Spring training starts today, so let’s hope to enjoy we can enjoy one more season before the lockout.
The Pirates have great uniforms, great fans, a great tradition, and possibly the best stadium in the MLB. I don’t know what they did to deserve this treatment.
I love Pittsburgh, and games at PNC Park are awesome (and the nightlife around the stadium kicks ass also). What a great team, with loyal fans and a long tradition. But the owners spend 0 money, pocketing all of the luxury tax. Shit on the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets and Red Sox all you want, they’re funding half the teams in baseball.
Red Sox are holding fast until the lockout. John Henry wants a salary cap, and because of that they’re not signing any high-end free agents. But, fan expectations dictate they have to at least be “in the running” or “showing interest.” So it’s been several years of “we just couldn’t make a deal,” after guarantees that “we think the time is now.” But - because of this, they do have a young team under control for a while, and finally a decent pitching rotation coming into spring training. Still a wild card team that gets bumped in the division series, but that’s better than it’s been.
Shall we make this a World Baseball Classic thread as well? Because we’re about to get treated to some great games— I’m watching Nicaragua v. Dominican and it’s already hot in the first inning.
The WBC is fucking awesome. The vibe and energetic fun that the Winter League nations have brought in to the tournament is off the charts. Why can’t we get Winter League games on TV or even highlights here? It’s not like it isn’t good baseball.
It really is. I’ve been against it for a variety of reasons, but I’m watching it this year and it’s fun as all hell. I’m watching Venezuela/Japan now and it’s a great game.
Yes, I’m replying to myself. Just watched Venezuela beat Italy (-ian Americans). What a great game. I’ll be rooting for USA tomorrow (c’mon, Aaron Judge, and I was born here). But it would be absolutely hilarious if Venezuela beat the USA and Trump got so infuriated that he stroked out.
What he going to do, invade them again? If anybody is going to put a sour note on such a great tournament that boosted the sport, it’s that fuckhead.
I liked Jake Sevicki breakdown of why the US lost this. Benched two of our hottest hitters because of which side they hit from, for two batters with averages .120 and .000. Should have benched Judge. Not to take away from Venezuela's accomplishments, they are some true baseball badasses, the US was mismanaged from the start.
Let them come. We’ll just pretend to be them when they show up, and you and I will have a contest on how many of them we can bury in quicklime in our backyards. You have a 3D printer, I’ll get one and we’ll start making lower-receivers for us and all of our neighbours.
This kind of shit is why the Yankees run into trouble every postseason. Modern managing of most teams consists of looking at historical statistics and not individual circumstances- what hitters are currently seeing the ball well, who has injuries that hampers their usual performance, who is just having an off day. This management style lost the Yankees at least half a dozen games last year in the regular season alone. It’s brain dead managing. Look at nothing but the numbers and scribble in the names for your lineup.
Clement broke the record for hits in the playoffs last year and was the exact contact hitter USA needed when the other billionaires failed. They didn’t play him once. Just arrogant and dumbass management, through and through.