2014 MLB Thread

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Atlanta Braves
9 mins ·

The Braves have dismissed general manager Frank Wren. John Hart has been named as the interim GM.

Alas... but a good move for the Braves.

Now for Freddie..

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Interesting day for the Royals. They have a 5:00/7:00 doubleheader today. First game is to complete the game that was suspended 4-2 in extra innings a few weeks ago. Will be interesting to see who hits for the Royals, as they can use anyone who wasn't used previously including all the 40 man players who weren't at the game when it was suspended. In addition, Yost has said that Holland will pitch the next inning if the Royals find a way to tie it up, since he was the pitcher who completed the previous inning and was the pitcher of record.

Really could use some magic in that first game.

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

dola

Yea, KC!

Furiously Double-Fisting Royals Fan Is A Damned National Hero

Isn't that the same seat Waldo was in on Saturday???

Here's Waldo

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

Isn't that the same seat Waldo was in on Saturday???

Here's Waldo

One seat over I think.

Maybe that's Waldo's beer?

[miked]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Lots of chatter here on sports radio this morning that they are targeting Dayton Moore as a replacement.

Please no. Two winning seasons and a bunch of 90-loss seasons is not the person that needs to be brought in.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Wow. Another 9th inning collapse by the Tigers. Ahead 3-0 after 8 innings, now 3-3 tie. Royals have already won.

Edit: Wow. Big hit by Cabrera to win it. Detroit needed that badly.

[kingfc22]

Just smoke him up and in next time Bumgarner.

[ISiddiqui]

Not necessarily a fan of Keith Olbermann, but every once in a while he shows why he's a good sports commentator:

[cartman]

In a rare 'feel good' moment for the Rangers this season, a career minor leaguer got his first MLB hit the other night after 13 years in the minors.

Guilder Rodriguez of Texas Rangers gets first MLB hits after 13 years in minor leagues - ESPN Dallas

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Not necessarily a fan of Keith Olbermann, but every once in a while he shows why he's a good sports commentator:

Summed it up well.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Just smoke him up and in next time Bumgarner.

Hopefully the Dodgers are up big enough to throw at some of the D-bags

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by cartman

In a rare 'feel good' moment for the Rangers this season, a career minor leaguer got his first MLB hit the other night after 13 years in the minors.

Guilder Rodriguez of Texas Rangers gets first MLB hits after 13 years in minor leagues - ESPN Dallas

According to Baseball Reference he's the first Guilder in MLB history.

[BishopMVP]

Not quite the same when you're making $8m/y, but still rough.

Phil Hughes falls one out short of $500,000 bonus due to rain delay - CBSSports.com

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

COUNTRY F'N BREAKFAST!!!!!!!

GO BLUEJAYS!!!!!!

[cartman]

Seems like there is a difference in the count of chicks pre and post hatch for the Royals.

[claphamsa]

back to back double headers for the nats

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Royals can clinch a playoff spot tonight with a win and Seattle loss. Seems somewhat anti-climatic given how close we were to a division title. But it's obviously still a huge deal for this franchise. The A's haven't exactly been world-beaters of late and I believe the Royals won their season series with the Angels if my memory serves me correctly. So we'll take what we can get.

[MrBug708]

Nice to see Kershaw have a "bad" outing and still give up just a run and garner double digit strikeouts.

MVP

[MizzouRah]

Cardinals playing like crap against the Cubs.. Pirates might take this division.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Nice to see Kershaw have a "bad" outing and still give up just a run and garner double digit strikeouts.

OH NO! He peaked too early!!

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Not quite the same when you're making $8m/y, but still rough.

Phil Hughes falls one out short of $500,000 bonus due to rain delay - CBSSports.com

So, I don't get WHY Gardenhire won't use him out of the pen this weekend. He needs 1 out for his bonus - I mean is he afraid the Front Office will penalize him for allowing Hughes to get it?

[JPhillips]

With as bad as the Reds are, I haven't really kept track of many individual stats. I just saw Chapman has a crazy 17.65 k/9.

[Arles]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Cardinals playing like crap against the Cubs.. Pirates might take this division.

