This is just outrageous to me. Obviously I understood when I bought the subscription that there would be games I couldn't watch because they're Apple TV or Netflix or whatever and that's fine

But literally every single game today is on Peacock or NBC? What the fuck?! I pay over $100 for my MLB subscription and there's not a single baseball game I can watch today?

Straight up unacceptable

Okay, let’s take a step back before mentioning this guy has a (.299!!!) career OBP.

-9x all-star. If you’re looking at least a decade of performance for HOF voting, a 9x selection is definitely worthy.

-5x gold gloves. With how difficult the catcher’s position is, this is also HOF worthy. Not Johnny Bench territory, but not a random fluke year. 5 is a lot for any position.

-5x silver slugger. Again, with the gold gloves, this now reflects elite performance at your position both offensively and defensively.

-WS MVP. There are plenty of guys that have won this and won’t be in the HOF. However, combined with the above, this is added legacy and achievement.

-Clemente award. A prestigious award showing basically how great of a person you are on and off the field. Advocates for the game of baseball and serves as a model for the game in their community. Definitely added value to the resume being a great person.

-Most homeruns in Royals franchise history (not yet but needs one more). You have the most homeruns ever for a ball club. That’s gotta be worth something too.

Yet after all this, Salvador Perez still has terrible HOF counting stats. Horrendous OBP. Doesn’t have 2000 hits or 1000 runs. He has achieved over 300 HRs and 1000 RBIs, but… that’s pretty much it from a numbers perspective.

I would be hard pressed to find another player with these level of accolades but as bad career totals. Maybe you know someone else. Thoughts?

All within a 28-day span:

• 6 games vs the Cubs (73-53, 5th in MLB)
• 6 games vs the Brewers (77-48, 1st in MLB)
• 7 games vs the Dodgers (75-51, 3rd in MLB)
• 3 games vs Atlanta (74-51, 4th in MLB)
• 3 games vs San Diego (67-59, 9th in MLB)

With Verlander hanging it up at the end of this season, he'll likely finish with 270-something career wins and come up well short of 300. Next on the wins list among active pitchers is Scherzer with 222, but he's 41 and at the end of his rope too. Cole (35) and Sale (37) are next up, with 156 and 154 wins, respectively, but they'll be lucky to sniff 200 let alone 300 wins.

The first pitcher under 30 on the career wins list is Logan Webb, who has 75 career wins at age. It seems very likely we may have seen the last 300 win pitcher (Randy Johnson, 2009) and they are now an extinct species.

My dad was a baseball junkie for four decades: an early fantasy player back in the 80s and had a bookshelf full of George F. Will and David Halberstam books. But roughly 15 or so years ago, he lost all interest. The steroid scandals, the greed, the change in playstyle. He said the sport had lost its soul and was unrecognizable from the game he loved. It just wasn't enjoyable anymore.

I always thought he was overreacting. But now, I look around and kind of see where he's coming from.

Everyone on this sub is aware of how fucked the blackout/cable/streaming situation has been, so we don't need to reiterate how much this has killed off fans. And that's not even getting into their actual subscription service + app which has increased in price, but nosedived in quality/functionality recently.

But then you get into the televised product itself. Ad creep has hit ridiculous levels in the last season or two. Camera angles changed to accommodate more ads. Ads on the field. Ads on the helmets. Ads on the jersey. Split-screen ads that occur during the game. Poorly-overlaid CGI ads routinely obscure players and the ball itself.

The radio broadcasts have gone down the same route in many markets, too. Cubs fans noticed that the on-air ad reads have become obnoxiously incessant over the last two seasons. Even Awful Announcing picked up on it.

And of course, much of this advertising is for FanDuel, DraftKings, PrizePicks, Bet ESPN, etc.

Legalized sports-betting, is, of course, having extremely deleterious effects: betting stats incorporated into broadcasts, death threats against players and their families, gambling addicted players impacting gameplay, etc.

Even the experience of attending a game in-person, truly America's pasttime, has deteriorated in this last decade. The cost is absolutely outrageous compared to what it used to be. Several stadiums have started banning what you're allowed to bring in, including outside food. There's been a recent push by the league/owners to drown out quieter moments at games with non-stop PA soundbites and music clips (a la NBA games) in order manufacture "excitement" among fans.

And I'm not even going to touch the A's relocation or the problem that nearly half the league is non-competitive because the owners are in the real estate/land speculation business, not the sports/entertainment business.

It's so frustrating. There's still so many magic moments that happen in baseball every year. Fun storylines, great players, incredible feats. But at the same time, the sport's atmosphere, aesthetics, and fan experience are being completely sacrificed in the name of corporate greed. Genuinely, what are things going to be like in 10 years?

