2024 MLB Season Thread
 

Didn't see one.

Scott Boras is not having a good offseason.

Kodai Senga shut down already and will miss opening day. I swear every year with Mets aces. It's uncanny.

Bellinger finally signs what's basically a 1 year deal with the Cubs (3 years, opt outs in both the first two years).

And I take great amusement that none of the other 3 Boras clients signed yet. Fuck Boras.

I'm with you on Boras. As a Cubs fan I think the Belli deal is very fair for a player with his history. He gets well paid in a controlled way that allows him to prove his worth. With all of the young talent they have coming along, like an NFL team paying a QB on a rookie contract, I think they can afford to take the risk with the 30 mil per the first 2 years. If he's great and ops out they can still sign him again. At the same time if their youngsters develop they could say "thanks" and let him leave.

His BABIP was the highest of his career suggesting he had some good luck. However he did "fix" his swing allowing him to get to pitches he wasn't getting to the last three seasons. So, was it the fix, luck, or both that drove last season?

Based on last season I didn't want the Cubs to commit to some 7-10 year deal in that 200 to 300 mil range. From the contract he got it seems the Cubs, and the league in general, is getting a bit smarter, and that sucks for Boras. :lol:

Given Bellinger's career trajectory, I don't think you could sign him for many years. He was borderline unplayable just one year ago. The real Bellinger in 2024 is probably halfway between 2022 and 2023's versions.

I’ve already marked this down as season ending.

I'm still mad the Red Sox didn't at least take a flyer on Bellinger. I have no idea what our front office is thinking.

Zack Wheeler gets a nice extension. 3/126.

That Wheeler deal seems like way too much to commit, especially with a full season left before it kicks in. I’m not sure who would be sprinting in line to pay more after this season. Is there some deferred component, because 42/year is like paying convenience store prices for a 12 pack of Pepsi.

Not that I can find mentioned anywhere at this point. The only concession I see mentioned is that the new pay rate doesn't kick in until next season, which saves them on luxury tax this season.

On a side note, there's something wrong with the fact I can often now buy 2-liters at c-stores for basically grocery store prices.

Lucas Giolito absolutely tank bombing on 2 different teams to end 2023, and then signing a head scratching deal with the Red Sox and then now(likely) requiring season ending surgery is just wild. It’s like a joke that immediately has a punch line.

I guess Angel Hernandez is already in regular season form. Ejects Lance Lynn for, surprise, arguing balls and strikes.

And then, ejects him from the outfield bullpen where he was trying to finish his work.

Betts moving to full time SS in year 10 is wild Not even sure what the parallel in other sports would be. Maybe if Shaq suddenly developed a 3 point shot and turned into a point forward.

Looks like Gerrit Cole may have some issues. Getting an MRI

More like if Steph Curry became a low-post banger late in his career, but even that isn't quite right. Shaq had physicality, but he wasn't athletic enough to go from C to SG, say.

Betts *is* a ridiculous athlete, and moved off middle infield to play OF after being drafted by Boston. It isn't as if he's never done it. It's a wild change, but this isn't the-horse-started-singing territory.

Looks like Cole will be out 1-2 months.
Blake Snell's phone may be ringing soon?

as a Mets fan 1-2 months means the season

The Cole thing sucks for timing. Maybe he can get back by next July if he does the surgery now. But if they wait long it’s 2026. I guess by waiting you hope it’s something that can heal.

Doing my first fantasy draft of the year. I had second pick. Dude who went first took Betts leaving me Acuna. Couldn't believe it

They keep cutting away to Ohtani’s wife and it’s ruining my ability to enjoy the game!

Worse than Taylor Swift.

Crazy play just happened. Lux hits a slow line drive that Cronenworth easily getts to and his glove literally breaks and the ball goes through it into right field. After that the flood gates open.

Is Ohtani's interpreter a mastermind thief or was he placing bets for Ohtani?

Man, that could end up being huge. That's a lot of money.

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This is now 2 sports-related thefts related to gambling debts. Who would have guessed. How soon until we get the first arrests for point shaving or something similar impacting the integrity of the games?