Going Friday night against the DBacks, if the Cards can't win with Wacha and Lynn against this AAA DBacks team (and Trevor Cahill pitching), they don't deserve to win the division. Given the Cards fans I know going (including myself), it will pretty much be a home series as well. I think the Cards win Friday and Saturday with the Pirates losing one of the next 3 - making Sunday's game moot and allowing us to rest Wainwright for the playoffs.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

So, I don't get WHY Gardenhire won't use him out of the pen this weekend. He needs 1 out for his bonus - I mean is he afraid the Front Office will penalize him for allowing Hughes to get it?

It's the Pohlads, I could easily see then firing Gardenhire over $500,000.

[SirFozzie]

You can't tell me that they didn't groove a few pitches for Jeter tonight.

And you can't tell me that if they did, they were wrong

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

You can't tell me that they didn't groove a few pitches for Jeter tonight.

And you can't tell me that if they did, they were wrong

[Vince, Pt. II]

This is insane, but apparently Phil Hughes has turned down the opportunity to get one more out and earn his bonus.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

With as bad as the Reds are, I haven't really kept track of many individual stats. I just saw Chapman has a crazy 17.65 k/9.

holy crap - i didn't think that was humanly possible

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

This is insane, but apparently Phil Hughes has turned down the opportunity to get one more out and earn his bonus.

It is not insane when you have a lot already to not feed the obsession to wanting more.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Arles

Going Friday night against the DBacks, if the Cards can't win with Wacha and Lynn against this AAA DBacks team (and Trevor Cahill pitching), they don't deserve to win the division. Given the Cards fans I know going (including myself), it will pretty much be a home series as well. I think the Cards win Friday and Saturday with the Pirates losing one of the next 3 - making Sunday's game moot and allowing us to rest Wainwright for the playoffs.

Would be nice... you just never know with this team.

[stevew]

Who wins a pirates cards tiebreaker?

Also I'd guess Hughes looks like garbage on FIP, et al? I figure so few walks means he's tossing meatballs and his fielders are active.

[Vince, Pt. II]

With the Cards fading it's leading to fairly interesting discussion about the Giants and how they set up their playoff rotation. Giants lose a tiebreaker to the Pirates, but win it against the Cardinals. The question here is how important is home field for the one game playoff? Considering the differences between ballparks and the Giants' pitching staff's propensity for fly balls, somewhat of a big deal. The rotation naturally works out for Peavey to pitch tomorrow and Bumgarner Sunday, but the club has come out to say it's going to be Bumgarner on Wednesday for the one game playoff. So who do you start Sunday, assuming home field in the one game playoff is up for grabs?

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by stevew

Who wins a pirates cards tiebreaker?

Also I'd guess Hughes looks like garbage on FIP, et al? I figure so few walks means he's tossing meatballs and his fielders are active.

6th. He still has a good K rate (8 per 9 innings). His xFIP is a little higher because he's been a pretty extreme fly ball pitcher (although not even close to Chris Young, who has a preposterously low 22% ground ball rate.)

[Chief Rum]

Is there a separate Jeter thread or something? I am stunned last night happened and not one poster commented on it. And I am not even a Yankees fan.

[ISiddiqui]

Um... Post #1775?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Magic number of one for the wildcard! So excited to watch the game tonight. For the first time since I was 10 years old, I might see the Royals make the playoffs. That just unbelievable.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Is there a separate Jeter thread or something? I am stunned last night happened and not one poster commented on it. And I am not even a Yankees fan.

If he'd been batting 8th instead of 2nd all season the Yankees would likely still be alive for a wild card today. And if he moved to 3B when A-Rod was signed the Yankees might have more than 1 title since 2001. Fine player, HoF career, but I can do without the lionization of his character when he's consistently put himself above the interests of the team for years.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by stevew

Who wins a pirates cards tiebreaker?

There is a one game playoff to determine the division champ on Monday if tied.

The interesting question is if Pirates are one game back going into Sunday do you pitch Cole hoping the Cards lose or save Cole for division playoff or wild card. If Cole doesn't pitch wild card does Liriano go on 3 days rest since he is scheduled for Saturday and the division will still be in play.

[Arles]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

If he'd been batting 8th instead of 2nd all season the Yankees would likely still be alive for a wild card today. And if he moved to 3B when A-Rod was signed the Yankees might have more than 1 title since 2001. Fine player, HoF career, but I can do without the lionization of his character when he's consistently put himself above the interests of the team for years.

