2026 Misc MLB News Thread

[Brian]

The MLB Playoff Wild-card Picture: 5/26/26

https://www.mlb.com/standings/wild-card# 

[HarryDoyle]

After getting no hit by the Astros yesterday, they've scored eight runs in the first inning today.

[umphrey]

Lately every night I check the scores and Brewers winning Cubs losing Mets losing and I go to sleep feeling good 

[nate82]

How rare is it for a starting pitcher to go a whole month without giving up an extra base hit?

[Frisbee Slider]

8 hours ago, nate82 said:

How rare is it for a starting pitcher to go a whole month without giving up an extra base hit?

Cal Eldred did it August 1992 and Jerry Ball September 1972. Minimum 25 IP in a month for Milwaukee. source

More recently, Chris Young for Padres in June 2007 then Pedro Martinez in July 1993 as reliever. minimum 20 IP source

[Underachiever]

I see Framber Valdez hit Trevor Story intentionally and got a five-game suspension. A couple things I find interesting:

Contreras involved: It seems Valdez was triggered by Willson Contreras watching a home run and then flipping the bat. 

It was the first, FIRST! four-seam fastball he had thrown since August 3 of last year.

His last four-seam fastball on August 3? Also hit a Red Sox batter while he was losing 6-1. 

So, if the catcher calls for the four-seamer with Valdez, somebody better bang a trash can to warn the hitter.

[homer]

12 hours ago, umphrey said:

Lately every night I check the scores and Brewers winning Cubs losing Mets losing and I go to sleep feeling good 

 

[Dragonbait]

I've said id like to see the whole division over .500 on June first.... I'm okay if the Cubs are the only team not.

[Roderick]

And if the season ended today, there would be two teams under .500 the Twins and As in the playoffs.  Add in the White Sox at exactly .500

 

[Samurai Bucky]

20 hours ago, Brian said:

The MLB Playoff Wild-card Picture: 5/26/26

https://www.mlb.com/standings/wild-card# 

Corbin Burnes set to come back around the All-Star break.  Look out for the DBacks...

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/diamondbacks-corbin-burnes-shares-injury-235803777.html

[owbc]

1 hour ago, Roderick said:

And if the season ended today, there would be two teams under .500 the Twins and As in the playoffs.  Add in the White Sox at exactly .500

 

Hard to imagine Seattle and Toronto staying below .500 for much longer. 

I could see the AL having ~8 teams fighting for those wild card spots through September. KC, Detroit, and the Angels seem like they are toast, but every other team in the AL is capable of the 82-85 wins that might be enough to secure WC3. 

[Matt]

Reading through the MLBPA's initial proposal, it actually looks good from a small market perspective. 

[wiguy94]

I know the topic of projection systems and how they view the Brewers has been a pretty hot topic for fans. Dan over at fangraphs who does the ZiPS stuff wrote an article today trying to diagnose where ZiPS has gone wrong with the Brewers. It was a pretty interesting read.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/why-does-zips-hate-the-milwaukee-brewers/

[Jopal78]

42 minutes ago, Matt said:

Reading through the MLBPA's initial proposal, it actually looks good from a small market perspective. 

Really? I saw a competitive integrity tax for teams  that spend less than 150 million on payroll. (That’s 13 teams this year including the Brewers) Killing the QO, eliminating any draft pick compensation for losing free agents, eliminating any draft penalties for signing free agents, reducing free agency to 5 years, increasing pre arbitration salaries, increasing the pre-arbitration bonus pool, and expanding the eligibility of super 2 status to qualify for arbitration. 

It’s a boot to the throat for small market clubs.
 

Nobody should lose sight of the fact the #1 goal of the players union is to get as much money as possible for its members. Likewise, the revenue sharing proposal is just a fig leave of cover so they can argue they do care about the integrity of the game. 

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, Jopal78 said:

Really? I saw a competitive integrity tax for teams  that spend less than 150 million on payroll. (That’s 13 teams this year including the Brewers) Killing the QO, eliminating any draft pick compensation for losing free agents, eliminating any draft penalties for signing free agents, reducing free agency to 5 years, increasing pre arbitration salaries, increasing the pre-arbitration bonus pool, and expanding the eligibility of super 2 status to qualify for arbitration. 

It’s a boot to the throat for small market clubs.
 

Nobody should lose sight of the fact the #1 goal of the players union is to get as much money as possible for its members. Likewise, the revenue sharing proposal is just a fig leave of cover so they can argue they do care about the integrity of the game. 

The reducing FA to 5 years is only for players over 30 years old so when someone 30+ hits 5 years service time they would be a FA after the year not 6 like it normally is. That feels like a very fair proposal. 

