Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower:
Well if it were 50 years ago, then 20 years after that the season would be fodder for bar stool debaters and color commentators.
"Yaknow Larry, Buck Huckerman finished to season with a .389 average batting eighth for the Reds so [blabs on about a shitty hitter having a breakout as Larry the play-by-play guy regrets signing on to a broadcasting booth with an alcoholic version of Rex Hudler]"
The kicker will be if Mike Trout opts out. It's pretty clear at this point he's thinking about it. That'd basically be like Mahomes saying he isn't going to play. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
The kicker will be if Mike Trout opts out. It's pretty clear at this point he's thinking about it. That'd basically be like Mahomes saying he isn't going to play.
He has already stated that he has his doubts about playing since he has kids and a family now since there is more to consider than just him and his health. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
The kicker will be if Mike Trout opts out. It's pretty clear at this point he's thinking about it. That'd basically be like Mahomes saying he isn't going to play.
Except the average person who isnt a total fanatic of a team (or sport) knows who Mahomes but couldn't pick Mike Trout out of a police line up. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
The kicker will be if Mike Trout opts out. It's pretty clear at this point he's thinking about it. That'd basically be like Mahomes saying he isn't going to play.
That would hurt for sure. I hinted at it earlier, but it’s starting to feel like alot of guys are feeling this isn’t a legitimate season, so they are are taking a ‘ho hum’ attitude about it all. [Reply]
Originally Posted by :
The reinvention of Royals manager Mike Matheny, a man determined to evolve
Alec Lewis
Last summer, the professor of a baseball analytics course received an email from an administrator.
“Hey, we’ve got Mike Matheny joining the class,” it read.
Ari Kaplan, a former special assistant to the GM for the Baltimore Orioles, teaches the class via Zoom video conference for Sports Management Worldwide. Once he heard Matheny was in his next 10-week session, he emailed Matheny to ask whether he wanted to stay anonymous.
“No, I’ll introduce myself,” Matheny wrote back.
“So right away,” Kaplan said, “he was fine with it, which was great. And he approached it like he didn’t want to be treated any differently. He was a student there to learn.”
The analytics-class introduction itself says something about Matheny’s managerial evolution. It was back to the basics for the former National League pennant-winning skipper. For more than a year’s time, Matheny remained in the background, listening and learning.
Successes and failures filled Matheny’s life before he became the 17th skipper in the Kansas City Royals’ history. All of them provided opportunities for him to grow, especially those that occurred in St. Louis.
In 2011, the Cardinals won the World Series with Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa at the helm. After the season, La Russa retired, paving the way for the surprising choice of a first-time manager in Matheny.
The four-time Gold Glove Award winner had caught games for 13 years in the majors before he retired, began coaching a youth team in St. Louis and became a roving coach for two years in the Cardinals’ minor-league system. As a manager, Matheny’s Cardinals maintained the momentum it had built under La Russa. Matheny became the first manager in MLB history to make the playoffs in his first four seasons, seasons that provided a foundation of knowledge about how to communicate within a clubhouse from a different seat.
As early as 2014, though, questions arose about Matheny’s tactical approach. Infamously, with the Cardinals facing elimination in the 2014 NL Championship Series, Matheny brought in right-hander Michael Wacha, whose last appearance in a major league game came 20 days earlier and hadn’t pitched in relief all season, to a tie game rather than go to more proven relievers Trevor Rosenthal or Carlos Martinez. Wacha allowed a single, walked a batter then gave up a walk-off home run to Travis Ishikawa.
