2025 Major League Baseball Thread

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Redliner17k

I know! Bob must be from Boston!

According to ESPN they had a crowd of over 24K tonight. Not too shabby. Though I'm sure a big chunk of them were Red Sox idiots.

[SteelPen]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

According to ESPN they had a crowd of over 24K tonight. Not too shabby. Though I'm sure a big chunk of them were Red Sox idiots.

It was about 65/35 Rays, but still alot of those rat bastards!

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Redliner17k

It was about 65/35 Rays, but still alot of those rat bastards!

In the past I have been to games where the Rays played the Yankees and games against the Red Sox. I swear the Sox fans were 10x as obnoxious.

Give those fools two world series titles in 85 years and they think they are the greatest team on the face of the earth.

I'd give anything to see the Magic rally from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Celtics.

[SteelPen]

The Rays are playing average at home this year, which is weird! (13-9) They have been 109-53 at home for the past 2 years! And, they have been awful on the road, the last 2 years...72-90, but this season they are 19-5 on the road!

Go figure!

[volcomsocal]

Stupid Cubs.

IMO Ted Williams was the best hitter of all time. Imagine if he didn't go off to war for all those years. His numbers would be even more through the roof.

[Wingman1977]

Originally Posted by Redliner17k

Bob Davidson: your nothing, but a rat bastard...

Talk about having a wide strike zone.

[toef]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

Talk about having a wide strike zone.

Haha, yeah.

The bottom one isn't as egregious as the others. I've seen pitches like that called strikes quite a bit. That first one's hilarious though.

[fatediesel]

Originally Posted by volcomsocal

Stupid Cubs.

Cubs are playing really well right now, winning 7 of their last 9. Dempster pitched a gem, 8 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, and the Cubs took advantage of 3 Dodger errors to get the win. If Gorzellany does a poor job tonight he'll probably lose his spot in the rotation to Zambrano, which is a shame because Gorzellany has done very well but gets no run support. I've been really impressed by Starlin Castro. I expected him to cool off after a couple games but he's stayed hot, hitting .328.

The Cubs finally get to play the Cardinals starting Friday. It's crazy that the Cubs and Cardinals don't play their first series until nearly June and only play once in the first half of the season. For comparisons sake, the Cubs and Pirates have 4 first half series against each other.

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by supersix4

I would have liked to have seen the speeds the guys back then were pitching so what maybe was fast back then might be nothing now, or maybe it hasn't changed that much , it really would change the way I look at Oldtimers if the fastest people were throwing were like 70-90.

This is a joke right? The old-timers were not throwing 70 MPH fastballs, ever. Bob Feller, a Hall-of-famer who played from 1936 to 1956, was clocked at around 100 MPH. There are indications the average velocity was slightly lower in the past, as pitchers were expected to pitch most of the game and there were few great relievers. The advent and usage of steroids seems to have pushed top velocities slightly up in the late 90's, as several relievers could near 100 MPH quite easily, but that has receded as testing has come into place.

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

This is a joke right? The old-timers were not throwing 70 MPH fastballs, ever. Bob Feller, a Hall-of-famer who played from 1936 to 1956, was clocked at around 100 MPH. There are indications the average velocity was slightly lower in the past, as pitchers were expected to pitch most of the game and there were few great relievers. The advent and usage of steroids seems to have pushed top velocities slightly up in the late 90's, as several relievers could near 100 MPH quite easily, but that has receded as testing has come into place.

No it wasn't a joke, it was based off other sports and how size, speed, power has destroyed what some of those other players could have accomplished in todays game, so my wondering was if that could have been the case for pitchers, even now radar guns spit out all different numbers so I don't know how credible the first ones are that were made in 1954 are, especially if after a 18 year career (if they did it in 54 when it was invented) was throwing 100mph, which in that case I would chalk up to him being one of the few freaks that could play the sport anytime in any generation.

[Hi-Def Steve]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Or a 60 mph knuckleball. Tim Wakefield continues to amaze me. The guy is 43 and still almost unhittable on some nights. He badly outdueled Roy Halladay a couple days ago.

Jamie Moyer continues to amaze me. 48 years old and is still able to get batters out.

