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

it looks like the nats may have made out really well in the soto trade in the end

mackenzie gore has been awesome as of late and is now just putting up a great season -- both his ERA and FIP are under 3.00 and he's eighth among qualified SP in K/9 after mowing down the braves line up last night

cj abrams is on pace to put up a 3-4 WAR season after being a 2+ WAR player last year

and james wood is one of the 5 or 10 best prospects in the game

prospect guys think robert hassell looks like a bust now, but still even abrams and gore if they keep progressing at this rate would prob put them over the median return for this kinda trade let alone w/ wood waiting in the wings

Yep Abrams still needs work with the glove but he’s looking every bit like the kind of core piece you build a team around. Gore great as you said.

I like Bobby Witt Jr. but why does he have the same haircut as Butthead

I wonder if it's still possible to win an MVP on narrative and the hoariest of old-school stats, RBI? Jose Ramirez is leading the Guardians in WAR with 2.3, but he's not anywhere near Tucker or Witt or Henderson or the other leaders--he's not in the Top 10. But he's got the other two covered: respected team leader on a semi-surprising division leader, possible (edging towards probable) HOF'er who's a Top 10 MVP perennial (six out of seven years and counting) who's never won one, and, with 57 RBI in 58 games, he's got a decent chance to knock in 150. If this were 1977, he might be the favourite; probably headed for another 4th- or 5th-place finish.

https://www.freep.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2024/05/19/PDTF/73763315007-usa-202405019-jca-aa-9-013-jpg.jpg?width=1320&height=882&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

already knew tommy pham was a psycho but i did *not* know that the new white sox play-by-play guy was this deeply embarrassing

“We ain’t taking that.”

Tommy Pham was fuming after this play at the plate pic.twitter.com/2BIF0wwVuQ

— Sox On 35th (@SoxOn35th) June 2, 2024

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

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Sunday, April 14, 2024 8:56 AM (one month ago)

https://i.imgur.com/UHjqkRW.png

https://i.imgur.com/UHjqkRW.png

San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano is facing a potential lifetime ban for betting on baseball, sources tell ESPN.

While Major League Baseball's investigation into Marcano is not complete, a penalty, as @lindseyadler and @jareddiamond reported, could be imminent.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 3, 2024

Who's your LOOGY?

― Mrs. Ippei (Steve Shasta), Thursday, May 23, 2024 5:19 AM bookmarkflaglink

Delayed reaction: I tried very hard to cast my mind back to the days of this endangered species, even reading this article on the LOOGY Hall of Fame and came up with little more than Mike Remlinger.

On May 25, 2005, Mike Remlinger was placed on the 15-day Disabled List by the Chicago Cubs after breaking his left pinkie by getting it caught in a chair. At the time Remlinger was pitching quite poorly and many speculated the injury was a way of clearing roster space without putting Remlinger on waivers. Steve Stone, a baseball analyst and former Cubs broadcaster, often refers to having players "sit in the Remlinger chair" when they are playing badly during a season.

So put me in the Remlinger chair if you don't like it.

MIKE MYERS was a LOOGY

never got anywhere near an inning per appearance; allowed a career .301/.400/.478 with 32 IBB against righties (!), .219/.304/.332 and 1 IBB against lefties

won a title with the 2004 red sox but didn't pitch in the world series after getting shelled in the ALDS and ALCS

played for nine different teams but somehow was never a pirate

Mike Myers, the Pride of Crystal Lake High School, a first-ballot LOOGY Hall of Famer.

Who's this though

They’ll be our first inductees in the prestigious LOOGY Hall of Fame. And they’ll no doubt be as proud of that honor as they are of that time they once whiffed Barry Bonds with a 73-mile-per-hour frisbee with the bases jammed.

My high school one town over never had a MLBer afaik 😔

Close enough for some of that Mike Myers stardust to rub off on you in a tornado warning. 🙃

pretty sure the mountain goats song 'michael myers resplendent' is about our LOOGY

Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano has been banned for life for violating MLB's gambling policy, MLB announced.

Padres’ Jay Groome, Phillies’ José Rodríguez, Diamondbacks’ Andrew Saalfrank and the Athletics’ Michael Kelly have all been suspended one year for betting.

— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) June 4, 2024

Tucupita Marcano placed 231 MLB bets, including 25 bets on the Pirates when he was on the Injured List. He lost all of his parlays involving the Pirates and won only 4.3 percent of his MLB bets.

Andrew Saalfrank bet $445.87 on baseball, with $444.07 of that on MLB-related bets…

— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) June 4, 2024

Andrew Saalfrank bet $445.87 on baseball, with $444.07 of that on MLB-related bets (an average of approximately $15.86 per bet) and with a net loss of $272.64 on MLB bets. Saalfrank only won five of his 28 MLB-related bets and lost his $1.80 college bet.

