The day the umpires walked off and the Orioles played on

The Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates finished their spring training game Tuesday without umpires on the field when the clubs agreed to continue playing even though Baltimore had already lost. Normally, the game ends if the visiting team is trailing and fails to tie the score in the top of the ninth during its at-bats.

Manager Brandon Hyde said Major League Baseball informed clubs they could opt to continue games through the bottom of the ninth so another pitcher can face live batters. In this case, it was right-hander Ofreidy Gómez who took the mound to get spring training work in a simulated setting.

But the umpires left.

omg the Pirates and Orioles wanted to play a bottom of the 9th despite the Pirates leading 7-4 at home but the ...

When Can Cincinnati Paint the NL Central Red?

There’s not a whole lot of pitching on this list, but the good news is that the Reds already have some promising arms on their roster. ZiPS thinks that the three front-end starters — Hunter Greene, Graham Ashcraft, and Nick Lodolo — will all make positive contributions in 2023, and odds are they’ll be even better come ’25 or ’26. Before and after a shoulder strain that cost most of his August, Greene was dominant in his 35 1/3 second-half innings, with a 1.02 ERA, 1.70 FIP, 13 strikeouts per game, and a walk rate cut in half from before the All-Star break. The last may be the most important; it doesn’t take a whole lot of innings to establish an improved (or worsened) walk rate. Lodolo, meanwhile, barely needed a half-season ...

Tampa Bay Rays’ Tyler Glasnow out 6-8 weeks with oblique strain

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow will miss the start of the regular season because of an oblique injury that is expected to sideline the hard-throwing right-hander for six to eight weeks.

The Rays announced Tuesday that an MRI revealed Glasnow has a Grade 2 left oblique strain, an injury he reportedly suffered during a live batting practice session.

Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters that he “would book that right now” when asked whether Glasnow would miss the start of the season.

Gavin Lux likely to miss season with torn ACL

Awful news for Lux and the Dodgers.

The Dodgers’ worst-case scenario came true on Tuesday as MRIs revealed that starting shortstop Gavin Lux tore his right ACL and LCL, effectively ending his 2023 season.

Lux was running the bases when he suffered the injury, ducking for a split second to avoid a throw from Padres third baseman Jantzen Witte. Lux stumbled in the process and his right knee buckled awkwardly after a couple of steps.

God bless the pitch clock. And pizza-box bases. Baseball is fun again!

Already, in spring training, games are finishing in 2 hours and 36 minutes. That’s nearly a week and a half faster than your average Yankees-Red Sox game last year.

Major League Baseball wants Ron DeSantis and the Legislature to carve minor league players out of Florida’s minimum wage

Major League Baseball wants Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature to let team owners pay their minor league players less than minimum wage.

The professional baseball league is lobbying Florida’s elected leaders for legislation that would cut baseball players out of the state’s minimum-wage law. That would allow MLB teams — all of which are owned by billionaires or near-billionaires — to get away with making minor leaguers work without salaries during key periods like spring training and fall instructional leagues.

MLB teams have historically refused to pay players outside the league’s roughly six-month regular season. That forces many minor leaguers — all of whom must practice and train year-round and most of whom ...

No RSN panic … yet

The challenge as the RSN business continues to fall is to try to come up a new model for local sports rights that eventually could replicate the revenue streams currently provided by the RSNs.

Consensus is that the push for streaming to replace the RSN model on its own will bring in only a fraction of the local media revenue that currently comes from the RSNs.

One NBA team president cited internal research that predicted its RSN rights-fee payout would drop from the mid-$30 million range per year to around $8 million if it made its games available via a direct-to-consumer service on its own.

During his press conference, Silver said he’s not concerned about recouping that RSN revenue in the long term, citing local over-the-air ...

