
There’s no sense in focusing on scores when discussing Spring Training. Sure, it’s somewhat fun to win, but winning means nothing and I’m not going to write about nothing even though I wrote the word nothing 3 times in this sentence. Moving on from nothing…
In today’s piece, we will be discussing breaking stories, players that are catching eyes, and how some of the roster battles are playing out.
Dennis Santana Didn’t Sticka
It’s odd when a player, who’d settled his contract prior to going to arb (for $1MM) gets DFA’d. It’s even more odd when it’s a pitcher, who’s projected to be pretty effective, and hasn’t yet been able to show it for his new team. It’s an odd move, even from AA, who is a mastermind at stashing players and I got a feeling it wasn’t a performance based move. Santana’s now a Twin, who quickly claimed him off waivers. If healthy, the Braves bullpen now has what I’d consider 6 solid Opening Day arms in Collin McHugh, Raisel Iglesias, Joe Jimenez, Lucas Luetge, A.J. Minter, and Kirby Yates. Jesse Chavez seems like a shoo-in should he remain healthy, and that leaves Nick Anderson, Seth Elledge, Michael Tonkin, and Jackson Stephens to battle it out for the 8th spot. There’s always a possibility that AA grabs someone else, or works out split contracts for players that are out of options.
Edit: Justin Toscano reported that Santana was not going to make the MLB roster and requested a trade. Also, I keep unintentionally disrespecting Dylan Lee and I think it’s because I’ve already got him starting at AAA due to options and that just isn’t a fair assessment. He belongs in the bigs and I should’ve listed him.
Dodding the Corners and Strengthening the Vines
On Saturday, the Braves held their Grapefruit League opener at CoolToday Park. It was an odd one, ending in the bottom of the 9th due to a clock violation (more on that later). However, there were 2 really strong pitching performances from prospects Dylan Dodd and Darius Vines. Both pitchers threw 2 scoreless innings, Dodd giving up 0 hits and striking out 3, while Vines gave up 1 hit and also struck out 3. Dodd’s fastball peaked at 97 and seemed very at ease on the mound with a 15 second pitching clock. Vines showcased his disappearing slider and a 94-95 MPH fastball to sit 6 down. Yes, it’s early in spring, but it was nice to see that our farm isn’t fully barren of talent, and IMO, Dodd could be a force if he can maintain that velocity.
Can’t Spell Eddie Rosario Without 2 Eyes
Early reports from camp (and Kevin Seitzer) is that Eddie CAN SEE and has put in a lot of offseason work to be ready for the season. And while it’s early and there’s a lot that can happen, I’ve seen some hard hit balls and an Eddie that’s right will help alleviate a lot of fan anxiety when discussing left field.
Braves Signed Matt Swarmer to a MILB Deal
At 28 years old, Matt Swarmer finally got the big league call last year and it didn’t go very well. In 34 games, he pitched to a 5.03 ERA and his BB-rate and K-rate were just way to close to be effective. He’s been a starter for years, but will have to make it in an MLB bullpen first before getting that chance. His bread and butter is a slider that carries a high release point, and while it doesn’t have a lot of movement for a slider, it’s shown to be effective due to it’s odd release point. Swarmer will likely spend all year as depth at AAA but the slider is supposedly good enough to fool hitters for an inning or 2.
Ian Adds to Repertoire
After Ian floundered in 2022, Braves Journalers took to their keyboards about his arsenal and how it lacked another pitch. Well, lucky for Ian Anderson that he reads Braves Journal (hello Ian) as he took to the offseason to develop a slider. If Ian can maintain a 94-95 MPH FB and add a plus slider, then his changeup can once again become a real weapon.
Still No Jordan Luplow
Braves have played 3 ST games now, and while it isn’t too odd to see players sit the first few games due to minor ailments, it is odd that there’s not been a scrap of news on OFer Jordan Luplow, who was signed to a $1MM guaranteed contract. If it was injury-related, there would’ve been talk, but there’s been crickets. And while it’s only a guess, it’s an educated one, and it’s highly likely Luplow is getting a swing adjustment courtesy of Kevin Seitzer.
