Major League Baseball 2011

[The Cid]

...We have been playing for a total of 30 minutes...

You want to be in and out in a predictable amount of time? There's this sport we Americans call "soccer." You might enjoy it. For those of us with patience, however, there is baseball.

but sadly most of that was the 7th inning stretch.

That's okay. I've seen NFL games enter the fourth quarter with 35% or more of the previous "action" being taken up by replay reviews and the halftime report. By comparison, a three hour baseball game isn't so bad.

[Deacon]

Fixed: For those of us with patience absolutely nothing better to do, however, there is baseball.

[Calus]

Cid, you really don't seem to be getting where I coming from with that one. 51 pop ups, 1 home run. not going to happen. Basically the Home-run cycle is the most realistic of the bunch. I find that sad.

[The Cid]

Cid, you really don't seem to be getting where I coming from with that one. 51 pop ups, 1 home run. not going to happen. Basically the Home-run cycle is the most realistic of the bunch. I find that sad.

When I see "___-pitch game," I thought you were talking about one pitcher.

If we're dreaming about the impossible, what about 53 strikeouts and a walkoff? Maybe we'd need to clone Bob Gibson circa 1967 and Pedro Martinez circa 1999 to do it, but it'd be pretty awesome.

Fixed: For those of us with patience absolutely nothing better to do, however, there is baseball.

Like I said, if you're in a hurry there's always pitch football. Baseball games on average take about as long as NFL games, with about the same amount of action. (Granted, that's about twelve minutes out of three hours.)

---
Ryan Braun won the NL MVP over Matt Kemp. I'm fine with that--if you want to create a "most outstanding player" award for guys like Kemp, fine, but Braun's team made the playoffs and Kemp's team didn't.

And some of my personal awards:
NL MEP (Most Entertaining Player): Shane Victorino. Who doesn't like an exciting center fielder hitting their prime?
AL MEP: Jacoby Ellsbury. See above.
NL Replacement: Ryan Theriot. Nicknamed "The Riot," he weighed in with a WAR of about 0 this year, which makes him "replacement level."
AL Replacement: Carl Crawford. Also had a WAR of 0.0.
NL Comeback Player of the Year: J.J. Putz. He looked finished with the Mets.
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Michael Young. Remember, he was almost traded away.
NL Least Valuable Player: Carlos Zambrano. Think his "retirement" pretty much sealed that one.
AL LVP: John Lackey. Or maybe the manager of the Popeye's across the street from Fenway Park.
Most overplayed story of the year: "Hey, the Pirates are good!" Um, no, they're not, and they're not going to spend the requisite effort to get any better. In fact, that story just delayed the necessary purge of ownership Pittsburgh needs.
Most overlooked story of the year: The Toronto Blue Jays went .500 this year, they have resources to spend on improving their team, and there's a very good crop of free agents to compete for this year. The AL East might soon be a four-team race.

[Deacon]

Baseball the same level of action as football? What?

[The Cid]

Same amount of action. About twelve minutes in three hours.

[Deacon]

I disagree, but it doesn't help that there are approximately eighty three million regular season games during the course of the year, rendering each game nearly meaningless on its own, while football only happens once a week and even has a bye week in the mix. So not only is the game generally packed with great plays and exciting moments, but each game means so much more.

Baseball is cool, but much like basketball I don't really follow it much during the regular season. You have to either be a) REALLY into those sports or b) a professional commentator or analyst to ever come close to keeping up, much less staying engaged.

[The Cid]

I disagree

No, no, no, you're missing something. I am not making statements about the intensity of the on-field action. What I am referring to are the actual studies that have said that there are between 11 and 12 minutes of actual football during the course of a three plus hour NFL broadcast. The numbers for baseball are almost dead even--about 12 minutes of actual playing time in the three hour game.

it doesn't help that there are approximately eighty three million regular season games during the course of the year, rendering each game nearly meaningless on its own, while football only happens once a week and even has a bye week in the mix. So not only is the game generally packed with great plays and exciting moments, but each game means so much more.

"Nearly meaningless" except for the part where baseball has the most exclusive postseason of any American sport. Even with this year's playoff expansion (just happened), ten total teams qualify for the postseason. That's fewer than the NFL (12) and the NHL/NBA (16). That's a major part of it. The long regular season weeds out the teams that don't belong.

[Deacon]

You say that, but six games in people aren't making somewhat solid playoff projections, and after 10 games in people aren't getting seriously worried about their ability to make the playoffs, much less sustain a sudden-death run if they get there, and so on. You can argue that it's an effective system or something, but it doesn't mean each game really means all that much.

[The Cid]

You can argue that it's an effective system or something

It's extremely effective. It's very hard to ever make the argument that a baseball team didn't really deserve their playoff spot with a season that ridiculously long.

but it doesn't mean each game really means all that much.

Take any Atlanta or Boston loss from this regular season. Any one. That game will be, as much as any other, the deciding factor over whether or not that team made the playoffs. That might not be NFL style intensity. (And we all know how Arizona Cardinals and Cleveland Browns fans have such meaningful games every week, since they're both out of the playoff race and the race for the first draft spot. Yet again.) But it's certainly more than a footnote.

Now if you want a meaningless regular season, check out the NHL, where more than half of the league goes to the playoffs.

[Deacon]

Haha that's true. But regarding those games for the Red Sox, retroactive application of meaning in hindsight doesn't count.

[The Cid]

retroactive application of meaning in hindsight doesn't count.

Is it really retroactive, though? And what about the Rays and Cardinals, who still needed to go on tears just to catch up to their sinking wild card opponents?

[Deacon]

Yeah it's retroactive. Nobody knew at the time that the twelfth game of the season might mean something. And yes, toward the end of the regular season there might actually be a sense of urgency, potentially, but only if you catch it on Sports Center or are unemployed.

[The Cid]

Nobody knew at the time that the twelfth game of the season might mean something.

I disagree. That's one of the reasons people attend the twelfth game of the season. I know it's hard to imagine that a the games in such a long regular season are meaningful, but they really can be.

And yes, toward the end of the regular season there might actually be a sense of urgency, potentially, but only if you catch it on Sports Center or are unemployed.

Oh come on, low blow.

The regular season is about as involved as you want it to be, but trust me there's plenty to follow. Remember, baseball is the geeky sport with an emphasis on history and now its very own calculus. Every day brings a new Sabermetrics problem for us all to try and solve, or a new quirk from an entertaining outfielder, or a pitcher stepping into the spotlight like C.J. Wilson did this year, or one seemingly headed for big things like a Neftali Feliz.

Sure, there's also a lot of channel-flipping during the games, to a movie or a TV show or a game or whatever else. I'm not going to lie about that. There's that part of following baseball that can be a grind. But there's a lot happening in the day-to-day. Momentum is at stake (and again, we need only look back two months to see what momentum can do to baseball teams), there are limited spots in the postseason, there's math to be done (may the VORP be with you), and there are players to watch.

---
And now for the bad news: there's more replay coming (and until baseball figures out that NFL-style replay is a joke that means games are about to get a lot longer), an extra playoff spot in each league coming (which would have taken a lot of the appeal out of this past September), and the Astros are moving to the AL so there will be constant interleague play. Actually, I kind of like that part. The old interleague system was pretty stupid. And maybe this will continue to help bring Texas into the fold. I honestly won't stop pressing for that until Texas Instruments releases a Sabermetric calculator. (Which I would buy. For the same reason that people make Tom Baker scarves. That's right. RLC reference in the baseball thread. Woot.)

[Deacon]

It was not a low blow, only a comment on how much time it would take to actively follow the whole league through its regular season, not even including all the day games.