Michael Kelly bet $99.22 on MLB games (an average of $9.92 per bet). Kelly won only five of the MLB game bets and had a net win of $28.30 on the bets.

Jay Groome bet $453.74 on 30 MLB game-related bets (an average of approximately $15.12 per bet) and had a net loss of $433.54 on these bets.

José Rodríguez bet $749.09 on baseball, with $724.09 of that on MLB-related bets.

i get that manfred wants to show a zero tolerance policy towards baseball betting but how about just not legalizing betting at all lol

The Ohtani story is a closed book, right? I ask because, when I met a friend last week--a casual fan at best, but someone who's aware of bigger baseball stories--I was surprised when he was surprised that I believed the resolution; he still took it for granted that Ohtani was lying. Has the public in general moved on?

Obviously, this is sure to open it all up again.

someone on this board has a pet theory that Ohtani's current slump is due to the gambling news (esp. his "best friend" Fletcher) popping up again.

my theory is that Ohtani is injured, a tweaked hammy?

I just can't believe that any player caught betting on MLB games isn't banned for life. Genuinely thought that was the expected punishment

Maybe it’s because it’s clear their insider knowledge wasn’t benefiting them? There must be details on why somewhere.

Yeah I guess that is the rule...

https://content.mlb.com/documents/8/2/2/296982822/Major_League_Rule_21.pdf

I swear it used to just be a blanket thing - any betting on baseball whatsoever was instant life ban.

Huh, wonder how long that's been the rule.

#playersunion #unionstrong 💪

My own opinion is that it should be automatic banishment. It's not the who-you-bet-on to me; it's the chance of piling up debt, which then makes you vulnerable to anything (also maybe a better deterrent if automatic).

(Also, if you're a manager, like Rose, games that don't involve you have all sorts of repercussions on games that do, and vice versa--setting your rotation, etc.)

plenty of other ways to pile up debt (looking at you tommy pham)

Hard to say which pricey Boras pitching client is performing worse between Montgomery and Snell. Yikes

I was literally just coming here to post that. Probably tanking the free agent pitching market.

Montgomery has three wins, not that win-lose record is anything to go off of. Snell has been a disaster but you can see something there and will get better. If he ever gets off the IL.

Snell will be a dad this week, so he is being pulled in a lot of different directions. IL is perfect.

Hard to give up a billion runs on the IL, it's true

Yamamoto going 100+ pitches, 7ip and 0er makes me very happy. The man was absolutely on tonight. The man making $325mil really adds some high-stakes to every viewing. Kinda like you gambled on every start without actually having to gamble (I think, I dunno, I never have, never will)

How's this for amazing? I was writing about the White Sox earlier this season and mentioned that Kevin Pillar was the only name I recognized. He got traded to the Angels at some point--missed that--and here's what he's done since: 23 G, 81 PA, 5 HR, 9 XBH, .368/.407/.632. And tonight he was 2-4 with another homer.

Anyone up? 😴😴😴

I assume you mean watching the London series but that’s my timezone!

it looks TERRIBLE on tv!! what is up with the weird wall behind homeplate?? looks like a COVID game

Lmao they had Harper micd up when he was playing first and then they left the mic on accidentally and he hit a home run in the top of the next inning, he slid to his knees in front of the dugout and roared I LOVE SOCCER I LOVE SOCCER at which point they realised and cut his mic

xp didn’t you complain about this last year as well

i don’t remember it being this bad but probably lol

some of these guys probably think they’re playing in front of “london fans” but a good 80% of the crowd is going to be megafans who have made the trip over and combined it with a summer holiday

Plus Americans who live in London

AJ Pierzynski isn’t a great listen, I’ll tell you that for free

When in the UK #LondonSeries ⚽️

(Cut4 x @CoronaUSA) pic.twitter.com/esgARUOtjC

— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 8, 2024

Pierzynski’s mic wasn’t working in their first link and he had to use someone else lmao, he was very rattled

I fell asleep. Just woke up lol. Good game?

It wasn’t very competitive.

Anyone up? 😴😴😴

Kiké Hernández committed an error during an in-game interview on Friday night. Asked after the game if the interview impacted him on the play, the Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman said, “Maybe a little bit.” Subsequently asked if he’d reconsider being mic’d up during a game, he replied “No, because we’re getting paid.”

According to the Associated Press story that quoted Hernández, “Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement calls for a player to receive a $10,000 stipend for wearing a two-way microphone for at least one inning of a regular-season game. The amount rises to $15,000 in the postseason.” The story went on to say that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wasn’t aware that his third baseman was being interviewed while on the field.

if you listen to the broadcast of that he says something cool