The 2023 MLB Season Thread

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Seriously, cut another month off of the MLB season and give me more of that. Holy shit this last week of baseball was magical.

I will go one better, 140 game season, split into two 70 game mini seasons. Playoffs, 16 teams, the 6 division winners for each half (if same, then the second best overall record in the division) then two teams from each league with the next best overall records.

2020, because of the abbreviated season was one of the most fun pennant races in recent memory, every game was meaningful for most teams. With the new rules, Baseball would generally be exciting the entire season.

[sterlingice]

One of the things I really hate about expanded playoffs is how it lets more teams into the playoffs and really diminishes the meaningfulness of being good in the regular season. Almost always, the best team in basketball wins a 7 game series. Not at all true in baseball - it's just the nature of the game. I do think one way that other leagues overseas make up for this is giving a 1 or 2 game lead in a series to the team with the better record.

So, for instance, if the Dodgers have 100 wins and the Padres 90 wins and they play in the NLDS, the Dodgers would already have a 1-0 lead. They only need 2 wins while the Pads need 3. Before baseball expands the playoffs more - I want to see the thumb on the scale for the teams that are better over the long haul. Give a reward to teams that are good over the 162-game (or 154 or whatever). If you expand it more, it just means worse team can make deeper, fluky runs in a sport where the regular season really should mean a lot because the variation is so hard to suss out.

SI

[BYU 14]

Do you think playing all first round games at the home park of the higher seed would help that?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Do you think playing all first round games at the home park of the higher seed would help that?

I think it's a marginal gain but only a marginal one. I can't find the study off the top of my head, but, there's an exhaustive paper and the gist of it is that the best team wins in baseball much less than the best team in any other sport. And by a considerable margin. To get the accuracy of the NBA or NFL playoffs best team winning, baseball series would have to be something like a best of 31 or 51 games or something like that - it's insane. Home field bumps the percentage up to something like 55% chance to win, but it's nothing compared to the like 75% chance that teams in other sports have. I'm not saying those sports have it right either, but to get even close to that, you really need to put a heavier thumb on the scale.

And, I mean, I say this as a fan of a small-market team. A team that would benefit from letting some fluky chances go the little guy's way. But it feels like it cheapens the result of the sport. Like in college football, when we have a 12-team playoff, the same few teams will still win most of them. But with baseball, the door is wide open for the best teams not just to not win but not even to make it out of the first round.

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I think it's a marginal gain but only a marginal one. I can't find the study off the top of my head, but, there's an exhaustive paper and the gist of it is that the best team wins in baseball much less than the best team in any other sport. And by a considerable margin. To get the accuracy of the NBA or NFL playoffs best team winning, baseball series would have to be something like a best of 31 or 51 games or something like that - it's insane. Home field bumps the percentage up to something like 55% chance to win, but it's nothing compared to the like 75% chance that teams in other sports have. I'm not saying those sports have it right either, but to get even close to that, you really need to put a heavier thumb on the scale.

And, I mean, I say this as a fan of a small-market team. A team that would benefit from letting some fluky chances go the little guy's way. But it feels like it cheapens the result of the sport. Like in college football, when we have a 12-team playoff, the same few teams will still win most of them. But with baseball, the door is wide open for the best teams not just to not win but not even to make it out of the first round.

SI

I don't think this is the study you're talking about but it's perhaps the most in-depth dive into home-field in MLB around

[sterlingice]

Found it, eventually

https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcon...t=math_facpubs

"We note that in order for MLB to achieve the same lack of parity as the NBA, it would have to play 75-game series in a 16-team tournament. "

SI

[Ksyrup]

The most obvious way to manipulate it would be multiple byes, but my guess is giving teams a 2 week break would hurt more than the byes would help.

To me, it's more of a mindset change that's needed than anything. It's a tournament. It's not intended to crown the best team, but the team that wins the tournament. That's all. Maybe they should award some sort of AL/NL regular season champion separate from the World Series. Not that it's in MLB's interest to do that, but that's really what it would take.

[Solecismic]

I've calculated the NFL home field advantage as a little lower than in that study, but when they start getting into individual team HFA with eight home games per season and all the changes between seasons in approach and opponent, I start to glaze over and the entire discussion starts to remind me of the guy who claimed 2 + 2 *could be* 5 because 2.4 rounds to 2 and 2.4 + 2.4 = 4.8, which rounds to 5. Schrodinger's rounding error, I guess.

