MLB 2025 (3 Viewers)

theBaron

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New year, new thread for baseball! The stove is hot.

Apart from getting spammed by MLB and its child pages in Facebook, I haven't paid too much attention. The Phillies haven't made any major moves yet, just signing OF Max Kepler, P Jesus Luzardo (ERA of 5.00 last season), and P Joe Ross from the Brewers. But the winter meetings are still to come.

Predictions and other comments?

Prost!
Brad
 
New year, new thread for baseball! The stove is hot.

Apart from getting spammed by MLB and its child pages in Facebook, I haven't paid too much attention. The Phillies haven't made any major moves yet, just signing OF Max Kepler, P Jesus Luzardo (ERA of 5.00 last season), and P Joe Ross from the Brewers. But the winter meetings are still to come.

Predictions and other comments?

Prost!
Brad
I don't have high hopes of the Phillies improving themselves this year. I was hoping they would get someone like Tucker but he went to the Cubs.
Mark
 
I think the management thinks they have almost everything they need, just one or two more consistent hitters, another starter, and that elusive regular closer. Consistency seems to be their real weakness.
They could probably improve on Turner at shortstop, too.

Prost!
Brad
 
The Giants signed Justin Verlander to a 1 year $15mil deal.

I wish we had him 3 years ago when he won the Cy Young.

Last year he went 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA in 17 starts. In his last 7 starts his ERA was 8.10.
 
The Giants signed Justin Verlander to a 1 year $15mil deal.

I wish we had him 3 years ago when he won the Cy Young.

Last year he went 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA in 17 starts. In his last 7 starts his ERA was 8.10.
When teams make deals like that, it always seems like they're gambling that there's one more good season left in that player, at least. Verlander is 41, so at bottom, it really is a gamble.
And on the player's side, he has to ask himself, or believe, "I can play one more, just one more."
I'm reminded of Steve Carlton, who hung on longer than he should have. I remember a joke, that he must have had debts to pay off and hung on as long as he did to pay 'em off.

Prost!
Brad

A PS-Verlander is married to Kate Upton, though, so, Justin-good move, my friend!
 
When teams make deals like that, it always seems like they're gambling that there's one more good season left in that player, at least. Verlander is 41, so at bottom, it really is a gamble.
And on the player's side, he has to ask himself, or believe, "I can play one more, just one more."
I'm reminded of Steve Carlton, who hung on longer than he should have. I remember a joke, that he must have had debts to pay off and hung on as long as he did to pay 'em off.

Prost!
Brad

A PS-Verlander is married to Kate Upton, though, so, Justin-good move, my friend!
Great post.

Ironically Steve Carlton played for the Giants almost 40 years ago in 1986. He went 1-3 with a 5.10 ERA.

My bet is Verlander has similar stats.
 
Yeah, that was in Carlton's "hanging on far too long, should retire now" years.
Verlander's close, he was 5-6 last season with a 5.48 ERA. This'll be his 20th season, and it's a nice round number to retire on.

Prost!
Brad
 
I had hoped that Roki Sasaki would sign with the Giants but that looks doubtful now.

My bet is that he goes to the Dodgers.
 
The Dodgers have landed Sasaki.

Wow, shocking.

In other news, the sky is blue and the sun rises and sets every day.

He should change his last name to Durant.

IMO, the fact that the Dodgers have the market cornered on Japanese big-time talent feels like an unfair business advantage, Japan is their new farm system.

I recognize that they are a well-run organization, and merely taking advantage of the situation they are in. I'm also not naive to the economics of baseball.

Still, they have persistent advantages over most other teams as a destination: relative proximity to Japan, fair-sized Japanese population, warm Pacific climate, Hollywood, etc. and they are prepared to spend money, albeit with deferrals to avoid penalties.

It seems like the domestic and international drafts are used as tools to level the playing field among teams being able to attract talent. Is it time to institute some control over this influx of free agents? Maybe so, maybe not.

