MLB 2021-22 Hot Stove/Picket Line Thread

[SFGiants58]

1 hour ago, infrared41 said:

 

It also adds 52 players who have no business being on a Major League roster.

Exactly! Us pro-contraction folks think the talent pool is too thin already, so expansion would make it worse.

 

I’d love for Inter Miami to buy Marlins Park, turn it into an SSS, and allow the Marlins and Rays to fold. A 28-team league sounds much better.

[Cujo]

MLB playoffs likely to expand

 

[infrared41]

3 hours ago, bosrs1 said:

 

What proof however do you have that Aaron used? 

 

On 2/26/2022 at 10:58 AM, infrared41 said:

On 2/26/2022 at 1:53 AM, EJ_Barlik said:

So I stand corrected, Aaron did admit to using an substance during his playing career.  (First time I came across that anecdote, incidentally.)  Was that substance "banned" is a different discussion?  I'm not trying to win an argument here - just saying there is a difference.

 

[Burmy]

As much has been talked about in this whole lockout drama, the biggest question remains this:

 

[SFGiants58]

I miss Fay Vincent. He actually had the balls to stand up to the owners.

[dont care]

16 hours ago, bosrs1 said:

 

What proof however do you have that Aaron used? 

Um him admitting to it…

[Dilbert]

MLB has cancelled the first two series of the season after it and MLBPA could not come to an agreement. Manfred continues to be a cancer to the sport.

[SFGiants58]

Just now, Dilbert said:

MLB has cancelled the first two series of the season after it and MLBPA could not come to an agreement. Manfred and the owners continue to be a cancer to the sport.

Fixed. They’re the ones feeding him the lines, compared to Selig (who was simply an owner) and Vincent (who fell out of owners’ favor). They found the perfect patsy to extract as much money from the game as possible, while crushing a weakened players’ association and pushing for more anti-labor practices.

[Ridleylash]

Frankly, I don't see how MLB's going to recover from this for a long time if they get into an extended fight with the PA, what with the NHL heading into the most important games of their season and NBA still on the airwaves. The only league of the Big 4 not currently playing is the NFL, but that's because they already finished their season, not because of a pissing contest between players and owners.

 

MLB's audience is already the oldest of the Big 4 on average with the longest games, and having a lockout over what is effectively a pissing contest never helps draw younger fans into the sport.

[Cujo]

Oh, go fxck yourself

 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Good time for MLS to begin its negotiations.

[FiddySicks]

Honestly, considering the asinine changes they were looking to make to the playoff format (along with already installing the universal DH), combined with this continued labor strife and stripping of the minor league system, it’s probably better that we don’t get baseball this year. 

 

 

 

The thing that just baffles me is that baseball would put another generation through this. I was seven in 1995 so I was really JUST getting into baseball, and I didn’t really have much of a feeling about the strike. But I know older people who are STILL mad about that and won’t ever return. Why in the world would you build up 30 years of good will with younger fans, only to do the same :censored: to them? Baseball is already trending down, and they can’t find young fans as it is. Are they actually trying to kill this whole thing off? It sure feels like it. 
 

If anything, it’s full confirmation of something most of already knew. This league doesn’t give a single :censored: about the people that pay to see it. 

[Sport]

Here's the most surprising part about this for me - I don't really care. 10 years ago I would've said MLB was my favorite sport and I wouldn't have had to think that hard about it. Now, though, it's a distant third, and depending on what happens this Spring/Summer MLS might jump it, which if you would've told that to 2012 me he would've questioned if 2022 me had suffered a brain injury. I'm mad about cancelling games, of course, but I'm only mad because it's one more thing on top of the pile of things I've grown to dislike about the current state of Major League Baseball. 

 

I knew we were in trouble when I looked around before the Yankees and Red Sox played their one game playoff last fall and was alarmed by how little it moved the needle. Their franchise valuations keep going up in the short term so I don't think baseball owners are aware of the tidal wave of apathy they've created for the sport over the last decade. They're losing me, a lifelong baseball fan, and I don't know if they're converting kids. My nephews are sports-crazed ten year olds who live in a city with a major league team and they act like baseball is just something their dads and uncles like. To them it might as well be golf. When I was their age baseball was the only sport. If the league doesn't make fixes soon the product is only going to get worse and new fans won't replace the generation that's dying and taking their baseball fandom with them. 

[SFGiants58]

Had it not been for my team being good last year, I don't know if I even would've bothered really following the sport. Also, my big research project (that's getting its own website soon) just (further) revealed to me how hollow all the poetic waxing about the sport has been since its inception. The owners have always wanted to screw over the labor that generates money for them, the big stars of the past 20 years are nowhere near as compelling or culturally important as the stars of basketball/football/even hockey* in that time span, and I'd rather be doing non-sports things than watching games.

 

I guess Posey retiring and me finishing Defunct Saga really were my "jumping out" point. My final reasons to care kind of stopped being around.

[FiddySicks]

1 hour ago, SFGiants58 said:

Had it not been for my team being good last year, I don't know if I even would've bothered really following the sport. Also, my big research project (that's getting its own website soon) just (further) revealed to me how hollow all the poetic waxing about the sport has been since its inception. The owners have always wanted to screw over the labor that generates money for them, the big stars of the past 20 years are nowhere near as compelling or culturally important as the stars of basketball/football/even hockey* in that time span, and I'd rather be doing non-sports things than watching games.

