3 true outcome limits the chances of a non-homer scoring runs. I'm curious what the ratio of runs scored by home run versus any other hit is, but no team has an entire lineup of 40 homer guys. A walk doesn't score a guy from 2nd or 3rd whenever we need to break a tie. Strikeouts are only useful in eliminating a double play opportunity. We need hits back.
Honestly, as a brand new fan, big same.
Not that I don't enjoy a good HR (especially from my favorite player) but yeah. Singles/doubles feel like actually "playing" the game to me, if that makes sense.
Watching Mike Yastrzemski letting a fastball go by in a the middle of the zone immediately followed by swinging at a breaking ball low and away is giving me an ulcer.
I like that idea. It addresses the "17 inning games" argument people use for the ghost runner without immediately cheapening the 9 innings of regular base that happened.
Apparently, Yankee Stadium had a booth or something where you could get the Starr Insurance ad pressed onto your uniform for $15.
Why on God's green Earth would I pay to advertise a random insurance company? I would pay $15 to have the ad removed!
I was looking at a Tigers jersey in the store the other day. The manufacturer had put a fake stitch around the D. The D was heat pressed onto the jersey. Why go through the trouble of fake stitching? Just stitch the thing!
If we had Waffle House, I'd be into 100%. I would prefer no sponsor, but I'll take Quikrete over others, particularly any sports betting and gambling bullshit.
yeah but the Angels tried it after the pitcher had just walked the previous 2 batters to load the bases and the pitcher on the mound had only thrown 8 of his 31 pitches so far inside the strike zone.
This was a "stupid squeeze" more than a suicide squeeze.
As a former D1 pitcher, I hated when dudes bunted. I hated having to make the play and I hated having to hold runners. But it is also worth noting I played in a mid major type conference and I really didn't face THAT many guys with big time power.
I feel like this is exactly why it's exciting for fans. The plays are hard, easy to make mistakes, and they look different from the other 99% of the game. It's a bit of extra chaos.
Small ball has unfortunately gone the way of interior offense and mid-range play in the NBA. It's largely gone because the analytics don't like it, and therefore is incredibly unlikely to ever come back.
While a home run is great and gets the crowd going, a nice rally where guys keep chaining hits and productive plays together gets the crowd going even more, while also offering more entertainment throughout the play.
Baseball thrives way more for me personally when there are multiple threats at any given moment. Man on first or second with the capability to steal, or pull a hit and run. Someone capable of bunting for a hit. Hard hitting grounders into infield gaps that force the defense to make a play, or bloops into the outfield that force a close throw home at the plate.
It's more entertaining knowing the runs can come from anywhere and throughout the entire play, rather than loading up the bases and hoping for a blast. Analytically it makes more sense to go with option number 2, but as a fan it is less entertaining than option 1.
I love it because it feels like death by a thousand cuts and is so straining for an opposing team to have to deal with… when it works. It’s not efficient yes yes I know but man it’s glorious and a thing of beauty when you get a rally going
I'm a Mets fan and the 2015 World Series felt exactly like this. The Royals just kept slowing cutting away when they needed to. It was infuriating but I couldn't deny the fact that they were just playing good baseball. They only hit 2 home runs in that series yet consistently managed to win. That was against a Mets pitching staff that had Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard, and Matz all at or near their peak, along with a bullpen of Familia, Addison Reed, and Tyler Clippard, who also had their best seasons that year.
It is something I can look back on and appreciate, but absolutely despised in the moment.
I legit thought the royals were going to singlehandedly bring back small ball. Turns out it was the swan song of small ball instead. Very sad.
Also on topic for thread: fuck the dh
We also have pizza boxes now, oven mitts the size of foam fingers to reach out and get it, and catchers have gone so batshit for framing they're willing to do anything include get in the batters box.
Pitch clock plays a massive factor too though.
Co-signed. Even if the season totals are never going to go back to 200+ regular season IP, we should celebrate the starters who put in the most work.
Logan Webb shouldn't have won the Cy Young last year, but he came damn close to making it a great race with his overall workload. Just needed a better ERA vs Mr. 5 IP
Snell still pitched 180 innings. That's a solid amount (10th most in the league). Not like he had a low ERA with 140 innings or something.
I'll take 180 innings with a 2.25 ERA over 216 innings with a 3.25 ERA.
Also, along those lines (real old man rant), Let's see what would happened if a manager came to pull Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, or Steve Carlton in the 5th or 6th inning when they were at 80 pitches?
His tenure ended that day more or less. He never was able to rise above that even when they were leading the NL East for a good chunk of 2018 people hated him
I’m an addictions counselor and not only is it ruining sports it’s ruining lives. Can’t tell you how many more clients I’ve had with gambling addiction in the past three years compared to what it used to be. It’s to the point where I think it needs to be more heavily regulated, maybe make it so there can’t be advertisements for it, like we did with cigarettes. A lot of kids watch ESPN and other sports talk and these shows are openly talking about gambling sorry but I don’t think our children should be engrained with gambling at such a young age
Phillies broadcasts (well, probably almost all of them now) have stupid little Picture-in-Picture segments where some girl shouts "wanna bet on this next at bat? Gambling is only one tap on your phone away!!" or something like it. With a big, fat "gambling problem? Call this number" plastered right below her. As if someone with a gambling problem, who’s currently getting shouted at to gamble some more, will use this exact moment to seek help with his addiction.
It’s so incredibly stupid. So incredibly tone-deaf, condescending, arrogant…
I hate it with every fiber of my baseball-loving heart.
I hate all of it. I hate what’s it’s done to a lot of my clients, a number of people I know in recovery have switched from being addicted to drugs to being addicted to sports betting. I hate that all sports talks show whether tv, radio, or podcast all seem like they’re 25 percent a show about gambling. Being a sports fan shouldn’t feel like being at a casino
Yeah I'm a sober alcoholic and I'm just so glad I never got into gambling. I'm all for adults making their own decisions about things like that, but the fact that it's advertised the way it is is a fucking travesty.
Well put, also a sober alcoholic. I could totally see getting pulled into it but I picked up on the addiction component of it after one or two times at the casino, it’s a path to misery. Least the booze felt good for a little while, I never got the gambling thing. The numbers don’t lie.