The more important point is that baseball playoffs are more random the playoffs in other sports. But the NFL, with its one-game series', more approaches baseball than people might like to admit. This is why I was so much against adding the 13th and 14th teams to the playoffs. What worked out just fine this past season usually doesn't (the 2007 Patriots might emphasize that point even more emphatically).

For a long time, baseball fans talked about "winning the pennant", which meant having the best 154-game record in an eight-team league for a long, long time. The World Series was essentially an exhibition at first, for fun. And then it started to matter. And then, say it ain't so, it probably started to matter too much.

Once the wild card was created, emerging from the primordial soup of random sporting outcomes, people stopped caring about such trivia as who was dominant in the regular season. Now it's just being good enough often enough to reach the playoffs.

Across the pond, soccer leagues care more about things like winning in the standings. They don't have divisions, just tiered leagues that change from season to season. And they intersperse the occasional tournament to quench the appetite for such randomness. In England, the semifinals of their biggest tournament, the FA Cup, will include one team from the second division (Championship) in addition to three teams high up in the Premier League standings. But no one is claiming Sheffield United is the best anything (in fact, they're fading so badly lately that what looked like certain promotion a few weeks ago is now heavily in doubt). But they keep coming up with heroic finishes against much better teams in the FA Cup.

I don't know how you get a balance. My preference would be for larger divisions, no wild cards, and some reward of some kind for caring about second place. In the NFL, which needs wild cards to handle the short nature of the season, I would reverse the draft order for teams not involved in the playoffs.

[sterlingice]

I mean the big key is "what is the goal". Like I'm not sure "parity with the NBA" is the goal. But I do think it's a decent lens to start the discussion about what the goal is.

I think the regular season in baseball should matter a lot more than, say, the NFL because of the sample size: 19 games vs 162. If you want to make a tournament where home field advantage means a lot like the NFL - that's not the worst system, especially within the constraints of the sport and how often you can play it.

I get the NCAA tournament doesn't crown the best team most years. If we wanted the NCAA tournament to crown the best team, only the top, say, 16 teams would make it and they'd all play a best of 3 or something like that. And, as fans, we're all ok with that because a big part of the appeal is the underdog nature. But I think there's also some measure of people like upsets the first weekend and more chalk after that. Basically, if you can survive the weird gauntlet thrown at you the first weekend, fans often want order restored the second weekend. It seems like there's this weird middle ground where fans want a lot of upsets at first to weed out the "weaker" strong teams but then don't want "undeserving" teams making the Final Four. Hell, Kansas would have a lot more titles under Bill Self if they just played 3 or 5 game series with #1 seeds or 1-4 seeds or something.

However, a single elimination MLB tournament would be bonkers. There's too much history, valuing the regular season. But without even so much as the Presidents trophy in the NHL. We can't deny that postseason tournaments matter a lot culturally and, if we're going to do it that way, we should try to bend the playoff structure towards the goal of crowning the most "deserving" champion. Or least a champion that comes from a pool of "deserving" teams.


SI

[Swaggs]

I can't remember how to embed videos, but I love this MLB commercial about the new rules with Dan Vogelbach and Buck Showalter. MLB with the rare advertising win.

A new Man of Steal? | 03/20/2023 | MLB.com

[Ksyrup]

This is a week old but I just saw it this afternoon. Funny!

What a special moment I’ll never forget! This is definitely going on my mantle for my kids to see one day pic.twitter.com/YebDELrl9v

— Ryan Thompson (@R_Thompson15) March 19, 2023

[miami_fan]

I hope this is not a precursor for how things will go this year.

Ump ejects Phillies' J.T. Realmuto after awkward ball handoff

[Ksyrup]

The second "ump show" moment yesterday occurred when Sergio Romo came in to pitch to the heavily-scripted final 3 batters of his career. The ump charged him 2 balls on his first batter for not completing his warm-up pitches on time and delaying on his first pitch to the first batter. I mean, come on.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I hope this is not a precursor for how things will go this year.

Ump ejects Phillies' J.T. Realmuto after awkward ball handoff

Jomboy's on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab8_xERdUa4

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Message for all my fellow cheapskates.

I just got an email confirming that MLB.tv will once again be free for all T-Mobile and Metro customers. Sign up will be March 28 through the 3rd of April.

Bump

[Critch]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Message for all my fellow cheapskates.

I just got an email confirming that MLB.tv will once again be free for all T-Mobile and Metro customers. Sign up will be March 28 through the 3rd of April.

