2019-2020 MLB Offseason Thread

[GDAWG]

 

[dfwabel]

30 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Two parallel issues are remaining for the Athletics.

While just one more vote by the city council in the Athletics' before construction could begin at Howard Terminal, the team is also still negotiating with Oakland officials to purchase the city's share of the Coliseum property or becoming partners in a new stadium with mixed-used development.

 

Plus, transportation is still a nightmare and not solved for the Howard Terminal site. 

[Sport]

 

 

Lifelong NL fan here - I'd welcome this with wide open arms. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

5 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

 

 

Lifelong NL fan here - I'd welcome this with wide open arms. 

 

This would be unfortunate.

When I was a baseball fan, I was an American League fan who loved the DH.  But I never want the N.L. to adopt the DH, because I realised that the best thing about the DH is having both varieties.  It is someting to argue about, which is very valuable.

 

Just as important, in a time when the league offices have been abolished and the umpiring crews have been combined, not to mention two teams having moved from one league to the other, the DH being in one league and not in the other is the last vestige of league identity.  The current setup is worth retaining on this basis alone.  If this plank were to fall, then there's only a short decent to the degradation of total realignment, producing an "MLB Northeast" with the Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Red Sox in the same division.

[Dynasty]

It must be nice to just go up to plate 3-4 times a game and do nothing else. Although, it's not like pitchers play every game consecutively so I guess the same can be said for them.

[MEANS]

DH in both leagues is the way to go, you are not going to change the trend of pitchers not focusing on batting, that would take a long time for the change to take place and with sport specific culture at all time high....just make the DH for both leagues.

[Sport]

13 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

This would be unfortunate.

When I was a baseball fan, I was an American League fan who loved the DH.  But I never want the N.L. to adopt the DH, because I realised that the best thing about the DH is having both varieties.  It is someting to argue about, which is very valuable.

 

Just as important, in a time when the league offices have been abolished and the umpiring crews have been combined, not to mention two teams having moved from one league to the other, the DH being in one league and not in the other is the last vestige of league identity.  The current setup is worth retaining on this basis alone.  If this plank were to fall, then there's only a short decent to the degradation of total realignment, producing an "MLB Northeast" with the Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Red Sox in the same division.

 

I know how you feel about the DH and realignment and interleague play. We've done this a hundred times. You haven't been an active baseball fan in 25 years, though, so I'm far less interested in what you have to say on the matter than someone who's followed the game sometime this century. 

[pmoehrin]

2 hours ago, McCarthy said:

 

 

Lifelong NL fan here - I'd welcome this with wide open arms. 

 

I'm not a fan of the DH rule, but I can see the writing on the wall. The biggest hurdle with bringing the DH into the NL is the disagreement the union and owners had over what to do with that 25th roster spot. The switch to the 26-man rosters seems to have settled that debate, which means the NL's time as being a non-DH league is numbered. It may not come this year, it may not come next year, but I would bet good money the NL will be a DH league before the decade is over, because the issue will be brought up at every Winter Meeting until the NL inevitably says yes.

I think what tilted the debate towards the AL was both the marketing and success of DH's in recent years. Until Edgar Martinez came along, there wasn't anyone you could consider to be both a DH and a true superstar. Since then, we've seen David Ortiz, Nelson Cruz, Edwin Encarnación, Travis Hafner, Víctor Martínez all have incredibly successful careers in large part because of the DH-rule. Its easier to market established talent than fresh talent, and DH's tend to be almost exclusively veteran players, so its not difficult to see where this is all heading.

 

I read one response on Twitter from someone who said he would never watch an MLB game again if the NL adopted the DH rule that cracked me up, but the pursuits will get over themselves if and when the rule change is adopted. They always do. Its probably going to take NL teams 2-3 years for their rosters to fully adjust to the rule change the same way American League teams have. But once that adjustment period is over, the offensive difference between NL and AL baseball will be erased, and the leagues will be a mirror image of each other.

[WSU151]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 If this plank were to fall, then there's only a short decent to the degradation of total realignment, producing an "MLB Northeast" with the Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Red Sox in the same division.

 

Yeah...no...I don't see the Jets and Giants in the same NFL division...

