MLB Off-Topic

[dubcity]

Wasn't this always going to happen? I honestly think it's weak as ****. Rose is HOF worthy but only when he's not around to actually appreciate it? Maybe his posthumous induction ceremony will be sponsored by...whatever sportsbook MLB is getting the most money from right now.

[DrJones]

I feel bad for Baltimore fans. Decades of irrelevance, a brutal tank job which yielded a huge bounty of potential stars, and the O's are still going to pi** it all away due to cheapness? I thought Peter Angelos was dead!

[Ghost Of The Year]

Mark me down in the uncommon opinion column but instead of expansion, considering the White Sox last season and the Rockies this year, I think retraction is needed way more than adding two more teams. There's no excuse for not being able to win a third of your games and between the White Sox and Rockies historic awfulness, I don't think the talent level can support 32 teams, and now it looks like it can't support the 30 teams it does have. If the A's don't actually ever move to Vegas by 2028 and the Rays don't get a stadium by then either, screw it, retract them.

[countryboy]

Yesterday, Arizona hit back to back homeruns with one homerun hitting the left field foul pole and the other hitting the right field foul pole.

[DrJones]

Mark me down in the uncommon opinion column but instead of expansion, considering the White Sox last season and the Rockies this year, I think retraction is needed way more than adding two more teams. There's no excuse for not being able to win a third of your games and between the White Sox and Rockies historic awfulness, I don't think the talent level can support 32 teams, and now it looks like it can't support the 30 teams it does have. If the A's don't actually ever move to Vegas by 2028 and the Rays don't get a stadium by then either, screw it, retract them.

Barring a catastrophic economic downturn, I don't think we'll ever see league contraction. (The last "Big 4" team to be contracted was the NHL's Cleveland Barons in 1978.)

Here's why: in 2001, MLB voted by a margin of 28-2 to contract the Twins (!) and the Expos, citing revenue issues. The owners were going to be paid 250M each, it was a done deal. But contraction was killed by the MLBPA and (mostly) local politics. It'd be even more difficult today: my guess it would take a minimum of 1B to pay off each of the contracted owners and the PA would be prepared for a long, long strike. The owners want billions to come in through expansion, they don't want to spend it to cut teams. Thanks to the pitch clock, Ohtani, Judge, et al., baseball's on an upswing. I can't see MLB owners risking another 1994-type situation that would likely run into a bunch of legal hurdles anyway. At any rate, would any baseball fan really like to see Coors Field, PNC Park, or Camden Yards go away because of their garbage-tier owners?

I don't think the problem you're talking about is lack of talent, anyway. It's bad ownership and management. The Tigers barely have a bigger payroll than the Rockies, and Detroit has baseball's best record! The Rays are a poverty franchise and always manage to compete nonetheless. The Pirates, Marlins, Rockies, White Sox, and A's are varying degrees of cheap and inept. The Orioles have a ton of talent and are frustratingly frugal; the Angels have a ton of cash and are frustratingly stupid. None of these teams are losing money (well, the A's and Rays might be this particular season); they just don't want to spend it and/or are very bad at doing so.

I don't know what a realistic solution is. Maybe a hard salary floor combined with a "tougher" luxury tax that somewhat resembles the NBA's aprons? A hard cap would result in a multi-season player strike, so I don't think that's on the table.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Barring a catastrophic economic downturn, I don't think we'll ever see league contraction. (The last "Big 4" team to be contracted was the NHL's Cleveland Barons in 1978.)

Here's why: in 2001, MLB voted by a margin of 28-2 to contract the Twins (!) and the Expos, citing revenue issues. The owners were going to be paid 250M each, it was a done deal. But contraction was killed by the MLBPA and (mostly) local politics. It'd be even more difficult today: my guess it would take a minimum of 1B to pay off each of the contracted owners and the PA would be prepared for a long, long strike. The owners want billions to come in through expansion, they don't want to spend it to cut teams. Thanks to the pitch clock, Ohtani, Judge, et al., baseball's on an upswing. I can't see MLB owners risking another 1994-type situation that would likely run into a bunch of legal hurdles anyway. At any rate, would any baseball fan really like to see Coors Field, PNC Park, or Camden Yards go away because of their garbage-tier owners?

I don't think the problem you're talking about is lack of talent, anyway. It's bad ownership and management. The Tigers barely have a bigger payroll than the Rockies, and Detroit has baseball's best record! The Rays are a poverty franchise and always manage to compete nonetheless. The Pirates, Marlins, Rockies, White Sox, and A's are varying degrees of cheap and inept. The Orioles have a ton of talent and are frustratingly frugal; the Angels have a ton of cash and are frustratingly stupid. None of these teams are losing money (well, the A's and Rays might be this particular season); they just don't want to spend it and/or are very bad at doing so.

I don't know what a realistic solution is. Maybe a hard salary floor combined with a "tougher" luxury tax that somewhat resembles the NBA's aprons? A hard cap would result in a multi-season player strike, so I don't think that's on the table.

Oh yeah, no doubt contraction will never happen. I remember the talk of the Twins contraction well. I was against contraction then, but I wouldn't oppose it now. Since the last expansion in '98, this is now the longest MLB has went between expansion windows since the original expansion of '61. Its inevitable expansion will happen again after the A's and Rays get new stadiums, but after they get those stadiums, I wish MLB would cool their jets with expansion and slow their roll.

[Ghost Of The Year]

It never occured to me that now that there are automatic baserunners in extra innings, its now possible to throw a perfect game and lose.
Or it means there can't be an extra innings perfect game at all.

