Tweet of the Day: the draft is kind of a crap shoot - MLB

C.J. Nitkowski is kinda hard on himself here — the dude did last ten years in the bigs — but sometimes that’s goes with self-awareness. He tweeted this on Sunday:

18th anniversary of me being taken 9th overall in the MLB draft. I often reminisce about how many people were fired over that decision.

— CJ Nitkowski (@CJNitkowski) June 3, 2012

In other “the draft is a crapshoot, so let’s all calm down” news, Rob Neyer makes a great point today: the vast majority of guys taken in this thing will flame out and we’ll never hear of them. Even the high-rounders. So why don’t we stop comparing everyone who is picked to established All-Stars.

It’s the footballification of the draft, I suppose. You put the thing on TV and you have to say something. And if you put it on TV you want to draw in as many people as you can, so you have to say something provocative or broad or widely relatable, even if it isn’t particularly reasonable.

NEW YORK (AP) Video reviews overturned 42.4% of calls checked during Major League Baseball’s shortened regular season, down slightly from 44% in 2019.

Boston was the most successful team, gaining overturned calls on 10 of 13 challenges for 76.9%. The Chicago White Sox were second, successful on eight of 11 challenges for 72.7%, followed by Kansas City at seven of 10 (70%).

Pittsburgh was the least successful at 2 of 11 (18.2%), and Toronto was 7 of 25 (28%).

Minnesota had the most challenges with 28 and was successful on nine (32.1%). The New York Yankees and Milwaukee tied for the fewest with nine each; the Yankees were successful on five (55.6%) and the Brewers three (33.3%).

MLB said Tuesday there were 468 manager challenges and 58 crew chief reviews among 526 total reviews during 898 games. The average time of a review was 1 minute, 25 seconds, up from 1:16 the previous season, when there 1,186 manager challenges and 170 crew chief reviews among 1,356 reviews during 2,429 games.

This year’s replays had 104 calls confirmed (19.8%), 181 that stood (34.4%) and 223 overturned. An additional 12 calls (2.3%) were for rules checks and six (1.1%) for recording keeping.

In 2019 there were 277 calls confirmed (12.5%), 463 that stood (34.1%) and 597 overturned. An additional nine calls (0.7%) were for rules checks and 10 (0.7%) for record keeping.

Expanded video review started in 2014.