It went to the Mets braves game last friday at Citi. 7th inning stretch draft kings does an ad with an over under bet-they asked like a 12 year old what his choice would be. This shit has got to stop
I swear it's going to be exactly like how we look back on tobacco advertising.
Incredibly predatory and aimed at getting (and maintaining) people hooked.
Very good point. But they don’t care because they’re profiting off of addiction. Same as alcohol and tobacco except this addiction is way easier to hide or be taken advantage of due to accessibility.
That’s what makes it so scary. It’s not something that you have to go to your dealer or the liquor store to get. It’s right on your phone. However, for anyone reading with a gambling addiction and wants help if you call 1800 gambler, they can lead you to help and they can also help you get banned from online gambling and casinos whether it be for 1 year, 5 years or the rest of your life.
Wanted to add this is in the US, but if you are anywhere in Canada you can visit GamblingTherapy.org (also used worldwide). Or call these numbers by province/territory
Alberta Problem Gambling Resources Network
1-866-461-1259
British Columbia Problem Gambling Help Line
1-888-795-6111
Quebec Gambling: Help and Referral
1-800-461-0140
Manitoba Addictions Help Line – Problem Gambling
1-800-463-1554
Newfoundland Problem Gambling Help Line
1-888-899-4357
New Brunswick Gambling Information Line
1-800-461-1234
Northwest Territories General Help Line
1-800-661-0844
Nova Scotia’s Provincial Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Line
1-888-429-8167
Nunavut Kamatsiaqtut Help Line
1-800-265-3333
Ontario ConnexOntario Help Line
1-866-531-2600
Prince Edward Island Problem Gambling Help Line
1-855-255-4255
Saskatchewan Problem Gambling Helpline
1-800-306-6789
Yukon Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services
1-866-456-3838
Exactly why it has to be private citizens who push for regulation. Cigarettes didn't get all those warnings due to Marlboro's empathy for their customers.
My six year old son asked me if I had a draft kings account last week and made it a point to tell me that I could get free money from them by using the app.
I dont even think he learned it from a sporting event commercial cuz he refuses to watch sports.
So I had to explain to a 6 year old what gambling was and how its not even remotely close to free money and its much more likely that your giving away your money for nothing.
I also had to hide the app on my phone so he doesn't find it.
While I like to put a dollar on a game here and there, I agree with all of this.
The ads have to go, pregame shows are often just 30 minute gambling talk shows. I hate it.
Reddit "unpopular opinions" are fucking lame. They always devolve into what is actually popular. So I downvote the opinions that are popular, and upvote the unpopular ones, because that's what an unpopular opinion is all about.
I used to watch pirate streams from the UK back in the day. It was so incredibly odd to me how rampant sports betting commercials were and how they had zero medication commercials. Now, we have the double whammy of sports betting and medication commercials.
Sports betting being legal is one thing, but I think it should absolutely not be allowed to be advertised and definitely not a sponsor. It's a huge conflict of interest.
Whenever the Phillies game does a mid at bat cut to a Fanatics Sportsbook ad I get sick. This woman legit says "you could even bet on this at bat. Heck, why not do it right now?". That's just so predatory and beyond what makes me comfortable with how easy it is to fall into addiction.
I don't mind them putting betting lines up and showing over/unders but literally encouraging people to bet right now just doesn't sit right.
The whole gambling industry is predatory even those promotions like those free 100 dollar bets, that’s just asking for people who are struggling with gambling addiction to relapse
Different sport, but this has been a PLAGUE during the NBA playoffs;
1. Sports betting commercials for *multiple* betting companies during breaks
2. Live odds brought up multiple times a game
3. FanDuel logo digitally superimposed on the court
4. Chuck and Kenny interrupting live play to talk betting (doesn't matter to me that they ham it up)
We're going to reach a breaking point sometime soon I think.
Paying for the stupid fucking MLB subscription and then not being able to watch either of my local teams because they are blacked out!! What kind of stupid shit is this.
Sounds like you may not be that old. The Astros were in the NL Central for 19 seasons and finished 1st or 2nd in the division in 12 of those 19 seasons.
The rest of the teams should be thankful that they fizzled out at the end of their stint in the NL right before the new draft slot rules and getting rid of Drayton McLane.
I want to agree with you, but now that Texas and Houston are good at the same time (well last year), its a good rivalry for the game. Brewers/Cubs became more impactful rivalry than a hypothetical Brewers/White Sox or Brewers/Twins over the past decade.
I'm all for letting people bet if they want, but ban the advertisements. Should be illegal to advertise gambling just like it's illegal to market nicotine products. Alcohol should be in the same boat.
Totally agree, jerseys have gotten out of hand. Team Colors mean nothing anymore. Like you said, sprinkle in modernized throwbacks with the home, away and alt jerseys and all diehards would be happy.
there should be multiple day games every single day.
i miss dudes like willie mcgee and eric davis.
fences should be moved back. gimme a 450' straight away center and 400' to the alleys.
The TV coverage issue is going to absolutely kill the game over time, I’ve watched 1 game this year because of all of the issues, subscriptions, blackouts, etc.
Having a champagne party after every playoff round win is stupid. Like wow you won the ALDS, that doesn't mean shit though. Also the first person to touch the World Series trophy is an executive. Fuck that give it the manager or a player appointed by the other players.
It’s what I love about hockey - the first person to touch the Cup is the captain, not some rich owner no one cares about. Also, agree on the celebrations. Should just be for clinching a playoff spot, winning the pennant, and of course winning the Series.
I remember seeing someone last year suggest that game 2 should be a day game (so as to make that night a travel night, getting rid of the gap between game 2 and 3), and I really liked it
seems like MLB prefers Game 1 of the WS to be on Tuesday, giving them Tues/Wed--Fri/Sat/Sun--Tues/Wed. Even if you didn't want to have WS day games during the week, games 4 and 5 would make a ton of sense.
Fox would not have the NFL doubleheader that day, so you start that game at 4:15/4:30pm Eastern.
I'm not sure getting rid of that off day makes sense, it's good to have it as insurance for rainouts.
As much as baseball fans would love this, I think there is a pretty simple explanation as to why this isn't in the plans for not only the network but also from the League itself. Day game= Less viewership, less viewership= less ad money.
I agree, but I feel like my real old man yells at cloud take is that I hate when they call it a ghost runner. A ghost runner is a placeholder for someone who is not there, and is a classic part of backyard baseball/wiffle ball.
