MLB Season 2024

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Wonder if the A's & MLB have been looking @ the 10 day forecasts for Vegas...........

And yet certain people insist that there's no such thing as "climate change"…sigh.

[Westheim]

I converted that to a real temperature and almost fainted on the spot.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I converted that to a real temperature and almost fainted on the spot.

They say it's a dry heat...but so's an oven...

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

They say it's a dry heat...but so's an oven...

Well yeah, but a dry 115° (or what it was) is still worse than the moist 90°F we had here last week that already was very hard on me.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Well yeah, but a dry 115° (or what it was) is still worse than the moist 90°F we had here last week that already was very hard on me.

Yeah, not saying that 115 is a good time but I've lived in Phoenix for an entire summer and Atlanta for a summer and I will take 115 and dry over 95 and humid every day of the year and it's not even close. With 115 and dry you can do things to cool off, stay hydrated to avoid heat exhaustion, and so on. I used to bike home from work around 6ish miles every day during the worst of the day (usually around 3pm or so because I'd commute super early to work and get there are 6-7am) and... yeah I was soaking wet but I'd get home, take a shower, drink some water, and boom, I'd be good to go.

In Atlanta, you walk outside and you're drenched in sweat after 5 minutes no matter what you do. Pretty much during those times you just stay inside all the time. Everywhere has A/C which is nice but as a person who doesn't drive I kind of like, you know, being able to go places...

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Yeah, not saying that 115 is a good time but I've lived in Phoenix for an entire summer and Atlanta for a summer and I will take 115 and dry over 95 and humid every day of the year and it's not even close. With 115 and dry you can do things to cool off, stay hydrated to avoid heat exhaustion, and so on. I used to bike home from work around 6ish miles every day during the worst of the day (usually around 3pm or so because I'd commute super early to work and get there are 6-7am) and... yeah I was soaking wet but I'd get home, take a shower, drink some water, and boom, I'd be good to go.

In Atlanta, you walk outside and you're drenched in sweat after 5 minutes no matter what you do. Pretty much during those times you just stay inside all the time. Everywhere has A/C which is nice but as a person who doesn't drive I kind of like, you know, being able to go places...

There is some truth to what you say. In a dry, hot climate, you can gain the benefit of evaporative cooling, as sweat evaporates. During Desert Storm, we were required to carry around a two liter bottle of water. I went an entire day, drank six liters of water, and never used the restroom. My skin had a thick layer of salt built up on it.

In a place like Atlanta or even worse, Houston, you sweat. And then sweat some more. Life is racing from one air conditioned location to another. Cars trail water, as humid air is brought into the vehicle and cooled. Water vapor is condensed, and pours out in puddles from under the engine.

[Westheim]

Truth be told, in my corner here it never really gets over 100°F. Which is already horrendous to me.

Meanwhile, in the Stinkees @ O-Birds game we have now learned in the top of the second inning that Juan Soto likes going to the All Star Game, likes hitting in all ballparks, likes it when kids do his shuffle thing, and likes pretty much everything. The Roku fools didn't ask, but he probably also likes catching fly balls. When will this stupidity ever stop...

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

There is some truth to what you say. In a dry, hot climate, you can gain the benefit of evaporative cooling, as sweat evaporates. During Desert Storm, we were required to carry around a two liter bottle of water. I went an entire day, drank six liters of water, and never used the restroom. My skin had a thick layer of salt built up on it.

In a place like Atlanta or even worse, Houston, you sweat. And then sweat some more. Life is racing from one air conditioned location to another. Cars trail water, as humid air is brought into the vehicle and cooled. Water vapor is condensed, and pours out in puddles from under the engine.

True! One thing I noticed in Phoenix is that while riding my bike, even in the worst of the heat, my skin would be pretty dry until I stopped moving. While riding the sweat would just evaporate and keep my body cool. The second I stopped, even at a light, whoosh, it’d all get going until I got up to speed again. In Atlanta… well, I didn’t even try riding a bike there but even just walking, there was a day where I decided to walk into work… halfway there (it was jeez, a 5ish mile walk which TBF I grew up in Seattle so even when it was hot it was never humid like that) I’d completely ruined the shirt I was wearing so I actually walked into a store, bought a new one, and completely ruined it too by the time I reached work (which luckily had been canceled I think due to a hurricane warning).

The one thing I’ll give to both places is that they at least understand it get hot there and as such everything has AC. In Seattle, a lot of places lack it and it used to be that for the one week out of the year it got super bad (which for Seattle was still the low 90s), you just stuck your fan in the back door, opened your freezer (because a fan is just going to push the hot air around) and suffer. I remember working at a call center that actually had to shut down when the temperature hit the mid 90s because the meager AC they put on the server farm (nothing for us plebs of course) wasn’t doing enough and they were overheating.