At any rate, a super team has been built and ought to dominate the sport for a long time, not a question of if they'll continue to win WS titles, but more about how many they will win, if they don't win multiple WS titles moving forward, I'll be stunned.

Does MLB care that their sport will be dominated by one team now for a number of years; I highly doubt MLB gives two ****s.

The Red Sox, and to a greater degree the Yankees, had a competitive advantage for years. That has been curbed over time by the Dodgers. Teams are now free to spend what they want, including luxury tax implications, but the LA Dodgers have an advantage in attracting this current generation of Japanese superstars.

Several MLB front offices are claiming the Dodgers and Sasaki had a deal in place, we'll see if MLB investigates this or not, I tend to doubt it, maybe the Patriots will lose a first round draft pick over this.

The definition of irony; the Patriots were accused for years of cheating their way to 6 SB titles, yet the Dodgers can pull this and no one blinks an eye, must be nice to live in that glass house, or pot, meet kettle.

The Dodgers have become the Patriots, or more to the point, the 2001-2019 Patriots as the current version is beyond terrible, they are no longer hated; the Dodgers are now the most hated team in MLB by all accounts.

Well done, takes a special sort of talent to pull that one off.

Feel free to jump in and dispute this, I'll get my popcorn ready.
 
The Dodgers have landed Sasaki.

Wow, shocking.

In other news, the sky is blue and the sun rises and sets every day.

He should change his last name to Durant.

IMO, the fact that the Dodgers have the market cornered on Japanese big-time talent feels like an unfair business advantage, Japan is their new farm system.

I recognize that they are a well-run organization, and merely taking advantage of the situation they are in. I'm also not naive to the economics of baseball.

Still, they have persistent advantages over most other teams as a destination: relative proximity to Japan, fair-sized Japanese population, warm Pacific climate, Hollywood, etc. and they are prepared to spend money, albeit with deferrals to avoid penalties.

It seems like the domestic and international drafts are used as tools to level the playing field among teams being able to attract talent. Is it time to institute some control over this influx of free agents? Maybe so, maybe not.

At any rate, a super team has been built and ought to dominate the sport for a long time, not a question of if they'll continue to win WS titles, but more about how many they will win, if they don't win multiple WS titles moving forward, I'll be stunned.

Does MLB care that their sport will be dominated by one team now for a number of years; I highly doubt MLB gives two ****s.

The Red Sox, and to a greater degree the Yankees, had a competitive advantage for years. That has been curbed over time by the Dodgers. Teams are now free to spend what they want, including luxury tax implications, but the LA Dodgers have an advantage in attracting this current generation of Japanese superstars.

Several MLB front offices are claiming the Dodgers and Sasaki had a deal in place, we'll see if MLB investigates this or not, I tend to doubt it, maybe the Patriots will lose a first round draft pick over this.

The definition of irony; the Patriots were accused for years of cheating their way to 6 SB titles, yet the Dodgers can pull this and no one blinks an eye, must be nice to live in that glass house, or pot, meet kettle.

The Dodgers have become the Patriots, or more to the point, the 2001-2019 Patriots as the current version is beyond terrible, they are no longer hated; the Dodgers are now the most hated team in MLB by all accounts.

Well done, takes a special sort of talent to pull that one off.

Feel free to jump in and dispute this, I'll get my popcorn ready.
As a Dodgers fan, I can't help you with this one. We have suffered more disappointments than not over the decades. So a string of WS wins is a welcome change. The management seems to be all in on winning. That's fine with me.
 
As a Dodgers fan, I can't help you with this one. We have suffered more disappointments than not over the decades. So a string of WS wins is a welcome change. The management seems to be all in on winning. That's fine with me.
As a Patriots fan, we suffered more disappointments than not over the decades. So a string of SB wins is a welcome change. The management seemed to be all in on winning. That's fine with me.
 