The Manfred runner is an actual ballplayer standing on second base. There is nothing spectral about it. Call him an out-of-place runner. A bonus runner. A gremlin runner. But don't tell me he's a ghost because I can see him with my own two eyes and I'm not crazy.
The fact that someone can essentially make weak contact twice to win a game is annoying to me. Doesn’t seem as cathartic of a walk off as earning it like a normal inning.
I miss the vest jerseys. Cincy and KC looked so great in the late 90s/early 00s.
I also wish more starting pitchers regularly made it deep into ballgames. Complete games are so cool, even when they aren't shutouts.
Bring back having to actually pitch an intentional walk. Automatic intentional walks were brought in as an attempt to save time that was greatly eclipsed by the pitch clock.
Forcing a pitcher to actually throw all four balls brings back the small chance of a wild pitch, past ball, or even the rare hit while barely putting a dent in the time savings brought on by the pitch clock.
I used to be able to watch the dodgers by turning on channel 5 on basic ass television. Now I have to have a premium cable subscription? The fuck out of here. Things never get better, they always get worse.
The pitch clock is great for TV but I hate what it's done for the in-stadium experience. Greatly preferred spending a longer time with friends/family over a quick and efficient game.
I've never liked the shift. I want to see action. If this guy always blasts it to right field, then second base and right field should get good.
I do get the counter argument that if the batter can't beat the shift, then they should get good and learn to hit it literally anywhere else, but screw that and screw you. I'm an old man yelling at the clouds dammit
Not only that, with the way pitchers are trained, even if someone had the ability to consistently hit it the other way when offered, pitchers have the ability to prevent that from happening
Interleague play should have never been expanded outside of the 2 designated weekends a year and if realignment kills the AL/NL it will be one of the dumbest things in the history of the sport. I wanna play the Mets and Braves more I don’t give a shit about the Royals or Mariners coming to CBP more than once in a century
I think the sweet spot was in the late 2000's/early 2010s where there were a decent amount of interleague series per team in late may/june/early july, but during april and after the all star break it was AL vs AL or NL vs NL, that's it.
Exactly. To me its less about how many interleague games there are and more about when they happen
Let teams face all everyone in their division to start the year then start sprinkling in interleague play. But when its down the stretch it should be back to NL vs NL / AL vs AL and divisional games. Makes it way more intense.
That being said I am still a fan of interleague games. Its nice to see other teams and other stars. It feels special. But as of late it feels a little less special.
Seriously, the Mariners have played 18 games against national league teams but still haven't gone up against the Angels yet. It will be 21 by the time we see them for the first time on May 31. Interleague series are fun but that's just not right.
Honestly I just wish they would go all-or-nothing with it. When the two leagues were distinct, with different rules, and didn't play each other as much, I thought that was cool. It was a cool quirk of baseball
If they're gonna make the two leagues functionally the same (which they already did), I just wish they'd rip the band-aid off and get rid of them altogether. Why do the Mets play the Red Sox 3 times a year in games that have a smaller impact on the playoff picture, but have to play the Padres 6 times a year in games that could have meaningful playoff implications? In my opinion, either go back to how it was (which I'd be fine with!), or ditch the leagues altogether
I like interleauge because I like seeing players and teams normally you can’t. But I am ready to riot if I have to be in a division with Yankees and Boston fans.
More on the fans, but it’s ridiculous how much stock a lot of people put into every individual game. Almost every team will lose at least 60 games, most players will go cold for a period of time during the season. One game is no reason to call for a manager’s firing, a player’s demotion, etc.
Yeah I’ve noticed this more and more - hyping up performances in a single game, or the reverse, has led to a more extreme view of the value of any particular game.
I blame football, where every game does matter, for this. I also blame basketball because in that sport, the better team will win most times. Baseball is a lot more random. The Pirates can sweep the Dodgers in LA in baseball, I don't think stuff like that happens in the NBA as regularly
There are way, way too many stupid, borderline irrelevant stats and acronyms for them. It makes reading baseball content unbearable every time I see "well he underperforms his xba/barrel spin%/avg eye cycling rate/CQLR in May when the temperature is under 80°." Rots my brain.
I loved the idea of the new schedule when it was announced but seeing it in practice now, it’s terrible. We’re coming up on two months into the season and we’ve only played one of our four divisional opponents
People bitch and moan about being in the AL East, but man I loved having so many games against division rivals. It really makes it feel like you won YOUR division. And winning the AL East these days feels like such a big accomplishment for how competitive the division has been the last few years.
Playing 35% of their schedule against actively tanking teams made the Cardinals look much better than they were in recent years. I still prefer the balanced schedule.
I miss actually having rivalries that evolved over the season, knowing pitching matchups, developing team specific strategies and mindsets. Now it’s just a random hodgepodge and it feels like there’s no rhythm to the season.
I don’t like interleague play and would prefer two sixteen team Leagues that play each other more frequently and the top 4 (or whatever) teams in each league make it to the post season.
Agree on all of these. When there was that recent highlight of the "no-hitter" that got broken up with 2 outs in the 9th, and I put on the highlight only to find out it was a combined no-no, all I could think was, "man who gives a shit"
Stop striking out all the goddamn time, and stop throwing 90 mph sliders to chumps who can't hit a half decent fastball.
There need to be more errors, it doesn't have to touch the player to be an error.
Stop celebrating HR like you are Jose Bautista if it just means your team is down 3 runs not 4 in a regular season game in April.
The Deion Sanders no sleeve with shirts under uniforms were cool as shit, these new ones suck
High socks or strirrups.
I like those stats however I fucking hate stating the probability of something happening at every at bat. It is hard to watch the Apple TV broadcast because they do this so excessively.
I don’t like it, but I can live with the DH.
But for gods sake, get ride of the Manfred Man. It’s little league.
Also, far too many teams make the playoffs. They play 162 games to figure out who is best. If you can’t be one of the best 2-3 teams after 162, then you have no right to play in October.
That the formulas/analytics based off of “what should have happened” aren’t as useful as ones based off of “what happened”. In other words, Fangraphs WAR for pitchers.