Now, thanks to (insert inconvenient fact here), Seattle gets legitimately hot during the summer, places still lack AC, and it’s turned into a real problem.

[Cobra Mgr]

As someone who has lived in NC all his life, I've always wanted to experience this mythical "dry heat" people speak of just once.

[mytreds]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

And yet certain people insist that there's no such thing as "climate change"…sigh.

It changes every year. From cold to hot back to cold. Then hot again. Pretty much everyone recognizes this.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

As someone who has lived in NC all his life, I've always wanted to experience this mythical "dry heat" people speak of just once.

Growing up, I always used to hear Johnny Carson making fun of the "dry heat" ("It's 110° in Burbank, but it's a dry heat!") and didn't get what he was talking about, as the humidity around NYC made certain that you'd spend summer with a lovely coating of sweat and grime on your arms. (This was before central air conditioning was a thing.) Once I took refuge from a baking hot 90° summer day by ducking into the Nathan's Hot Dogs on Times Square. It was like being in an oven! The heat just hit you in waves.

Later, I moved out first to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles. Desert heat is relatively nothing compared to humidity. Just stay out of direct sunlight and you're nearly fine. (This is why there's a market for parasols, albeit most just use a cheap pocket umbrella.) I will easily take 110° in Vegas to 90° in NYC.

[Cobra Mgr]

Worst strike 3 calls @ the all star break.

[dsvitak]

Las Vegas.

Bill James, in one of his big hardcover abstracts (I own both), talked about the old Texas League, from the 1950-1970's.

Elevations of the stadiums ranged from sea level, up to El Paso, at about four thousand feet.

As this was AA, players cycled through teams a lot. No one team had a monopoly on quality, or power hitters.

Yet....James totaled up all the home runs hit over a VERY substantial number of games (thousands), and had a perfect distribution curve..the higher the elevation, the more home runs.

Everyone knows the highest MLB elevation is Coors Field. They even have special treatment of baseballs there, due to how far baseballs travel.

Second highest elevation in MLB? Surprisingly, Atlanta, at the extreme southern end of the Appalachian Mountains, at just over a thousand feet. Remember the Launching Pad?

Las Vegas is at 2,006 feet, just about double that of Atlanta. That should be the real concern. Better have a huge ballpark, and some speedy outfielders, or it's going to get crazy.

As an aside...why would the Dodgers, who play in a pitcher's park, have Albuquerque as their AAA park? THEIR elevation is at 4,250 feet, and hitters go from ABQ to LAX and their average drops in half. Conversely, a high ERA pitcher in ABQ goes to LAX, and their ERA actually DROPS. This is one reason why LAX is famous for developing pitchers. You have to be legitimately good to have a low ERA in New Mexico.

If I was a major league hitter, I would take a pay cut to play at Wrigley, or Fenway Park, or any number of other hitter's park.

[Cobra Mgr]

Worst correct call % in 2024

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Worst correct call % in 2024

They're all batting .900+!

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Westheim

They're all batting .900+!

I noticed. 90% ain't bad. I wonder though if that is all pitches or just the ones w/o a swing.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

I noticed. 90% ain't bad. I wonder though if that is all pitches or just the ones w/o a swing.

Caution, this ain't science. It's barely math.

We're about 95 games into the season. Umps have home plate every fourth day, unless they are parked in the man cave / replay center, so let's say the regulars will have had 22-ish turns at the plate now.

Feels like the average game has about 130 pitches thrown per side. So that's 260 for a full game.

22 * 260 = 5,720

That would make missing 10% of calls considerably more than the 200+ in the video, so I'd assume only non-swings are tallied.

I winged all of this, and I'm proud of it.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Caution, this ain't science. It's barely math.

We're about 95 games into the season. Umps have home plate every fourth day, unless they are parked in the man cave / replay center, so let's say the regulars will have had 22-ish turns at the plate now.

Feels like the average game has about 130 pitches thrown per side. So that's 260 for a full game.

22 * 260 = 5,720

That would make missing 10% of calls considerably more than the 200+ in the video, so I'd assume only non-swings are tallied.

I winged all of this, and I'm proud of it.

I support your math. FWIW.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Caution, this ain't science. It's barely math.

We're about 95 games into the season. Umps have home plate every fourth day, unless they are parked in the man cave / replay center, so let's say the regulars will have had 22-ish turns at the plate now.

Feels like the average game has about 130 pitches thrown per side. So that's 260 for a full game.

22 * 260 = 5,720

That would make missing 10% of calls considerably more than the 200+ in the video, so I'd assume only non-swings are tallied.

I winged all of this, and I'm proud of it.

Cool. 90% being on the low end gives some perspective. But the crucial misses still need to be avoided.

[kq76]

Although I think some of us already suspected it, it's interesting to find out that some players think it to... Angel Hernandez Theory