Around Baseball 2026

[Laika]

Manfred would need to lose a World Series and turn a blind eye to a steroid level problem and collude to help Rogers move the Blue Jays to Memphis to be as bad as Bud Selig who is the only person to compare him to so it is hard for him to look bad

 

[mphenhef]

2 hours ago, John_Havok said:

I don't think anyone said everything he has done was good. 

It's also not his job to handle Oakland and Tampa stadium deals. 

I think the trimming of the minor league teams was great. The bloatin at the very bottom end of the minors, specifically rookie level leagues was pretty bad. Nobody needed a complex team and 2 rookie level affiliates plus more DSL teams.

Individual negatives aside, the game as a whole is in a much healthier and lucrative place for both the owners and the players since the start of his tenure, and fans are taking it in in greater numbers.  

 

For context, the same could be said for Selig... and he was the biggest, scum-sucking POS human to be commissioner. Manfred presents at least somewhat likeable. 

The stadium situations are 100% a thing for the commissioner to help the teams get through.  Manfred noted is as at the top of his list of long term concerns when he took over.

 

Perhaps it is good to have less teams at the bottom of the minors but it is also taking baseball out of many smaller markets in the US.  It's also led to a smaller draft that could cause some great players to go undeveloped.  Some late round draft picks (Piazza (62), Smoltz(22), Keith Hernandez(42), Pettitte (22)).  Maybe those guys would have been found eventually, but who knows.

And yes, Selig was among the worst (see steroids, Expos, Loria) but saw franchise valuations explode (which nearly anyone could have done in that heyday) and made some serious coin for owners with MLB Advanced Media/BAMTech.

[bronson44]

Passan:

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark resigned after an internal investigation revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who had been hired by the union in 2023, sources tell me and

[Terminator]

23 minutes ago, bronson44 said:

Passan:

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark resigned after an internal investigation revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who had been hired by the union in 2023, sources tell me and

Excuse me?

[Laika]

Is that illegal? Weak. 

[jaysblue]

Shapiro will be the next MLB commissioner. 

[G-Snarls]

13 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Shapiro will be the next MLB commissioner. 

Always thought Epstein would get it 

Edit: THEO Epstein 

[L54]

5 hours ago, Laika said:

Is that illegal? Weak. 

No but it raises character concerns 

this isn’t the local iron workers union president 

[Terminator]

 

[Laika]

Orioles Oriolesing already, eh? 

[Terminator]

This would be a huge blow for the O's if he's gone for the year. If healthy, Westburg is a 4 WAR player.

They probably replace him with Mayo who might be a AAAA player.

[Laika]

Westburg partially torn UCL

They are not doing surgery right away. He had a PRP injection. Will miss at least all of April. 

This is probably the correct approach for a position player. I think the recovery is more like 7-9 months. So surgery now and he misses all of 2026 but surgery in May or June and the result is similar and he might be back for 2027 in full. 

Not sure what the position player recovery track record is for UCL tears that don't go under the knife.  

[Terminator]

1st day of spring and the Orioles Fanboys are off to a rough start

[Laika]

Chris Bassitt can probably play 3rd in a pinch? 

[Laika]

WOW Orioles Hangout is HOT

[max silver]

44 minutes ago, Terminator said:

1st day of spring and the Orioles Fanboys are off to a rough start

To be perfectly fair we started spring training with news of Santander shoulder surgery, Francis UCL surgery and Bieber likely being late to start the regular season so it hasn't been all lollipops and bubble gum over here either. 

[Laika]

Orioles Acquire Bryan Ramos

Hole = PATCHED. 

[jaysblue]

Is there anyone on here who posts and trolls the Orioles hangout? 

Term would be hilarious on that board haha. 

[hanton]

get over it people....

 

 

[hanton]

and FWIW 

E Rojas, J (1, missed catch).

[glory]

Bo is going to miss Vladdy doing the splits like Van Damme in Kickboxer for every throw to 1B. 

[Laika]

 

The funny thing about ABS is how ABS skill will not line up perfectly with the stats fans can easily understand. Most fans will just want to know challenge success rate. But this is NOT the whole story! Count and game leverage is so important in how and when you challenge. A player could be right 70% of the time but not making the right decisions on when to challenge, and be worse than someone who is right only 45% of the time but makes all the perfectly timed challenges. 

Hopefully we get some kind of leverage index weighted leaderboard for ABS challenging and not just the raw percentages. 

