Sept. 21, 2023
Baseball today is the best that's ever been played - Ep. 432
Why don't players bunt? Is it a lost art in baseball? Was baseball better when there were 8 teams in each league and only one league champion that would represent the league in the World Series? We debate and contemplate whether today's baseball is the best it's ever been. The athleticism of modern players is at the highest level ever and we question if players are pulling off more extraordinary catches and plays than ever before.
We’ll consider whether free agency has changed the player-manager relationship, and if modern players are as committed to their craft as their predecessors. Additionally, we delve into how the shift to a four division in 1969 and adding wild cards in 1994 have altered pennant races forever. We'll discuss how tactics have evolved and whether the wild card system truly recognizes the best regular season team. Trust us, this is a baseball discussion you won't want to miss!
Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter/X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel. If you can please give the podcast 4 or 5 star rating!
www.almostcooperstown.com
Chapters
00:00 - Baseball's Current State
11:55 - Baseball's Evolution and Player Specialization
20:13 - Baseball's Evolution and Playoff Scenarios
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.225
Pictures who can only go five innings.
00:00:02.225 --> 00:00:05.432
Batters that don't know how to bunter hit behind the runner.
00:00:05.432 --> 00:00:08.691
Players that don't know how many outs their rolling on the field.
00:00:08.691 --> 00:00:10.919
Is baseball the best it's ever been?
00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:12.967
Yeah, I'm gonna tell you why we think that's the case.
00:00:16.341 --> 00:00:17.964
Hi, welcome to almost Cooper's town.
00:00:17.964 --> 00:00:21.432
I'm Mark and this is Gordon, and we love talking about baseball.
00:00:23.021 --> 00:00:31.528
If I had a nickel for everybody that you know talks about the old days in baseball and how much better the baseball was, then I don't think we I need to work anymore.
00:00:33.441 --> 00:00:35.947
I mean, I think it's, it's the pining for the.
00:00:35.947 --> 00:00:54.094
We've talked about it, even somewhat recently with, you know, going back into macho baseball, and I think it's interesting because there's a difference between my job as well and sort of what we're talking about here today, in that we're talking about the quality of the game itself, because I think there are things that the players today are not quite as good at.
00:00:54.094 --> 00:00:58.927
I think that if you ask the average player to Bunt today, I don't think they're quite as good at that as they used to be.
00:00:58.927 --> 00:01:02.828
Now that might just be because it's way harder to Bunt the pitching today than it used to be.
00:01:02.887 --> 00:01:06.000
That's a good question, because I think that probably get pushed back from some people.
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:06.724
Why is it harder?
00:01:06.724 --> 00:01:16.290
Well, they're throwing 99 miles an hour and, by the way, but bunting was always thought to be easier against an off-speed pitch than a fastball, so that does support being more difficult.
00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:18.420
But players don't practice bunting, right?
00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:33.040
They're not really asked to do it and and they come to the major leagues at such and this is an important point about all of this Right, they come to the major leagues at a younger age, most of the time that they really haven't had to do that before because they were, you know, just working their way up to the minor leagues to get to the big club.
00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:40.227
They were just doing, they were just showing off their skills and their skills are what got there promoted, not their technical mastery of the game in some respects.
00:01:40.227 --> 00:01:58.914
So a manager is less likely to even try to bunt and and that sort of fell out of fashion from a Strategy standpoint in baseball, right that you, you started not wanting to give up at bats in that way right, because get bunting is basically for sure giving up an out for not a for sure chance at advancing the guy.
00:01:59.522 --> 00:02:02.700
Right, and it's only been two years now that pitchers don't hit.
00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:15.000
So basically you had in every game if the number eight hitter or seven hitter got on base, the pitcher was bunting like 90% of the time for as long as there was, you know, major league baseball and now you don't have that anymore.
00:02:15.100 --> 00:02:20.305
So you have fewer bunts in general, because you don't have that situation, but that's because you only had a guy in the lineup.
00:02:20.305 --> 00:02:28.721
That was so bad that bunting became a better Value play than it was otherwise or is currently and the statistics and the metrics you know.
00:02:28.881 --> 00:02:37.752
Tell managers that giving up an out via a bunt is not as good a play, even though for the baseball fan and when they're watching it, it seems like this is a city.
00:02:37.752 --> 00:02:38.742
You'll see a situation.
00:02:38.742 --> 00:02:41.248
You'll say guys should bunt here right now.
00:02:41.248 --> 00:02:44.950
They would have bumped in you in 1976 or something like that.
00:02:44.971 --> 00:02:46.340
Was that actually the better play?
00:02:46.340 --> 00:02:46.921
That's the thing.
00:02:46.921 --> 00:02:53.740
There's not a guarantee that bunting there is the right decision, and I think it's the same way where, you know, we talk about our guys better defenders today.
00:02:53.740 --> 00:03:18.159
Well, yeah, obviously guys are way better defenders today, but I think because one we see every single play of every single game defensively, because it's all broadcast, that you're way more likely to see the couple of boneheaded plays that occur, whereas before that single play would just be an error in the box score that only the couple of people that were either the couple thousand people that were at the game was ever watching the local broadcast might view.
00:03:18.502 --> 00:03:21.180
I that's an excellent point and I think so from an athleticism standpoint.
