NFT: David Ortiz on new MLB pace of play rules

Did his investigation into what mysterious PED insidiously, secretly found its way into his bloodstream ever bear any fruit?

all he does is complain

with another shovelful of whiney bullshit.

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If there is a God, Papi's name will show up in some drug dealer's notebook someday soon.

he doesn't think it's fair?

What a narcissistic ass.

Isn't the pitcher being timed too? The rule goes both ways. Idiot.

they should limit the time a pitcher can walk around the mound or shake off signs. But that's not actually his point.

Hopefully his supplier ran out of juice this offseason.

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After all, basketball players get an infinite amount of time between defense and offense to plan out their attack. Hockey players can take possession of the puck and just stand there and decide where they are going with the puck. Football allows quarterbacks and coaches to quietly reflect on the last play and ponder their next play for minutes on end.

Dear Ortiz,
Stop being a whiny bitch and stay in the batter's box.

since A-Rod's attorney's not so subtle reminder about Ortiz's PED past.
Link - ( New Window )

when his OPS takes a nose dive that he's not completely shit on and run out of town in Boston? It was almost going to go that way back in 2009 when his OPS dropped and the vultures were circling. He's better at covering his tracks than dumb ass ARod was apparently.

In comment 12152755 GP said:

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Isn't the pitcher being timed too?

No.

There is no pitch clock for the pitchers, at least not this season.

In theory, a pitcher could shake off a sign for 30 seconds and not be penalized in any way.

I do agree with Ortiz in the sense that these "rules" are trying to get the hitters to stay in the box to hit when you have some pitchers out there who take all day before throwing their next pitch.

Some guys (both hitters and pitchers) are ready to go and speed it up. But some guys are either deliberately slow (Josh Beckett comes to mind) by design in order to get hitters overanxious. Others are just slow for no reason other than they simply don't want to throw the ball.

the insinuation being that he and a number of other players do the bulk of their heavy lifting (figuratively and literally) in the offseason, where they're not particularly susceptible to MLB training regiments. They may or may not do something for maintenance during the season, but that's believed to be a good bit of why some players who seem to be obvious juicers have evaded detection.

In comment 12152734 Greg from LI said:

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Did his investigation into what mysterious PED insidiously, secretly found its way into his bloodstream ever bear any fruit?

These things take time. OJ hasn't found the real killer yet, and he's had a lot longer to look. It's unfair to rush Papi.

...

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In comment 12152779 Matt in SGS said:

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when his OPS takes a nose dive that he's not completely shit on and run out of town in Boston? It was almost going to go that way back in 2009 when his OPS dropped and the vultures were circling. He's better at covering his tracks than dumb ass ARod was apparently.

Oh, come on - fat, injury-prone, late-30s sluggers routinely start posting career seasons after a few years of decline. Totally natural!

In comment 12152803 Bill L said:

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I'm sure he'll take Moncada on a vacation to the DR next winter!

Greg from LI said:

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- fat, injury-prone, late-30s sluggers routinely start posting career seasons after a few years of decline. Totally natural!

Like Tex says he's going to do this year?
Teixeira thinks he can be a 30-homer and 100-RBI player again. - ( New Window )

In comment 12152819 mamu said:

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Greg from LI said: Quote: - fat, injury-prone, late-30s sluggers routinely start posting career seasons after a few years of decline. Totally natural! Like Tex says he's going to do this year? Teixeira thinks he can be a 30-homer and 100-RBI player again. - ( New Window )

I think I'm going to sleep with Kate Upton this year. Unfortunately, thinking and doing aren't quite the same...

...

Should have been dealt with a long time ago. Thing is the longer a game goes the more ad revenue you generate....get it?

In comment 12152832 Torrag said:

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Should have been dealt with a long time ago. Thing is the longer a game goes the more ad revenue you generate....get it?

Not sure about that. If the extra time is due to pitching changes and the associated commercial breaks, sure. But I don't adding 5+ seconds per AB while the batter adjusts his junk is increasing ad revenue.

In comment 12152832 Torrag said:

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Should have been dealt with a long time ago. Thing is the longer a game goes the more ad revenue you generate....get it?

