MARCO’S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2022: BIG PAPI COMES TO CALL
It started as a bright idea from some stat-geek hireling at MLB Network who had come up with his own rating system to measure the popularity of the various jocks and other sports celebrities featured on MLB Tonight and other ghost town shows rendered irrelevant during the excruciating MLB lockout and bargaining session on a new CBA agreement.
Like Hollywood computes the “Q-factor” of film and TV personalities, this Geek had computed the Q of everybody in the game and discovered that David “Big Papi” Ortiz was by far the most popular figure associated with the sport. Pedro Martinez was a distant second and Yogi Berra was a surprising third even though he’d been dead since 2015. (Yogi evidently gets a lot of you tube play from fans trying to see him actually say things like “It gets late early out there” and “the future ain’t what it used to be”.)
So they decided to make a commercial with these three guys featured. The idea was to make fun of the disastrous contract bargaining between the owners and the players that had just crumbled into dust after 90 days of torture. This brilliant concept was supposed to soften the blow with a little humor. It would start with a shot of Commissioner Rob “Mighty” Manfred standing back to back with “Two-Ton” Tony Clark of the Union, each with a phone in his hand. They simultaneously shake their heads and put their cell phones on the table between them, turn around...put their thumbs on their noses and wiggle their fingers at each other in mockery. They exit the frame as Yogi’s beautiful face appears and he says “If you come to a fork in the road, take it!”
Then Pedro Martinez appears...going into his windup, he delivers a fastball and then quips “Who’s Your Daddy!?”
Cut back to the now abandoned bargaining table, the lonely, unused cell phones still resting where they were discarded. Into the frame steps Big Papi in a natty suit and $800 dollar shoes. He is carrying a baseball bat.
On the screen scrolls these superimposed words of explanation: “MLB CBA talks break down over luxury tax starting level...owners demand $220 million...players insist on $260.”
A seriously menacing close-up of Big Papi... He speaks:
“This is our f*****g sport and nobody’s gonna take our Baseball!”
Then the wide shot where Papi proceeds to swing his bat and smash the cell phones into little plastic pieces scattered all over the room. He finishes with a flourish and a perfect bat flip as he exits the room.
Widen out a little more and see Dustin Pedroia cowering under the table with that frightened rabbit expression like he had in the dugout that time when Papi went ballistic and destroyed the dugout phone after getting ejected from a game. Close up on Dustin:
“How about $240 million?”
This little promotional gem did the trick and the outpouring of affection for these icons of the game led to a swift resolution of all contractual disagreements and the owners and players took a big selfie with all of the participants in the bargaining session toasting each other with Grey Goose vodka (now the official vodka of MLB thanks to the new agreement on product placement advertisement being allowed on player’s uniforms.)
The new, shortened-to-154 game 2022 season started up on April 15th and featured a new innovation...A 40 pitch mandatory limit for every pitcher in the Bigs for the first month of the season so teams could gently break in their pitching staffs. To spread the load even more, roster size was expanded to 30 players for the opening month, with a limit of 18 spots open to pitchers.
The bomb fest that ensued, especially in the National League with their brand new DH rule in effect, was the greatest offensive massacre since the infamous 1930 lively ball was instituted in a Depression-terrorized National League...when team batting averages were in the .300s for six of the eight teams and Hack Wilson (5’6”/190 lbs/size 4 shoes) hit 56 homers and batted in 191 runs. (His OPS was 1.171).
Teams used the early season as an extended Spring Training for their young pitchers and hundreds of wide-eyed hurlers who should have been in A-ball found themselves getting slaughtered forty pitches at a time in serial one or two inning appearances.
The NL East Washington Nationals were the early sensations with their new lineup of Trea Turner (in a surprise trade from L.A. back to his preferred East Coast home ) at shortstop and leadoff hitter, followed by a murderer’s row of Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman (free agent from Atlanta) and Josh Bell (now a DH). By June 1st, Soto was hitting .449, Turner .370 and Freeman .345. The frenzy over Soto’s run at a .400+ history-chase had the Nats leading the league in attendance, even though they were only in third place with a team ERA of 6.30. The Mets were in first place behind their formidable starting staff, even though Max Scherzer had to get a prescription to deal with Road Rage brought on by the forty pitch limit. There was no prescription that could keep him from getting thrown out of four games for exceeding the 15 second pitch delivery limit, however. It seems there was some colorful language involved.
The St. Louis Cardinals ruled the NL Central with veteran pitcher Adam Wainwright and his pal, catcher Yadier Molina, using the forty pitch limit to their advantage by inducing ground balls and pop ups on breaking pitches and not trying to strike hitters out. This in celebration of their last year of baseball, they went retro and won.
The prospect-poor Cubbies were firmly in last place.
Cincinnatti’s Joey Votto had a head-scratching lifetime low of only 22 base on balls by July but had also hit 22 home runs.
Milwaukee took the new pitching roster limits to try their “everybody is a relief pitcher” experiment. They promised to keep the forty pitch rule voluntarily for the whole staff for the rest of the season.
