OT: MLB Thread 2025

[sbjnyc]

I always said that MLB missed the chance to properly merge NL and AL baseball styles together.

Should have had the DH until you remove the starting pitcher. Once you remove the starting pitcher you then lose your DH hitter.

Keeps the bench involved, makes managers more relevant, starters might go deeper into games.

I think thats the ohtani rule. Most of the rule changes (DH banning shift 3 outs per pitcher) have been reducing the number of magerial decions impacting the game. I like the pitchclock and bigger bases. IMO banning the shift was a solution to a non-existent problem.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

I always said that MLB missed the chance to properly merge NL and AL baseball styles together.

Should have had the DH until you remove the starting pitcher. Once you remove the starting pitcher you then lose your DH hitter.

Keeps the bench involved, makes managers more relevant, starters might go deeper into games.

More runs=more fun!!

Pitchers basically stop hitting in HS these days so on that end I get it. No use in forcing guys to do shit that they really don’t work on.

DH has bascially become a revolving rest spot for players though.

 

[Crease]

I like strategy. Therefore I like pitchers hitting, the shift, and no batters faced minimums. The MLB has added a bunch of rules to shorten the length of the game and to artificially inflate offense. Pitch clock is fine, bigger bags are fine, but everything else can go back to the way it was ten years ago please.

 

[17futurecap]

That was a very good Yanks win, Fried basically has the pressure on him to win every time out, and they are now 4-0 in his starts.

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

I don’t understand how Chisholm ever even makes contact with that big looping ugly swing

 

[Beliveau]

I like strategy. Therefore I like pitchers hitting, the shift, and no batters faced minimums. The MLB has added a bunch of rules to shorten the length of the game and to artificially inflate offense. Pitch clock is fine, bigger bags are fine, but everything else can go back to the way it was ten years ago please.

Exactly.

 

[Beliveau]

https://www.mlb.com/news/cal-raleigh-s-mom-stephanie-on-her-son-s-big-dumper-nickname

 

[JCProdigy]

This is good right? I dunno, this seems good...

 

[sbjnyc]

View attachment 1016823

This is good right? I dunno, this seems good...

But what's he done for me lately?

 

[Raspewtin]

I did not have Ben Rice being a top 3 DH in the league so far on my bingo card this year

Not even sure I had "Ben Rice is an every day player" on my bingo card this year.

Wow.

 

[majordomo]

I like strategy. Therefore I like pitchers hitting, the shift, and no batters faced minimums. The MLB has added a bunch of rules to shorten the length of the game and to artificially inflate offense. Pitch clock is fine, bigger bags are fine, but everything else can go back to the way it was ten years ago please.

I agree with most of this except for the shift or I should say what the shift became. I did not like the extreme shifts where it seemed like all the players were on one side of the field.

 

[nyr2k2]

I agree with most of this except for the shift or I should say what the shift became. I did not like the extreme shifts where it seemed like all the players were on one side of the field.

I agree with you here, although I'm curious to know how much of an impact it has had on batting averages. Seems like I still see a ton of guys going right back up the middle and the SS or 2B is right behind the bag. I know that's not "the shift" they were trying to legislate out of the game but it still seems to be having a big impact, how they line up the IF. Has it actually helped the offense to this point?

 

[majordomo]

I agree with you here, although I'm curious to know how much of an impact it has had on batting averages. Seems like I still see a ton of guys going right back up the middle and the SS or 2B is right behind the bag. I know that's not "the shift" they were trying to legislate out of the game but it still seems to be having a big impact, how they line up the IF. Has it actually helped the offense to this point?

Extreme shifts became effective when hitters stopped learning how to hit. You rarely saw it before all the changes because hitters weren't concerned with launch angles and home runs. Their only concern was getting the bat on the ball and putting it in play (they always used to say if you put the ball in play anything can happen) and the vast majority of them to "place" the ball (hit 'em where they ain't).

 

[Beliveau]

Extreme shifts became effective when hitters stopped learning how to hit. You rarely saw it before all the changes because hitters weren't concerned with launch angles and home runs. Their only concern was getting the bat on the ball and putting it in play (they always used to say if you put the ball in play anything can happen) and the vast majority of them to "place" the ball (hit 'em where they ain't).

Exactly.

