2025 Major League Baseball Thread

[Bizdady]

Originally Posted by navsterking

nice congrats!, he deserved it.... 6 of his 21 wins came vs the giants

:d

[kpkelley]

Astros have been sold to Jim Crane for $615M. The price was reduced by MLB as part of an agreement to move the Astros to the AL West by 2013. MLB will pay Drayton Mclane, the previous owner, $35M of the difference over 3 years.

Two more wild card teams are going to be making the playoffs as early as next season, though likely to be in 2013, that is one per league. The two wild card teams from each league would then play a one game playoff to see who will compete in the divisional series.

While, I'm not adverse to expanding the playoff system, a one game playoff round sounds beyond stupid to me.

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by Bizdady

Congrats Kershaw on NL CY Young Win!!

All that's left to do now is to award the AL and NL MVP's to Bautista and Kemp respectively.

[Josh5890]

Originally Posted by kpkelley

Astros have been sold to Jim Crane for $615M. The price was reduced by MLB as part of an agreement to move the Astros to the AL West by 2013. MLB will pay Drayton Mclane, the previous owner, $35M of the difference over 3 years.

Two more wild card teams are going to be making the playoffs as early as next season, though likely to be in 2013, that is one per league. The two wild card teams from each league would then play a one game playoff to see who will compete in the divisional series.

While, I'm not adverse to expanding the playoff system, a one game playoff round sounds beyond stupid to me.

I agree that the one game playoff idea is completely dumb. What if you have a Game 163, and then a playoff game? Sometimes I don't understand why the union and owners agree to some things.

As far as the realignment is concerned, I like that both leagues will have 15 teams and 5 in each division but they could do alot better. What they should do is contract two teams, have 14 in each league, four divisions of seven teams, and have 4 division winners and 4 wild cards. After that they should drop interleague and save it for the World Series.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Josh5890

I agree that the one game playoff idea is completely dumb. What if you have a Game 163, and then a playoff game? Sometimes I don't understand why the union and owners agree to some things.

As far as the realignment is concerned, I like that both leagues will have 15 teams and 5 in each division but they could do alot better. What they should do is contract two teams, have 14 in each league, four divisions of seven teams, and have 4 division winners and 4 wild cards. After that they should drop interleague and save it for the World Series.

Contract 2 teams? I'd say contracting more like 4-6 teams would make the league better. There are far too many deadbeat franchises out there. Unfortunately any contraction will never happen.

If I had my way we'd go back to having 4 divisions with only division winners making the LCS like it used to be. The divisional series destroyed what I considered MLB's greatest aspect from my childhood. They play a 162 game regular season. Winning a division should mean something. The 1992 Braves-Giants divisional race was by far the most exciting of my life. Braves won 104 games, Giants won 103 and missed the playoffs. With Wild Cards we don't get that anymore.

[Moviefan1203]

Originally Posted by Josh5890

After that they should drop interleague and save it for the World Series.

But interleague is one of the good parts of baseball. I get tired of the same teams playing the same teams, interleague spices it up. That's one of the things that makes football so great, the schedule is so different from year to year.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

But interleague is one of the good parts of baseball. I get tired of the same teams playing the same teams, interleague spices it up. That's one of the things that makes football so great, the schedule is so different from year to year.

I think that's very debatable. I despise inter-league games. It destroys one of the things that used to make the World Series so special. The inter-league play along with the advent of the Wild Card were the two changes to the game I most despise to this day.

[Navster]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

The 1992 Braves-Giants divisional race was by far the most exciting of my life. Braves won 104 games, Giants won 103 and missed the playoffs. With Wild Cards we don't get that anymore.

Ugh dont remind me, but i think was 1993 .

I remember since that was the year i started watching baseball

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by NavsterKing

Ugh dont remind me, but i think was 1993 .

I remember since that was the year i started watching baseball

Ha, ya it was 1993. That was the last year of MLB before the playoff format changes. I started watching baseball in the late 80's. My first several years as a kid rooting for Atlanta were pure misery. Then 1991 happened.

