I am really, really glad for the MLB Network

soxhop411

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staz said:
Harold Reynolds just advocated that reaching on error be included in OBP.
#*=^?!%#+=
this man won an emmy for his broadcast analysis….. A FUCKING EMMY
 

soxhop411

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Al Zarilla said:
Make it stop. An Emmy?!?!
Yes. he won an emmy last year and was nominated SIX other times for his excellence as a baseball analysis

yes SIX other times
 

staz

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The cradle of the game.
He went on to say that this would act as motivation for batters to hustle down the line more and therefore, wait for it, speed up the game.

Emmy? He's Nobel territory now, people.
 

joe dokes

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Orel Miraculous said:
Well, it's been proven that reaching on an error is in fact a skill. So does anyone here want to actually put up a cogent argument as to why he's wrong or is this thread just for gifs and smugness? 
 
 
On the one hand, I'm trying to picture Harold Reynolds reading this piece.  On the other,  the piece does not claim to be proof of anything:

 
Conclusion
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that this article raises many questions and comes up with relatively few answers. It does provides some data to back up what most of us already knew: grounders produce more errors than fly outs, righties reach on errors more often than lefties, the speed of a batter affects error rates, and so on. But I feel that the questions it raises are far more interesting than these "answers", and I hope that this article stimulates interest in this somewhat obscure topic and encourages people to investigate some of these open questions. What caused error rates to suddenly drop or rise in certain parks? What caused the fluctuations in some parks' ground out, fly out or strikeout factors? Why were Bob Horner's out so much harder to field cleanly than Mo Vaughn's? Hopefully, this article is a first small step toward answering some of these kinds of questions.
 
 

Laser Show

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I started yelling at my TV when they made the Pats comment. Yea they changed the rules for the good of the game ok.
 

soxhop411

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Laser Show said:
I started yelling at my TV when they made the Pats comment. Yea they changed the rules for the good of the game ok.
I yelled “REALLY?!??!?!"
 

canderson

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Jul 16, 2005
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Pedro is breaking down Strasburg's mechanics.

He is pointing out how the pant stripes don't line up like they should when he extends. He really is a pitching God, I love him.
 

MonstahsInLeft

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Speaking of Pedro on MLB Network, stumbled on this in The Atlantic of all places and haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere:
 
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/04/pedro-martinez-is-just-getting-warmed-up.html
 
Lots of good stuff on his new life but one that stuck out to me at least:
 
 
The weirdest and most endearing stories, though, feature Manny Ramirez. “Remember the road trip when Manny told everyone to come to a party in my room, and he ordered all this food and Champagne?” Martinez says to Millar. Hours went by, everyone was having fun, but Ramirez never showed. Turned out he’d gone to another hotel room and fallen asleep.
 
Manny being Manny...
 
In addition to being a Pitching God though Pedro is just a true character...hope that we'll continue to see more of him, both connected to the Sox or in his new broadcast gigs.
 
 

riboflav

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Last evening, Joe Magrane was prompted to speak his mind because Brian Kenny had asked Nolan Arenado that you would think more players would embrace advanced metrics when those metrics actually demonstrate how effective, or even dominant, a player is.
 
Mr. Magrane informed me that baseball players are not thinking about advanced metrics while playing the game in the field or at the plate (you know, as the ball is coming at the second baseman he's not contemplating how the result of the play will impact the pitcher's FIP). Ergo, advanced metrics are pointless.
 
Look, I don't mind having "old-school" guys on MLB Network. Someone has to break down a player's mechanics, a player's mentality, how a players preps himself to play, what goes on in the clubhouse, what he might be thinking about in any given moment, etc. But, it really makes me cringe when they constantly bring up the same old tired arguments against advanced metrics. To the point where I often change the channel.
 

JohntheBaptist

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The most exhausting thing to me is the continued meta-debate about there being a new set of numbers in baseball. If youre producing a baseball show, use them or dont. But the constant self important grandstanding from either side as a baseball discussion is mind-numbing at this point.

Who the fuck cares if a baseball player looks at "advanced metrics"? And why would I care that you, Joe Magrane, think theyre worthless when they literally drive the decision making being made across the sport?

Moneyball came out almost 15 years ago. The cultural shift happened and is over.
 
JohntheBaptist said:
The most exhausting thing to me is the continued meta-debate about there being a new set of numbers in baseball. If youre producing a baseball show, use them or dont. But the constant self important grandstanding from either side as a baseball discussion is mind-numbing at this point.

Who the fuck cares if a baseball player looks at "advanced metrics"? And why would I care that you, Joe Magrane, think theyre worthless when they literally drive the decision making being made across the sport?

Moneyball came out almost 15 years ago. The cultural shift happened and is over.
And you lost the war. Billy Beane still hasn't won a World Series since he wrote that book. Now go back to your mother's basement.
 

Rough Carrigan

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jimbobim said:
The emmy winning Harold just completely lifted this guy's story while talking about Lester. It's a great read, but kind of stunning to see the blatant lifting.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/sports/baseball/billy-martins-education-of-buck-showalter.html?_r=0
Harold Reynolds is incredibly frustrating.  At times he's actually very good.  Seriously.  I know it's unfashionable to say that but he is, at times.  There will be a discussion of some minor point of taking a lead or pickoffs or something like that and Harold will bring information and enthusiasm to it and he adds value.  Then, if someone brings up any stat newer than hits and rbi he'll sneer some openly anti-intellectual line where you half expect him to be keeping the studio warm in winter by burning old copies of Bill James' Baseball Abstracts.
 
