2024 MLB Season Thread

[Lathum]

Mets signing JD Martinez. I like it.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

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.

100%

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, allowing his people to set the narrative and then pepper the media with anonymous sources within the Ohtani camp backing that story, is certainly treating this like a special case scenario. You hope there's at least an MLB investigation behind the scenes going on, rather than just waiting for the Feds or CA or whomever to do something and then reacting. Which means it's almost certainly the latter - until someone breaks some news that makes it impossible for them to stay quiet, I suppose.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

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.

Bull. How does that equate to someone betting millions of dollars to an illegal bookie? "I know it is illegal, but the league has a sponsorship with fantasy sports so why can't I place a million dollar bet with Lefty?"

[MrBug708]

Should be a simple open and close case with a guy confessing. MLB might need to clarify and make sure other players don’t allow friends to have their debts covered, but lesson learned for Ohtani. Glad he is going to cooperate with authorities, would be silly to to turn into a federal witness if you are actually the criminal mastermind. Haha

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Bull. How does that equate to someone betting millions of dollars to an illegal bookie? "I know it is illegal, but the league has a sponsorship with fantasy sports so why can't I place a million dollar bet with Lefty?"

It doesn't. But for the last 100+ years outside the last five, ten years or so, the sports community at least publicly considered any association with gambling by a player as someone betting millions of dollars with an illegal bookie. Not the players, not the teams, not the leagues. It is why there wasn't legal gambling advertising before that time frame even though you could legally gamble in certain places in the country. They did not want to be associate with the negative gambling stigma. If the collective "we" are in a time where we don't look suspiciously at players being linked to legal or illegal gambling, cool. But I do understand why people would be suspicious of the links between leagues, teams and players and gambling again both illegal and legal.

[GrantDawg]

I think most people can tell the difference between taking advertising from legal gambling and associating with an illegal bookie. I think most players know they can't associate with illegal gambling because it is drilled into their skull on a regular basis. You have to really want it to somehow confuse or equate the two.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[Ksyrup]

I'm guessing one (or both) of the postponed games were supposed to be the early starts, but it feels weird that the first game today doesn't start until after 3pm.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I think most people can tell the difference between taking advertising from legal gambling and associating with an illegal bookie. I think most players know they can't associate with illegal gambling because it is drilled into their skull on a regular basis. You have to really want it to somehow confuse or equate the two.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Then baseball leadership really wanted to confuse the two up until two years ago. Up until two years ago, MLB prevented team personnel from being involved with gambling. In fact, baseball suspended Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle from the game in the 80s for being goodwill ambassadors for Atlantic City casinos with Bowie Kuhn saying at the time "a casino was “no place for a baseball hero and Hall of Famer.”

I am not giving anyone involved in baseball or any other sport a pass for engaging in illegal gambling, gambling on their sport or going against the gambling rules of their sport. However, there was a time when it was really black and white when it came to gambling. No one was allowed to have any association with gambling. Now we have shades of grey like we used to have in the college sports realm.

[miami_fan]

FYI if you are a T-Mobile customer, don't forget redeem your MLB.tv season pass.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Up until two years ago, MLB prevented team personnel from being involved with gambling.

I'm reminded of the old joke about offering the woman first $1 for a screw, which she declines with great offense. Then the same offer but with $10 million attached, which changed her attitude greatly. "We've now established you're a whore, all that's left is haggling over price"

That basically sports & gambling. Ted DiBiase would be proud.

[GrantDawg]

It is "shades of grey" if you really want it to be. I think most people know the difference between legal and illegal. Between betting on March Madness in a sports book and betting on your own performance. Between playing slots and placing $4 million dollars with an illegal bookie. Players aren't as confused as you are suggesting. The fact that MLB had an overbearing and ridiculous position on gambling in the past doesn't mean a more sensible approach is somehow "shades of grey."

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[Ksyrup]

It's not so much confusion. It's the promotion of gambling intertwined with the game that is the problem. I turned on the Tigers game and going to commercial break in the 2nd inning was an ad for a 3 player parlay. Get that shit off my fucking screen! I'd almost rather see crowd shots of Taylor Swift. It's everywhere. It's going to rub off on and tempt players. It has to. Whether or not it's illegal or legal betting.

