Cleveland Sports Forum

Carrasco starting for Akron Saturday.

Great. It sounds like he's on schedule.

Meanwhile, any recent word on Brantley's return?

Read today that Brantley was about to start taking "dry swings", then off a tee.

What do people here think of the latest changes to "speed up the game?"
Next year they plan to raise the bottom of the strike zone, and eliminate throwing 4 pitches for an intentional walk.
I don't think the strike zone change will have much of an effect, since umpires seem to call whatever zone they please, regardless of the rule book.

I'm opposed to the walk rule, though. Sometimes a pitcher will throw a wild pitch, and often it seems to affect his ability to find the strike zone after throwing 4 deliberately wide ones. I remember once when I was a kid, somebody, maybe Vic Power, was angry at being walked, and swung at a pitch. I can't remember if he got a hit, though.

Here's an article about others who did that, but Power isn't mentioned:

http://sabr.org/research/surprise-swing ... onal-balls

eliminate throwing 4 pitches for an intentional walk.

Horrible idea. What a bunch of idiots.

Speed up the game. Every pitch that touches the ground calls for a new ball. Have you seen a ball swapped out that was a fair batted ball?

Sorry I missed your birthday, TFIR! Hope it was a good one!

My little Indians fan!

Carrasco may start vs Royals on Friday.

sounds like we got ourselves a cheater

It is a win win as Dolan doesnt have to pay the cheater.

Hey Ken

I hear Manny is looking for a job.

Didn't Byrd have to pee in a cup before we gave him that lucrative 1 year deal? Base salary was only 1 mil. No big deal! We can afford it.

Byrd took the only offer on the table. Nobody else wanted him.

If they really want to clean up the juice problem, they're going to have to drastically increase the penalty.

80 game suspensions don't scare anybody. Major league salaries make it well worth the chance.

If they added a substantial fine along with the suspension, juicers might not be so dismissive of the rules. Make them return some of the money they took while pretending to be clean.

162 game suspension without pay is pretty drastic penalty. And for Byrd it means the end of his career.