MLB Thread

[twoods]

This format is tedious. Just have top 4 from the first round be in the Finals. The fans seem bored and the players look exhausted.

Edited July 11, 2023 by twoods

[mojoween]

Down with the clock!  Go back to ten outs, no time limit.

I was hoping for Julio, but when it came down to Vladdy and Randy I could not root for a Ray.  And how can you not like Vladdy?

[Carey]

So there was a new record of 41 homeruns within a single round of the HR Derby.  I guess I should have stood up for a standing ovation, but that's like standing up for whatever the 2007 Patriots, 2011 Packers, and 2015 Panthers did in their monster years!

[ProudMary]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Down with the clock!  Go back to ten outs, no time limit.

Yes! The clock is ridiculous. The batter should be able to wait for a good pitch instead of having to swing at everything because "time's a-ticking." Not to mention that it's exhausting this way. I honestly don't know how Guerrero accomplished what he did with only five minutes between his second and third round. 

[mojoween]

The National League uniforms are hiiiiiiiideous.  What are those pants?

[Lantern7]

Is Gerrit Cole the only Yankee in the ASG?

[ebk57]

37 minutes ago, mojoween said:

The National League uniforms are hiiiiiiiideous.  What are those pants?

I hate both unis, but the NL "wins" by a lot.  Blech. 

 

 

And wow, what a fun start to this game!

Edited July 12, 2023 by ebk57

[ebk57]

If they just mic up all the players, they can dispense with the booth.  That would vastly improve the viewing experience. 

[mojoween]

35 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Is Gerrit Cole the only Yankee in the ASG?

The only one appearing.  Aaron Judge was voted in but didn’t travel to continue working on his toe.

[Carey]

16 minutes ago, ebk57 said:

If they just mic up all the players, they can dispense with the booth.  That would vastly improve the viewing experience. 

This?  Is a phenomenal idea!  While the chances of such a thing carrying over to meaningful baseball would be a thing, everyone's voice being heard would be tremendous

[twoods]

Censor team would be working overtime to bleep out everything the players say. 

[Jane Tuesday]

Black pants look stupid. Especially with navy jerseys. 

Here's an idea, Fox. How about you show the damned game. You know, the guys who are currently playing. Just a thought. 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Jane Tuesday

[ProudMary]

Well, it couldn't be set up any better than Julio Rodriguez stepping into the box as the potential winning run.

[mojoween]

Dammit.

[twoods]

Stupid NL. Guess they had to win one of these years.

Edited July 12, 2023 by twoods

[Salacious Kitty]

Oh well.

[Carey]

It took at least forever, but there you go NL!

[Moose135]

It's about time!

About those uniforms - I guess I'm old fashioned, well, at least old, but I much prefer the days (really, only a couple of years ago) when players wore their own team uniforms. These things are hideous.

[voiceover]

Hey Salvy!!!  Proud of you as ever.  A single, a run scored, a highlight here in the 7th Circle of Hell that is our season.

[grommit2]

18 hours ago, ebk57 said:

If they just mic up all the players, they can dispense with the booth.  That would vastly improve the viewing experience. 

Hi EBK57...interesting idea.  Open mic on all the players.  Good idea, until a 2nd baseman misplays a grounder, throws wide of 2nd base in an attempt at a double play, but the runner slides past the base, the shortstop yells at the 2nd baseman, the 1st baseman yells at the ... oh, you get the idea.  

[mojoween]

Oh I am so not behind micing the players.  Especially the pitcher.

So the ratings were down for the second straight year and obviously part of that is shrinking eyeballs from too many options, but does anyone else feel like the star power wasn’t really there?

I mean yes Shohei played, but he had two at-bats.  Gerrit Cole only got one inning (and he’s a fantastic pitcher but not a *star*).  And are people turning out for Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts?  Vladdy and all eleventy-seven Texas Rangers?

