MLB Regular Season 22: The Thread

[Dilbert]

Something unusual here in Cincinnati. There are still tickets available for opening day. Usually Opening Day sells out quickly.  It is a bit different this year. For only the third time since joining the National League in 1890, the Reds are starting on the road. (It used to be tradition that the Reds would be the first game to start the baseball season at home, but now thanks to television packages they just start at home.) The only other times the Reds started on the road was in 1966, when all three home games vs the Mets were rained out and they started in Philadelphia. The other time was 1990 when a lock out delayed the season start and the Reds started in Houston.

 

The Reds front office is blaming the change of start of opening day due to the lock out for not having the home opener sold out. The real reason is fans have had enough of the ownership and the ownership is unwilling to take any blame

[Sport]

11 hours ago, Dilbert said:

Something unusual here in Cincinnati. There are still tickets available for opening day. Usually Opening Day sells out quickly.  It is a bit different this year. For only the third time since joining the National League in 1890, the Reds are starting on the road. (It used to be tradition that the Reds would be the first game to start the baseball season at home, but now thanks to television packages they just start at home.) The only other times the Reds started on the road was in 1966, when all three home games vs the Mets were rained out and they started in Philadelphia. The other time was 1990 when a lock out delayed the season start and the Reds started in Houston.

 

The Reds front office is blaming the change of start of opening day due to the lock out for not having the home opener sold out. The real reason is fans have had enough of the ownership and the ownership is unwilling to take any blame

 

Yeah Phil Castellini can eat a bowl of farts. Either he's clueless to the real reason people aren't buying tickets or he's blaming us for being pissed about their big fire sale. Neither one of those is good.

 

Pecota's projections have the Reds at 79 wins, which is the second best projection in the NL Central. If this group of random dudes is good enough for 79 wins then this group of random dudes plus the good players they traded away would've been good enough to make the playoffs. UGHHGHGHGH!

[Dilbert]

9 hours ago, Sport said:

 

Yeah Phil Castellini can eat a bowl of farts. Either he's clueless to the real reason people aren't buying tickets or he's blaming us for being pissed about their big fire sale. Neither one of those is good.

The fruit didnt fall far from his fathers fruit tree

[heavybass]

Angel Hernandez is probably plotting his get out of MLB clause...

[DEAD!]

35 minutes ago, heavybass said:

Angel Hernandez is probably plotting his get out of MLB clause...

Is that an April Fool's joke? 

[heavybass]

9 minutes ago, DEAD! said:

Is that an April Fool's joke? 

 

 

[DEAD!]

33 minutes ago, heavybass said:

 

 

At least  they waited until Joe West retired

[McCall]

23 hours ago, heavybass said:

Angel Hernandez is probably plotting his get out of MLB clause...

1st Inning

CREW CHIEF: The previous play is under review because Angel Hernandez.

CREW CHIEF: The previous call has been overturned because Angel Hernandez.

 

2nd Inning

CREW CHIEF: You already know.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

Prediction time?

 

AL

 

AL EAST

x- Toronto

x- Tampa Bay

Boston

New York

Baltimore

 

AL CENTRAL

x- Chicago

Minnesota

Detroit

Kansas City

Cleveland

 

AL WEST

x- Houston

x- Seattle

x- LA Angels

Texas

Oakland

 

 

NL

 

NL EAST

x- Atlanta

NY Mets

Philadelphia

Miami

Washington

 

NL CENTRAL

x- St. Louis

x- Milwaukee

Chicago

Cincinnati

Pittsburgh

 

NL WEST

x- LA Dodgers

x- San Francisco 

x- San Diego

Colorado

Arizona

 

PLAYOFFS

AL

1st round byes- Toronto, Houston

 

Chicago over LA Angels

Tampa Bay over Seattle

 

Toronto over Chicago

Houston over Tampa Bay

 

Toronto over Houston

 

NL

1st round byes- LA Dodgers, St. Louis

 

San Diego over Atlanta

San Francisco over Milwaukee

 

LA Dodgers over San Diego

San Francisco over St. Louis

 

LA Dodgers over San Francisco

 

WORLD SERIES

LA Dodgers (SURPRISE, SURPRISE!) over Toronto

 

 

[Digby]

23 minutes ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

LA Dodgers (SURPRISE, SURPRISE!) over Toronto

 

 

Because I don't process change well, the Dodgers run of dominance is still a little weird to me. I'm a child of the 90s and the Dodgers thus imprinted on me as a team with a lot of cool, good players but were always barely a .500 team anyhow. 

[DEAD!]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

 

Because I don't process change well, the Dodgers run of dominance is still a little weird to me. I'm a child of the 90s and the Dodgers thus imprinted on me as a team with a lot of cool, good players but were always barely a .500 team anyhow. 

 

This Dodgers era seems to remind me of the 90s Braves. They were good for so long, but had only one World Series title, which was in shortened season. 

[Digby]

On 2022-04-01 at 10:52 AM, heavybass said:

Angel Hernandez is probably plotting his get out of MLB clause...