00:03:21.180 --> 00:03:36.052
I'm with you that there are more extraordinary plays and catches and and I want not always a throws necessarily, because I can't Evaluate that, but in terms of what you guys still- had great guys jumping up and take stealing home runs at the rate they do today.
00:03:36.313 --> 00:03:51.133
You know, 60 years ago I'm doubtful of that, but I don't doubt that Roberto Clemente had one of the most amazing throwing arms I've ever seen, and no one would contend that, or Dave Parker for that matter, or all these guys you know who could really throw the ball, and I don't think that's changed that much.
00:03:51.756 --> 00:04:02.441
But the players are faster, so throwing a guy out is harder, right, because they're getting there quicker, they're able to make catches on balls that previously they didn't even have a chance at making.
00:04:02.741 --> 00:04:06.943
Right and the, the old time baseball fan, is looking at.
00:04:06.943 --> 00:04:07.627
You know that they're.
00:04:07.627 --> 00:04:12.092
You know they don't know the fundamentals and they don't know how many outs and they don't know which base to throw to.
00:04:12.092 --> 00:04:15.157
There's a shred of truth in all of this.
00:04:15.349 --> 00:04:20.230
Well, I think, but I think it's true, you can look at the defensive because you know what I remember used to happen a lot is.
00:04:20.230 --> 00:04:31.978
You used to have a lot of in part inside the park home runs on those low sinking liners where the outfielder would come in on it, dive for it, whiff on it and then it would get by and the guy would like have a guaranteed triple or score.
00:04:31.978 --> 00:04:38.240
Like it doesn't happen anymore, they've trained the players not to do that nearly doesn't happen, as much it does happen.
00:04:38.610 --> 00:04:41.158
It does happen, but it doesn't happen nearly as much as it used to.
00:04:41.158 --> 00:04:50.559
Now you mostly see the inside the park home runs when the ball ricochets off a wall in some wild direction and the guy has to chase it to try and catch up to it.
00:04:51.060 --> 00:05:03.235
Right, and I think that you know the, the outfielders, you know play in general is, you know they, they know where to stand, they, like they always have, but they can you, like you said, they can make up ground on a ball that they even miss play.
00:05:03.235 --> 00:05:08.781
So if you don't see it, they can run it down in a way that the general athleticism of these guys is better.
00:05:09.089 --> 00:05:09.370
Now part of.
00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:25.815
I think the reason why you're seeing such an increase in players skill and player tools is that, just like the training, the weightlifting, the programs around getting better at the game are so much better today because being a baseball player is a profession in a different way.
00:05:25.815 --> 00:05:34.560
It used to be a way that like guys made money back in the day, but you could do that by just being talented and good and better than the people around you.
00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:43.540
Now everybody is so good that you not only need to be supremely talented, you need to work like mad in order to just keep your spot in the league.
00:05:43.769 --> 00:05:47.420
We did our episode where we did some of these strange but true baseball stories.
00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:52.422
You know, gordon whatever the guy's name was who we showed up at the tryout with his friend right and he was really fast.
00:05:52.422 --> 00:05:56.954
He played softball and he was really fast and they signed him to a contract and that's not happening to know.
00:05:56.954 --> 00:05:58.959
No, guys, I would never Open tryouts.
00:05:58.959 --> 00:05:59.680
Don't go to the ballpark.
00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:00.463
Let's go to the ballpark.
00:06:00.463 --> 00:06:01.826
Everybody's going to try and make the mess.
00:06:01.826 --> 00:06:04.235
No, that's not happening, but that used to happen.
00:06:04.370 --> 00:06:14.723
They used to get used to find people like that, so I think that's a big deal in why you've seen the general level of the game being played has gone up.
00:06:15.029 --> 00:06:18.675
Oh, and the playing youth baseball right In an organized way.
00:06:18.755 --> 00:06:30.875
Not that there wasn't little league before, but the travel baseball and what's come about in the past 25 years Industry with the coaches, and the training and the methods for that are so much higher and it's a more international game.
00:06:31.391 --> 00:06:48.312
I thought, like when you played youth baseball and all that, you had a coach who was very detail oriented and he taught me a lot about baseball coaching and playing because he had done it for a long time and I thought, wow, it's a lot more complicated than the average fan and I was just a dad playing and so I learned.
00:06:48.312 --> 00:06:53.898
You know, from that standpoint, the level of sophistication that you have in a 15 year old baseball game.
00:06:53.898 --> 00:07:03.716
So in that respect that's much more sophisticated than maybe what might have been happened when guys were running around playing youth baseball after high school, trying to hook on in the summer to keep playing.
00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:07.680
You know not everybody got to play in the Cape Cod League or something like that during the summertime.
00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:17.771
So I think that level of consistent teaching and competition can prepare the players in a way that I think is underrated by people that think about when the players come into the league.
00:07:17.771 --> 00:07:19.557
They haven't had enough minor league seasoning.
00:07:19.557 --> 00:07:24.353
God, he used to go down there and he would toy on the minor leagues for four years before he could get up to the big club.
00:07:24.595 --> 00:07:26.312
Right, but the teams were just doing that.
00:07:26.312 --> 00:07:28.341
As much to manipulate service time.
00:07:28.341 --> 00:07:29.726
That's true, that's well.
00:07:31.153 --> 00:07:37.009
And right, because even if the guy was better, you wouldn't bring him up where that has finally begun to really not be the case.
