Were you covering the Dodgers when Russell Martin was there? He was one of the early elite pitch framers. I don't know if that was a self taught skill back then or if the Dodgers coached him to be an elite framer.

I feel like in the 1990s and earlier, it was pretty much accepted that if a pitcher hit the target, the umpire would call it a strike - even if it was a few inches off the plate. Somewhere along the line, I believe MLB encouraged the umpires to call something closer to a rulebook strike zone.

They probably blame DEI for the price of eggs.

I suspect the Ohtani revenue impact is even greater than the Dodgers expected. They are paying the highest luxury tax rate. The $17 million Michael Conforto contract actually costs them over $35 million.

I'm surprised more teams in California don't do these types of deals, particularly with players who don't live in a high income tax state and/or don't plan to live in a high income tax state after their careers are over. The signing bonus and deferred money are not subject to CA state tax.

With the money that they've spent this offseason (over $35 million for Michael Conforto when you factor in the luxury tax), I suspect Ohtani's impact on the Dodgers' revenue may have been even greater than they expected.

Maybe they should hire Bochy next season.

He seems to have become more of a pundit now. He was more about data & models than punditry before. Even in 2016, his final forecast gave Trump a little less than a 30% chance of winning - which is a real chance. Most other models/polls gave Trump a much smaller chance of winning.

I wonder if Ohtani or his agent really care. I know that Jeff Passan reported if a team made public statements about meeting with Ohtani, they would "hold it against them." But I think everyone knew that Ohtani would meet with the Dodgers.

It was nice to see him voted down, but there is no guarantee that we won't end up with something worse. And 199 out of 219 Republicans voted for the insurrectionist.