 

[John_Havok]

5 minutes ago, Laika said:

 

The funny thing about ABS is how ABS skill will not line up perfectly with the stats fans can easily understand. Most fans will just want to know challenge success rate. But this is NOT the whole story! Count and game leverage is so important in how and when you challenge. A player could be right 70% of the time but not making the right decisions on when to challenge, and be worse than someone who is right only 45% of the time but makes all the perfectly timed challenges. 

Hopefully we get some kind of leverage index weighted leaderboard for ABS challenging and not just the raw percentages. 

 

I hope so too. It's very much in-line with how poker decisions are made. You may know you're behind, but you still call knowing you only have to have it work out 25-30% of the time to be profitable in the long run. 

You're right though that this type of nuance will not be something most fans would even think about. 

[Brownie19]

Braves extend Chris Sale, 1 year $27M

[BTS]

5 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Braves extend Chris Sale, 1 year $27M

Since the Red Sox traded him STRAIGHT UP FOR VAUGHN GRISSOM:

Sale  10 WAR in two years

Grissom -0.7 WAR

[Olerud363.354]

On 2/17/2026 at 1:01 PM, John_Havok said:

I think the trimming of the minor league teams was great. The bloatin at the very bottom end of the minors, specifically rookie level leagues was pretty bad. Nobody needed a complex team and 2 rookie level affiliates plus more DSL teams.

They ended up eliminating short season leagues like the NY Penn leagues, that used to get the best college players that were drafted in June.  t was great for these towns.   Now they go to a complex league.  I believe they often have two teams playing in the same complex.  Like Dunedin, rookie at 10:00 am, low A in the evening.   This is probably better for the organizations (work on players development in their Florida facilities) but horrible for growing the game.  Used to be able to watch George Springer or Jose Altuve or Pete Alonso on a July evening.  Now it is all in Florida with Ron Desantis and the old party people from the Villages not even caring, and the ordinary North Eastern people in towns not big enough for aa having lost out on good baseball. 

[John_Havok]

21 hours ago, Olerud363.354 said:

They ended up eliminating short season leagues like the NY Penn leagues, that used to get the best college players that were drafted in June.  t was great for these towns.   Now they go to a complex league.  I believe they often have two teams playing in the same complex.  Like Dunedin, rookie at 10:00 am, low A in the evening.   This is probably better for the organizations (work on players development in their Florida facilities) but horrible for growing the game.  Used to be able to watch George Springer or Jose Altuve or Pete Alonso on a July evening.  Now it is all in Florida with Ron Desantis and the old party people from the Villages not even caring, and the ordinary North Eastern people in towns not big enough for aa having lost out on good baseball. 

Independent baseball leagues are reaping those benefits right now. Those players still have places to play. Atlantic league, Frontier league.. American Association have all expanded since 2020.  

Pioneer League, Appalachian league (former full affiliate leagues) are still active and are still partners with MLB.  Virtually all of the teams from those leagues that were purged from being official MLB affiliates are still operational. 

Most of the teams in the NY Penn league are still affiliated as minor league teams, just in different leagues. Some went independent, Auburn joined the Perfect Game Collegiate summer league. 

Baseball is still fine and thriving in small town USA. 

 

[Brownie19]

3 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Independent baseball leagues are reaping those benefits right now. Those players still have places to play. 

Pioneer League, Appalachian league (former full affiliate leagues) are still active and are still partners with MLB.  Virtually all of the teams from those leagues that were purged from being official MLB affiliates are still operational. 

Most of the teams in the NY Penn league are still affiliated as minor league teams, just in different leagues. Some went independent, Auburn joined the Perfect Game Collegiate summer league. 

Baseball is still fine and thriving in small town USA. 

 

The IBL just became a professional league too - they're now the Canadian Baseball League.  I'm not sure that has anything to do with the changes to MILB, but worth noting.

[John_Havok]

8 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

The IBL just became a professional league too - they're now the Canadian Baseball League.  I'm not sure that has anything to do with the changes to MILB, but worth noting.

a Montreal franchise may be joining the Frontier League for 2027 or 2028. It's not guaranteed yet, but its apparently pretty close to being a done deal. 

[Olerud363.354]

1 hour ago, John_Havok said:

Baseball is still fine and thriving in small town USA. 

Baseball is still happening certainly.   But watching independent league isn't the same as watching the high draft pick college stars.  I remember watching Lind, Aaron HIll, Springer in the NY Penn league and it was awesome seeing players just drafted. 

Fun going to the local stadium and looking at who made it to the majors.  Used to be one or two every single year, since 2020 there has only been one player from our town team make it.   Independent ball isn't quite the same quality.