00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:40.079
Now they realize, wait a second, we have an 18 year old or 19 year old kid.
00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.639
He might just be good enough to play right away in the majors.
00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:49.113
And if he is, how are we doing him or our team a disservice by letting him be better than people in the minor leagues?
00:07:49.555 --> 00:07:52.072
Right, right and baseball players.
00:07:52.072 --> 00:08:00.161
Like most sports now and maybe you know I lament this a little bit and Mackinac talks about this because you know he played a lot of other sports before he played tennis.
00:08:00.161 --> 00:08:02.278
So the focus on the one sport, right.
00:08:02.278 --> 00:08:17.291
You decide you're going to become a baseball player and unless you're an extraordinary athlete like Patrick Mahomes or somebody like that, where you can actually do both things at a high level, you still eventually have to make a choice, obviously, and most people just focus on that one sport, whatever it is, and you focus on baseball.
00:08:17.291 --> 00:08:20.216
You're playing baseball all year long.
00:08:20.377 --> 00:08:21.418
Right, you're playing baseball all year long.
00:08:21.418 --> 00:08:34.976
It used to happen Even for the cold weather right, you're going to go inside and train and if you're doing that year round from when you're a kid, you're going to get kids that develop at a much higher and faster rate, and then you do that across the world.
00:08:35.070 --> 00:08:52.039
The potential pool of players to compete in major league baseball is so much greater than it once was, and that's only going to help increase the level of the sport, and just you know forget about the first second that you know how many people are coming to play baseball here that aren't born in the United States, which you know?
00:08:52.059 --> 00:08:56.634
you even go back, there's how many people that just weren't allowed to play baseball because of the color of their skin.
00:08:56.634 --> 00:09:05.187
So you certainly, by increasing the number of people that are participating, that you can pull from, the average level goes up as a result as well.
00:09:06.030 --> 00:09:23.981
But baseball as it was played in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s the golden era kind of stuff, and baseball those guys had really little competition from the other major sports that would have somebody go and play, not baseball, because you really didn't get paid if you play the other sports.
00:09:24.029 --> 00:09:35.961
I think when you look at baseball back in the day, I think it's something that people are talking about and bringing up and listeners have kind of commented that and people when they talk about how it's being better back in the old days.
00:09:35.961 --> 00:09:42.556
I do agree with them in that I think the narratives were better back in the old days because they were less muddied.
00:09:42.556 --> 00:10:07.381
It was much more clear who the teams that were going to be in the World Series were, and you could weave a much more romantic tale about the way the season played out due to the pennant races, and so I think that baseball might not have been as high quality of a pure game in terms of the level of play on the field, but I think the narrative of the season was stronger back in the day.
00:10:08.130 --> 00:10:11.734
And I think the way it was covered, as you were saying that, it started making me think about.
00:10:11.734 --> 00:10:16.360
You know, as we talked about, the writers would protect the players in ways that they won't do that now.
00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:21.389
You know everybody's looking for a story or an angle, but you wouldn't get a story from a player if you did something that you shouldn't.
00:10:21.389 --> 00:10:27.576
So you're traveling with the team and so you're right, it created a narrative, it created a whole feeling.
00:10:27.576 --> 00:10:31.296
Right, that the team had that season was a narrative in and of itself for your team.
00:10:31.296 --> 00:10:39.134
And so if you are, you know, in a and remember the whole thing with I was talking about this first division and second division teams, all those teams vying for the playoffs.
00:10:39.195 --> 00:10:43.636
Back before 1960, when expansion started, there were eight teams in each league.
00:10:43.636 --> 00:10:46.490
So if you were in the top four teams, you were in the first division.
00:10:46.490 --> 00:10:49.333
If you're in the bottom four teams in the second division, so you'd have this.
00:10:49.333 --> 00:10:56.552
You didn't really care about those teams that were, you know, belong, only the teams like, via, the Yankees, and you're vying for a chance to get just the one team that had a chance to beat.
00:10:56.552 --> 00:10:57.678
You was the only team you had to beat.
00:10:58.000 --> 00:10:59.370
Exactly, and it was interesting.
00:10:59.429 --> 00:11:12.181
I found a very interesting website that kind of goes back through the ages, showing down the division races and the pennant races throughout all of the different decades, based on you know how many games, whatever team was, you know up by at the end of the month, each month.
00:11:12.181 --> 00:11:40.280
And you see how the advent of the wild card even though I think ends up getting you a clear picture of who maybe the best team is, because there's a lot of years where you know, oh, maybe there was one team that was out in front all season they end up just barely hanging on to beat out some other team that got hot later and so, yeah, that other team played better from the season, but if you were playing them right now, the hot team was the best team in baseball.
00:11:40.280 --> 00:11:54.190
And I think you're more likely to get that in the wild card rounds now, where kind of all that matters is making the playoffs, and that has devalued the regular season a little bit, but I think more than anything it's devalued the narrative of the season.
00:11:54.190 --> 00:11:55.263
I'm at an excellent point.
00:11:55.283 --> 00:11:55.830
That is, you're right.
00:11:55.830 --> 00:12:07.624
So if the Yankees you know, the Yankees won all those and we talked about this all those World Series and that and so from they won from 36 to 39, they won from 49 to 53, and they were in the World Series and won 41 and 43.