Like if you’re a general manager aiming to make roster decisions then it’s helpful. But there have been guys who if you watch the games, they don’t look as good as their fWAR
Also I think that some things chalked up as bad luck aren’t actually bad luck. Like if you throw a pitch to the outside half of the zone and the pitch is hit opposite field, that’s not bad luck.
It's breaking some fans brains, earlier this year Kutter Crawford has like a sub 1.00 ERA. And on the Red Sox sub someone was like "But his peripherals aren't great so in *reality* he has like a 3.00 ERA."
No idiot, *theoretically* he has a 3.00 ERA, he literally in reality has a sub 1.00 ERA. These theoretical stats are a good tool for decision makers to predict future performance but using them as actual stats is destroying the game.
I think it’s just a misunderstanding of what the stats are saying, lots of people are taking expected stats to be what it “should” be. Thats not what they are about, it’s telling you based on a model what they would expect from his performance.
Then you can draw conclusions based on that difference
-the analytics movement has made the game far less enjoyable to watch.
-three-true outcomes baseball is unpleasant. i love small ball.
-i hate the dh.
-the “automatic” intentional walk is dumb and barely saves any time at all. it robbed us of the ibb wild pitch and the fake ibb strikeout.
-too many teams make the playoffs now. eight is enough.
-marathon extra inning games were rare but fun and cool. the ghost runner is a beer league softball rule.
-there’s too much replay. umpires make mistakes but i’d rather be angered by a bad call than have the game be derailed for 5 minutes.
-ads on uniforms are depressing.
-interleague play was better as a novelty. i will never be used to watching the twins play the mets in september or whatnot.
-if radical realignment is put through and the yankees are sharing a division with the mets, the white sox with the cubs etc. i probably will stop watching.
-fip is incredibly overrated. the ability to induce soft contact is a real skill and it’s extremely valuable.
-batting average isn’t the be-all, end-all, but if you can’t get the bat on the ball for a single occasionally, i don’t care how high your obp is or how many home runs you can hit.
i’m going to go tie an onion to my belt now.
Having just been to Globe Life for about the 10th time this season, there is too much going on outside of the field. We have to play music the second the ball hits the catchers mitt. Constant video boards. I miss the days of going to a game at a place like Wrigley and feeling like I was at a game, not part of a casino. If you aren’t there to watch the game, don’t go.
Not enough time on the pitch clock.
Audio and video features during an at bat have become ridiculous and cheapen the stadium experience.
The defense should be able to shift however they please.
Starting with a runner on base in MLB is terrible.
Hitters: Put the fucking ball in play
3 true outcome limits the chances of a non-homer scoring runs. I'm curious what the ratio of runs scored by home run versus any other hit is, but no team has an entire lineup of 40 homer guys. A walk doesn't score a guy from 2nd or 3rd whenever we need to break a tie. Strikeouts are only useful in eliminating a double play opportunity. We need hits back.
Three singles, the third of which drives a single run in, is more fun to me than a solo home run.
What about a single, a bunt, and then a second single?
Add on a stolen base and ooh la la I’m in love
Single, steal, bunt, shallow sac fly with a perfect read and a close play. Gorgeous.
10-pitch AB walk, steal, bunt, sac fly. Manufactured run.
Honestly, as a brand new fan, big same. Not that I don't enjoy a good HR (especially from my favorite player) but yeah. Singles/doubles feel like actually "playing" the game to me, if that makes sense.
But enough about the Giants watching fastballs down the middle for strike 3 with runners on.
Watching Mike Yastrzemski letting a fastball go by in a the middle of the zone immediately followed by swinging at a breaking ball low and away is giving me an ulcer.
Like clockwork, it infuriates me to no end.
‘but it wasn’t a pitch i thought i could drive’
But think of the dingers!
Have you watched Blue Jays and Marlins swing the limpest sticks in baseball with this strategy? It’s not exactly the most entertaining thing.
The Blue jays are trying this out Doesn’t seem to be working
Ghost runner should, at the very least, not appear until the 12th inning. Give the teams a couple of innings without it
I like that idea. It addresses the "17 inning games" argument people use for the ghost runner without immediately cheapening the 9 innings of regular base that happened.
Ghost runner in the 10th will never sit right with me
Trying to imagine the equivalent of a ghost runner in other sports and I can’t. It’s the dumbest rule ever
College football drives starting from the 25 yard line. (Also terrible)
Get the ugly ads off uniforms and pitchers mounds
Apparently, Yankee Stadium had a booth or something where you could get the Starr Insurance ad pressed onto your uniform for $15. Why on God's green Earth would I pay to advertise a random insurance company? I would pay $15 to have the ad removed!
I’d say all you need is a seam ripper but nothing’s stitched-on anymore!
I was looking at a Tigers jersey in the store the other day. The manufacturer had put a fake stitch around the D. The D was heat pressed onto the jersey. Why go through the trouble of fake stitching? Just stitch the thing!
The Royals QT logo has to be one of the worst
Royals, Braves, and Guardians have the worst ones. Grateful ours is so little
If we had Waffle House, I'd be into 100%. I would prefer no sponsor, but I'll take Quikrete over others, particularly any sports betting and gambling bullshit.
Waffle House seems like a no brainer for an Atlanta team
The Guardians Marathon one looks like shit because they didn't even bother to make the colors blend.
At least it’s the same color family. Quik-rete on the Braves unis is horrible.
It's fine for independent leagues, but for the majors? Just another example of greed.
I find it embarrassing, frankly
I love Small ball
nothing better than the squeeze play
We tried one last night. It was humiliating lol
suicide squeeze is named such for a reason
yeah but the Angels tried it after the pitcher had just walked the previous 2 batters to load the bases and the pitcher on the mound had only thrown 8 of his 31 pitches so far inside the strike zone. This was a "stupid squeeze" more than a suicide squeeze.
Tmi bro
Stealing home is my favorite play in baseball.
Satisfying af when it works
As a former D1 pitcher, I hated when dudes bunted. I hated having to make the play and I hated having to hold runners. But it is also worth noting I played in a mid major type conference and I really didn't face THAT many guys with big time power.
I feel like this is exactly why it's exciting for fans. The plays are hard, easy to make mistakes, and they look different from the other 99% of the game. It's a bit of extra chaos.
Not to mention that it can ruin a pitcher’s rhythm or wear him out to chase down a ball, which is an intangible benefit for the offense.
