The 2023 MLB Season Thread

[Swaggs]

I hate it for the fan base, but I love following league expansion-type news. With Las Vegas out of the picture, it sounds like there is a pretty decent appetite for MLB expansion, although it is possible that the Rays may also be looking to move and the league needs the candidate cities available to try to leverage one another (and presumably Tampa/St. Pete).

There are exploratory groups formed in Nashville (called Music City Baseball that is headed by Dave Stewart, with Tony Larussa, Don Mattingly, Eddie George, and former AG Alberto Gonzalez involved), Portland (the Portland Diamond Project with a former Nike exec heading it and Russell Wilson and Ciara involved), Salt Lake City (Big League Utah with former Utah Jazz co-owner Gail Miller providing backing and Dale Murphy involved), Charlotte (not much info on organization, but they are seen as a favorite among markets), and Montreal (the Montreal Baseball Group headed by the son of former Expos' owner, an Ernst and Young exec, and has former Expo Warren Cromartie).

Nashville seems like the most likely to get a team from what I read and then probably Portland, although Manfried apparently really likes the idea of a team in Charlotte. Also some talk of going to four divisions of 4 teams once they get up to 32.

[Lathum]

Having lived in the suburbs of portland for 3 years I think it is a terrible destination for a team.

[sterlingice]

Manfred has consistently said they were going to sort out Oakland and St. Pete before trying to expand. Why take away bidders when you can have existing teams extort cities for free and then have the "losers" from that bid against each other? EVEN MOAR MONEY!

Tampa seems to be on the road to sorting out their stadium situation so, unless something new and weird pops up (for instance, KC is going to come asking for a downtown stadium any time now, which is less than idea with another potential 100-loss team but I suspect whatever will pass). Then MLB will add 2 teams and probably will be stable at 32 for quite a while.

SI

[stevew]

I’m about 2 more weeks away from believing in this Pirates team.

[Coffee Warlord]

Drew Smyly has a perfect game going through 6, as the Cubs are blowing out the Dodgers.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Drew Smyly has a perfect game going through 6, as the Cubs are blowing out the Dodgers.

Boooooo

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Boooooo

What a way to lose it. Yan Gomes has to feel absolutely awful.

[RainMaker]

I didn't see the other angles but would Smyly have gotten Peralta at first?

[cartman]

I still hate Marwin Gonzalez for breaking up Yu Darvish's perfect game with two outs in the 9th. That would have been a ticket stub that I framed.

[miami_fan]

This probably should go in the Sports Media thread but this feels much more like a baseball story than a media one.

Jeff Dooley called to majors after 25 years for weekend series

25 years calling minor league baseball and finally getting the call up to call a couple of games for the big league club.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I didn't see the other angles but would Smyly have gotten Peralta at first?

From the angle I saw he was going to safe fairly easily anyway.

[stevew]

The Rangers city connect is straight trashcan juice. Other than the Peagle thing.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by stevew

The Rangers city connect is straight trashcan juice. Other than the Peagle thing.

I hate the pants. The cream color jerseys are super popular in travel ball and with kids right now.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I didn't see the other angles but would Smyly have gotten Peralta at first?

From what I could tell, it was dicey at best. Woulda needed an absolutely perfect throw to even have a chance.

Post game interview was awesome though. Team gave Gomes a football helmet to wear for his interview.

[JPhillips]

Another year and the Reds are out of it before April is over.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Another year and the Reds are out of it before April is over.

Yeah, that's a talent-deficient group right now.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Having lived in the suburbs of portland for 3 years I think it is a terrible destination for a team.

Yeah, that won't ever happen because the traffic would be awful. Nobody is taking the MAX to Beaverton to watch baseball. It'd be downtown, at the waterfront or possibly by the Rose Garden. Nowhere else (though SE Portland further out would be good for different reasons.)

But it'd take a visionary to get the local forces in place to make it ever work again, nothing like when the Expos were moving and it was way more possible than now.

[flere-imsaho]

So, I guess I should know this, but why, really, have the As always been so broke? Is it mainly because the stadium is crap and they can't make money off of it?

I ask because it seems like at least since 2000 owning a NFL, NBA, MLB, and even NHL franchise is basically a license to print money.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

So, I guess I should know this, but why, really, have the As always been so broke? Is it mainly because the stadium is crap and they can't make money off of it?