Instead of the “Pirates”, the Pittsburgh club was now known across baseball as the “Pittsburgh Tankers”. Instead of using luxury tax money on new players, the team awarded their owner a substantial dividend and kept their books firmly closed to all perusal.
Everybody expected the L.A. Dodgers to break the bank with the new luxury tax line at $240 million and they didn’t disappoint. In fact they kind of popped some eyes by increasing their budget to $320 million with a first-week-of-the-season haul of free agents and humongous trades. Their main gets on the free agent market were everyday players Trevor Story (to play third while they traded their stalwart team leader Justin Turner along with Trea Turner to Washington for 2019 World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg and prospects.) For the infield they signed Andrelton Simmons, the best defensive shortstop in the game. When the Turner deal became necessary they plugged Simmons in at short and he changed the whole defensive makeup of the Dodgers infield. The pitchers lit candles to Andrelton as he stole hit after hit with his range and gun arm. There was even MVP talk about him later in the summer as the Dodgeheads pulled away from the rest of the West.
Japanese pitching star Yusei Kikuchi added to the multinational look and of course they re-upped Kershaw and Zack Greinke to settle down all the flaming groovies they brought up from Albuquerque.
The final stroke was hiring Kyle Schwarber to play DH. The Red Sox couldn’t keep both Kyle and J.D. Martinez for some reason and the fans let them hear about it when favorite Schwarber got hot out in L.A. and led the league in homers with 26 by the break.
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As we all know, money isn’t everything, but in this case it bought a nineteen game lead over San Diego for the NL West Southern California Cuties by the end of the season.
Colorado and Arizona struggled for relevance and struggled for players when they couldn’t compete with the money teams. By September they were struggling for fans.
San Francisco was tough but a year late. They couldn’t compete with the Dodgers constant collection of pitching talent and better defense and hitting.
San Diego, which had started so well in 2021 before they imploded with injuries and player defections, gave new manager Bob Melvin reason to believe early when their projected rotation of Musgrove, Darvish, Blake Snell, Clevinger and Mackenzie Gore adjusted well to the pitching restrictions and rounded into a formidable staff. Eric Hosmer’s request for a trade poisoned the clubhouse atmosphere however, and by the All Star Game the Pads were playing for a Wild Card.
By the All-Star break the Wise Fathers of the Game decided it was time to trim down the rosters to the former limit of 26 players with a max of 13 listed pitchers. Things had certainly gotten out of hand with 18 hurlers on every roster. Even though all the minor league pitchers on major league rosters had led to a plethora of home runs and high averages, the game was getting unrecognizable. All the offensive firepower couldn’t disguise the meaningless pitching stats for the every day fan. Starters and relievers were indistinguishable on most clubs and there were 0 (that’s a Big Naught, Zip, ZERO) complete games on the books. Shutouts by one pitcher? Nope. No-hitters by one heroic pitcher? Nil. 10 strike outs by one pitcher in a game? A handful, even though there were still a lot of batters striking out. But they were striking out against an endless succession of one inning pitchers.
Especially in the American League, this new reality changed the game profoundly. Tampa Bay, always an innovator in the advancement of tactics out of necessity in their tepid baseball market, led the way when they finally became a one-pitcher-per-inning ball team. That is...every pitcher on their staff left after one inning pitched and the staff basically turned over every two days. Eighteen pitchers on the roster and the basic plan was go out and pitch one inning in the games on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday etc. and rest for a day in between and let the second shift take over. If you got through an inning on ten pitches sometime, maybe they’d plug you into a last out in the inning kind of situation in back to back games, but that was rare. The new extra inning rule where each team started a man on second in extras was key in allowing Tampa to utilize this system. There were fewer endless extra inning affairs that used up pitching staffs.
Fans hated it... absolutely hated it! For one thing, all pitchers were being paid like they were middle relief pitchers. No big starter or closer salaries. So pitchers didn’t feel motivated to improve that much and work their way up into more prominent positions on the staff. Also, with no one pitcher ever getting a chance to go out and pitch 6 or 7 strong innings once in awhile, fans barely got to know the nameless bodies with an arm that worked their 6 innings per fortnight. The Rays were winning games handily, but the troops were disgruntled.
Tampa varied their routine only once after June. In a three game series against the Washington Nats, the Rays kept their basic one inning per arm rule with one caveat: every time Juan Soto came up, they brought in a left-handed pitcher to face him. If that pitcher didn’t end the inning he would go ahead and pitch to the three batter minimum, then out he’d come and the rhythm would resume. (For the record, Soto handled the lefties at a .333 clip.)
Also, games were getting even longer with all the pitchers shuttling in and out of the bullpen. The umpires had never been that diligent in enforcing the 15 second pitch clock, but now the word came down to play it strictly by the second hand. Walks increased by forty per cent. Hit batters increased by forty per cent. Ejections (mainly catchers, pitchers and managers) went up by forty per cent. Balks doubled.
