Friday’s News & Notes

Worcester 8 Rochester 4
• Braymer ⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 1K, 36-17 PIT-K
• Fuentes (L, 0-4) 2⅓ IP, 5H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 1K, HBP
• Robles 2-3, R, 2B, CS
• Lara 1-4, R, HR, 2RBI

Worcester put up crooked numbers in three of the first five innings as they cruised to an 8-4 win over Rochester. Ben Braymer didn’t make it out of the 1st as he needed 36 pitches to retire two of seven batters faced. Thanks a two-run HR by Gilbert Lara, he was taken off the hook, but the offense couldn’t do the same for Steven Fuentes. The 24-y.o. Panamanian lost for the fourth time with four runs allowed on five hits, two walks, and a hit batsman over two and a 1/3rd innings. Victor Robles singled, doubled, and scored a run in the 8th on a grounder to short that Donovan Casey legged out for an RBI. The Red Wings collected seven hits total and kept the WooSox IFs cool with 16 whiffs. Roster moves: RHP Jhon Romero recalled to Washington; C Jakson Reetz designated for assignment.

DSL Cardinals Blue 6 DSL Nationals 2
• R. Lara (L, 3-3) 2IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 2K,
• Carmona 2⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, HBP
• Cruz 1-3, R, BB, RBI
• Batista 1-3, BB

The D-Nats’ five-game win streak ended with a 6-2 loss to the D-Cards Blue. Randy Lara gave up runs in both the 1st and 2nd innings on three hits and three walks to lose for third time. The offense got single runs in the 3rd and 6th but struggled with RISP (0-for-7) and left on six runners. Armando Cruz and Cristian Batista were the only two batters to reach base twice, both with a single and a walk.

MLB TO CONTINUE 2021 RULES EXPERIMENTATION IN THE AAA, AFL
Baseball America had two stories yesterday on its quest to shorten average game times and improve the pace of play, though one has to wonder if MLB really wants to speed things up that much^* with its presentation of its hind quarters full-on embrace of gambling as a revenue stream.
^{* Prolly not, but why pass up the chance to remind folks of the risks of another 1919, or say, life imitating art a la Roy Hobbs?}

At AAA, they’re trying “pre-tacked” baseballs in selected games, allegedly due to a shortage of them, though there are two (2) foreign leagues (NPB in Japan, KBO in S. Korea) that use them exclusively. Given the preponderance of anecdotal evidence that pitchers are comfortable with these, it seems rather odd to not just implement them unilaterally in 2022 as they did in 2021.

In the AFL, it’s “Robo umps” again at Salt River Fields, a 15-second pitch clock, two IFs to the left and two IFs to the right of 2B, larger bases, and a limit of two pickoffs per PA. As noted in the article, this will be the first time all these rules are implemented at the time in the same league.

While most of these rules have had the desired effect, the one that was true Elks Club pimp – delivering the most bang for the buck (*rimshot!*) – was the pitch clock.

As many of you may recall, a 20-second clock has been in place at AA and AAA for the past several seasons, though many have noted that the rule has been sporadically enforced. In the Low-A West, nee the California League, it was 15 seconds this season, and games dropped from an average of 3:02 to 2:41. This, in a league that averages 11.4 R/G (vs. 10.4 in Low-A East, 10.0 in Low-Southeast). I’d say that it worked.

What hasn’t worked, according to this column, are a lot of the other rules tried in the Atlantic League, like the 61’6″ mound or the double hook. This comes as no surprise. The former can be adequately addressed by not allowing pitchers, especially relievers, to “load up” by resting 20-30 seconds between max-effort pitches. The latter seems like a weak-tea compromise between the 20th century rules used in the A.L. and the 19th century rules used in the N.L.

Seems to me that if you really want to stop strategies like the opener or using the bullpen like a spring training game, there are other ways to do it, though I’m not sure these are actually problems. Otherwise, you’re just begging for a slew of “injuries,” as almost any rule will have an exception for that contingency.