2022 MLB General Season Chatter: Ghost Runners On The Half-Billion Dollar Infield

Boras client? Didn’t this happen to a few of his guys a few years ago too?

Yeah, my guess is that Boras promised Conforto there would be a big market for him, even after the lackluster season.

I’m sure everyone looks at what he got for Hosmer and thinks well why not

sensible policies for a happier america

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/opinion/baseball-nationalize.html

Meanwhile Ramirez signs an extension at a massive discount.

Bleacher Report with some interesting predictatrons... including Manoah for Cy young (yes please!) and Roberts for MVP.

i guess we didn't do a predictathing this year, huh?

i enjoyed this result from the 2022 ZiPS projected standings

https://i.imgur.com/LYLNHK3.png

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-hopefully-not-horrifyingly-inaccurate-2022-zips-projections-american-league/

same record after 162 games, but somehow Jays have better playoff and WS odds?!

you can read the intro of the link for the methodology.

it involves running a monte carlo simulation with ONE MILLION virtual seasons.

https://awfulannouncing.com/schedules/your-2022-mlb-regular-season-broadcasting-primer.html

i am going to be watching so many free streams this year. fuck all of these billions of exclusive ways to watch things

happy opening day!

yeah i'll probably be streaming too. i don't think there's even a way for me to pay to watch white sox games legitimately without buying an entire cable package. i'll probably resubscribe to mlb.tv at some point later in the season when the price drops.

this is first year i won't be paying for mlb.com in...a long time.

the dealbreaker for me was the poor quality of the official mlb.com streams. i became accustomed to the the feed hiccuping and stuttering around every 5 minutes or so, almost always right as someone hit a ball or as runners were tearing around the bases. the official feed would often go all pixelated/low quality on me, i'd have to refresh the window several times per game, etc.

then, i'd switch to any one of the many unofficial streams, and it's almost always a perfect quality stream, zero interruptions the entire game, with the commercials removed. so much better. also, you don't have to move 1000 miles away from your favorite team to watch your favorite team's games that you paid for

btw, my go-to source for streams these days is

sp0rtsurge.net

ATLANTA -- Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. acknowledged an internal rift with former teammate Freddie Freeman during an interview late Wednesday, saying there's "nothing" that he'd miss about the first baseman.

definitely wasn't expecting this lol

i'd read Freeman got on his case a while back about admiring a home run that turned out to not be a home run and i guess he's been stewing about it since

very happy that today is here, even if my team is not playing today

i got MLV Extra Innings through DirecTV again this year for 139.99 and includes MLB.TV and i have never had an issue streaming

happy opening day from my family

https://i.imgur.com/S67FXmm.jpg

i'll be watching Waino pitch this afternoon!

VERY NICE! are you there right now? god, to hear the organ and see the clydesdales is just the best

going to the home opener in Milwaukee, pretty excited

KM you and I are now enemies until October

oh goodness no. I'm in Toronto. i just want to watch baseball, and I choose Wainwright over Witt.

JOIN THE LIST FROGBS, let's fukken do this

also, check this out, lol

Noah Syndergaard calls #Angels new team to beat in LA, says slumping Mookie Betts "could use a protein shake" 👀 pic.twitter.com/n0WZke885U

— FAX Sports: MLB  (@MLBONFAX) April 5, 2022

is that real?!

shit. i posted on the hot stove thread that ke'bryan hayes had just gotten an eight-year extension. he struck out, missed a couple close plays in the outfield (it's very windy though), and just came out of the game with an apparent wrist injury. all in the first inning.

what list

oh, i was just kidding. the legions of people who don't understand that the cardinals are america's team

;)

Cheers from this Ruthian Omni Canine and Ever-Slumping Human Vegan
https://i.imgur.com/iocS7vH.png

whats a better nickname for Chicago, Scrubs or Cubes

<3 francisF

Scrubs is perfect

Cubes is funnier though

scrubs sounds better spoke out loud, cubes reads better on a screen

aw, i ain't got no dog :(

Bring on more dog/owner opening day photos.

2022 version of a shutout from Wainwright, Goldschmidt on base all five AB.

Half-serious about the first part...should they redefine what constitutes a shutout from the starter, or do you just close the book on that stat forever (or at least let it become the equivalent of triple play)?

is this for sure Wano's last season?

also: me and the bean in our finest Jay gear:
https://i.imgur.com/7w8vWqA.jpg

it isn't for sure his last season. pujols and molina both claim they will retire, but waino hasn't. it's widely assumed he will, but i'm not sure why. i could see him going until the next big arm injury, and he's had a lot of them. don't want to jinx him but i think this is the longest he's been non-injured since like 2014. so feels like he's due, ugh. but on the other hand, he often said last season, in reply to the "how you still throwing well when you're old?" questions, he would often say that his arm had hurt badly the last several years, and that he hadn't felt truly 100% for so long, until now, etc.

if he has a repeat of his 2021, i think he would be tempted to stick around for 2023 to try to run the win total up into the low 200s. not sure how important the HoF is for him (seems to be important for a lot of them), but he's kind of a 0-2% edge case contender right now, whereas a decent 2022 and 2023 makes it slightly more plausible that he sneaks in and is one of the pitchers ever selected, etc. that would rule

aw, super Jays fans! should be an excellent season all the way to the end

my 2022 projection for the season is: it's going to be great all the way to the end, a real classic

sorry, not sure where a bunch of words went, but i meant

he sneaks in as one of the worst pitchers ever selected, etc. that would rule

you know KM when you were in Chicago I was gonna ask if you wanted to see a baseball game...baseball ILX is not as great as hoops ILX but it would be fun anyway

i still make trips up to chicago and milwaukee pretty often! or at least, i will at least a couple times a year, i bet. :) i'll let you know if i'me ever near when there's a game! gotta check off watching a game with all the ILBers

