Cleveland Sports Forum

One plan I saw was all 30 teams playing in AZ

That would give the Cactus League teams home fields and where would the Grapefruit League teams hole up? Local hotels? There won't be such a thing as "home field advantage" since there will no crowds, but the Florida 15 won't have any training facilities: use local college and high school gyms?

All the Canadians are gone. Plenty of housing. 10 Cactus League stadiums within a hour's drive plus a couple of college stadiums.

Plus all the back fields at the training sites. Minor leagues could play also.

Could play doubleheaders.

if we're scheduled to play at home today we'll be postponed due to more wintery weater; 38 with 18 mph wind at "gametime"
And snow forecast for Friday.
Maybe the new normal will be All Games in Arizona every season until June

First 90 degree day predicted for early next week.

and you thought they weren't playing. Paul Hoynes reports:

Shane Bieber (6-2, 2.95) went 7 2/3 innings on Saturday as the Indians beat the Giants, 4-3, in baseball-reference.com’s simulated 2020 season. Jordan Luplow homered in the seventh inning for what proved to be the winning run. Phil Maton pitched the ninth for the save. [that is unlikely]

The victory kept the Tribe in first place in the AL Central, one game ahead of the White Sox, with a 22-13 record. The Twins, Royals and Tigers filled out the last three spots in the division.

In the simulated win over the Giants, Francisco Lindor hit a two-run homer in the third. The computer says he’s hitting .328 (45-for-137) with 12 homers and 30 RBI in 34 games. After 34 real games last year, Lindor was hitting .278 (37-for-133) with seven homers and 16 RBI. He missed the first 18 games of last season with ankle and calf injuries.

And here are the simulated Indians stats:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/sim/ ... 2020.shtml

Reyes is no. 2 in the league with 13 homers, Lindor right behind with 12; Frankie has an OPS of 1025. Who' Robinson Chiniros? They have him doing nicely off the bench. Sandy Leon has disappeared. Greg Allen is playing every day but somehow has only stuck his elbow into one pitch in 129 plate appearances.

All sorts of curiousities among the pitchers. Among those who have supposedly pitched for the Indians are Clay Bucholz, John [oh no, not him again] Axford, Jim Johnson, Mark Lowe and good old Daniel Stumpf] It looks like something happened to Carrasco, he only had 3 starts, Scott Moss up from the simulated minors has started 5 games and is 2-0 with a 3.62 ERA. 3 batter rule isn't working out for Oliver Perez with a 12.38 ERA while Cimber has dematerialized.

Their transaction list is just nuts:

We release pitchers Cam Hill and Anthony Gose, both of whom very much impressed the real Terry Francona.

And look at this superabsurdo trade:

The Texas Rangers traded 35-year-old catcher Robinson Chirinos to the Cleveland Indians, getting 20-year-old minor league second baseman Tyler Freeman, 23-year-old minor league starting pitcher Jean Carlos Mejia and 19-year-old minor league second baseman Brayan Rocchio in return.

Hamilton calls a bit hit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tNAznC_0VE

and a mammoth blast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghX5VIb2YQ8

civ ollilavad wrote:
Phil Maton pitched the ninth for the save. [that is unlikely]

all credibility blown right there.

I thought that the supposed trade of 3 top prospects for a backup catcher was even more absurd

So are the greedy owners and the greedy players ever going to figure this out and play some games?

Maybe just a postseason for all teams; a 32 team tournament, double elimination. I've discovered that I can live without baseball.

civ ollilavad wrote:Maybe just a postseason for all teams; a 32 team tournament, double elimination. I've discovered that I can live without baseball.

Blasphemy !!