2025 MLB Thread

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, 1776 said:

Orioles fire Brandon Hyde. 

Not surprised, but this terrible start is not just on him.   How about losing your ace and your top power hitter and replacing them with next to nothing.   GM should be out the door too. 

[CMRivdogs]

Being one of the local teams, I had high hopes when new ownership took over last season. 

[Arlington]

On 5/16/2025 at 10:38 AM, IdahoBert said:

I would love me some Bill Freehan, but I don’t think it’ll happen. 

I'm all in on Lou and Freehan.  I consider Bill the position player MVP of 1968.  Denny won but Bill had the most votes of the position players. 

Mickey brings up a lot of great memories for Tiger fans but he was an average pitcher who pitched a long time.  His ERA+ was 104.  Led the league in losses twice, wins once.  Was consistently ignored in the Cy Young award earning votes in only 2 or 3 seasons.  I can't name anyone in the hall who was more mediocre

[RatkoVarda]

manager change does not help crappy pitchers not be crappy

[papalawrence]

Twin have won 13 in a row and have 3+ straight shutouts 

[ben9753]

AL Central is the only division where 4 teams have at least 25 wins

[1776]

25 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

Twin have won 13 in a row and have 3+ straight shutouts 

The Twins have moved into 2nd place. 

[IdahoBert]

Tune into the Rockies and Diamondbacks game right now the Rockies are leading 13–11 and the diamondback’s bench coach was just kicked out out of the game. It’s a tremendous and well needed comeback for a team that has suffered a lot.

[IdahoBert]

Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus. 

[IdahoBert]

Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad we beat them, but I hate seeing another team and another fan base suffer this miserably. I’m glad they were able to squeak out a win of such monumental import.

[IdahoBert]

What would be best is that all the Minnesota Twins mojo would momentarily transfer for a week or so to the Colorado Rockies and that the Twins would lose something like seven games in a row and the Rockies instead would win seven games in a row. The Twins are due for a biblical Book of Job sort of correction. 

[1776]

12 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

What would be best is that all the Minnesota Twins mojo would momentarily transfer for a week or so to the Colorado Rockies and that the Twins would lose something like seven games in a row and the Rockies instead would win seven games in a row. The Twins are due for a biblical Book of Job sort of correction. 

Bert, wasn’t there, at one time, a Rockies affiliate near your neck of the woods at some point? Tri City Devils?

We were fans of the Low A Rockies affiliate in Asheville (Tourists) until Manfred & Co. shuffled teams around in 2020. The Low A Rockies affiliate went from Asheville, NC to Fresno, Ca. in that shuffle. 
The current Rockies manager, Warren Schaffer, was the Tourists manager for several games we saw in Asheville. I hated when Asheville lost their affiliation with Colorado. We had a really good friend that was the Assistant GM with the Tourists for several years.  In 2014 my wife and I drove to Hagerstown, MD to see the Tourists win the South Atlantic Championship versus the Hagerstown Suns (Washington Nationals) team.
In 2020 Asheville got stuck with Houston when they lost their Colorado affiliation. That’s rock bottom. 
As bad as Colorado is these days I still like to see them do well. 

[IdahoBert]

57 minutes ago, 1776 said:

Bert, wasn’t there, at one time, a Rockies affiliate near your neck of the woods at some point? Tri City Devils?

We were fans of the Low A Rockies affiliate in Asheville (Tourists) until Manfred & Co. shuffled teams around in 2020. The Low A Rockies affiliate went from Asheville, NC to Fresno, Ca. in that shuffle. 
The current Rockies manager, Warren Schaffer, was the Tourists manager for several games we saw in Asheville. I hated when Asheville lost their affiliation with Colorado. We had a really good friend that was the Assistant GM with the Tourists for several years.  In 2014 my wife and I drove to Hagerstown, MD to see the Tourists win the South Atlantic Championship versus the Hagerstown Suns (Washington Nationals) team.
In 2020 Asheville got stuck with Houston when they lost their Colorado affiliation. That’s rock bottom. 
As bad as Colorado is these days I still like to see them do well. 