 

MLB would never put the Yankees and Mets in the same division when they could potentially face off in a World Series (like in 2000). The Angels and Dodgers will never be in the same division, the Giants and the A's will never be in the same division, and the Cubs and White Sox will never be in the same division. MLB has to hedge its biggest markets. 

[Lights Out]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

 

 

Lifelong NL fan here - I'd welcome this with wide open arms. 

 

I hate this idea. The AL should get rid of the DH instead if they have to standardize things.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

56 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

I know how you feel about the DH and realignment and interleague play. We've done this a hundred times. You haven't been an active baseball fan in 25 years, though, so I'm far less interested in what you have to say on the matter than someone who's followed the game sometime this century. 

 

I can understand that.  Still, one person doesn't get to tell another person how to be a fan.  While I no longer follow current baseball (apart from the uniforms), I have a strong emotional connection to baseball history.  So, even after I no longer care whether the Yankees win or lose, I still care about the preservation of certain traditions.  For that reason, retention of the last shred of league identity is something I am rooting for.

 

30 minutes ago, pmoehrin said:

I read one response on Twitter from someone who said he would never watch an MLB game again if the NL adopted the DH rule that cracked me up, but the pursuits will get over themselves if and when the rule change is adopted.

 

Not necessarily.  Interleague play is what drove me away.  Once the emotional bond is broken, walking away is easy. 

And it has nothing to do with being a "purist", which is a fictional concept. But everyone has his or her own personal line. I always say that I didn't leave baseball; baseball left me.  If someone feels the same way about this change that I did about interleague play, then that person won't be back.

 

 

39 minutes ago, WSU151 said:

Yeah...no...I don't see the Jets and Giants in the same NFL division...

 

MLB would never put the Yankees and Mets in the same division when they could potentially face off in a World Series (like in 2000). The Angels and Dodgers will never be in the same division, the Giants and the A's will never be in the same division, and the Cubs and White Sox will never be in the same division. MLB has to hedge its biggest markets. 

 

I hope you're right.  But let us remember that the Nets and Knicks, and also the Lakers and Clippers, are in the same division.  Likewise, the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils share a division, as do the Kings and Ducks.

 

What's more, the exceptions that are made to the divisional rotation in interleague play tell us that Major League Baseball wants Yankee-Met games and Cubs-Sox games every season.  To me this indicates a willingness to put those teams together as division rivals.  Unfortunately, the possibility of a World Series between the Yankees and Mets is not going to be much of a counterweight because, while the 2000 Series was probably great fun for those teams' fans, it actually had pretty poor television ratings nationwide.  And a Cubs-Sox World Series would do even worse. 

So I'm afraid that prospects look pretty bleak on this score.  If the DH distinction falls, then radical realignment and the abolition of the leagues will follow soon after.

 

[WSU151]

10 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

I can understand that.  Still, one person doesn't get to tell another person how to be a fan.  While I no longer follow current baseball (apart from the uniforms), I have a strong emotional connection to baseball history.  So, even after I no longer care whether the Yankees win or lose, I still care about the preservation of certain traditions.  For that reason, retention of the last shred of league identity is something I am rooting for.

 

 

Not necessarily.  Interleague play is what drove me away.  Once the emotional bond is broken, walking away is easy. 

And it has nothing to do with being a "purist", which is a fictional concept. But everyone has his or her own personal line. I always say that I didn't leave baseball; baseball left me.  If someone feels the same way about this change that I did about interleague play, then that person won't be back.

 

 

 

I hope you're right.  But let us remember that the Nets and Knicks, and also the Lakers and Clippers, are in the same division.  Likewise, the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils share a division, as do the Kings and Ducks.

 

What's more, the exceptions that are made to the divisional rotation in interleague play tell us that Major League Baseball wants Yankee-Met games and Cubs-Sox games every season.  To me this indicates a willingness to put those teams together as division rivals.  Unfortunately, the possibility of a World Series between the Yankees and Mets is not going to be much of a counterweight because, while the 2000 Series was probably great fun for those teams' fans, it actually had pretty poor television ratings nationwide.  And a Cubs-Sox World Series would do even worse. 

