45 seconds? Then guys will use it and we end up with games 5 hrs long. I do think there needs to be a tweak though. My idea is keep it the same until 3 balls and/or 2 strikes then add 10 seconds It reduces the chances that a violation impacts the result of a plate appearance but keeps the sense of urgency.
I am skeptical of him, success for him this year is either a really strong year between AA and AAA as a starter or some degree of dominance in the Astros bullpen this season.
He would be an above average corner outfielder with the glove in the big leagues. He would be able to play center field in a pinch but would be below average and exposed over a long period of time.
He seems a little more mature, his head isn't in the clouds.... seems a little more comfortable as well. He still sounds and seems really young for 25 years old, but at least he seems a little more grounded. I wasn't overly impressed with his stuff, on particular pitches he looked good but he wasn't nasty. It is early though, and he he did look like he had okay stuff. I don't really like his fastball.
I thought his reaction to the arm slot question sort of looked like he was on the verge of going on the defensive. I wonder if that change to his delivery had any input from the Astros organization or if it is just what he decided to do in whatever training it is he has talked about in the offseason.
Hard to take away anything too serious from a single Spring Training game, much less inning, but some really promising things in that first. Doubles from Meyers, Abreu and Lee with the monster homer to center from Hensley. And then Garcia looking solid with two strikeouts in his first inning with the different windup. Glad I used my lunch break to watch a little Astros baseball today.
I don't know how receptive he has been to Joshua Miller and Bill Murphy. I know that Bill Murphy has had some success with him as far as talking pitching and supposedly keeps in touch over text, Kind of makes sense, because Murphy is a young guy. Strom had enough of Whitley when he was on the Astros. All we can do is hope that Whitley was really sheltered growing up, and as a result he is a little delayed becoming emotionally an adult. To be fair to Whitley, I don't know how well most people would handle stress and cameras and at 19 knowing you are the top pitching prospect in the big leagues - even at 25, I don''t know if i would want to talk to reporters.
Meyers - nice liner past 3rd base Abreu - very first rbi as an astro Lee - 2 rbi double off his first swing Hensley - nice dinger after falling behind 0-2
Yeah only Spring training but hopefully Garcia found a new comfortable delivery that works for him. Was his velocity around this last year? Or new delivery increased it?
That is a 2 tick increase over last year. Considering ST velocity is usually lower than regular season, that is definitely something to be watching in ST and early in the season.
He has definitely looked more comfortable than when he came back last year. Ball is jumping off his bat too though not getting any loft yet. If he bounces back and Chas continutes what he did last year then we may struggle to find ABs for all our OFs, unless Yordan continutes to have hand issues and/or Brantley comes back flat (knocking on wood).
Even when/if Brantley comes back he'll only start 60-70% of games. If (big if)Meyers and Chaz can provide above league average offense it will be easy to get both guys starting 2/3 of the games. Our best team would very well have Brantley on the bench depending on park and pitcher.
That's an insane increase year over year, he throws that hard in the postseason, but not in the regular season
Looking at average game length and average per game attendance per decade with ballpark figures. The attendance of mlb games has risen in correlation with longer games. Not sure where all this talk comes from that baseball fans want to buy tickets to see a shorter game 1950's 2:30/13K 1960's 2:30/14K 1970's 2:30/16K 1980's 2:45/23K 1990's 2:55/28K 2000's 2:55/31K 2010's 3:05/30K
Attendance in every sport went up precipitously from the 70's to the 00's. Baseball is the only sport whose interest has had a noticeable drop in the national public interest over that time. The rise of the NBA in the 80-90's really cut into it. Baseball has gotten very, very slow. Almost golf like in the amount of standing around.
