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

My father (Mets fan since 1962) passed away on opening day last year, so in honor of him am currently flying to Miami to see the Mets opener with my brother and Mom. Scheduled to see game #2 as well. LGM, although honestly the Diaz injury has been such a bummer for me that it kind of ruined spring training.

I'm outraged that the Guardians first game is at 10pm! They don't play a day game till Sunday. ugh

The Giants are starting the season with nine, NINE day games to open the 2023 season.

My father (Mets fan since 1962) passed away on opening day last year, so in honor of him am currently flying to Miami to see the Mets opener with my brother and Mom. Scheduled to see game #2 as well. LGM, although honestly the Diaz injury has been such a bummer for me that it kind of ruined spring training.

Sorry for your loss, I hope today is a great day for you and your family.

So ready for today but I have a meeting when the Giants game starts, ugh.

Michael: nice...Posnanski has a piece up today on the best Opening Day starters and hitters (not shareable). Best starter, Walter Johnson: 9-5, 1.31 ERA. Best hitter, Richie Hebner (!): 12 games, 458/.500/1.042, eight doubles, one triple, six home runs, 1.542 OPS.

Richie Hebner…he was one of those guys I always knew as a part-timer or a high-quality pinch hitter. I was absolutely unaware that he hit 203 career HR.

the gravedigger!

Here's one that really caught me off guard from the same piece: Rick Mahler, 4-0, 0.92 ERA, three shutouts on Opening Day.

For me opening day will always be exemplified by Tuffy Rhodes

Red Sox are going 162-0 this year I can feel it

I got your weak up the middle right here

Had to just buy an extra ticket for the Marlins home opener today and there were still plenty of $15-25 tickets left. Good times!

That's Florida baseball baby

Judge homer on Webb’s second pitch to him 🫣

https://i.postimg.cc/CxVf5HMF/6-C734-C4-F-6-E4-E-427-A-B200-E165-F4499-DD7.jpg

On pace for, what, 600 HR?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQtdeH0ymwE

Volpe looked impressively cool in that AB

supposedly volpe asked brett gardner's permission to wear 11 lol

The video of his parents kissing him is cute af

Baseball, you've done it again. @Volpe_Anthony 💙 pic.twitter.com/LuN57Ij2vv

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) March 26, 2023

rutschbombb

Top of the 1st, is Kluber ok?

He got pulled after 3 innings and as many runs so I guess not. Orioles leading 5-1, Zack Kelly not doing much better.

yanks and giants struck out 16 times each

rutschmann on pace for 162 homers, 648 hits, 648 rbi

and 324 instances of getting thrown out second trying to inadvisably stretch a single into a double

Orioles winning handily, I think he’ll cope

FIRST BOHM RUN OF THE SEASON#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/9ZlWPjt179

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 30, 2023

Pitch timer violation for Devers, automatic (third) strike

Our first automatic strike of the 2023 season goes to Rafael Devers.
pic.twitter.com/nWNm8lCUDO

— Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) March 30, 2023

Pretty clear cut. Terrible game for Boston but Yoshida has really been a bright spot. He's looked great doing everything.

10-7 now!

Casas with a sac fly & Arroyo with a double just drove in three runs!

I wouldn't be surprised this season is going to be a lot like the Sox I grew up with, the age of Jim Rice and Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans. Games with scores like 12-9.

Speaking of the pitch clock, this Boston game has seen 17 runners cross the plate, we're going into the 9th inning and it's not yet at the 3-hour mark

hunter greene sheeeesh. prob not actually 105 but crazy that it’s remotely possible

Hunter Greene, 105.2 MPH Fastball??? pic.twitter.com/NykvOGX7sX

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 30, 2023

Adley goes 5 for 5!

oneil cruz vs. 101 mph fb

Oneil Cruz 💣 pic.twitter.com/Z5WA0j1EDi

— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) March 30, 2023

10-9 Orioles-Red Sox!

Oh that’s that. Too bad Duvall couldn’t get hit by a pitch again.

#Rays announce a sellout crowd of 25,025

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) March 30, 2023

🧐

gregory soto with the dreaded infinite ERA

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

Mets-Marlins - they called a strike on McNeil because Alonso took too long getting back to first.