 

Who wants this? Does anyone enjoy that the NBA implemented this with the refs awkwardly staring into a GoPro? Sometimes you get a useful explanation, but just as often you get referees who relish their power trip and newfound path to televised fame. Just leave this to football and let's all move on.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

^ Agreed. Part of the reason I love baseball so much is because of it's "old-fashioney" charm and the fact that the rules have only changed minimally in over 100 years. 

 

The 6 playoff spots, with 2 (!!!) first round byes is the nail in the coffin for me. I loved it at 4, it was only the cream of the crop. Then the 2nd wild card I could live with, even though I always thought a 1 game playoff was stupid. It should've been a best of 5 series. Too many recent large scale changes. 

[Kramerica Industries]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

 

Who wants this? Does anyone enjoy that the NBA implemented this with the refs awkwardly staring into a GoPro? Sometimes you get a useful explanation, but just as often you get referees who relish their power trip and newfound path to televised fame. Just leave this to football and let's all move on.

 

Even hockey was better when replay decisions weren't announced and you knew what the final decision was based on whether the referee gave a washout signal or pointed straight to center ice. These aren't flags in football; we can figure out for ourselves why an out or safe decision was made. There's very few cases where it delves into a bit of minutiae that isn't readily apparent, and only on those occasions is any kind of formal explanation of any value.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I think what killed baseball -- and I'm only half kidding -- was the end of the trading card market for kids.

 

I used to be able to buy a pack of cards for 50-75 cents, and get like 15 cards for what would be about $2 today. You could buy a box for $20 and get 24 packs.

 

Now it's like 6-7 cards for $5 and purchased mostly by speculators and YouTubers so the motivations are less about collecting your favorites and more about hitting the jackpot.

 

Everything around baseball has been monetized to hell and the entry points are so much more difficult.

[leopard88]

https://www.southbmore.com/2022/04/06/photo-tour-of-the-new-left-field-at-oriole-park-at-camden-yards/

 

 

The angle at the bullpen wall in left center doesn't look as severe as I expected.

[Sport]

On 4/5/2022 at 7:05 PM, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I think what killed baseball -- and I'm only half kidding -- was the end of the trading card market for kids.

 

I used to be able to buy a pack of cards for 50-75 cents, and get like 15 cards for what would be about $2 today. You could buy a box for $20 and get 24 packs.

 

Now it's like 6-7 cards for $5 and purchased mostly by speculators and YouTubers so the motivations are less about collecting your favorites and more about hitting the jackpot.

 

Everything around baseball has been monetized to hell and the entry points are so much more difficult.

 

Another thing is Sportscenter stopped showing as many highlights and the ESPN weekday morning shows turned into live debate content* rather than just re-airing the previous night's Sportscenter episode 4 times. On summer days little me would rewatch sportscenter at least twice, but most days it was 3 or 4 times. I'd see every MLB game from the night before in a highlights package with a stats page after every highlight. Without really trying I had an encyclopedic knowledge of almost every player in the league. 

 

*I wonder if being firehosed First Take style bullshirt since they were infants is why 15 year olds on the internet think all sports talk has to be violent hand-to-hand combat. 

[gosioux76]

8 minutes ago, Sport said:

 

Another thing is Sportscenter stopped showing as many highlights and the ESPN weekday morning shows turned into live debate content* rather than just re-airing the previous night's episode 4 times. On summer days little me would rewatch sportscenter at least twice, but most days it was 3 or 4 times. I'd see every MLB game from the night before in a highlights package with a stats page after every highlight. Without really trying I had an encyclopedic knowledge of almost every player in the league. 

 

*I wonder if being firehosed First Take style bullshirt since they were infants is why 15 year olds on the internet think all sports talk has to be violent hand-to-hand combat. 

 

This is a great point. It's clear ESPN's analytics show better traction for NFL news year-round rather than being the broader, highlights-laden sports newscast that they used to be. It's possible ESPNNews still serves this role, but I'll be honest, I never watch it to find out. 

 

I don't have it on my current cable package, but I actually really enjoy the MLB Network because it's the one place where you can get the full picture of the league. 

[Sport]

3 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

 

 

I don't have it on my current cable package, but I actually really enjoy the MLB Network because it's the one place where you can get the full picture of the league. 

 

Yeah same. When I had MLB network I watched it a lot because they gave a lot of attention to every game from the night before. It's the closest thing to late 90's Sportscenter that anyone's done in a long time. NHL network does that too where their highlights packages show plays that don't always end in a goal, which gives highlights of games you didn't see a measure of suspense. 

 

For the life of me I can't figure out why ESPN Classic while still operating in its original conceit never aired randomly selected old Sportscenter episodes. I would've watched the hell out of that. 

[gosioux76]

7 minutes ago, Sport said:

 

Yeah same. When I had MLB network I watched it a lot because they gave a lot of attention to every game from the night before. It's the closest thing to late 90's Sportscenter that anyone's done in a long time. NHL network does that too where their highlights packages show plays that don't always end in a goal, which gives highlights of games you didn't see a measure of suspense. 

 

For the life of me I can't figure out why ESPN Classic while still operating in its original conceit never aired randomly selected old Sportscenter episodes. I would've watched the hell out of that. 

Yeah, I love watching old highlights shows. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an archive of SportsCenters on YouTube. I know I've watched several old NFL PrimeTime episodes from the early '90s on there. YouTube is the greatest.