Designed to break your heart - the 2026 MLB regular season thread

Opening Day is less than a week away!

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”

Joe Castiglione reading this in 2024

https://i.postimg.cc/Gtj09X13/IMG-1317.gif

Play ball.

It is, it is, with time out now and again for some fun.

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

i wonder how ball/strike challenges will impact umps calling anything near the zone a strike on 3-0 and the zone shrinking on 0-2. like i wonder if it will be an unwritten rule that you don't challenge those calls. i guess it will be situational.

like i wonder if it will be an unwritten rule that you don't challenge those calls

god, I hope not

Chris Sale already said he wouldn’t challenge anything

Tyler O’ Neill home run opening day: y/n?

Roki Sasaki 15 earned runs in 8 2/3 spring innings, 2.77 WHIP

Slotted as #3 starter, I believe

it seems weird that not every team is playing on opening day. i didn't check every team but i noticed that KC/ATL doesn't start until friday

I read six teams aren't starting until Friday. It was to give NBC an exclusive window in prime time.

that's lame

The Yankees and Giants are off on Sunday too.

i read that it used to be tradition that the reds would always play first, guess that went out the window!

Speaking of the Reds, did we all see Joey Votto’s gift to them for opening day?

https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/joey-votto-gifts-street-clock-to-reds-at-great-american-ball-park.html

https://www.bajablasthomeruns.com/

ugh Bert Kreischer this season is doomed

first walk of the season drawn by . . . luis arraez!

I can't recall a time ever when the Giants opened up the season first, and it's been probably a decade since they opened at home.

My thoughts as well.

I don’t have Netflix and thought I could piggyback on my brother's account, like I have done in the past but they locked me out. $8 wouldn't kill me but nah.

golden sombrero for Judge while every other Stankee is the reincarnation of Roberto Clemente

So, sounds like the Netflix broadcast was not popular

it made roughly $1m for each team, which is clearly all that matters

Watched I think a couple of innings and then went to sleep, opening day to forget. This is all my fault, the last time I watched the Giants open their season against the Yankees they also got shit on. Apparently I missed Bonds show up, drop a nuke that he almost signed with the Yankees, and leave again lol

https://bsky.app/profile/lukeknox.me/post/3kbnxlj5s6h2d

Ozuna loudly booed at Citi field

Nbc announcers spotlighting a betting parlay for the game feels like a new low.

yeah, i was watching a mlb highlight reel of the opening game yesterday, and it showed a ABS challenge (called strike; upheld as it just caught in the zone) and the announcer was like ".....and if you bet on the first ABS in MLB being upheld...you would be a winner" or something.

thanks

honestly would love to get a 30-second break from each game and just show me a live feed of a near-empty casino at 5 am with one dude and a bucket of tokens, just feeding the slot machine and staring at his phone

IT'S BIG BALL CHUNKY TIME

Skenes gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the first and then got pulled after the Mets batted around!

“As we go to commercial break, we’d like to congratulate those of you who took that parlay where Skenes would give up 5 runs and be taken out after two-thirds of an inning. Enjoy your payout and we’ll be right back.”

Tbf, those runs sounded like a team effort (I missed the first few runs tho)

Just saw the boxscore for Skenes...yikes--hope he's not hurt.

He looked ok. Think it was just bad luck/ one of those games

america's feelings are hurt due to the iran war fuckup and the it's affecting skenes as well

Mets lineup is very sexy

Carson Benge’s first big league hit is a home run

that's my boy!

unintentionally funny and interesting piece of cards radio commentary from ricky horton

“a bad day to be a reliever….and a bad day to be in this city"

however, we’re in the middle of cardinals devil magic comeback against the rays so all is well

jj wetherholt will be mvp by 2030, easy, i’m calling it now, no problem

this guy jj wetherholt, he can’t miss

Skubal today: 6 innings, 3 hits, 6 K, no walks, no earned runs. Without any recency bias whatsoever, I am officially declaring him the best pitcher in baseball.

