2024-25 MLB Hot Stove thread
 

And we're off

Angels land slugger Jorge Soler from Braves for RHP Griffin Canning - ESPN

Too soon!

I just replaced my MLB tab off The Score widget with CBB on my phone. I'm not ready for this.

Rays to play 2025 season at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field

This should be really interesting. I have talked about the hell that is traveling to Tropicana Field especially on weekdays. Steinbrenner Field is across the street from Raymond James where the Bucs play and maybe three miles from the heart of downtown Tampa if that. It has a capacity of 11,206. Building a stadium close to downtown Tampa would have been the best case scenario for a new stadium for the Rays IMO. The downside is there is no roof. I don't think it can, but I would love any and all positives from this season to influence and ultimately lead to plans for the new stadium to change from St Pete to downtown Tampa.

I don't know if that article goes into the insurance issues and whether the city even has an incentive to fix the stadium at all given they're supposed to build a new one for 2028, but they may need a multi-year solution assuming they'll be able to get public financing to build the new stadium. Or, this may be the chance to get out of town entirely.

Are you a politician in Pinellas County? Because you sound very much like the politicans in Pinellas County.

Pinellas County leaders disappointed by Rays' decision to play in Tampa

TBF, I feel like they have every right to be worried. I am sure the city attorneys are pouring over the agreement with the team to see if natural disaster clauses/escapes.

They cut back on their insurance coverage last year to save $250K in premium which is going to end up costing them millions in insurance that would have helped cover much more of this damage. So now the question is, when also considering the public money the team expects the city/county to put into a new facility, do they just cut their losses and let the team go? Dont fix the stadium, don't fund the new facility. They can be nomads for a couple years while they find a new permanent home in city that will cough up the funding they want.

Cities should demand ownership stakes in teams. Sure, we’ll help with your stadium — but we own part of you now.

But that is socialism! Capitalism is when the government gives hand outs to billionaires and also covers any losses they might occur while the billionaires keep all the profit. At least, that is the American version of capitalism.

Glad to see the voters didn't overthink the NL ROY and gave it to Skenes. Merrill was great, but Skenes year was historic.

Tampa Bay Rays asked to state intention on stadium by Sunday - ESPN

Tick...Tick...Tick

Nashville, here they come!

What incentive do they have to stay. The politicians don't want to pay, the fans don't come even when they are winning. I would be looking hard at Nashville, San Antonio, NOLA, and other cities without teams. Charlotte has AAA, but that area isn't bad.

The Reds traded Jonathan India to the Royals for Brady Singer.

My 11 year old daughter told me today completely unprovoked that Angel Hernandez sucks.

Some days I feel like I am nailing this parenting thing.

Glad to see we're not waiting until mid-March for signings. Blake Snell to the Dodgers for 5 years, $182M.

Let's go! To be honest, this caught me off guard. Dodgers taking the "Why don't you win one outside of 2020" personally and that's fine with me.

I'll say here what I said to SackAttack...

The Dodgers can... FUCK. RIGHT. OFF.

Thanks for Mookie. He'll look good in a Dodgers hat in Cooperstown :)

How did you feel about the Yankees in the 90's? :D

MLB needs to do something about deferred money and the competitive balance tax.

I understand hating on the Dodgers and other big spenders but a huge part of the inbalance are tons of teams whose owners are happy to make profits without actually paying to stay competititve or to try and win.

I think that's two separate problems. There's definitely a problem with teams that have figured out the easiest way to a profit is not trying to win, but there's also a problem when teams can get around the CBA with deferred money. I don't really have a problem with the Dodgers spending money, but that should count against them.

The Dodgers are spending a ton, but they are making even more as a result of their spending. Building the brand, taking it international, getting even bigger as a result. This is the model of the huge soccer clubs too. If I put my non-Dodgers fan hat on for a moment, it's absolutely a giant pain in the ass for the league. It feels like what's even the point of cheering for your own team? Then again, this is America where the biggest, richest, and loudest run the country. Right or wrong, what's more American than a rich baseball team?

I need Steve Cohen to give Soto a billion in deferred money. Just break the system and force MLB to make a change.

I blame Bobby Bonilla.

All these teams are owned by billionaires and if they don't want to compete, maybe they should sell the team to someone who will. It's not the Dodgers fault that they're the only team trying.

If the Dodgers had the revenue of the Pirates would their owner have the same payroll.

