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

Adam Wainwright somehow managed to get his 199th career win against the Orioles, going 5 with two ER. I can only assume his 70mph curveball (not an exaggeration) threw them in the same way a position player throwing 40mph “fastballs” can be difficult to hit.

He has, what, two or three starts max remaining? He’s clearly been hanging on all season for 200. Can he make it though?

His last 3 starts look like MIL, @SDP & @ home vs. Cincy. I could see him clinch 200 in that final appearance, the first 2 look a bit dodgy.

Milwaukee have been kind of going off recently so you can’t count on it from them. Hope he can empty the tank and get it from one of those starts though.

Milwaukee lost a game in which they no-hit the Yankees for 10 innings, lets just say the offense is pretty hot and cold. question is can the bats score against their pitchers?

I was looking at how high Spencer Strider’s career strikeout numbers were, 452 through two seasons with the second still ongoing. Obvious caveat with staying healthy but I also learned these stats earlier this year:

One of my favorite lines from this new video is that Tim Lincecum's 1127 strikeouts in his first five seasons is the 2nd highest mark since 1900.

The only guy with a total higher (1155) than him, none other than Tom Seaver https://t.co/GuLwoh1t0d pic.twitter.com/H2h1qjh5pd

— jack (@Jolly_Olive) February 27, 2023

Surreal postscript to the Wainwright saga:

https://www.mlb.com/news/adam-wainwright-on-future-as-country-singer-songwriter

The grand ILM/ILBaseball crossover event. Good for him

Holy shit

Red Sox announce that Chaim Bloom has been fired.

— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) September 14, 2023

AL east is becoming intersting

(not you, blue jays)

Pretty damning and fascinating article about the Padres collapse by their beat writer.

The Padres had what some estimated were eight or nine team meetings, some solely among players and others that involved members of the uniformed staff and/or front office.

In all of them, it felt like agreement had been reached and plans had been laid out to get the team on a path of cohesion.

According to multiple sources, Machado was among the primary speakers in virtually all of them. And then over the ensuing days, he was among those who did not follow through on action plans.

“I follow through on everything I say,” he said.

It was relayed to him that the types of things that could have been disregarded included being on time to meetings and buses, pregame work, executing unselfish at-bats or demonstrating a sense of engagement on the basepaths or elsewhere.

Machado, according to multiple players, was by no means the only one who often did not put what was said into practice. The failure to turn words into winning play was endemic, as the results show.

What some did maintain was that because Machado is such a significant voice, his not following through on the little things set a tone that essentially could not be overcome.

To ask a Padres player why no one could confront Machado on these matters is to be looked at as if you have six heads.

Jesus, the Rays' pitching has been absolutely dominant in the last two games against Baltimore.

presumably machado will still be opting out of his contract; the padres may be relieved to see him go

The Hunter Renfroe coefficient of productive hitter/clubhouse cancer

The Phillies have been informed that while undergoing a medical procedure today in a Florida hospital, Charlie Manuel suffered a stroke. The hospital was able to attend to Charlie immediately and subsequently remove a blood clot. The next 24 hours will be crucial to his recovery,…

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 16, 2023

Meanwhile, Matt Olson has hit his 52nd HR of the year, setting the team record.

AL east is becoming intersting

(not you, blue jays)

― mookieproof, Saturday, 16 September 2023 1:48 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Blue jays definitely included. Very tight between the mariners and the jays

O's coming out hot early tonight. They got only one run, but they're playing aggressively. Fingers crossed.

Grayson Rodríguez also pitching well.

O’s desperately need to wake up for the deep long season run they’re destined to undertake. If they can get one against Cillian Murphy they can be happy with themselves and hopefully turn this month around

Yeah, you hate to call any game must win, but this could make or break their trajectory into the post-season.

They’re looking good! This is the 2023 O’s I remember! I love Adam Frazier

I also love Gunnar Henderson (will stop live blogging now)

Rookie of the year.

100%

Josh Donaldson hitting so far in Milwaukee (in a minuscule sample size): lmao what

.308/.471/.615

The fresh air off Lake Michigan does good things for a person

lol I have experienced this, it’s bracing

caught giants/rockies on friday. first time at coors field. nice park! coors on the draft for the first time, pretty good.

game was 1-0 through the top of the 8th, had no idea how rare this was:

There have been eleven 1–0 games in Coors Field history, through April 6, 2023. The first 1–0 game at Coors Field was on July 9, 2005,[24][25] meaning all eleven games have occurred since Major League Baseball allowed the Rockies to start using a humidor on May 15, 2002

fun to see the rockies walk off in the 9th, then doubly fun for them to win again after the giants lost the challenge.

also, i only found out about the concessioner selling rocky mountain oysters in the 7th inning, by which time they had sold out. around 144 fyi, if anybody is planning on going.

