the pitch clock is counting down to the MLB 2023 REGULAR SEASON THREAD

the first pitch at Fenway last night was thrown by Olivia Pichardo, a utility player for Brown University’s baseball team and the first woman to play in a Division I baseball game

h/t peter abraham

The Padres' pastel uniforms are a crime against humanity.

agreed

https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/6002789/il_fullxfull.336796170.jpg

have been dreading/anticipating the mets city connect jersey for years and looks like it will be another year or two before we get a design that’s probably some kind of blue apple being hit by mr met through the unisphere, all on top of a full canvas of Halloween orange.

I got the Soto city connect shirsey as a gift from a friend and I rock it often.

not a great start for verlander

i think you meant Flaherty there...

Anything the Padres wear would be an improvement over the camo bullshit.

those padres city connect unis are the best unis in baseball.

Supposedly a fan fell off a railing into the Red Sox bullpen? Seems terrible.

Rich Hill pitching is always a practice of aesthetics over function. Painting the corner with his old man “fast” ball, to the most beautiful curveball in the game, getting absolutely rocked into deep centre field to put the blue jays up by four. Really hope he can last the season and give some more production to the Pirates.

Bae making some nice defensive plays

Watching Rich in Pittsburgh bringing back repressed memories of his “perfect game” which was lost in the 10th inning due to the dodgers inability to score any runs. One of the greatest, and saddest pitching performances I have seen

4/6 teams in an American League playoff spot are from the AL east. Christ.

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, April 20, 2023 11:05 PM (two weeks ago)

dude it's april

― mookieproof, Thursday, April 20, 2023 11:36 PM (two weeks ago)

Ok. Sorry I shared that information. Sorry I talk at all here since you’re determined to be an asshole to me whenever possible. You’re doing a great job trying to make this place as toxic as possible for me.

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Friday, April 21, 2023 (two weeks ago)

ok it is no longer april and the AL East remains an absolute fuckin buzzsaw, so my bad

the yankees had an incredible first half last year that didn't really pan out, so caveat everything, but man 27-6 is awfully impressive

also someone tell me the last time the pirates lost five straight games while remaining in first place

Glen Kuiper, yikes

Yikes, but also worried from the A’s tweet there’s going to be some serious consequences….. was obviously simply a VERY unfortunate slip of the tongue. Hope whatever happens, it’s no more than a formality of a slap on the wrist

Yikes, but also worried from the A’s tweet there’s going to be some serious consequences….. was obviously simply a VERY unfortunate slip of the tongue. Hope whatever happens, it’s no more than a formality of a slap on the wrist

Turns out, not everyone can flip the ball to themselves and still get the out pic.twitter.com/aEhlO295Zv

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 6, 2023

Didn’t say there shouldn’t be consequences, just not “serious” ones. I.e. firing. He has been suspended as of today which was the obvious next step.

My Official Statement on the Glen Kuiper incident is below. pic.twitter.com/txAmPH9ulI

— Bob Kendrick (@nlbmprez) May 6, 2023

Why shouldn’t he be fired, do you think racial slurs just fall from people’s mouths so easily?

No I don’t

Have to turn this Pirates game off. Too sad.

Terrific O's-Braves game, 4 or 5 lead changes and ATL finally winning it 5-4.

Damn turned it off for the dodgers game (which was also excellent). Strider looked excellent while I was watching. These O’s are so fun now

Love that Mariners comeback. One more, boys, so close to .500!

This was sweet!

https://www.mlb.com/news/masataka-yoshida-meets-his-idol-bryce-harper

I can’t tell if the pitchcoms actually break regularly or if acting like it isn’t working is the new stalling tactic in the face of the pitch clock

Probably the latter.

The dodgers v padres game was very dodgers v padres’y. Feels like we have their number for late inning comebacks. Mookie ties it in the 9th, two ours with a solo homer, followed by cold-streak ROY outman hitting a three runner in extras. Rivalry definitely heating up more between these two teams. Good for baseball

i'm just going to say it: there are too many players named lowe right now

We don't know what to say. Just watch. pic.twitter.com/rOUxKpIA4F

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) May 8, 2023

If you are not going to wear a cup (which is crazy), at least slide with your back to the throw (which is Sliding 101, is it not?).

i would assume you don't want your back to the play/where the ball is coming from (ball to the back of the head and all that). the outcome in this instance is a 1-1M-type event

Sliding with your back facing the throw allows you to react quickly to an overthrow (and obviously prevents you from getting hit in the face or groin).

If you're sliding with your back to the outfield, you're still focused on the base and the tagging infielder, not watching the path of the ball. Don't think I've seen a front-facing base stealer avoid a beaning by squirming away mid-slide.

feel like, back in the day, whenever i approached a base that required sliding, i just randomly chose some variant for no reason at all

which is no doubt among the reasons i was a shitty ballplayer. but at least i wore a cup

the outcome in this instance is a 1-1M-type event

drove around for a bit earlier today, thinking about how to make this into a "-2 balls type event" joke, couldn't cross the bridge

trea_turner_sliding dot gif was especially incredible for me

xp

i remember when i got my first jock strap from my parents, it was just the strap without the cup, and i didn't know it was missing anything. wore just that little cupless jock strap for a couple games

one time in high school i somehow . . . didn't bring my cup? and i was playing 3B, and the infield at mars hs (pa) kind of undulated underneath the grass and i basically spent the game in a state of terror

but also i hit one of my exactly three high school homers? perhaps i'd have made the majors if i'd been abelarded

dang, you hit a HR? you're a legend in my book, must have felt amazing. i crushed exactly one ball, hit the sweet spot and swung my hardest. it went to mid-deep CF and was easily caught. my playing days were ended by infielders finally learning how to handle routine ground balls from me

all three of my hs homers were on the road (because the LF pole at my home field was 470 and i was incapable of not pulling the ball)

and all of them were surprising to me. hitting a ball square on is an absolute joy, but i can only imagine what hitting a no-doubter is like

http://capricorncity.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Homer-Simpson-at-Bat.gif

it me

From an Athletic piece today:

1984 Tigers, 31-5. Won World Series.
1902 Pirates, 30-6. No World Series (the first was in 1903).
1939 Yankees, 29-7. Won World Series.
1928 Yankees, 29-7. Won World Series
1912 Giants, 29-7. Lost World Series.
2023 Rays, 29-7. ????

Impressive, no doubt. But as an indicator of World Series potential, the Rays’ 29-7 record means only so much.

All of the other teams on the above list, except for the ‘84 Tigers, advanced straight to the Series after finishing with the best regular-season record in their respective leagues. The ‘84 Tigers needed to first beat the Royals in a best-of-five league championship series. The 2023 Rays, if they win the AL East, would need to win a best-of-five division series and best-of-seven LCS to reach the World Series.

another thing about those early teams is that their record over the first 36 games represented a larger proportion of the season

also they didn't have wild card, division, and league championship series to toss the coin on

oops, sorry clemenza, i see yr quoted text alludes to that

I feel a little bad for the Rays in that they could go 110-52 and odds are it will amount to absolutely nothing.

(Not that a handful of other 105- to 110-win teams in the wild-card era didn't face the same steep mountain.)

i don't know anything about old baseball, but doesn't it seem like starting 29-7 in 1912 would be more the product of luck than in 2023, when there is statistical analysis and player conditioning and video analysis and AI and etc etc