Around Baseball 2025

[L54]

The White Sox suck but at least they do some things right 

The A’s will no longer be a doormat 

Marlins kinda do pitching and speed 

Washington looks okay

The Rockies are a joke and owe Bryant 27M/year through 2028 

[jaysblue]

5 hours ago, L54 said:

I feel the same way. Great area and probably a top 10 sports city in the country but one of the worst run organizations in all of sports.  

Coors Field was one of my favourite ballparks I've been to. Denver is a great sports city as well. Sucks to see the organization in the shape it is. 

[jaysblue]

https://x.com/barstoolsports/status/1910132914526077092

[jaysblue]

Sorry forgot how to post tweets on here lol. 

[Brownie19]

Jacob Wilson off to a hot start for the A's.  He's a fascinating prospect IMO.  Can't wait to see what type of player he can become.

Jung Hoo Lee is also off to a good start for the Giants.  He started slow and then got hurt last year and I think most has written him off a bit as a KBO bat that wouldn't translate.  Curious to see how that turns out this year.

[BB17]

The As have a pretty interesting team. Especially if Kurtz comes up and rakes.

Wilson

Rooker

Kurtz

Soderstrom

Butler

Thats a pretty solid young/cheap core.

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, BB17 said:

The As have a pretty interesting team. Especially if Kurtz comes up and rakes.

Wilson

Rooker

Kurtz

Soderstrom

Butler

Thats a pretty solid young/cheap core.

The Os also have a solid young and deep core. 

Doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not willing to spend money to fill in the holes with quality veterans. 

Its a great place to start from though.

[Orgfiller]

The Rays are getting s*** on. GMS field is like Yankee Stadium with the warm Florida weather so it's an absolute bandbox, so many cheap HRs to the corners.

[Orgfiller]

27 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

The Os also have a solid young and deep core. 

Doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not willing to spend money to fill in the holes with quality veterans. 

Its a great place to start from though.

Ironically the A's spent more on their rotation this offseason between Severino and trading for Springs.

[BB17]

28 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

The Os also have a solid young and deep core. 

Doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not willing to spend money to fill in the holes with quality veterans. 

Its a great place to start from though.

Yeah but you are better off having that, then not having anything at all lol.

I'd rather have that core then say the Pirates with Skenes and not much on the position side of it.

Not like the Astros and Mariners are known to be big spenders either so they can probably get away with it in that division to at least be competitive. 

[Terminator]

The Rays look like dog shite right now. Lost 11-1 to the Angels and are now 5-7 on the season.

Orioles having some issues too. And so are a lot of the teams that were expected to compete for the WC. Teams like the Mariners, Astros, Twins, etc. are all of to slow start.

[Grant77]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

The Rays look like dog shite right now. Lost 11-1 to the Angels and are now 5-7 on the season.

Orioles having some issues too. And so are a lot of the teams that were expected to compete for the WC. Teams like the Mariners, Astros, Twins, etc. are all of to slow start.

I like the Mariners pitching, but I don't think they ever had the offense to compete, even if a lot of things go right. A bit like the anti-red sux.

[Brownie19]

No idea if true, but social media is saying Heyman accidentally a list of players caught using PEDs.  Maybe the Balco list?  That may be wrong.  List doesn't surprise me - although Big Mac is seemingly missing.

[glory]

Wells, Delgado, and Catalanotto on that list, and it's in team order from the looks of it, so likely from 2003 or 2004. McGwire retired in 2001 so that's probably why he's not on the list. Disappointing if Delgado was using PEDs, though I guess it shouldn't be surprising given what era he was in. Adrian Beltre stands out as well, and in his 2004 season he suddenly had 48 HR's and 161 wRC+ out of nowhere before falling off again the following year until 2010-18 when he became a stud. 

I wouldn't expect Heyman to add any context to that list, assuming it's legitimate. 

[BB17]

Was Aaron Boone ever suspected of PEDs? Some wild names on there I didn't suspect.

[Brownie19]

40 minutes ago, BB17 said:

Was Aaron Boone ever suspected of PEDs? Some wild names on there I didn't suspect.

Like who?  Personally, I am never surprised by anyone I see linked to PEDs.