Edited July 12, 2023 by mojoween

[Carey]

I can't speak for anyone by myself, but part of the problem may be sports burnout.  While I followed this year's stuff, for me, I'm pretty much taking a break; I'm a month removed from the NBA finals, which concluded a nice run to that series soon after the Masters.

And the Masters always follows the NCAA Tournament, which was the cumulation of an okay run of games, albeit a short one thanks to the later Super Bowl slot.  Speaking of which, that concludes a decent year of football that starts up in September with College Football in the mix.

So, I'm just resting up with the goal to do as much non-sports stuff as possible during the next month-and-a-half.  I'm not having great success unfortunately, but at least I'm still finding a way to focus on some sports stuff (Wimbledon, The US Open from last month, The Open starting in a week, The World Cup, and the Fed Ex).  That's all secondary to NBA Off Season, MLB Trade Deadline, and getting ready for the 2023 NFL season.

In other words, there is really never any off-season in terms of sports.  There's always something.  However, I think no one is wasting a weeknight early in the week for a meaningless game. 

Plus, the interleague thing that debuted 26 years ago sort diminished the ASG.  Furthermore, I doubt people that have championship goals care about the All-Star game.  Finally, I can't get enough of those photos of those NL (and AL) stars all in their different uniforms back in the day!

[ebk57]

47 minutes ago, Carey said:

Plus, the interleague thing that debuted 26 years ago sort diminished the ASG.  ...  Finally, I can't get enough of those photos of those NL (and AL) stars all in their different uniforms back in the day!

 

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Oh I am so not behind micing the players.  Especially the pitcher.

So the ratings were down for the second straight year and obviously part of that is shrinking eyeballs from too many options, but does anyone else feel like the star power wasn’t really there?

I mean yes Shohei played, but he had two at-bats.  Gerrit Cole only got one inning (and he’s a fantastic pitcher but not a *star*).  And are people turning out for Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts?  Vladdy and all eleventy-seven Texas Rangers?

I can get behind all of these reasons that ratings are down.  It makes me sad.

 

Also, I feel I need to say that I'm not in favor of miking up the players in real games at all.  If they'd stopped talking to the players last night and concentrated on calling the game, it would have been vastly better. I'm not really in favor of mic'd up players in meaningless games like this, but the booth was so bad, and the players were at least entertaining, so...there you go. 

[cleo]

Canada has its own broadcast. We can also get the American one (and sometimes for playoffs there are 2 US broadcasts right? ) we can get them all -Canadian and US -  until this year I had a sports package where I got every broadcast, for the ASG and the playoffs.

I used to always have a hard time deciding which was better, would flip back and forth. Smoltz used to drive me away, but I really like Joe Davis. The Canadian broadcasts both for ASG and playoffs is much more focused on the game.

So last night - the Canadian broadcast didn't have any of the mic-ed players. They just called the game. One of the guys was a regular broadcaster for the Jays so I like him.

So I went with the straight game but I was too tired to watch and I crashed at like fourth inning or something.

Bx I have to decide this year whether I want that complete sports package or not.

 

 

[janeyjay]

On 7/10/2023 at 10:46 PM, mojoween said:

I was hoping for Julio, but when it came down to Vladdy and Randy I could not root for a Ray.  And how can you not like Vladdy?

As (probably) the only Rays fan here, I do respect that. I made a vow not to heckle any of my usual suspects (basically all the other AL East players) for the two days of ASG festivities. And I stuck to it. Starting tomorrow, it'll be business as usual. Let the profanity fly! 

[cleo]

@janeyjay  I will say I really really like Kevin Kiermaier. And I really really did not before lol.

You know those people that seem so good and so earnest you think this guy can't be for real? He's like that. 

Really amazing guy and player, he's just been a complete pleasure to have on the team. Must have been nice to have on your team so long.

Edited July 13, 2023 by cleo

[DMK]

Kevin Kiermaier is also super dreamy. 

[janeyjay]

21 minutes ago, cleo said:

@janeyjay  I will say I really really like Kevin Kiermaier. And I really really did not before lol.

