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

Oh lord….. Lynn’s first pitch and mookie-replacement duggie goes deep. It’s going to be a loooooooooooooooooong game

Duggie has such a nice swing. Full confidence, full commitment. He was looking into the air where that HR was going before the ball even made contact with the bat. Underrated everyday player

xxp They're playing in Balmer, but the O's are already lighting up the Rockies' pitcher.

Hey look, whatever the method, as long as they get there.

big cheers for Kiké as well surprisingly. Lot of Blue in the crowd though so might just be dodger faithful

Tomorrow is Félix Bautista bobblehead night.

I’ve been glad to see him go back to his elite self after his blip at the start of this month.

Bautista left the game tonight with 2 strikes, 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, in obvious pain.

I don’t know if anyone on here was planning on getting mlb tv at some point but just to let you know, most games are free to watch today. Why does that matter? I put off subscribing cos it was too expensive and when I watched a free game the weekend of Mother’s Day, I was emailed an offer for 50% off the next day, which I took up. So just in case anyone was considering subscribing, maybe try that in case they offer the same discount again?

I subscribed so that my kid could watch the O's. The experience of being able to watch just about any game anywhere is . . . amazing.

Bautista on the 15 day DL with "some degree of injury" to UCL. JFC.

I tell myself every year that I won’t do it but I’ve subscribed the past 5 years and it’s definitely worth the money, especially with no black outs in Australia

I would probably subscribe if the Braves weren't blacked out here, but since I have to chase down shitty glitchy streams to watch them, I use the shitty glitchy streams to watch other teams too. If this no-blackouts thing comes to pass with Diamond's bankruptcy, I'll gladly pay for the good stuff.

This Reds/DBacks game is wild.

Freddie Freeman hit his 50th double this afternoon. Only 23 more games left, so 60 is a longshot. Only been done five times:

Earl Webb - 67 (1931)
George Burns - 64 (1926)
Joe Medwick - 64 (1936)
Hank Greenberg - 63 (1934)
Paul Waner 62 - (1932)
Charlie Gehringer - 60 (1936)

Helton hit 59, Delgado 57. Had no idea Nick Castellanos his 58 one year, maybe because it was split over two teams.

Make that 33 games left, so he's actually on pace for 63. He's got a realistic chance at the NL record of 64.

Right-hander Noah Syndergaard has been designated for assignment by the Cleveland Guardians.

— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) August 27, 2023

Bound to happen. Weird the guardians took him to begin with.

Twins-Rangers went to extras, bottom of the 13th the Twins loaded the bases with 2 outs and the Rangers pitcher threw four straight balls to walk in the winning run. Got to be one of the stupidest ways to win in extras, though I think I saw a hbp run score recently in a similar situation.

Mets balked in the winning run without the pitcher even throwing a pitch a few week ago.

in 13 games this year:

rays pitchers plunked two yankees (one today)
yankees pitchers plunked 12 rays (four today)

albert abreu himself has hit three rays in seven innings this year, and two other batters in 49 innings against other teams

no wonder the rays are pissed

Can't wait for the video for the 3-1-4-2 double play SF turned against ATL, not something you see every day.

Elly throwing a 100mph rope from ~115 ft to rob an ITPHR:

https://www.mlb.com/news/elly-de-la-cruz-delivers-99-7-mph-infield-assist

glorious!

just saw the video for the DP but mlb’s share tools are diabolical

https://x.com/nbcsgiants/status/1695958570398085584 hopefully this works

here - https://www.mlb.com/video/giants-challenge-tag-play-ronald-acuna-jr-grounds-out-first-baseman-j-d-d-cjowpz

apparently Trevor Megill does not like San Diego ???

“FVCK YOU SAN DIEGO, FVCK YOU” pic.twitter.com/whFtbLwOEg

— Rashad Vaughn Stan - (73-57)🍻🧀🦌 (@rashadburner) August 28, 2023

ordered my mlb ballpark pass-port. excited!

I noticed yesterday the broadcast we were watching included the players walk up songs, identifiably. I haven’t ever noticed this before and wondered if broadcast normally excludes them due to lyrical content or whatever, but it was a nice change!

Incredible detail here

New #RedSox OF Ceddanne Chipper Nicasio Marte Rafaela was partially named after Chipper Jones because his mom, Rechilena, was a big fan. Everybody in Curaçao watched the Braves to see Andruw Jones. She came to like Chipper because she played 3B on her softball team.