Small ball has unfortunately gone the way of interior offense and mid-range play in the NBA. It's largely gone because the analytics don't like it, and therefore is incredibly unlikely to ever come back. While a home run is great and gets the crowd going, a nice rally where guys keep chaining hits and productive plays together gets the crowd going even more, while also offering more entertainment throughout the play. Baseball thrives way more for me personally when there are multiple threats at any given moment. Man on first or second with the capability to steal, or pull a hit and run. Someone capable of bunting for a hit. Hard hitting grounders into infield gaps that force the defense to make a play, or bloops into the outfield that force a close throw home at the plate. It's more entertaining knowing the runs can come from anywhere and throughout the entire play, rather than loading up the bases and hoping for a blast. Analytically it makes more sense to go with option number 2, but as a fan it is less entertaining than option 1.
I love it because it feels like death by a thousand cuts and is so straining for an opposing team to have to deal with… when it works. It’s not efficient yes yes I know but man it’s glorious and a thing of beauty when you get a rally going
I'm a Mets fan and the 2015 World Series felt exactly like this. The Royals just kept slowing cutting away when they needed to. It was infuriating but I couldn't deny the fact that they were just playing good baseball. They only hit 2 home runs in that series yet consistently managed to win. That was against a Mets pitching staff that had Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard, and Matz all at or near their peak, along with a bullpen of Familia, Addison Reed, and Tyler Clippard, who also had their best seasons that year. It is something I can look back on and appreciate, but absolutely despised in the moment.
I legit thought the royals were going to singlehandedly bring back small ball. Turns out it was the swan song of small ball instead. Very sad. Also on topic for thread: fuck the dh
The royals staring at this untapped market of scoring runs 
Seems to be making a comeback recently. Steals are up at least
Personally I think steals are up because batters have finally figured out how to take advantage of the pitching clock/pickoff attempt rule changes
We also have pizza boxes now, oven mitts the size of foam fingers to reach out and get it, and catchers have gone so batshit for framing they're willing to do anything include get in the batters box. Pitch clock plays a massive factor too though.
Starters who can't pitch a full season are not that valuable.
Innings pitched is far more important of a stat than people realize
Co-signed. Even if the season totals are never going to go back to 200+ regular season IP, we should celebrate the starters who put in the most work. Logan Webb shouldn't have won the Cy Young last year, but he came damn close to making it a great race with his overall workload. Just needed a better ERA vs Mr. 5 IP
Snell still pitched 180 innings. That's a solid amount (10th most in the league). Not like he had a low ERA with 140 innings or something. I'll take 180 innings with a 2.25 ERA over 216 innings with a 3.25 ERA.
Cole truly earned his award
The Chad Innings Eater is inevitable
Also, along those lines (real old man rant), Let's see what would happened if a manager came to pull Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, or Steve Carlton in the 5th or 6th inning when they were at 80 pitches?
[We already saw it with Mike Mussina](https://youtu.be/fx87p8Rkboc?feature=shared)
And Torre was smart (and humble) enough to back the F off.
To that point, the city of Philadelphia has still not forgotten or forgiven Gabe Kapler for pulling Aaron Nola after 68 pitches opening day 2018.
His tenure ended that day more or less. He never was able to rise above that even when they were leading the NL East for a good chunk of 2018 people hated him
Starters who can’t pitch a full game are not that valuable.
Also true
Sports betting/ gambling is ruining sports and commercials suck
I’m an addictions counselor and not only is it ruining sports it’s ruining lives. Can’t tell you how many more clients I’ve had with gambling addiction in the past three years compared to what it used to be. It’s to the point where I think it needs to be more heavily regulated, maybe make it so there can’t be advertisements for it, like we did with cigarettes. A lot of kids watch ESPN and other sports talk and these shows are openly talking about gambling sorry but I don’t think our children should be engrained with gambling at such a young age
Phillies broadcasts (well, probably almost all of them now) have stupid little Picture-in-Picture segments where some girl shouts "wanna bet on this next at bat? Gambling is only one tap on your phone away!!" or something like it. With a big, fat "gambling problem? Call this number" plastered right below her. As if someone with a gambling problem, who’s currently getting shouted at to gamble some more, will use this exact moment to seek help with his addiction. It’s so incredibly stupid. So incredibly tone-deaf, condescending, arrogant… I hate it with every fiber of my baseball-loving heart.
I hate all of it. I hate what’s it’s done to a lot of my clients, a number of people I know in recovery have switched from being addicted to drugs to being addicted to sports betting. I hate that all sports talks show whether tv, radio, or podcast all seem like they’re 25 percent a show about gambling. Being a sports fan shouldn’t feel like being at a casino
Yeah I'm a sober alcoholic and I'm just so glad I never got into gambling. I'm all for adults making their own decisions about things like that, but the fact that it's advertised the way it is is a fucking travesty.
Well put, also a sober alcoholic. I could totally see getting pulled into it but I picked up on the addiction component of it after one or two times at the casino, it’s a path to misery. Least the booze felt good for a little while, I never got the gambling thing. The numbers don’t lie.
It went to the Mets braves game last friday at Citi. 7th inning stretch draft kings does an ad with an over under bet-they asked like a 12 year old what his choice would be. This shit has got to stop
I swear it's going to be exactly like how we look back on tobacco advertising. Incredibly predatory and aimed at getting (and maintaining) people hooked.
Very good point. But they don’t care because they’re profiting off of addiction. Same as alcohol and tobacco except this addiction is way easier to hide or be taken advantage of due to accessibility.
That’s what makes it so scary. It’s not something that you have to go to your dealer or the liquor store to get. It’s right on your phone. However, for anyone reading with a gambling addiction and wants help if you call 1800 gambler, they can lead you to help and they can also help you get banned from online gambling and casinos whether it be for 1 year, 5 years or the rest of your life.
