The 2023 MLB Season Thread

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

It's insane one team can claim more than 1 player and keep their same place in line.

This really surprised me too.

[henry296]

Do we know if other teams claimed those players? If they were the only claim the order wouldn't matter.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by henry296

Do we know if other teams claimed those players? If they were the only claim the order wouldn't matter.

I would doubt the relievers got through without any other claims

[flere-imsaho]

I was at Ravinia last night (and outdoor concert venue north of Chicago that hosts a summer season of concerts including the Symphony but also a lot of artists - for instance last night was Brandi Carlisle) and found out one of the guests our friends brought were the sister and brother-in-law of the new GM of the White Sox.

The guy lives in Winnetka, which has to be a shitty commute down to Comiskey or whatever it's called. (don't follow the White Sox, can you tell?)

[JPhillips]

I'm not sure what happens when all of the Reds pitchers have Covid. I think there are seven positive so far.

[flere-imsaho]

Mask up and pitch, I say.

[JPhillips]

They went with the call up some minor leaguers and give up 15 runs plan.

[flere-imsaho]

Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to.

[stevew]

Julio Urias just cost himself a lot of money with felony domestic violence charges.

[MrBug708]

Good riddance.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Lucas Giolito made his Cleveland debut tonight against the Twins.

It's 9-1 Twins in the 4th, Giolito gave up 9 earned runs on 7 hits in just three innings before being relieved.

There's usually a reason you can find things on the scrap heap for free.

[Ksyrup]

First pitcher to give up 8+ runs for 3 different teams in 1 season since 1899.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Good riddance.

Just cost himself tens of millions of dollars. Amazing.

[Swaggs]

Bummer for Andrew McCutchen. Partially tore his Achilles and out for the rest of the season. He got his 2,000 career hit earlier in the season and was sitting on 299 homers. He says he would like to continue and was having a pretty nice bounce back season (.776 OPS in 390 ABs).

He's one of those guys that may have been able to have an outside case for the Hall of Fame down the road if he would have just had some above average starting seasons for another few years and built up his longevity numbers, but has had 2-3 fluky injuries (torn ACL on a slide, broken rib/cartilage getting hit by a retaliatory pitch in a stupid battle of egos between Clint Hurdle and Tony Larussa, and now this one) that diminished him and cut into chunks of his season. Hopefully, he gets a few more seasons in and can still retire on his terms.

[stevew]

Jasson only needs 760 more to top Bonds.

Gotta love those Yankee Stadium doubles that go over the fence.

[stevew]

The Urias thing is on tape. Some bystander recorded it and called the cops on them.

[Lathum]

All class for a guy who pitched you to a world series


Nationals owner says team not hosting Strasburg retirement ceremony - ESPN

[miami_fan]

Couple of things lead me to have sympathy with the Nats ownership. Sources have said Strasburg was going to retire. Is Strasburg one of those sources? Unless there is acrimony there, you would think he or his agent could just the Nats and says he is done. Second, why this weekend? Seems like this would be something that is announced and celebrated during the last series of the season. The owner talking about doing things in accordance with the CBA when talking about a retirement news conference does cause me to question that sympathy.

All that being said, I don't get the impression Nats fans are that enamored with Strasburg even with the championship. I think it would have been a bigger deal if Scherzer were retiring in Washington instead

[cuervo72]

Just get Scott Boras to host something for him.

[JonInMiddleGA]

After some reading, it appears that the drama in DC is an alleged change in the club's offer to Strasburg. Being reported as originally "we'll pay you out in full to retire now, do an announcement and a tribute weekend" with financial terms changing to something other than that (which Strasburg hasn't agreed to) leading to the no-ceremony this weekend stuff

[Ksyrup]

Yes, this has something to do with them wanting him to take considerably less of a "buyout" on the rest of his fully guaranteed contract than they had apparently talked about or previously agreed to. Basically, it comes down to how much of a discount should he take for getting a sum of money upfront and not having to go through the motions of showing up for spring training every year and being put on the 60 day IL until his contract expires.

I don't know who the bad guy is in this situation, but that's what the change in tone is about.

