2024 MLB Season Thread

Me did! Current open futures bets.

Nice. I was able to get them at 15-1 in the offseason.

Home Run Derby tonight 8PM ET on ESPN:

Who you got!? I got Gunnar!

Pete Alonso (+300)

Marcell Ozuna (+380)

Gunnar Henderson (+430)

Bobby Witt Jr. (+470)

Adolis García (+410)

Teoscar Hernández (+1100)

José Ramírez (+1200)

Alec Bohm (+1600)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

The Home Run Derby is the GOAT All Star game gimmick, across all sports.

Can someone give Junior a bat?

bold move for adolis to never once take a practice session with his chosen pitcher before the derby

It is very boring even when one of your fave guys is in it.

it's better than the other crap can't argue with that.

The baseball ASG is the only game worth watching. There are way more substitutions than a normal game but at least the on the field performance is actually players legitimately competing. It's not like pitchers come in lobbing the ball 65 mph and the batters are using metal bats. The other sports ASGs are unwatchable garbage.

I feel like the home run derby used to be fun. I hadn't seen it in a while, but it was almost unwatchable. You don't see half of the balls land.

I used to love the home run derby show. Not sure I want to go back and watch it in case it sucks.

Yea I liked the 10 outs version better.

Pete's performance last night was embarrassing. Striking out tonight on a ball a foot outside is going to be the cherry on top of his ASG poop sandwich

on the bright side, the pitch was a strike

Would it have gone to a derby after 9?

Also wtf were they wearing?

Yeah I think the problem I have is that it's almost impossible to watch on TV because you're trying to watch where the ball lands but also you get drawn back to the batter for his next swing, so it just feels a little too frenetic.

I'm trying to think of an outs-based system that gets rid of the problem of guys looking at 6 pitches in a row before finally swinging at one.

They needed screen split badly. Show where ball lands + batter AT ALL TIMES!!

Make a strike an out.
Or maybe 2 strikes is an out.

I really don't remember guys taking that many pitches anyway.

so the mets are real kings of NY this season it would seem?

even more important, the crads have advanced squarely into 2nd place (-31 run differential) in the NL Central with little to no national media coverage. Can we start the playoffs already?

not pitching to Judge really is the cheat code until the rest of this lineup can show anything at all

I know the lineup besides Judge and Soto has been awful lately

But lol@

something called Jamai Jones leading off and JD Davis who got released by Oakland and hadn't played in 19 days batting 4th behind Judge.

I'm surprised Judge only has 79 walks in 101 games considering how pathetic his lineup protection is. He should be getting consistently walked right now.

I also think MLB rules allowing star players to be pitched around the way Bonds was is a huge flaw in the game that should've been addressed when it was happening (and should've been addressed 100 years ago when pitchers could have done the same thing to Babe Ruth if he weren't on such a powerhouse team with Gehrig batting behind him, but that's a different discussion. The game should protect the ability of its most talented players to showcase their skills, not allow a loophole in the game for an opponent to simply remove that players talent from the game.

Pitchers should be allow to showcase their skills too and not have to grease pitches to guys they know they are outmatched by. Also, I'll give odds Judge doesn't win MVP this year, let me look at where it is at currently.

Just imagine this example. An amazing hitter comes along. Under normal circumstances if pitched to like anyone else, he would bat .450 with 150 home runs. He's the most exciting player baseball has ever seen, and everyone wants to watch him.

Instead he gets 700 intentional walks per season, and never gets to swing the bat.

See the problem? It basically happened to a lesser extent with Bonds, but people hated Bonds and baseballs traditions are so old that they're hard to change, even when they're toxic to the fans viewing experience.

In other sports, the better you are, the more your talents get featured. The best players play the most, take the most shots etc. In baseball, if you get too good, the other team can just stop letting you play. The better you are past a certain point, the less you get to play.

I've said it for years. Baseball would be way better if every inning started from the top of the order, and the games were 6 innings long. If a batter draws a walk or get hit by pitch, any bench player can take his spot at 1st base, and he can remain at the plate to hit.

When I used to watch baseball games, innings where the heart of the order was coming up was something I wouldn't miss. Innings where the 789 hitters were coming up was time to poop or make a sandwich or something. And there's really no reason why any inning should start with the 789 hitters unless it's kids leagues or something. It would be like the NBA making all the scrubs play equal minutes to the stars and ensuring they all get some touches and shots. It just doesn't make sense. It's not like hitters need 2 innings to rest before they can hit again.

someone did statistical analysis and found you should even be walking bonds if the bases are loaded

The problem with that idea is you just make the teams with the very best hitters far superior to every other team. You think the White Sux suck now? Good luck trying to beat a Soto, Judge, Stanton lineup every inning.

You'd also take away some of the dominant pitching, which I enjoy. All the other sports have their stars rest at times, so I don't really see it being a problem since you stack your stars at the beginning of the lineup so they do get more ABs. And there are always fan favorites who aren't the best batters that people like to watch bat.

I think reducing the innings to 7 might be the best idea, but I am fine as it is.