It's not Spring, but MLB teams are Training for the 2021 Season

Mic’d up PFPs are electric! 🤣🏒🔊 pic.twitter.com/eQgBMlTTWa

— MLB (@MLB) February 26, 2021

does anyone even like baseball

bsbal

Phillies get mercy ruled, booed lustily

i watched the cards/nats game and felt comforted, truly. not in any big way, but it was nice. i don't really follow other sports closely. this felt like an old friend coming back over again.

Orioles lost to the Pirates, the one team people sometimes think they might be better than. Yusniel Diaz, the prime piece of the Machado trade, hit one out, though. No Adley as yet. Trey Mancini got a well-deserved standing ovation and Ryan Ripken got to play. Welcome back, guys.

yeah, that Trey Mancini moment was good, I hope he gets another big one for the regular season. it's amazing what a toll cancer takes on a body, and to come back and be a full-performance pro is just crazy to me

i guess spring training games aren't blacked out? at least i appear to be able to watch white sox spring training via mlb.tv

In Toronto’s case, you can’t black out what you’re not broadcasting.

Gotta say, 6 innings games are dope.

^^^found the Little Leaguer

Mets president Sandy Alderson: 'Some of our players aren't defensive geniuses'

harsh but fair

they should perhaps have decided, as an organization, whether to go with alonso or dom smith. but i guess it's hard to make those decisions when it takes until february to learn whether there'll be a DH or not

Can't anybody here play this game?

#Dodgers Trevor Bauer said he pitched 1st inning today with one eye closed. “I like making myself uncomfortable and throwing different stuff my way and trying to find a solution for it. I think that's how you improve.”

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) March 6, 2021

he honestly thinks he's a genius

Well it's spring now, but holy shit at this:

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2021/03/20/cubs-prospect-arrested-after-police-found-21-pounds-of-meth-in-his-team-equipment-bag/

Must have been going for the record

would meth be considered "performance enhancing"?

it definitely enhances performance when you're trimming the lawn with a pair of scissors

Kirby Yates heading for TJ surgery. RIP

Ugh. Super.

Zac Gallen has a hairline fracture in his throwing forearm from swinging the bat. 6-8 week timetable

ugh eloy jimenez ran into a wall trying to steal a spring training home run that he had no chance at catching and is now going to be out 5-6 months

Rumor was torn labrum but I had no idea that was the timetable... ouch.

Read another account that said he had absolutely no chance at the play in the first place.

no i was watching the game and he was nowhere near it

The AL really needs to add a second DH just for the White Sox

i blame la russa

fair

Manfred is probably taking notes from the Savannah Banana rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=demRwn71yl8

I've been trying to roll with the punches as the Ricketts family has tried to destroy everything great about the Cubs, but learning that even Rizzo will be out after this season just might be the worst blow yet.

In a post-COVID world, that family deserves to be greeted with empty stands but it'll never happen

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/26/sports/union-boss-says-baseball-players-ready-discuss-possibility-moving-all-star-game-out-georgia/

here's a version with the paywall:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mlb-all-star-game-potential-relocation-georgia

A curveball has been thrown at the Major League Baseball 2021 All-Star Game in light of the new Georgia voting law enacting sweeping changes to the state’s election rules.

The MLB Players Association signaled openness to considering whether the game, which is scheduled to take place at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 13, should be relocated in response to the state’s new voting overhaul.

Last Friday, MLB Players Association director Tony Clark told the Boston Globe that the union body is “very much aware” of the new Georgia voting law the includes new ID requirements for mail voting, limits on dropbox use and banning the distribution of food and most beverages to voters waiting in line.

Clark said that although the MLBPA has not had a conversation with the league regarding the potential relocation of the All-Star Game, the union president added that the body “would look forward to having that conversation” if the opportunity to do so.

TPM reached out to the MLBPA for comment.

Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts, who was tapped to manage the National League Team, told the LA Times on Friday that he would consider opting out of managing the All-Star Game this year if the MLB refuses to relocate the event.

Roberts, who is Black and Asian American and serves as one of two Black managers in MLB, found the battleground state’s new voting law “alarming.”

“When you’re trying to restrict African American votes — American citizens — that’s alarming to me to hear,” Roberts told the LA Times.

good thing chicago has another team that is actually making moves to improve and is also avoiding service-time manipulation
xpost

Yes, but that would mean being a Sox fan.

Really though, it'd be slightly easier to root for them if it wasn't for that baffling manager hiring.

if you can deal with the ricketts for a decade+ you can deal with larussa for a couple of years

That's not a terrible argument. It would be better than turning into a Cardinals fan anyway. I was just hoping at least Rizzo would stick around longer.

i think he'll re-sign with the cubs eventually

a true fan never changes their mind about anything

LaRussa sounded half dead in a dugout interview Sunday.

Deciding between a Nats hat for Soto and Robles or a Braves hat for Acuna and Albies.

Which one *looks* better??

One looks like a wegman’s logo

and the other has a fanbase of white people that impersonate native americans together 3-5 times a week en masse

Wegman's
Helping you live a healthier, better life through food.

i vote nats, they have soto and scherzer and other fun players

and the other has a fanbase of white people that impersonate native americans together 3-5 times a week en masse

― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Tuesday, March 30, 2021 12:42 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

could be referring to either team here

lol forgot about the washington football team

eh, i don't mean to harp on the barves too much. so much of baseball was born and marinated in racism, no team is close to clean

but yeah, the tomahawk chant should never have existed and it's crazy that they still do it

mets are trying to give lindor a 12-year-deal, through his age 39 season?

i mean, i love lindor, but these deals always seem bonkers to me. betts got 12 years (also through age 39?), tatis jr got 14 years (through age 35)

i would expect all these guys to age better than a pujols, of course. and maybe rich teams can just offload the players and eat the cost when they start to suck, who knows

tatis deal ending at age 35 is fine, that's not that old; starting it now, when he has yet to play a full season of baseball, is what's weird to me

The Mets want to give him 10, he wants 12. The excess value of the front half makes up for decline unless they fall off a cliff immediately like Pujols.

first stadium name in camelCase?

SLATER SCOOP: Miami Marlins are renaming ballpark to "loanDepot park," multiple sources tell me.@Danilo_Sant0s first mentioned team would soon be changing name.

— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) March 30, 2021