Around Baseball 2026

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, Laika said:

Someone explain to me why Bob Manfred thinks these single games are a good idea for opening day?

98% of fans with blue balls don't care that much about watching the Yankees or Dodgers plan some random team pulled out of a hat. 

Every team in baseball should play on the league's opening day. You can do a single isolated game at 1 PM ET if you want, and then everyone else later. This would be more in the spirit of baseball. 

And then some of these weird early off days. Several teams don't even play today. The Yankees and Giants are off today and then off again on Sunday. lmao, why?

Why? Because Netflix probably paid some ungodly amount of money for it lol

[John_Havok]

8 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

I mean… that comparison is kind of a stretch. Calling it “like professional baseball” doesn’t suddenly make in-game interviews some massive injustice—it just makes it sound like you’re taking yourself a bit too seriously.

Plenty of actual pros deal with that stuff, and yeah, it might be a little awkward, but they handle it because it’s part of the entertainment side of sports. Acting like it’s beneath you or “cringe” just comes off more like complaining than anything else. At the end of the day, it’s a quick question, not some impossible distraction that ruins the integrity of the game.

If anything, it just highlights who can stay composed and who gets thrown off by something minor. So if a short interview mid-play is enough to break focus, that might say more about the player than the situation.

I get not loving it, but acting like it’s some ridiculous concept is a bit much.

I'm confident that softball thing was sarcasm. 

[John_Havok]

6 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Why? Because Netflix probably paid some ungodly amount of money for it lol

Netflix probably has a larger potential US audience than any cable sports channel to be fair given the weird sports packages on cable. Current estimates have Netflix being present for 60% of the population.

[Stangstag]

17 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I'm confident that softball thing was sarcasm. 

That was a chat GPT response in case you didn’t notice lol. Supposed to be a callback to Brownie’s long ass response to something Jays24 said the other day

[BTS]

26 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Why? Because Netflix probably paid some ungodly amount of money for it lol

I read that they paid 25M for opening night, the homerun derby, and the field of dreams game or whatever the f*** its called 

[Laika]

4 minutes ago, BTS said:

I read that they paid 25M for opening night, the homerun derby, and the field of dreams game or whatever the f*** its called 

lmao

that's catastrophic, last night's game was a snooze fest 

[glory]

1 hour ago, Stangstag said:

Why? Because Netflix probably paid some ungodly amount of money for it lol

Yeah that's the long and short of it. With the regional sports network model dying, MLB has to pivot with their media rights approach. For decades they were eating off their large local cable deals, which caused annoying things like blackouts and undervaluing/underselling their national rights. Now they can't operate like that anymore. They are trying to make regular season inventory more special so that streamers like Netflix will spend big on it. Netflix in particular values "special events". The don't care about the day to day regular season. So a stand alone Opening Night when no other team is playing can be marketed as a special attraction, which is all they care about.

Did a quick Google search, looks like Netflix is paying MLB $50M a year for Opening Night, Field of Dreams, and the Home Run Derby.

[mphenhef]

Happy opening Day everyone.  Normally this is my favourite day of the year (when more than one team starts) but it's a little lackluster this year without the Jays playing.  Still, fantasy baseball stats!

[BTS]

Man, somehow the gambling content in these broadcasts has become even worse 

[John_Havok]

4 minutes ago, mphenhef said:

Happy opening Day everyone.  Normally this is my favourite day of the year (when more than one team starts) but it's a little lackluster this year without the Jays playing.  Still, fantasy baseball stats!

BEAT THE STREAK!!!

Best game on MLB.com to make days like these more fun

 

[BTS]

Oneil Cruz is so bad at baseball 

[Stangstag]

Oneill Cruz with a MASSIVE error in CF completely misreading a routine line drive 

HOLY s*** AND HE DROPS A SIMPLE POP FLY NOW TOO LOLLLL

[Stangstag]

Just now, BTS said:

Oneil Cruz is so bad at baseball 

This inning should put to rest the debates on whether or not he’s a legitimate CF. Absolutely embarrassing out there

[Stangstag]

No sunglasses in CF for a day game, what a buffoon lol

[BTS]

Just now, Stangstag said:

No sunglasses in CF for a day game, what a buffoon lol

I think he might be stupid 

[Stangstag]

Nightmare start for Skenes, likely all scored as hits due to the nature of the errors

[BTS]

Skenes out in the 1st inning. He probably wants to beat the s*** out of Cruz 

[Stangstag]

1 minute ago, BTS said:

Skenes out in the 1st inning. He probably wants to beat the s*** out of Cruz 

That’s actually a good matchup size-wise, i wonder who wins

[Stangstag]

He’s out there again with no sunglasses, what a dumbass

[Orgfiller]

32 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

That’s actually a good matchup size-wise, i wonder who wins

Cruz has all the tools to win this matchup but he'd probably whiff on every punch thrown.

[mphenhef]

At least Skenes threw few enough pitches they could pitch him again on the last game of the series if they really wanted to.

[M.E.]

Maybe just me, but I am enjoying the hat trick by Bo and his current 0-4

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, BTS said:

I think he might be stupid 

Vlad level stupid?

[Stangstag]

6 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Vlad level stupid?

Profar level

[G-Snarls]

Kevin McGonigle 3 for 4 on the day 

Nice start 

[Spanky__99]

Murakami has his 1st Big League HR!!! 😎

[BTS]

Rays were up 7-1 then gave up 8 in the 6th

[jaysblue]

22 hours ago, Spanky__99 said:

Jazz thinks he's a 50/50 10 WAR player, dude's delusional.

101 to 1 odds on Bet365. Put down $5 on him before the season lol. 

[jaysblue]

1 hour ago, BTS said:

Rays were up 7-1 then gave up 8 in the 6th

Ian Seymour didn't even record an out and gave up 5 ER. 

Cards were 10 to 1 odds when they had runners on base and down 7 to 1.  Put down $10 when they were 4 to 1 odds and down 7-5. 

[jaysblue]

6 hours ago, Stangstag said:

Oneill Cruz with a MASSIVE error in CF completely misreading a routine line drive 

HOLY s*** AND HE DROPS A SIMPLE POP FLY NOW TOO LOLLLL

Vegas got to him before the game.