So I'm afraid that prospects look pretty bleak on this score.  If the DH distinction falls, then radical realignment and the abolition of the leagues will follow soon after.

 

 

MLB will go to a West vs East alignment like the NHL and NBA have?

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

4 minutes ago, WSU151 said:

15 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

If the DH distinction falls, then radical realignment and the abolition of the leagues will follow soon after.

 

MLB will go to a West vs East alignment like the NHL and NBA have?

 

This is not the realignment thread; but it is not hard to imagine geographical divisions within an Eastern Conference / Western Conference format.

[WSU151]

We can imagine anything and we can convince ourselves it will happen if we try hard enough. 

 

Drastic realignment is not really imminent. 

[Sport]

2 hours ago, Lights Out said:

 

I hate this idea. The AL should get rid of the DH instead if they have to standardize things.

 

That's just never realistically going to happen with the players assocation, but we do need to standardize the rules so the inherent advantages one league has over the other will be eliminated so the only way to go is instituting the DH in the NL. 

 

and after watching loads of Mariners baseball when I lived in Seattle, I was converted. The DH makes for a more exciting game. 

 

2 hours ago, pmoehrin said:

 

I'm not a fan of the DH rule, but I can see the writing on the wall. The biggest hurdle with bringing the DH into the NL is the disagreement the union and owners had over what to do with that 25th roster spot. The switch to the 26-man rosters seems to have settled that debate, which means the NL's time as being a non-DH league is numbered. It may not come this year, it may not come next year, but I would bet good money the NL will be a DH league before the decade is over, because the issue will be brought up at every Winter Meeting until the NL inevitably says yes.

I think what tilted the debate towards the AL was both the marketing and success of DH's in recent years. Until Edgar Martinez came along, there wasn't anyone you could consider to be both a DH and a true superstar. Since then, we've seen David Ortiz, Nelson Cruz, Edwin Encarnación, Travis Hafner, Víctor Martínez all have incredibly successful careers in large part because of the DH-rule. Its easier to market established talent than fresh talent, and DH's tend to be almost exclusively veteran players, so its not difficult to see where this is all heading.

 

I read one response on Twitter from someone who said he would never watch an MLB game again if the NL adopted the DH rule that cracked me up, but the pursuits will get over themselves if and when the rule change is adopted. They always do. Its probably going to take NL teams 2-3 years for their rosters to fully adjust to the rule change the same way American League teams have. But once that adjustment period is over, the offensive difference between NL and AL baseball will be erased, and the leagues will be a mirror image of each other.

 

Baseball purists can drink paint. There's far too many who call themselves baseball fans who are totally cool with the fact that in the name of tradition many of the game's greatest players never played against each other despite playing in the same era. Interleague play was a long overdue correction. 

[SFGiants58]

2 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

Baseball purists can drink paint. There's far too many who call themselves baseball fans who are totally cool with the fact that in the name of tradition many of the game's greatest players never played against each other despite playing in the same era. Interleague play was a long overue correction. 

 

The purists are a detriment to the game, not a benefit. Interleague should have been around since 1901, along with combined manager crews and real playoffs. 

[Sodboy13]

I prefer the DH, but have long been of the mind that either adopting it for all teams or banishing it completely would be fine. Keeping two sets of rules when there's at least one interleague game on the schedule every night, and the two separate leagues were dissolved in all but name more than a decade ago, is nonsense. "B-b-b-but the double switch! It's a more stragetic game when the pitcher bats!" I don't care, I see enough strikeouts in modern-day baseball, I don't need a near-guaranteed one every ninth batter. And if you've got a Bumgarner or Hershiser on your roster, there's nothing in the DH rule that prohibits you from batting your pitchers, as I understand it.

[The Six]

The DH is simply not baseball and is not entertaining. But we're already pretty deep in watching Manfred become the worst commissioner in sports, so we might as well have this happen under his watch.

[AustinFromBoston]

Only thing I would miss is watching the pitchers having to bat.

It's fun when you have a player that is good at both. 

[Sodboy13]

27 minutes ago, The Six said:

The DH is simply not baseball 

 

It's been at the highest level of the sport for half a century. It's used in pretty much every adult league, major, minor, or independent, other than the National. This is like claiming the forward pass is "not football" in 1980.