Super easy to sign up this year too. Another year of a free service that I will stop using after about 2 weeks, you cant beat it.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Critch

Super easy to sign up this year too. Another year of a free service that I will stop using after about 2 weeks, you cant beat it.

No matter how bad your favorite team will be this year (*cough*Royals*cough*), I'm happy to watch through May 1. And then gallows humor the rest of the year.

SI

[Ksyrup]

The MLBPAA $25 fan membership and 50% MLB.tv deal worked perfectly. Now, I just assume I have to go through the fun of cancelling next year at this time (since it's on auto-renew for the full price for 2024), pay for another year of the membership, get a new code for 2024, and get 50% off again (rinse and repeat until they yank the deal).

[Ghost Econ]

With the new speed of play rules, I'd miss 3/4 of the game from being in the bathroom if I ate this.

1. THE CLEANUP BURGER:

4️⃣ grilled all-beef patties topped with golden hash brown potato, hickory smoked bacon, cheese & sunny side-up fried egg. Served on a fresh buttermilk Belgian waffle with maple syrup. Serves anywhere from 1 (if you dare) to 4.

📍1871 Grille near sec 113 pic.twitter.com/fHciEKEwY1

— Truist Park (@TruistPark) March 28, 2023

Also, it says has browns but shows fries.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

With the new speed of play rules, I'd miss 3/4 of the game from being in the bathroom if I ate this.

That's why they call it the clean up burger.

[Lathum]

There is a great episode of Man Vs Food (the original, not that abomination of a remake) where he does a challenge at a ballpark where he has to finish a monster burger by the end of the game. Its good stuff.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Lathum

There is a great episode of Man Vs Food (the original, not that abomination of a remake) where he does a challenge at a ballpark where he has to finish a monster burger by the end of the game. Its good stuff.

Love that show. But you could see him physically deteriorate as each season went by. There's only so many times you can eat 5 lbs of food in one sitting before it starts affecting your health.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Mota

Love that show. But you could see him physically deteriorate as each season went by. There's only so many times you can eat 5 lbs of food in one sitting before it starts affecting your health.

yeah, I was glad he called it quits. I read an article once about his routine, etc...he tried to take care of himself but impossible.

[miked]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

With the new speed of play rules, I'd miss 3/4 of the game from being in the bathroom if I ate this.

Trying to distract us from sending down Vaughn Grissom and choosing a journeyman career .240 hitter to replace an All-Star SS.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Also, it says has browns but shows fries.

I think the hash browns are inside (at least I think I sorta see 'em)

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Lathum

yeah, I was glad he called it quits. I read an article once about his routine, etc...he tried to take care of himself but impossible.

I actually like the new guy way better than Richman.

He was supposed to resurface on another show a couple of years later but it (or he) got cancelled for a bunch of pretty terrible responses he posted to people commenting on an Instagram post where he used the hashtag #Thinspiration, which apparently had been banned (due to body image stuff, I guess - never heard about it).

Anyway, whether or not he was aware of that, he basically doubled down and started insulting people left and right, including (as I recall) suggesting someone go kill themself. I have no clue where he is now, although I believe he's done some acting.

*Looks at thread title*

I don't know whether he's a baseball fan or not...

[stevew]

A’s traded Pache to the Phillies which I suppose might work if he is exclusively a defensive replacement.

[RainMaker]

Atlanta has some good food options it seems. Those hot dogs further down in that thread look incredible too.

[Lathum]

First AB of the season and Judge hits one to dead center that hasn't landed yet.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

First AB of the season and Judge hits one to dead center that hasn't landed yet.

THE CAPTAIN ON PACE FOR 162 HOMERS!!!!!!

[Lathum]

Verlander injured. Reevaluated in a week. I swear the Mets are cursed

[GrantDawg]

Austin Riley has three walks in three at bats. It is only the 4th inning.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Verlander injured. Reevaluated in a week. I swear the Mets are cursed

I just checked out their roster. It looks like they have 11 players older than 34 and only 9 guys that are younger than 30. I looked up some other contenders real quick (Dodgers, Yankees, Astros, Padres, Cardinals) and none had more than 4 or 5 over 34.

I don't follow them closely, but thought some of their homegrown guys were a little younger (didn't realize Nimmo and McNeil were in their age 30 seasons already). Have to hope for some good fortune and that the right guys are healthy at the end of the year, I guess.

[GrantDawg]

Fried just tweaked his hammy and left the game.

[Ghost Econ]

No one told the Braves and Nats that games were supposed to be faster.