Before the Boise Hawks were left out of the northwest league they were the short season class a team for the Rockies. And I was at a game once where all the front office people from Denver were there and it was pretty impressive. I gotta tell you. We sat right behind them because we decided to splurge that night for box seats. For better or worse these guys all carried themselves like they were masters of the universe.

[IdahoBert]

The Angels are on the verge of sweeping the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium for their three game series, and the Mariners likewise, if they hold on, will sweep the Padres in San Diego. This is a big weekend course correction for the NL West, which has been pretty dominant so far this year. 

[IdahoBert]

Ohtani at the plate… got him on strikes! Angels win and sweep the Dodgers for the first time in 15 years!

Just amazing that the Padres were swept in three games at home by the Mariners and the Angels sweep the Dodgers in Dodger stadium.

American LEAGUE… American LEAGUE!! 

[1776]

A week from tomorrow the Giants are in Motown for a three game series. That should be a good one. 
 

Edited May 18 by 1776

[1776]

Monday morning WSJ:

Now baseball is trying to settle the debate once and for all. On Tuesday, MLB will launch a pilot program in the minor leagues of a replay system for check swings, the term used to describe when a hitter begins to swing but then stops partway through. The test, which will take place in the Single-A Florida State League, is an effort to inject a degree of objectivity into the murkiest calls umpires have to make.

The new rule will work similarly to the automated strike zone that was auditioned during spring training this year and uses the same technology. Teams will have the ability to ask a computer to determine whether a hitter swung or not. If the head of the bat is ahead of the knob on the end by more than 45 degrees, the pitch will be deemed a strike. 

Check Check

MLB will start testing a challenge system for checking a swing. If the head of the bat is ahead of the knob by more than 45 degrees it will be considered a swing.

 

Source: MLB
Brian McGill/WSJ

League officials caution that the system—which was briefly introduced last year in the Arizona Fall League—remains a work in progress. It is still far too soon to begin to contemplate when or if a version of it will ever come to the majors.

[gehringer_2]

using the bat angle instead of the forward progress of the whole bat is an interesting way to do this. I will be a big benefit to guys who end up twisting forward getting away from an inside pitch but get called for a swing even though the bat head stayed behind their hands. Under this system much less possibility of that being called a strike.

It does blow up the conventional wisdom idea that it's a strike if the bat crosses home plate - a concept that was never in the rule book to begin with.

Edited Monday at 01:43 PM by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

23 hours ago, 1776 said:

 

Monday morning WSJ:

Now baseball is trying to settle the debate once and for all. On Tuesday, MLB will launch a pilot program in the minor leagues of a replay system for check swings, the term used to describe when a hitter begins to swing but then stops partway through. The test, which will take place in the Single-A Florida State League, is an effort to inject a degree of objectivity into the murkiest calls umpires have to make.

The new rule will work similarly to the automated strike zone that was auditioned during spring training this year and uses the same technology. Teams will have the ability to ask a computer to determine whether a hitter swung or not. If the head of the bat is ahead of the knob on the end by more than 45 degrees, the pitch will be deemed a strike. 

Check Check

MLB will start testing a challenge system for checking a swing. If the head of the bat is ahead of the knob by more than 45 degrees it will be considered a swing.

 

Source: MLB
Brian McGill/WSJ

League officials caution that the system—which was briefly introduced last year in the Arizona Fall League—remains a work in progress. It is still far too soon to begin to contemplate when or if a version of it will ever come to the majors.

I thought they’ve been doing crossing the plate at what the article would probably call a zero degree angle. That’s what I thought side-angle replays generally show and what umpires appear to call it on. Am I wrong?

[CMRivdogs]

Has anyone read The Athletic's story of some players concerns about the ABS system?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6366519/2025/05/19/automated-ball-strike-system-mlb/?source=athletic_pulsenewsletter

Players are concerned that the margin of error in the automated system was close to a half inch. Doesn't sound like much but a pitch 1/10 an inch inside the strike zone could also be construed as 4/10 outside the zone. In other words they say if it's not perfect, why change it?

