2023 MLB Season Thread

[Germanshepherd]

That game was tremendous.
 

I just wish this tournament was at a time where I could devote more time to it, because March means college basketball. 
 

Ideally, this would be what Olympic baseball is, because we have too many regular season games to care about anyways and that happens in the lovely dead period of late summer. 

[Sport]

What a game. Japan comes back to steal it from Mexico. Ohtani doubles to start the 9th, then a walk, and then Murakami knocks them in with a shot off the wall to walk it off. Ohtani vs Trout for the championship.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

I'd say its similar to NHL players in the Olympics, but that's at least the Olympics, and not some fabricated event.

 

As though the Olympics is a naturally-ocurring event. Egad.

 

The WBC is the baseball equivalent of the World Cup. For those who didn't read the earlier messages, it bears repeating that even that tournament took several iterations to reach the stature that it eventually attained.

[crashcarson15]

Man, I just don't know how you can be a baseball fan and not love this tournament. It's been a shining example of everything that makes baseball great — atmosphere, passion, tension, culture.

[BBTV]

Cool, so then there doesn't need to be an All Star Game this year since that's basically happening now.

[McCall]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

Cool, so then there doesn't need to be an All Star Game this year since that's basically happening now.

Not true, because not all players playing in the WBC are MLB All-Stars... or even MLB players.

[TBGKon]

I've always wondered if the WBC could work as a fall tournament in November.  I know football is king that time of year, but other than March I can't see another possible option.  I would doubt MLB would pause the season or have this run concurrently in June/July.

[Germanshepherd]

This is coming down to Ohtani vs. Trout. God this rules. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

That guy Ohtani is amazing.

 

(I know, duh)

[FiddySicks]

That was a really good tournament, but the Championship game sort of laid out my biggest frustration with the WBC as a whole through the first two decades. Every time we do this, it feels like these countries send out their best rosters, except for the USA. This year was definitely good in terms of hitters, but it still feels like the pitching staff isn’t fully there. There are so many big name pitchers who are American, and the best you have for the championship game is Merrill Kelly and Aaron Loup? Really? Maybe it’s just my American ego and sense of entitlement coming out, but I still feel like through the first five times we’ve done this, we’ve yet to see anywhere near the best roster from the Americans. It feels like MLB is sort of kneecapping their chances at bringing in younger/different fans by still having a large chunk of their domestic born stars not take the WBC seriously enough to even be there. I get the injury concerns, but this tournament really feels like it could cement itself as a legitimate competition and a WBC title could end up being coveted. But it’s never going to get anywhere near that if you have so many of your big stars not participating. But how do you incentivize it? Can you really put the cart before the horse like that? That’s a tough one to figure out. 
 

Also, Ohtani is one of the most impressive players I’ve ever seen. I really hope the Angels can pull their heads out and compete this season or that dude is going to be a :censored:ing Dodger. 

[Sport]

The script-writers having the game come down to Ohtani v. Trout was a little too predictable. 

[WestCoastBias]

14 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

That was a really good tournament, but the Championship game sort of laid out my biggest frustration with the WBC as a whole through the first two decades. Every time we do this, it feels like these countries send out their best rosters, except for the USA. This year was definitely good in terms of hitters, but it still feels like the pitching staff isn’t fully there. There are so many big name pitchers who are American, and the best you have for the championship game is Merrill Kelly and Aaron Loup? Really? Maybe it’s just my American ego and sense of entitlement coming out, but I still feel like through the first five times we’ve done this, we’ve yet to see anywhere near the best roster from the Americans. It feels like MLB is sort of kneecapping their chances at bringing in younger/different fans by still having a large chunk of their domestic born stars not take the WBC seriously enough to even be there. I get the injury concerns, but this tournament really feels like it could cement itself as a legitimate competition and a WBC title could end up being coveted. But it’s never going to get anywhere near that if you have so many of your big stars not participating. But how do you incentivize it? Can you really put the cart before the horse like that? That’s a tough one to figure out. 
 

Also, Ohtani is one of the most impressive players I’ve ever seen. I really hope the Angels can pull their heads out and compete this season or that dude is going to be a :censored:ing Dodger. 