Cubs extending Nico Hoerner

The dodgers still looking very dodgery

Man its good to be back

was at the game today, pretty great atmosphere, I really love going to opening day because it comes right as the weather starts getting better, it's nice to see all these people around again

did not appreciate that it was against the White Sox, aren't opening day games supposed to be divisional??? oh well, we beat the hell outta them, notched 20 strikeouts which is apparently tied for a Brewer record

15 teams in each league means at least one game has to be intraleague, I guess

A lot of solid debuts today… Wetherholt, McGonigle, Benge & DeLauter

Just watched Jeff Kent chatting it up with Kruk and Kuip in the broadcast booth, he was smiling his head off and in great form, which I gather is not vmic for him

are the giants going to score this year

Nope

Camilo Doval revenge inning was the most predictable thing I’ve ever seen

Kurtz just took a called third strike against Gausman (his 7th through 10 batters tonight); it was an almost unhittable pitch, a 3-2 sinker down and away, framed perfectly by Kirk. The announcers wondered if he'd challenge; he didn't, and the replay showed he would have won if he had.

Guaranteed new stats: which hitters have the highest success rate when challenging, and which hitters are the worst at not challenging when they should have.

And definitely a new stat for catchers--Kirk just won a big one.

these dodger blue and gold unis are awful.

Fault of the default being too beautiful

diaz walking out to temu timmy trumpet

lol u mad?

yes :(

a rite of spring: Jake DeGrom scratched, it's not even April

His HOF odds seem tougher each year, although there is enough good sentiment towards him that they might vote him in anyway. But by that standard, David Wright should also make the Hall Of Fame.

Well as a Giants fan my heart's broken already. Can't seem to score a single run. We are cursed to hell

xp from above, Kent is so bubbly because he got in the Hall before Bonds lol

luis robert jr.

Loved that for him!

162-0

Will Smith clutch on his birthday and bobble head night

gonna be at Wrigley today for my first game of the season

Cutch is having a great day today

Tatsuya Imai's first start for the Astros - 2 2/3 innings on 74 pitches, four earned runs.

Even with the Dodgers, I honestly believe the NL West is the weakest division in baseball.

A 4-11 record supports that claim

Milwaukee already doin super cool shit

https://bsky.app/profile/brewersbot.bsky.social/post/3mia3saxgox2f

Even with the Dodgers, I honestly believe the NL West is the weakest division in baseball.

AL West on early returns looks better than expected

My mind is kinda blown that both Max Muncy’s started their first two years in the big leagues playing for the A’s.

And what the hell - they share the exact same birthday?

The birthday thing is especially fucking weird. Like the simulation housing our psyches is just out of fucking ideas

it weirds me out that the giants have a coach named Hunter Mense

hmm. how is mense pronounced?

same as their former outfielder, it's a little confusing

hunt or mince

i’d mince

wait - is hunter mense even 10% as entertaining as hunter pence?

rusty kuntz still lives

Did we ever talk about how hot Dylan Cease got over the break?

JQH: I think I am now a Nats fan.

tell me what my next step is.

― imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Monday, March 9, 2026 12:09 AM (three weeks ago)

this is a team of destiny, the team that legends are made of... god's team.

gross

xp sell me, i'll never buy it, but sell me anyway

Not sure I could name two Marlins, but just saw a graphic that they've had the 6th best record in baseball, 57-42 (ahead of the Dodgers and Yankees), since June 13 of last year.

They’re a fun team to watch! My boy Jacob Marsee is my favourite on that team, Kyle Stowers was great last year, Sandy is obviously still going, Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez are the other guys I like. Very fun, young, energetic.

Oh also their catchers (Agustin Ramirez and Toronto’s own Liam Hicks) are a fun tandem

…and how could I forget the team’s star Canadian, Owen “Big Red” Caissie

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

they do like their canuks!

Ontario’s finest racking up the RBIs already

Friendship ended with Spencer Strider...now Drake Baldwin is my new best friend.
(not really, but I heart DB a ton)

He’s a stud

Alcantara pitched a 3-hit Maddux today and hasn't given up a run in two starts.

available today only: https://sportsreference.threadless.com/collections/the-record-book-collection

i am actually tempted to get a 'pittsburgh legend' bath mat

Bo Bichette's line (expect many Jays fans will follow this till things normalize, which I'm sure they will at some point):

29 PA, 3 singles, 1 walk, .111/.138/.111

Not sure how well he's playing in the field.

He's great as long as he doesn't have to throw to first.

he's had some great throws to first when he doesn't have time to think about it

Rookies so far: 0.845 OPS, 140 wRC+.

2 of MLB’s last four number one prospects have attended former segregation academies.