Around Baseball 2025

[Masterbather]

25 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

We can certainly finish them :)

As of right now WC 2 and 3 are too close to call... BOS/CLE/HOU all right there. 

Yankees are pretty much a lock and Texas/KC are too far back 

 

You forgot to mention Detroit, they might end up battling for the wild card instead of Cleveland. 

How much fun would it be if that final series of the season between Detroit and Boston had both those teams fighting for their playoff lives?

Crochet is currently not scheduled to pitch in that series, if he does it would be on short rest.

Skubal would be lined up for game 162 if they needed him. Wild stuff if it comes to that.

[Spanky__99]

57 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

While I admire your utter disdain and complete disregard of the Boston Red Sox, they are very much not done and can help screw up our situation real fast.

Nah...

 

[mphenhef]

On 9/20/2025 at 5:05 PM, thatoneguy said:

He's still got his wheels too, 41 SB last year, 40 this year. He's easily going to reach the 300-300 club with plus defense at 3B and, in my mind, should be a 1st/2nd ballot HOFer. Might even sniff the 400-400 club if he stays healthy.

He's the guy who puts up the numbers Jeter gets accolades for while getting the accolades Jeter actually deserved.

[max silver]

On 9/20/2025 at 8:04 PM, Masterbather said:

Well he's played over 40 postseason games in Cleveland, so it's not like he lost anything not going to the Blue Jays. He may yet play more postseason games than the Blue Jays this year lol

Ramirez certainly cost himself financially although he'll already earn generational levels of wealth on his well below market value contract. 

[Governator]

It's hard to ignore what Seattle has done this past month and the momentum they are getting going to postseason.

[BatFlip]

1 hour ago, Governator said:

It's hard to ignore what Seattle has done this past month and the momentum they are getting going to postseason.

They're looking dangerous

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, Governator said:

It's hard to ignore what Seattle has done this past month and the momentum they are getting going to postseason.

Let's hope they're peaking too early!

[Omar]

Love this viewing angle...

 

 

[Spanky__99]

55 minutes ago, Omar said:

Love this viewing angle...

 

 

Yeah, that's a beaut, I was down in the VIP for BP with Rob Butler's bro Rich and my bud Ken, watching the ball jump off those guys bat was like a first time firework show for a kid, it was magical.

 

[hanton]

3 hours ago, Omar said:

Love this viewing angle...

 

 

Love this angle, hope we see more of this

 

 

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, hanton said:

Love this angle, hope we see more of this

It is really incredible.  It's so cool.

[mphenhef]

19 hours ago, Governator said:

It's hard to ignore what Seattle has done this past month and the momentum they are getting going to postseason.

It's funny, I'm looking at the recent swoon with the bats for the Jays as them getting it out of the way now rather than in the playoffs :)

[Governator]

3 hours ago, mphenhef said:

It's funny, I'm looking at the recent swoon with the bats for the Jays as them getting it out of the way now rather than in the playoffs :)

 

I look at it like Bo has a bigger impact on this line up than we think.

[hanton]

ABS Challenge System coming to MLB full time in '26

https://www.mlb.com/news/abs-challenge-system-mlb-2026

[Spanky__99]

10 minutes ago, hanton said:

ABS Challenge System coming to MLB full time in '26

https://www.mlb.com/news/abs-challenge-system-mlb-2026

Was just about to post this, good news. A Kirky factor, baby!

 

[Laika]

Nice. Seems to be exactly as rumoured. 

Hopefully it's snappy and they show the result on the scoreboard in like 10 seconds, like tennis. 

[mphenhef]

7 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Was just about to post this, good news. A Kirky factor, baby!

 

Hopefully they get lots of value from Kirk each game before Vlad blows our two on outside sliders and fastballs just off center of the plate.

[G-Snarls]

22 minutes ago, hanton said:

ABS Challenge System coming to MLB full time in '26

https://www.mlb.com/news/abs-challenge-system-mlb-2026

 

 

[G-Snarls]

Two???

[Laika]

Two but if you succeed you don't lose the challenge. And you get additional challenges in extra innings. 

I think it makes sense. Can't have sloppy challengers just slowing down the game. Make it so that people only challenge with confidence. 

[G-Snarls]

 

 

[G-Snarls]

So in a terribly called game like that you could have asked for over a dozen reviews and kept your challenges even if you only reviewed the egregious ones or close ones in critical spots

[G-Snarls]

LOL

-

 

 

[hanton]

17 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

Two???

looks like it yes

[G-Snarls]

OK so you can't look into the dugout and wait 5-10 seconds for them to tell you?

Good - but will someone like Vladdy waste them in the first inning when it's too close to challenge??

[hanton]

that's the interesting part in all this, currently the video challenges are a team effort while this is completely on the player - and what if the catcher challenges and the pitcher is like no, no or vice versa.....lol

[G-Snarls]

9 minutes ago, hanton said:

that's the interesting part in all this, currently the video challenges are a team effort while this is completely on the player - and what if the catcher challenges and the pitcher is like no, no or vice versa.....lol

It might be really awkward some times, s***

[Masterbather]

I don't know how I feel about this. 

It kind of hurts teams that have great framers, and we have one of them. 

Also there has to be a Vladdy rule. He's not allowed to ever use one.

[Terminator]

I remember Kirk was really good at challenges. We should just let him use them all to maximize our chances of getting more of them.

If we allow Vladdy to use them, we are probably out after his 1st or 2nd AB of the game.

[max silver]

12 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

I don't know how I feel about this. 

It kind of hurts teams that have great framers, and we have one of them. 

Also there has to be a Vladdy rule. He's not allowed to ever use one.

I think framing will still be very important given the limited number of challenges. I don't think the borderline calls will be challenged that often vs the more egregious umpiring mistakes and as such the good framers will continue to steal strikes, just at a bit of a reduced rate. One thought I had was that a bad framer can lead to potential strikes actually being called balls instead, so perhaps this subset of catchers could use the challenge system to mitigate the negative effects of their sloppy receiving.