2025 MLB Thread

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Needs to have a salary cap. Otherwise, your hundred dollar tickets will TRULY be unaffordable.

The owners will charge whatever the market will bear; in fact, they're currently charging that amount. What possible reason do you think they'd try to lower revenue when payroll goes up?

[LD84]

I have never gotten that argument either

Athletes by and large are paid pretty much at their 'worth' in an economic sense.

Professional sports operates on revenue only and is not subsidized by outside groups (besides some stadium funding in North America)

The only way we will see baseball salaries stay static or decrease is if the next media rights deal is not what MLB anticipates.
Or if there really is a demographic problem as older fans age out of the game and there are not enough younger fans to replace them.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

I have a good friend whose dad was a steelworker near Pittsburgh, from the late 50's to around 1980.

His dad told me, many years ago, that the unions KNEW that they were running their company out of business with their demands..."but we gave it a hell of a run."

Not sure why your friend's dad felt the need to blame himself (perhaps he started voting for anti-union politicians and wanted to justify it?), but as we still have a steel industry, it appears the fault was less with the workers and more with that particular company. Whether it was under-capitalized or inefficient or skimming revenues for other purposes, I wouldn't know without examining the particular case. But the persistence of unionized steel producers such as United States Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs and Arcelor-Mittal shows that this is not an irreconcilable impasse. (Mittal is the parent company of what used to be LTV Steel.)

[Déjà Bru]

I watched the ABS challenge system in action tonight. It actually went smoothly. Players were judicious with their challenges and each instance was very quick. I'm not sure whether people in the stadium saw the graphic of ball placement in or out of the strike zone, but it was definitive and effective.

[Déjà Bru]

2025 MLB Franchise Rankings: Dodgers closing in on No. 1 team of past 25 years

Here are The Athletic's "tested, trusted, completely objective, never-been-questioned, all-math, no-bias MLB franchise rankings" for 2025. A rather clever device, I must say. Here is how they score:

Winning the World Series (WS): 9 points
Losing in the World Series (WSL): 6 points
Losing in the Championship Series (CS): 3 points
Losing in Division Series (DS): 2 points
Losing in Wild-Card Round (WC): 1 point

The scoring system also incentivizes division titles (+1 point) and penalizes prolonged losing cycles, docking teams (-1 point) each time they lose at least 90 games in consecutive seasons. Add up the point totals from 2000 to 2024 and you have the franchise rankings. It’s just simple math.

The rankings:

30 Pittsburgh Pirates -4 Points

29 Baltimore Orioles 3 Points

28 Cincinnati Reds 5 Points

27 Seattle Mariners 7 Points

26 Colorado Rockies 7 Points

25 Miami Marlins 8 Points

24 San Diego Padres 9 Points

23 Kansas City Royals 9 Points

22 Toronto Blue Jays 10 Points

21 Washington Nationals 14 Points

20 Milwaukee Brewers 16 Points

19 Chicago White Sox 18 Points

18 Tampa Bay Rays 20 Points

17 Detroit Tigers 20 Points

16 New York Mets 21 Points

15 Athletics 24 Points

14 Minnesota Twins 24 Points

13 Chicago Cubs 27 Points

12 Arizona Diamondbacks 27 Points

11 Cleveland Guardians 28 Points

10 Texas Rangers 28 Points

9 Los Angeles Angels 29 Points

8 Philadelphia Phillies 37 Points

7 San Francisco Giants 45 Points

6 Atlanta Braves 50 Points

5 Houston Astros 58 Points

4 Boston Red Sox 58 Points

3 St. Louis Cardinals 68 Points

2 Los Angeles Dodgers 73 Points

1 New York Yankees 83 Points

Yes, one team has a negative score. Here is how that happened:



But perhaps this is also an eye-opener. Why couldn't this team, ranked higher than some much more successful franchises, thrive?



As to the article headline,

New time frame, same champion. When these rankings still spanned the Wild-Card Era (1995 to present), the Yankees were miles ahead. Now that we’re only looking at the past 25 years, the Dodgers are closing fast. The Yankees’ 2000 World Series title will fall outside our window for next year’s ranking, so the franchise that collects more points this season will be our No. 1.