Jays-Cardinals in a wild one.

Nothing caps off Opening Day quite like security tackling a fan who appeared to be trying to propose on the field.

Look at Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s reaction 😅

🎥 @sxr_704pic.twitter.com/bSbyGMQbyr

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 31, 2023

Jesus Christ

Maybe just propose like a normal person pic.twitter.com/3y7Ak8rsLo

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 31, 2023

that seems a bit excessive, maybe just tell him to get off the field before tackling him

Could just give him a good old fashioned manhandling, no need to concuss the fella

it's my favorite day on the MLB calendar: a bunch of teams are not playing, for some reason, and there's no day games even though it's a Friday and everyone's excited, and what *is* on isn't on national TV, so good luck watching baseball you good-for-nothing shitbonnets

— Andrew Gaerig (@agaerig) March 31, 2023

so otm. i have never understood why the second day of the season is always so desolate in terms of baseball action

it’s a backup plan in case of rain, so all the people who bought opening day tix could still attend it (unless it rained again, of course). all of today’s games are in domes or places where it rarely rains.

there should absolutely be a day game tho

that is not a good reason imo

also i would simply blame the rangers for dropping three of their last four games to fall out of the division lead than pin their failure on arizona

also also fuck mlb for getting rid of tiebreaker games

I like Matt Olson, Albies, Strider, obvs hate Ozuna but yeah the name, the chop, all bad. Can think of annoying or awful fans for all the teams though.

It’s nothing personal (like it might be with the astros), it’s a proper sports rivalry for me of “I don’t like that you have been better than my team in recent history”. Braves have done the most damage to the Dodgers in recent years and are their only equal in the NL afaic.

― H.P, Monday, October 2, 2023 8:54 PM (thirteen minutes ago)

as a phillies fan growing up in the 90s i am a lifelong hater of the braves and a lifelong respecter of the braves pitching staff

i would never have figured that the braves are in contention for being the oldest team in baseball, though. also did not know they were the bees at one point.

https://i.ibb.co/VmX6zYD/restricted.jpg

https://y.yarn.co/fe415d1c-ca34-4132-8809-2c845356f66e_text.gif

What’s the lore behind “barves” I just started using it cos I saw everyone else doing so

I always assumed it was a way to dis the team and their fans by declining to say their name correctly, eg "Democrat Party."

Though I've done it myself, a lot, and am still a massive homer from Anthopolous down to field level.

Alternate plural of barf

i never really thought of it as derogatory, just a meme-ish thing. but maybe it is

I will henceforth refer to them as Matt & Albie’s team rather than Barves

where is the respect for travis d'arnaud

I have no opinion on him except my friend from Daly city called him their second favourite Filipino-American player after you know who

Seems fine no real opinion

Little d is the only thing in the whole braves organisation I can’t muster up even an iota of hate for. What a dude, Dodger legend

also also fuck mlb for getting rid of tiebreaker games

― mookieproof, Tuesday, 3 October 2023 11:04 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is the correct take

Legendary nickname, and his clutch factor (no I’m not looking at the actual stats) for a brief period was unheard of. Felt like every week there was a new “lil d hits a grandsalami walkoff to put the Mets/rays/barves into post season contention” or something of that sort

16 players Mathis'd™ in 2023, perhaps most notably Tim Anderson.

Brenton Doyle led all Mathisers with 0.9 rWAR.

The Mathis™ is a season of at least 200 PA with an OPS+ of 60 or lower. It is named after Jeff Mathis, who had 8 such seasons, the live ball era record. pic.twitter.com/HAuvwUW5ER

— Foolish Baseball (@FoolishBB) October 2, 2023

the fact that they moved out to the suburbs because black people are scary

I don't think this is quite right. The fact of the matter is that the area around Turner Field was just not conducive to development, and it was generally a pain in the ass to get to. The team still gets significant African American turnout--this is Atlanta, after all.

anyone wanna start a playoffs thread? individual threads for every series is kinda annoying…

Sorry

https://www.si.com/mlb/2023/10/03/trevor-bauer-accuser-reach-settlement-legal-dispute

Trying to figure out if an mlb team would pick him up after all this. I mean, Aroldis Chapman and Marcel Ozuna (etc. etc.) are still playing for big league teams so I could see it

still cases pending against him

i think bauer is a unique case in that it played out very publicly over a long period of time, including a half dozen lawsuits, some of which are still active. it’s a different level of toxicity. he was also suspended 194 games vs 30 for chapman and 20 for ozuna.

