2019 MLB Season Thread - Baseball is Back!!!

[Patrick Chewing]

To celebrate opening day, here's the most famous slide in Braves history, "Sid's slide" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgjIVvEQo_o

[JohnnySic]

inb4 "baseball is boring and lame".

[AlternativeAcc.]

Its Trout season boyz!

[Patrick Chewing]

By the way, that was Pre-Steroids Barry Bonds who couldn't throw slow-ass Bream out at the plate.

[Wally450]

Red Sox in 6.

[imdaman99]

Mets iz back

Said the same last year... they started out 11-1 and it was all downhill from there

The difference this year is... well they have a few young guys and don't have to count on this shitty ass Cespedes. And obviously degrom is a stud

[AlternativeAcc.]

Yelich is ****ing insanely good.


2nd best player in the world after Trout. Betts at 3rd.

[Patrick Chewing]

Yelich is ****ing insanely good.


2nd best player in the world after Trout. Betts at 3rd.

Marlins looking like the dumbest organization in all of sports.

[AlternativeAcc.]

Marlins looking like the dumbest organization in all of sports.

Dumb ****s traded the best player in the NL for peanuts and pine-tar

[Meticode]

I remember when I loved baseball when I was a teenager. It was my favorite sport. Now it's boring as **** and frustrating to watch. Frustrating to see these players get all this injuries when they stand around 75% of the time and do nothing then they go to explode off their gold ass muscles and pulling muscles and groins all day.

They don't keep themselves warm on the bench and just sit there and eat seeds and gum for half the game.

No doubt, getting a 90+ MPH baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports, but sheesh. These contracts given out this off-season were and are a joke.

[SomeBlackDude]

These contracts given out this off-season were and are a joke.

not really.

the market dictates pay. many mlb teams signed lucrative tv deals recently, so naturally the players will get a nice % of that. same thing happened with the nba after they signed their mega deal with cable networks.

the angels signed a $3 billion tv deal, so it makes sense that the face of the franchise/best player in the game would get a massive pay raise.

[Meticode]

not really.

the market dictates pay. many mlb teams signed lucrative tv deals recently, so naturally the players will get a nice % of that. same thing happened with the nba after they signed their mega deal with cable networks.

the angels signed a $3 billion tv deal, so it makes sense that the face of the franchise/best player in the game would get a massive pay raise.

And yet baseball is at an all-time low in popularity. The contracts are laughable in my eyes.


Since 1986 when it reached 36 millions viewers, World Series TV ratings have steadily declined.


Good article about baseball being dead...

Regardless of the inflated attendance figures, and the monumental local TV deals for teams like the Angels and Dodgers, this game will be little more than a niche sport by 2040 (very much like the NHL is today). It’s not extreme pessimism, just extreme realism. One needs to look no further than the ultimate bellwether of our modern society: television ratings.

For the past 30 years, national television ratings for both the Game of the Week, playoffs and World Series have been plummeting. In 1986, the Mets-Red Sox Series garnered nearly a 27 average share nationally. Game 7 alone came close to a 40 share. New York and Boston practically shut down that night. The average this century for the Series is between an 8 and 10 share. One game in 2008 received a 6.5. The inverse relationship is clear. As expanded cable television became ubiquitous, national baseball ratings dropped. Add the internet or mobile, and the choices became endless.

To be fair, the 2016 Series had some of the best ratings in years due in part to the Chicago Cubs nationwide following and there was a Game 7. Plus their opponent, the Cleveland Indians, had not won a World Series since 1948. So you had two fan bases crying out for a long-awaited victory. However, if you breakdown the ratings per game, they really were not very good. Ratings were in the teens with around 20 million viewers. Game 7 received a 21 rating with just over 40 million watching. Thirty years earlier, Game 7 between the Mets and Red Sox had over 56 million hanging on every pitch; times have changed.

The 2017 Series also went seven games and was somewhat compelling, with two extra inning games. Having the Dodgers and Astros meant that MLB got the second and fourth biggest markets in the country. But overall ratings fell slightly with Game 7 attracting just over 28 million viewers. The game was played on a Wednesday night, which never helps. Also, the average duration of the games that year was over four hours. TV sets were being turned off gradually throughout the evening. In just over fifty years, the average length of a World Series game has doubled.

Sadly, the 2018 Series stopped hope in its tracks as ratings fell 23%. It only went five games, so that could be an issue. But the Dodgers made for frustrating viewing, as they struck out with men in scoring position like it was a habit.

https://howtheyplay.com/team-sports/...ging-Landscape

[Patrick Chewing]

The ballparks are smaller, but the individual homerun numbers are down, and strikeouts are way up.


Bring. Steroids. Back.

[SomeBlackDude]

And yet baseball is at an all-time low in popularity.

completely irrelevant.

it's all about dollars and cents.

the angels have a $3 billion tv deal, are valued at $1.9 billion as a franchise, and bring in about $345 million in revenue every year.

now what are the angels without their players? you think fans are tuning in, buying tickets to watch the owners in their sky boxes while staring at an empty field?

the market dictates the compensation.

mlb teams are swimming in cash right now.

therefore the players are entitled to their cut of the revenue stream.

many analysts think that they actually got mike trout, who many are already proclaiming the goat, for a discounted price.

The contracts are laughable in my eyes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...lly-underpaid/

https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/03/19/mi...xtension-value

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/3...ar-projections

https://www.mlbdailydish.com/2019/3/...-in-mike-trout

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...llion-bargain/

https://nypost.com/2019/03/22/alex-r...le-for-angels/

^that's the general consensus in the baseball world.

looks like people whose opinions actually matter disagree with you.

[Meticode]

completely irrelevant.

it's all about dollars and cents.

the angels have a $3 billion tv deal, are valued at $1.9 billion as a franchise, and bring in about $345 million in revenue every year.

now what are the angels without their players? you think fans are tuning in, buying tickets to watch the owners in their sky boxes while staring at an empty field?

the market dictates the compensation.

mlb teams are swimming in cash right now.

therefore the players are entitled to their cut of the revenue stream.

many analysts think that they actually got mike trout, who many are already proclaiming the goat, for a discounted price.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...lly-underpaid/

https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/03/19/mi...xtension-value

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/3...ar-projections

https://www.mlbdailydish.com/2019/3/...-in-mike-trout

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...llion-bargain/

https://nypost.com/2019/03/22/alex-r...le-for-angels/

^that's the general consensus in the baseball world.

looks like people whose opinions actually matter disagree with you.

Baseball is dying and has been dying for the last 20 years if not more. Let them get their contracts. I don't care honestly. The only reason I know about the contracts is because my TheScore app shows the news breaking when they sign on my phone. Otherwise I wouldn't even know about them because I don't give a shit.