00:12:07.624 --> 00:12:11.100
So all those years there were no other American League teams in the World Series.
00:12:11.100 --> 00:12:22.710
And you had the few years in between where maybe Cleveland got in there or the Red Sox got in there to play for the World Series and not win it, and basically they own that.
00:12:22.710 --> 00:12:33.330
And it was kind of boring if you were like the Tigers or the Orioles and you weren't getting in there, you didn't have a chance, but that's where the benefit of time plays on the side of that.
00:12:33.509 --> 00:12:43.649
Because when you look back on it through, you know, with the lens of nostalgia plastered over it, you only remember the good playoff rate, the good pennant races.
00:12:43.649 --> 00:12:52.684
You remember the ones, like in 51, where the Dodgers collapsed down the stretch and the Giants came back in to win the pennant at the very end of the season.
00:12:52.684 --> 00:12:54.450
That was a phenomenal pennant race.
00:12:54.450 --> 00:13:05.258
And then the years where the Dodgers just ran away with it or the Yankees dominated and had a 10 game lead on the pennant from about the end of May through the end of the season.
00:13:05.258 --> 00:13:08.219
Well, that was just a proper coronation of the best team.
00:13:08.851 --> 00:13:09.192
You're right.
00:13:09.192 --> 00:13:19.482
So that was mythic right, Because the Dodgers and the Yankees played against each other in the World Series a lot and the Dodgers obviously famously not winning other than 1955 until you know, until late after that.
00:13:19.482 --> 00:13:22.099
And so all those years of wait until next year and all that.
00:13:22.099 --> 00:13:26.140
But talk about the rest of baseball going, another Yankee Dodger World Series.
00:13:26.140 --> 00:13:30.740
Enough of this already, and I never really thought about it that way from the standpoint because it's so New York centric.
00:13:30.909 --> 00:13:36.429
Oh yeah, and so when, especially as a New Yorker you've only ever heard the New York version of baseball?
00:13:36.429 --> 00:13:41.542
So everything is waxed about poetically because everybody lived all those pennant races.
00:13:41.890 --> 00:13:53.565
It's not that way for all the teams that just literally never made it all those years, and I think the argument that you know has made some time that players were hungrier, you know, back in the day, and they would do anything to stay on the team and make.
00:13:53.565 --> 00:13:59.096
I don't know if I buy it, that's an impossible quantified.
00:13:59.116 --> 00:14:07.499
so it just becomes about a way to prop up whichever group, because you could say, oh, the players today work harder than ever and nobody can prove either one of those statements.
00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:21.482
But what is different and we've talked about this in some of our manager discussions and episodes is that the relationship between the players and the manager is very different the imperious manager who could do whatever the manager wanted and the player had to put up with it.
00:14:21.482 --> 00:14:23.918
That is no longer possible in Major League Baseball.
00:14:23.918 --> 00:14:26.298
You will not last as a manager if you try to operate that way.
00:14:26.370 --> 00:14:27.796
Well, I think the ad Tony LaRusso.
00:14:27.796 --> 00:14:39.798
Well, I think the advent of free agency made it very, very clear that it was not a manager somehow tapping into the talent of the player, getting to get them to get them to oh, that is so the narrative that was going on for years.
00:14:39.798 --> 00:14:41.797
Oh, it was the manager, truly.
00:14:41.929 --> 00:14:42.975
He got the most out of me.
00:14:43.410 --> 00:14:44.072
That's not exactly.
00:14:44.072 --> 00:14:44.976
That's not what it is at all.
00:14:45.029 --> 00:14:57.004
The great players are great no matter where they go, so the manager is literally more than a ego manager, but a really good manager can get the player to to to play his best, to help him play his best.
00:14:57.190 --> 00:14:59.658
But a good player is a good player.
00:14:59.658 --> 00:15:02.779
It's a good player going somewhere and playing badly.
00:15:02.779 --> 00:15:04.596
You would never blame on the manager.
00:15:05.169 --> 00:15:05.851
Right, I think.
00:15:05.851 --> 00:15:09.841
I think fans would like to say when a player is slumping, why don't you bench him?
00:15:09.841 --> 00:15:12.416
That'll teach him and that'll, that'll, that'll get him to.
00:15:12.416 --> 00:15:16.389
You know, he'll let him watch for a couple of days and then he'll, you know, maybe he'll come back.
00:15:16.450 --> 00:15:20.441
If it was really that easy to just watch somebody hit a baseball, why aren't we all pros?
00:15:20.590 --> 00:15:21.615
But they still do that.
00:15:21.615 --> 00:15:25.097
Buck Schoelalter has said that I thought we just let him sit on the bench and watch for a couple of days.
00:15:25.097 --> 00:15:35.601
Well, that sounds like benching to me, and, and, and it might be the right thing to do for that particular player, but managers don't do it anywhere near to the to the effect that they used to.
00:15:35.870 --> 00:15:38.620
Because they're also not totally free to do whatever they want.
00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:40.115
The team is not their domain.
00:15:40.115 --> 00:15:43.480
They're now beholden to analytics guys and guys of the front office.
00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:46.549
And Buck might say, look, I want to sit Viento, he hasn't been hitting well.
00:15:46.549 --> 00:15:49.399
And some guys like, yeah, we don't care, get him to be at bats, we want to see.