If the additional time is spent running ads, as it is during national television broadcasts, sure. But watching Clay Buchholz finger-fuck the rosin bag for thirty seconds before starting his windup is not selling ad revenue or encouraging people to tune in long enough to watch said advertisements. Some aspects of the pace of play question, like the abundance of pitching changes, do implicate ad sales. But Papi and his batting glove adjustments do not.

Baseball is slow, who doesn't know that. People should go watch something else if they don't like the game.

FYI I totally think he's a whiny bitch, too. Hate the Ortiz. But I agree with his point that pitchers should be limited in what they do if they're going to put these rules in place for the batters.

Stepping out of the box is going to be a hard habit to break for a lot of these guys. I'll be interested to see how many $500 fines are handed out in the first month. Or, how strict they'll be in enforcing the fines.

In comment 12152842 Bill L said:

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Baseball is slow, who doesn't know that. People should go watch something else if they don't like the game.

I go to a few minor league games a year and I really enjoy the pace. It still has the relaxed feel that is part of baseball without the unnecessary delays that aren't. The game has gotten significantly longer since the 1970's and only a fraction of that is attributable to actual changes in strategy (eg relief specialists).

In comment 12152842 Bill L said:

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Baseball is slow, who doesn't know that. People should go watch something else if they don't like the game.

I think you're missing the point. People are doing that and baseball is suffering. Not to mention, the game has gotten slower so even die hards are frustrated.

The rest applies

its the time between innings that is the culprit and not the stuff on the field. And, especially pitching changes.

In comment 12152857 Bill L said:

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its the time between innings that is the culprit and not the stuff on the field. And, especially pitching changes.

I love baseball. I love 2-1 games and I love 10-9 games. But there's a difference between watching guys like Mussina and Key and Cone and Pedro pitch and watching guys like Beckett and Buchholz pitch. A 4-3 game that goes 9 innings and has three combined pitching changes should not take three and a half hours.

because there already is a rule about time between pitches that has not been enforced. But, I may be wrong on that one.

In comment 12152868 Matt M. said:

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because there already is a rule about time between pitches that has not been enforced. But, I may be wrong on that one.

There is, though only when the bases are empty. It's 12 seconds once the pitcher has the ball and the batter is in the box.

I didn't realize it was only with the bases empty. That is a rule I always thought should be enforced.

As for the batters, really this is not a huge deal. That is essentially the rule you play with on all the lower levels and probably into the minors. A batter has to ask for time to step out and if it is a repetitive thing, umpires don't have to grant it. That makes some of these quirky ballplayers who step out after each pitch interesting. Where does that habit come from if it is not something they could do for most of their baseball lives?

come out of the woodwork whenever there's any thread about him for any reason. But the problem is no one can ever seem to agree on when he was supposedly doing steroids. Was it true in 2003? And then he supposedly continued and stopped for a few years leading to his decline, but then started again with a new formula leading to his resurgence? And all of this with no real change in his actual appearance or any positive tests ever?

Or is it possible he had a wrist injury the one season, and then the following season he had a very slow start due to not being able to work out in the off-season, and since then has been pretty much the same as before the injury except with somewhat diminishing power as is typical for an older player? But gosh, he's on the Red Sox, so that couldn't be true.....in my mind he's a bit of a prima donna but one of the great hitters in the last 2 decades who now hits 25-35 home runs a year vs. 35-45 that he used to hit. He ain't gonna get caught cause he ain't usin' and will have a well-deserved statue outside Fenway Park right near Ted Williams. Deal with it.

who just happens to have arguably the single best late-career bounceback of any player in MLB history. Not a coincidence at all. You ready for the Easter Bunny to pay you a visit in a few weeks?

In comment 12152911 Dunedin81 said:

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who just happens to have arguably the single best late-career bounceback of any player in MLB history. Not a coincidence at all. You ready for the Easter Bunny to pay you a visit in a few weeks?

Until they start testing in the Dominican Republic in the offseason, guys like Ortiz won't get caught.

Ortiz' name was released from the "anonymous" tests, just like A-Rod's. This is something that is routinely glossed over or completely ignored by the media. Other than that, A-Rod has exactly as many failed drug tests...0.