Edit: It’s worth noting that Justin Toscano said there was some oblique soreness, but I have an inside scoop that said… “Well…you’re not wrong”.
On the Pitch Clock
Well, the Braves will go down in spring training history as the first team to ever conclude a game with a pitch clock violation. On Saturday, in the bottom of the 9th, Cal Conley strolled to the plate after Red Sox pitcher Joey Stock melted down on the mound where he went Out, Single, Double, Single, Walk, Walk, Walk. I’m sure it was a relief when he was relieved by reliever Robert K (he has more letters in his last name, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to make sense of the phonetic structure, so K it is) who collected a strikeout and Cal Conley comes to the plate with the bases loaded and works the count to full.
Before we go further, let’s bullet point the new pitching clock rules
- A 15-second timer will be in place with the bases empty and a 20-second timer with runners on base.
- The pitcher must begin his motion to deliver the pitch before the expiration of the pitch timer or a ball will be automatically called. Batters who violate the timer are charged with an automatic strike
- Batters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark or else be charged with an automatic strike.
- With runners on base, the timer resets if the pitcher attempts a pickoff or steps off the rubber.
- Pitchers are limited to two disengagements (pickoff attempts or step-offs) per plate appearance. However, this limit is reset if a runner or runners advance during the plate appearance.
- If a third pickoff attempt is made, the runner automatically advances one base if the pickoff attempt is not successful.
- Mound visits, injury timeouts and offensive team timeouts do not count as a disengagement.
- If a team has used up all five of its allotted mound visits prior to the ninth inning, that team will receive an additional mound visit in the ninth inning. This effectively serves as an additional disengagement.
- Umpires may provide extra time if warranted by special circumstances. (So if, as an example, a catcher were to be thrown out on the bases to end the previous half-inning and needed additional time to put on his catching gear, the umpire could allow it.)
Now back to it. Conley gets in the batter’s box around the 11 second mark, but doesn’t look up until the time reads 7. The umpire raises his hand, Conley thinks he’s walked, then goes full surrender cobra when he sees he’s been called out in the bottom of the 9th with a 3-2 count in a tie ball game for a clock violation.
But here’s what bothered me the most.
In the video, you’ll see that the catcher isn’t set. And not only is he not set, he’s not even standing behind the plate and doesn’t make the adjustment to move behind the plate until the clock reads :07. There’s nothing about this that makes sense. Are catchers going to be allowed to do this? Will they be able to stand alongside the ump, then quickly squat down and quick pitch a hitter? My guess is no, because that would be absurd, but if the rule isn’t clarified that the catcher has to be behind the plate at the 8th second and at some point, someone will be smart enough to manipulate the rule and then we’ll all get to tell Rob Manfred what we’ve all wanted to say.
I wonder if Santana requested a DFA. Isn’t that fairly common for veterans, if they think they have a better chance to catch on somewhere else?
mikemangan_2000@yahoo.com ///Where is Dylan from last year did not see him on the list.Good middle-inning lefty
Also, is Jordan Luplow any relation to one-time Colt 45 outfielder Al Luplow from the pre-Astro days?
Here’s another part I don’t understand about the pitch clock thing. Cal Conley played last year in the minors under these rules. Did they enforce them differently last year?
Luplow is Al Luplow’s great-nephew.
DOB says Luplow is nursing a sore oblique. So that’s that, I suppose.
just had to shovel my first snow of the winter season, oof, it was heavy. Bring on baseball!
Nice piece on Luetge.
https://theathletic.com/4258556/2023/02/27/braves-mlb-yankees-lucas-luetge/
The pitch-clock-off isn’t baseball, but I have no sympathy for Conley, who did the one thing you just can’t do: he lost concentration during a live play. He could have stayed set and asked the ump to clarify if need be. But just figuring that it was his time to start trotting to first is as much of a mental misplay as arguing a call with the ump with a live ball and a live baserunner.