I love hearing about different ballpark snacks/foods but I would not have guessed oysters for Denver tbh.

Funnily enough I was watching this video of players sampling the flavoured grasshoppers that are sold in Seattle’s T-Mobile Park during the ASG.

well, september is the first month of the year that ends in r, so rocky mountain oysters are just coming into season!

Oh no, I wish you’d said prairie oysters then I would have known not to click

it’s the draft coors that’s the real villain of this story

I love the knuckleball, I love every famous knuckleballer (I think...I'm sure one of them has stepped it into it at some point--who can keep track anymore?), so I love this.

https://www.mlb.com/news/knuckleballer-matt-waldron-earns-first-win

Watching Marlins-Braves & observed the rarer reverse commentator jinx- they pointed out Jazz Chisholm had got the Marlins first grand slam of the year last night.

Up he comes, bases loaded no outs, swings at first pitch he sees and gets another.

well, it's coors field, you gotta have a coors! i'm also planning to refinance my mortgage whenever i make it out to loandepot xxp

tbh, so much of american indie craft beer is mediocre to bad (especially lager and pilsners), that sometimes you just want corporate average lager that goes well with fried food!

anyway, finally taking advantage of the fact that i live really close to citifield so caught the reds/mets yesterday. some absolutely hilarious fielding by the reds. disappointed i didn't get to see matt mclain but did get to see some very middling de la cruz at bats and some solid hitting by votto. also, when are they going to make DJ the DH, feels like he's got no business playing RF.

rays are getting a new stadium? https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2023/09/18/stadium-gas-plant-district-2028-tropicana-field-stuart-sternberg/

Josh Donaldson hitting so far in Milwaukee (in a minuscule sample size): lmao what

.308/.471/.615

― ydkb (gyac), Saturday, September 16, 2023 8:13 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

yea I'm not sure what this is but Milwaukee has a weird history of picking up dudes from the trash heap and having them immediately play like all-stars. Travis Shaw a pretty good recent example. And Mark Canha this year.

Mark Canha has been posting about the local food on his Instagram, so you can credit that

The Hunter Renfroe coefficient of productive hitter/clubhouse cancer

Reds Designate Hunter Renfroe For Assignment https://t.co/4xiC7iLOQC pic.twitter.com/5iXwJSDz7I

— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) September 18, 2023

Wainwright got his 200th tonight, caught the first flight out for Nashville after the game.

Yes! Good for him!

Well, get a load of mega mitt. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ex1WMK3zBM

— Cut4 (@Cut4) September 17, 2023

Opposite of jumping the gun is this mlb.com piece on Wainwright from last night:

https://www.mlb.com/news/why-it-s-a-big-deal-that-adam-wainwright-got-his-200th-win

The idea that he might be the last 200-game-winner ever (regardless of what you think about pitcher wins) is absurd. Gerrit Cole, for one, is 32 with 143 wins--I'm sure there are a number of active pitchers who should reach 200.

I haven't even completely abandoned the idea that we'll see another 300-game winner; maybe Verlander, maybe somebody else. Odds are against it, I know, but someone would by definition be an exception to the rule to get there, and that does happen in baseball.

Eh I get the article, you can’t count on anything with injuries. Verlander’s velocity was oddly down in his last few starts and has been down a bit from last year too, could be tiredness but his velo being able to hold up has been a big part of his success. Nothing is guaranteed even for the few going that long.

I'll put it this way: I wouldn't bet anything I cared about on 300, but I'd bet anything I have on 200.

Now that I've actually looked at the active wins leaders, I've got to concede that past Cole--who I absolutely think will win 200--it indeed looks dire for even 200. The under-30 leaders are Berrios (29, 83), Márquez (28, 65), Fried (29, 61), Giolito (28, 61), and Urias (26, 60). That is not a promising list, especially in view of the last guy's issues.

good thing you didn’t bet everything you had on that!

I'd still bet a lot on Cole. After that, think I'd be pretty wary for the foreseeable future.