Around Baseball 2025

[glory]

Lauer is arbitration eligible after this season, so they'll have him for 2026. Beyond that, it's Gausman, Berrios, and nothing else. Manoah shouldn't be counted on until he proves he's back, and that might never happen. Yesavage is a possibility but pitching prospects are scary to count on. I definitely think they should add at least 2 SP's and then leave the remaining spot for Lauer, Manoah, Yesavage, etc, to fight it out. If Bieber is healthy and is one of the two they add for 2026, then that's a nice start. 

[Orgfiller]

2 minutes ago, Grant77 said:

Lauer isn't a free agent, he's arbitration eligible. 

I'd like to bring Bieber back and leave that 5 spot open for our internal options. If we're going to add a second pitcher, it should be a 1 year guy like Scherzer.

I love Chris Bassitt, but I don't think he returns.

Kinda nuts that Lauer debuted at 23 back in 2018 and he's still arbitration eligible heading into the 2026 season lol.

[mphenhef]

2 hours ago, Nexii said:

Better example, MLB buried Pete Rose for the same. Even though MLB has gotten in bed with gambling companies, I lean to them still taking this stuff seriously. What happens to Clase and Hoburg in the long run will be the barometer

Rose was banned after his playing days were over.  He wasn't making the league any money at the time.  Ohtani is a face of baseball and is bringing in all kinds of revenue for both the Dodgers and the league.

[John_Havok]

14 minutes ago, Grant77 said:

Lauer isn't a free agent, he's arbitration eligible. 

I'd like to bring Bieber back and leave that 5 spot open for our internal options. If we're going to add a second pitcher, it should be a 1 year guy like Scherzer.

I love Chris Bassitt, but I don't think he returns.

They really need the same thing they need right now, a clear-cut #1 to lead the rotation. That list in this offseason as far as FAs go is pretty short. 

Whether that ends up being Bieber for the rest of this season or not, we don't know yet obviously but it sure would be nice. He does have that 16m player option that ... well it's not a 0 chance he turns it down depending on how the rest of the season goes but yeah, it's probably not a thing. 

Woodruff we know will be available since Milwaukee will let him walk for the comp pick and their staff will still be just fine. Bieber might be that guy too. Framber Valdez?

[John_Havok]

Brewers just made Keller their bitch for their 12th straight win. They haven't lost since the day before the trade deadline. 4 straight sweeps. 

Unreal steamroll right now

[metafour]

On 8/13/2025 at 10:43 AM, Brownie19 said:

He's just asking what the cutoff is in terms of how rich and famous you have to be for people to cover up your crimes.  Clase isn't some nobody rookie.

Its about the monetary value of the player himself. Clase is a reliever from a dirt-poor country. You think the MLB and the broadcasting companies (ESPN, etc.) make any money from the Dominican Republic, lol?

Ohtani is a golden cow who's likeness rakes in god knows how many millions. There is a report that the Dodgers have already made ~$120M in one year off of new sponsorships in Japan. Another report claimed that the "Ohtani effect" boosted the team's value by ~23%, to $7.73 billion.

If anyone thinks that ~30 billionaires (the MLB team owners) plus the billionaires that run the various broadcasting companies don't have enough combined might to tell the FBI to go away, then I'm not sure what world you think you're living in.

Nobody gives a s*** about Emmanuel Clase.

We've actually already seen this before back when Michael Jordan was allegedly gambling and "retired" before coming back. You think the NBA was going to punish him LMAO?

[Brownie19]

 

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I assume it is now a rule that you have to declare if you're throwing from the windup or stretch with a runner on 3rd?  I'm not sure I was aware of that.  I think it's odd personality.

[Orgfiller]

9 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

 

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I assume it is now a rule that you have to declare if you're throwing from the windup or stretch with a runner on 3rd?  I'm not sure I was aware of that.  I think it's odd personality.

I actually think this has been a thing for a while. You can't change your motion halfway through an AB. So now it's customary for the pitcher to let the ump know with a runner on third.

[Brownie19]

54 minutes ago, metafour said:

Its about the monetary value of the player himself. Clase is a reliever from a dirt-poor country. You think the MLB and the broadcasting companies (ESPN, etc.) make any money from the Dominican Republic, lol?

Ohtani is a golden cow who's likeness rakes in god knows how many millions. There is a report that the Dodgers have already made ~$120M in one year off of new sponsorships in Japan. Another report claimed that the "Ohtani effect" boosted the team's value by ~23%, to $7.73 billion.