It's similar to showing smokers in every movie. It has an affect. My wife watched the original Ghostbusters on a flight a couple of months ago. As I glanced over from time to time, every single main character in that movie except one or two had a cigarette in their mouth. That don't fly no more.

[CrimsonFox]

opening day

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

It is "shades of grey" if you really want it to be. I think most people know the difference between legal and illegal.

I gotta admit, the way the illegal site the interpreter was using has been described, I can almost completely buy that he didn't know the difference.

THAT is actually plausible to me.

[miami_fan]

The Astros now have 4 of the last 7 no hitters in MLB.

[Ksyrup]

I was watching the end of the Tigers game last night when they put it away with 5 in the 10th. The Pizza Pizza dugout HR celebration is awesome.

[BYU 14]

Clicked on the Brewers/Twins game on Sirius and was pleasantly surprised to hear Bob Uecker announcing. Had no idea he still did radio games for them, 90 years old and still sounds really good. He is a national treasure for sure.

[miami_fan]

Just as we all knew it would, everything about the A's move to Las Vegas has gotten even worse.

Athletics appear close to making Sacramento interim home - ESPN

The A's triple A team is in Las Vegas. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the major league club play there until the new stadium is built? They could start building the local fan base in Las Vegas.

[molson]

I was curious so I looked it up, the team is just going to be called "The Athletics", with no location designation, while they're in Sacramento.

I'm going to try to get to a mid-week game in Oakland this year. I have a couple of relatives in the area, I could make a little trip out of it. Like maybe a Tuesday night game against a low-profile opponent, something under 3,000 people will show up for. I remember going to a game in Montreal towards the end there and there's just something sad but interesting and surreal about it. And you can sit really close for cheap and no concession lines.

The stadium isn't great but but I had a great time there at a Red Sox series-deciding playoff game in 2003, I drove down from Eugene, Oregon a couple of months into law school.

[Ksyrup]

My daughter's boyfriend is a diehard Cleveland fan and they flew out to SF primarily to attend a game in Oakland (Cleveland was in town) because it was the last year in Oakland.

It's like gravesite tourism...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by molson

Like maybe a Tuesday night game against a low-profile opponent, something under 3,000 people will show up for. I remember going to a game in Montreal towards the end there and there's just something sad but interesting and surreal about it. And you can sit really close for cheap and no concession lines.

So basically the Atlanta experience for most of about 20 years lol

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

So basically the Atlanta experience for most of about 20 years lol

I had been in Atlanta-Fulton County stadium when there weren't enough fans to fill up a school bus.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I had been in Atlanta-Fulton County stadium when there weren't enough fans to fill up a school bus.

When you couldn't wound two people with a full clip

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

So basically the Atlanta experience for most of about 20 years lol

That's exactly what I told my daughter and her BF when they showed us the field - looked liked when my buddies and I would buy cheap seats at Fulton County Stadium, show up extra early to watch BP and try to get autographs, then hang around and sit in the boxes. So I could count Rafael Ramirez's errors up close.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

That's exactly what I told my daughter and her BF when they showed us the field - looked liked when my buddies and I would buy cheap seats at Fulton County Stadium, show up extra early to watch BP and try to get autographs, then hang around and sit in the boxes. So I could count Rafael Ramirez's errors up close.

It was so sparsely attended that my young self could heckle Bob Horner about his steadily ballooning weight and he could hear me clear enough to react.

[Ksyrup]

We once sat on the 1st base line and figured out the Dodgers steal sign. At one point my buddy and I yelled STEAL STEAL before a pitch and the 1B coach turned his head after the pitch and looked in our direction.

[stevew]

Pirates walk it off on a throwing error | 04/07/2024 | MLB.com

I’m not sure I can ever recall a game ending like this, but I’m sure it’s common. Anyways, the Pirates had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth. The hitter comes up and hits it pretty much straight up the middle, should be the end of the game. Henderson makes a wild dive at it, snags it, tap with his hand, and throws the first, wildly, ending the game.


