Episode 1829: 2022 Division Preview Series: NL Central

Summary[]

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and FanGraphs writer Ben Clemens banter about an MLB beer/cerveza sponsorship, upcoming updates to sticky stuff inspections, the position of second base, and humidor use, the Twins signing Chris Archer and the Diamondbacks extending Ketel Marte, Dave Roberts guaranteeing a Dodgers championship, and Andrew Miller's retirement, then (36:50) preview the 2022 season in the National League Central, team by team (plus a closing Stat Blast note).

Topics[]

NL Central Preview
St. Louis Cardinals
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates
Final notes

Banter[]

Corona is MLB's new cerveza sponsor, and what that means for the existing beer sponsorship. Did MLB find a loophole that lets it double-dip?
Enhanced sticky stuff inspections
Moving second base
Humidors expanded to all ballparks
Twins sign starter Chris Archer for one season
Diamondbacks extension of Ketel Marte
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts guarantees a championship this year
Remembering Cardinals veteran reliever Andrew Miller, who announced his retirement

Notes[]

Since "cerveza" is the Spanish word for "beer", Ben Lindbergh wonders if MLB has just opened a loophole where they can double-sell all their sponsorships by just selling the Spanish-language version.
Meg and Ben Clemens note that Corona and Budweiser (MLB's existing beer sponsor) are both subsidiaries of AB InBev, so there's no direct conflict.
A listener explains the sponsorship situation in Episode 1831.
After a crackdown on sticky stuff last season, spin rates climbed back up by the end of the season. MLB will have umpires inspect pitchers' hands at the end of each half-inning.
Historically, the bases were placed just inside the diamond, except for second base which is centered on the corner of the diamond. MLB is moving second base inward to be consistent with the other bases. This shortens the distance from first to second base by about 18 inches.
The repositioned second base was tested in some minor league games. Stolen base attempts were unchanged, but success rates did go up. The fact that the repositioning was not well-publicized may explain why attempts didn't change.
Ben Clemens notes that moving second base also shortens the throwing distance from home plate. However, balls are thrown much faster than a runner can run, so the net gain goes to the runner.
Humidors are offense-suppressing in dry climates like Arizona (Chase Field), but they are offense-boosting in wet climates like San Francisco. Ben Lindbergh notes that this quietly ignores the issue of having multiple models of baseball.
Ben Clemens wonders how big the humidors are. Can you walk into them? Meg wonders if there's a humidor factory. Editor's note: MLB humidors are climate-controlled rooms.
Ben Clemens teases Meg for her insightful observation that "You need arms to throw pitches over innings."
The Dodgers signed a three-extension with manager Dave Roberts. In an interview, he twice guaranteed that the Dodgers would win the World Series. Meg wonders if he will show his commitment by get a "2022 World Champions" tattoo.
Meg notes that you want your manager to make confident predictions like this to fire up their team. If every manager did so, then we wouldn't pay attention to each one.

To spur discussion, Ben Lindbergh offers these topics: Best off-season move, strength, weakness, breakout player, best rookie, stories to watch. Not all topics are covered for all teams.

Team	Move	Strength	Weakness	Breakout	Rookie
St. Louis Cardinals	Steven Matz	Defense Hitting lefty pitchers	Starting rotation	Dylan Carlson	Lars Nootbaar
Milwaukee Brewers	Andrew McCutchen	Pitching	Offense	Adrian Houser	Aaron Ashby
Chicago Cubs	Marcus Stroman	Fastballs	Bullpen	Nick Madrigal	Seiya Suzuki
Cincinnati Reds	Tommy Pham	Right half of infield	Starting rotation	Jose Barrero	Hunter Greene
Pittsburgh Pirates	Zach Thompson	Left half of infield	"Yes"	Bryse Wilson	Diego Castillo and Hoy Park

Cardinals

All agree that Albert Pujols is the sentimental best move. The team has committed to the farewell tour bit, and they will basically have to carry him for the entire season.
Pujols is 21 homers shy of 700. Ben Lindbergh asks whether he'll make it. Ben Clemens says, "It's not impossible... (but it's kind of impossible)." The others agree with this sentiment.
Ben Clemens would have picked Juan Yepez as the rookie if the Cardinals didn't get Albert Pujols to play DH.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol says he won't have a designated closer. This would have been unthinkable ten years ago, but now it's hardly uncommon.