Anyone else trying to watch an MLB game through apple? I was watching earlier and then it suddenly stopped.

ngl i have no idea what he was doing wrong there

shoutout to the mets tho for managing to lose to the marlins in a game where an opposing pitcher balked three times in one AB

ngl i have no idea what he was doing wrong there

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, September 28, 2022 12:20 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmark

I’m not familiar enough with him to know whether this was a case of the yips or if he always has this motion and has just never been called before, but he’s definitely not setting himself before throwing the pitch

his glove doesn't come set but the last one is really ticky tack

it’s the kind of thing where if you’re called for it once you have to at least be on your best behavior the rest of the game ok

White Sox manager Tony La Russa is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow, according to a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. La Russa, who turns 78 years old on Tuesday, has been absent from the team since late August due to a medical issue.

cardinals and pirates are finishing the season with six straight games -- three in st. louis and three in pittsburgh

i guess this is because the lockout messed with the schedule? because that's weird

Same with the Guardians, six straight home games against the Royals

going into today's games:

>200 IP

Alcantara: 228.2
Nola: 205.0
Mikolas: 202.1
Bieber: 200.0

there are another 10 with 190 or more, and not sure who is pitching today/tomorrow

Manoah's at 196.2, but I don't think he's getting another start till the playoffs.

the only time the pirates had consecutive 100-loss seasons was when they did it three straight from 1952-54

. . . until now. this would also be three in a row had the 2020 season not been truncated; they were on a pace to go 52-110

There’s always next season.

also mike matheny has run out of missouri teams to manage

When you've got an hour to spare:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-300-game-bowling-for-30th-birthday

sharing this because i know everyone will agree but cardinals fans are being whiiiiiiiny as fuck right now (for those of you saying "right now??" i will say "_particularly_ right now, ok?"

Viva el whinos (weinos?)

Cards are a team near the bottom of the misery index for me, along with Dodgers, Yanks, and Braves, maybe some others. They’ve got a couple trampled flowers in their rose garden.

re: Spencer Strider

He’s pitched for nearly a year so where’s his 10 year $230 million extension

― Michael F Gill, Friday, September 2, 2022 9:47 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

I might be wrong but i imagine those massive extensions will mainly be for position players. Too much injury risk with any pitcher

― Karl Malone, Friday, September 2, 2022 10:12 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

He ended up getting a six year extension for $75 million, only guaranteeing 1 year past free agency.

*sorta* feel for the cards -- i mean they did actually win a (shitty) division, rather than finishing third. but i think their pain falls well short of the mets'. and also try not giving up six runs in the ninth

kind of alarmed at how good and young and locked up the braves are tbh

the barves: hot, ready, and legal!

Is this the first team that's extended so many young players? Seems like a new and welcome concept to me. Hard to argue with Anthopolous' talent radar at this point.

Braves in a really good spot apparently, but would suggest teams that do this as a rule will eventually get dinged by a 1-2 season wonder. Would the Mets have been right to do this with Ike Davis after one good season?

Bellinger is the biggest example of how things could go wrong. Scott Kingery got a six year/$24M extension before he even played a MLB game and that went south pretty fast, even if that is pocket change compared to other deals.

Not sure how well our “Wander Franco will be an MVP by 2025” thread will age tbh

oh any number of things could go wrong! but as previously mentioned, braves rookies posted more WAR than several entire teams. and isn't it nice to have a young player do well and then offer him good money as opposed to waiting three years and then trading him away for garbage?

unfortunate that the whole franchise is basically a fount of racism tho

Agreed on both fronts.

MLB.com has a poll up for 2022's signature moment. For the regular season, they've got Pujols' 700th and Judge's 62nd--sounds right. For the post-season, it's the combined no-hitter and Harper's NLCS-winning homer. I won't get into the first again, but I'd definitely go with Alvarez's G6 HR over Harper's, and maybe even with his HR over the Mariners in G1 of their ALDS.

Not Realmuto's HR in WS game 1?

That'd be a contender too, but personally, I found both of Alvarez's home runs majestic and thrilling.

doesn't schwarber seem like he should be at least 34 years old? i was just reading something that mentioned he debuted in 2015 and it seemed impossible, like...was he 29 when broke in or something? but no, schwarber was 22 in 2015!

i think it's the beard

Vogelbach seems like he should be 40 fwiw

Rob desantis is only two years older than me.

Some white people do be looking like that

Kind of interesting: longest-tenured player on each team.

https://www.mlb.com/news/longest-tenured-player-on-each-mlb-team-c275256634

Mariners have no one who's been around longer than 2016.

i think that might be pretty common. for the cardinals, at least, they only have adam wainwright (who is old and retiring after 2023) from the 2016 season. and even going to 2017, only wainwright and paul de jong, who will hopefully possibly be traded this off-season

wow @ the orioles, though, in the other direction!

Orioles: Ryan Mountcastle
Date acquired: June 8, 2015
MLB debut: Aug. 21, 2020
There is no better example of just how young the Orioles are, and how much they’ve turned over their entire organization, than their longest-tenured player is still 25 years old.

The New York Yankees today announced that they have appointed Brian Sabean as Executive Advisor to Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Cashman. pic.twitter.com/VZ5HHlWDOi

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) January 3, 2023

this is just Baseball Guys Looking Out For Each Other imo

cashman is the best baseball executive of the last 25 years*; he doesn't need help, he's hooking a bro up

*okay maybe theo, but also theo seems to become scarce when things get tough