I ask because it seems like at least since 2000 owning a NFL, NBA, MLB, and even NHL franchise is basically a license to print money.

A combination of the cheapest of the billionaire owners in MLB and a bad stadium in a not so great neighborhood.

Fisher has an ultimatum to get a new stadium locked in somewhere by 2024 or MLB will stop revenue sharing with them. So the speculation I've seen is he's trying to get multiple options going (one in Oakland and one in Vegas) so that he can sell now that MLB is pressuring him to actually start spending money on the franchise.

[B & B]

Friends dont let friends bet on the A's.

Stay safe out there folks.

[Swaggs]

The Pirates have signed Bryan Reynolds to an 8-year/$106.75M extension. That is the first time they have signed someone to a deal worth over $100M.

There are still three franchises that have never signed a free agent or signed an extension worth over $100M. Two of them are not surprising, but one was kind of surprising. Any guesses (without looking)?

[sterlingice]

The Royals haven't. I'm pretty sure Alex Gordon's 4/$72M is the largest they've ever handed out



SI

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

The Pirates have signed Bryan Reynolds to an 8-year/$106.75M extension. That is the first time they have signed someone to a deal worth over $100M.

There are still three franchises that have never signed a free agent or signed an extension worth over $100M. Two of them are not surprising, but one was kind of surprising. Any guesses (without looking)?

Mariners?
Royals?
Tampa Bay?

[Lathum]

dola- Oakland?

[Lathum]

double dola- Mariners may have given Felix 100mil. Gun to my head I say Oakland, Tampa, anf KC, but no surprises in there. Dod KC give Hosmer 100 mil?

[stevew]

Tampa gave Franco something like 200M.

I saw this list and the one team is shocking (like swags said)

[Swaggs]

Royals and A's have not.

The surprising one is the White Sox.

Pirates previous was Jason Kendall at 6/$60M in 2000.

Royals
FA contract: Alex Gordon, OF (4/$72M, 2016)
Extension: Salvador Perez (4/$82M, 2021)

Athletics
FA contract: Billy Butler, 1B/DH (3/$30M, 2015)
Extension: Eric Chavez, 3B (6/$66M, 2004)

White Sox
FA contract: Andrew Benintendi, OF (5/$75M, 2022)
Extension: Yoán Moncada, 3B (5/$70M, 2020)

Source: https://www.mlb.com/news/every-team-s-largest-contracts

[Lathum]

ah. I forgot about Cano.

It is amazing how the majority of these haven't worked out.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Lathum

double dola- Mariners may have given Felix 100mil. Gun to my head I say Oakland, Tampa, anf KC, but no surprises in there. Dod KC give Hosmer 100 mil?

I think KC considered giving Hosmer over $100M but San Diego thankfully saved them from themselves


SI

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Lathum

ah. I forgot about Cano.

It is amazing how the majority of these haven't worked out.

For real. Looking over the list, it has dialed back my excitement for Reynolds signing for 8-years at age 28, although he is surprisingly athletic. Hopefully, he can stay healthy.

The Chris Davis and Miguel Cabrera ones still blow my mind. Those two have generated quite a few pre-built challenges during my OOTP careers.

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I think KC considered giving Hosmer over $100M but San Diego thankfully saved them from themselves


SI

If you ever, ever feel bad about the Royals decision-making in player personnel, all you have to do is look at the WAR vs salaries for the mid-2010s guys that left for other teams in free agency. Between Billy Butler (12.5 WAR with the Royals in 8 years and then -0.6 in his last 3 with the A's and Yankees) , Hosmer (15.4 in first 7 years with the Royals and 3.9 in next 7), Moustakas (11.5 in first 8 years vs 1.2 in the next 6), and Lorenzo Cain (respectable, but 24.7 with the Royals in first 7 and then 13.9 the last 6 and made a ton higher salary). That was a really good young core, but they moved on from those guys at just the right time. Probably should have kept Cain over Gordon in hindsight, thought.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

If you ever, ever feel bad about the Royals decision-making in player personnel, all you have to do is look at the WAR vs salaries for the mid-2010s guys that left for other teams in free agency. Between Billy Butler (12.5 WAR with the Royals in 8 years and then -0.6 in his last 3 with the A's and Yankees) , Hosmer (15.4 in first 7 years with the Royals and 3.9 in next 7), Moustakas (11.5 in first 8 years vs 1.2 in the next 6), and Lorenzo Cain (respectable, but 24.7 with the Royals in first 7 and then 13.9 the last 6 and made a ton higher salary). That was a really good young core, but they moved on from those guys at just the right time. Probably should have kept Cain over Gordon in hindsight, thought.