00:15:49.770 --> 00:15:51.135
So you don't buy that they're.
00:15:51.135 --> 00:16:01.495
They were hungrier then because every dollar meant something to these players, in a way that there are multimillionaires now already just getting into major leagues Anybody that's a professional athlete.
00:16:01.515 --> 00:16:10.124
anybody that's ever competed in the top one percent of anything didn't get there purely off the back of their own.
00:16:10.124 --> 00:16:16.730
The number of guys and people that can play at that level purely off the back of their own natural talent is so infinitesimal.
00:16:16.730 --> 00:16:19.659
It's maybe like one guy every 10 or 15 years.
00:16:19.659 --> 00:16:21.417
That's just that naturally gifted.
00:16:21.417 --> 00:16:34.321
But the most part, every one of those guys is dedicated to the game of baseball and getting better in such a way that To say that they're less hungry is is just silly.
00:16:34.529 --> 00:16:40.785
Why is it most of the time and it's anecdotal to a certain degree but that the greatest players seem to be the hardest workers?
00:16:40.785 --> 00:16:45.910
Right, you hear about the guys that just you know the guy puts in the work each year.
00:16:46.152 --> 00:16:55.822
All these guys like the amount of effort and work they put in to get better because we Wax poetically about the great ones that do, even though we ignore all the other.
00:16:55.822 --> 00:17:07.162
You know average players that might work just as hard as them, but nobody ever sings the tales of their praises, you know, but the guy that was a 250 hitter and played okay defense, but he worked really hard.
00:17:07.162 --> 00:17:10.180
Nobody's Going on about how hard a worker he is.
00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:17.000
And then also with the great players, you're either an incredibly hard worker or he got by off the back of pure natural.
00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:20.938
I don't hear them talking about anybody like that they always say that because I don't think it's happening.
00:17:20.998 --> 00:17:21.740
No, because nobody's just.
00:17:21.740 --> 00:17:25.056
Nobody is just showing up to the ballpark anymore, rolling out of bed.
00:17:25.056 --> 00:17:25.819
You're hitting.
00:17:26.122 --> 00:17:36.583
They're all putting in all the work, they're all doing all the steps and, and I know, look, we're fans, obviously, and we don't have the kind of access that that most of the media has, even you know, from our standpoint.
00:17:36.583 --> 00:17:41.509
But I don't even know if those folks know to the degree what individual players are doing to get better.
00:17:41.509 --> 00:17:47.744
It's it them, it's anecdotal, right, that's what they're being told by other players who are watching these guys or the player themselves.
00:17:47.744 --> 00:17:49.872
But I think players are not Going to talk about.
00:17:49.872 --> 00:17:54.238
They just go out and they do the work and that's, you know, that's how they stay at the major league level.
00:17:55.732 --> 00:17:57.549
You know you're doing a hitting drill with your hitting coach.
00:17:57.549 --> 00:18:00.380
He's putting balls on a tee and you're hitting them and you're working on something.
00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:06.446
How are you going to really relay what exactly it is you're working on to the general public?
00:18:06.446 --> 00:18:08.394
I Don't know.
00:18:09.259 --> 00:18:26.477
Most people aren't going to understand it, Right right and and I think that that's a big, big reason why they don't talk about the specific things they do to get better, just because people aren't gonna get it if they do try and explain it, no, they're not gonna get it exactly.
00:18:26.477 --> 00:18:33.762
So I think You're gonna see, I think I would love to see hard knocks for baseball.
00:18:35.011 --> 00:18:35.694
It would be boring.
00:18:36.691 --> 00:18:36.952
Would it?
00:18:36.952 --> 00:18:42.114
Yeah, I wouldn't even thought watching training camp for football been born, I just wouldn't want to watch.
00:18:42.114 --> 00:18:43.317
You wouldn't want to have the camera.
00:18:43.337 --> 00:18:44.000
I want to watch.
00:18:49.371 --> 00:18:56.217
Some of the things the players are doing and those young guys are doing trying to get better For the preparation to season.
00:18:56.257 --> 00:18:58.663
Don't think that MLB hasn't been thinking about this.
00:18:58.663 --> 00:18:59.898
I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.
00:18:59.898 --> 00:19:00.585
I think it's an.
00:19:00.585 --> 00:19:01.269
It is an interesting idea.
00:19:01.269 --> 00:19:03.650
I wanted to ask you about specialization.
00:19:03.650 --> 00:19:05.396
Specialization, right, and?
00:19:05.396 --> 00:19:11.182
And we used to call players versatile, I think now we talk about specialists.
00:19:11.182 --> 00:19:13.595
I think it's a little bit different, right, you?
00:19:13.595 --> 00:19:18.624
You don't have too many guys on the team that can only do one thing.
00:19:19.151 --> 00:19:23.382
Well, yes, because you don't make the major leagues if you can only do one thing.
00:19:23.971 --> 00:19:29.720
So our today's guys that are specialists Um, you used to be used to have your Lugi right.
00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:38.609
That's gone with that's gone with the three batter rule and so that you know now you can't be like a guy that only gets out left-handed batters.
00:19:39.113 --> 00:20:00.190
That was a specialist, the only Siding that, you really have like two types of specialists left guys or three guys that run really fast, guys that are really good hitters but they don't run well and good fielders, ok, or guys that are really good hitters that don't roam well and can't field either.