“I’m more focused on the $765 million man who continues to come up in huge spots and not get it done,” said Sal Licata, host of WFAN Sports. “I don’t want to hear about the [New York] Yankees anymore. … Juan Soto has stunk for the first 18 games of his Mets career".

“He looks washed … he looks like the Mets version of DJ LeMahieu,” Tierney said. “If Nimmo is hitting fourth or fifth in the Mets’ lineup, then the offense is not good enough. The Brandon Nimmo that I’ve been watching the past year or so, he looks like a complete stiff".

I'm glad I don't listen to WFAN.

 

[Crease]

Every time I turn on WFAN they are yelling about something. I miss Steve Somers.

 

[Raspewtin]

I'm not inclined to say anything nice about Juan Soto but like.........he's a generational hitter, he's going to turn it around. He's not going to keep having the 68th highest OPS in the league lol. It would be unfathomable.

Mets' so far excellent pitching is really helping here though, it could be way worse.

 

[Machinehead]

Extreme shifts became effective when hitters stopped learning how to hit. You rarely saw it before all the changes because hitters weren't concerned with launch angles and home runs. Their only concern was getting the bat on the ball and putting it in play (they always used to say if you put the ball in play anything can happen) and the vast majority of them to "place" the ball (hit 'em where they ain't).

The shift didn't start working because hitting got bad. That's ridiculous. The shift predates over-emphasis on power by a lot.

The launch angle revolution started around the early 2010's when Chase Headley and Jose Bautista reinvented themselves as power hitters.

MLB was extreme shifting on the top lefties in like, 1999.

Baseball is extremely analytical. They started shifting because they knew it would work.

Before the rule changes recently, they were pretty much shifting on every batter, and guys kept hitting into it because pulling the ball works.

If anything, the launch angle revolution was a response to ground ball hits being taken out of the game, not the other way around.

"Hit 'em where they ain't" is a fortune cookie. Guys pull the ball because the results of thousands and thousands of plate appearances bear out that they should be pulling the ball.

It's like when people call basketball players dumb for shooting three pointers. A team that did nothing but shoot three pointers went 73-9. You're not dumb for doing what works.

 

[Machinehead]

I always said that MLB missed the chance to properly merge NL and AL baseball styles together.

Should have had the DH until you remove the starting pitcher. Once you remove the starting pitcher you then lose your DH hitter.

Keeps the bench involved, makes managers more relevant, starters might go deeper into games.

I think this is interesting but I'm not sure how much it would add.

Relievers almost never hit in the old NL anyway. Pinch hitting for a guy that was pretty much always in there to pitch one inning regardless isn't that interesting of a strategy.

It does add a wrinkle to when you take your starter out but in today's game, they're gonna take their starter out whenever his projected effectiveness declines, and they're not gonna care that they lost their DH.

Also, I kinda like that the DH is evolving into a rotating spot that gets more players involved, like @GoAwayPanarin pointed out.

Of course, when Stanton comes back, the Yankees are gonna hot glue themselves to the hardest of hard DH's, which means mostly Rice and Grisham losing time to reincorporate a 1-WAR player, and I'm looking so forward to that.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Soto struggling out of the gate shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The weight of expectations with a massive contract exists. I don’t care how good he is, it’s a factor.

But this is the beauty of Soto. The slumping version is still better than 90% of the league.

He’ll break out of it eventually. He’s too good not to. Of all the players to worry about he shouldn’t even be on the list.

 

[E-Train]

Every time I turn on WFAN they are yelling about something. I miss Steve Somers.

It’s really too much. From 10-6 everyday, everything is a f**cking crisis

 

[Baby Duck Homme]

Alonso triples are more fun than his home runs.

 

[Greg02]

Alonso triples are more fun than his home runs.

All triples are more fun than home runs (minus inside the park ones). It's just a more exciting play.

 

[will1066]

Alonso triples are more fun than his home runs.

The ones where you have to slide into 3rd are better than the stand-up kind.

 

[will1066]

Soto struggling out of the gate shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The weight of expectations with a massive contract exists. I don’t care how good he is, it’s a factor.

But this is the beauty of Soto. The slumping version is still better than 90% of the league.

He’ll break out of it eventually. He’s too good not to. Of all the players to worry about he shouldn’t even be on the list.

Oh, you mean I can pull out my Mets card now? Lol

 

[will1066]

Is David Peterson a fan of Pete Davidson?