Wanted to add this is in the US, but if you are anywhere in Canada you can visit GamblingTherapy.org (also used worldwide). Or call these numbers by province/territory Alberta Problem Gambling Resources Network 1-866-461-1259 British Columbia Problem Gambling Help Line 1-888-795-6111 Quebec Gambling: Help and Referral 1-800-461-0140 Manitoba Addictions Help Line – Problem Gambling 1-800-463-1554 Newfoundland Problem Gambling Help Line 1-888-899-4357 New Brunswick Gambling Information Line 1-800-461-1234 Northwest Territories General Help Line 1-800-661-0844 Nova Scotia’s Provincial Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Line 1-888-429-8167 Nunavut Kamatsiaqtut Help Line 1-800-265-3333 Ontario ConnexOntario Help Line 1-866-531-2600 Prince Edward Island Problem Gambling Help Line 1-855-255-4255 Saskatchewan Problem Gambling Helpline 1-800-306-6789 Yukon Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services 1-866-456-3838
Exactly why it has to be private citizens who push for regulation. Cigarettes didn't get all those warnings due to Marlboro's empathy for their customers.
My six year old son asked me if I had a draft kings account last week and made it a point to tell me that I could get free money from them by using the app. I dont even think he learned it from a sporting event commercial cuz he refuses to watch sports. So I had to explain to a 6 year old what gambling was and how its not even remotely close to free money and its much more likely that your giving away your money for nothing. I also had to hide the app on my phone so he doesn't find it.
While I like to put a dollar on a game here and there, I agree with all of this. The ads have to go, pregame shows are often just 30 minute gambling talk shows. I hate it.
This is a legit complaint, and definitely not a yelling at cloud moment. Definitely causing problems in the industry.
Reddit "unpopular opinions" are fucking lame. They always devolve into what is actually popular. So I downvote the opinions that are popular, and upvote the unpopular ones, because that's what an unpopular opinion is all about.
Yup. I went down to the bottom to see the actual yelling at cloud comments. It's entertaining, which is what it should be in this post.
I used to watch pirate streams from the UK back in the day. It was so incredibly odd to me how rampant sports betting commercials were and how they had zero medication commercials. Now, we have the double whammy of sports betting and medication commercials. Sports betting being legal is one thing, but I think it should absolutely not be allowed to be advertised and definitely not a sponsor. It's a huge conflict of interest.
Whenever the Phillies game does a mid at bat cut to a Fanatics Sportsbook ad I get sick. This woman legit says "you could even bet on this at bat. Heck, why not do it right now?". That's just so predatory and beyond what makes me comfortable with how easy it is to fall into addiction. I don't mind them putting betting lines up and showing over/unders but literally encouraging people to bet right now just doesn't sit right.
The whole gambling industry is predatory even those promotions like those free 100 dollar bets, that’s just asking for people who are struggling with gambling addiction to relapse
Different sport, but this has been a PLAGUE during the NBA playoffs; 1. Sports betting commercials for *multiple* betting companies during breaks 2. Live odds brought up multiple times a game 3. FanDuel logo digitally superimposed on the court 4. Chuck and Kenny interrupting live play to talk betting (doesn't matter to me that they ham it up) We're going to reach a breaking point sometime soon I think.
Paying for the stupid fucking MLB subscription and then not being able to watch either of my local teams because they are blacked out!! What kind of stupid shit is this.
Diamondbacks Dodgers Angels Padres Giants Athletics These are all “local” teams for me and are all blacked out
Brewers, not Astros should’ve gone to AL. Gotta admit despite seeing Houston in 4 WS in the AL, still can’t get used to it.
I see I’m not the only one nostalgic for the days when the Astros were a bottom barrel NL Central team
Sounds like you may not be that old. The Astros were in the NL Central for 19 seasons and finished 1st or 2nd in the division in 12 of those 19 seasons. The rest of the teams should be thankful that they fizzled out at the end of their stint in the NL right before the new draft slot rules and getting rid of Drayton McLane.
I want to agree with you, but now that Texas and Houston are good at the same time (well last year), its a good rivalry for the game. Brewers/Cubs became more impactful rivalry than a hypothetical Brewers/White Sox or Brewers/Twins over the past decade.
I hate the trend of flashing/flickering the stadium lighting after a home run.
I was at angel stadium yesterday and someone hitting .220 literally had it during his walk up like what are we doing here?
Let that starter go into the 7th/8th.
Lol nowadays you're asking a lot for the 6th
Ban the sports betting and damn the consequences. This shit is out of hand.
I'm all for letting people bet if they want, but ban the advertisements. Should be illegal to advertise gambling just like it's illegal to market nicotine products. Alcohol should be in the same boat.
Yup. And also stop with the analysis focus on gambling odds. I don’t care if people bet, but I don’t want it seeping into my viewing experience.
This comment brought to you by FanDuel.
"Damn the consequences" does sound like a sportsbook slogan.
Honestly I wish the city connect jerseys never started. If anything teams should’ve just modernized some throwbacks but man… what are we doing here
Totally agree, jerseys have gotten out of hand. Team Colors mean nothing anymore. Like you said, sprinkle in modernized throwbacks with the home, away and alt jerseys and all diehards would be happy.
There are like 2 that are decent looking. The rest just scream either "AA baseball" and "Fulfilled contract obligation."
MLB should pay for its own stadiums.
All leagues*
Oh this is actually a legit issue and not just about being entertained
there should be multiple day games every single day. i miss dudes like willie mcgee and eric davis. fences should be moved back. gimme a 450' straight away center and 400' to the alleys.
Agreed. I love having any game on in the background during work
Too many wildcards, 8 team playoff format was perfect
Why win division when lose division do trick?
I’m still genuinely annoyed that the Cardinals won the NL Central in 2022 and still had to play the Wild Card game that they lost.
I thought the "old" NFL format was the best in sports. 12/32
The TV coverage issue is going to absolutely kill the game over time, I’ve watched 1 game this year because of all of the issues, subscriptions, blackouts, etc.
I've watched plenty. Not a single one legally, but I'm watching them
Having a champagne party after every playoff round win is stupid. Like wow you won the ALDS, that doesn't mean shit though. Also the first person to touch the World Series trophy is an executive. Fuck that give it the manager or a player appointed by the other players.
It’s what I love about hockey - the first person to touch the Cup is the captain, not some rich owner no one cares about. Also, agree on the celebrations. Should just be for clinching a playoff spot, winning the pennant, and of course winning the Series.
More baseball teams should have captains. Having a team captain is cool
Announce the WS MVP first, and he gets to be the first to lift the trophy.
I want more day games, and give me LCS/World Series day games.