@6
In MLB’s official breakdown of the rule, there’s nothing said about what the catcher must do. Here’s full rule according to the MLB site:
•The pitcher must begin his motion to deliver the pitch before the expiration of the pitch timer. Pitchers who violate the timer are charged with an automatic ball. Batters who violate the timer are charged with an automatic strike.
•Batters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark or else be charged with an automatic strike.
•With runners on base, the timer resets if the pitcher attempts a pickoff or steps off the rubber.
•Pitchers are limited to two disengagements (pickoff attempts or step-offs) per plate appearance. However, this limit is reset if a runner or runners advance during the plate appearance.
•If a third pickoff attempt is made, the runner automatically advances one base if the pickoff attempt is not successful.
•Mound visits, injury timeouts and offensive team timeouts do not count as a disengagement.
•If a team has used up all five of its allotted mound visits prior to the ninth inning, that team will receive an additional mound visit in the ninth inning. This effectively serves as an additional disengagement.
Umpires may provide extra time if warranted by special circumstances. (So if, as an example, a catcher were to be thrown out on the bases to end the previous half-inning and needed additional time to put on his catching gear, the umpire could allow it.)
As of now, there’s no rule for the catcher, but there was in the minors and the catcher in this scenario was in violation as well as it states catcher must be set behind the plate at the 9 second mark, hence Conley’s confusion.
Dodd averaged about 91 last year with the occasional 94 at the top end so this is very encouraging news. Vines is also well above last year’s pace so I have to question whether the gun is different in spring from what they have in the minors?
@8 I do imagine there’s some selection bias in that pitchers who seem to have gained strength or velocity are probably getting first opportunity at live hitters during spring training.
Maybe keep Chavez at AAA as depth. I also think Yates may still need more time at AAA. I’m hoping Lee and Stephens will stick. Let Anderson and Yates rebuild at AAA. Neither Chavez nor Elledge looked very good to begin Spring.
It is way too early to be making calls based on Spring Training performance.
In other way-too-early news, with Machado signing an extension, there is exactly one (1) premium free agent available next offseason (Shohei Ohtani, who may well get half a billion if he doesn’t sign an extension of his own). That will then be followed up by a 2024-25 offseason in which the best free agent is Juan Soto, followed by 31-year old pitchers, then question marks? Pickings are slim.
Ian Anderson…woof
Anyone see him? He get dinked and doinked, or did he get blasted?
Pretty sad to watch Anderson become Aaron Blair right before our very eyes.
Also: shocker but I hate all of this pitch clock, ghost running, no shift, pro-Millennial dreck that baseball is implementing.
I hate literally all of it. And I resent the fans that are pushing them in this direction. There was nothing wrong with the game, and none of these changes are needed. People just need to put down their phones and enjoy the game.
@13 45 pitches and 21 strikes with 2 homeruns
I hate the ghost runner and the no-shift rule. To be honest, I’m fine with the pitch clock. If ballgames speed back up, that’ll be fine with me. But I also don’t blame the fans for any of the rule changes. I blame the unaccountable, out-of-touch commish, who has made less than no effort to get any of us on board.
I’ll say this…I don’t think it’s far off to think that Dylan Dodd gets starts in April.
@16 yes, all of that, yes.
I don’t think there’s much fan pressure behind the Manfred rule changes. It seems to be more from the media moguls to me.
And, of course, the biggest pace-of-play killer is television advertising. That’s one third rail they ain’t gonna touch.
Neither Anderson nor Elder has looked particularly good yet. If Soroka can’t go early then maybe Shuster or Dodd get a shot. I know it’s early but Anderson may need to do some more work on that slider.
How about that Grissom kid, though???
So, how about that Pirates-Orioles game? The home team Buckos led 7-4 after the top of the 9th so the umps, quite correctly, left. BUT!!! Both teams had guys they wanted to get some work in so they played another half inning with the players calling it all themselves, including the pitch clock.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35755087/no-umps-orioles-pirates-play-unneeded-bottom-9th
@17 This is why, as you suggested, AA should sign Anibal.