[cuervo72]

Both?

[Atocep]

The Angels have said they'll honor any trade request from Trout, which is likely the green light for him to seek a trade.

It's crazy this org had 12 years of Trout, 5 years of Ohtani, roughly 120 WAR between them, managed one playoff appearance, will lose both the same offseason, and only get the return on Trout and his bad back now.

It's a historic level of organizational ineptitude.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Both?

It is all Nationals to me. Guaranteed contracts are guaranteed. They take the risk when they sign them. He is never going to have to play again, but they still owe him every dime. He gave them an out on some of the money by deferring it, but he really didn't even have to do that. Having to put him on the 40 man every off season until they can place him on the 60-day IL just to have to pay him every dime isn't helping themselves at all. He has all the leverage, while the franchise is just shooting themselves in the foot.

[PilotMan]

I think LA is running out of arms. Not sure the Dodgers are going to be in position to make a serious run. Mookie and Freddie both can carry the team a long way, don't get me wrong, but in the playoffs, every moment matters, and the pitching is just far too depleted and trending down to see them come through the crunch in one piece.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

It is all Nationals to me. Guaranteed contracts are guaranteed. They take the risk when they sign them. He is never going to have to play again, but they still owe him every dime. He gave them an out on some of the money by deferring it, but he really didn't even have to do that. Having to put him on the 40 man every off season until they can place him on the 60-day IL just to have to pay him every dime isn't helping themselves at all. He has all the leverage, while the franchise is just shooting themselves in the foot.

Oh, the money part I get and agree with. The Lerners are bastards and I have no doubt they'd try to wrangle out of a commitment. But if they signed it, they should be on the hook for it.

A retirement ceremony though...I didn't know if Strasburg was particularly loved in WAS. Granted, I'm a Phillies fan so I'm predisposed to dislike him. But even with that, I liked Max Scherzer as a Nat. This guy...not so much. He almost pulled the JD Drew wasted draft pick play (a Boras favorite), there was the whole shutdown in the playoffs thing, and he's barely been heard of for four years.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Oh, the money part I get and agree with. The Lerners are bastards and I have no doubt they'd try to wrangle out of a commitment. But if they signed it, they should be on the hook for it.

A retirement ceremony though...I didn't know if Strasburg was particularly loved in WAS. Granted, I'm a Phillies fan so I'm predisposed to dislike him. But even with that, I liked Max Scherzer as a Nat. This guy...not so much. He almost pulled the JD Drew wasted draft pick play (a Boras favorite), there was the whole shutdown in the playoffs thing, and he's barely been heard of for four years.

Well, he has been injured the last 4 years. His only team has been the Nationals and he is the only World Series MVP in their history. I would say a retirement celebration is due.

[molson]

For them to be on the hook for the whole contract though, doesn't he have to keep trying to rehabilitate and do whatever treatment makes playing at all possible? And not retire?

It's easy to say he's 100% done no matter what, but, he apparently didn't think that a few months ago, and maybe his side has leaked whatever has been reported about his health.

I remember a few players over the years just leaving the team, the team knew they were never coming back, they paid out the contract, but nobody would say "retired" because of the contract implications. Those teams gave up for health reasons. But what if a team doesn't fully give up? Both sides have a massive incentive to either hold onto to some hope or give up all hope. I can see how that could be a mess, and how it could make a ton of sense for everyone to reach some kind of settlement.

[flere-imsaho]

Has anyone read the contract? Does it stipulate what happens if he retires before the term ends? Does it make the money guaranteed only if X years of service are rendered?

[molson]

There are Uniform Player Contract terms that all MLB contracts have to have per the CBA.

It's a long PDF (but searchable by keyword), but, basically, disability caused by playing baseball specifically doesn't void any part of the player's salary. Disability isn't defined, and who gets to decide whether a player is disabled isn't stated. But, a player must submit to physical exams requited by the team, and to treatment "if necessary", and, without reading the whole thing, it seems like the team gets to decide the doctor, hospital, etc.

https://www.mlbplayers.com/_files/ug...de62484da5.pdf

The team can terminate a player contract for different reasons, including for refusing to "render his services hereunder", which includes things like playing baseball, and making promotional appearances. The termination language is actually broader than you'd think, but, presumably, everyone knows the language wouldn't be interpreted too harshly with guaranteed contracts. (there is vague language about terminating for displaying bad character, and you sometimes hear stuff like that when a player does something bad - "the team will try to void the contract"), but, as with anything, it's better for the parties to just settle than fight that in court for years.