Also their proposal did include eliminating the QO and penalty for signing FA but it also followed that with increased benefits for lower revenue clubs who lose players to FA

- Elimination of the qualifying offer as well as the penalties for Clubs that sign free agents

- Increased benefits for lower revenue Clubs who lose players to free agency

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, wiguy94 said:

The reducing FA to 5 years is only for players over 30 years old so when someone 30+ hits 5 years service time they would be a FA after the year not 6 like it normally is. That feels like a very fair proposal. 

Also their proposal did include eliminating the QO and penalty for signing FA but it also followed that with increased benefits for lower revenue clubs who lose players to FA

- Elimination of the qualifying offer as well as the penalties for Clubs that sign free agents

- Increased benefits for lower revenue Clubs who lose players to free agency

Yep, they proposed increased revenue sharing to argue they’re the good guys. Then they tied it to an integrity tax to make sure that money is funneled into union members salary and not used for other things that might help a club gain an edge: international scouting, pitching labs, data capture. All of which will help an organization be more successful than funneling money into a couple of mediocre vets just to meet a soft salary floor.

I will credit the union that they know they have a real problem with potential dissension in their ranks that the system works for the stars but  not for players like, for example, Jake Bauers: 30 years old, played parts of 7 seasons, hasn’t reached free agency yet has less career earnings than some first year arbitration players like Brice Turang for example. 

[Matt]

The reduced FA also comes with a provision that the team has the option of keeping the player if they pay salary equal to the top 125 salaries in the league. 

As for the salary floor, I don't think $150 million is worth sweating when you're also increasing salary minimums, doubling the Super 2 percentage, and increasing revenue share via TV deals. Rewarding small market teams that perform well also benefits a well run organization like the Brewers. Guaranteeing small market teams $240 million if they keep it invested in the team. 

I liked what I read.

[wallus]

You need one of these things.

1. A salary cap

2. Dramatically improved revenue sharing, especially broadcast.

If you don't have that, I don't care about the rest.

[Jopal78]

16 minutes ago, wallus said:

You need one of these things.

1. A salary cap

2. Dramatically improved revenue sharing, especially broadcast.

If you don't have that, I don't care about the rest.

It’s interesting, this time around the owners seemingly hold all the cards. They can argue to the public: “Labor agreements always have unintended consequences and over the years we’ve unintentionally created disparity in our game. No fan should feel their team has no chance to compete because of the system, so we are looking to restore balance in our sport the way it used to be”.

Problem is MLB is horrible at these things and probably can’t even get their house in order. The Dodgers have hundreds of millions of dollars guaranteed decades into the future, the Braves have shareholders whom they owe a fiduciary duty, and idiot owners like Nuttig who cuts a guy (Tellez) in September before he can earn  a salary  escalator on a one year deal. 

[Matt]

I don't think you get a cap without giving up something significant, and those things are likely to be things that disproportionately hurt teams like the Brewers, i.e. earlier FA. 

[Jopal78]

3 minutes ago, Matt said:

I don't think you get a cap without giving up something significant, and those things are likely to be things that disproportionately hurt teams like the Brewers, i.e. earlier FA. 

The players are not going to agree to a cap period.

The owners likely won’t have their house in order enough to advance any coherent arguments in their favor to win in the court of public opinion.

[Matt]

1 minute ago, Jopal78 said:

It’s interesting, this time around the owners seemingly hold all the cards. They can argue to the public: “Labor agreements always have unintended consequences and over the years we’ve unintentionally created disparity in our game. No fan should feel their team has no chance to compete because of the system, so we are looking to restore balance in our sport the way it used to be”.

FWIW, I don't think the owners can credibly make that argument. 

[Jopal78]

17 minutes ago, Matt said:

FWIW, I don't think the owners can credibly make that argument. 

They can argue whatever they want. They created the system, executives operated within the system to use their financial clout to get an advantage over the other teams. Those are all facts. 
 

They certainly didn’t intend to create a two tiered system where the same half dozen teams are in the World Series all the time.

The biggest stars in the union are the prime examples for the argument that money is devalued in society today Judge (40 million) Soto (60 million) and Ohtani (70 million). Never a better climate to try to paint the union as the bad guys, out for themselves at the expense of “the game”.

 

[Matt]

1 minute ago, Jopal78 said:

They can argue whatever they want. They created the system, executives operated within the system to use their financial clout to get an advantage over the other teams. Those are all facts. 
 

They certainly didn’t intend to create a two tiered system we’re at the same half dozen teams win the World Series all the time.
 

 

They'll just say look at the division leading Brewers, Rays, and Guardians. Look at the Mets. 

[Jopal78]

11 minutes ago, Matt said:

They'll just say look at the division leading Brewers, Rays, and Guardians. Look at the Mets. 

Brewers got swept in the NLCS by LA last year, right? 
 

What was it 2015 when the Royals won the World Series? The last non financial big dog to even make the World Series was who? The D’Backs in 2023 then the Rays way back during Covid ball? So about once  every 3-4 years or so.