I agree with AA, I don’t like the no-shift and ghost-runner rule. But I could live with these modifications:
No shifting until after the 6th inning or later. Reason: I’d like teams to be able to field 5 infielders to save the go-ahead run in close games.
No ghost runner until the 12th inning. Reason: It is designed to eliminate long games, of which 10-11 inning baseball games are not. Besides, if the pace of play picks up with the pitch-clock, these games shouldn’t take as long anymore.
Also, I hope they turn the pitch-clock off in the post-season. I don’t want to see a game decided by pitch-clock violation.
The ghost runner is stupid, but it’s pretty obvious why it exists: Players, front offices, and ownership all like it for their own reasons, and there’s no one in the room whose primary interest is the fan experience.
As for the shift ban, I’m skeptical it will affect scoring in a meaningful way (if you want to increase scoring and decrease three true outcomes ball, move the mound back, alter the strike zone, or limit the number of pitchers), but I like it frankly purely on aesthetics. I hate the sight of extreme shifts, so even if the change doesn’t do what it set out to do it’s still pure upside as far as I’m concerned.
I’m open to more rules changes, in all honesty. Baseball is the only sport where people treat the rules like they were handed down from god, and it’s dumb. Come up with something that makes sense, and I’m almost always willing to at least consider it.
I’ve said this before, but the ghost runner rule doesn’t bother me at all. The one game I saw with a clock was nicely brisk. That leaves the no-shift rule, which is a misbegotten excrescence, a hideous carbuncular chancre, an oozing malevolent suppuration, and a mephitic sulfuric flatulent miasma. And that’s before I’ve even opened my thesaurus.
@26 – Wow, that sounds really bad. At least I think it’s bad. Hideous, oozing and flatulent at least don’t sound positive.
@27 It’s OK after I get some caffeine in me
I don’t want to sound like the naysayer here, but someone has to say it: baseball is dying. The average fan’s age is over 10 years older than NFL, NBA, and MLS. MLB isn’t going to allow Manfred to cut commercials $ (for obvious reasons), and whether we as baseball purists like it or not, 162 3.5 hour long games isn’t going to attract young fans, who digest information in 5-10 minute increments.
I don’t care for Manfred, but he has an impossible task. Ask any kid who the stars are in the NBA, they can name several. Football…several. MLS…likely a few. MLB? Did this yesterday with my students. I asked 20 kids in my Wiffleball League if they knew Mike Trout and not a one knew him.
Baseball’s problem is 2-fold and MLB has to get better at marketing and yes, games need to be shorter.
@29 You are correct about the average age, but there’s a better solution than messing with pitch clocks, shifts, ghost runners. Change the length of the game–go to 7 innings. They do it in fastpitch softball and games go quickly there (about 2 hours), without the rest of the manipulation. I’d do that rather than mess with all of the gimmicky crap that Manfred’s installing.
Baseball can be marketed better. It can make the games quicker and retain the essence of the sport. But the length of games is a minor problem. Pro football games are now longer than baseball games, with even less total seconds of action. Baseball is just as capable of being compressed into a one minute highlight rule as football, basketball and hockey with almost exactly as much of the essence of the sport completely missed through a highlight show. (I use the fact that a one minute summary of a soccer game actually does encapsulate what actually happened as a sign that I probably don’t understand soccer very well.)
But baseball is not dying. The age gap Ryan cites has been there for just about my entire lifetime, and I’m 66 years old. NASCAR is supposedly thriving: how many drivers can a typical 10 year old name?
The most likely sport to die, in my opinion, is football, but not because of fans: because of health concerns (including lawsuits) and because the talent pool will dry up as parents slowly don’t let their kids play. But even this is a thirty to forty year timeline… and little that they do now has any impact at all, except as public relations.
When Robert Bork said to Irving Kristol that Western Civilization was doomed, Kristol said: “Bob, you’re probably right. But it’s going to take a very long time, and there’s still plenty of time to live well.” That’s how I feel about baseball.