 

I guess Posey retiring and me finishing Defunct Saga really were my "jumping out" point. My final reasons to care kind of stopped being around.

Weird thing is, the Giants were GREAT last season, and I watched maybe a total of 20 innings. Part of that has to do with not being willing to pay for cable any longer, but the other part was I just couldn’t even be bothered to find a Reddit stream or something. I just have a total apathy towards it now. Part of that is getting older, taking on more responsibilities, and, like, having a wife now. But the other part is that they’ve basically given me zero incentive to add it into my already busy schedule. 

[SFGiants58]

15 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

 Part of that is getting older, taking on more responsibilities, and, like, having a wife now. But the other part is that they’ve basically given me zero incentive to add it into my already busy schedule. 

 

Pretty much me, also. I spent the past five years getting two different master's degrees and working, along with exploring new hobbies and getting into true crime/my backlog of media. I also got a boyfriend last year, which has changed my perspective on things somewhat. I'm not taking big chunks of time out to watch sports when I have stuff that's more important to me to do. Baseball (and all sports, really) just isn't going to supersede career, hobby, and relationship goals.

 

Last year, I saw two games in-person (one with my BF) and had games on in the background while I was doing household stuff with my parents. The product isn't engaging enough to make me regularly stop what I'm doing and watch and it hasn't been in a long time.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I can't watch Mariners games on TV and haven't been able to do so since I've been purchasing internet cable.

 

Really, really hard to care about a team you can't watch.

[Crabcake]

6 hours ago, Sport said:

Here's the most surprising part about this for me - I don't really care. 10 years ago I would've said MLB was my favorite sport and I wouldn't have had to think that hard about it. Now, though, it's a distant third, and depending on what happens this Spring/Summer MLS might jump it, which if you would've told that to 2012 me he would've questioned if 2022 me had suffered a brain injury. I'm mad about cancelling games, of course, but I'm only mad because it's one more thing on top of the pile of things I've grown to dislike about the current state of Major League Baseball. 

 

I knew we were in trouble when I looked around before the Yankees and Red Sox played their one game playoff last fall and was alarmed by how little it moved the needle. Their franchise valuations keep going up in the short term so I don't think baseball owners are aware of the tidal wave of apathy they've created for the sport over the last decade. They're losing me, a lifelong baseball fan, and I don't know if they're converting kids. My nephews are sports-crazed ten year olds who live in a city with a major league team and they act like baseball is just something their dads and uncles like. To them it might as well be golf. When I was their age baseball was the only sport. If the league doesn't make fixes soon the product is only going to get worse and new fans won't replace the generation that's dying and taking their baseball fandom with them. 

This sums it up well. The Orioles have sucked for the large majority of my life, but when I was a kid I still cared a lot more about them. On a Sunday afternoon I’d flip on the 1:05 game and I knew the roster front to back. Nowadays, you couldn’t pay me to watch regular season O’s baseball. Of course, that also has to do with them sucking more now than they ever have before, but I digress. But I can tell the same thing is happening even with the Caps, who by all account are still a solid playoff team. Basically what I’m saying is that I’m finding out that I really only have room and time for two sports teams in my life, and those teams are the Ravens and Liverpool. Baseball is doing absolutely nothing to convince me to bump one of those two teams out of the rotation. 

[gosioux76]

14 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I can't watch Mariners games on TV and haven't been able to do so since I've been purchasing internet cable.

 

Really, really hard to care about a team you can't watch.

 

To be fair, this is the case with almost all sports. I'm a Twins fan who moved to St. Louis three years ago. I pay for the MLB streaming package so I can watch every Twins game, but I'm blocked out of Cardinals games, and since I'm a Hulu subscriber, I can't get access to the local broadcasts on the regional sports network. As a result, I'm not invested in the local team at all. 

 

It's even worse for hockey. I'm only a tepid NHL fan at best, but if the Blues were on TV regularly, i'd be more inclined to watch bits and pieces here and there to familiarize myself with the team. As it is now, I forgot they were actually playing. 

 

I'm waiting eagerly to see if the city's new MLS team reaches a deal with the regional sports networks. I've already seen how other MLS teams are bypassing it. Portland is using their RSN as the production partner, but airing the games locally on a local network. The RSN only has re-broadcast rights. 

 

Apologies for taking us way off the MLB labor talk. 

[Digby]

I'm also using Hulu's live TV service, which has never had NESN, so no Red Sox (or Bruins) for me either except for national games. But I actually enjoy baseball on the radio so I'm not as bothered by that. Baseball is still ingrained enough in Boston that it's not in as much an existential crisis here, and it helps that the team has at least had compelling characters on its roster, apart from the still inexcusable Mookie Betts trade. On the other hand, they had a franchise commitment to 3.5 hour games before it was cool for everyone to do that, so that's not great.

 

The relative ubiquity of games and the accessibility of Fenway Park makes baseball unique as a "casual summer night hang" that feels like a backstop to it completely falling off the map. But that's probably a market-by-market thing, and I guess it says enough that I'm describing it like a networking event and not a wild, passionate event full of diehards.