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Return of the Starting Pitcher?

In Major League Baseball by Rice Cube57 Comments

As pitchers continue to pile up on the injured list shelf, and seemingly a new Tommy John announcement every few days, this random thing just came out: The league has discussed a limit to the size of pitching staffs and the double-hook DH, according to sources familiar with the discussion. There is some belief around the game, however, that one idea …

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The Off Day After Opening Day React Post

In Commentary And Analysis by Rice Cube112 Comments

Because the Cubs play at Wrigley Field, which historically does not have a roof despite being in the Midwest where it can get a) cold and b) wet, this necessitates a scheduled off day right after the official Opening Day, in case they have to make up the home opener later. I guess if Friday had gotten weathered out, they …

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The Ever-Changing Rulebook

In Commentary And Analysis by Rice Cube45 Comments

I think the new rules are probably the biggest topic of the spring other than the inevitable injuries to players that shake up the plans for the entire season, and most of this has to do with the pitch clock. Of course there is also the World Baseball Classic, but as one game famously took like three hours to play …

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MLB Rules Tidbits Just Before Spring Training

In Major League Baseball by Rice Cube5 Comments

The World Baseball Classic pitchers are supposed to have reported by today, but many of them are already in camp, so it’s just a formality, I guess. I shared something in the last post’s comments regarding the new rule restricting when a position player can pitch, but now it seems official, along with another not-so-controversial-anymore rule: In all regular-season extra-inning …

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The New Rules and Player Health?

In aside by Rice Cube37 Comments

Happy February, we’re just a couple weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting, then shortly after, we will see the MLB players ease into the new rules that include the pitch clock and shift restrictions. AC also spurred some thought with a share of pitchers with weird arm angles in the previous post, which is a fun excuse to use …

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Bending the Rules

In Major League Baseball, Other Topics by Rice Cube77 Comments

Towards the end of the previous post, in between waiting for the Cubs (and really all of MLB) to show signs of life on the transactional front, AC and I started pondering how batters might mess with pitchers with the new pitch clock rule coming in 2023. As a reminder, in addition to the defensive shift restrictions and the larger …

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Random Crap For the Off Day

In Other Topics by Rice Cube23 Comments

We have to wait for the World Series to end before anything will happen that necessitates any level of “analysis,” so I figured it was fine to just pull a Seinfeld and write a post about mostly nothing. I thought about some of the silly baseball terms that people still argue about online (at least until Twitter dies, but I’m …