I respect that opinion, Ryan—and honestly, I’m on board with the pitch clock, though I feel like it would better serve the game if the durations were longer, esp. here at the beginning—but I guess I’ve never quite bought that the length of the game has to do with losing younger fans & attention span & all that. I understand why that might seem intuitive, but I guess I’ve just never seen evidence there. The average NFL game is 3:12, says the internet, and it’s of course the dominant force in US sports culture. And honestly the pace of the NFL, even for me as a baseball fan, is excruciating— so much standing around between bursts of action, so many commercial breaks.
So I agree that pace could be sped back up to where it used to be (before everyone started dawdling so much between pitches) and the game wouldn’t suffer, might even improve. But I feel like it’s gotta be more than just pace/duration.
EDIT: looks like JonathanF said a lot of what I was trying to say, but better.
EDIT #2: And I also feel like part of why we watch sports is to be surprised, right? Something amazing and unexpected happening? In that spirit, taking away things like pitchers hitting—where something truly unexpected & magical could happen every day, e.g. Bartolo Colon going yard—baseball is sort of shooting itself in the foot by taking away things that make the game more interesting/stand out.
I have to agree with you that say baseball is not dying. I would not expect $300 million plus contracts to be handed out if the demand wasn’t there and it was not expected to continue. I have heard the complaint from when I was a kid that baseball is too slow. Personally I don’t like hockey or soccer because they both bore me, but I love baseball.
Baseball has always been a sport that some love and some hate. I don’t think a pitch clock is going to create a bunch of new fans.
@30 — Now this, I don’t get at all. If the goal is to shorten game times and we concede that something has to go in order to make that happen, I’d rather cut all the stuff that isn’t baseball — adjusting batting gloves between every pitch, constant throws over to first, stomping around the mound after every batter — than cut real baseball for the sake of keeping all that stuff around. Besides, nine innings is a nice, clean three full trips through the order minimum. Going to seven just has nothing to recommend it.
I saw a side-by-side comparison on Twitter wherein a pitcher was able to throw an entire inning this spring in the same amount of time it took another pitcher to throw a single pitch in a game last June. You’re going to tell me that every second of that is absolutely vital to the experience?
Right now, people are still in the stands but that’s not the answer to why the sport is dying. The young kids just aren’t playing baseball like they used to and this is coming from a teacher of young kids for 22 years. Baseball has become a rich kid’s game and the sandlot games are so few and far between. When the kids stop playing it, they stop watching it. When those kids stop watching, they’ll become adults that have 0 interest in watching. In 10 years, I’d love to be able to revisit this thread and compare the results.
MLB and its numbers may not be dying yet, but baseball as America’s pastime is definitely dying by means of the dollar.
The solution to ‘baseball is dying’ isn’t to cater to Generation Z and Millennials, it’s to actively do things that continue to grow the game as it has existed since 1876. These constant changes are counterproductive, won’t work to bring in more fans and only end up pissing off the people that already love the game. It’s all just dumb. Baseball was the one sport without a clock. It doesn’t need one, and wasn’t intended to have one. You might have a game under 2 hours, you might have one that lasts 6. That is/was the magic of it.
The same young people that I see on Twitter praising all of these changes will lose interest after their second game, and will be onto the next entertainment du jour.
And winning baseball still brings big bucks:
https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/braves-post-record-revenues-in-2022/D5ROAHXMFZGZ7E47OS5QCAUBO4/
Are baseball purists going to stop watching after watching their entire lives because of rule changes? No.
Will a shorter game attract more fans? By itself, I also think the answer is no.
Will larger bases and shift banning provide more action and excitement? Likely so.
Will all the new rules combine for a more exciting game and increase fan engagement? Marginally, but yes.
Will it bring new fans? No idea.
@36 Comparing the pitch clock to the timed-quarters of NBA and NFL is as apples and oranges as it gets.
I like the pace of play stuff. Obviously it needs some ironing out (re: Conley) but the bad habits the players have picked up over the past 25 years have made the game into a brutal watch.
