You can’t spell ‘no big contracts’ without RSN: 2024 regular MLB season thread!

I totally missed Hader going to Houston, why is he in the game when they're down 4?

Even when you're on a losing skid, you need your 7/8/9 guys to get work.

I like that there's a guy named Shane Bieber. whenever I see Justin Bieber I think "that guy looks like a Shane"

w/r/t Houston, they are currently:

2.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics of Sacramento/Las Vegas
4 games behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California

If it wasn't for the White Sox (2-11), the Astros would have the worst record in the AL (4-11).

Angels are .5 game out of first in the ALWest. #freeIppei

Rough inning for third baseman and pitcher Zach McKinstry

Twins Top 12th
Ryan Jeffers reaches on a fielding error by third baseman Zach McKinstry. Willi Castro scores. Christian Vázquez scores. Austin Martin scores. Ryan Jeffers to 2nd.

Z. McKinstry pitching for DET

Matt Wallner homers (1) on a fly ball to right field. Ryan Jeffers scores. Manuel Margot scores.

over/under on a dodgers/padres game being delayed due to rain? doesn't matter who's home. wonder how many times that's happened.

Will Smith calling JProfar "irrelevant" is gonna come back to haunt him (WS) imho.

cutch 300 homers <3

Was hoping to see that next week but good for him I guess :(

JProfar didn’t wait

He missed a GS by about 15".

That would have been the end of the season.

Turns out Soto was what was holding this Padres team back

Will Smith calling JProfar "irrelevant" is gonna come back to haunt him (WS) imho.

profar getting pissy about an inside fastball when the pitcher had a perfect game going was next-level

Oh he’s a clown no doubt but it’s the bulletin board material thing isn’t it

Hader got lit up

My condolences

Earned runs Hader has allowed:

2023: 8
2024: also 8

Poor Astros :(

How's Glasnow's velo?

I only got to watch bits and bobs off the game being at work, but it didn't look too bad? Stayed around the 96mph fb average at the start and started being more 95mph towards the end when I tuned in. Slider was still the bor.al wicked 92/93mph. You know something I don't?

All the top arms in Houston’s pen have gone sideways. It’s early and everything - but looked like the best pen in baseball going into the season. Hader, Abreu and Pressly ERAs are all north of 6.

Hader looked so bad last night the first thing I did this morning was see if he was injured.

Mookie 5 for 5 today, 3rd time in his career

Two in the zone, one borderline, two well outside the zone. Everywhere was his hotzone

tbf he was hitting against Patrick Corbin

Haha fair point. Poor guy 😞

When was the last time the Nats took a series in LA (other than the 2019 NLCS)?

Two years ago. Nats-Dodgers is always fun. I was getting into baseball on the tail end of 2016 and that Dodgers-Nats NLDS was a big tipping point where I realised "oh hell yeah, this is sport"

I don't know who fangraph is pic.twitter.com/59VypfZNgQ

— John Sterling Calls (@JSterlingCalls) August 31, 2020

i never listen to john sterling, but this is wack to me. i mean, not reading fangraphs, i get it, but to have never even heard of it, even though it's mentioned all the time in other publications, the writers often filter in and out between fangraphs and other sites, etc...it's like a geometry teacher rolling their eyes at this thing called calculators (does this mean the teacher doesn't know about calculus, or that they don't know about calculators? it depends on what you think of vikings in dreams...)

also,

"you know what the percentage was for the mets to win? it was 99.8% *laughter* they didn't win!"

wait, you're telling me that if, in 998 out of 1000 scenarios we expect something to happen, that in 2 out of those 1000 scenarios something won't happen? *laughter*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAKw6kN3M38
bad news: nasty nestor was informed today that his (amazing) week-old pump-fake delivery is illegal

Travis d'Arnaud has 4 HR in his last 5 AB.

little d's hot streaks are some of the hottest hot streaks in the game (tho few and far between). Good for him!

lil d

Is Jackson Holliday's ice cold start one of the worst in history?

.071/.037/.108 is one of the most brutal lines I've ever seen for an everyday player.

He’s only a twenty year old rookie, seems premature.

Griffey Jr? Mike Schmidt? Jared Kelenic (lol)?

It certainly hasn't been fun to watch :(

Those were the only 2 that I could recall offhand and looking back they sure got a lot of grief for basically being Cody Bellinger:

KGjr: .584 OPS after 14 games
Schmidt: .645 OPS after 17 games

I'm sure someone with better search skills could find "worst career MLB starts for notable players"...

Guy named Mays started off 1-26.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=mayswi01&t=b&year=1951

Never heard of him

Teams now are more likely to give young guys a leash especially if they’ve done everything they’re going to in the minors. Red Sox did it last year with Casas and Orioles with Henderson.

Pirates games with both me and user Sharivari in attendance: Pirates get swept 3-0

Pirates games with just Sharivari in attendance: Pirates win both, Cutch homers in each, Bednar fixed

manaea taken out with 1 out to get to qualify for a win against his former club. brutal, but he had 101 pitches and there were 2 on with soler coming up to bat

Astros' preaseason (3/19/24) odds* to win the WS: 7-1 (3rd only to LAD 3.2-1 & ATL 4.5-1)

They are currently 7-18, in last place in the ALW, 3 games behind LAA & 2 games behind OAK.

* #freeippei

it gets late early out here

coming into today's game, the white sox, in 24 games, had had 11 plate appearances with the bases loaded, in which they went 1-for-10 with a sac fly, resulting in two runs

i didn't look up everyone else's splits, but:
PIT: 36 PA, 7-for-30, 4 BB, 2 SF, 25 R
TOR: 23 PA, 6-for-16, 3 BB, 4 SF, 26 R
OAK: 11 PA, 1-for-8, 3 BB, 0 SF, 6 R

overall the league is hitting .248/.295/.405 with the bases loaded and producing one run per 1.37 PA

it gets late early out here

― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Thursday, April 25, 2024 6:30 AM (ten hours ago)

TH: "Astros have lost 5 straight, 8 of their last 9, and 9 of their last 11 and here's why that's a good thing!"