MLB Thread

[Salacious Kitty]

Oh okay. I thought he was a FA. 

[ProudMary]

3 hours ago, DMK said:

Well, no, just because Cole opted out doesn’t mean he’s a free agent yet. The Yankees can void the opt-out, it tacks on an extra year and $36M if they do.

The Yankees will most likely add the extra year. We'll know by tomorrow night's deadline, but IMO, they should let him walk. His velocity is showing signs of dropping; I've already mentioned upthread that his swing-and-miss rate is down and, he had an elbow injury this year. They're heading into the back end of his contract, the declining part of it. They should take the opportunity he's handing them.

[ProudMary]

Deadline on Gerrit Cole is now Monday at 5 pm. Let him walk.

 

[ProudMary]

Gold Glove Awards announced live on ESPN's Baseball Tonight.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Catcher: Cal Raleigh, Mariners.  
First base: Carlos Santana, Twins.  Second base: Andrés Giménez, Guardians.         
Shortstop: Bobby Witt Jr., Royals.  
Third base: Alex Bregman, Astros.  Pitcher: Seth Lugo, Royals.
Left field: Steven Kwan, Guardians. Center field: Daulton Varsho, Blue Jays.
Right field: Wilyer Abreu, Red Sox



NATIONAL LEAGUE

Catcher: Patrick Bailey, Giants.
First base: Christian Walker, D-backs.  Second base: Brice Turang, Brewers.
Shortstop: Ezequiel Tovar, Rockies. Third base: Matt Chapman, Giants. Pitcher: Chris Sale, Braves.
Left Field: Ian Happ, Cubs.
Center Field: Brenton Doyle, Rockies
Right Field: Sal Frelick, Brewers

[Salacious Kitty]

Cole is locked in with the Yankees.

 

[ProudMary]

^^Interesting. Boras must be fuming.

[roamyn]

Gee no Yankee won a GG?  🤔

Color me surpised...not! 😆

[DMK]

Honestly, I was surprised Juan Soto was a finalist. He wasn’t good out there.

[Carey]

Aaron Boone is not going anywhere

[Salacious Kitty]

He's only been there 8 years? Seems like much longer. 

Edited November 8 by Salacious Kitty

[Lantern7]

25 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

He's only been there 8 years? Seems like much longer. 

I never thought we'd associate "Yankee manager" to "longevity."

[Salacious Kitty]

Just now, Lantern7 said:

I never thought we'd associate "Yankee manager" to "longevity."

Well, it certainly wasn't the case during Steinbrenner's tenure. The love/hate relationship with Billy Martin was hilarious to watch as an outsider. 😂

[mojoween]

I am way behind on The LeBatard Show podcast (October 30, I am DREADING what comes next) and they talk regularly to former Marlins President David Samson.  He was on that show talking about things he did with Miami.

That was a long-winded intro to say that I am still stunned that the Marlins have two World Series rings.  It’s preposterous.  Also, personally infuriating (you with me, Cleveland fans?).

[ProudMary]

[jennifer6973]

If anyone's interested, the Rays are going to be playing their home games at Steinbrenner Field per the Tampa Bay Times.

[bosawks]

With the plan to open Gas whatever stadium in 2028 it kind of makes sense to not fix the Trop, which is a dump.  

I went to the Vet so I know a dump.

[DMK]

They are still fixing the Trop. It’s supposed to be fixed by the 2026 season.

[shoregirl]

18 minutes ago, bosawks said:

 

I went to the Vet so I know a dump.

But it was our dump...

It hard to believe they haven't  played a game there in over 20 years

[bosawks]

I was there in the early 90's when they threw out 3 tour buses full of Mets fans who had an entire section in the 700 level.

We went to snoop about what was going on but the riot cops with the dogs showed up and it will forever be a mystery.

[ebk57]

1 hour ago, shoregirl said:

But it was our dump...

That's exactly what we said about RFK Stadium while watching the Nats. 

[ProudMary]

Dave Sims replacing John Sterling in Yankees’ radio booth

[grommit2]

I recall listening to John Sterling covering the Nets basketball team...waaaaayyyy back.

[mojoween]

Camden Yards is lowering the left field wall and bringing it in and somewhere Giancarlo Stanton is like 

[mojoween]

Dwight Gooden turns 60 today.  Man the “if only’s” are so strong with him.

Also Lisa Bonet is 57 today, which doesn’t have anything to do with anything, except that she’s as beautiful now as she was 40 years ago, and she and Doc were a big part of the year 1986. 😀

[roamyn]

44 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Dwight Gooden turns 60 today.  Man the “if only’s” are so strong with him.

Him and Darryl Strawberry.  Such a shame the waste of talent.

[ProudMary]

From AP News:

Astros ballpark to be renamed Daikin Park from Minute Maid Park on Jan. 1

The Houston Astros’ home will get a new name on Jan. 1, becoming Daikin Park under an agreement through the 2039 season the team announced Monday.

The new deal is with Daikin Comfort Technologies North America Inc., a subsidiary of Daikin Industries Ltd., which is based in Japan and is a leading air conditioning company.

Minute Maid will remain an Astros partner through 2029, the team said.

[mojoween]

That is a tough name for a ballpark.  Like Heinz Field changing to whatever the hell it’s called now.

[Carey]

Meh.  It'll always be known as Heinz Field to me.  That's like referring to Twitter as whatever people call it now.

Though as mentioned, I'm more concerned about winning, and not what a stadium or ballpark is called.  Especially if a team under performed.

So if PNC Park's ballpark name was changed to Vecellio & Grogan Field, people would be more confused as to what that is and less pissed off since the Pirates lose more than they win.