The other part of the huge soccer club model for the smaller clubs is knowing that your club will never compete for a title and just enjoying the small wins where and when you can. Are the fans going to be cool with their World Series being a three game sweep against the big boys every so often?

TBH, I am enjoying the battle among the owners and among the fans where demands are made of a) teams like the Marlins and Rays to spend more money to be competitive while at the same time b) demanding teams like the Dodgers and Mets to spend less money so that others can be competitive while c) teams like the Cubs and Yankees talk and take in money like a big market team but have restricted spending practices of a small market team and finally d) random smaller market teams that go on a big spending spree and then immediately trade everyone when it does not go well that season.

Dodger fans had to endure the shitty 90s of the McCourt years. We totally know when an owner is selling out the fanbase, and the team for his own profits. Thankfully, the anger and noise around him forced the sale of the team to a group that wanted to make use of the brand and franchise, rather than just drain it for his own pockets like we've seen so many do. The entire franchise is a model for the way that the league should expect other franchises to run.

Tommy Edman gets 15/mil a year from the Dodgers.

I'm convinced Rob Manfred hates baseball

The Golden At-Bat rule could give MLB a new shine. But is it worth it? - The Athletic

Paywall. Can you sum it up?

Yeah that's a horrendous idea.

Basically, once a game you can PH any hitter in an AB. Doesn't matter if they are already in the game or when it's their turn to hit.

FFS that is terrible.

You know, this type of situation happened (repeatedly, actually) in an exhibition softball game Caitlin played her senior year. We went up against a big-name organization (Louisville Sluggers), but the girls on both teams all knew each other, played with each other for years in travel ball and HS ball, etc. So it was more than just an exhibition. And as an exhibition, there were no substitution rules.

Sure enough, we battled, score was going back-and-forth, and whenever they got behind, their benefactor/owner would start calling the shots, repeatedly pulling his hitters to take multiple ABs whenever they got anyone on. Like, some girls had 6-7 ABs and other 2-3. He'd also repeatedly put the same 1 or 2 girls to PR at 1B so they could steal extra bases.

We ended up losing. That guy was always a dick. He's dead now.

The end.

I thought the tag-line would be that the benefactor/owner was Rob Manfred.

Yeah, baseball has been its own worst enemy for a long time now. They seem aware of that, but keep moving toward patchwork solutions rather than addressing the elephant in the room: there are too many commercial breaks and too many commercials.

Now that they've broken with tradition and started messing with the rules of the game, they can't seem to stop.

They hit upon the pitch clock and the reliever rule as a partial fix for the commercial issue, which seems to have gotten them back to pre-COVID popularity, but they could have gotten far more from a hard one-minute break between half-innings and no commercials and bullpen golf carts for pitching changes.

So much tinkering. But at least the other rule changes have been about speeding up the game to compensate for the delays. This is more a fundamental change to the structure of the game. I like it even less than the extra-inning baserunner rule.

I'm a huge analytics guy but I think teams are working with too much data now. All of the data being collected in every ballpark is bad for the game at this point. Some fog of war is good for any sport and baseball has eliminated a large portion of it.

What problem is the Golden AB supposed to fix? Not enough prop bet opportunities?

I heard they are also exploring adding the Savannah Bananas as an expansion team to bring the league to an even 31 teams

Make the game more exciting. This misses the mark by a great deal though. Forced stuff like this that's outside the basic rules of the game are bad. Kind of why college OT is so bad. This even worse though.

Maybe they could also make that at bat worth 5x runs like when I have rotating categories on my Chase card.

Instead of Abe Stark's old Ebbets Field sign, the entire outfield wall could be filled with bonuses...

"Hit this Sign, gain an extra out"

"Hit this Sign, lose two runs" - teams could set a record for holding opponents to even less than a shutout.

"Hit this Sign, add another Golden At Bat"

"No Whammies... No Whammies... Stop!"

This might just be THE best baseball post in FOFC history.

They should also build in hidden traps in the field like sinkholes, landmines and tripwire

I already despise the NBA's rule that allows a TO to move the ball to half-court gimmick. This would be 100 times worse.

This is just stupid. Let's hope common sense prevails, but if they are even talking about this as an option common sense has already gone out the window.

I think if the golden batter is walked it should count as a home run. Force the P to throw balls over the plate as a way to increase excitement.

Yeah, if they do this baseball will be about as stupid as quiddich.

Do they take a golden shower after the game?