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) August 28, 2023

Aw, that's sweet.

Couple of ticket-purchasers ran onto Coors Field to get a hug from Acuña, slightly scary situation. Acuña went down when a security person hit the 2nd hugger at the same time he got to Ronald, but he's ok.

lmao

Good morning pic.twitter.com/ICa0OUCJrU

— zachleft (@zachleft) August 28, 2023

xp what the fuck! Poor Acuña!

DOUBLE ACUNA HUG @StoolBaseball pic.twitter.com/LRpDYO35fZ

— Billy Grossman (@44billyg) August 29, 2023

have tix for mets/mariners this week, excited to see this young fella julio

Can't find a better thread for this...Saw a comparison of Roy Halladay's and Zack Wheeler's first 96 starts for the Phillies (how's that for arbitrary samples?). Quite close (the first number in each case is Halladay's):

ERA: 3.00 / 3.02
H/9: 8.2 / 7.6
K/9: 8.1 / 9.6
K/BB: 5.34 / 5.06
WAR: 18.1 / 18.9

have tix for mets/mariners this week, excited to see this young fella julio

The Angels are awful

BREAKING: The Los Angeles Angels have placed starter Lucas Giolito, relievers Matt Moore and Reynaldo López, and outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers, sources tell ESPN. Huge potential playoff implications: All can be claimed by teams for free on Thursday.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 29, 2023

They just got Grichuk from the Rockies at the trade deadline. What a horribly run team.

They traded two of their top prospects for Giolito

jesus

*crosses fingers that Ohtani will re-sign*

Hearing from multiple sources the Yankees have put CF Harrison Bader on waivers. Will be interesting to see if a contending team in need of outfield help will put in a claim.

— Erik Boland (@eboland11) August 29, 2023

wow what a feast for other teams/all baseball writers

Other players currently on waivers, per sources: Yankees OF Harrison Bader, Mets RHP Carlos Carrasco, White Sox RHP Mike Clevinger, Tigers RP José Cisnero. Claims awarded in reverse order of winning percentage as of Thursday. Teams on fringes of wild-card race likely to be most… https://t.co/1kKgeo48NZ

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 29, 2023

God it’s so insane the Angels traded away a bunch of their top prospects and took on extra salary just to try to hit their 3% playoff odds with Ohtani instead of trading him for the greatest mid season haul in MLB history. Then they lost like 16 games in a row, ruined Ohtanis arm, and wound up releasing the new guys anyway. Angels fans will be lamenting this trade deadline their entire lives

re. prospects in Giolito trade - one's a catcher when LAA top prospect is O'Hoppe, the other's a 23 year old with poor numbers in AA this year.

They ruined Ohtani's arm, huh?

Had super good seats last night (reposted from SFG thread):
https://imgur.com/a/6ojy42M

Kyle Harrison threw the most strikeouts (11) in his 2nd MLB game only to Shohei Ohtani* (*who played 5 seasons of pro ball in Japan).

He's from Concord (east bay area suburbs) and this was his first home start so he had a ton of friends and family in the stadium.

Another local rookie making his bay area debut (?) was the Reds' Christian Encarnacion-Strand (from Walnut Creek another east bay suburb) and he also had a ton of friends and family there.

The Angels decimated the top of their already weak farm system for players they rostered for 28 days. Seems like that should not be a thing that can happen. The franchise is in a very bad place.

— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) August 29, 2023

so they're eighth in payroll with nothing to show for it. farm system is barren. they won't/can't re-sign ohtani.

there's no longer any point in them keeping/paying trout, but given his age, cost and recent injury history, i don't think they can expect to get very much for him (and i'm not sure anyone would even take rendon for free at this point). it's dire

xxp look I dont blame the Angels there's a good chance it would've happened anyway but who knows with the human body

i actually like what the Angels did on principle just don't think I've ever seen a midseason move blow up so specatularly

boy what a disaster that Rendon contract has been. Year 1 was great - 915 OPS in 52 (of 60) games in the Covid year.

Then year 2, 712 OPS in 58 games. Year 3, 706 OPS in 47 games. This year, 678 OPS in 43 games so far.

He'll be 34 next year and is owed another 115 million over the next 3 seasons....