That being said, I probably will never call it Daikin Park.  Probably not worth the change, and it'll be too much effort to say it.  Better suited to just call it Astros stadium.

[ProudMary]

The 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has been released. Fourteen newcomers, fifteen holdovers.

 

[baldryanr]

Ichiro is guaranteed to get in, and Sabathia has the best chance among the rest of the newcomers.  As for the holdovers, Billy Wagner will probably get the phone call too.

[Salacious Kitty]

Agreed that Ichiro is a no-brainer. CC is a local guy, so I wish him the best. 

Edited Tuesday at 12:04 AM by Salacious Kitty

[Carey]

Congratulations to Luis Gil & Paul Skenes!  A great start to a story, and when all is said & done, a great one at that!

[ebk57]

Cow-man sooooo close...  ah well.

Moo

[Lantern7]

I know NL MVP is a moot discussion topic, but I wonder if there's any validity to the argument that Francisco Lindor deserves first-place votes because he played in the field this year. Yeah, Ohtani will probably get the award unanimously because he's a unicorn, but I think Lindor deserves a little love for taking the Mets so far.

[ProudMary]

Interesting stat: It's the first time since 1981 that both the NL and AL ROYs are starting pitchers! 

 

[smittykins]

I had a major brain fart.  I momentarily forgot that each league has its own ROY, so when Skenes was announced, I thought “Aw man, I wanted Gil to win it.”  Then when Gil was announced, I was like “Wha…?”

Then I remembered.

Is it time for me to make my reservation at the old folks’ home?

Edited Tuesday at 02:15 AM by smittykins

[ProudMary]

AL Manager of the Year - Stephen Vogt, Guardians. 

NL Manager of the Year - Pat Murphy, Brewers.

 

Edited Wednesday at 01:26 AM by ProudMary

[mojoween]

This hurt my brain

 

[Salacious Kitty]

We believe in Stephen Vogt! 

I was yelling that from the stands. 👍

[roamyn]

Vogt definitely deserved it, but a case could be made for Quartaro.  The main reason I believe Vogt won was that KC went out and got a bunch of guys this off season and Matt was the manager last season when they lost so many games.

Also Vogt replaced a long time beloved HoF coach and got more out of them offensively.

Edited Wednesday at 01:54 PM by roamyn

[ProudMary]

NL Cy Young Award - Chris Sale, Braves.

[ProudMary]

AL Cy Young Award - Tarik Skubal, Tigers. (Unanimous)

 

 

Edited Thursday at 12:03 AM by ProudMary
Added graphic

[Carey]

As awesome as Paul Skenes as a Cy Young winner would've been, I'm happy that the more deserving Chris Sale got it.  The former did finish 3rd & that's great for the ROY.  I tuned into local radio for a second (trying to get my music fix in during a rather rare radio listening segment before Friday when Christmas music starts 24/7 until the last Thursday of the year).  The guy talking (sports radio here, no music outright) mentioned how he disagreed with Paul as the winner over Chris Sale.

At first I wasn't happy since Sale basically earned a triple crown for pitchers.  Then before I checked the results, I concluded that the guy talking was disagreeing with everyone that was upset that Paul didn't win it.  Which isn't his fault.  His debut was late in the year, and while was the best when he was up, I still think that Chris would've won the award.

If all goes well, things might be positive for Skenes and company, but whew!  The outcome was a total non-decision for the NL

[Salacious Kitty]

It was even more of a non-decisipn in the AL where Skubal was unanimous. 

[mojoween]

BEGGING MLB Network announces the AL MVP first …

[ProudMary]

Aaron Judge, AL MVP. Unanimous. 

Shohei Ohtani NL MVP. Unanimous.

Edited Thursday at 11:56 PM by ProudMary

[mojoween]

This is going to sound sore loserish because, well, I am, but the fact that there were total crickets from baseball commentators about how absolute shit Ohtani was during the World Series, but Aaron Judge was the worst player in the history of the sport *even though all of his stats were better than Shohei* will never not piss me off.

[ProudMary]

I hear you @mojoween, not to mention that during the MLB interview, Verducci had the unmitigated gall to bring up AJ's poor April. 🤬 You and I have discussed this here before, but his "poor April" was because he was injured for the better part of Spring Training! I never doubted that within a few weeks, he'd be his normal self. Instead, we were treated to not just normal, but to one of the best seasons in the history of the game!

Fans of other teams will hate this comment, but I'm saying it anyway. This is actually Aaron Judge's third MVP award. Manfred should have had the stones to rescind the MVP award that was given to Altuve in 2017 after the level of Astros' cheating was uncovered. His '17 away numbers were inferior to his home numbers. Judge should rightly have joined Fred Lynn and Ichiro as players who won ROY and MVP in the same season. In my mind, Aaron Judge has joined Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle as NY Yankees who've won three MVP awards. 

[NUguy514]

6 hours ago, mojoween said:

This is going to sound sore loserish because, well, I am, but the fact that there were total crickets from baseball commentators about how absolute shit Ohtani was during the World Series, but Aaron Judge was the worst player in the history of the sport *even though all of his stats were better than Shohei* will never not piss me off.

Well, the commentators' focus the entire World Series was on the Yankees as a whole; the Dodgers were just the other team, and it was really noticeable.  Everything was framed through the lens of the Yankees, so of course Judge got a lot more attention for his shittiness than World Series winner Ohtani did.

And not one commentator called Judge the worst player every in the history of sport (come on now), but he did make one of the worst errors I've ever seen.

To @ProudMary's point, though, Altuve's MVP should 1567945823% be rescinded.

[ProudMary]

I've wanted to post the NL MVP voting graphic here since it was awarded last night, but it wasn't posted on SM the way the (much shorter) AL graphic was. This one's so long it requires two attachments.