The 2024 Baseball Thread

[Michael Hopcroft]

It is refreshing to see that, with all the turmoil in baseball over uniforms and velocities and pitch clocks, that Bob Uecker is still -- Bob Uecker. "Mr. Baseball" is a true American original -- a mediocre ballplayer whose self-deprecating humor and love/knowledge of baseball enabled him to become of the best broadcasters in the game and a cultural icon (he had a great peripheral role in Major League and was one of the featured players in the sitcom Mr. Belvedere, and has done legendary ads for beer).

 

With the New York Yankees' long-time play-by-play voice John Stirling retiring and Vin Scully's retirement a few years ago, an era of history is passing. Uecker is in his early nineties. He won' be in the booth much longer. So I am going to catch some Brewers home games on satellite radio (he doesn't travel with the Brewers anymore) and take in what I can of a sports era I nearly missed altogether.

[unclevlad]

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I *loathed* John Sterling.  His homer calls in particular were contrived, unnatural, and ridiculous.  The rest of his game call wasn't very good either.

[unclevlad]

<sigh>  Well, this one is really more on the pilots, not Meulens.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39976154/rockies-coach-posts-video-cockpit-prompting-faa-probe

 

Meulens *should* realize he can't go onto the flight deck during a flight, but, well, it's possible he didn't.  OTOH, the pilots *absolutely must know* it's not allowed.  Meulens is likely to be fined, perhaps suspended by MLB for a few games, but the pilots are probably getting fired.

[Pariah]

And here I thought the level of play on the field was going to be the Rockies' biggest problem this year. 🙄

[unclevlad]

7 teams have more wins than the Rockies, Marlins, and White Sox *combined*.  6 others have the same number, but 3 of those are barely over .500...they've just played 20+ games each.

 

14 teams, as of right now with the Friday night schedule just kicking in, are within 2 games of .500.  Everyone but the Braves (17 games) has at least 18 games played.

[unclevlad]

There is no misery like Angels fans' misery.  None.

 

Rendon has a "high grade partial tear" of his hamstring, announced 4 days ago.

 

Now Trout has a torn meniscus that needs surgery.  

 

Their season's on the brink of collapse now, having lost 9 of 11...and now this.

 

The reason why I say Angels fans' misery is the worst is...what are you gonna do?  Trout's still special, but he's never on the field.  What do you do about it?  He's got to be a hall of famer, just based on the 8 years from 12-19.  3 MVPs, 4 times runner-up.  That's surreal.  But since then, it's been one injury after another, and that's not a trend that's gonna reverse.

 

And they can't move on from him;  he's still owed his $37M a year for then next 6 years.

[slikmar]

Yeah, and last night they had a game against the Phillies, would have given them the series and their closer chucks it up, the one guy in the pen they need to depend on.

 

As a fan, I felt years ago, that Arte Moreno turned into Gene Autry. Go get the aging veterans over 1 year wonder, over pay them and try to win a world series - Hamilton, Pujols (I don't hate this signing, just the length and amount as no one else was offering him it), Gary Mathews Jr., Rendon (it didnt look like a bad signing at time, but we didnt need him, it was a petulant reaction to not getting Cole), Upton, etc. In the 90s, something changed and they decided to rebuild their minors and just fill in spots, not aging superstars. Well, if they had done this back when Trout was a rookie or maybe just 8 years or 6 years ago, who knows where we would be. But instead, GM after GM sold our minors for said guys in trades, then it became get 2-3 journeymen and hope they would have career years. The current GM, Minasian, I think is on the right track, with these young guys, maybe not surperstars but serviceable major leaguers. I have also heard that Moreno, by a lot, the least amount of money into our minor league teams - facilities, coaching, scouting.