2025 MLB Thread

[Arlington]

Doesn't the system know by the time the ball hits the catchers glove whether it was a strike or ball?  Given that, I don't see it slowing the game down at all.  I wish they would just go with it full time, and I believe they eventually will take that call out of the umpire's discretion. There is too much grumbling about ball and strike calls.  It seems to be a factor in every game to some degree.  Bad calls do add to the entertainment value of the game.  KC's coach was thrown out of Friday's game for grumbling.  But I think they should be done with the drama and have am accurate and decisive system.  You know, when you think about it, once that happens the principle duty of the home ump will be a ball dispenser.

[papalawrence]

What a great baseball day! Tigers win, and both the Dodgers and Yankees blow leads in the 9th and lose on walk-off home runs. Is this Christmas!?

[CMRivdogs]

  A couple weird "calls" in yesterday's NYY/Tampa game. 

1) Ground ball bobble by Paul Goldsmidt ruled an error originally ruled an error, was changed to a hit between innings (probably the correct ruling) ending Max Fried's no hit bid...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6294733/2025/04/20/max-fried-no-hitter-ended-error/?source=athletic_thewindup_newsletter&campaign=13272973&userId=213687

2) Arron Judge's apparent home run called foul because of the short foul poles in Steinbrenner Field.

 

[oblong]

well the Yankees org owns the field so they should make them bigger.

I saw the HR.... seemed very obvious it was fair but I'll concede that I only saw one angle and it could be deceiving but I don't see how.

[papalawrence]

I will always hate the Yankees. And the Red Sox. And now the Dodgers.

[chasfh]

Man, i wish the Atletic would ask this of baseball players, because I sure would liek to know how they feel about gambling aprtnerships.

I would bet that because of baseball's history, the "No" side would be more in the 50s than the 40s, although I don't know, maybe I'm off base on this.

There's an entire article on The Athletic ($) about this:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6298159/2025/04/22/nba-player-poll-gambling-partnerships/

[monkeytargets39]

I occasionally throw bets in on College Football and UFC with my buddies just for fun….

 

…. But I’m not touching baseball or basketball and I don’t know why anyone would.

[chasfh]

I believe it’s one thing to have informal bets with your buddies, or even visit a sportsook to lay a bet, but it’s completely different for leagues to partner with gambling companies to try to get as many people betting as much money on games as they possibly can.

[oblong]

I don't know where the line is.... but I'm definitely uncomfortable with the encouragement of it... especailly with the in studio "bet of the day" or whatever they call it.

Frankly I think the country's economy would be far better off if all forms of gambling, outside of Casinos in Vegas, Atlantic City, and real Indian reservations were gone.  That includes lotteries, stratch offs, etc.  I frequent my gas station a lot b/c I work from home and I enjoy going up to get a tea or coffee or banana. It's a nice 10 minute walk. The $$ I see spent on lotteries is insane.

 

[chasfh]

17 hours ago, oblong said:

I don't know where the line is.... but I'm definitely uncomfortable with the encouragement of it... especailly with the in studio "bet of the day" or whatever they call it.

Frankly I think the country's economy would be far better off if all forms of gambling, outside of Casinos in Vegas, Atlantic City, and real Indian reservations were gone.  That includes lotteries, stratch offs, etc.  I frequent my gas station a lot b/c I work from home and I enjoy going up to get a tea or coffee or banana. It's a nice 10 minute walk. The $$ I see spent on lotteries is insane.

 

Totally agree and that’s what I left unsaid in my post—it’s the ability to gamble as easily as simply unlocking your phone. I assume betting apps have lockscreen alerts people can do one-touch bet rights from.

People might reply, well, you can’t stop people from betting if they want to. And that’s true, you can’t, if they really want to. It’s the enticing people who never thought about betting in the first place that I think is terrible. People with genetically addictive personalities getting sucked into it and then never getting out of it. I think if people really want to bet, they should have to seek it out and then have to put some work into placing the bet. If it were a lot harder to do, I … ahem … bet that at least 80% of all people who have gambling problems today would have never even started doing it, or even thought about it.

