MLB Regular Season 22: The Thread

[Sport]

14 hours ago, Dilbert said:

 

You can add Tommy Pham's 7.5 million and Hunter Strickland's 1.8 mill to the Reds, which almost makes me more upset. I thought you were shedding payroll? Now you're adding 34 year olds so you can win maybe 78 games?? This team is projected to win 79 games, 79 wins means they could've gotten to 86 wins if they hadn't traded half the starters. 86 wins is a playoff team now. You traded away a playoff team!

[tBBP]

15 hours ago, Dilbert said:

 

Just out of curiosity, where do the Pirates and Twins fall in this spectrum? I know the Twins just spent a nice chunk of change on some players, but curious nonetheless.

 

As for the Pirates...let's just say I grew into a fan of the "gold mine of pitching" Pirates--you remember them, the teams that upon stepping off the plane to report to spring training were at the same moment automatically mathematically and realistically eliminated from playoff contention...

[JayMac]

How the hell do you not spend a penny in free agency?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

14 minutes ago, JayMac said:

How the hell do you not spend a penny in free agency?

 

When our entire legal, political and financial systems are set up to protect our billionaire class from any consequences ever (except that one guy in prison), you get a free pass to act especially craven. Like by letting your baseball team to rot because you can.

[Dilbert]

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/reds-conversation-with-bob-castellini

 

Reds owner and lying sack of human waste Bob Castellini has now spoken about the free agency trades and turmoil that has caused the fans to call him to sell the team. Problem is he spoke with one of his own employees, Reds radio play by play Tommy Thrall, rather than an outside reporter. In all likelyhood Bob reviewed the questions ahead of time only permiting Tommy to ask the ones Bob likes. I dont believe this garbage for one minute. The Reds traded away their All Stars and fan favorites only to get in return minor league prospects, an injured pitcher, and all of the free agency signings have been  are one year deals. Sell the team Bob!

[Lights Out]

19 hours ago, JayMac said:

How the hell do you not spend a penny in free agency?

 

That tends to happen when you're deliberately sabotaging your team to depress fan support and justify relocating elsewhere.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

33 minutes ago, Lights Out said:

 

That tends to happen when you're deliberately sabotaging your team to depress fan support and justify relocating elsewhere.

 

 

[McCall]

On 3/24/2022 at 9:49 PM, Dilbert said:

As much as I dislike the Brewers, they already have a pretty good team. They didn't really need to spend a whole lot on free agency. I'm actually somewhat surprised the Orioles spent that much.

[Dynasty]

The Orioles are the Pirates of the AL. I believe they care more about promotions and fan events (which tbf are nice to have), but consider building a roster to be secondary.  They do have some good pieces in their farm system right now with Bowie, but who's to say they will be long-time Orioles?

 

I can imagine being an O's fan is rough, especially when your team is in a division with two markets that tend to dominate in payroll. Then again, there are the Rays who are able to put talent on the field regularly... and I think they have less to work with (I don't know completely though).

[crashcarson15]

On 3/25/2022 at 9:39 AM, shstpt1 said:

 

It won't happen, but they should be forced to sell the team. They obviously don't care to compete, and are a waste of time for those fanbases to invest in. A Salary floor and cap is desperately needed in this league, but neither side will ever go for it. 

 

There are a lot of criticisms that can be lobbed at the Athletics and Guardians' owners, but I don't think "they obviously don't care to compete" is one of them — Cleveland is the fourth-winningest team in baseball since 2013 with a World Series appearance and Oakland is the fifth-winningest team since 2018.

 

The financials of the game are a structured in a way that some of the best players in the sport make are going to make $700,000 this season, and the best players don't really make anything near their true market value until their sixth or seventh full season. That doesn't happen in other sports, and it creates this environment where half the league is more or less now trying to emulate the Rays.

 

It is wildly frustrating that the Guardians aren't spending any money at a point where they have a perennial MVP candidate signed to the best contract in baseball and a Cy Young winner making $6 million, but I also completely understand the club's desire to just like, be solid enough every year that eventually, you get the right sequence of prospects and guys to click at the right time and make another run.

