Sweet fucking Christ, blue.
Kinda reminds me of Luke Gregerson, who couldn’t pitch the 8th inning to save his ass but was nails in the 9th in 2016 or so
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Astros win 11-5, split the double header
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Orioles scored 9 runs on 15 walks today.
Astros need to stop walking players who can jog around the bases.
Well the Astros showed me that if they score 11 runs they might be able to win a game.
Astros pitching still on pace for 918 walks this season. For reference, as bad as they were last year they issued 515. They’re on pace to match last year’s total by July 3rd, a week before the All-Star break.
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I just looked it up.
The MLB record is 827 by the 1915 Philadelphia A’s (154 game season) They had a 43-109 record.
Those are some pretty terrible teams.
With 2026 so overrepresented on that list the obvious thought is that ABS is to blame, but if those other teams are pitching anything like the Astros, they’re not close enough to the zone for it to be ABS squeezing them. What is the freaking deal? Are they rubbing grease instead of mud on the balls this year?
Yeah I’d be embarrassed to be a fan of one of those teams
The Athletic had an article on how ABS has changed the strike zone (smaller and not stance dependent), and maybe some hitters’ swing decisions as well. From what I see on the Gameday strike zone, the Astros pitchers are missing all over the place. However, I wonder if whatever it is that the Astros pitchers have emphasized in the past - high and low strikes? movement? - might be putting them at particular disadvantage.
The strikezone shrunk. Its going to take time for pitchers to adjust. I feel like muscle memory may have something to do with it but what do I know.
What is disappointing to me is that it isn’t working. I see just as many bad calls and players don’t challenge because of limits or the situation dictates its not worth the risk. Or maybe managers won’t let some players.
They need to get ALL the calls right and other than unlimited challenges which would be a nightmare or automated ball/strike calling I don’t know how to do that.
- Absolutely yes, there have been some horrendous hpu performances.
- Another factor of failure to challenge (or failed ones) is the players are not nearly as good at discerning balls and strikes as they think they are.
Interestingly, the strike zone shrunk because ABS uses a 2-dimension plane at the middle of the plate, rather than the 3-dimensional pentagonal prism defined in the rule book. They tried using the rule book strike zone with ABS and both players and fans complained that it was resulting in too many strikes being called.
It’s funny, because humans will complain no matter what you do, that’s what humans do
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I’m sick of people saying that.
Where’s the moderator?
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I’m on strike against protesting.
An infinite number would indeed be unwieldy, but the process goes pretty quickly, so I don’t see why teams couldn’t get 5 or so instead of 2. There also ought to be a relegation/promotion system for umpires. Finish in the bottom three of overturned calls? Congratulations, you’re working AAA next year.