You know those people that seem so good and so earnest you think this guy can't be for real? He's like that. 

Really amazing guy and player, he's just been a complete pleasure to have on the team. Must have been nice to have on your team so long.

KK was and always will be a terrific Ray. So fun to watch. Glad y'all are enjoying him up in Toronto as we did down here in St. Petersburg. 

Just now, DMK said:

Kevin Kiermaier is also super dreamy. 

Well, yes. When he was first with the team, there was a little Rays Twitter contingent I heard about *cough* that called themselves Cougars for Kiermaier. 

[Lamb18]

20 hours ago, janeyjay said:

As (probably) the only Rays fan here, I do respect that. I made a vow not to heckle any of my usual suspects (basically all the other AL East players) for the two days of ASG festivities. And I stuck to it. Starting tomorrow, it'll be business as usual. Let the profanity fly! 

There is another Rays fan around but she posts more on the football thread.

18 hours ago, janeyjay said:

KK was and always will be a terrific Ray. So fun to watch. Glad y'all are enjoying him up in Toronto as we did down here in St. Petersburg. 

Well, yes. When he was first with the team, there was a little Rays Twitter contingent I heard about *cough* that called themselves Cougars for Kiermaier. 

He looks like Kirk Cousins.

[mojoween]

I’ve been a Yankees fan since about 1991 (sorry Mets) and a fanatic since around 2007.  I am completely unprepared as to what to do with myself right now.  I don’t understand these feelings.

[janeyjay]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

I’ve been a Yankees fan since about 1991 (sorry Mets) and a fanatic since around 2007.  I am completely unprepared as to what to do with myself right now.  I don’t understand these feelings.

I'll send you a ticket for VIP seating to my TED Talk: How to Be a Fan of An Underperforming MLB Team. As a franchise-long Rays fanatic, I know a little something about this subject.

[ebk57]

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

I’ve been a Yankees fan since about 1991 (sorry Mets) and a fanatic since around 2007.  I am completely unprepared as to what to do with myself right now.  I don’t understand these feelings.

I just couldn't pick the correct reaction emoji for this post since there were a few that I could have used... 😄 Therefore, since I like you despite your incredibly flawed judgement in what teams to love, I'll just suggest that you push through and enjoy what you can.  It will get better at some point.  Meanwhile, there must be something good to latch onto. 

Or, you can sign up for @janeyjay's TED Talk.  I'm sure it's quite inspiring. 

[jennifer6973]

6 hours ago, mojoween said:

I’ve been a Yankees fan since about 1991 (sorry Mets) and a fanatic since around 2007.  I am completely unprepared as to what to do with myself right now.  I don’t understand these feelings.

As a fan of the Reds, Os and Nationals, enjoy the good times when they come around, because it will eventually get better.

[DMK]

7 hours ago, mojoween said:

I’ve been a Yankees fan since about 1991 (sorry Mets) and a fanatic since around 2007.  I am completely unprepared as to what to do with myself right now.  I don’t understand these feelings.

Look on the bright side, if the Yankees miss the playoffs, it might actually be a wake up call for them to reevaluate how they construct and develop a team. They seem to be stuck in this rut of having a lineup of bash and whiff players and that’s not feasible with how the game is played these days. Those guys are needed but also need to mix in contact guys, base stealers, can’t just expect to win a game with a bunch of solo homers. 

Nothing will change if they keep squeaking into the playoffs though. 

[janeyjay]

7 hours ago, ebk57 said:

Or, you can sign up for @janeyjay's TED Talk.  I'm sure it's quite inspiring. 

It is VERY inspiring. Plus there are parting gifts -- towels to either wave or sob into, depending on the situation.

[ProudMary]

2 hours ago, DMK said:

Nothing will change if they keep squeaking into the playoffs though. 