So, you're saying that Ichiro's .327 OBP or Beltran's .301 OBP over Jeter and his .305 OBP at 2nd would have been the difference? The reason they didn't win the division was some massive pitching injuries (Sabathia and Tanaka) and that their projected 3-4-5 guys hit .233 (Beltran), .217 (Texiera) and .233 (McCann). Jeter wasn't the reason this team didn't make the playoffs.

This sounds like a bitter Boston fan sick of hearing about Jeter and some sour grapes over anything substantial

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Arles

So, you're saying that Ichiro's .327 OBP or Beltran's .301 OBP over Jeter and his .305 OBP at 2nd would have been the difference? The reason they didn't win the division was some massive pitching injuries (Sabathia and Tanaka) and that their projected 3-4-5 guys hit .233 (Beltran), .217 (Texiera) and .233 (McCann). Jeter wasn't the reason this team didn't make the playoffs.

This sounds like a bitter Boston fan sick of hearing about Jeter and some sour grapes over anything substantial

Yeah, I'd take .323 over .302... And when Beltran's equal OBP comes with an additional .090 SLG I'd take him too. But I was thinking more Prado or Headley since they were acquired.

Yes, obviously most of my vitriol is because the media is beating us over the head with it. The craziest Jeter/Yankees stat was that prior to last night he'd only played in 1 game where the Yankees weren't still in playoff contention. But sure, let's celebrate a single in a meaningless game, or come to Fenway and fete him during a meaningless series, because that's what makes Jeter special?

(Fwiw, I'd probably be equally burnt out if David Ortiz or Tom Brady ever did a season-long farewell tour, but both have said they'll just retire in the offseason or when they start sucking.)

[Arles]

I get the Jeter fatigue, but he is arguably the poster-child for baseball in the 2000s. Given the sport is facing a serious dip in popularity (mostly because it's a grind to watch a full game, let alone a season), it makes sense for the older, baseball-loving media to pounce on this (on both ends). Heck, my dad who *hates* New York and can't stand the east coast watched the final 4 innings of the Yankee game last night and called me to talk about Jeter. It's part career accomplishments (over 3K hits), the fact he was in New York, his performance in the postseason and the idea that he is one of the few athletes not tied or even loosely linked to steroids. But, this is an interesting story for people across the nation. The difference is most of us in the midwest and west coast just started noticing it a month or so ago and didn't have to deal with the season long fatigue the east coasters did.

I enjoyed the coverage of him last night, and I'm usually the first to complain about anti west-coast bias (which is ridiculous is college football). But, for whatever reason - maybe it's all the crap in the NFL or the lack of pennant chases (outside of my Cards and maybe the Royals), but I haven't minded the focus on Jeter for the past week or so.

[Buccaneer]

Chief, stunned that a player hit a game winning hit? Oh that's right, it's the player that we all must praise and bow to as the One.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Arles

Given the sport is facing a serious dip in popularity

(I realize this is a tangent) Is it? I don't see anything that really indicates this.

[Arles]

National ratings have been dipping for a while. The World Series in the early 2000s routinely hit 13-16. It even climbed back up to 12 in 2009 with the Phillis and the Yanks. The last 4 have been 8, 10 (Cardinals), 7 and 8 (Cards-Sox). If the Cardinals, Sox, Yankees or Dodgers aren't in it, the series ratings could dip into the 5-6 area. That's like a nice college football game in early September level. The last 3-4 seasons have seen the NBA finals beat the World Series by between 2 and 4 points. In 2006, the NBA Finals got a 6.2 and the World Series got an 11.

What baseball has been hanging their hat on is regional rankings - but even those are slipping. Outside of the Yankees +22% to 3.05 (Jeter), Brewers +32% to 5.91 (in the hunt) and Angels +15% to 1.42 (which tapered off), most regions are running in place or even falling pretty rapidly. Some markets have had very tough years like the Dodgers -70% to a lowly 0.7, Rangers -44% to a 2.66 and the Braves (-32% to 2.80) and Nationals (-34% to 1.90). This despite the Nationals and Dodgers each having banner seasons. Even the Cardinals have dipped (-8%), but are still the best in baseball at 7.45.