That ghost-runner has gotta go though. If a rule is too stupid for the playoffs, it’s too stupid for the season.
@36 — I mean, the game changes all around us whether we tinker with the rules or not. A brisk game in 2019 is closer to three-and-a-half hours than to two. It’s fair to ask if that’s what we want. If it’s not, it’s fair to take action against it instead of just standing around and hoping it gets better. We define what sports are; they don’t define themselves. If there’s behavior we don’t like, we change it, either directly or indirectly.
@35: “When the kids stop playing it, they stop watching it. When those kids stop watching, they’ll become adults that have 0 interest in watching.”
I hear this argument made a lot, and I simply don’t believe it. It may have some truth at the margins, and the obverse of that argument is what supports the notion that US fanaticism for soccer is just around the corner, a corner that hasn’t come yet in 50 years. Baseball, and all sports for that matter, are largely culturally transmitted. If parents like baseball, and if they aren’t jerks about it, they can show what they love to their children. That core passed to some children then passes to their peer groups. As it becomes part of the culture, the need to be part of the culture gains more fans, though their attachment to the game is more conditional. These ties may be strenthened by playing the game as a child, but it is far from essential. Children play a lot of videogames, and professional videogaming is growing, and it makes a fair amount of money (the largest esports league sold for about a billion dollars last year, less than the Pirates are worth), but for the moment it has almost no cultural significance. The ratio of hockey fans to hockey-playing youth is (I’m guessing here) 10:1. Well over half of pro football fans played no organized football.
A sport will die is they can’t get a sufficient feeder pool of talented players: that’s what happened to boxing, and I suspect, in the fullness of time, will happen to football. But a mass of US children playing it as children is neither sufficient nor necessary to make that happen, or the National Dodge Ball League would have the highest rated championship.
The ghost runner screams “gimmick”. I like the idea upthread of using it 12th inning and thereafter, but I agree having it in all extra innings is dumb.
I’m fine with the pitch clock, but reserve the right to change my mind after seeing it in play.
I’m also fine with banning the shift, although I do think there should be some sort of exception for end-of-game situations (5 infielders and such).
4-5 hours for a game is just too long. It’s too long for me and I’ve been a fan for 40+ years. No way a “normie” is sitting through that.
@42: The DH screams “gimmick” to me, but apparently it’s a popular gimmick.
Almost all sports have overtime rules (aka gimmicks) of some sort at some times. The NHL hockey rules are far more gimmicky than baseball’s ghost runner (and, like the ghost runner, they abandon them in the playoffs.) College hockey has OT gimmicks that vary by conference.
About penalty shots in soccer, the less said the better. College football’s OT rules are just there to get the damn thing over already while still keeping some vestige of the game around. Pro football is still tinkering with their rules to make it fair to the team losing a coin flip.
The ghost runner rule adds volatility to scoring which helps get a game over quicker by tweaking only one rule: the base state at the top of an inning. Baseball could be played with a ghost runner on second in every inning with the sole effect that there would be a lot more scoring. Try playing a soccer game composed solely of penalty kicks. Now imagine actually deciding your World Championship that way.
@JF
As always, I respect your writing and your overall view of our world’s pulse. When it comes to IQ, I’m more iq than IQ. My knowledge of of the pulse of human beings is largely influenced by children with ranging ages from 4 to 18, of which I’m around 5 days/week for a grand total of 180ish days/year.
Simply put, they have very little interest in baseball. Rewind 10 years, it was different. Even 5 and there’d be a handful that would talk baseball. We shall see if they get inspired by someone in their later years to start watching, but I have my doubts.
@Ryan:
I guess I should have said that if parents’ interest in baseball wanes, the cultural argument I sketch above actually means that baseball will die. So, as Allstarmatches points out, if the game becomes too long for adults to sustain interest and pass that interest on, the game is in serious trouble. If children don’t care about the game today, it’s because either their parents have lost interest, or have lost the ability to convey that interest to their children. But working with children won’t address either of those. You’ve got to capture the adults.
