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

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....

def an anti-Moneyball vibe to all their moves in this last decade-plus

"shouldn't be allowed to happen" ? i don't really get that. i feel like the angels got some points with anti-tanking partisans by not selling at the deadline when it probably made sense to. they did the feel-good thing. it would've been a great story if it worked out. they're the angels so of course it didn't, but if they'd sold on ohtani there would've been people saying "the angels are on a hot streak and 3 games out of the wild card and they just sold the greatest player of all time, this shouldn't be allowed to happen"

hope trout tells them to trade him anywhere and i can finally return to never feeling like i have to care about this team again

the tweet didn't say "allowed", I read it more as "it shouldn't be possible for a deal to backfire this badly"

Ah yes just 4 years ago when the Angels' **Communications Director** gave starting pitcher Tyler Skaggs fentanyl and oxycontin for his pain and then Skaggs fatally OD'd... class act org top to bottom.

xp having trouble reading it that way

re. prospects in Giolito trade - one's a catcher when LAA top prospect is O'Hoppe

this doesn't matter even a little

Great seats Shasta!

Defending the angels at this current point…. One doesn’t need to gloat about it, 100% some things have not gone their way where no blame can be left on them, but I don’t think trading Ohtani would have been some “how could you” situation, especially with the state of their farm system and their playoff odds at the time. The sport fan in me loves that they kept him, the rational part of me thinks “what the hell were you thinking”?

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.

Christ

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38293345/dr-investigating-second-complaint-rays-wander-franco

not sure why cleveland bothered to pick up those guys now after throwing in the towel a month ago

The Guardians and Reds took all the good pieces. So yeah, I don't get it either.

Acuña is yr. 30/60 man, on a grand slam meatball from Lance Lynn.

I had mixed emotions watching that

Ronald also got married today!

Great to hear, and hate to even point this out: in the same game, Betts has a HR and 3 RBI. The MVP race is turning into one of the best ever.

Make that 2hr’s! 3HR WORLD RECORD WATCH YET AGAIN.

Also, congrats Ronald but uhhhhh, he got married the same day he has a ballgame? Must have been low key

Just a small ceremony in the morning, beautiful. This is some great baseball right now, Braves - Dodgers has been cut throat the past few years, heightened right now by this mvp race. Mookie just broke the record for most dodgers hits in a month with 51 on that hr

If the dodgers can just get one more player on base, we’re looking at a potential mookie walk of situation. I tell you I feel it in my bones tonight…….

8-7 on a muncy hr…..

Never mind, great game though, nearly turned it off after the grand slam but previous brave-dodgers history told me not to. Very close! This will be a fun post-season preview

I’ve never related to a player as much as I do David Peralta talking about his fitness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQoDBWhnhis

Mike Krukow: "If anybody ever says catchers are not tough, I will argue."

Duane Kuiper:"I can tell you from experience that, it doesn't happen very often, but there are times in your career where you'd like to quit." pic.twitter.com/RvMIw4n5yX

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 3, 2023

Duane Kuiper's one and only career HR (3754 PA) is #50 in Posnanski's Why We Love Baseball--first entry in the book. (He's got a lifelong Kuiper obsession.)

Yeah.

Los Angeles Dodgers starter Julio Urías was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence charges late last night, an officer with the LAPD tells ESPN.

Urias, 27, was booked late Sunday and released early this morning on $50,000 bond.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) September 4, 2023

Arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery a few years back too

Yes, in public too.

twins guardians is a real hootenanny

Second Urias incident was in public too, that’s so fucking grim.

Sunday’s incident is believed to have occurred at the LAFC versus Inter Miami soccer game Sunday night at BMO Stadium. Urías was among the celebrity guests whom LAFC announced attended the game featuring star Lionel Messi.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/new-site-feature-cy-young-award-projections/

AL:
1. cole
2. gausman
3. gray

NL:
1. strider
2. steele
3. wheeler

The Steele Wheeler tour, that was a great one.

After last night Wheeler should be alone in first in the NL by quite some margin.

Ahead of Steele, Justin "the Middle with You"

lmao what

The Marlins ball boy didn’t know the ball was fair and just chucked it into the stands LMAOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/vqzV3ZDJor

— Addison (@YankeeWRLD) September 8, 2023

A definitive freddie dance play

The Rangers collapse is so ugly I almost feel bad for them.

Almost.

Wtf

George Kirby was visibly frustrated postgame.

He gave up the game-tying two-run homer on his 102nd pitch.

"I wish I wasn't out there for the 7th to be honest."

Says there will be a conversation soon | #SeaUsRise pic.twitter.com/17XmheTb1O

— Jake García (@Jake_M_Garcia) September 9, 2023

Dominic Leone not looking so hot in person these days

Schwarber:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10088372-kyle-schwarber-and-the-worst-40-homer-seasons-in-mlb-history

41 HR and 112 walks vs. .195 BA, 180 K, and negative defensive value. He's pretty much the definitive 2023 hitter, isn't he?

They've got Jeff Burroughs '77 season on that list. For the sake of comparison, Burroughs was a) even worse defensively according to bWAR, but b) hit .271, drew 86 walks (fewer than Schwarber but still quite good), and struck out 126 times. That seems much better to me.

1986 rob deer but worse!

He really was kind of from the future, wasn't he? His .232 BA was horrifying back then...he's like Rod Carew next to Schwarber. (Dave "Swish" Nicholson in 1963 might be the blueprint for this kind of thing.)

he desperately tried to walk it back today, but that's gonna haunt george kirby for the rest of his career (and rightly so)

there are simply some things pro athletes shouldn't admit in public