Brewers

Andrew McCutchen was pretty much the only interesting move the Brewers made.
Corbin Burnes is Ben Clemens's personal favorite pitcher right now. He calls him the closest thing to Jacob deGrom without being Jacob deGrom.
The Brewers are in great shape for their pitching. They just need hitters. They fired their hitting coach and assistant hitting coach last year.
Christian Yelich still hits the ball hard and has great plate discipline, but he doesn't hit the ball in the air much any more.

Cubs

Ben Clemens on the Cubs bullpen: "Really bad. It's just a bunch of guys where you think, 'He's still pitching?'"
Meg whispers, "Yeah!" when Ben Clemens picks Nick Madrigal as the breakout player.
Ben Clemens: "How good do you think Seiya Suzuki is going to be? I have no idea!" "His 30th percentile is probably Rookie of the Year favorite."

Reds

Ben Clemens lists Brandon Williamson as the Reds' best long-term acquisition. "But yeah, no, they didn't get anything."
Joey Votto rediscovered how to hit for power late last season, and he's a lot of fun on social media.
Pitcher Luis Castillo is injured, and that's pretty much the only thing preventing the Reds from trading him away.
Prospect Hunter Greene has amazing velocity, and it looks like he may be used as a starter. Ben Clemens laments that, "You don't want your top prospect to be 'Man, if this guy works out, comes up, pitches 100 innings this year, our rotation will be 20th in baseball.'"
Ben Clemens can't figure out any logic to the Reds roster moves. They trade away Jesse Winker, but acquire Tommy Pham for about the same amount of money, but who is worse than Winker. They trade Sonny Gray to the Twins for a minor leaguer.

Pirates

Ben Clemens jokes that the Pirates' literal biggest acquisition was Daniel Vogelbach, who is listed as 6 feet, 270 pounds.
Ben Clemens worries that Zach Thompson went through "the Marlins machine that makes people good for three months."
The Pirates are blatantly manipulating Oneil Cruz's service time. They just sent him down to AAA to "work on his defense."
If Bryse Wilson does an average job (100 IP, 1 WAR), that will sextuple his total career WAR over four seasons.

Final notes

In the NL West preview (Episode 1828), there was concern over Giants player injuries. And Evan Longoria and LaMonte Wade Jr. both got injured and will miss opening day.
MLB proposed new rules: (1) Batters may not consult scouting cards during a PA, (2) Scouting cards may not be updated during a game, (3) Pitchers may elect to use PitchCom. Ben Lindbergh is in favor of PitchCom and he is indifferent to the scouting card rules.
Nippon-Ham Fighters manager Suyoshi Shinjo now uses the name "Big Boss" on his uniform. He entered a game on a hovercraft. "If you're not going to be great, might as well have zany manager."
A listener posted an analysis on Reddit of whether Scott Boras's puns help his clients make more money.
Episode 1825 follow-up: Ryan Nelson looked up the longest stretch in which a catcher did not touch a live ball (since 1988, the start of pitch-by-pitch data). The record is 10 plate appearances: On June 3, 1988, in the top of the eighth, catcher Mike Macfarlane watched a triple, ground out, single, fly out, ground out, and then in the top of the ninth, a foul ball, ground out, single, single, fly out, and E5.
Meg Rowley realized that she was still a Patreon supporter and cancelled her support. Her explanation: "Am literally Meg Rowley."

Episode 1829: 2022 Division Preview Series: NL Central

Summary[]

Topics[]

Banter[]

Notes[]

Links[]

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