 

USA's lineup was stacked this year. We had three MVP's at the top of the lineup (it would of been 4 too if Harper wasn't injured). Yeah the starting pitching was lackluster but the bullpen had two of the best in the game (Williams and Pressly). The whole roster this year was better than 2017, even the pitching, and it'll probably be even better in 2026.

 

Even with the best lineup in the tournament with the hottest hitter we only got 2 runs on Japan. I'm not gonna put the loss on the pitching, Japan was just better last night. 

[FiddySicks]

I agree that Japan was definitely better, but I think that’s part of my frustration. The US has a head and shoulders better lineup, but almost none of the cohesion the Japanese team does. The reasons for that make sense, but it’s still pretty unfortunate. 
 

And as for pitching, I don’t think the USA team had a single starting pitcher in the top 20 on their roster. That’s not a great sign. And I agree that the hitting was much better this year, but the 2017 roster was a lot better balanced.

[Shumway]

1 hour ago, FiddySicks said:

I agree that Japan was definitely better, but I think that’s part of my frustration. The US has a head and shoulders better lineup, but almost none of the cohesion the Japanese team does. The reasons for that make sense, but it’s still pretty unfortunate. 
 

And as for pitching, I don’t think the USA team had a single starting pitcher in the top 20 on their roster. That’s not a great sign. And I agree that the hitting was much better this year, but the 2017 roster was a lot better balanced.

 

I thought the same thing. The US pitching staff wasn't nearly as good as it could/should have been.

 

That said, as an Angels fan, it was super fun to see Trout vs Ohtani on a huge stage. The whole tournament was great, and I'll miss watching Chinese Taipei games at 6am.

[The_Admiral]

It would be fun if the USA could field two teams: one of active major leaguers, and another of retired guys and unsigned free agents just playing for fun. Would it be fair? Not really. Would it be legitimate? No less legitimate than the so-called Italian team taking anyone from the northeast who says "ayyy, I make-a da pizza." It'd be cool to see some old friends just hangin' out and doin' whatever, though.

[FiddySicks]

Isn’t that similar to what they did with that World Cup of Hockey tournament a few years ago? Had a “North America” team, but in reverse and only for the youngsters? 

[Sport]

On 3/24/2023 at 3:01 PM, FiddySicks said:

Isn’t that similar to what they did with that World Cup of Hockey tournament a few years ago? Had a “North America” team, but in reverse and only for the youngsters? 

 

Yes and every Hockey Influencer was erect about that team for like a month and if you dared to question it for one second you were deemed lame and uncool. I liked watching their games, but it totally cut the actual Team USA roster off at the knees because most of our best players were under 23. I know it also kept McDavid and Mackinnon off of Team Canada, but they won the tournament anyway. USA went 0-3 in group play. Next time they do it they need to skip the U23 team and Team Europe. 

 

Hard to believe the last World Cup of Hockey was 7 years ago, which fits the history of that tournament because there's no rhyme or reason for when they decide to put one on. 

[Shumway]

Pretty classless of Realmuto to try to show up the umpire today

 

 

(I'm obviously joking. He's okay. It's the Philly fans that are classless )

[See Red]

Yeah, this guy shouldn't get to be an umpire anymore. 

 

 

[BBTV]

14 hours ago, Shumway said:

Pretty classless of Realmuto to try to show up the umpire today

 

 

(I'm obviously joking. He's okay. It's the Philly fans that are classless )

 

I'm finishing this post on mobile because I just spit on your avatar and threw a battery through my laptop screen.  Please don't call us classless again - it's absolutely not true, you   son of a ing .  

 

 

12 hours ago, See Red said:

Yeah, this guy shouldn't get to be an umpire anymore. 

 

 

 

What that that clip doesn't show is that is the second ball that was sent back to the pitcher.  The first one, the umpire threw it back himself rather than give it to Realmuto. If you find the whole sequence, it makes the umpire look even worse.

 

When the second ball wasn't placed in his glove, he just assumed the umpire was also throwing that one back.  I don't care who the catcher is or what team it is, jabroni-ass small-dick umpires (or referees) like that should be terminated.  

 

What is as much of a disgrace is the crew chief saying it was warranted and that the plate umpire didn't act hastily.  I know they have to stick up for one another, but jesus - just admit that maybe it could have been handled better.

 

EDIT: I guess the announcer does mention the previous throw-back, so there is some context there even if it doesn't show the previous throw.