The thought that Chavez has lost it after his 1st outing may have been a little premature. Not that spring training results should be taken too seriously, but 2 innings with 0 runs, 1 hit, and 3 strikeouts, sounds pretty good to me.
As a parent with kids in youth sports, they are all becoming more expensive. Mine play baseball, but the kids I know who play football are also retaining private coaches, playing 7 on 7 tournaments, attending camps, buying equipment and training year round. I think it is just the way youth sports have evolved. You feel you have to do all that to keep up. Maybe basketball is the one that can still be played in the “sandlot”, but even then the kids with talent are playing AAU tournaments. Drive up to Lakepoint on a given weekend and the place is packed with baseball, soccer, lacrosse and basketball players. I think that’s great!
I grew up watching and talking baseball with my dad and my brothers. My kids talk baseball with me. I think the love for the game is largely generationally passed on. In that sense it will remain sustainable, but will have challenges that require adjustments. I think Manfred is trying to make those adjustments even if some are misguided. The NFL (and college football) and NBA for all their popularity have similar issues. I find the NFL and some college games to drag at times and bog down with too much officiating, yet I still watch and they are still great. Baseball is too and will be fine.
Oh, I stand corrected on my statement earlier about shifts. I thought the new rules would ban 5-man infields, but apparently they are still allowed. I still would like to see them allowed for later innings, but I suspect that’s just me.
@44: Admittedly my experience with 5 to 18yr-olds tends towards kids who LOVE baseball, but it is spread over four different cities from MA to GA. And there are still a ton of kids playing the game. Obviously it’s just another anecdotal perspective, but I’m pretty sure that every league I’ve been involved with has had to make more room or in older leagues, turn kids away.
Not that I disagree with your overall premise. Even among the baseball-obsessed kids I know, actually watching (at least regular season) games is not really done.
And I’ve been right there with them, honestly, not watching MLB. I’m actually excited for this season, possibly getting the game I love back from the endless ding drubbers. But I’m old enough to remember when Mike Hargrove and Steve Trachsel were annoying aberrations as opposed to bog standard.
Somebody upthread mentioned this:
@47: Yeah, and wrt baseball, PBR doesn’t even have the big tournaments. The PG WWBAs hosted at ECB (and every single high school field in north Georgia) have 400-500 teams paying $3000+ for a 7 game guarantee.
Last year’s 16u tournament:
https://www.perfectgame.org/events/TournamentTeams.aspx?event=39374
Nuts.
Some thoughts from across the pond in this excellent thread
Solve the ghost runner / extra innings issue in the regular season by calling the game after 9 innings. Yes, it’s a tie/draw. Yes, it’s an anathema in American sports. But it works in a league system for ROW soccer. By all means extra innings are needed in the playoffs in the same way that penalty shoot outs are needed for knockout soccer games
MLB doesn’t help itself in that I can have a team subscription for the regular season but they expect me to pay extra for the post season. It’s difficult to compare US and UK models for access to professional sports (there’s a topic for another time) but I’ve always refused to support soccer as a subscription sport and I’ll take my money elsewhere for what I really want to see
Baseball popularity will continue to wane for certain franchises who are not trying to put the best product they can on the field, which has a knock on effect to the sport in general. There’s probably some soccer sportswashing comparisons to be drawn here (PSG, Manchester City, more recently Newcastle Utd) but I can’t see the Pirates being taken over by some shady Middle East oil magnate/royal family with more money than sense any time soon
Well, that’s nice: the Braves made a boatload of money last year.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/liberty-media-releases-braves-financials-for-2022.html
Never a bad time to go spend it on Juan Soto!
@51, Please, no. I can only take so much.
@52
I’ve thought long and hard about this situation and as long as AA is at the helm and the Braves are run by LM, they’ll have to continue operating in the same way they have been since moving to a new venue.
I know there was a lot of talk 5 months ago about LM splitting the stock to make the Braves a separate entity from the surrounding area but I have heard nothing about it since. Have any of you gotten wind of anything?