This is the first year to have a reasonable expectation that guys like them will be clean as it is the first year, from the start of the year, they will be taking blood samples as well, to test for HGH. I'm sure the bigger name players (i.e. the infinitely wealthier ones) will have access to new, undetectable cocktails soon enough, though, if they don't already exist.

Pig.

In comment 12152909 Bob from Massachusetts said:

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He ain't gonna get caught cause he ain't usin' and will have a well-deserved statue outside Fenway Park right near Ted Williams. Deal with it.

He may not get caught, just as many users haven't gotten caught, but it's fairly laughable to claim he isn't using.

the authority to force batters to stay in the box. And the umpire does not have to grant time

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In comment 12152941 Victor in CT said:

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the authority to force batters to stay in the box. And the umpire does not have to grant time

It seems a little strange to me too. They can simply instruct umpires to be judicious in granting time, and make it clear that without being given time, the pitcher can throw a pitch regardless of whether or not the batter has stepped out.

Is being tested in the minors this season. I go to many IL games and am interested in how this will work. This would help the "pitcher bull sh*t" Ortiz talks about.

In comment 12152861 Dunedin81 said:

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In comment 12152857 Bill L said: Quote: its the time between innings that is the culprit and not the stuff on the field. And, especially pitching changes. I love baseball. I love 2-1 games and I love 10-9 games. But there's a difference between watching guys like Mussina and Key and Cone and Pedro pitch and watching guys like Beckett and Buchholz pitch. A 4-3 game that goes 9 innings and has three combined pitching changes should not take three and a half hours.

I don't think it's about the score of the games. It's just how the games are being played now.

It was either MLB Network or Verducci who did the research and found this:

- Runs scored in MLB is down about 15% over the last 10 years.

- Getting on base is at it's lowest level in 40 years.

-Time of the games have gone up by 30 minutes when you exclude the between half-inning breaks.

Huh? This doesn't add up.

Less hitting and scoring AND taking longer to play? That cannot work.

He makes Marshawn Lynch look like Edgar Allen Poe

In comment 12152803 Bill L said:

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Well played!

Yet keep bashing Alex. I might celebrate the day if he ever gets caught

but he's regarded as a hero in Boston because of his on field play.

Is that really a secret?

If Arod managed to avoid prosecution and led his team to three titles - almost literally carrying them to one of them he'd be hailed as a hero too regardless of PEDs (IMO).

the one title Arod was a Yankee for, and IMO was a significant contributor to, garnered him a lot of goodwill while it lasted - from an outsiders view at least.

In comment 12152909 Bob from Massachusetts said:

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come out of the woodwork whenever there's any thread about him for any reason. But the problem is no one can ever seem to agree on when he was supposedly doing steroids. Was it true in 2003? And then he supposedly continued and stopped for a few years leading to his decline, but then started again with a new formula leading to his resurgence? And all of this with no real change in his actual appearance or any positive tests ever? Or is it possible he had a wrist injury the one season, and then the following season he had a very slow start due to not being able to work out in the off-season, and since then has been pretty much the same as before the injury except with somewhat diminishing power as is typical for an older player? But gosh, he's on the Red Sox, so that couldn't be true.....in my mind he's a bit of a prima donna but one of the great hitters in the last 2 decades who now hits 25-35 home runs a year vs. 35-45 that he used to hit. He ain't gonna get caught cause he ain't usin' and will have a well-deserved statue outside Fenway Park right near Ted Williams. Deal with it.

This is some of the most priceless shit that I've read around here in a while. I give you my thanks.

In comment 12152779 Matt in SGS said:

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when his OPS takes a nose dive that he's not completely shit on and run out of town in Boston? It was almost going to go that way back in 2009 when his OPS dropped and the vultures were circling. He's better at covering his tracks than dumb ass ARod was apparently.

Big Ploppi winters in the Dominican Republic where substances are no doubt carefully controlled by an ever watchful government.

Everything you critics said and more. What fun it is to listen to Sawx fans in New England wax eloquent on their love for the big lug.