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Out of this group I would pick the Orioles as the most likely to make the playoffs. They were in the mix through late August last year before falling off. Not much in the way of support from management, unfortunately.

If Granato couldn't turn the program around, who can?

I'm not surprised we're seeing that shift, the big question is how often it gets used. Only against the slow guys who are pure pull hitters? And the defense needs the right personnel who have some serious range. It could lead to some fun highlights with the 3B and CF trying to chase down a ball in the corner while a big guy like Rowdy is lumbering around the bases trying to get a 3B or inside-the-park HR.

I never thought I would be a fan of another MLB team besides the Brewers. I eventually became a serious Mariners fan when they started to play better a few years ago and I realized I would never move back to Wisconsin. I found their long history of losing relatable, plus I had become attached to the city itself. Brock, there’s not much better in sports than when a whole city gets wrapped up in a special team that is on a playoff run. If you are a sports fan and live in a city when that is happening, it’s near impossible not to get wrapped up in it. Except when Seattle had Seahawks fever and won that miracle playoff game against the Packers…that was brutal to be around.

https://www.mlb.com/news/how-mlb-pitch-timer-works#:~:text=The FTC position itself it,uniform people at the park. Seems like a FTC is going to be a pretty challenging job. Speaking hypothetically, would you want to give extra time to the batter or the pitcher? It seems like the batters are the ones being rushed from what I've seen so far because they have to "engage" (look at the pitcher) with 8 seconds left on the clock.

Just gotta stay healthy. We might be talking about going for a three-peat if Middleton was healthy last spring. What this team is doing in an era where the margin for error is thinner than ever is truly incredible. I really, really want this group to bag that second banner to solidify the legacy that they deserve.

When interpreting baseball stats, I would consider the following checklist of what the stat includes: - Batting, fielding, or both? (WAR is both unless you look at oWAR/dWAR separately) - Counting stat or rate stat? (WAR is a counting stat) - Is there a park/league adjustment? (yes for WAR, yes for OPS+) - Is there a positional adjustment? (yes for WAR, no for OPS+) - Is there a replacement player adjustment? (yes for WAR, no for OPS+) So the formula for WAR is actually quite simple: WAR = (Batting Runs + Base Running Runs +Fielding Runs + Positional Adjustment + League Adjustment +Replacement Runs) / (Runs Per Win) (runs per win is basically the 'year' adjustment) With WAR I think you have to first buy into the idea that a player's value is best quantified by runs created / runs prevented. Preventing runs is probably the more interesting one since some positions have way more opportunities to prevent runs than others, and DH can not prevent any runs at all. So if you're going to dream up an ideal baseball player to maximize WAR, it's probably a CF who gets on base a ton and hits for power...Mike Trout. It would be impossible for Trout to achieve his lofty WAR total if he was playing 1B, as it should be since he can't prevent as many runs at 1B and it's easier to find a 'replacement player' at 1B to generate decent offensive production. By that logic, it stands to reason that an OPS of .850 is far more valuable at some positions than others. I think of Chris Carter's 2016 season as an example of where these park and positional are so valuable in quantifying value. A 1B with poor defense and a low OBP isn't that valuable even if he hits 40 home runs.

The Mariners are starting all of their evening home games at 6:40 this year, including weekend and summer ones. The only exception is fireworks night. Some of those are going to be over around 9:00 local time.

Oakland and Cincinnati played a 14-14 tie today with 29 hits and 16 walks. 3:16 time of game.

Fascinating stuff here on how the Mets are planning to exploit the pitch clock: https://theadvancescout.substack.com/p/update-that-secret-pickoff-play-in

This is the big question -- will it matter? I think we all know these contracts are going to look bad, but it may only matter to the extent that there is some red on a balance sheet that is written off by an owner with deep pockets. "Bobby Bonilla Day" is just a joke now. The "owners club" of MLB has such a fun problem with the lack of meaningful rules to reign in spending. It only takes one rogue owner to throw a wrench in the unspoken rules of the club. For a long time that was George Steinbrenner, then everybody played by the "rules" for a decade or two, but now that we're in Gilded Age 2.0 it was only a matter of time until someone came in and shattered the "rules". Once Cohen started spending, Seidler couldn't help himself. I'm with Brock that this is incredibly fun to watch play out.

My "way too early" reaction from watching one inning of spring training -- the 20 second limit with runners on really speeds things up. The usual slowdown with runners on base disappears. Especially when a pitcher looks like he might be laboring out there. No ability to slow down the game, gotta keep throwing the ball.