[Sports_Freak]

One of these bottom feeders had to win. May as well make it kinda exciting;

 

[monkeytargets39]

22 hours ago, chasfh said:

I believe it’s one thing to have informal bets with your buddies, or even visit a sportsook to lay a bet, but it’s completely different for leagues to partner with gambling companies to try to get as many people betting as much money on games as they possibly can.

Yep.  You don’t see ads for Tobacco, why is it ok for gambling?

[monkeytargets39]

21 hours ago, oblong said:

I don't know where the line is.... but I'm definitely uncomfortable with the encouragement of it... especailly with the in studio "bet of the day" or whatever they call it.

Frankly I think the country's economy would be far better off if all forms of gambling, outside of Casinos in Vegas, Atlantic City, and real Indian reservations were gone.  That includes lotteries, stratch offs, etc.  I frequent my gas station a lot b/c I work from home and I enjoy going up to get a tea or coffee or banana. It's a nice 10 minute walk. The $$ I see spent on lotteries is insane.

 

Well isn’t a significant portion of the lotto money “supposed” to help fund education?

[oblong]

riiiiiiight.

Thats the problem with using vice taxes for things other than addressing the vice.  What would happen to our municipal budgets if everybody woke up tomorrow and decided "I'm not smoking anymore".  

 

[oblong]

4 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Yep.  You don’t see ads for Tobacco, why is it ok for gambling?

better lobbyists.

[Tigermojo]

Workman designated for assignment by the Cubs. If no other team claims him as a rule V, he will go back to Detroit for $50K.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Tigermojo said:

Workman designated for assignment by the Cubs. If no other team claims him as a rule V, he will go back to Detroit for $50K.

We don’t have to take him, do we? 😏

[chasfh]

Old friend of our starting for the Cubs tonight.

[IdahoBert]

Right now on April 24 in interleague play the American League is losing to the NL by 54–67. The Twins and the Athletics are largely the cause of this by going 7–17. And who hasn’t played a single game against the NL yet? The White Sox, so the disparity is certain to get worse. 

[chasfh]

11 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

Right now on April 24 in interleague play the American League is losing to the NL by 54–67. The Twins and the Athletics are largely the cause of this by going 7–17. And who hasn’t played a single game against the NL yet? The White Sox, so the disparity is certain to get worse. 

I did a presentation a few years ago maintaining that the American Leaguer was a tougher, stronger, better league than the national league, full stop. That was before universal DH, which I think had a greater effect on the disparity than people at the time were willing to admit.

[IdahoBert]

Imagine how big the disparity will get by the end of the season when the Chicago White Sox have played 48 games against the NL….

[chasfh]

15 hours ago, chasfh said:

Old friend of our starting for the Cubs tonight.

So, Old Friend of Ours had a rough go: six innings, ten hits plus a walk, only four strikeouts, and six runs yielded.

And he still got credit for a Quality Start. 

Why? Because only three of the six runs he gave up were earned, because he himself made an error to extend the inning and all three subsequent runs, including a bomb he gave up, went into the books as unearned.

Baseball!

[IdahoBert]

I know a clique of people who are Ivy League graduates and their fantasy baseball league was only National League because there was no DH and it was “real baseball with real strategy” and they were real snobs about it but now they admit they don’t give a damn about the absence of pitchers batting. 

[IdahoBert]

5 minutes ago, chasfh said:

So, Old Friend of Ours had a rough go: six innings, ten hits plus a walk, only four strikeouts, and six runs yielded.

And he still got credit for a Quality Start. 

Why? Because only three of the six runs he gave up were earned, because he himself made an error to extend the inning and all three subsequent runs, including a bomb he gave up, went into the books as unearned.

Baseball!

Yeah, I looked up the box score because by your picture I couldn’t tell who was pitching for the Cubs and saw his line and had to chuckle. 

[chasfh]

7 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

Yeah, I looked up the box score because by your picture I couldn’t tell who was pitching for the Cubs and saw his line and had to chuckle. 

Yeah. photos don't render particularly well when you upload them to most websites, this one not excepted.