Yeah I watched that video and it says absolutely nothing new, man remains a piece of shit.

Mets declared to have won that suspended game vs the marlins, despite the marlins taking the lead in the top of the 9th right before the rain came

one last W for buck : /

I was once his biggest fan (not true; I did think he had a brighter future than Aaron Judge), but I find it odd how Cody Bellinger has become such a highly coveted off-season acquisition. I realize there's Ohtani and not a whole lot else out there, but is everyone convinced he's turned a corner based on one good 130-game season in Wrigley? His three previous seasons were miserable. He was MVP in 2019, pretty good in 2018, and really good in 2017. He's quite erratic--who knows what you'd be getting?

Prompted by seeing his photo under a headline about the Jays needing a "fearsome power hitter."

https://jaysjournal.com/posts/the-blue-jays-need-to-land-a-fearsome-power-hitter-in-free-agency-this-offseason

I really like him but your point is valid. I just don’t want him to go to the Yankees cos even if he has a patchy season he could do damage with the short porch.

I do think his return might be for real, I don't know that he would get back to hitting 45 plus home runs in a season again but if he can be a guy who will hit around .300 with about 30 home runs a year, in addition to having plus defense and good speed, he could be a real bargain. He's still pretty damn young too, I mean it's not like he just turned 33.

I know how naive this will sound--money, money, money; follow the money, stupid--but I'm also unsure why he'd be in a hurry to leave a situation where he thrived and that turned his career around. Harper was made for Philadelphia; maybe Bellinger was made for Wrigley. (I'm the last person in the world who still seems surprised when players don't seem to care much about that factor.)

I mean, I assume the Cubs will make some kind of offer, and that it'll be for a lot of money.

I ain't holding my breath but I'd definitely love for the cubs to find a way to keep him. It's not like that team is overflowing with offensive talent otherwise.

Supposedly his great year has been in part due to working with the Cubs hitting coach so hopefully that encourages him to stay.

From the Athletic article about Pitchcom:

PitchCom has four modes, each essentially a playlist offering between 18 and 27 signals, but the most basic setup is this: there are nine buttons arranged in a three-by-three grid. Each button can give two different signals. Press 1, and it might signal “fastball.” Press and hold 1, and it might signal “inside.” Through various combinations of presses and buttons, catchers can signal pitch type and location, call a pickoff play, or simply send a message. Once Hedges got some press, others followed suit. Other teams asked Hankins for their own “F— yeah” track. That was an interesting ask for the voice-over guy. (That track is now available in the library.) One team requested something to the effect of: Throw it over the plate, you (expletive).”

This spring, the Red Sox pranked one of their pitchers by customizing PitchCom to make every button say: Are you mad?

lollllllll

throw it over the plate, you fuck!

Throw it over the plate you cunt :)

A common request Hankins has heard — mostly from fans, but sometimes from teams — is to have a more authoritative voice for PitchCom’s standard tracks. He gets tweets about James Earl Jones a lot. (That one’s not in the budget.) A couple teams tried a voice changer, but in action it always sounded a little off. The Giants had minor league coach Craig Albernaz, who has a thick Boston accent, voice their PitchCom tracks for spring training. “SLYDAH, SLYDAH, BACKFOOT,” catcher Blake Sabol told MLB.com, mimicking Albernaz. “When I was getting quizzed by my fiancée, she was like, ‘Did you change the accent on this thing?’ And I was like, ‘No, that’s my catching coach.’” The Giants switched to Fernando Perez, their director of video coaching, for the regular season so they’d have the same voice for English and Spanish tracks.

fitting that the article started out with scherzer, at one point he had to call time and looked totally lost because he couldn't hear his pitchcom.

News: MLB competition committee approves changes for the 2024 season including:
-18 sec clock with runners on
-4 mound visits, down from 5
-If a P starts to warm up before an inning, he must face at least one hitter.
-The runner’s lane to first has been widened to the inf grass

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) December 21, 2023