2021 MLB Season

[SixFeetDeep]

https://twitter.com/apollohou/status/1379572911929982981?s=21

[mj2sexay]

https://twitter.com/apollohou/status/1379572911929982981?s=21

FFS, if ever a home plate umpire needed to be knocked out and replaced by Frank Drebin/Enricco Palazzo.

[SixFeetDeep]

Kumar Rocker entered 2021 as the consensus top Draft prospect and has excelled over his first seven starts. He won all seven with a tidy 0.84 ERA, posting a .137 opponents' average and a 61/12 K/BB ratio in 43 innings.

Fellow Vanderbilt right-hander Jack Leiter has been even better. He no-hit South Carolina for nine innings in his first career Southeastern Conference start and Missouri for seven innings before departing in his second. He also has seven wins in as many starts, and his numbers verge on the ridiculous: 0.43 ERA, .074 opponents' average, 71/16 K/BB ratio in 42 innings.

"It's like watching Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris from 1961," an area scout who covers Vanderbilt said. "It's two guys who are clearly elite in their field."

The Commodores aces could become the first teammates to ever go 1-2 in the same Draft. The last time college baseball saw anything like this was in 2011, when UCLA had No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole and Golden Spikes Award winner Trevor Bauer. Cole and Bauer went 1-3 that year, as did Arizona State sluggers Bob Horner and Hubie Brooks in 1978.

While Leiter and Rocker clearly are outstanding prospects, who's better? We posed that question to a wide swath of general managers, executives, scouting directors and area scouts.

The result was 25-3 in favor of Leiter, with one executive declaring it a dead heat. That landslide overstates the difference between Leiter and Rocker, with most respondents expressing that they consider the two aces to be extremely close in talent.

"It's hard to separate the two," a National League scouting director said. "Rocker is bigger, more physical and has more track record. Leiter just feels like he'll outperform him. I'm more confident with him reaching his ceiling than Rocker. Leiter has more feel and ability to use his weapons."

Wow. Rocker was a lock for the #1 pick coming into this year. Leiter was a lock for top 5 tho and his stuff is even better this year

[SixFeetDeep]

“ Rocker’s velo dipped into the 89-91 range during Thursday’s start vs Missouri”

Saw this a couple days ago, something to monitor. He sits at 95-96 usually.

[SixFeetDeep]

https://twitter.com/raysbaseball/status/1381704612160360454?s=21

[mj2sexay]

Carlos Rodon lost a perfect game tonight with one out in the 9th via hitting the batter. Cue the debate over whether he could've gotten out of the way which IMHO is stupid.  Contrary to the Conforto situation, idk how the batter is supposed to track a slider going right into his foot.

Rodon still got the no no.

[Johnny English]

https://theathletic.com/2518208/

[Badger]

https://theathletic.com/2518208/

Veto

[AlioTheFool]

The double-hook thing is probably the worst idea I've ever heard in sports.

[Badger]

The double-hook thing is probably the worst idea I've ever heard in sports.

Strategery

[CatoTheElder]

Why would they want to move the mound back to create more offense but then encourage managers to leave the starting pitcher in the game longer?

[Johnny English]

The double-hook thing is probably the worst idea I've ever heard in sports.

It completely kills the idea of using an opener.

[mj2sexay]

It's all excrement. All of these experimental changes are freaking garbage.

[SixFeetDeep]

https://twitter.com/br_mlb/status/1382539179918245888?s=21

So happy to have fans back in the stands

[MBGreen]

https://twitter.com/br_mlb/status/1382539179918245888?s=21

So happy to have fans back in the stands

haha