That's a really weird story and I'm not sure I buy the excuse.

The charitable reading is the interpreter is telling the truth, but Ohtani knowingly paying the bookie is itself a crime so his lawyers are trying to save him.

That's not an unbelievable story.

Stole this from a reddit post:

Ohtani: "I was just trying to help out my frie-"

*Ohtani/Dodgers lawyers burst through the door and shove him aside*

"What Shohei was trying to say is that Ippei stole all that money."

I think this is it. :lol:

It wouldn't be a morally terrible crime, but, seems like it wouldn't be great for him legally and that it probably violates MLB rules too, and that with all the attention paid to this, it's going to be all figured out.

Spicy!

Brutal couple of weeks for the Reds. Their CF is out for 2-3 months. Their 2b is out looking for a second opinion instead of season-ending shoulder surgery. Their top prospect is suspended for 80 games. Their second top prospect is out with season-ending shoulder surgery.

I think the fact the Ohtani team has changed their story makes the story a lot bigger than it could have been. Why lie if it was innocent?

I don't think the original story told by the interpreter was a lie. He said he gambled with a bookie and Ohtani paid the debt over several installments. The lie came after that story when the lawyers said the interpreter stole the money.

The lie, IMO, was said to try to protect Ohtani who is in trouble both legally and with baseball if he knowingly paid a bookie. The documents cited in the ESPN story don't prove Ohtani's innocence, but they line up well with this possibility.

"innocent" and "within the applicable rules" seem to be quite possibly two different things

The "yeah, Ohtani paid his pal's gambling debts" story feels pretty plausible. But if he did it directly -- rather than giving his buddy the money to do it himself -- then he might be fairly well fucked.

Ohtani vs Michael Jordan at 4am in Vegas at the blackjack table pic.twitter.com/TSjoG61Qsr

— Noah �� (@Yordan4HOF2) March 20, 2024

Eh the Marte suspension could be a blessing if he’s good. No rush to burn a full year of service time. Don’t they have surplus infielders anyways? Was looking like India had nowhere to play. I don’t know much about the reds though other than that McLain and Steer both look like pretty solid young players in addition to Elly

Ohtani is going to get suspended I bet.

The whole story is fishy. He was with his interpreter laughing during today's game. Did he really just find out about $4.5 million missing from his account when news reports came out? And if so, why initially claim it was debt he was covering?

So if it's stolen, how did he not know? That's a considerable amount of money to just be transferred out of your bank account. And how did an interpreter get access? This ain't a $50 Venmo transaction.

Curious to see how it's reported with Ohtani being a media darling and how much MLB needs him to succeed in LA.

How does his interpreter get that much (illegal) credit with bookies. Like he couldn’t possibly pay the vig on that

Well he did make somewhere between $300k and $500k a year for that job so it's not quite as crazy as it might seem

Otani's got warning track power now.

They had a surplus, but yesterday they had to make a trade with Toronto because Elly was the only SS on the 40 man roster.

Um... 1919?

I am only half joking when I say this. Didn't Ohtani just get married like last week? Or was it just revealing that he got married?

There's a certain irony about how every story or link I see about Ohtani has an ad for a gambling site.

“Welcome back to SportsCenter Presented by ESPN Bet, for more on the Ohtani situation we go to our FanDuel MLB Insider Jeff Passan at our DraftKings Studio in Los Angeles brought to you by Caesar’s Sportsbook. Jeff, how could something like this happen?”

— JEFF (@jeffisrael25) March 21, 2024

They have to put him on administrative leave, right? Any other player who wired $4.5 million to an illegal bookmaker would be until this is sorted out.

And apparently had his team set up a press conference admitting it until his lawyers woke up on the other side of the world to shut it down and do a 180 on the story.

Blaming legal gambling advertising for a player gambling illegally is like blaming drunk driving on beer advertising. It is ridiculous.

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No, it's not the advertising. It's the linking of sports leagues, sports media and everything else involved in the mechanisms of running sports with gambling.