[crashcarson15]

On 3/17/2022 at 10:43 AM, Sport said:

The number of pitchers who throw in the high 90's, if not over 100 right now compared to even twenty years ago is ridiculous and there's only more on the way. Pitching has evolved well past hitting and there needs to be something to SHIFT (LOL!) the balance back to a more level center. 

My radical baseball take is that the easiest way to "fix" the game would be to expand to like, 48 or 60 teams. It will obviously never happen, but there were 24 major league teams in 1969 and there's only 30 today — the talent pool has grown far, far faster than the number of major league roster slots, which means the average player is so much better, which leads to the natural development state of the game.

 

Starters get pulled after the second time through the order because each team has like, five guys in the bullpen who throw gas and can work an inning each at a time. You get the three true outcomes because everyone has filthy pitchers, and you get more shifts because the only way to beat the filthy pitcher is to hit it over everyone's head, and it builds on itself. If you dilute the average level of play with a bunch of guys who are in AAA now, each team is more flawed and the game probably drifts back to a more "natural" tactical state.

 

It obviously won't happen, but I think what we've seen in the game over the last couple decades is just the natural evolution of tactics as the talent level gets higher and higher.

[Crabcake]

1 hour ago, crashcarson15 said:

My radical baseball take is that the easiest way to "fix" the game would be to expand to like, 48 or 60 teams. It will obviously never happen, but there were 24 major league teams in 1969 and there's only 30 today — the talent pool has grown far, far faster than the number of major league roster slots, which means the average player is so much better, which leads to the natural development state of the game.

 

Starters get pulled after the second time through the order because each team has like, five guys in the bullpen who throw gas and can work an inning each at a time. You get the three true outcomes because everyone has filthy pitchers, and you get more shifts because the only way to beat the filthy pitcher is to hit it over everyone's head, and it builds on itself. If you dilute the average level of play with a bunch of guys who are in AAA now, each team is more flawed and the game probably drifts back to a more "natural" tactical state.

 

It obviously won't happen, but I think what we've seen in the game over the last couple decades is just the natural evolution of tactics as the talent level gets higher and higher.

That’s honestly really interesting, because it’s one of the first “how do we fix baseball?” dialogues I’ve heard that acknowledges that baseball’s problems are deep-rooted. A symptomatic change doesn’t suddenly make all the difference. MLB is not going to leapfrog the NBA into second place because they decided to add a pitch clock. Something fundamental - or at the very least, radical enough that the average shmuck like myself can’t think of it while typing on a message board - needs to change if MLB wants to start making headway in the North American sports landscape. What is that change? Heck if I know. It’s the job of someone who is paid a lot more than me to figure it out. 

[Dilbert]

6 hours ago, Dynasty said:

The Orioles are the Pirates of the AL. I believe they care more about promotions and fan events (which tbf are nice to have), but consider building a roster to be secondary. 

The Reds want you to think they bring in good players and do well in free agency. In reality this is what the team does. It relies heavily on promotions and nostalgia. (Usually bobbleheads, fireworks night or postgame concert or anything to do with the Big Red Machine or Pete Rose. Otherwise its out of town fans (Pittsburgh, Cubs, St Louis) they look to filling the seats.

[Kevin W.]

1 hour ago, Dilbert said:

The Reds want you to think they bring in good players and do well in free agency. In reality this is what the team does. It relies heavily on promotions and nostalgia. (Usually bobbleheads, fireworks night or postgame concert or anything to do with the Big Red Machine or Pete Rose. Otherwise its out of town fans (Pittsburgh, Cubs, St Louis) they look to filling the seats.

That sure sounds like the Padres after this offseason.

[who do you think]

On 3/26/2022 at 4:37 PM, crashcarson15 said:

My radical baseball take is that the easiest way to "fix" the game would be to expand to like, 48 or 60 teams. It will obviously never happen, but there were 24 major league teams in 1969 and there's only 30 today — the talent pool has grown far, far faster than the number of major league roster slots, which means the average player is so much better, which leads to the natural development state of the game.