Just a crazy play with everything on the line.

[miami_fan]

https://www.mlb.com/news/the-three-b...715th-home-run

50 years ago today Hammerin' Hank passed the Babe. Still gives me all the chills to watch it years later. I can't imagine what it would have been like and felt like to watch it in real time.

No slight intended but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I heard Curt Gowdy's call of that home run. I only ever remember hearing Milo Hamilton's and Vin Scully's calls.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Gowdy's call is what I was watching when it happened. The game was on NBC

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by stevew

Pirates walk it off on a throwing error | 04/07/2024 | MLB.com

I’m not sure I can ever recall a game ending like this, but I’m sure it’s common. Anyways, the Pirates had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth. The hitter comes up and hits it pretty much straight up the middle, should be the end of the game. Henderson makes a wild dive at it, snags it, tap with his hand, and throws the first, wildly, ending the game.


Just a crazy play with everything on the line.

The Pirates have won 2 extra inning games in a row and 3 already this season, which matches their entire total from last season.

The (no longer) new extra inning rule, with the runner starting on second, is still so strange to me. I'm not sure if I like it better or not. With pitchers dropping like flies, it seems like a no brainer to try to shorten the games to reduce injuries, but there was always something really cool about seeing a marginal reliever occasionally pitch like 5 or 6 scoreless innings or the option that, after the 15th inning or so, you might see a position player come in to pitch or starting pitchers come in. Or seeing pitchers get to pinch hit. Now, it feels like a run is more likely to come in each half inning than not.

[Lathum]

I like it better. No one wants a 16 inning game where your pitching options are tomorrows starter or your utility infielder.

[GrantDawg]

But you miss the classics, like the 19 inning Pitates-Braves game in 2011 that went to 2 A.M. with the little girl yelling "LET'S GO PIRATES" so loud you could hear it in the whole stadium and on the television. To this day she is still my favorite fan for a team I don't root for.
Girl who wouldn't quit yelling... Braves-Pirates - YouTube

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I like it better. No one wants a 16 inning game where your pitching options are tomorrows starter or your utility infielder.

Just another further dumbing down of the sport.

For literally decades teams were somehow able to manage their bullpens adequately for those odd occasions. I don't recall any epidemic of position-player-pitching in tie games.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just another further dumbing down of the sport.

For literally decades teams were somehow able to manage their bullpens adequately for those odd occasions. I don't recall any epidemic of position-player-pitching in tie games.

Pitching has changed. I'm not so crazy about it, either but I have no idea how to stop it. Pitchers put full effort in every pitch, and everyone is throwing with crazy velocity and spin rates. Pitchers are ripping their arms apart.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Pitching has changed. I'm not so crazy about it, either but I have no idea how to stop it. Pitchers put full effort in every pitch, and everyone is throwing with crazy velocity and spin rates. Pitchers are ripping their arms apart.

Stop giving in to the madness (baseball overall, not you specifically I mean) and they'll learn otherwise.

Instead, like most shit, we just play into the idiocy.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just another further dumbing down of the sport.

For literally decades teams were somehow able to manage their bullpens adequately for those odd occasions. I don't recall any epidemic of position-player-pitching in tie games.

That's because they didn't have any way to objectively quantify how inefficient to winning it was. Now they know, and it's almost derelict not to take it into account.

Now, the point about so many arms being ripped to shreds - maybe some team will decide to modify their approach based on a cost basis, but I don't see it happening. But certainly, the sport could kinda force teams into adjustments. Fixing a limit on the number of pitchers on the roster, cracking down on using the IL as extra roster spots for even more pitchers, etc.

Somehow I don't see that happening.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Somehow I don't see that happening.

It's been so long since a good decision was made in baseball that a) don't remember the last one, and b) can't imagine one ever being made again.

It's a pity, but it is what it is. I just don't watch.

[RainMaker]

The pitch clock was a good decision. I'm not watching 4 hour regular season games.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

The pitch clock was a good decision. I'm not watching 4 hour regular season games.