But based on my own skimming of the CBA, and just how these things went down with players on the team I follow (like Dustin Pedroia), a player doesn't get to decide for himself that he's retired, he's still required to have exams, treatment, try to rehab, ect., but of course if the team understands a player isn't going to be able to play they can forgo all that, send him home, pay out the contract as usual (like with Pedroia). And they can call it a retirement, as Pedroia eventually did, because by then there is that mutual understanding that he's done. But a player can't chose to forgo rehab and treatment still get paid, or at least, that's the kind of thing that could be the basis of a massive and expensive contract dispute. Historically we've seen teams work all this out with players, but, when there's hundreds of millions owed in modern contracts, you could see a situation where it would be way more complex and contentious.

[Swaggs]

Speaking of promising pitching and overuse killing young pitchers, I was looking over the careers of the Bochy era starters with the Giants. It is crazy how good Lincecum, Bumgarner, and Cain were in their early 20's (each had 4+ season throwing over 200 innings w/ multiple top tens in Cy Young voting by the age of 27) and then all three were negative WAR players from age 30 on, with Cain and Lincecum out of the league by age 32 and Bumgarner looking like he is done at 33 (and could have called it a career at 30, really).

They won 3 World Series and made over $100M in their careers, so I'd guess there are not many regrets, but it's gotta be rough to think they could all of had 5-10 more years of productivity if they had been load limited a little better.

[stevew]

Sucks that Jasson got hurt. I was thinking about going this weekend.

[miami_fan]

Reading some of the comments on Nationals Reddit, both sides may want to hold off on any ceremony until at least next year. It would probably be better to wait for the Lerners and let the new ownership welcome Strasburg back to the Nationals family.

[stevew]

Trea Turner going 30/30 without being caught stealing would be a crazy accomplishment. He’s at 26/27 right now.

[Edward64]

Congrats Braves.

Happy the hometown boys have done well.

Although they might have never been challenged, the Braves still savored the thrill of capturing a sixth straight National League East crown.

[stevew]

Is Mike Trout now a bad contract? He’s owed 7/37.6M. I don’t know who takes that kind of risk. I think you’d have to send them back something awful like Stanton. And he’s 10/5.

Maybe Stanton/prospects for Trout/Rendon?

[bronconick]

The Angels' treatment of Ohtani/Trout is the MLB equivalent of the Lions with Barry and Calvin. Generational talent wasted on a mediocre franchise incapable of playoff success.

[miami_fan]

Tampa Bay Rays reach deal for new ballpark, tying team to St. Petersburg - ESPN

Politics can always upend this but it looks like the Rays will remain in St. Pete. There is a new bridge being built between Tampa and St. Pete so hopefully it won't require a 45 minute stay in traffic to get games.

[GrantDawg]

They canceled the Braves-Nationals game for tomorrow due to a weather system coming through. I don't really remember that happening this far ahead of time except for a hurricane or something like that.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

They canceled the Braves-Nationals game for tomorrow due to a weather system coming through. I don't really remember that happening this far ahead of time except for a hurricane or something like that.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

There is a hurricane coming through. (Ok, Tropical Storm Ophelia)

[miami_fan]

si.com

1. Picking on the Oakland A’s is such low-hanging fruit, but sometimes the fruit just looks too good to pass up.

Cut to Thursday night when the Detroit Tigers were in town. With Miguel Cabrera set to retire, teams have been giving the future Hall of Famer gifts when he plays his last game in their ballpark.

The A’s kept to their frugal ways but gave Cabrera a bottle of wine.

Now, a bottle of wine can be very expensive. If you are a fellow Howard Stern fan, you will instantly remember one of the show’s biggest controversies surrounding Robin Quivers ordering an $800 bottle of wine at a dinner that Stern paid for.