[Josh5890]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Contract 2 teams? I'd say contracting more like 4-6 teams would make the league better. There are far too many deadbeat franchises out there. Unfortunately any contraction will never happen.

If I had my way we'd go back to having 4 divisions with only division winners making the LCS like it used to be. The divisional series destroyed what I considered MLB's greatest aspect from my childhood. They play a 162 game regular season. Winning a division should mean something. The 1992 Braves-Giants divisional race was by far the most exciting of my life. Braves won 104 games, Giants won 103 and missed the playoffs. With Wild Cards we don't get that anymore.

I would love to have 4 divisions of 6 teams with just division winners in the playoffs. My 6 teams that I would contract would be the Flordia (Miami) Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres. Another option would be to switch out a team for the Seattle Mariners but baseball will never go for it. My only hope is that the NBA will contract 2 teams (it seems like a real possibility with the lockout) and MLB will see the benefits from having less than 30 teams. Very doubtful though.

I say trim the schedule to 154 games, play the LCS at the end of September/start of October and play the World Series but end it by the 10th.

P.S- great story about baseball and your childhood. I was born in 1990 so I fell in love with baseball during the '98 home run chase, which turned out to be phoney. I still love baseball and enjoy all the aspects of it but learning that the McGwire-Sosa race wasn't genuine hurt me alot, and I'm a die-hard Cubs fan.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Josh5890

I would love to have 4 divisions of 6 teams with just division winners in the playoffs. My 6 teams that I would contract would be the Flordia (Miami) Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres. Another option would be to switch out a team for the Seattle Mariners but baseball will never go for it. My only hope is that the NBA will contract 2 teams (it seems like a real possibility with the lockout) and MLB will see the benefits from having less than 30 teams. Very doubtful though.

I say trim the schedule to 154 games, play the LCS at the end of September/start of October and play the World Series but end it by the 10th.

P.S- great story about baseball and your childhood. I was born in 1990 so I fell in love with baseball during the '98 home run chase, which turned out to be phoney. I still love baseball and enjoy all the aspects of it but learning that the McGwire-Sosa race wasn't genuine hurt me alot, and I'm a die-hard Cubs fan.

I agree with all of those contractions except Colorado. The Rockies have always had very solid attendance, even in down years.

I hate to say it given the team was so great in the 70's-80's but Kansas City simply does not deserve a team. I looked back at the last dozen or so years at attendance and KC consistently draws a terrible 19-23K fans per game and cannot afford to seriously compete financially. Kansas City just doesn't have the fan base to support an MLB team anymore.

I hate to say it but MLB has been an abject failure in Florida. This state just does not support it's MLB franchises. And that really is too bad given both the Marlins and Rays have had remarkable success despite spending very little on their team. The Marlins have a brand new state of the art stadium opening in a prime location in Miami in 2012. If they can't draw fans there the franchise really is doomed. My guess is it flops.

As far as my childhood goes I have to thank Ted Turner. Even when the Braves were terrible in the 80's he was a master of marketing the team. With no Florida MLB teams the Braves were the only team I could watch every day on TV. I more or less became a Braves fan because of that and even when the Marlins franchise started up I never left the Braves. I do wish Turner still owned the Braves.

[Josh5890]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

I agree with all of those contractions except Colorado. The Rockies have always had very solid attendance, even in down years.

I hate to say it given the team was so great in the 70's-80's but Kansas City simply does not deserve a team. I looked back at the last dozen or so years at attendance and KC consistently draws a terrible 19-23K fans per game and cannot afford to seriously compete financially. Kansas City just doesn't have the fan base to support an MLB team anymore.

I hate to say it but MLB has been an abject failure in Florida. This state just does not support it's MLB franchises. And that really is too bad given both the Marlins and Rays have had remarkable success despite spending very little on their team. The Marlins have a brand new state of the art stadium opening in a prime location in Miami in 2012. If they can't draw fans there the franchise really is doomed. My guess is it flops.

As far as my childhood goes I have to thank Ted Turner. Even when the Braves were terrible in the 80's he was a master of marketing the team. With no Florida MLB teams the Braves were the only team I could watch every day on TV. I more or less became a Braves fan because of that and even when the Marlins franchise started up I never left the Braves. I do wish Turner still owned the Braves.

