We avoid as much as we can, but as a working family, we'll break out the occasional frozen pizza. I don't tell the fam, but I usually sneak on some extra flavor, such as Italian seasoning (obvi), garlic/onion powder, a hint of smoked paprika, etc. Just to give it that extra juice. Bam!
A four-run sixth gave Estrellas an 8-4 victory over Licey. Rodolfo Duran was 2-for-3. Eguy Rosario was 2-for-4 with a double. Vidal Brujan was 2-for-5. Julian Fernandez (2-1) got the win despite giving up one run on two hits in one inning. He struck out one.
A three-run seventh lifted Zulia over Caribes 6-4. Willians Astudillo was 0-for-3. Luis Sardinas was 2-for-3. Niuman Romero was 2-for-5 with a double. Luis Amaya (0-2) took the loss, giving up two runs on two hits and a walk in a third of an inning.
Awe nuts. Cant believe boyo made it this far.
Honest to god, I thought he was already gone. I still listen to the Pogues as much as any band from that era.
I have so many questions about the pizza in the picture, though. Like . . . where is the other half? And who would risk spilling espresso on their pizza?!
Back in the day when I was working weird hours for little pay and Totinos Party Pizzas were like $.79, I added so many extra ingredients that I made a chart for the adjusted cook times 😆
I think the discussions regarding pineapple on pizza (YES!) or not is more contentious than whether it's a sandwich or not.
When the Guardians lose their Bally Sports money, how low will their payroll be? $25 mil? $20?
It seemed like their TV deal was comparable to the Twins so probably a similar drop. Roster Resource says payroll was $98 million last year and is $94 million this year.
I'm curious about the impact of the 3-hitter minimum. In theory, any restriction you put on bullpen deployment should make the bullpen less effective, unless teams somehow landed on a highly sub-optimal deployment strategy before the rule change (and the rule change forced them into something better.)
Recent AL-wide starter vs. reliever OPS splits don't really show a meaningful change.
.735/.715 -- 2023, +.20
.717/.676 -- 2022, +.41
.745/.711 -- 2021, +.34
.744/.728 -- 2020, +.16
.776/.752 -- 2019, +.24
.744/.726 -- 2018, +.18
.766/.720 -- 2017, +.46
.759/.713 -- 2016, +.46
But starter deployment is also changing over time, so that makes this a hard comparison, too. We could compare stats from the first three innings against stats from high leverage situations.
Innings 1-3 vs. High Leverage
.730/.742 -- 2023, -.12
.714/.701 -- 2022, +.13
.743/.732 -- 2021, +.11
.745/.740 -- 2020, +.05
.779/.763 -- 2019, +.16
.729/.739 -- 2018, -.10
.760/.755 -- 2017, +.05
There's essentially no discernible pattern here, either. +0.040/season 2021-2023 and +0.037/season 2017-2019.
Overall, I'd say either there has been very little difference and managers were just wasting everyone's time with endless changes from the bullpen, or there is a meaningful change that is difficult to measure -- one could imagine trying to come up with a comparison of relief performance versus hitters #2 and #3 in an outing post-2020 versus the first two hitters after a pitcher faces one hitter in an outing pre-2020, but I think that might be even harder than the aggregate comparison I tried above due to small/biased samples.
What percentage of relief appearances were already three batters before the rule? My understanding is the majority already were and the OOGY was on the decline before the rule.
Awooooo (love the addition of Chomper)
for sure.