00:20:00.751 --> 00:20:01.474
That was kind of funny.
00:20:01.474 --> 00:20:13.509
Yeah, yeah, basically you have all of those guys, guys that are so one dimensional in their game that their only value is to play in single instances and to fill in when your team stinks.
00:20:13.509 --> 00:20:23.269
I love the Mets and Tim LaCastro, so I think you've kind of gotten rid of being a specialist, because you can't just being a guy that's super fast.
00:20:23.269 --> 00:20:31.829
It's too hard to maintain it on base average, so you can't have the guy that might hit two, 18, but it'll steal 50 bases in a season.
00:20:31.829 --> 00:20:35.029
Teams are like we can find some guy that can do much more than that.
00:20:35.855 --> 00:20:37.708
You've heard me say before you can't steal first base.
00:20:37.888 --> 00:20:43.929
Exactly so and guys that are all glove was like no, we got rid of the pitcher because of how much it's done to watch them hit.
00:20:43.929 --> 00:20:48.470
We don't need the soft hitting shortstop who's hitting 170, but plays defense really well.
00:20:48.470 --> 00:20:51.589
We can find a guy that plays good defense that'll hit 240.
00:20:53.458 --> 00:21:07.029
And you made a really interesting point and you started talking about we should do a podcast on those different decades and how the team the pennant races because you know pennant races before the divisional play, you know weren't always super exciting, but we tend to remember the world series.
00:21:08.577 --> 00:21:11.990
You only remember the pennant races where there were a lot of pennant, where there was a race.
00:21:11.990 --> 00:21:24.460
I think there's a lot of years where you go back and you look through the charts and you see, oh yes, the Yankees were had 10 and a half games in the game Games in May, and then it never got any closer than that and they were just up by a ton the entire season and they just ran away with the division.
00:21:24.460 --> 00:21:30.907
But in that year we look at it as the rightful team being crowned the king and American.
00:21:30.948 --> 00:21:33.349
League, so true, so maybe you'd get the World Series.
00:21:33.431 --> 00:21:41.142
Well, the two best teams in each league and then you have a team that stumbled down the stretch and they lose it in the last month of the season.
00:21:41.142 --> 00:21:42.150
Well, they collapsed.
00:21:42.150 --> 00:21:43.896
They didn't deserve to be in the World Series.
00:21:43.896 --> 00:21:47.820
Either way, it looks good for that sort of pendant race.
00:21:48.250 --> 00:21:49.313
And you were saying that.
00:21:49.313 --> 00:21:51.318
So you know we had two 18 leagues.
00:21:51.318 --> 00:21:55.170
Then the Angels came in and the Twins in 61.
00:21:55.170 --> 00:21:56.549
And the Mets and the Dasters came in.
00:21:56.549 --> 00:21:58.016
So now you have two 10 team leagues.
00:21:58.016 --> 00:22:00.609
You added four more teams in 69.
00:22:00.609 --> 00:22:03.569
Now you've got 12 team leagues and that's in 69.
00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:10.549
That's when they started division of play and you said that might have been the most interesting playoff scenario ever, right?
00:22:10.549 --> 00:22:23.124
Because you had two division champions in each league that would play in the national, in the Champions Series, National American League, and then they go to the, and so by splitting it into the four, four divisions, overall, you were almost guaranteed to have one of them be a race.
00:22:24.011 --> 00:22:25.829
One of them was going to be close down the stretch.
00:22:25.829 --> 00:22:31.881
You were always going to have an interesting thing oh OK, who's going to be the other team playing for the championship series?
00:22:31.881 --> 00:22:40.930
Secondly, it's still rewarded a really good regular season play, because you only had to beat one team to get to the regular, to the, to the World Series.
00:22:40.930 --> 00:23:01.767
But it didn't put you in the weird position and this is, I think, why you had the advent of the wild card where you'd have some years were like the winner of the National League East would win like 100 games and then the winner of the National League West would win like 80 something games and you're like, oh wow, both of these teams have an equal chance to go to the World Series.
00:23:01.807 --> 00:23:02.549
That doesn't feel right.
00:23:02.549 --> 00:23:08.990
It doesn't feel right, but they both won their division, so it was easy enough to tolerate.
00:23:08.990 --> 00:23:31.181
Then, when you added the third division, now you kind of need a wild card because like, well, it made sense for the wild card, because it really did stink when, like, the two teams in one of the divisions finished with a better record than the division winner of the other one and you're kind of rewarding the best team for having them play the wild card so you get the easier team, but all you're really done is made them play more games to try to win the World Series.
00:23:31.392 --> 00:23:32.220
What's going to happen now?
00:23:32.590 --> 00:23:40.505
It's tough, but I also think that now that you've expanded to having so many wild card teams, your regular season performance is almost irrelevant.
00:23:41.393 --> 00:23:49.018
Yeah, well, I don't know about irrelevant, but in terms of you can have us like we have this year, I could have six teams in it for three spots on the wild card.
00:23:49.057 --> 00:24:05.762
With two weeks to go in the season, I mean that that just didn't happen, braves fantastic regular season performance gives them the exact same chance to win the World Series that the team that's going to squeak into the third National League wild card spot gets because you're not going to give them any.
00:24:06.109 --> 00:24:07.011
They get no free.
00:24:07.011 --> 00:24:11.583
They get no free wins for being the best record in the league, so they get no extra.