If anyone thinks that ~30 billionaires (the MLB team owners) plus the billionaires that run the various broadcasting companies don't have enough combined might to tell the FBI to go away, then I'm not sure what world you think you're living in.

Nobody gives a s*** about Emmanuel Clase.

We've actually already seen this before back when Michael Jordan was allegedly gambling and "retired" before coming back. You think the NBA was going to punish him LMAO?

FFS - I was just clarifying the original question, which asked where the line is.  Perhaps the line is Ohtani and nobody else?  

Do you think Vlad is banned from baseball if he did what Ohtani did?  Or would the owners save Vlad from the FBI too?  Soto?  Skenes?  Judge?  

[Brownie19]

Just now, Orgfiller said:

I actually think this has been a thing for a while. You can't change your motion halfway through an AB. So now it's customary for the pitcher to let the ump know with a runner on third.

I wonder why they didn't deem it a balk then?  Maybe they didn't ask him to declare (and everyone forgot) and thus they felt they couldn't award a balk because they forgot?

[Jonn]

Nice to see Owen Caissie finally called up to the big leagues. Absolutely criminal he's spent this long in AAA. Bet his agent was knocking on that GM's skull.

[hanton]

7 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

 

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I assume it is now a rule that you have to declare if you're throwing from the windup or stretch with a runner on 3rd?  I'm not sure I was aware of that.  I think it's odd personality.

You only need to declare if pitching hybrid - from the set with a windup.    How can they not know the rule and it's why a balk wasn't called

[max silver]

On 8/12/2025 at 11:10 AM, Grant77 said:

I made a mistake in my first post. You are correct, I was wrong. I did not mean that he was placing the bets himself.

[Spanky__99]

Tigers won... 💩

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, hanton said:

You only need to declare if pitching hybrid - from the set with a windup.    How can they not know the rule and it's why a balk wasn't called

That makes more sense to me. Thanks for clarifying.  I wonder if there's debate if Hunter Brown throws from the set with a windup or not.  Maybe that's why they determined it wasn't a balk?  Just a guess

[mphenhef]

12 hours ago, Jonn said:

Nice to see Owen Caissie finally called up to the big leagues. Absolutely criminal he's spent this long in AAA. Bet his agent was knocking on that GM's skull.

It is, but when you play outfield and the organization you are in has Tucker, Seiya, PCA and Happ how can you really argue it?

[hanton]

11 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

That makes more sense to me. Thanks for clarifying.  I wonder if there's debate if Hunter Brown throws from the set with a windup or not.  Maybe that's why they determined it wasn't a balk?  Just a guess

I think Cora was just confused.....

Brown was called for a legit balk because he came set before the batter made eye contact with him.

Same inning next batter Brown pitches from the stretch then switches to pitching from the windup (same batter).  This is legal.

crazy inning.  I love baseball.

[Brownie19]

Is this what Wyatt Langford is?  No real advancement/improvements this year.  109 wRC+ in almost 1000 career PA's now.  He's still young (this is his age 23 season), but I expected him to develop into a star player (potentially a superstar).  

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, hanton said:

I think Cora was just confused.....

Brown was called for a legit balk because he came set before the batter made eye contact with him.

Same inning next batter Brown pitches from the stretch then switches to pitching from the windup (same batter).  This is legal.

crazy inning.  I love baseball.

I think the issue is that Brown doesn't throw with the hybrid windup.  His full windup starts facing the batter (and not in a set position).  Therefore he doesn't need to declare with a runner on 3rd and therefore the umps got it correct and everyone involve on Boston (Cora, 3rd base coach and the runner on 3rd) need to learn the rules (as I also needed to do).

[Orgfiller]

4 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Is this what Wyatt Langford is?  No real advancement/improvements this year.  109 wRC+ in almost 1000 career PA's now.  He's still young (this is his age 23 season), but I expected him to develop into a star player (potentially a superstar).  

He's too young and still hits the ball hard to claim he's a finished product at this point. The likelihood of him being a superstar has gone down, but there's still multiple time All-Star potential in there. He's underperforming his xwOBA this year, and the projections view him as a ~115 wRC+ hitter, at age 23. He's already a good player and with potential to unlock some more performance. Needs to get the injuries in check though.

[hanton]

2 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

I think the issue is that Brown doesn't throw with the hybrid windup.  His full windup starts facing the batter (and not in a set position).  Therefore he doesn't need to declare with a runner on 3rd and therefore the umps got it correct and everyone involve on Boston (Cora, 3rd base coach and the runner on 3rd) need to learn the rules (as I also needed to do).