 

Quote

As Burnes put it, “If we can’t get something we feel is 100 percent accurate, why even take the job out of a guy’s hands who has been doing it for 20 years behind the plate?”

No opinion here, there will always be arguments. They just have to weed out the consistently bad umpires. 

 

[Klondike]

On 5/18/2025 at 7:30 PM, 1776 said:

A week from tomorrow the Giants are in Motown for a three game series. That should be a good one. 
 

On the whole the N.L. top tier teams are superior to the the A.L. I wish the Tiger's the best.

[papalawrence]

2 hours ago, Klondike said:

On the whole the N.L. top tier teams are superior to the the A.L. I wish the Tiger's the best.

I don't think rhe gap is as wide as most analysts are saying. Buster Onley mentioned the Diamondbacks might be the best if they were in the AL. The Twins just swept the Giants. The Dodgers, when healthy are in a league of their own

Edited Tuesday at 03:09 PM by papalawrence

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, chasfh said:

I thought they’ve been doing crossing the plate at what the article would probably call a zero degree angle. That’s what I thought side-angle replays generally show and what umpires appear to call it on. Am I wrong?

I'm not going to go look it up, but my recollection is that the rule book says the umpires is supposed to judge whether the batter committed to swing - or maybe 'offer' is the word. I don't think any particular physical geography of what that means is in the rule book.  I don't know that I've heard a working umpire admit to what his standard is.

Practically speaking,  the home plate ump might be able to see the bat "cross the plate" but I wonder if the research showed that the base umpire (who makes the vast majority of the calls) is actually going by whether he sees the bat line up with his line of vision, whether he even recognizes that as his judgement point or not - simply because visually that is the only point where the base ump's eyes can detect a transition of some kind, and that  isn't too far from what this system does - the strike line is parallel with the baseline - which is the point where the bat is pretty much pointing directly at the base umpire.

Edited Tuesday at 03:33 PM by gehringer_2

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Has anyone read The Athletic's story of some players concerns about the ABS system?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6366519/2025/05/19/automated-ball-strike-system-mlb/?source=athletic_pulsenewsletter

Players are concerned that the margin of error in the automated system was close to a half inch. Doesn't sound like much but a pitch 1/10 an inch inside the strike zone could also be construed as 4/10 outside the zone. In other words they say if it's not perfect, why change it?

 

No opinion here, there will always be arguments. They just have to weed out the consistently bad umpires. 

 

I think the biggest problem with a transition to ABS is that 90% of MLB umps currently call a zone which is wider than the plate, and worse, it's not symmetric to both sides, the pitcher generally gets a couple inches to the outside relative to which ever side the batter is on. So the only way for ABS not to cause a big dislocation in the major league game is if the zone is set wider and shifts left and right at each batter - otherwise there is going to be a big jump in offense when hitters start spitting on all the outside pitches they can't reach that they they swing at now because they know will be called strikes anyway.

[chasfh]

11 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I'm not going to go look it up, but my recollection is that the rule book says the umpires is supposed to judge whether the batter committed to swing - or maybe 'offer' is the word. I don't think any particular physical geography of what that means is in the rule book.  I don't know that I've heard a working umpire admit to what his standard is.

Practically speaking,  the home plate ump might be able to see the bat "cross the plate" but I wonder if the research showed that the base umpire (who makes the vast majority of the calls) is actually going by whether he sees the bat line up with his line of vision, whether he even recognizes that as his judgement point or not - simply because visually that is the only point where the base ump's eyes can detect a transition of some kind, and that  isn't too far from what this system does - the strike line is parallel with the baseline - which is the point where the bat is pretty much pointing directly at the base umpire.

MLB Now showed footage from the 1965 World Series where Koufax elicited swords from hitters and they were considered to not have gone around on the pitches which, if you see the clip, will practically boggle your mind.