Also, from a few of my economist friends, they said that there’s no plausible reason to do that unless LM is planning to sell the team.
I really hope we get another version of Ted Turner as owner in 2024.
Just got word that my breakout candidate, Blake Burkhalter, will sit out 2023 due to TJ surgery.
@54, via AJC:
“Maffei said Liberty Media’s plan to split Braves Holdings into a new stock is on schedule to be completed in the second quarter of this year.”
https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/braves-post-record-revenues-in-2022/D5ROAHXMFZGZ7E47OS5QCAUBO4/
And I am FIRED UP after reading this.
https://theathletic.com/4266765/2023/03/02/braves-mlb-rules-stolen-bases/
I’ll say one thing for the pitch clock. It makes watching gameday more palatable.
Apparently Grissom is doing very well this spring. Hope that continues.
#51
About ties. “It’s an anathema in American sports.”
Truer words have never been spoken. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather see extra innings played with a Wiffle ball & bat than have a game end in a tie.
Hell, in order to avoid a tie, NHL regular-season games end with what’s essentially a skills competition… 3-on-3 for 5 minutes, then a shootout ’til somebody wins. I’m old enough to have seen NHL ties in person & I know how it feels to leave the arena after one of those. I’ll take a skills-competition-marred win/loss any day… as long as it’s shelved for the post-season.
Re: New MLB Rules
I agree that some of this seems to be an overreach. If I’m the Lord of Baseball, the only new rules I might enact would be to ditch the DH & have a sniper w/ rock-salt shoot batters in the ass for stepping out of the box. But that’s it.
Truthfully, for starters, I’m just gonna roll w/ it all & see how it goes. I’m sure it’ll be more than a little annoying at times. I’m sure players/managers will find new ways to game the system — I mean, when has that not happened? (Eg. – No testing for steroids? Needles for everyone! Testing now? Hello, masking agents! Video rooms? Bang that can!)
And hey, who knows? Maybe by the All-Star break all these new rules will elicit a collective response that says: “Um, actually, some of this stuff is stupid – we’ve made the game worse.” Or, more probably: “Uh, the game isn’t really that much faster now.”
But, to the other issue, I’ll be honest: It doesn’t keep me up nights worrying about who likes or dislikes MLB. Don’t really care if the whole game is eventually played in Spanish or Japanese. For the most part, I still dig it & I live in a place that’s still in love with the game & people discuss it year-round, almost like Southerners do SEC football… so I don’t spend a lotta time fretting about its future. IMO, it’ll be just fine.
More than anything, I still like to go to the games – best value for entertainment dollar, IMO, & a great place to actually spend real time w/ real people. So… I might find that shaving a bit of time off my post-game trip home won’t bum me out. If the game retains some semblance of authenticity thru all this, I’ll deal w/ whatever comes.
I generally like the rule changes, as they seem designed to restore various kinds of balance to the game. Shortening the game by using a pitch clock should help get game times back closer to those common when every batter wasn’t Mike Hargrove and even earlier, when the soon-to-set sun was the game’s natural clock. The pitch clock, the throw-over rule, and the bigger bases should restore the importance of the SB. More SB and less shifting should make HR relatively less valuable, which in turn could make defense relatively more important. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to K and BB, as I can see pressures in both directions.
@43, as for soccer’s tiebreakers, either the old NASL or early MLS had a breakaway-style tie-breaking shootout that was closer to the NHL’s than penalty kicks from one spot. That seemed more like real soccer to me.
Braves are back with “Behind The Scenes” video. Really well done as always, I think:
This is flat out hyyyyyilarious.
“Alright, buddy, you want your money? You’re gonna f*cking work for it…”
It’ll be even more hilarious when he hits .171 this spring and they run him out there on Opening Day anyway.
Not that spring stats matter at all, but it’s not like we’re lacking for evidence that Marcell Ozuna is no longer a worthwhile major leaguer.
We have a new thread.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2023/03/03/braves-spring-training-5th-starter-battle-update/