I've said it before and I will say it again. Florida doesn't need any major sports teams, with the exception to the NFL (but 3 teams is too much then). Florida is perfect for spring training but cannot support an MLB team full time, let alone 2.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Josh5890

I've said it before and I will say it again. Florida doesn't need any major sports teams, with the exception to the NFL (but 3 teams is too much then). Florida is perfect for spring training but cannot support an MLB team full time, let alone 2.

Even our NFL teams have fair weather fans. The Jags have always had crappy fan support, but so do Miami and Tampa for the most part. The fans showed up in droves for the Bucs were contending from the late 90's-early 00's, but even since then they are near the bottom in attendance.

Hell, it even happens in Florida college sports. The Canes have 5 national championships and can't draw for squat these days. For last weekend's Miami @ FSU game the Canes were allotted 5,000 tickets and had to return almost 4,000 which went unsold. Miami and Tallahassee are several hours apart, but that level is fan support for a historical national power is ridiculous. FSU has had similar issues when they had poor seasons. Only the Gators have really had rock solid support over the past decade or so.

Weird as it sounds I'd probably say the most reliable fan support for a pro sports team in this state is the Tampa Bay Lightning.

[Josh5890]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Even our NFL teams have fair weather fans. The Jags have always had crappy fan support, but so do Miami and Tampa for the most part. The fans showed up in droves for the Bucs were contending from the late 90's-early 00's, but even since then they are near the bottom in attendance.

Hell, it even happens in Florida college sports. The Canes have 5 national championships and can't draw for squat these days. For last weekend's Miami @ FSU game the Canes were allotted 5,000 tickets and had to return almost 4,000 which went unsold. Miami and Tallahassee are several hours apart, but that level is fan support for a historical national power is ridiculous. FSU has had similar issues when they had poor seasons. Only the Gators have really had rock solid support over the past decade or so.

Weird as it sounds I'd probably say the most reliable fan support for a pro sports team in this state is the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Lightning? They are on a list of 6 teams I would contract in the NHL, lol. Sorry if I offend anyone but Florida is a tourist state and cannot handle a sports team.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Josh5890

The Lightning? They are on a list of 6 teams I would contract in the NHL, lol. Sorry if I offend anyone but Florida is a tourist state and cannot handle a sports team.

Come on now, Tampa Bay is usually in the top half of the NHL in attendance and top-10 she they have a good team, with decent local TV ratings. There are a ton of teams more contraction worthy than the Lightning. The Florida Panthers don't deserve to exist but the Lightning definitely do.

[timhollerbach]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

I think that's very debatable. I despise inter-league games. It destroys one of the things that used to make the World Series so special. The inter-league play along with the advent of the Wild Card were the two changes to the game I most despise to this day.

I kind of like the inter-league play, BUT they need to mix it up....like in my home town, the cardinals play the SAME 4 american league teams every year......I would like to see the Yankees, or Red Sox come play.....not the Royals.......it needs to be mixed up in my opinion.

[Moviefan1203]

Toronto reveals their new uniforms for next year, and I really like the throwback look. Hopefully we can play a bit better next year and make a push for a wildcard.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...y_19997845&v=3

[dag]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

Toronto reveals their new uniforms for next year, and I really like the throwback look. Hopefully we can play a bit better next year and make a push for a wildcard.

I was just about to post that! I'm liking the retro logo - really returns the club to its founding and those halcyon years when the Dome was sold out with 50,000 fans watching back-to-back World Series championships. Can't wait for the home opener against Boston. I think I'll buy myself a cap. Pity Toronto FC has been leaving me more and more disillusioned.

[terp_fan99]

Completely in love with the Jays new blue jersey. Going to have to get one of those for sure. Now which player should I get? Bautista or Romero?

[Moviefan1203]

Originally Posted by terp_fan99

Completely in love with the Jays new blue jersey. Going to have to get one of those for sure. Now which player should I get? Bautista or Romero?

Bautista, of course. He's a stud and a half!