As a Patriots fan, we suffered more disappointments than not over the decades. So a string of SB wins is a welcome change. The management seemed to be all in on winning. That's fine with me.

The Dodgers have landed Sasaki.

Wow, shocking.

In other news, the sky is blue and the sun rises and sets every day.

He should change his last name to Durant.

IMO, the fact that the Dodgers have the market cornered on Japanese big-time talent feels like an unfair business advantage, Japan is their new farm system.

I recognize that they are a well-run organization, and merely taking advantage of the situation they are in. I'm also not naive to the economics of baseball.

Still, they have persistent advantages over most other teams as a destination: relative proximity to Japan, fair-sized Japanese population, warm Pacific climate, Hollywood, etc. and they are prepared to spend money, albeit with deferrals to avoid penalties.

It seems like the domestic and international drafts are used as tools to level the playing field among teams being able to attract talent. Is it time to institute some control over this influx of free agents? Maybe so, maybe not.

At any rate, a super team has been built and ought to dominate the sport for a long time, not a question of if they'll continue to win WS titles, but more about how many they will win, if they don't win multiple WS titles moving forward, I'll be stunned.

Does MLB care that their sport will be dominated by one team now for a number of years; I highly doubt MLB gives two ****s.

The Red Sox, and to a greater degree the Yankees, had a competitive advantage for years. That has been curbed over time by the Dodgers. Teams are now free to spend what they want, including luxury tax implications, but the LA Dodgers have an advantage in attracting this current generation of Japanese superstars.

Several MLB front offices are claiming the Dodgers and Sasaki had a deal in place, we'll see if MLB investigates this or not, I tend to doubt it, maybe the Patriots will lose a first round draft pick over this.

The definition of irony; the Patriots were accused for years of cheating their way to 6 SB titles, yet the Dodgers can pull this and no one blinks an eye, must be nice to live in that glass house, or pot, meet kettle.

The Dodgers have become the Patriots, or more to the point, the 2001-2019 Patriots as the current version is beyond terrible, they are no longer hated; the Dodgers are now the most hated team in MLB by all accounts.

Well done, takes a special sort of talent to pull that one off.

Feel free to jump in and dispute this, I'll get my popcorn ready.
George:

Great and honest post.

At the very least you seem to have the guts to admit that New England’s NFL domination, while great for Patriots fans, was bad for the overall sport.

It reminds me of the NBA and its massive viewership drop off. In surveys fans say one of the reasons for tuning out is the lack of a fair playing field. The top 20 players all manipulate their way into playing for the same top 6 teams, thus making more than 75% of the league meaningless.

-Jason
 
George:

Great and honest post.

At the very least you seem to have the guts to admit that New England’s NFL domination, while great for Patriots fans, was bad for the overall sport.

It reminds me of the NBA and its massive viewership drop off. In surveys fans say one of the reasons for tuning out is the lack of a fair playing field. The top 20 players all manipulate their way into playing for the same top 6 teams, thus making more than 75% of the league meaningless.

-Jason
The Chiefs are now the Patriots; older guys who still have something in the tank go there and take less money to chase a ring, they are a talented team, no denying that, but the favorable calls they get over and over and over are laughable.
 
No idea how MLB backs up their claims about being profitable.

My team, the Giants, play in less than half full stadiums and even during their WS seasons they barely sold out home games.

And for those that say they make money via TV ratings I can say that I am a truly dedicated fan who watches most, if not all of their games.

Yet I have never bought anything based on commercials during their broadcasts.
 
The kid who found the ultra rare, million dollar, Paul Skenes baseball card is from Los Angeles.

Apparently LA even controls the baseball card market.
 
The kid who found the ultra rare, million dollar, Paul Skenes baseball card is from Los Angeles.

Apparently LA even controls the baseball card market.
Hopefully it doesn't burn in the fires. The Dodgers are chewing bubble gum and kicking arse and they are all out of bubble gum.
 

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