That Ryan Thompson thread is an instant classic. After several "WTFs" while reading that, the thing it reminded me most of is real estate assessments. Which are objective in theory (e.g. the use of 'Comps'), but ends up being all sorts of subjective in practice. It also explains why the Brewers would have tried to "blame" Burnes for missing the playoffs, since the arbitrators are not necessarily baseball experts. I'm sure someone has answered this, but why do the arbitrators have to pick a winner? Couldn't they be given the option to suggest any salary between the two sides?

That was an epically bad shooting performance by Iowa, but the Badgers had the energy of a team that was playing a must win game. So I'll give credit where credit is due. Wahl did look great in the post. It's always fun to beat Iowa. Yes, that's what I was referring to -- an extra bid to a conference in which shifts everyone else down one spot on the bracketology projections.

Yeah especially right after the holidays when most were just on vacation. And everyone knows it's a tight job market so you can't just count on getting another job. I have a variety of experiences among friends...I do have one who went on a ski trip as soon as he got laid off from Google, but he probably would have done that anyway. He's not planning to return to the workforce in the near future. My contacts with kids were heavily job searching almost immediately. The severance buys them some time but that money goes quickly.

Many MLB teams do discount beer now, it's usually a 12 oz can of cheap light beer and it tends to be $3-$5. You also have to know the specific spots in the stadium to get it from. I think some also do a 'happy hour' during batting practice with discounted food/drinks. $8 for bottled water is ridiculous. I think it was $9 at the new NHL arena in Seattle before numerous complaints got the price down to $5. At least they encourage fans to carry in an empty bottle and use a filling station.

Wait, are you telling me there's not a single spot in AmFam field where you can buy a freshly grilled sausage? There can't be more than a handful of ballparks in MLB where that is the case. My main concession choice at T-Mobile Park in Seattle is a sausage right off the grill that they load up with kraut, peppers, and onions.

Do the Millennials and Z's get blamed for everything? I was just in Hawaii and the average age of the tourist there is about 60. Very few people under 40 have enough time or money to do anything other than basic travel. I don't have social media, but I think what you're seeing are the "Influencers", who are getting paid to do all of that stuff by whoever sponsors then.

IIRC, at least 3 or 4 teams usually get pushed out by upsets in the auto-bid conferences. Looking at that schedule and their recent play, 2/4 seems like a stretch goal, 3/4 would require a miracle.

We've used Sunbasket off and on. They are clearly not a sustainable option due to the shipping and packaging. Given the high cost, it's easier to use Instacart if you don't want to do your own grocery shopping. I didn't think about food waste reduction being a benefit, I would consider portion control to be the more useful feature. I live in a location with mandatory curbside compost pickup so food waste isn't very high on my concern list.

Presumably the teams that have juicy TV deals locked in in a big market with a high ownership fraction in their RSN are the ones that stand to lose the most. I think that's approximately 10 teams. But those deals are still subject to the same cable TV subscriber economics as everyone else. We should be thankful for both Cohen's spending and the Bally bankruptcy, since those are combining to exacerbate the economic disparities on both ends. The Brewers stand to massively benefit from added revenue sharing of any kind.

Eventually the price gouging is going to eat into demand. I agree with those who are predicting that consumer demand will start falling later in 2023. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened yet, but some sectors like tourism still seem to be in a post-COVID boost and we're not in a recession (yet).

I think we might be missing the forest for the trees. To me it boils down to: You don’t want to have a reputation for ticking off your star players. We know the Hader trade did not go over well in the clubhouse and we know Burnes isn’t happy with whatever was said during that arbitration hearing. What was actually said is irrelevant to the problem that has been created here. This whole situation is just more evidence for why players don’t give anything other than boring, canned answers to the media. Burnes didn’t do himself any favors by saying what he did, maybe we’ll all forget about it but I have a feeling it will resurface when he has a bad outing this year.

You forgot the important part. The Angels couldn't find a buyer for their asking price of $3 billion.

I think the corporate metaphor is that the Brewers just blamed one of their top performers for the team missing expectations because he didn't win back-to-back Cy Young awards. If your company craps on its high performers in performance reviews and doesn't make them feel appreciated...then as soon as the talent has the leverage to move on you can kiss it goodbye. Which is what will be happening with Burnes. None of it really matters though...sometimes your high performers might look at the current state of your company and its budget and come to their own conclusions about what their next career move should be.