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

tonight’s yankees-white sox game should not be played in these air conditions, but i bet it will be

A's winning 7-3 today. At 13-50, they're running four games behind the '62 Mets.

huh, they actually did postpone in the bronx (and philly)

meanwhile the pirates got absolutely rocked by the a's twice in about 18 hours

I, myself, remember the April 2023 Pirates.

I do realize how silly it is to be getting caught up in Arráez in early June--if anything's almost guaranteed, it'll be that he'll be doing well to hit .350 or better. But I am. He's 2 for 4 again tonight, and up to .403. He does, I would think, have a good chance to be in the MVP hunt by season's end, especially if Miami sneaks into the playoffs.

i don't begrudge you being excited about him!

but maybe let's rein in the expectations a little bit? we're not even 40% of the way through the season. i bless famous wakeboarder steve shasta for committing the april 2023 pirates to memory, but when arraez ends up hitting .349 over a full season i'd hate it to sound like a disappointment

i mean i get that you're rooting for marcus semien -- he's a good player! -- but when you say stuff like 'if he can put up five more all-star-to-MVP-type seasons in his mid-to-late-30s, he'll be in the HoF conversation' well, sure. so would my mom

tbf my mom would be a total wildcard -- if *she* can't remember her previous strategies, there's no way anyone could predict her. bad knee tho

also she absolutely refused to give me credit for 'little league homers' involving fielding errors when she scored my little league games

pretty good mom tbh

I guess I should be thankful I'm out of jaded purgatory.

i can't afford to get to skydome at the moment -- last time i was there, jeremy giambi (rip) was in right field (for the a's, i think?)

but man we should go to a game sometime. it would be honestly good

All for it--any time. (Three games lined up, hopefully a fourth with Thermo later in the season.)

<3

Any secret strategy you can get from Thermo w/r/t his fantasy team, I'll gladly venmo you in USA funds.

I believe he and Tom Tango worked out an ironclad fantasy algorithm, but that's all I can say.

Really happy to see Money Mike have a big game for the Braves tonight. He's been grinding hard at bat all season, still getting it done in the field.

King

Elly De La Cruz rolling into Cincinnati steakhouses wearing a Bratz shirt after hitting his first career homer 458 feet

it’s over for this league https://t.co/c8lurrbTHx

— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) June 8, 2023

Shades of Carlos Delgado: José Ramirez hit three HR last night, including his 200th. (In an oft-repeated, bizarre sequence of events, Delgado hit two the game he hit his 100th, three the game he hit his 200th, and four the game he hit his 300th.)

zack greinke is leading the royals -- not just the pitchers, all of them -- in bWAR (at 1.0)

he is 1-6 with a 4.59 ERA and 6.8 K/9

Did you read that piece in The Athletic about him

Delgado, there's a guy for the "why did they retire?" thread. he was vv productive in limited duty in his last season and only 27 HR shy of 500.

Still productive, but physically he'd had it:

(Wikipedia) "On August 7, 2010, the Boston Red Sox signed Delgado to a minor league contract. He played 5 games with the triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox between August 9 and 15, collecting 3 singles in 13 at-bats (.231, 0 HR, 2 RBI). This was the entire extent of Delgado's 2010 season after Delgado suffered a setback with his surgically repaired hip."

I was really rooting for him to get to 500 HR.

Oakland showing signs of life.

Braves are at five straight come from behind wins -- I wonder what the record is.

I was two or three years late on Kershaw, so I'm pleased to announce that I already know who Bobby Miller is.

https://www.mlb.com/news/bobby-miller-off-to-historic-career-start-with-dodgers

2000 career hits for Cutch

How is there an article about a young phenom pitcher having an insane start of the season for the Dodgers and it doesn't mention Valenzuela??

I guess the difference in the writer's eyes is that Valenzuela pitched 10 games in relief in 1980 before he was converted to a starter. But if you focus on '81 only, yeah, phenomenal:

first eight starts (all CG): 72 IP, 43 H, 68 K, 17 BB, 0.50 ERA, 8-0

I doubt we'll ever again see the like

ffs his third and fourth starts were on three days' rest. no data on pitch counts, but i'll bet it was obscene

On top of which, he was throwing a screwball, which I think is about the most unnatural pitch you can throw. He wasn't especially effective after age 25, yet he somehow managed to pitch almost 3,000 innings.

I’m on vacation with my family in St. Louis and we went to the Cardinals game today. within five minutes of sitting down my daughter and I were on the big screen flexing our muscles. also we got weird Adam Wainwright bobble heads where he’s dressed up as a Buckingham palace guard for some reason.

guys the a's have won five in a row (on the road! albeit against Central teams) and are about to overtake the royals

xp might need pics of you/daughter/muscles? or at least the wainohead

I really like the normal micd up videos with no interference but honestly, why do you agree to be micd up as a catcher

Jose Trevino mic’d up for the 4th inning…. #Yankees #YankeesTwitter #RepBX #NYYvsBOS #YankeesvsRedSox pic.twitter.com/W0tW8sX3od

— YankeesDugout99 ⚾ (@YDugout99) June 12, 2023

They get 10K to be miced up aiui

happened to be watching that and found it incredibly weird. hearing him go "oh no!" every time the pitch caught a lot of the plate was funny though

xp yeah they do but is it worth it as a catcher for the yankees? He makes more than that per game!

Would you not take 10K for 15 minutes?

For what it's worth: I was looking at the early voting for the ASG, and I realized I somehow didn't vote for DHs on the ballot I posted upthread. It wasn't a protest vote, just clicked "submit" too early or something. Would have gone with Ohtani, of course, and probably J.D. Martinez if I were voting today, although there's an argument there for Jorge Soler.

Tonight may be the first game in his long storied MLB career that Elly de la Cruz fails to get on base.

I take that back, he reached via a Fielder's Choice (and promptly stole a bag!)

Atlanta's bullpen is something else... woof.

Outfielder Raimel Tapia has signed with the Brewers, a source tells @TheAthletic. Released by the Red Sox on Sunday. Has joined team in Minnesota for tonight’s game.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 13, 2023

apparently daniel murphy signed a minor league deal with the angels?

38 years old

Was playing for the ducks

Was really holding out hope that Nevada would be smart enough to not give in to Fisher/MLB. A tiny park, every weekend home game a road game if fans show up at all, no RSN bubble to float them, they're going to be bad forever unless some billionaire paypig buys it for a toy.

Oakland showing signs of life.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, June 9, 2023 5:46 PM (four days ago)

7 in a row...

As planned A's fans were standing and silent during the first batter of the fifth inning

They then broke into "sell the team" chants so loud that the pitcher thought his earpiece was broken pic.twitter.com/NI2sRLmPjV

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 14, 2023