This also shows up in the "favorite polls" where the NFL was 29% in 1992, baseball was 23% and college football was 7%. In 2011, the NFL was 36%, baseball was 13% and college football was 13%.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Arles

National ratings have been dipping for a while. The World Series in the early 2000s routinely hit 13-16. It even climbed back up to 12 in 2009 with the Phillis and the Yanks. The last 4 have been 8, 10 (Cardinals), 7 and 8 (Cards-Sox). If the Cardinals, Sox, Yankees or Dodgers aren't in it, the series ratings could dip into the 5-6 area. That's like a nice college football game in early September level. The last 3-4 seasons have seen the NBA finals beat the World Series by between 2 and 4 points. In 2006, the NBA Finals got a 6.2 and the World Series got an 11.

What baseball has been hanging their hat on is regional rankings - but even those are slipping. Outside of the Yankees +22% to 3.05 (Jeter), Brewers +32% to 5.91 (in the hunt) and Angels +15% to 1.42 (which tapered off), most regions are running in place or even falling pretty rapidly. Some markets have had very tough years like the Dodgers -70% to a lowly 0.7, Rangers -44% to a 2.66 and the Braves (-32% to 2.80) and Nationals (-34% to 1.90). This despite the Nationals and Dodgers each having banner seasons. Even the Cardinals have dipped (-8%), but are still the best in baseball at 7.45.

Sounds like the Royals are the outlying example. They've been setting records for TV ratings all year long on their Fox Sports affiliate. They've been setting records on advertising revenue as well.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Arles

Even the Cardinals have dipped (-8%), but are still the best in baseball at 7.45.

That's because Cards fans know how to watch baseball the right way.

[Arles]

Yeah, the best are the Cardinals, Tigers, Pirates, Reds, Indians, Brewers and Royals (in that order) in local TV share. Regional ratings still carry baseball, but at a national level they are 4th behind the NFL, college football and even the NBA. For places like ESPN and Fox, it makes sense to pimp out this Jeter story as it is one of the few things (outside of a Cardinals-Yankees World Series) that would have national appeal in the ratings.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Arles

National ratings have been dipping for a while. The World Series in the early 2000s routinely hit 13-16. It even climbed back up to 12 in 2009 with the Phillis and the Yanks. The last 4 have been 8, 10 (Cardinals), 7 and 8 (Cards-Sox). If the Cardinals, Sox, Yankees or Dodgers aren't in it, the series ratings could dip into the 5-6 area. That's like a nice college football game in early September level. The last 3-4 seasons have seen the NBA finals beat the World Series by between 2 and 4 points. In 2006, the NBA Finals got a 6.2 and the World Series got an 11.

What baseball has been hanging their hat on is regional rankings - but even those are slipping. Outside of the Yankees +22% to 3.05 (Jeter), Brewers +32% to 5.91 (in the hunt) and Angels +15% to 1.42 (which tapered off), most regions are running in place or even falling pretty rapidly. Some markets have had very tough years like the Dodgers -70% to a lowly 0.7, Rangers -44% to a 2.66 and the Braves (-32% to 2.80) and Nationals (-34% to 1.90). This despite the Nationals and Dodgers each having banner seasons. Even the Cardinals have dipped (-8%), but are still the best in baseball at 7.45.

This also shows up in the "favorite polls" where the NFL was 29% in 1992, baseball was 23% and college football was 7%. In 2011, the NFL was 36%, baseball was 13% and college football was 13%.

A relevant link dealing with the ratings issue a few weeks back: Baseball is dying? Nonsense: The Case for Baseball’s Vitality | HardballTalk

Baseball does quite well, however, when one considers the overall television ratings trends. Unfortunately, hardly anyone ever considers those trends when piling on baseball’s allegedly low TV ratings. Indeed, baseball is almost exclusively compared with the anomalous NFL — or, more often, its own history — as opposed to current television programming and the inexorable fragmentation of the TV viewing audience.

In 2013, Major League Baseball took in somewhere between $8-8.5 billion in revenue. Of that total, approximately $711.7 million — less than 10% — came from national television deals inked with Fox, TBS and ESPN. In contrast, the NFL’s revenue stands at someplace just north of $9 billion. It’s national television revenue from Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN is $3.085 billion, or around a third. Clearly, national television, however much it is discussed by baseball’s obituarists, is significantly less important to baseball than it is to football, rendering the citation of national TV ratings for baseball only part of the story. What baseball has that football doesn’t are local broadcasts. Lots and lots of local broadcasts. Lots and lots of highly-rated local broadcasts. Lots and lots of insanely lucrative local broadcasts.

