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2022 Baseball Thread


unclevlad

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With spring training games going on, the strike threat gone, it's time to start a thread for the new season.

 

And I get to start it with a bang.  

 

Instead of putting into the CBA, MLB and MLBPA made some rules changes...note that this facility was included in the CBA.

 

1.  The Ohtani rule.  If the starting pitcher is also listed as the DH, then removing him as a pitcher does NOT remove him as the DH.  He can stay in that role.  This only applies to the starters, but let's be honest, it applies only to Ohtani.

 

2.  Extra runner starting on 2B in extra innings is BACK for 2022.  Yay!  I know it's polarizing, but I feel it *greatly* improves the game.

 

3.  Expanded rosters through May 2nd.  28, due to shortened spring training.  After that it's 26, and only 13 pitchers.  I think the latter's a new angle;  I'm a bit surprised but I'm also happy to see it.

 

 

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https://www.t-mobile.com/mlb -April 5 through 11, T-mobile Customers (also Sprint and Metro by T-Mobile customers) can claim a free season-long subscription to MLB.TV.

 

If anyone picks this up because they read about it here, let us all know.

 

I never know if posting a freebie here actually helps anyone or whether it's just a waste of everyone's time. 

 

With this freebie being worth $130, if it helps out one or two people here (or one or two of someone's friends), that'd make it seem like I was accomplishing something. ;) 

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The Rockies have signed Kris Bryant ... to play primarily outfield? That's what the article I saw earlier today said.

 

They've also just extended Ryan McMahon for 6 tears and $70M. 

 

Nevertheless, the Rocks are offseason losers for losing Trevor Story and getting nothing in return.

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1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

The Rockies are simply another player development pool for the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and a very few others.  Like half the teams in the sport.

 

You forgot the Cardinals, I think. 

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I don't mean this in a snide way, but archer, did you read the story?  You really should;  it rips ownership and their nearly complete lack of offseason interest to shreds.

 

The media is likely to monitor overall first-week attendance;  it'll be interesting to see if it's down, suggesting it's a strike-related issue, or more localized, suggesting fan dissatisfaction with the owners.

 

EDIT:  oh yeah, forgot why I came into this thread this time.

 

First clear-cut impact of the NL DH?  Albert Pujols has signed a 1 year deal to return to the Cards.  Long presser just now;  he said it's definitely his last year.  He's really not costing much...pretty sure it's a veterans' minimum contract, and his clubhouse presence may be worth that.

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It turns out radio for all 30 teams will be forwarded to listeners by TuneIn, which may eliminate the need to buy MLB.tv since I mostly listen to radio calls while I work anyway.  Not being able to afford the TV package is a bummer, given my other bills and the bills I have not yet paid this month but that are important, and MLB.tv just doesn't fit my list of needs.

 

I am not bitter about the stoppage -- the Union deserved a better deal and got one.

 

And I'll eb interested to hear from some of those teams. I apparently get another season of Bob Uecker calling games in Milwaukee, the city in which he is so beloved. The best radio announcers are poets of their game. They see the epic efforts day in and day out.

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Baseball is a very nice radio game.

 

Note that MLB is only part of TuneIn premium, and that's $10/month.  Not as bad as MLB.tv, but not free.

 

I also wonder if local blackout rules will still apply.  That's something that drives me up the wall.  Even when there's no local TV...the blackout still applies.  That's affected quite a few Rangers games.  Not that I care per se about the Rangers, but it often leaves no game available.  Note that this particularly impacts late games, as they tend to be West Coast teams, and so much of the schedule is within your division.  Turns out tomorrow...MLB Network has 2 games at 10 Eastern.  Astros at Angels...nope.  Astros blackout.  Padres at D'backs...double blackout.  