The A’s were not that generous with Cabrera. The team sprung for a $90 bottle of vino.

Maybe it got up to $100 with shipping, but let’s be realistic. There’s no way the A’s paid for expedited shipping. And there’s no way they’re shelling out $140 a year for Amazon Prime. So it was probably ordered weeks ago.

But the cost of the wine is hardly the biggest problem with the “gift.”

In 2010, Cabrera spent three months in an outpatient treatment program for alcoholism.

Nice job, Oakland.

First off I am willing to give them a pass on not knowing about Miggy being a recovering alcoholic. It is not like he just got of the program or has been all over the place talking about it this year or throughout his career. I also don't subscribe to the school of thought that a good bottle of wine has to cost hundreds of dollars. The $90 bottle of wine they got him is probably very good. But the Oakland A's gave Miguel Cabrera a bottle of wine. Not a case of wine, not a year subscription for delivery of different rare wines to his home, the Oakland A's baseball organization got one of the best hitter in the history of the game a bottle of wine on his going away tour? They might as well had gone for a bottle of Boone's Farm or a six pack of MD 20/20 instead.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

There is a hurricane coming through. (Ok, Tropical Storm Ophelia)

That is literally the first I have heard of it. No one even in the announcements I read specified that there was a Tropical Storm. They will usually say the name of the system when announcing these things.

[Ksyrup]

I don't know the exact timing but I think that's because it wasn't technically a named system yet but was pretty much guaranteed to become one and impact the area anyway, so they canceled.

I just read that on Thursday, Royal Caribbean canceled a cruise out of Baltimore for the same reason. Looking at forecasts it was obviously going to be an issue, named storm or not.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

That is literally the first I have heard of it. No one even in the announcements I read specified that there was a Tropical Storm. They will usually say the name of the system when announcing these things.

I hadn't realized there was a possible storm until pretty much yesterday. Which is weird, because it seemed like we heard about Lee every day for a week, even though it was way out in the Atlantic and every spaghetti path had it taking a right turn well before it got to anything. "OH BUT THERE WILL BE CHOPPY SURF!" Man, I'm not gonna be within 100 miles of surf, WTF do I care??*



* Of course this was my thought...before I learned yesterday that a rep from one of the software companies that we work with fairly regularly was surfing recently, had to roll off his board to bail -- standard move -- and broke his neck doing so. He was on zoom in a brace, lying on his back with the camera above him. Will probably have the brace on for months.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

si.com



First off I am willing to give them a pass on not knowing about Miggy being a recovering alcoholic. It is not like he just got of the program or has been all over the place talking about it this year or throughout his career. I also don't subscribe to the school of thought that a good bottle of wine has to cost hundreds of dollars. The $90 bottle of wine they got him is probably very good. But the Oakland A's gave Miguel Cabrera a bottle of wine. Not a case of wine, not a year subscription for delivery of different rare wines to his home, the Oakland A's baseball organization got one of the best hitter in the history of the game a bottle of wine on his going away tour? They might as well had gone for a bottle of Boone's Farm or a six pack of MD 20/20 instead.

Was it at least something sentimental to Oakland or Miggy? A local wine made with Venezuelan grapes or something? I mean, they don't OWE him anything -- he's an opposing player, was never on the team, etc. -- but that's a very bad look.

[molson]

Maybe the whole tradition is silly, but it seems like they just forgot and had an intern run to a Whole Foods across the street 5 minutes before the game.

[Ksyrup]

Given all the stories about ownership/management, it's likely this was just another example of their cheapness.

[Atocep]

some crazy numbers

Kyle Schwarber is hitting .198
he has 111 hits this year
He had 104 runs scored and 100 rbi


Max Muncy his hitting .211 because he got hot but has been under .200 most of the year.
He has 95 hits
90 runs scored and 102 rbi

[JPhillips]

Muncy is probably going to retire as one of the top five HR hitters in Dodger history.

[GrantDawg]

Want a crazy stat? Ronald Acuna is the only player in history to have a 40HR season and a 70SB season. And he did both in the same year.