You do you.

I never once complained about a baseball game taking too long.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

The pitch clock was a good decision. I'm not watching 4 hour regular season games.

Pitch clock is a definite win. I think they instituted it during the covid season, so we didn't go to any games that year, but the first few games we went to in person, it was so much better.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You do you.

I never once complained about a baseball game taking too long.

It just removed the most boring parts of a baseball game. Guys adjusting their batting gloves between each pitch or a pitcher shaking off signs before another mound visit. Why would anyone miss that?

[Ksyrup]

It's just raging against the dying light. The problem is, as we get older, what we want doesn't matter as much anymore. It's just a fact.

Things that were perfectly acceptable to us when we were younger get changed because the people whose eyes on screens and butts in seats matter more think differently than we do.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

It just removed the most boring parts of a baseball game. Guys adjusting their batting gloves between each pitch or a pitcher shaking off signs before another mound visit. Why would anyone miss that?

It's a rhythm of the game thing.

One of the joys of baseball was that it had its own pace. My attention span simply isn't so short that it requires the idiotic pitch clock.

A 2:02 Maddux gem was perfectly fine. So was a game that happened to last 3:41. Each occurred ... organically.

Like pretty much every sport these days, rule changes are designed largely for people who don't actually like the sport.

DH's , ghost runners, pitch clocks, shift rules to protect one dimensional hitters who can't adapt, starting pitchers who can't last 5 innings but that's okay, it just adds up to lowering the talent level to match shortened attention spans. And it's not really something that interests me to watch anymore. {shrug} I'm not the target and that's fine, but after spending decades highly engaged and immersed I figure I'm allowed to be kinda sad about it.

[stevew]

I think they need to patch the 40 man roster during the offseason for extended injuries. Allow teams to put guys on the 60 day but then they aren’t eligible until July 1 or something. If you have three or four guys with Tommy John surgery you’re at a disadvantage with your 40 man roster.

[Ksyrup]

And Jon, I feel your pain, I've just learned to adapt. I don't love any sports as much as I did when I was younger, so that helps a lot. But when I fire up OOTP and start a fictional universe, I always go with 70s/80s league modifiers because that's the era I enjoy the most. Such a coincidence that's when I fell in love with the sport growing up.

I'm sure in 3 decades, you're going to have some now-20 year old wistfully wishing for the good ol' days of the 2020s.

[RainMaker]

I dont' think it's shorter attention spans. The rule changes bring the game in line to where it was 40 years ago. The 3.5 hour games is a new phenomenon. And there's just not a lot of people that have that kind of free time for 162 games a year. Nor that find a player adjusting his gloves 12 times an at-bat to be entertaining.

The talent level is higher than it's ever been. Most teams from the 80's wouldn't be able to score against modern pitching staffs. Most of the teams have a shortstop who can not only defend as well as someone like Ozzie Smith, but also hit 20+ homers. And that counts for every other position too. I understand it might make the game more boring, but hard to argue the talent level is down.

[RainMaker]

I find it less enjoyable due to the lack of balls in play. Defenses getting so elite is somewhat fun to watch but you also miss out on a lot of action that used to be there. Contact hitters are kind of worthless. But I don't really know how you change that aspect of the game.

[molson]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Pitching has changed. I'm not so crazy about it, either but I have no idea how to stop it. Pitchers put full effort in every pitch, and everyone is throwing with crazy velocity and spin rates. Pitchers are ripping their arms apart.

Teams should adjust like NFL teams have done for running backs.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by molson

Teams should adjust like NFL teams have done for running backs.

They sort of have. TINSTAAPP (there is no such thing as a pitching prospect) has been the strategy for a number of teams for years. Teams are now just loading up on tons of hard throwers and assuming a small percent will make their way through.

You're also seeing it with the contracts being given out. Sure a handful of arms are getting paid, but it's not like it was. The fact Blake Snell couldn't cash in tells you all you need to know. There just isn't going to be the same kind of investment into individual pitchers as there way.