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

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

marlins rocking the teal tonight

if tonight and last year’s playoffs are any indication, if you let maldonado get on base, the astros are gonna score multiple runs

one little known thing about the "pepper grind" celebration that lars nootbaar popularized in japan is that it was actually invented by back-up catcher andrew knizner (pronounced kiz-ner), last year, before it was picked up by nootbaar shortly thereafter. i watched or listened to just about every cards game last year, and did not realize that knizner started it. knizner is probably the worst cardinal since pete kozma, which is why he didn't get to do the pepper grind very often and it had to be passed on to someone else.

my last pepper grind update is that the team has decided not to do it this year, as some other dumb celebration must be invented instead

interesting outing from jack flaherty today: 5 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 7 BB, 4 K

it's a one true outcome kind of game

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/762164/animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-drudge-report.gif rutschmann made an out http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/762164/animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-drudge-report.gif

That Angels-Oakland game! Fujinami has an ERA of 30.86!

Dodgers Joe Davis is doing a good job. Instead of this game being all about the Yankees,he is talking about the Giants a far bit.

What an ending to the Orioles-Red Sox game! Yoshida reached first with two outs on a fielding error, Duvall scored a two-run homer, meaning the Red Sox led for the first time all game. Good enough to forget that Chris Sale gave up seven runs through three innings!

Lol absolutely ludicrous finish

5 RBIs for *checks notes* Adam Duvall

McKenna's dropped fly ball the stuff of anxiety dreams

It wound up not mattering but Yoshida should have been standing on second after that imo

The quotes on this

could be worse, we could be starting Adam Duvall

— Ryan Garcia (In the Lab🧪) (@RyanGarciaESM) March 28, 2023

Also he only walked today but hello Casas 1B

WHAT A PLAY BY RAFAEL DEVERS YO SAVE A RUN! AND HELL OF A PICK BY TRISTON CASAS! pic.twitter.com/VOLHqhRj8C

— Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) April 1, 2023

Bumgarner vs Kershaw tonight.

Baltimore 10/10 SB attempts over 2 games

phillies run differential after two games: -17

One of the points the radio commentators made at Fenway last night is that Baltimore runners appeared to be waiting until the pitch clock got to like 1 or 2 seconds and then just taking off. Once it gets down to that little time it's tough for the pitcher to change his mind about what he's doing

MLB announced that a total of 269 players representing 19 different countries and territories outside of the 50 United States were on Opening Day rosters and inactive lists. The Dominican Republic had the most, with 104, followed by Venezuela (62), Cuba (21), Puerto Rico (19), Mexico (15), Canada (10), Japan (8), Colombia (7), Curaçao (4), Panama (4), South Korea (4), the Bahamas (2), Nicaragua (2), Aruba (1), Australia (1), Brazil (1), Germany (1), Honduras (1), and Taiwan (1).

i didn't realize how many Venezuelan players there are in MLB!

When I was a kid they'd have exhibition games early in the season during those rain safety off days, I miss those.

Can’t even enjoy Astros losing cos Clevinger was the winning pitcher. 😒

At least Rodriguez, France and Raleigh are all hitting today.

You can tell how much faster the game is cos we’re at the top of the 7th in the Mariners-Guardians game and the commentators have only chatted about the stadium roof being stuck for about five minutes not 25.

I forgot about the ghost runner rule until now

I didn’t, too bad mariners forgot how to hit in the back innings

maybe deluding myself based on very sss but heartened that the white sox split their series against the astros in houston, with the losses being fairly close. i would love to see them rebound and meet the expectations they had last season

if anything, just to humiliate LaRussa and the circumstances that put him at the helm last year

Incredible!

Joey Wiemer's first outfield assist in the big leagues cuts down Big Dan Vogelbach. pic.twitter.com/7l4xbu0rSY

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) April 3, 2023

Turang’s first homer is a grand slam! Cut to his parents sobbing in the crowd. Brewers beating the Mets 10-0 in the 5th.

Brice Turang hits a grand slam for his first MLB homer! @FarmToFame_ pic.twitter.com/9LtJG7hhnu

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 3, 2023

Giants have like six home runs if I'm counting correctly.

It ended up being seven home runs in all.

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