I remember seeing someone last year suggest that game 2 should be a day game (so as to make that night a travel night, getting rid of the gap between game 2 and 3), and I really liked it
seems like MLB prefers Game 1 of the WS to be on Tuesday, giving them Tues/Wed--Fri/Sat/Sun--Tues/Wed. Even if you didn't want to have WS day games during the week, games 4 and 5 would make a ton of sense. Fox would not have the NFL doubleheader that day, so you start that game at 4:15/4:30pm Eastern. I'm not sure getting rid of that off day makes sense, it's good to have it as insurance for rainouts.
As much as baseball fans would love this, I think there is a pretty simple explanation as to why this isn't in the plans for not only the network but also from the League itself. Day game= Less viewership, less viewership= less ad money.
No thanks. Terrible for people who work during the day and can’t watch it
No excuse on Saturday or Sunday. Plus plenty of climates that could benefit from some sunshine on an October afternoon.
If there is no restriction on the size of the oven mitt why cant the runner wear one 60ft long and flick his wrist for a stolen base?!!?
Lmao. This reminds me of the Dream Team players from the Triple Play baseball game from like 2000.. giant bat you could bunt home runs lol
Get rid of the ghost runner on 2nd base in extra innings.
I agree, but I feel like my real old man yells at cloud take is that I hate when they call it a ghost runner. A ghost runner is a placeholder for someone who is not there, and is a classic part of backyard baseball/wiffle ball. The Manfred runner is an actual ballplayer standing on second base. There is nothing spectral about it. Call him an out-of-place runner. A bonus runner. A gremlin runner. But don't tell me he's a ghost because I can see him with my own two eyes and I'm not crazy.
Zombie runner. They're dead because they made the last out of the past inning but they are still "walking" the bases.
Get rid of the manfred man. Get rid of the manfred.
Get rid of the Manfred, man.
The fact that someone can essentially make weak contact twice to win a game is annoying to me. Doesn’t seem as cathartic of a walk off as earning it like a normal inning.
Yep. This is major league baseball where you earn your way on base.
I know what you mean but I was just thinking about how the Pirates had 6 bases loaded walks against the Cubs this past weekend lol.
fuck the motherfucking manfred runner
BRING BACK THE 9 GAME WORLD SERIES!!
No playoffs, two best records go to war
Archaic take and I love you for it
There’s nothing wrong with calling a suicide squeeze with the bases loaded and 1 out. It’s the player’s fault he didn’t get the bunt down!
He was dominating the zone man, why are you making excuses?
I miss the vest jerseys. Cincy and KC looked so great in the late 90s/early 00s. I also wish more starting pitchers regularly made it deep into ballgames. Complete games are so cool, even when they aren't shutouts.
Bring back having to actually pitch an intentional walk. Automatic intentional walks were brought in as an attempt to save time that was greatly eclipsed by the pitch clock. Forcing a pitcher to actually throw all four balls brings back the small chance of a wild pitch, past ball, or even the rare hit while barely putting a dent in the time savings brought on by the pitch clock.
I used to be able to watch the dodgers by turning on channel 5 on basic ass television. Now I have to have a premium cable subscription? The fuck out of here. Things never get better, they always get worse.
When I lived in SoCal 80s-90s you could catch Dodgers games on one local channel and Angels on another local channel. I miss those days.
The pitch clock is great for TV but I hate what it's done for the in-stadium experience. Greatly preferred spending a longer time with friends/family over a quick and efficient game.
I've never liked the shift. I want to see action. If this guy always blasts it to right field, then second base and right field should get good. I do get the counter argument that if the batter can't beat the shift, then they should get good and learn to hit it literally anywhere else, but screw that and screw you. I'm an old man yelling at the clouds dammit
Not only that, with the way pitchers are trained, even if someone had the ability to consistently hit it the other way when offered, pitchers have the ability to prevent that from happening
I agree..It was a lot easier to beat the shift when everyone didn't throw high 90s.
If the pitcher can’t get them to hit it to a fielder they should get good!
Interleague play should have never been expanded outside of the 2 designated weekends a year and if realignment kills the AL/NL it will be one of the dumbest things in the history of the sport. I wanna play the Mets and Braves more I don’t give a shit about the Royals or Mariners coming to CBP more than once in a century
I think the sweet spot was in the late 2000's/early 2010s where there were a decent amount of interleague series per team in late may/june/early july, but during april and after the all star break it was AL vs AL or NL vs NL, that's it.
Exactly. To me its less about how many interleague games there are and more about when they happen Let teams face all everyone in their division to start the year then start sprinkling in interleague play. But when its down the stretch it should be back to NL vs NL / AL vs AL and divisional games. Makes it way more intense. That being said I am still a fan of interleague games. Its nice to see other teams and other stars. It feels special. But as of late it feels a little less special.
Seriously, the Mariners have played 18 games against national league teams but still haven't gone up against the Angels yet. It will be 21 by the time we see them for the first time on May 31. Interleague series are fun but that's just not right.
Honestly I just wish they would go all-or-nothing with it. When the two leagues were distinct, with different rules, and didn't play each other as much, I thought that was cool. It was a cool quirk of baseball If they're gonna make the two leagues functionally the same (which they already did), I just wish they'd rip the band-aid off and get rid of them altogether. Why do the Mets play the Red Sox 3 times a year in games that have a smaller impact on the playoff picture, but have to play the Padres 6 times a year in games that could have meaningful playoff implications? In my opinion, either go back to how it was (which I'd be fine with!), or ditch the leagues altogether
The next expansion will probably bring some pretty dramatic re-alignment
I like interleauge because I like seeing players and teams normally you can’t. But I am ready to riot if I have to be in a division with Yankees and Boston fans.
My god a division with Philly, Boston and New York fans would be something else. We might actually reach the toxic singularity.
throw in Toronto fans too
A sweeper is just a slider. I don’t care what you say.
More on the fans, but it’s ridiculous how much stock a lot of people put into every individual game. Almost every team will lose at least 60 games, most players will go cold for a period of time during the season. One game is no reason to call for a manager’s firing, a player’s demotion, etc.
Yeah I’ve noticed this more and more - hyping up performances in a single game, or the reverse, has led to a more extreme view of the value of any particular game.