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.225
00:00:02.225 --> 00:00:05.432
00:00:05.432 --> 00:00:08.691
00:00:08.691 --> 00:00:10.919
00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:12.967
00:00:16.341 --> 00:00:17.964
00:00:17.964 --> 00:00:21.432
00:00:23.021 --> 00:00:31.528
00:00:33.441 --> 00:00:35.947
00:00:35.947 --> 00:00:54.094
00:00:54.094 --> 00:00:58.927
00:00:58.927 --> 00:01:02.828
00:01:02.887 --> 00:01:06.000
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:06.724
00:01:06.724 --> 00:01:16.290
00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:18.420
00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:33.040
00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:40.227
00:01:40.227 --> 00:01:58.914
00:01:59.522 --> 00:02:02.700
00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:15.000
00:02:15.100 --> 00:02:20.305
00:02:20.305 --> 00:02:28.721
00:02:28.881 --> 00:02:37.752
00:02:37.752 --> 00:02:38.742
00:02:38.742 --> 00:02:41.248
00:02:41.248 --> 00:02:44.950
00:02:44.971 --> 00:02:46.340
00:02:46.340 --> 00:02:46.921
00:02:46.921 --> 00:02:53.740
00:02:53.740 --> 00:03:18.159
00:03:18.502 --> 00:03:21.180
00:03:21.180 --> 00:03:36.052
00:03:36.313 --> 00:03:51.133
00:03:51.756 --> 00:04:02.441
00:04:02.741 --> 00:04:06.943
00:04:06.943 --> 00:04:07.627
00:04:07.627 --> 00:04:12.092
00:04:12.092 --> 00:04:15.157
00:04:15.349 --> 00:04:20.230
00:04:20.230 --> 00:04:31.978
00:04:31.978 --> 00:04:38.240
00:04:38.610 --> 00:04:41.158
00:04:41.158 --> 00:04:50.559
00:04:51.060 --> 00:05:03.235
00:05:03.235 --> 00:05:08.781
00:05:09.089 --> 00:05:09.370
00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:25.815
00:05:25.815 --> 00:05:34.560
00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:43.540
00:05:43.769 --> 00:05:47.420
00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:52.422
00:05:52.422 --> 00:05:56.954
00:05:56.954 --> 00:05:58.959
00:05:58.959 --> 00:05:59.680
00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:00.463
00:06:00.463 --> 00:06:01.826
00:06:01.826 --> 00:06:04.235
00:06:04.370 --> 00:06:14.723
00:06:15.029 --> 00:06:18.675
00:06:18.755 --> 00:06:30.875
00:06:31.391 --> 00:06:48.312
00:06:48.312 --> 00:06:53.898
00:06:53.898 --> 00:07:03.716
00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:07.680
00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:17.771
00:07:17.771 --> 00:07:19.557
00:07:19.557 --> 00:07:24.353
00:07:24.595 --> 00:07:26.312
00:07:26.312 --> 00:07:28.341
00:07:28.341 --> 00:07:29.726
00:07:31.153 --> 00:07:37.009
00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:40.079
00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.639
00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:49.113
00:07:49.555 --> 00:07:52.072
00:07:52.072 --> 00:08:00.161
00:08:00.161 --> 00:08:02.278
00:08:02.278 --> 00:08:17.291
00:08:17.291 --> 00:08:20.216
00:08:20.377 --> 00:08:21.418
00:08:21.418 --> 00:08:34.976
00:08:35.070 --> 00:08:52.039
00:08:52.059 --> 00:08:56.634
00:08:56.634 --> 00:09:05.187
00:09:06.030 --> 00:09:23.981
00:09:24.029 --> 00:09:35.961
00:09:35.961 --> 00:09:42.556
00:09:42.556 --> 00:10:07.381
00:10:08.130 --> 00:10:11.734
00:10:11.734 --> 00:10:16.360
00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:21.389
00:10:21.389 --> 00:10:27.576
00:10:27.576 --> 00:10:31.296
00:10:31.296 --> 00:10:39.134
00:10:39.195 --> 00:10:43.636
00:10:43.636 --> 00:10:46.490
00:10:46.490 --> 00:10:49.333
00:10:49.333 --> 00:10:56.552
00:10:56.552 --> 00:10:57.678
00:10:58.000 --> 00:10:59.370
00:10:59.429 --> 00:11:12.181
00:11:12.181 --> 00:11:40.280
00:11:40.280 --> 00:11:54.190
00:11:54.190 --> 00:11:55.263
00:11:55.283 --> 00:11:55.830
00:11:55.830 --> 00:12:07.624
00:12:07.624 --> 00:12:11.100
00:12:11.100 --> 00:12:22.710
00:12:22.710 --> 00:12:33.330
00:12:33.509 --> 00:12:43.649
00:12:43.649 --> 00:12:52.684
00:12:52.684 --> 00:12:54.450
00:12:54.450 --> 00:13:05.258
