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Just three days. Three days until the first baseball game of 2017. Here’s the latest:
Two former Blue Jays signed in the Mexican League yesterday. Casey Janssen, 35-years-old, joins Acereros del Norte after nine years at the major league level, eight of which were with the Blue Jays. In 2016, Janssen failed to make a major league appearance in the Boston Red Sox organization, but, in 2015, pitched in 48 games with the Nationals, collecting a 4.08 FIP and 1.150 WHIP. From 2010 to 2013, Janssen had a 3.08 FIP and 2.80 ERA with the Blue Jays.
Josh Roenicke, who spent parts of his 2009 and 2010 season in Toronto, signed with Pericos de Peubla, per the club’s president. He last pitched at the major league level with the Minnesota Twins in 2013, collecting a 4.35 ERA (but 1.597 WHIP) in 63 games. Over the past three seasons, Roenicke has remained at the triple-A level for the Nationals, Rockies, Brewers and Angels.
Major league baseball and the MLBPA have reportedly approved a rule allowing a manager to signal for an intentional walk, an advancement that will come into effect for the 2017 season.
Team and MLBPA sources are telling me baseball has approved a dugout signal for an intentional walk, effective for 2017 season. More coming.
— Full Dissident (@hbryant42) February 22, 2017
I’m not too set on either side of this rule change. Obviously, eliminating the dead time in between and during intentional walks will increase the pace of play and pace of action, however subtle the affect may be. It makes logical sense, and shouldn’t impact the actual game that much, but it does mean we won’t have this in our lives.
In other MLB news, Facebook is in talks with major league baseball to live stream one game per week, per Jessica Toonkel of Reuters. This is a good move for many reasons, as Toonkel mentions. From a fan’s perspective, free games are a plus, no matter how you view it. From MLB’s perspective, the live streams will tap into a younger audience not normally captured and generate more revenue for the league. From Facebook’s perspective, the live broadcasts brings more users onto the platform. Seems like a win for everyone, so I hope it works out.