[DrJones]

It never occured to me that now that there are automatic baserunners in extra innings, its now possible to throw a perfect game and lose.

Yes.

IOr it means there can't be an extra innings perfect game at all.

No. The automatic runner doesn't count against a perfect game or no-hitter.

[Madden08PCgmr]

Barring a catastrophic economic downturn, I don't think we'll ever see league contraction. (The last "Big 4" team to be contracted was the NHL's Cleveland Barons in 1978.)

Here's why: in 2001, MLB voted by a margin of 28-2 to contract the Twins (!) and the Expos, citing revenue issues. The owners were going to be paid 250M each, it was a done deal. But contraction was killed by the MLBPA and (mostly) local politics. It'd be even more difficult today: my guess it would take a minimum of 1B to pay off each of the contracted owners and the PA would be prepared for a long, long strike. The owners want billions to come in through expansion, they don't want to spend it to cut teams. Thanks to the pitch clock, Ohtani, Judge, et al., baseball's on an upswing. I can't see MLB owners risking another 1994-type situation that would likely run into a bunch of legal hurdles anyway. At any rate, would any baseball fan really like to see Coors Field, PNC Park, or Camden Yards go away because of their garbage-tier owners?

I don't think the problem you're talking about is lack of talent, anyway. It's bad ownership and management. The Tigers barely have a bigger payroll than the Rockies, and Detroit has baseball's best record! The Rays are a poverty franchise and always manage to compete nonetheless. The Pirates, Marlins, Rockies, White Sox, and A's are varying degrees of cheap and inept. The Orioles have a ton of talent and are frustratingly frugal; the Angels have a ton of cash and are frustratingly stupid. None of these teams are losing money (well, the A's and Rays might be this particular season); they just don't want to spend it and/or are very bad at doing so.

I don't know what a realistic solution is. Maybe a hard salary floor combined with a "tougher" luxury tax that somewhat resembles the NBA's aprons? A hard cap would result in a multi-season player strike, so I don't think that's on the table.

I don't know how I managed to drive it from my memory bank that owners actually proposed a salary cap and full(ish) revenue sharing in the 1994 labor war. Stating the exact reasons regarding the Expos move.

.. the difference between MLBPA and NFLPA. NFLPA wins battles. MLBPA wins wars.

[countryboy]

Since May 2nd, Scottie Scheffler has won as many golf tournaments (3) as the Rockies have won baseball games.

Scheffler won 3 of 4 tournaments played.

Rockies won 3 of 28 games played.

[Blzer]

The Mariners are going to retire Randy Johnson's 51 uniform number in 2026.

When I first heard that, I wondered why it took so long, then I instantly remembered that Ichiro Suzuki also had the same number.

Now I almost wonder how they allowed this to happen! I don't know if I realized that before, or at least realized its importance. Whoo, that's a toughy that Ichiro now can't be recognized by the M's in that same vein.

One thing for sure: no other Mariner should wear that number again.

[Majingir]

The Mariners are going to retire Randy Johnson's 51 uniform number in 2026.

When I first heard that, I wondered why it took so long, then I instantly remembered that Ichiro Suzuki also had the same number.

Now I almost wonder how they allowed this to happen! I don't know if I realized that before, or at least realized its importance. Whoo, that's a toughy that Ichiro now can't be recognized by the M's in that same vein.

One thing for sure: no other Mariner should wear that number again.

Don't get why they can't retire the number for both.

The Leafs retired some numbers and recognized multiple people for the number.

[fugazi]

Someone help me understand the Cubs' fascination with Ian Happ.

They have hitters raking in the minors, while his numbers suggest he should be Busch's platoon mate. Happ has a sub-700 OPS against RHP, but he's still hitting LHP...more or less. Mid-700s OPS altogether. Maybe he's a leader...maybe he sets the standard for excellence...idk.

All of his productive numbers are trending down, and his defense is very good, but not outstanding. He should be the 4th OFer at this point...the team arguably has better DH options.

There's talk of trading for Alcantara...who is very likely toast at this point...which would very likely require trading Owen Caissie...

I'd rather keep the prospect and find pitching help elsewhere.

[DrJones]

The Mariners are going to retire Randy Johnson's 51 uniform number in 2026.

When I first heard that, I wondered why it took so long, then I instantly remembered that Ichiro Suzuki also had the same number.

Now I almost wonder how they allowed this to happen! I don't know if I realized that before, or at least realized its importance. Whoo, that's a toughy that Ichiro now can't be recognized by the M's in that same vein.

One thing for sure: no other Mariner should wear that number again.

You're overthinking this. Ichiro is getting #51 retired by the M's this season (shortly after his BBHOF induction), Randy Johnson in 2026. (Waiting until next season was at the Big Unit's request, so he didn't take away from honouring Ichiro.) When Ichiro first signed with Seattle, he wrote a letter to Johnson, asking permission to wear #51. They're both good dudes, and both will have #51 retired.

[Blzer]

You're overthinking this. Ichiro is getting #51 retired by the M's this season (shortly after his BBHOF induction), Randy Johnson in 2026. (Waiting until next season was at the Big Unit's request, so he didn't take away from honouring Ichiro.) When Ichiro first signed with Seattle, he wrote a letter to Johnson, asking permission to wear #51. They're both good dudes, and both will have #51 retired.

I didn't know that Ichiro was getting his retired as well, much less beforehand. I also didn't know they have ever retired a same number twice before.

Good to know.