00:13:05.258 --> 00:13:08.219
00:13:08.851 --> 00:13:09.192
00:13:09.192 --> 00:13:19.482
00:13:19.482 --> 00:13:22.099
00:13:22.099 --> 00:13:26.140
00:13:26.140 --> 00:13:30.740
00:13:30.909 --> 00:13:36.429
00:13:36.429 --> 00:13:41.542
00:13:41.890 --> 00:13:53.565
00:13:53.565 --> 00:13:59.096
00:13:59.116 --> 00:14:07.499
00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:21.482
00:14:21.482 --> 00:14:23.918
00:14:23.918 --> 00:14:26.298
00:14:26.370 --> 00:14:27.796
00:14:27.796 --> 00:14:39.798
00:14:39.798 --> 00:14:41.797
00:14:41.929 --> 00:14:42.975
00:14:43.410 --> 00:14:44.072
00:14:44.072 --> 00:14:44.976
00:14:45.029 --> 00:14:57.004
00:14:57.190 --> 00:14:59.658
00:14:59.658 --> 00:15:02.779
00:15:02.779 --> 00:15:04.596
00:15:05.169 --> 00:15:05.851
00:15:05.851 --> 00:15:09.841
00:15:09.841 --> 00:15:12.416
00:15:12.416 --> 00:15:16.389
00:15:16.450 --> 00:15:20.441
00:15:20.590 --> 00:15:21.615
00:15:21.615 --> 00:15:25.097
00:15:25.097 --> 00:15:35.601
00:15:35.870 --> 00:15:38.620
00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:40.115
00:15:40.115 --> 00:15:43.480
00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:46.549
00:15:46.549 --> 00:15:49.399
00:15:49.770 --> 00:15:51.135
00:15:51.135 --> 00:16:01.495
00:16:01.515 --> 00:16:10.124
00:16:10.124 --> 00:16:16.730
00:16:16.730 --> 00:16:19.659
00:16:19.659 --> 00:16:21.417
00:16:21.417 --> 00:16:34.321
00:16:34.529 --> 00:16:40.785
00:16:40.785 --> 00:16:45.910
00:16:46.152 --> 00:16:55.822
00:16:55.822 --> 00:17:07.162
00:17:07.162 --> 00:17:10.180
00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:17.000
00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:20.938
00:17:20.998 --> 00:17:21.740
00:17:21.740 --> 00:17:25.056
00:17:25.056 --> 00:17:25.819
00:17:26.122 --> 00:17:36.583
00:17:36.583 --> 00:17:41.509
00:17:41.509 --> 00:17:47.744
00:17:47.744 --> 00:17:49.872
00:17:49.872 --> 00:17:54.238
00:17:55.732 --> 00:17:57.549
00:17:57.549 --> 00:18:00.380
00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:06.446
00:18:06.446 --> 00:18:08.394
00:18:09.259 --> 00:18:26.477
00:18:26.477 --> 00:18:33.762
00:18:35.011 --> 00:18:35.694
00:18:36.691 --> 00:18:36.952
00:18:36.952 --> 00:18:42.114
00:18:42.114 --> 00:18:43.317
00:18:43.337 --> 00:18:44.000
00:18:49.371 --> 00:18:56.217
00:18:56.257 --> 00:18:58.663
00:18:58.663 --> 00:18:59.898
00:18:59.898 --> 00:19:00.585
00:19:00.585 --> 00:19:01.269
00:19:01.269 --> 00:19:03.650
00:19:03.650 --> 00:19:05.396
00:19:05.396 --> 00:19:11.182
00:19:11.182 --> 00:19:13.595
00:19:13.595 --> 00:19:18.624
00:19:19.151 --> 00:19:23.382
00:19:23.971 --> 00:19:29.720
00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:38.609
00:19:39.113 --> 00:20:00.190
00:20:00.751 --> 00:20:01.474
00:20:01.474 --> 00:20:13.509
00:20:13.509 --> 00:20:23.269
00:20:23.269 --> 00:20:31.829
00:20:31.829 --> 00:20:35.029
00:20:35.855 --> 00:20:37.708
00:20:37.888 --> 00:20:43.929
00:20:43.929 --> 00:20:48.470
00:20:48.470 --> 00:20:51.589
00:20:53.458 --> 00:21:07.029
00:21:08.577 --> 00:21:11.990
00:21:11.990 --> 00:21:24.460
00:21:24.460 --> 00:21:30.907
00:21:30.948 --> 00:21:33.349
00:21:33.431 --> 00:21:41.142
00:21:41.142 --> 00:21:42.150
00:21:42.150 --> 00:21:43.896
00:21:43.896 --> 00:21:47.820
00:21:48.250 --> 00:21:49.313
00:21:49.313 --> 00:21:51.318
00:21:51.318 --> 00:21:55.170
00:21:55.170 --> 00:21:56.549
00:21:56.549 --> 00:21:58.016
00:21:58.016 --> 00:22:00.609
00:22:00.609 --> 00:22:03.569
00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:10.549
00:22:10.549 --> 00:22:23.124
00:22:24.011 --> 00:22:25.829
00:22:25.829 --> 00:22:31.881
00:22:31.881 --> 00:22:40.930
00:22:40.930 --> 00:23:01.767
00:23:01.807 --> 00:23:02.549
00:23:02.549 --> 00:23:08.990
00:23:08.990 --> 00:23:31.181
00:23:31.392 --> 00:23:32.220
00:23:32.590 --> 00:23:40.505
00:23:41.393 --> 00:23:49.018
00:23:49.057 --> 00:24:05.762
00:24:06.109 --> 00:24:07.011
00:24:07.011 --> 00:24:11.583