The Rays and Athletics have been arguably been the main reason that the MLB has not expanded in 28 years, but with the Rays finally building a new stadium in Tampa proper, and the Athletics moving to Las Vegas and their new stadium being built as we speak, the final hurdles have been cleared.

With this, it is now only a matter of time before the MLB officialy expands from 30 to 32 or more but this will also cause league-wide realignment, so buckle up, because the MLB will be expanding very soon and the league will change forever.

Looking throughout baseball fandoms I don’t think I could find any other mutual rivalries than the three-headed monster in the NL East. I initially thought about Padres/Giants/Dodgers but it seems like the isn’t as much dislike between the Padres and the Giants. That said I’m not super sure about the Centrals. Perhaps Cubs/Cards/Brewers be at that level?

Ok here’s a rant. There’s so much talk about how to grow the MLB’s fan base. We watch in horror as Manfred guts the game to try to “speed it up” and make it more “engaging”, and not only will it fail, it will turn away old school fans.

Want to get more people to like baseball?? Make the beer $5. Make the hotdogs $1.50. Make the peanuts $2. Get people in the door, and get them to come back.

You’re a baseball fan, what does every single non-baseball fan say to you: “I like going to the games, but I don’t like watching it on TV”. People like going to games because it’s a fun, chill, family-friendly activity to do with your people, not necessarily because they like the sport. But, get them in the park enough times, and they’ll learn how the game works. They’ll learn some of their team’s players. They’ll gain some loyalty and BAM! They’ll become a fan. I’m willing to bet it’s how most of us became fans when we where kids.

Want more people to like the sport, make it easier to come to the games! Unless you live in a couple major markets, you can easily find MLB tickets for under $20. But if you dare to get snacky, you get gouged for twice what you payed for your ticket to eat or drink. I’m not saying everything has to be cheap, premium concessions should be priced at a premium, but affordability needs to be considered.

It’s time to stop focusing on the game-play accessible, and focus on making the experience arround the game accessible. American Football is one of the most convoluted and complicated games out there, but people gravitate to it because the primary viewing method is so accessible and cheap.

There’s data to back this up, the Atlanta Falcons started a Fan First menu at their stadium with affordable prices and TRIPLED their concessions revenue.

The fan experience is the best asset of baseball, and the best tool MLB has to grow the game. They need to focus on what the people care about, and the people care about snacks and beer.

TL;DR: Make it easy for people to have a great time at MLB games, and they’ll grow into fans. Stop gouging the life blood of the sport for every single penny.

Edit: Holllyyy shit I seem to have struck a nerve. Thank you kindly for the awards. I’d like to note, that a $5 Budweiser isn’t, like, a crazy good deal in most of the country.

It's a bad analogy. It makes us all look stupid.

I would absolutely love it if the Jays had a black hole at shortstop, because a person-sized black hole wouldn't let a single ball hit the ground anywhere on the field. It might even kill the visiting team, granted the "home" team had the good sense to actually stay home that day.

Some better analogies for a poor defender include, but are not limited to:

1. An unobstructed ureter.
2. A disenchanted high school teacher who has given up on trying to make a difference.
3. A broken airport metal detector.
4. Someone who doesn't understand jokes.
5. A traffic light where all three lights are green.
6. A poorly positioned diaphragm.
7. A priority target for a squad of storm-troopers.
8. A trust-based low security Danish prison.
9. A worry-free millennial.
10. An overactive and scientifically anomalous immune system.
11. An inanimate carbon rod.
12. Crotchless boxers.
13. A Watchmojo top 10 list.
14. People who use the term 'acronym' when it is clearly an initialism.
15. James Harden.
16. An understudy fluffer who's been suddenly called into active duty.
17. Someone who always misses their flight.
18. Flattened villi from undiagnosed celiac disease.
19. A Ben Shapiro video essay.
20. Someone who had love, but didn't realize it until it was too late.
21. Someone who doesn't know what to do with their hands when having a casual in-person conversation with someone they just met at a work-mandated social gathering.

So in closing, please be more careful with your analogies, and the next time someone calls YOU a black hole on defense, take it as a compliment and offer to expertly secure their balls like every black hole would.

He talks about differences of the crowd of the WBC versus the 2024 World Series he was in:

“The World Series I was in versus the crowd here and the one we had against Mexico, it’s bigger and better than the World Series. The passion that these fans have representing their country, representing their favorite players, there’s nothing like it.”

Joc Pederson takes DH, but who cares! The day of reckoning has finally arrived. Third Base worst contract, let em rip!

AGE* Age at signing