Fights happened daily, especially when a batter would call time out in the middle of the pitcher’s windup and then the pitcher didn’t know whether to pull out of his delivery or follow through and try to stay within the clock limit. Many pitchers just said The Hell with it and fired the pitch into the batter’s ass.
By the end of the tumultuous 2022 season, each team had played either 153 or 154 games. The last game before the playoffs was a rain make up between Tampa Bay and the Los Angeles Angels. The Rays were safely assured of first place in the East, but stood to lose the home field advantage to the White Sox if they lost game number 154. The Angels were in as a Wild Card if they won, but were totally out of everything if they lost.
The Angels had come from nowhere in August to catch up to the Houston club, even though Houston pulled away at the end for the division championship. In the early part of the season, the pitching staff, unused to the new Paradigm of Pitching Perfection, had an ERA of 9.30 as of May 31, and had 20+ runs scored on them in six contests!. But in the second half new additions Raisel Iglesias and leftie Reid Detmers rounded into form and combined with Shohei Ohtani for a three-headed monster of an old-time starting rotation. (The vaunted Noah Syndergaard needed an extended spring training and never got into shape for the season). Meanwhile Mike Trout had resumed his slaughter of the innocents as a hitter and Anthony Rendon and Ohtani (the hitting version) backed him up.
So now it’s the final game of the regular season and Tampa has their entire staff out in the bullpen on call. The Angels send Ohtani to the mound. The game is played in Los Angeles, and such a game has never been seen. The Rays would use twelve pitchers on the day, using their Soto plan against Ohtani every time he comes up to bat. Plus, they always have a right hander ready for Trout, so their pitching changes are ludicrously out of control. Ohtani is the only pitcher the Angels will use.
Ohtani works fast, in the polite Japanese manner. His fastball is on, at an average of 98 mph. But what is amazing is his splitter. The umpires check him after every inning but find no banned substances that can explain the break in that pitch. Showtime strikes out the side in three different innings. Manager Joe Maddon never even glances out at his sleepy bullpen. Shohei winds up with 19 K’s for the game.
In the top of the eighth, one out, Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco, a twenty-forty man on the season (25 homers/45 steals) takes an inside splitter on the instep and gets the call for a Hit By Pitch. He steals second on Ohtani’s subsequent pitch and gets to third on a dribbler up the first base line. On an 0-2 count on Rays rookie second sacker Vidal Brujan, Franco times Ohtani’s delivery and correctly assumes it will be a “waste” pitch up high out of the zone to try to tempt the rookie into a nervous reaction swing. Brujan holds up on the heater. Franco breaks for the plate and slides under the tag when catcher Max Stassi can’t get his mitt down fast enough after spearing Shohei’s High Smoke.
The score is 1-0 Rays on Franco’s brazen steal of home when Mike Trout comes up in the bottom of the ninth with two out. The Rays bring leftie Shane McClanahan in. A leftie? To face Trout? Surely not! Shane nods toward first and Trout takes the intentional walk. They’ve put the potential tying run on base to pitch to Ohtani!
Two out remember. Will Trout steal second to get into scoring position? Not on the first pitch...a 97 mph streak of fire. They don’t trust Trout’s leg on a steal attempt. Ohtani works the count to 2-2. McClanahan tries to throw that fastball by him on the outside and Shohei connects. It’s a rocket to left center! But Kiermaier, the Rays great center fielder, takes it on one hop and guns a strike to home plate on a beautiful throw. Trout has to hold at third. That throw is so good that the Angels fans, frustrated as they are, give Kevin Kiermaier a begrudging standing O. A wonderful and unexpected moment of sportsmanship in the heat of battle.
But now the Angels have men on first and third with two out and a right handed hitter, Anthony Rendon, is up. But he’s only the third hitter since McClanahan came in! Shane has to pitch to him and Anthony destroys left-hand pitching. The Rays gather round manager Kevin Cash to discuss things...the umpire has to break it up. Cash points to first base emphatically. They’re walking the dangerous Anthony Rendon and putting Ohtani into scoring position at second with the winning run! Bases loaded, two out, Rays still up 1-0 and the batter is ...Justin Upton!
The 35 year old Upton... the forgotten man of the Angels. He’s hardly played this year and it’s obviously the end of his career. The Angels are still paying him though, so he stays on the roster for one more time around. His batting average was .208 this season and he just can’t get around on the fastball anymore. The telltale sign of his demise as an offensive threat? The shift-happy Rays don’t put the shift on for him. They play him straight up.
Upton settles his large body into the right-handed batter’s box and taps his bat on the plate. The fans groan in exquisite pain at their prospects. He takes the first pitch down the pipe. Strike one. Another fastball. He fouls this one back into the seats. McClanahan decides on a slow curve out of the zone and Upton goes fishing. He nubs the ball down the third base line! Joey Wendle races in and grabs it and his only play is to first. He throws it...and Upton beats it out! Trout scores the tying run! Bases still loaded...but wait a minute! Ohtani didn’t stop at third! He’s coming to the plate! Here comes the throw...He slides in...SAFE!
...And the crowd goes wild…
Next Time...Part Two: The 2022 Playoffs!