In 2010, the Texas Rangers signed a deal with Fox Sports Southwest which pays the team $85 million per year for 20 years and grants them a 10% equity stake in the network. Earlier this year the Philadelphia Phillies signed a 25-year, $5 billion deal with Comcast SportsNet. And, in the largest and perhaps most-publicized local television deal in baseball history, the Dodgers and Time Warner entered into a 25-year, $8.35 billion deal. While that Dodgers deal is unlikely to be matched by most teams — and while it’s quite possible that the Dodgers’ deal is evidence of a local rights fees bubble — it is a windfall that is attributable to the same dynamic enriching nearly every other team: the dramatic increase in value cable companies and local broadcasters are placing on live sporting events. Like baseball. People like watching local baseball games and are doing so in remarkable numbers.

In 2013, the top end of local baseball ratings look an awful lot like the numbers for “The Big Bang Theory,” actually. The Detroit Tigers averaged a 9.6 ratings last year. The St. Louis Cardinals averaged 8.7. The Pittsburgh Pirates, long a doormat but in 2013 a surprise contender, averaged 8.1. The Cincinnati Reds averaged 7.4, The eventual World Series champion Boston Red Sox: 7.2. Overall, the average local rating for 2013 games for all teams is ahead of where they were five years ago. And, it should be noted, all of these numbers have come at a time when more teams are broadcasting their games on cable and are increasingly abandoning over-the-air broadcasts. In theory, fewer people should have access to their team’s games, yet more people are watching them now than they did in the past.

And yes, the football is gaining. It is always gaining. It is the supreme outlier among all sports or all programming. It just is. Comparing baseball to football is always going to look bad for baseball, but baseball will make more and more money, break more and more attendance records and people will still say its dying because they are comparing it to football.

[Arles]

The volume of baseball (162 games for all 30 teams) is always going to bring in a ton of money. So, yes, nearly 5000 baseball games generated around $8 billion in revenue. Compare that with the 500ish games in the NFL generating $9 billion. 2008 was also a dreadful ratings year for baseball - just read this article to see how bad:
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...-To-Shine.aspx

So, yes, 2013 was better than 2008, but 2014 was worse than 2013 for many regional teams and nationally.

Baseball's health is always going to be solid in regional markets when their team plays. For teams like the Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, Pirates and Royals - baseball will do well in season. But for the playoffs and the world series, ratings will dip unless a team with a big following (a la St. Louis, Yankees, Red Sox) makes it far. That is a problem. People in Phoenix will be excited to watch the Cavs, Spurs or Thunder in the NBA playoffs/Finals. People across the nation will watch the Conference finals and Super Bowl in the NFL - even if it's Arizona and Denver. No one in Kansas City, Phoenix or Denver will watch a Baltimore-Pittsburgh World Series. There's a reason major league baseball is one of the few sports where most of the playoffs are on obscure cable TV channels.

So, by having nearly 5000 games a year, baseball will continue to have nice overall revenue numbers - but the national interest continues to dwindle. And, if you care about baseball, that's something you should want to change. It's not like the MLB is in danger of folding anytime soon, but it is becoming more and more irrelevant nationally. A combination of the extremely long games with the grind of the season makes it a tough sport to follow unless you are super dedicated. As a lifelong baseball fan, this does worry me and I think baseball should look at ways to reduce the time of games to make them more bearable.

[ISiddiqui]

Yes, the volume of baseball will always bring in money. The point being that the money being brought in is INCREASING. The TV deals being offered are staggering in their amounts. Teams are getting local deals that would have been unimaginable even 10 years go.

Attendance is also very high. It kept growing throughout the 2000s. Not sure what its been the last few years, but it isn't dropping all that much.

Baseball has always been a local game. Nationwide television ratings tell very little of the story and people moaning about it dying have been around for 20 years at least, as baseball continues to make more and more money and have high attendance numbers. I remember in the late 90s hearing about how basketball (and even hockey!) were catching up to baseball and soon it'd be a 3rd or 4th sport in the Big 4. None of that is even close to happening!