Exactly

[Laika]

6 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Is this what Wyatt Langford is?  No real advancement/improvements this year.  109 wRC+ in almost 1000 career PA's now.  He's still young (this is his age 23 season), but I expected him to develop into a star player (potentially a superstar).  

His K rate is a slight problem 

.343 xwOBA is solid

113 maxEV is good. Barrel rate is better than good. Walk rate is good. Defense is good.

yeah I dunno. somehow the sum of the parts is not a superstar, yet. is it just the strikeouts that are holding him back?  

Evan Carter even more disappointing 

[Brownie19]

Some stories are starting to circulate asking if PCA is having the best defensive season for an OFer in ML history.  I believe his DRS is at 19 right now, where as KK ended 2015 with 38 (a ML record - although I'm not sure they can apply that stat to historical seasons before that stat existed...)

Top notch CF defense is simply incredible to watch.  We're lucky to have had KK and Varsho recently.

Also - Fangraphs turns 20 years old today, which is pretty cool.  It's a Top 5 website for me personally.

[Orgfiller]

8 minutes ago, Laika said:

His K rate is a slight problem 

.343 xwOBA is solid

113 maxEV is good. Barrel rate is better than good. Walk rate is good. Defense is good.

yeah I dunno. somehow the sum of the parts is not a superstar, yet. is it just the strikeouts that are holding him back?  

Evan Carter even more disappointing 

Evan Carter's back might be broken so he has a bit of a pass. He's at least put up a better season than last year, although health wise he's still hardly played this year.

[Laika]

9 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Some stories are starting to circulate asking if PCA is having the best defensive season for an OFer in ML history.  I believe his DRS is at 19 right now, where as KK ended 2015 with 38 (a ML record - although I'm not sure they can apply that stat to historical seasons before that stat existed...)

Top notch CF defense is simply incredible to watch.  We're lucky to have had KK and Varsho recently.

Also - Fangraphs turns 20 years old today, which is pretty cool.  It's a Top 5 website for me personally.

69 wRC+ against LHP. 

I wonder if this will be PCA's career season. Probably. The stick has issues. He is sort of a Varsho clone! 

[Orgfiller]

8 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Some stories are starting to circulate asking if PCA is having the best defensive season for an OFer in ML history.  I believe his DRS is at 19 right now, where as KK ended 2015 with 38 (a ML record - although I'm not sure they can apply that stat to historical seasons before that stat existed...)

Top notch CF defense is simply incredible to watch.  We're lucky to have had KK and Varsho recently.

Also - Fangraphs turns 20 years old today, which is pretty cool.  It's a Top 5 website for me personally.

Best ever seems a bit hyperbolic with KK's best seasons as you mentioned, not to mention Andruw Jones' best years in the late 90s. Don't sleep on Franklin Gutierrez's 2009 year either. Byron Buxton had 26 OAA in 2017 apparently. The younger Billy Hamilton also had some pretty insane defensive seasons.

Of course that's not even getting into the old timers pre UZR era.

[Orgfiller]

5 minutes ago, Laika said:

69 wRC+ against LHP. 

I wonder if this will be PCA's career season. Probably. The stick has issues. He is sort of a Varsho clone! 

The K/BB is bad, he's a big time chaser, literally 1st percentile in chase rate. Combine that with 20th percentile whiff rate and the profile has some major holes where I can definitely believe this could be a career year. Pitchers will simply stop throwing him strikes after this season, and he'll continue being vulnerable against LHP. The Little AB the other day was the most obvious K situation ever, just spamming breaking balls low and away and he couldn't help himself.

On the bright side, the raw power might be better than expected? He doesn't have top end exit velos but he's been much better at getting to his power. It's the Javier Baez package, CF edition. Take away a grade or grade and half of raw power and maybe add a grade of speed and half a grade of defense give or take.

[Brownie19]

As a follow up - it was savant who ran the story and you know they have the stats to back it up.  He may have holes in his swing and he may not be a perennial MVP candidate, but he can go get it in CF.

https://www.mlb.com/news/pete-crow-armstrong-is-already-breaking-records-on-defense

[Jonn]

8 hours ago, mphenhef said:

It is, but when you play outfield and the organization you are in has Tucker, Seiya, PCA and Happ how can you really argue it?

Yea but I don't like that excuse. When you got a player like that you make space for him. No reason he should have toiled in AAA for 2 seasons. 

[Spanky__99]

Perfect game denied by a swinging bunt... lol