Says who?Originally Posted by bright nikes
a wide margin huh?
so wide bills is on the brink of not even making the roster.
let me add, I hope Torre sees something good out of Bills simulated game (whenever it is). He deserves to be with the boys
Originally Posted by amarusgear
I totally forgot that mlb changed it's post season schedule this year. The latest game will be at 4:57 Pacific time. So if the Yanks chose option b and begin playing on Thursday we might be bumped from the prime time schedule since the angels and red sox game will be on west coast also. So MLB is screwing the west coast, imagine we get the 1 pm start time.They gave us a 10 am start time in 2006 against the Cards.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9580598/MLB,-FOX-agree-to-start-playoff-games-earlier
Kids, no more staying up past bedtime in October. Adults, no more showing up bleary-eyed for work.
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Postseason games on FOX are getting an earlier start.
Under an agreement unveiled Sunday night by FOX and Major League Baseball, the first pitch for all weeknight postseason games on FOX will be at 7:57 p.m. ET.
Saturday night games on FOX will start no later than weeknight games and possibly earlier. Sunday night games will begin after the conclusion of FOX's NFL broadcasts, as in previous years.
The new start times will apply this season to FOX's coverage of the American League Championship Series and World Series.
TBS, which will broadcast the NLCS in addition to all four Division Series, has not yet set its start times.
FOX and TBS air the two League Championship Series on a rotating basis.
"I think this move will help us big-time," commissioner Bud Selig told FOXSports.com. "This is reaching out to fans. This is precisely what we want to do."
Fans in the Eastern time zone, in particular, have expressed frustration about postseason games ending too late. The 2008 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays drew record-low ratings, in part because one game had a long rain delay and another was suspended.
The new weeknight start times on FOX will be earlier than championship events in every major professional sport but the Super Bowl, as well as the NCAA men's basketball title game. Coverage will begin with a pregame show at 7:30 p.m. ET.
[table][tr][td][/td] [/tr][tr][td]Kids won't be up quite so late due to earlier start times. (Doug Pensinger / Getty Images)[/td] [/tr][/table]
No regularly scheduled World Series game has started before 8 p.m. on a weeknight since at least 1975, according to MLB.
Postseason games on FOX last year started, on average, at 8:28 p.m. ET. In the early 1990s, the first pitch was sometimes as late as 8:38 p.m.
"For kids on the East Coast, the games will now end somewhere between 11 and 11:30," said Ed Goren, president of FOX Sports.
"In the Central time zone, it will be between 10 and 10:30. On the West Coast, it obviously will be very early. It can have a positive effect on ratings, maybe create a younger demographic."
Selig, while disputing talk that baseball has lost young fans, acknowledged the sport's desire for youngsters to see the season's most important games to their conclusions.
"Yes, it played a role, a definite role," Selig said. "It was very much on our minds. But contrary to what you hear, we know from our demographic studies in every ballpark that we have not lost a generation.
"We're not drawing close to 80 million people because we lost a generation. That is a myth."
FOX and MLB began serious talks about earlier start times shortly after the end of last year's World Series, though Selig said the discussions went back even further than that.
To secure earlier start times, FOX Sports needed approval from more than 200 affiliates and 27 owned-and-operated stations.
[table][tr][td][/td] [/tr][tr][td]West Coast games will start even earlier. (Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images)[/td] [/tr][/table]
Those stations air their own programming from 7:30 to 8 p.m., the start of network prime time.
"This could not have been accomplished without their cooperation and understanding," Goren said.
Or, as Selig put it, "It isn't a question of somebody sitting (at FOX headquarters) in Los Angeles and making a unilateral decision."
FOX and MLB also considered afternoon starts for Saturday games in the LCS and World Series, but determined that more fans would watch if the games were played in prime time.
The size of the audience helps determine FOX's advertising rates and MLB's rights fees. Afternoon start times could harm both sides.
"It's something we're going to continue to discuss and explore," Selig said. "But if you look at all the data, the audience is 30 percent greater in prime time on Saturday than it would be for a day game on Saturday. It is true - day games don't come close to night games."
Earlier start times are not certain to produce a larger audience; even with later starts, ratings often rise throughout the night. Selig said the challenge of playing across four time zones is "finding a window that allows games not to start too early on the West Coast and end too late on the East Coast."
The new start times on FOX are an attempt to find a better window - and a bow to fans who want games to end earlier.
"With the sense that games are running longer, it made this the right time to see if an earlier start time can be a positive," Goren said.
"We hear you. Let's give it a shot."
Originally Posted by P MAC ONE
Says who?Originally Posted by bright nikes
a wide margin huh?
so wide bills is on the brink of not even making the roster.
let me add, I hope Torre sees something good out of Bills simulated game (whenever it is). He deserves to be with the boys
The article says he's pitching a simulated game so he'll be on regular rest for game 3.
I'm sure Torre saw plenty of good out of Bills last two starts.
vin just said it on tv.
#%!% it, just gonna drink in the whip.
[h3]Billingsley throws in simulated game[/h3]Right-hander's playoff role for Dodgers still uncertain
By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com
10/05/09 9:35 PM ET
LOS ANGELES -- All-Star pitcher Chad Billingsley, who won more games than any Dodgers pitcher this year but whose postseason role is still undetermined, threw a simulated game at the club's Camelback Ranch training facility in Glendale, Ariz., on Monday.
Billingsley was sent there to face farmhands from the instructional league and threw five innings, making 82 pitches. He last pitched a game for the Dodgers on Sept. 29, allowing two runs in six innings of a 3-1 loss in San Diego. He's winless since Aug. 18, a span of seven starts and one relief appearance after he was skipped a start to work out a mechanical flaw and regain his confidence.
Manager Joe Torre has announced only his first two starters -- left-handers Randy Wolf and Clayton Kershaw -- for the National League Division Series against St. Louis that starts Wednesday at 6:37 p.m. PT on TBS.
Billingsley, Vicente Padilla and Jon Garland are under consideration for the other two possible starting spots in the best-of-five series. Padilla made a strong bid to remain in the rotation when he allowed one run in five innings with 10 strikeouts in Sunday's regular-season finale against Colorado. Garland hasn't pitched since allowing five runs (four earned) in 3 1/3 innings in a loss at San Diego on Sept. 30 and was scheduled to throw a bullpen session in a closed workout at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
When the Dodgers played the Cubs in last year's Division Series, Torre never announced a fourth starter and never needed one, as the Dodgers swept the Cubs in three games.
Billingsley opened the season 5-0 with a 2.21 ERA, but is 7-11 since, with an overall mark of 12-11 and 4.03 ERA. The 12 wins lead the staff. The only lower staff-leading win total in Los Angeles Dodgers history was 11 by Tom Candiotti in 1992, when the Dodgers lost 99 games, the most losses for the franchise since 101 in 1908.
I was hoping they'd go more in detail on how he pitched than just giving his pitch count.
Oh well, we need you Bills!