The bad Harold is pretty well recognized here and at Baseball Think Factory and elsewhere but there's a good Harold and that just makes it all more frustrating.
 

Van Everyman

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Completely agree. I think in another era he would be a pretty popular commentator. And I think that's why MLB and Fox have him aboard – he brings a lot of energy and love for the game to his work. It would be great if one of the people the networks partner him up with would offset his anti-sabremetrics tirades. That would be s decent conversation I think.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Van Everyman said:
Completely agree. I think in another era he would be a pretty popular commentator. And I think that's why MLB and Fox have him aboard – he brings a lot of energy and love for the game to his work. It would be great if one of the people the networks partner him up with would offset his anti-sabremetrics tirades. That would be s decent conversation I think.
 
MLB Network likes to pair him with Brian Kenny on occasion...it's an annual tradition in their "Top Ten at X position" series every winter that Harold does the 2B episode (in which he slobbers all over Brandon Phillips).  It's entertaining to watch BK throw out stat after stat supporting a point only to have Harold dismiss it.
 

YTF

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Over all I really enjoy The MLB Network. On the nights when they don't have a game scheduled I love switching over between innings of Sox games to catch the "live look ins", but I've got to tell you that twice in the past week I had to change the channel. Of all of the on air "talent" that rotates through the various programming it's only natural there will be a few that we're not going to like, but is Eric Byrnes not the worst of the worst? Early in the week he was teamed up with Fran Charles and Joe Magrane and it was just terrible. He's loud, over the top with everything, consistently talks over the other guys that he's partnered up with and IMO he's not really that informative in any way. This guy makes Sean Casey and Rob Dibble look like Vin Scully and Ernie Harwell.
 

drbretto

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templeUsox said:
Pedro Martinez has joined MLB Network as an analyst.
 
God DAMMIT. My cable company does not carry MLB network and it's killing me. This doesn't help.
 
They don't have a streaming service somewhere do they? I work for my cable company, so it's free. I'm not switching, but I am getting tempted. I am definitely trying to change things from the inside but that's not likely.
 

DanoooME

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Amazing juxtaposition tonight on MLB Tonight between the brilliance of Pedro and the stupidity of Harold Reynolds.
 

soxhop411

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DanoooME said:
Amazing juxtaposition tonight on MLB Tonight between the brilliance of Pedro and the stupidity of Harold Reynolds.
Im still shocked he has a job at MLBN and is the PBP man for FOX national games….. Blows my mind
 

Al Zarilla

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Unbelievable, that was completely Pedro's premise or theory, he even names the guy that taught it to him, Felipe Alou, and idiot Reynolds tries to take over the piece. Could someone kidnap Reynolds and ship him to Kaffeklubben Island?
 

soxhop411

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The Emmy for Studio Analyst goes to
Harold Reynolds ! Congratulations! #SportsEmmys


How is this possible?
 

BornToRun

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Harold Reynolds is currently voicing his concerns about hitters getting pissed off at poor strike calls by umpires. Not the calls themselves, the players' reactions to them.
 

JimBoSox9

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Now Greinke's just hanging out in the LAD draft room, breaking down prospect vids on his tablet and shooting the shit.  ALSO doing a bad ponytail thing.  If that's the new style, I'm getting off the train.
 

Al Zarilla

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Ken Rosenthal really did an unusual number on a fellow MLB Network employee today on Quick Pitch, I think it was. Laurie Shehadi, kind of a backup to Heidi, was talking and using her hands describing a MLBN app at a whiteboard I think it was, so there was a closeup of her hands. When it got back to Rosenthal and Mark DeRosa, all Rosenthal could say was "Gee, I didn't realize how big and masculine Laurie's hands were", and they did a flashback, showing a closeup of her hands. Then he said "Holy Seinfeld episode". I mean, what the hell, whoever saw that, whether MLBN employee, other network people that might be interested in employing her some day, just plain viewers, isn't going to think of her hands every time they see her? Maybe Rosenthal thinks he is exempt from bad descriptions of people because of all the short jokes?
 

Al Zarilla

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JimBoSox9 said:
It was Vasgergian, not Rosenthal, but ya it was super-awkward and not well thought.
Vasgersian! Thanks for the correction. Then there was no possible "excuse", like having been tortured with short jokes all his life. Glad someone else saw it.
 

InsideTheParker

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Yeah, this is really an unpleasant form of sexism, b/c it assumes that a woman ought to have "dainty" hands, just because. Vasgergian should be tormented by sports fans the way Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt was by scientists after complaining that women scientists are a problem in the workplace b/c he falls in love with them and also, women cry. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/world/europe/tim-hunt-nobel-laureate-resigns-sexist-women-female-scientists.html?mabReward=CTM&module=WelcomeBackModal&contentCollection=Fashion%20%26%20Style&region=FixedCenter&action=click&src=recg&pgtype=article ) But that won't happen, b/c sports fans are used to athletes beating up on women, so insulting them is small beer.
 

drbretto

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InsideTheParker said:
Yeah, this is really an unpleasant form of sexism
 
Is there a pleasant form of sexism?
 
I don't want to diminish the act by any means, but can't it just be that he made an asshole joke that crossed the line versus an actual sexism situation though? He was making more a Seinfeld joke than any kind of commentary on women's hands and how they should look.
 

pantsparty

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From watching the offseason show that he does with Harold Reynolds, things that range from mild jerk to asshole is most of his sense of humor.