[Lathum]

They just called a strike on Jeff McNeill because it took Alonso too long to get back to first after a foul ball.

[Ksyrup]

Who asked for the resurrection tour of Roger Clemens?

[Ksyrup]

My opening day takeaway? This guy clearly needed a proposal clock:

Nothing caps off Opening Day quite like security tackling a fan who appeared to be trying to propose on the field.

Look at Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s reaction 😅

🎥 @sxr_704pic.twitter.com/bSbyGMQbyr

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 31, 2023

[Lathum]

I was just coming here to post that

A different look

Security guard said fuck your proposal it’s time for me to be Brian Dawkins pic.twitter.com/WgUr6nntWz

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 31, 2023

[GrantDawg]

Alrighty lawyers. It is always real satisfying to see these guys body-slammed for their stupidity, but if he now has a broken collarbone from that does he have a case?

[Ksyrup]

I'd sue for injuries and the "missing/stolen" engagement ring I suddenly can't find anymore!

Maybe he could get a lawyer to file a case to sue for injuries given the excessiveness of the hit and try to get a small settlement out of the Dodgers for it, although it's pretty easy to imagine a world (like this one!) where someone gets down on a knee to set up a small projectile or something, under the guise of a proposal. And frankly, what he ought to ask for in the settlement is to not be totally banned from the stadium for the rest of his life.

It was fucking stupid, either way. He doesn't appear to be running, he's not naked, he's not approaching anyone, it certainly appears he's trying to propose, but I'm not sure any of that totally negates the need to quickly subdue him in case all is not as it appears. He's trespassing and you've got a stadium full of people to protect. I'm not sure the excessiveness of the hit helps him all that much.

[sterlingice]

Another site I was on posted this and it feels right, yet again. Sorry, Angels fans - someone did some really weird monkey paw stuff to your team.

every time I see an Angels highlight it's like "Mike Trout hit three homes runs and raised his average to .528 while Shohei Ohtani did something that hasn't been done since 'Tungsten Arm' O'Doyle of the 1921 Akron Groomsmen, as the Tigers defeated the Angels 8-3"

— ℳatt (@matttomic) May 18, 2021

SI

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Maybe he could get a lawyer to file a case to sue for injuries given the excessiveness of the hit and try to get a small settlement out of the Dodgers for it, although it's pretty easy to imagine a world (like this one!) where someone gets down on a knee to set up a small projectile or something, under the guise of a proposal. And frankly, what he ought to ask for in the settlement is to not be totally banned from the stadium for the rest of his life.

Agree. If they're easy on him, it just sets up the blueprint on how to get away with something. If a person is well aware that they are not supposed to be there, you must assume they are up to no good. You can't risk letting someone Tonya Harding someone or worse.

[stevew]

*Monica Seles

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Bobble

Agree. If they're easy on him, it just sets up the blueprint on how to get away with something. If a person is well aware that they are not supposed to be there, you must assume they are up to no good. You can't risk letting someone Tonya Harding someone or worse.

Pretty much this.

I mean, if I had bad intentions & I knew that security took their sweet time getting to a guy making a proposal then golly, I wonder what ruse I might use to get enough time to do my bad deed?

To be honest, that's the same thing that crosses my mind when I've watched baby strollers get waved through airport security checkpoints (and yes, I've seen that happen more than once in the TSA era)

[GrantDawg]

The arguments against him are about what I expected, but I do wonder if he couldn't get some sympathy from a jury.

[RainMaker]

I don't know the law on it, but I'm guessing that security or police in that situation are not waiting to see if it's an innocent proposal or he's pulling out a pipe bomb. Plus this is the quickest way if you have the opportunity. Go out slow and the guy might run around for a while and who knows what happens.

If you ever watch concert security, they are just as aggressive if someone tries to jump on stage. I've never heard of a problem with a venue being sued for that but I'm sure it's happened. I wonder if we treat this differently because it's a bunch of athletes on the field and not Taylor Swift.

Anyway, I would chalk it up to "play stupid games, win stupid prizes".

[RainMaker]

Mentioned Swift because I remember this clip.

https://www.tiktok.com/@babyswift.13...73zC28cIN&_r=1

[miked]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I'm sure his future wife is elated.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

The arguments against him are about what I expected, but I do wonder if he couldn't get some sympathy from a jury.

I am not so sure. I get the feeling that the majority hates public proposal guy especially at sporting events. I definitely hate them with the exception being the Astro player that proposed after the team won the World Series.