Really interesting read here about how Joe Maddon is going to have his players never let up…partially to try to influence umpires.
If his players continue playing through, they may be rewarded for tagging another runner out, or at the very least force umpires to return a runner to his previous base if they were caught off guard. For example, if an opposing runner leisurely strolls home or stops running on a close inning-ending grounder, the Rays will throw home so the umpires have to decide if that lead runner would be out or forced to go back to third.
I also found Terry’s comments the other day interesting. If there is a close play with two outs in an early inning and he doesn’t use the challenge…but then they give up 4 runs then Terry is gonna get killed. If he uses it there we will all complain.
This is gonna be a mess. Baseball was fine. Go OPS+ yourself.