Bobthe4th

I'd also argue that in North America baseball is already behind basketball in popularity.

As you're already a baseball fan you are not the target audience for changes to the game and so your opinion isn't as important to those in charge. Manfred cares about increasing baseball's popularity as that's a big part of his job. The reason you should care is that if more and more kids prefer sports like basketball and football (soccer), then they'll play those sports instead. Then in 10/15 years the overall talent of North American baseball players will be lower as there will be a smaller pool of players. And unlike both those sports, there's only a handful of other countries that play baseball to any kind of standard.

Deadspin - Charles Oakley arrested courtside after fighting WTF, a few videos in the article. Apparently he's being charged with three counts of assault.

This seems unlikely - if you're tech savvy enough to replace a TV with a laptop, you'd expect those people to be able to find a free stream. Living in Britain obviously there is zero MLB tv coverage, and MLB.com has an added tax of 20% on top of the normal subscription fee, which is also not available in £ so you also get screwed on the exchange rate. Therefore, every Jays game I watch live (which because of the time zone difference is normally just the early games) is a free stream, and I've never had an issue finding one, most of the time in HD. Is there any baseball equivalent of a highlights and debate show like Inside the NBA (which is freely available on YouTube) that airs in either Canada or the USA? That kind of show can help spread popularity of a sport, as part of a wider marketing campaign.

Regular season games aren't as important because, in isolation, one regular season game is virtually irrelevant as you've got 161 chances to offset a defeat. Obviously in the playoffs you've got either 0, 4, or 6 other games depending on which stage you're at. The separate point is that if the change is a good idea, then there shouldn't be any controversy the first time a game is decided by the change. And if that's the case why not use it in all games no matter their importance.

I hope you're right, I'm sure the front office would snap your hand off if you offered them 2 WAR from him! I'm not convinced, but if the front office think he's that good then yes you have to give him one of the bullpen places.

Bolsinger is also 29 already and has had arguably one good season in his career. I'm not convinced we couldn't sign a similar replacement or two even if he was claimed.

What is it that you like about Bolsinger? I'll admit to not seeing him much, but he's never impressed me when I have watched him pitch. His stats don't jump out as anything to write home about either.

That's quite a big assumption though - Bolsinger isn't very good and Sparkman has never pitched above AA. It's a difficult decision, if either start in the bullpen at what point do you give up on them if they start the season badly? What if someone like House or Barnes looks really good in spring training while one or both suck (even though it's a small sample size)? I don't like handing out a roster spot to Bolsinger just because we might lose him if we don't. Similar to how I have no issue with Goins not making the team, even though he'll likely not make it though waivers, and we'll probably need another infielder at some point in the season. Unless Bolsinger impresses, risk losing him and get insurance by signing a couple of longmen on minor league deals who do have options.

I'm so glad that, outside of national teams, sports in Europe like football (soccer) don't have anthems before every game. At least both the American and Canadian anthems are pretty good - the English anthem is a rubbish tune and the words are really bad. It's also about two things I don't believe in - God, and the queen.

Maybe if it had come up mid season, but it should get enough comments here. Slightly related - there's currently 11 separate fantasy related threads on the front page of the off topic forum - it'd be perfect if fantasy had it's own forum. One for baseball, one for off topic, one for fantasy.

That's a good point in relation to basketball. NFL though by rights shouldn't necessarily be more popular than baseball. Both have players on the field for only half the game, quarterbacks are similar to pitchers in that they are the focus when they're on the field, both have regular stoppages (NFL is worse), both have limited participation outside of the Americas (NFL is much worse), both have relatively simple main rules with complex additional rules. But because of marketing and advertising, NFL is much bigger as a spectator sport globally, as well as in the US. Admittedly NFL is helped by the lower number of games, and the fact that the stats and numbers basis of baseball isn't that exciting to a general sports fan.

This. Marketing is the best way to increase the number of fans. NBA stars are known globally, most general sports fans in Britain would recognise LeBron James for example. Very few could name a single current baseball player let alone recognise one. Not only does the NBA focus on personalities, but they've made an effort to play games abroad to entice fans as has the NFL. Why hasn't MLB done this? I do think the 162 games season is a handicap - if a youngster starts getting interested in baseball and starts following a team, because they play basically every day it's unlikely they'll watch other teams play. So if the team they support starts to do badly they can lose interest and may not know much about other teams. A NFL, NBA or soccer fan can watch Tom Brady, Steph Curry or Lionel Messi play on tv one day then watch their chosen team later on. Then they'd talk about what they've seen for a few days building up the anticipation for the next game.

You have a good overall point, but Ryan Howard has been a very bad baseball player for years now.

If it's a spot start here and there he can absolutely start for us. If one of the 5 has a long term injury, then yes I'd be very worried about relying on Floyd. But if the worst came to the worst, I'd expect us to make a move to bring in someone else as Bolsinger isn't very good, and he shouldn't be counted on as a starter for anything other than spot starts either.

If Floyd is fit he's likely ahead of Bolsinger. That's a big if though.

IMO the 3 biggest keys to the season: Starting pitching health The 5 starters have the potential to be one of the best rotations in baseball. However, the depth isn't very good, and the likely 6th starter (Floyd) is the most injury prone of them all. Whether Bautista has a good season Last year couldn't have gone much worse for Jose. This year he's the only outfielder who could potentially have elite value with the bat. A 140 wRC+, >4 WAR season would go a long way to keeping the Jays in the playoff hunt. Conversely a repeat of last year = one of the worst outfield offences in baseball. Josh Donaldson's health By far our best player has just had two MVP caliber seasons. JD missing >20 games would potentially be devastating to the Jays playoff chances. Anyone got a different top 3? You could make an argument for the performance of the bullpen, but it's easy to acquire relievers mid season. Just missing out for me was the success of Pearce. An injury free season where he plays >125 games hopefully = much better production than a Pearce / Smoak platoon at 1B.

TBF some people think that's achieved by having Biagini where he's already been effective, as a reliever. If you believe Biagini fails as a starter then converting him does nothing to make the roster more "robust". FWIW I'd try converting him if we sign one more warm body for the bullpen. I'm just pointing out that if someone wouldn't do that, it doesn't mean they don't care about squad depth.

Mets have no need for a 1B. TBF they have no need for a young OF prospect either. I'm just not sure what to do with Pompey when the manager clearly doesn't trust him, and any trade value will have disappeared if he's another year older with no significant MLB time at the end of the season.

He's under contract for the 2017 season though.

Taking into account that Pompey is unlikely to be given much of a chance by Gibbons, would you trade him straight up for Granderson (or a similar OF veteran)?

That's so much better than a month ago. Patience pays off!

Jay Bruce is a classic example of an overpaid veteran who won't get much playing time, is unlikely to be traded, and could be available for basically nothing mid season. A risk free mid season pick up to see if the front office is right to like him.

Some 1B or OF that were either claimed on waivers, or DFA and were then made free agents last year: Jimmy Parades Billy Butler Josh Hamilton Alex Rodriguez Desmond Jennings Carl Crawford Michael Bourn Carlos Gomez James Loney Nick Swisher Shane Victorino You're always going to have veteran players available for basically nothing midseason. Picking up one or more up and seeing if they stick (like Carlos Gomez did for the Rangers last year) is risk free. Worst case it's like Parades for the Jays last year, he plays a few games and is then released.

Plus midway through the season various 1B and OF will be available on waivers when they've had a bad start at their current club or a prospect has taken their place.