Sure, FB fans have complained about it, but most of us know that moving on in 2017 was the right answer. A lot of people advocated for blowing it up after the 2015 World Series but I think it's Monday morning QB'ing with the benefit of hindsight. The Royals made a go at it in 2016 and 2017 but didn't make the playoffs. At the trade deadline in 2017, they were in WC1 position but they were running on fumes for pitching, the trades they made didn't work out, and they faltered down the stretch.


I loved LoCain - he was probably my favorite during the playoff run. And it's awesome that he signed a one day contract and is going to retire with the Royals in a couple of weeks.



However, there was value to locking up Gordon. He's retired as a career Royal, is going to be a first ballot team HOF, and is almost certainly going to get a statue outside whatever new stadium they build immortalizing his HR in game 1 of the 2015 World Series.



SI

[stevew]

Mariners city connect is also trash. What’s with all the black pants? I shutter at what trash they will come up with for the Pirates.

[sterlingice]

I like the Trident but yellow is so hard to not look crappy



SI

[Lathum]

DeGrom to the DL. I wish nothing but the best for him, but this has the potential to be an all time bad deal.

[stevew]

We need every game in Mexico City.

[sterlingice]

I didn't realize there was a game there until the stories today about how it went yesterday. I wish they had made a bigger deal about it



SI

[Ghost Econ]

Sometimes I just wander around Barry Bonds baseball reference page... just because.

In 2004, he got on base 376 times by hit/walk/HBP. He had 373 official at bats.

From 2001-2004, even if you take away the home runs, he still averaged getting on base over 2 times a game.

[Lathum]

Baseball is so weird. Mets haven't been swept in 25 straight double headers. Got swept by the Tigers today with a hall of fame pitcher throwing the second game.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Sometimes I just wander around Barry Bonds baseball reference page... just because.

In 2004, he got on base 376 times by hit/walk/HBP. He had 373 official at bats.

From 2001-2004, even if you take away the home runs, he still averaged getting on base over 2 times a game.

The guy had 232 walks in a season. That was over 100 more than the second place guy in the NL that season. The highest non-Barry Bonds total is Babe Ruth with 170.

I wonder how much longer he could have gone. He still had 28 home runs, a .480 OBP, and 1.045 OPS at age 42, when baseball decided they were done with him.

[JPhillips]

I'd never seen this before.

Mike Piazza was drafted dead last in the draft, and it was a favour for Tommy Lasorda. But yet, Ted Williams knew he was going to be great when he was 15. GOATS just know. pic.twitter.com/kfezhq8JTk

— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) May 6, 2023

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I'd never seen this before.

Me neither. Fascinating to watch.

As much as has changed about hitting and what's taught now, it's interesting that Ted caught something just watching a few swings and it's a thing that still taught and kids (and young pro's) struggle with today.

[Ghost Econ]

It's this happened in baseball it would be the greatest catch of all time.

Blinder! Lalit Yadav pulls off a spectacular one-handed caught and bowled

[JPhillips]

The Reds have some terrible defense.

[flere-imsaho]

Well, at least he's in the same ballpark as the ball.

...I'll see myself out....

[PilotMan]

If the Reds were an English soccer team the town would boycott the team until its sold.

[stevew]

Misplayed balls in the OF should be errors. Like the one Jaren Durran turned into a grand slam last year.

[Ksyrup]

Co-signed by my daughter/pitcher.

[Lathum]

Nats are such a terrible franchise when it comes to delays. Cancel after a 4 hour delay when it hadn't rained in 90 minutes. Then they reschedule it for a split double header on MOTHERS DAY! The first game will also start in the 3rd inning so with a pitch clock people will get what, maybe 90 minutes, if they show up at all. This is after last night paying for parking, gas, concessions, etc...it is an absolutely dreadful way to treat your fans.

After a four-hour rain delay Saturday's Mets vs. Nationals game was postponed and will be resumed tomorrow as part of a split doubleheader.

SNY's Keith Hernandez called it "unconscionable" while Gary Cohen said it was "shameful."pic.twitter.com/Y3CE6dmGL9

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 14, 2023

[miami_fan]

I agree with them. That is a poor decision by all parties involved.