[Déjà Bru]

Trea Turner gaming the ABS system in a dig at "humanist" Max Scherzer.

Trea Turner challenges first pitch of the day from Max Scherzer and frivolity ensues

Don't worry; they are friends.

[Cobra Mgr]

What A's, Rays moving to minor league ballparks means for MLB

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

What A's, Rays moving to minor league ballparks means for MLB

I made a statement earlier about a market correction being in order. I believe this situation to be a part of it, for I agree with this:

Public cynicism over using tax dollars to fund billionaire owners' real estate plays has made turning visions of a new stadium into reality that much more difficult and the ramifications of letting a potentially volatile situation decay that much greater.

Did I use the phrase "wealth transfer system" earlier? In this case, it does not refer to avoiding inheritance taxes. It is descriptive of the flow of money from the lower levels of society to the elite at the top.

So yes, in addition to my cable bill, my property taxes would also be part of that transfer of wealth. And don't talk to me about the trickle down effect, of it being healthy for the economy. If I owned a bar across the street from the stadium, I would be all ears. I don't.

[mytreds]

The Packers model of ownership should be the rule, not the exception.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by mytreds

The Packers model of ownership should be the rule, not the exception.

Which is precisely why the NFL (and I believe all the other Leagues) have banned it. Sigh.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by mytreds

The Packers model of ownership should be the rule, not the exception.

For any other uninformed folks such as myself,

The Green Bay Packers have been a publicly owned, nonprofit corporation since 1923.

[Westheim]

Nonprofit?? Please be serious! What's next, fairplay?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

At first, I wanted to cry "Blasphemy!" but beards are ubiquitous these days. Even I grew one recently; being retired, I got tired of shaving, finally. Although a beard cannot be neglected; it requires frequent shampooing, trimming, and conditioning. But it's not the daily scrape, scrape, scrape.

I was a bit disappointed that the wife didn't notice it for over a month.

Originally Posted by Westheim

Mrs. Bru probably did, but figured that you'd tire of it without her having to raise her voice.

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

You may have something there.

I beg indulgence from the moderators for this hirsute non-sequitur, but you nailed it, Westheim.

Last night, for a number of reasons including the discovery that beard hair is not like scalp hair — wild and untrainable at least by me — I shaved it all off and went to bed. This morning, my wife was on the phone with her mother when I came down and she noticed the change immediately, with a smile and excited chatter to her mother about it.

Are you a marriage counselor by profession, perchance?

[Westheim]

Nah, I have it on good authority that I am unlovable and nobody will ever want to be together with me; all my conventional and unconventional wisdom comes from 1990s-2010s sitcoms and the knowledge that guys can never win

Kinda like the Mariners.

[Déjà Bru]

When Marcus Stroman was barking as spring training began about not being projected for the starting rotation, I remember chuckling to myself. For, if there is anything as certain as the sun and moon (or death and taxes), it's this: In the MLB, if you put 5 guys together in a pitching rotation, at least one, probably two, will end up on the DL for an extended stay. The Yankees couldn't even get out of ST before that happened.

So here is a question for Stroman: You haven't pitched more than 180 innings in five years. Over the last three seasons, you have averaged 143. The team may need you to put in 200 or more. Can you do it, "starter"? Or will you, too, break down?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

So here is a question for Stroman: You haven't pitched more than 180 innings in five years. Over the last three seasons, you have averaged 143. The team may need you to put in 200 or more. Can you do it, "starter"? Or will you, too, break down?

When the going gets tough, Marcus Stroman is usually soon nowhere to be seen.

[Cobra Mgr]

Gerritt Cole out for 2025; to have Tommy John

[Westheim]

If you're anywhere near New York and still have two arms attached to your body, I know a pair of baseball teams that will hold open tryouts for fresh pitching talent this month still!

[Cobra Mgr]

Did anyone get the new Texas Rangers New Era cap before it was taken off the "shelves"?

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Did anyone get the new Texas Rangers New Era cap before it was taken off the "shelves"?

Those designs are worse than bad and that one was hilarious. Time to clean house in the 'creative' department.