[Spanky__99]

My buddy has seen CD gettin' poked several times in the clubhouse, said it a long time ago. I'm not taking anything away from the guy, but he did use.

[Terminator]

Stroman was just pulled in the first inning after giving up 5 runs and only recording 2 outs.

Yarbrough coming in with runners on the corners....

[BB17]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Like who?  Personally, I am never surprised by anyone I see linked to PEDs.

Shawn Green and Todd Helton I would have never suspected. I agree though I think there's lots of guys who are taking stuff right now, they just don't get caught lol.

I've always though Lebron has been taking s***. Theres just no way you can remain that athletic at close to like 40 years old and at that size. ESPN wrote an article about his trainer in Miami getting busted or something and it was a pretty interesting read. Surprised it didn't go viral quite honestly.

[Laika]

Imagine having to cheer for a team that has Marcus Stroman opening for Ryan Yarbro?

lolll

[Masterbather]

5 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

No idea if true, but social media is saying Heyman accidentally a list of players caught using PEDs.  Maybe the Balco list?  That may be wrong.  List doesn't surprise me - although Big Mac is seemingly missing.

The list of those not using might've been shorter.

[Terminator]

lol at the Red Sox score tonight 

[BTS]

2 minutes ago, Terminator said:

lol at the Red Sox score tonight 

Imagine starting Sean Newcomb in a major league game in 2025 

[Spanky__99]

14 minutes ago, Terminator said:

lol at the Red Sox score tonight 

Yankees... 😅

[Terminator]

 

back in sole possession of first boys

[jaysblue]

8 hours ago, Terminator said:

 

back in sole possession of first boys

Didn't even have to play last night and took possession of first! 

Playoffs will be easy to make! 

[Jays24]

Alonso is looking GREAT so far isn't he.  Can't believe so many stupid teams out there didn't want to pay the man and now they'll all pay much more this offseason. "Who couldn't see that coming..." 

[max silver]

15 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

Alonso is looking GREAT so far isn't he.  Can't believe so many stupid teams out there didn't want to pay the man and now they'll all pay much more this offseason. "Who couldn't see that coming..." 

Do you ever take a second to think before you post? Alonso was a steadily declining player coming off of a 2 win season so there's no reason to act like "stupid" teams should have been beating down his door to sign him to a $100 million+ contract. 

[Jays24]

55 minutes ago, max silver said:

Do you ever take a second to think before you post? Alonso was a steadily declining player coming off of a 2 win season so there's no reason to act like "stupid" teams should have been beating down his door to sign him to a $100 million+ contract. 

We've been over this... WAR isn't the best indicator of what a player should earn because if that was the case then Gimenez/Varsho would be earning very similar money to Vlad.  There is a premium on what players like Alonso/Vlad provide and that is why they will earn more than guys like Gimenez/Varsho. 

So either the entire MLB has dumb front offices who pay more for these players or WAR doesn't correctly articulate a players impact on a team...

[max silver]

37 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

We've been over this... WAR isn't the best indicator of what a player should earn because if that was the case then Gimenez/Varsho would be earning very similar money to Vlad.  There is a premium on what players like Alonso/Vlad provide and that is why they will earn more than guys like Gimenez/Varsho. 

So either the entire MLB has dumb front offices who pay more for these players or WAR doesn't correctly articulate a players impact on a team...

Ignore WAR if you want, but the reduction in WAR in recent seasons is due to a combination of declining value in every phase of the game. Alonso was coming off of the worst defensive and baserunning seasons of his career along with the worst expected statistics of his career. It's a neat story that he's producing the way he is right now but there was nothing to indicate this type of resurgence was coming. He was a picture perfect candidate for a pillow contract to prove that he was capable of a bounceback. It's completely hindsight criticism on your part to suggest it was somehow dumb for MLB front offices to be wary of handing out an expensive long term contract to a player that appeared to be firmly into his decline phase. This really has nothing to do with your claim of WAR not properly encapsulating value of offensive players and more of a case of a player who was showing signs of serious decline in his physical skills.

None of this is intended to attempt to take away from what Alonso has done so far. He's managed to improve his overall swing speed while shortening the length of the swing, reduce his whiff rate, drop his strikeout rate, and impact the baseball at Aaron Judge levels so far. It's a very impressive turnaround up to this point.