brewers or Rays would pay Greinke $1.5m to pitch 2-3 innings here and there.
PLEASE BOOK AN EVENT IN THE TWIN CITIES.
As a 2nd year empty nester (my son goes to school 2000 miles away) it is a mix of sadness, relief, pride, loneliness, and relaxation. Sometimes all within a few minutes.
Dropped my oldest off at college last month, by youngest is in high school. We miss my oldest terribly, the family dynamic is just not the same, but we are thrilled for her. She is doing well and loving things on campus.
I don’t think it is as bad when you drop them off now because we text virtually every day. So there’s still plenty of contact. We are going for parents weekend next month
Joe, you are about four or five years older than me, and we both have two daughters spaced about the same, but my oldest is the same age as your Katie. Your personal columns are some of my favorites. Thank you for sharing!
Seems like an appearance at Powell’s is out or is that still in the works ?
Interesting analysis of the Padres. When this winning streak started, I did the math to see where they would end up if they, indeed, finished the season on a 16 game winning streak. With 84 wins, I figured there was still no chance. Now, it seems that maybe there is, if they can win 16 in a row, which seems a little unlikely to me. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic...
Being pessimistic because you don’t think they’ll win 16 a row? That’s a very high bar! 😃
What can I say, Joe's analysis has given me hope that if they do win 16 in a row, that could be enough. They'd certainly be the hottest team coming into the playoffs...
You and Joe DiMaggio (rip), a couple of “Greatest Livers” Cutting it up!
Are your stairs wood, Joe. Slippery, tough on an old dog. I tacked a bunch of yoga mats on mine which was a game changer for my old dog…
200 innings is becoming a big ask. However 33 starts at 6 innings a start is 198. Our Seattle Mariner #1 Luis Castillo currently has thrown 188 1/3 innings in 31 starts (a minuscule average just over 6 innings). He has two starts left and if he goes 6 innings in each of his two remaining starts he will get just over the line. Two of our other starting pitchers have a good shot at 190 in their remaining 2 starts. Even with the shorter innings per starter, expect every year for each league there will be at least one and perhaps 2-3 pitchers per league threatening the 200 inning mark. In 2022 there were three 200 inning pitchers in the AL and five in the NL. These won't necessarily all be Cy Young candidates. Last year three Mariner pitchers started 32 games and pitched more than 180 innings. None received a single vote for the Cy Young and none of the three deserved a vote. I don't think the 200 inning season is about to disappear.
Castillo is great. I hope the Mariners get in.
And that I get to hear Dave Sims call some playoff games.
Is playing the Braves and Brewers really that bad in the next week+? Are either of them really playing for anything right now? They seem pretty well ensconced in the #1 and #3 seeds in the NL.
And especially the Brewers. They are 8 games ahead of the Cubs for the Division, so even if they lost the rest of their games, they almost certainly win the division and they are 7 games behind the Dodgers, so they aren't going to catch them either for the #2 seed.
So if the Cubs come into Milwaukee that last weekend needing to win 3 to make the playoffs, several things are going to happen that will make those games easier for the Cubs: 1) The Brewers will almost certainly be not pitching their top of the line starters, or if they do, only for small stretches, in order to set up their rotation for the playoffs; 2) If any of the Brewers position players are not fully healthy (and after 162 games, who is), they are going to rest; 3) Cubs fans are going to make it seem like the games are at Wrigley, which to some extent happens anyway, but will definitely happen anyway if the games matter to the Cubs and not the Brewers. The Milwaukeeans will be more than happy to have some Illinois dollars be paid to Wisconsin ticket holders for games that don't matter to the Brewers.
Braves haven't been great lately.
When he called you that in the interview, I was so curious how you'd respond. Good job just gently moving past it and not getting bogged down in humility, false or otherwise.
"Greatest living sportswriter?" Of course you'd never really think that. Humility is at least 500th in your list of virtues.
Is there a link for the Cherry Hill event?