 

Starters get pulled after the second time through the order because each team has like, five guys in the bullpen who throw gas and can work an inning each at a time. You get the three true outcomes because everyone has filthy pitchers, and you get more shifts because the only way to beat the filthy pitcher is to hit it over everyone's head, and it builds on itself. If you dilute the average level of play with a bunch of guys who are in AAA now, each team is more flawed and the game probably drifts back to a more "natural" tactical state.

 

It obviously won't happen, but I think what we've seen in the game over the last couple decades is just the natural evolution of tactics as the talent level gets higher and higher.

 

At the risk of derailing the discussion, this same problem applies to the NBA, which has largely devolved into Pat Riley's dystopian vision of it being nothing a bunch of small forward-sized guys running up and down shooting threes, switching everything, and playing interchangeable positions just because they can. Guys who don't fit that mold are now the exception. Even the bottomfeeders can do it thanks to too much talent with nowhere to go. Bill Simmons (I know) recently quipped that this year's Detroit Pistons would be a .500 team in 2006 and I don't think he's wrong. The 2018 Celtics plugged Terry Rozier (by reputation, a decent backup combo guard) in for Kyrie Irving (by reputation, a star) when the latter got injured and didn't suffer at all. If anything they were better off because Rozier was a better defender.

 

Maybe some of this is nostalgia, but the game was more engaging and watchable when teams had a couple of all-around guys at the top, and after that it was backups and specialists. Teams had to play around what those other guys couldn't do, and put them in a position to capitalize on the things they could do. Everyone being able to do everything proficiently has removed that "problem" for the teams themselves, but it has really homogenized the product.

[8BW14]

The Cardinals are apparently bringing Albert Pujols back for one last go-around. I guess he’ll DH against lefties and give Goldschmidt a few days off?
Don’t know how much gas he has left in the tank, but it’ll be fun to see him to go out together with Yadi and Wainwright and hit a few more home runs along the way.

[LMU]

 

Can he just be suspended already?

[DEAD!]

49 minutes ago, LMU said:

 

Can he just be suspended already?

 

So at least we know he's been busy during "administrative leave".

[The_Admiral]

On 3/28/2022 at 2:38 AM, who do you think said:

At the risk of derailing the discussion, this same problem applies to the NBA, which has largely devolved into Pat Riley's dystopian vision of it being nothing a bunch of small forward-sized guys running up and down shooting threes, switching everything, and playing interchangeable positions just because they can. 

 

Maybe some of this is nostalgia, but the game was more engaging and watchable when teams had a couple of all-around guys at the top, and after that it was backups and specialists. Teams had to play around what those other guys couldn't do, and put them in a position to capitalize on the things they could do. Everyone being able to do everything proficiently has removed that "problem" for the teams themselves, but it has really homogenized the product.

 

The NBA has plenty of problems not dissimilar to the ones other sports leagues face, you're just less likely to hear about them because most people who write about sports online have an emotional stake in the NBA that they don't have in the others. They feel like they need to do right by the NBA in a way that they don't feel toward MLB, definitely not toward the NFL, and a million times not toward the despicable NHL.

 

But what you said is true of all leagues. There's gotta be something for everyone. I like the idea that the Bears are built around defense, or that the Flyers did run-and-gun-and-goon for like 40 years. Different personalities, different products, not just the same stuff in different laundry. I don't like every NHL team doing short shifts and bad shots, I don't like the NBA being nothing but threes because MBAs said so, and I really don't like every baseball team taking four hours to play a game because everyone is drawing twelve-pitch walks or fifteen-pitch strikeouts. Homogeneity is bad for all sports. Exploiting mismatches is the fun of it all.

[Cujo]

1 hour ago, LMU said:

 

Can he just be suspended already?

 

Since when has Manfred been about doing the right thing?