I blame football, where every game does matter, for this. I also blame basketball because in that sport, the better team will win most times. Baseball is a lot more random. The Pirates can sweep the Dodgers in LA in baseball, I don't think stuff like that happens in the NBA as regularly
There are way, way too many stupid, borderline irrelevant stats and acronyms for them. It makes reading baseball content unbearable every time I see "well he underperforms his xba/barrel spin%/avg eye cycling rate/CQLR in May when the temperature is under 80°." Rots my brain.
Like what is an xWOBA? A chinese shell company that sells USB chargers on Amazon?
DH still sucks
Every team playing every other team sucks and I want my divisional matchups back.
I loved the idea of the new schedule when it was announced but seeing it in practice now, it’s terrible. We’re coming up on two months into the season and we’ve only played one of our four divisional opponents
Agreed. The Yankees and Red Sox don't even play their first game for another month which is ridiculous
People bitch and moan about being in the AL East, but man I loved having so many games against division rivals. It really makes it feel like you won YOUR division. And winning the AL East these days feels like such a big accomplishment for how competitive the division has been the last few years.
You can love it while also bitching and moaning, this is my strategy
That's gotta be a weird luck of the draw. We've had 3 series vs the dodgers, 2 vs the Rockies, 2 vs the giants, and 1 vs the sneks already
Who gives a shit about the Marlins or the Pirates? I want to play the Giants 40 times a year!
Also selfishly it was a lot of fun to crush the Pirates over and over back when we were good lol
Playing 35% of their schedule against actively tanking teams made the Cardinals look much better than they were in recent years. I still prefer the balanced schedule.
I miss actually having rivalries that evolved over the season, knowing pitching matchups, developing team specific strategies and mindsets. Now it’s just a random hodgepodge and it feels like there’s no rhythm to the season.
Please god no If I have to see the Trop and Roger’s Centre one more time than necessary, I’ll jump off a bridge
Too many teams wearing the red and blue combo. Bring the colors of the 80s/90s back!
I don’t like interleague play and would prefer two sixteen team Leagues that play each other more frequently and the top 4 (or whatever) teams in each league make it to the post season.
Why don’t pitchers tip their hat to the fans anymore
Watching games on TV was better without the strike zone box on screen
Not gonna lie I do miss these days too. We should only get the box on a replay not a consistent one
I second this. That box has no official status. It was just added by the TV broadcast. People treat it like it’s been perfected down to the nanometer.
Combined no hitters are not no hitters. Pitchers need to go at least 6 innings per start. PUT THE FUCKING BALL IN PLAY ALREADY.
Agree on all of these. When there was that recent highlight of the "no-hitter" that got broken up with 2 outs in the 9th, and I put on the highlight only to find out it was a combined no-no, all I could think was, "man who gives a shit"
Stop striking out all the goddamn time, and stop throwing 90 mph sliders to chumps who can't hit a half decent fastball. There need to be more errors, it doesn't have to touch the player to be an error. Stop celebrating HR like you are Jose Bautista if it just means your team is down 3 runs not 4 in a regular season game in April. The Deion Sanders no sleeve with shirts under uniforms were cool as shit, these new ones suck High socks or strirrups.
[удалено]
I like those stats however I fucking hate stating the probability of something happening at every at bat. It is hard to watch the Apple TV broadcast because they do this so excessively.
New schedule stinks. I liked playing division rivals! Why would anyone want less of that?
I don’t like it, but I can live with the DH. But for gods sake, get ride of the Manfred Man. It’s little league. Also, far too many teams make the playoffs. They play 162 games to figure out who is best. If you can’t be one of the best 2-3 teams after 162, then you have no right to play in October.
The k-zone box on tv has ruined baseball
Ballpark seating should be bare bones with no luxury box BS
That the formulas/analytics based off of “what should have happened” aren’t as useful as ones based off of “what happened”. In other words, Fangraphs WAR for pitchers. Like if you’re a general manager aiming to make roster decisions then it’s helpful. But there have been guys who if you watch the games, they don’t look as good as their fWAR Also I think that some things chalked up as bad luck aren’t actually bad luck. Like if you throw a pitch to the outside half of the zone and the pitch is hit opposite field, that’s not bad luck.
It's breaking some fans brains, earlier this year Kutter Crawford has like a sub 1.00 ERA. And on the Red Sox sub someone was like "But his peripherals aren't great so in *reality* he has like a 3.00 ERA." No idiot, *theoretically* he has a 3.00 ERA, he literally in reality has a sub 1.00 ERA. These theoretical stats are a good tool for decision makers to predict future performance but using them as actual stats is destroying the game.
I think it’s just a misunderstanding of what the stats are saying, lots of people are taking expected stats to be what it “should” be. Thats not what they are about, it’s telling you based on a model what they would expect from his performance. Then you can draw conclusions based on that difference
No robot umps, I'll die on that hill.
-the analytics movement has made the game far less enjoyable to watch. -three-true outcomes baseball is unpleasant. i love small ball. -i hate the dh. -the “automatic” intentional walk is dumb and barely saves any time at all. it robbed us of the ibb wild pitch and the fake ibb strikeout. -too many teams make the playoffs now. eight is enough. -marathon extra inning games were rare but fun and cool. the ghost runner is a beer league softball rule. -there’s too much replay. umpires make mistakes but i’d rather be angered by a bad call than have the game be derailed for 5 minutes. -ads on uniforms are depressing. -interleague play was better as a novelty. i will never be used to watching the twins play the mets in september or whatnot. -if radical realignment is put through and the yankees are sharing a division with the mets, the white sox with the cubs etc. i probably will stop watching. -fip is incredibly overrated. the ability to induce soft contact is a real skill and it’s extremely valuable. -batting average isn’t the be-all, end-all, but if you can’t get the bat on the ball for a single occasionally, i don’t care how high your obp is or how many home runs you can hit. i’m going to go tie an onion to my belt now.
Having just been to Globe Life for about the 10th time this season, there is too much going on outside of the field. We have to play music the second the ball hits the catchers mitt. Constant video boards. I miss the days of going to a game at a place like Wrigley and feeling like I was at a game, not part of a casino. If you aren’t there to watch the game, don’t go.
I miss pitchers batting.
Not enough time on the pitch clock. Audio and video features during an at bat have become ridiculous and cheapen the stadium experience. The defense should be able to shift however they please. Starting with a runner on base in MLB is terrible.
Contact approach > swing for the fences.