2025 MLB Season Thread

^Which major sport would fans say is fair?

If this is going to be the norm in baseball and you’re not going to have a cap then you have to force parity into this

Expand the playoff teams and reduce the series length across the board. First 2 rounds are 1 game playoffs, LCS is best of 3, WS is best of 5

what would be the odds for the L.A. Dodgers vs the American League All Stars in a 7 game series?

Would fans say it’s fair though? I keep hearing it’s not. The refs were helping the Chiefs in the playoffs and the Patriots benefitted from cheating if you believed those accusations. The Patriots and Chiefs made the AFC title game almost every year.

Before this year the Chiefs made the Super Bowl 5 out of 6 years and made it to 7 straight conference title games.

Poker wasn't a level playing field in the mid 90s.. the same 5 guys made it to the final table of the world series every year. Like, what? Were they they luckiest guys in Las Vegas???

Andruw Jones elected to the Hall of Fame.

I’m happy to see it. The greatest defensive center fielder I ever saw.

Two home runs in Yankee Stadium in the World Series as a 19 year old. We believed his potential was limitless then.

Based on where he was at age 19, Andruw Jones's career honestly felt like a bit of a disappointment, but that's more a testament to his perceived potential than a criticism of his actual career. He played balls in front of him as well as any center fielder I have ever seen.

I mean, Kenny Lofton had a higher WAR and also played for the Braves.

LuBob (Luis Robert) to the Mets for a couple of prospects. As a White Sox fan I am sad but happy. LuBob could be a mega superstar but he always seemed to get hurt somehow, someway. He was the last peice left of our last rebiuld that didn't work out at all. Hopefully these Mets prospects will work out (Acunas brother and some pitcher from Harvard with supposedly great stuff but control issues).

Mets will pay Roberts salary as well. If he is healthy it could be a steal.

I think that it is fine to move on from Roberts, but Luisangel Acuna doesn't have the juice to ever hit at the top of the lineup imo, and I'm not even sure he has the juice to justify 450 ABs. He feels like a Jon Berti type offensive profile--in other words, a guy who might have 35 SBs in the modern environment if you give him 450 ABs, but a guy who shouldn't get that many ABs on a decent team.

It's tempting because of his last name to believe that there is another level there, but I don't think there is.

he's an interesting player in the midst of his prime

if i were a gm he's the kind of guy i'd love to have in my lineup but not as a middle of the order guy you need to rely upon

he can never stay healthy and probably would have better numbers if that didn't entail a lot of his at bats come when he's not 100%

he's also among the league worst at getting walks and producing strikeouts - but these numbers are not too reliable due to limited sample (only had more than 431 pa once) and always playing hurt

You are referring to Robert, not Acuna. We know who Robert is at this point. He came into the league as a high level athlete. He is chronically injured. His pitch recognition is ****. He is highly exploitable. He is the sort of guy who could bink a top fifteen offensive season in any given year if he ran good in terms of health. But his chances of being a good player year over year for an extended period seem remote.

I don't think his poor BB/K ratio is attributable to health. It was an obvious flaw in his profile as a minor leaguer as well.

oh yeah - no disagreement - was more of "in a year where he only plays 100 games, i'm sure quite a few of those were games in which he played hurt and that couldn't have helped his numbers"

he also has a very wide range of outcomes whereas most players tend to find their true rate and stick to it more or less

luis robert

freddie freeman

kyle schwarber

bohm

First, the jays were never giving Bo 42M a year. Second, Tucker is getting way overpaid.....

Also, I don't think Bo hated Toronto. He is a man of few words, but he had in the recent past indicated he wanted to stay with the Jays.

I think we have to keep in mind that he probably felt slighted by the Jays. Last year the Jays made it a priority to sign Vladdy, and the news was all about whether Vladdy would sign before, during, or even after Spring Training. The Jays clearly did not want Vlad to reach free agency.

Absent in all the back and forth was that Bo was also going to be a free agent, and that Vlad and Bo were considered to be future long term Jays from the beginning. So, what did they Jays do to let the media and fans know that Bo was also a priority? Nothing. Crickets. The Jays were basically silent on Bo all year.

There was a time in the season, before Bo got injured, where the Jays could have made a push, and make it public they were making a push for Bo. But, that never happened, and Bo got injured.

I had thought that the Jays would eventually sign Bo (not Tucker) and that he would play 2nd base for the next 7 years or so. But, once the Jays signed Okamoto it seemed clear that there was no infield spot left for Bo.

Anyway, my heart wanted the Jays to sign Bo, but my head said he was going to get overpaid by some other team, and that is what happened with the Phillies and Mets...both offering Bo too much.

So, it sucks to see him go, but I believe it was more the Jays fault than Bo's.

excellent post ArcticKnight 👍 +1 Million SE Pts

Freddy Peralta to the Mets, for two reasonably well-regarded prospects.

I always liked Peralta, great K rate. Not pleased to see the Mets get him.

Hockey, tennis, and golf.

mets will be fine this year. peralta is solid

Yay. I didnt feel like being a yankees fan again.

jorge polanco at 1st for 20 million a year is quite a choice...

Polanco is very uneven. I think he is a guy who isn't fully healthy very often and whose performance deteriorates more than most when he tries to play through nagging injuries.

Woohoo, 1 million points!😃

i have an op in mind for this year's thread. if anyone wants to make it plz do, otherwise it's coming when pitchers and catchers report.