This is the crux of the problem. The Yankees' on-camera mantra has been that the goal is to win the World Series. Their Manager, Captain and many of the players will say that to the press every time there's a microphone in front of them. The issue is that Hal Steinbrenner has never been a baseball guy. This was never supposed to be his job. (It was supposed to be his former brother-in-law's.) Winning the WS is not his goal. All he cares about is winning enough to maintain or improve season ticket sales and keep the luxury boxes full. 

Maybe the team can grab a WC slot, although I doubt it if Aaron Judge doesn't make it back by early August, but this team as built, is not championship caliber, IMO. Missing the playoffs and watching the $$$ fall off might be the best thing to happen.

[twoods]

Not a Dodgers game is missed in this house so saw a bit of the 9th tonight. Is this what you Mets fan have to endure all the time? I’m so sorry!

[Lantern7]

31 minutes ago, twoods said:

Not a Dodgers game is missed in this house so saw a bit of the 9th tonight. Is this what you Mets fan have to endure all the time? I’m so sorry!

*sigh* This is why I can't take bellyaching about the Yankees seriously. Where are the blown opportunities? Where are the forlorn looks from fans? The Yankees can make the playoffs. The Mets -- who are more or less the same team that won 101 games last season -- will be lucky to finish at or above .500. When Aaron Judge is ruled out for the season, y'all give me a call.

As you can probably tell, I caught some of tonight's game live. Baty's miscue scored a solid 8 on the Whatthefuckometer. It would have been 7, but the run scored and the ball wound up tagging his face.

[DMK]

10 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Where are the blown opportunities? Where are the forlorn looks from fans?

Oh it’s been happening. That blow out game where they got stomped by Baltimore, I actually saw fans on the broadcast crying in the stands. 

[Moose135]

On 7/15/2023 at 11:17 PM, twoods said:

Is this what you Mets fan have to endure all the time? I’m so sorry!

I've been a Met fan since 1969. Sadly, I've seen worse...

[ebk57]

First place!!!!!!!!

 

(I gotta enjoy this for the one day it lasts...)

[mojoween]

Ok so *I’m* filing a class-action lawsuit against the Dodgers for ruining my quality of life.  Who’s with me?

For what it’s worth, ebk, I’m thrilled about it.

[mojoween]

crying 

 

[cleo]

@ebk57 at this point I'm assuming the O's are going to the World Series lol. 

Yesterday I was thinking it would be Braves v Baltimore. I was trying to figure out who I would root for 

I think I would root for the calendar to hit November. (December? When does the season end?) Sorry! But I do hope you enjoy it.

Edited July 20, 2023 by cleo

[Moose135]

3 hours ago, cleo said:

Yesterday I was thinking it would be Braves v Baltimore. I was trying to figure out who I would root for 

That's an easy one. Braves can suck eggs...

[Jane Tuesday]

Money Isn’t Winning in MLB This Season. Is That Good or Bad for Baseball?

Quote

The high-payroll Mets and Padres are flailing. The low-budget Rays, Diamondbacks, Orioles, and Reds are thriving. What’s behind MLB’s topsy-turvy standings? And what could it portend about the future of the sport?

[BlueSkies]

NSFW

 

Perhaps this was posted in the thread already but I just discovered it.  And thought it was absolutely hysterical 

 

 

[Jane Tuesday]

Robo umps NOW.

 

The Cubs congratulating themselves on that win... bullshit. You didn't win, the ump GAVE it to you.

Also, these AppleTV games are awful. 

[Johannah]

On 7/16/2023 at 10:08 AM, DMK said:

Oh it’s been happening. That blow out game where they got stomped by Baltimore, I actually saw fans on the broadcast crying in the stands. 

Yankees' fans and Cowboys' fans crying.  I need a You Tube montage...

On 7/19/2023 at 11:37 PM, ebk57 said:

First place!!!!!!!!

 

(I gotta enjoy this for the one day it lasts...)

And it's after the All-Star game!  So proud of my O's!

[mojoween]

Giancarlo Stanton scored from first on an Anthony Rizzo double and watching Giancarlo round the bases was *painful*.  The slide was also yeesh.