[toef]

Originally Posted by supersix4

No it wasn't a joke, it was based off other sports and how size, speed, power has destroyed what some of those other players could have accomplished in todays game, so my wondering was if that could have been the case for pitchers, even now radar guns spit out all different numbers so I don't know how credible the first ones are that were made in 1954 are, especially if after a 18 year career (if they did it in 54 when it was invented) was throwing 100mph, which in that case I would chalk up to him being one of the few freaks that could play the sport anytime in any generation.

I don't know where I read it, but I remember reading that pitching has pretty much reached its peak, in terms of velocity. Major league pitchers are putting a ton of stress on their shoulders, and with each pitch run a risk of literally throwing their arm out of its socket.

Kind of ruined my dreams of seeings some guy pitch 120 mph. But I guess it makes sense. I'll have to wait until MLB allows cyborgs.

[SDon1969]

Originally Posted by Redliner17k

I know! Bob must be from Boston!

Those were bad calls last night, but Crawford's ejection seemed justified as he made sure to bump the bridge of the ump's nose with his helmet.

And I'm not an idiot, you bastards! lol. Ok maybe sometimes I am.

[Ashamed Pegasus]

Joe West has to be the worst umpire ever... He calls 2 balks on Mark Buehrle (which neither one looked anything like a bulk) and throws both Ozzie Guillen and Buehrle out of the game (one for arguing the call and the other for throwing his glove to the ground)...

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by toef

I don't know where I read it, but I remember reading that pitching has pretty much reached its peak, in terms of velocity. Major league pitchers are putting a ton of stress on their shoulders, and with each pitch run a risk of literally throwing their arm out of its socket.

Kind of ruined my dreams of seeings some guy pitch 120 mph. But I guess it makes sense. I'll have to wait until MLB allows cyborgs.

Ya, it just seems like basic physics. Unless something like the weight of the baseball or distance between the mound and home plate is changed I can't see how a baseball can be thrown much faster than 100 mph. When it comes to hitters there are more variables which can allow a player to drive the ball further than players did in the past.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by volcomsocal

Stupid Cubs.

IMO Ted Williams was the best hitter of all time. Imagine if he didn't go off to war for all those years. His numbers would be even more through the roof.

Probably so on Ted Williams. Williams missed an entire 3 seasons because of WWII and almost 2 more seasons to fight in the Korean War. That's almost 5 seasons missed due to war.

If you give Ted Williams another 30 home runs per season missed for those 5 years (a very conservative estimate) he would have had around 670 career home runs.

Williams just gets overlooked because he played for mostly mediocre Red Sox teams his entire career. Flip Williams and Mantle and Ted would have been the guy with a fist full of rings and probably be labeled the greatest player of all-time.

[toef]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Ya, it just seems like basic physics. Unless something like the weight of the baseball or distance between the mound and home plate is changed I can't see how a baseball can be thrown much faster than 100 mph. When it comes to hitters there are more variables which can allow a player to drive the ball further than players did in the past.

Yeah, bats are an interesting thing.

Ruth used an incredibly heavy bat, especially by today's standards. At one point he used a 54 ounce bat, but I think eventually used bats that were somewhere in the upper 40s.

By comparison, Bonds used bats in the low 30s, and according to a quick Google search, even dipped into the high 20 ounces.

I can't find a spray chart online anywhere, but I think Ruth hit most of his HRs into the alleys. If he learned to use a lighter bat, and pull the ball more, I wonder if he could've had more HRs.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by toef

Yeah, bats are an interesting thing.

Ruth used an incredibly heavy bat, especially by today's standards. At one point he used a 54 ounce bat, but I think eventually used bats that were somewhere in the upper 40s.

By comparison, Bonds used bats in the low 30s, and according to a quick Google search, even dipped into the high 20 ounces.

I can't find a spray chart online anywhere, but I think Ruth hit most of his HRs into the alleys. If he learned to use a lighter bat, and pull the ball more, I wonder if he could've had more HRs.

And what's funny about it is the closest Ruth ever got to lifting weights was lifting pitchers of beer and food to his mouth. Today's athletes live in the gym for the most part, yet Ruth swung a far heavier bat.

Just imagine Ruth's numbers if he were in better shape.

[Hi-Def Steve]

It would be an interesting poll to see here who people think is the greatest hitter of all time. My vote would be Williams.

[Navster]

Originally Posted by Hi-Def Steve

It would be an interesting poll to see here who people think is the greatest hitter of all time. My vote would be Williams.

Barry Bonds

[Show spoiler]