 

The other side here is that the cable marketplace is fracturing so badly.  SO many channels out there, no one can carry all of em.  Baseball's mostly carried on the regional nets now...Bally-branded at this point.  But you're either paying through the nose for an out-of-area regional net...on DirecTV it was something like another $40 a month *on top* of digital premium...yet the owners and networks still impose a ludicrous, IMO counter-productive policy.

 

Oh boy.  Gonna be another one of those years.  Phillies and Rays are playing;  with the regular season starting tomorrow, not many are.  There was another one:  Detroit vs. Baltimore.  It got cancelled because both teams felt they didn't have the pitching.  And in this game...Rays' starter got hit pretty hard, didn't make it out of the 2nd.  The first reliever also got hit hard...as in, 2 home runs.  He came out for 1 more batter in the 3rd...then got pulled.  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Granted it's preseason.  Also granted...no one's ready.  This preseason is FAR too short for the pitchers, and the extraordinarily cautious handling of them.  DeWayne Staats was pointing out that probably much of April was going to be played like preseason, with lots and lots of pitchers used for short stints, to get the arms really in shape.  Which is also something of a joke, given that the average length of a start is now about 5 innings.

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I know. I moved to northern California after a lifetime, ok half a lifetime, of living in the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area. I pay Directv appx $160 a year for the MLB package, which works out on Angel games to about 135 games. I cannot watch the Angel broadcast of any game against the A's or Giants and have to watch the local broadcast. Add to that the number of games that are now streamed on YouTube (I think there are 3-5 per team) that MLB doesn't show. I do not have the streaming data to watch online, so I might listen to those games. But, as you mentioned, it is much cheaper then the $40 a month for the high end sports package, especially as I found out that because baseball (this works for any sports apparently) have a package, professional out of market games (like the Angels) are blacked out anyway, or at least that was the way it was 6 or so years ago.

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Living out of market of your favorite team sucks. Moving to the other side of the Rocky Mountains has impacted my ability to watch the Broncos, the football team I grew up watching. For the longest time, Salt Lake City was considered part of the Broncos market. But then local boy Steve Young started playing for the 49ers, so they started focusing on 49ers games instead. Still, that was the other network, and you could usually catch Broncos game without too much difficulty.

 

Now that the Raiders have moved to Las Vegas, the powers that be have decided that Salt Lake City is now part of the Las Vegas market. Oh, the ignominy!

 

Of course, there is a package I could subscribe to to solve that problem ... But I'm not willing to cough up that much money to watch a team that hasn't sniffed .500 in 6 years.

 

But I can still watch the Rockies fairly regularly when I want to here. At least until the A's relocate to Las Vegas, too.

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21 hours ago, Pariah said:

Now that the Raiders have moved to Las Vegas, the powers that be have decided that Salt Lake City is now part of the Las Vegas market. Oh, the ignominy!

 

 

That feels too much like placing an electron and a positron in close proximity......

 

Back to baseball:  Brewers-Cubs on MLB Network.  Scoreless through 3;  deja vu.  Jon Schiambi dropped a little factlet...19 teams changed hitting coaches last year.  19.  That's over half the teams even if a couple fired multiple hitting coaches.  That's a crazy number to me...and even more info about the pathetic state of hitting generally, if we needed anything more.

 

EDIT:  cool moment.  Cubs started the bottom of the fifth down 1-0.  Tied the game on a sac fly.  Then another single, and a 2 run shot into the gap.  The cool part was the reaction of the fan that caught the ball...totally blown away.  Opening day, first dinger for your team for the year.  Oh yeah, he had a Cubs jersey on.  Very nice for him.

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Wow...time flies.

 

Mets-Nats game, comment came up that yesterday was the 14th anniversary of Nick Adenhart's death from a crash caused by a drunk driver...at 22.  I remember the reaction;  his career was starting out VERY nicely, and, well...he was just 22.  And a drunk driver.  It was stunning.  Not quite as much as Jose Fernandez' death in 2016, but still very emotional.  

 

14 years ago.  

 

I'm getting old, huh.....

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