The Changeup for January 8, 2020
As if there wasn’t any more proof why one shouldn’t scroll through Reddit at two in the morning.
That cuts deep.
Ryu
I was happy when the Jays signed Ryu Hyun-jin to a four-year deal in December.
It will probably be disappointing, but no more disappointing than any other deal involving a human being. We are fallible creatures. We disappoint.
Beyond just thinking that Ryu is talented and has the potential to be a key part of this team going forward and also just being happy that the Blue Jays did something, I love it when a Toronto sports team remembers that Toronto is a truly global city. In 2011, there were 64,755 Koreans living in Toronto, a small city’s worth of people.
The potential here, just from a marketing perspective, should excite the Rogers people to no end.
I already suggested what Sportsnet should be doing:
Over here, giving ideas away for free.
By the by, Daniel Kim is a great follow for your Korea and baseball crossover needs.
My favourite bits from the media day were Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins looking vaguely disquieted when Ryu’s agent, Scott Boras, pointed out that the Blue Jays are owned by one of the richest owners in baseball. The calls were coming from inside the house.
This follows Boras calling out the Blue Jays at the GM meetings in November 2018:
"Toronto is a wonderful city, it’s been a great franchise, they’ve drawn three million fans," said Boras. "They’ve lost near a third of their fan-base due to the ‘Blue Flu’ of not bringing attractive players that their fans find interesting to their market."
The other was Boras grooving (if it can be called that) to Charlie Montoyo just wailing on the bongos.
Turns out being rich AF doesn’t buy you rhythm.
Cheaty-Cheats
If there is one thing that is contributing to the ennui I feel in writing about baseball, it might be this. It is sort of odd that a cheating scheme that involves multiple teams and multiple methods doesn’t excite me, because normally I would eat the intrigue up, but here we are.
The Athletic reported this week, using three anonymous sources, that the Red Sox used the video replay equipment to steal signs.
According to the report, players would wander into the replay room during games to decipher sign sequences. That information would be relayed to a runner on second base. The runner would signal to the hitter whether the incoming pitch was a fastball — right foot off the bag first — or an off-speed offering — left foot first. This system only worked with a runner on second or sometimes first.
The 2018 Red Sox were a juggernaut that won 108 games and the World Series. They were scary good.
Sign stealing, of course has a long history. I have no real issue with the practice if it involves just human observation of behaviour. I do draw the line at using technology to do it.
It is hilarious, however, that this involves tech that MLB inserted into the game. They put video rooms just off the dugout and didn’t anticipate that teams would use the ready-available information to gain an edge? Put the video stuff in another part of the stadium. Or in a truck in the parking lot. MLB did put an in-person attendant for the post-season in 2018 and that practice continued into the 2019 season.
It will be interesting to see what this does to Alex Cora, who is now involved with both the Astros’ cheating scandal (where he was the bench coach in 2017) and now the Red Sox. I don’t know if his managerial dynamo reputation, earned by winning the World Series in his first year as a manager, will be tarnished.
Per Tara Sullivan of The Boston Globe:
For someone who prided himself on building his playing career from the streets of Puerto Rico through hard work and smarts, and turned that into a growing reputation as a manager, it would be a tough badge of disgrace to wear.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. As the Sullivan piece points out, the Red Sox have a new GM and ticking clocks are often put on managers who were hired by the old regime. The Red Sox stood pat this offseason (which was atypical in the face of a surging New York Yankees) and their big power move has been to hold on to Mookie Betts. For now.
It will be interesting to see where the Red Sox, the golden team of the first two decades of the 21st century, go from here.
As for how this all changes video replay in baseball remains to be seen.
The Grand Old Game of Stealing Signs
And then, warming to his task, La Russa confesses that when a team such as the Blue Jays gets a runner on second base, “they work hard to steal signs and that really irritates me.”
I will forever love Cito Gaston for many things, things which now include irritating Tony La Russa.
Ricky Romero
Alexis Brudnicki has been doing great work in her first year at mlb.com. Her latest is a catch-up with Ricky Romero, who talks about his time in Toronto and how it will always hold a place in his heart.
“But the best part I remember is warming up, not even the actual game,” Romero said. “It was completely sold out, when we walked out to warmup, people were already there, it was crazy. Friday night game, Toronto, it’s a big deal. J.P. and I looked at each other and were like, ‘Whoa, this is really cool.’”
Talkin’ Ball in the Bahamas
“How smooth do you want to be in the field?”
“As smooth as you!”
Nick Ashbourne wrote about this event last year. Some expressed concern about the baseballs going into the ocean, which is a fair one. My basic and likely not at all helpful Google search indicates that a baseball (made up of a combination of leather, cork and rubber) is, at least in theory, biodegradable.
I could totally foresee this site just becoming a Bo Bichette appreciation site. He’s a sunbeam and so many other things are just dreck.
It helps, of course, that Bichette has a chance to be a major star.
Pitcher Turned Lawyer Takes MLB to Court
Another issue that is currently facing baseball is what is going to be done about minor league baseball. Arguments about paying them fairly have transformed into MLB suggesting that
On being told in 2009 by the Giants that he was no longer a prospect:
“It was definitely in some ways heartbreaking,” Broshuis said by phone last month from his St. Louis office. “It’s a failure, but at the same time it’s a beautiful failure because you put everything you had into it, and there are beautiful things to do if you come up short.”
Today's Walk Up
Orville Peck sings songs like a honky-tonk on Twin Peaks. This song sounds like a cover to me, but apparently isn’t.
It’s haunting. And not just because he always wears a mask.
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