Pitch Framing Is Evolving Along With the Strike Zone

These days, even the best framers can’t pull many strikes out of thin air. I ran a simple regression to predict pitch framing scores based on called strike rate in the shadow zone. Each year, as those stolen strikes dry up, the model weights pitches in the zone more and more heavily and pitches outside it less heavily. In 2010, pitches in the strike zone accounted for 73% of a player’s framing runs. In 2022, they accounted for 83%.

However, there are parts of the zone where catchers are both converting and stealing more strikes than they used to. Over the last few years, catchers have been working harder than ever to earn strikes at the bottom of the zone, and the one-knee catching stance has made its way around the league. It makes a ...

Blue Jays add ex-Astros GM Click to front office

Prior to joining the Astros, Click spent 15 years with the Rays, so he brings with him experience from two of the most progressive (and successful) front offices in baseball. With Tampa, Click rose to the role of vice president of baseball operations. Joining Toronto’s ever-expanding front office group, Click’s role will be far-reaching.

“In this role, Click will join the baseball operations leadership team, working closely with general manager Ross Atkins and department heads on strategic planning, decision making and evaluation,” the Blue Jays said in a release. “He will work across both professional and amateur levels to identify best practices, develop plans and implement strategies.”

Click, who joined the Astros’ ...

Sources: Padres, Manny Machado finalizing $350M extension

Star third baseman Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres are finalizing an 11-year, $350 million contract extension, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN.

Machado, 30, said earlier this week he intended to opt out of the final five years (and $150 million) of his current contract with the Padres following the season after preliminary negotiations on an extension broke down. While Machado had set a Feb. 16 deadline to reach a new deal, conversations continued between Machado’s agent, Dan Lozano of MVP Sports, and Padres general manager A.J. Preller. The deal is expected to be official soon.

The franchise cornerstone of an ascendant franchise, Machado is coming off arguably the best season of his career, hitting .298/.366/.531 with 32 ...

On 1st full day with new rules, games ‘better,’ with ‘more action’

All involved were warned that there would be no grace period with regard to the rules. So it was that a game between the Red Sox and Braves in North Port, Fla., ended in the bottom of the ninth (with the score tied, as there was no intention between the two teams of using extra men to play extra innings) when Braves infielder Cal Conley, who was up to bat with the bases loaded, two outs and the count full, was not alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark of the pitch timer and was therefore assessed an automatic strike.

Struck out lagging.

Game over.

“These are the kind of things that tell you why we’re starting this right now,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker. “You never know what might happen. That instance right there ...

MLBPA’s Tony Clark vows to fight efforts to implement salary cap

Saying Major League Baseball’s new Economic Reform Committee is “focused in on how best to depress player salaries,” MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark on Saturday vowed to fight any efforts by the league to implement a salary cap after the current labor deal expires in 2026.

Clark, speaking from the union’s new Arizona satellite office, said that despite concerns from owners about the estimated $300 million payroll chasm between the top- and bottom-spending teams this year, the answer is not to implement a ceiling.

“We’re never going to agree to a cap,” Clark said. “Let me start there. We don’t have a cap. We’re not going to agree to a cap.”

“A salary cap is the ultimate restriction on player value and player ...

Cardinals’ Oliver Marmol: Umpire C.B. Bucknor ‘has zero class’

St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said umpire C.B. Bucknor “has zero class” for refusing to shake his hand during the lineup card exchange at home plate before a game against the Washington Nationals on Saturday.

Marmol was seeing Bucknor for the first time since being ejected in a contentious dispute Aug. 21 in Arizona.

“I went into that game pretty certain of my thoughts on him as an umpire,” the Cardinals’ second-year manager said. “They weren’t very good and it shows his lack of class as a man. I chose my words wisely. I just don’t think he’s good at his job and it just showed his lack of class as a man.”

Marmol did shake hands with the other three umps—Ron Kulpa, Angel Hernandez and Carlos Torres.

Marmol was ejected last ...

Orioles remove ‘The Sun’ and Dempsey’s signs from Camden Yards

The Orioles removed two longtime noteworthy signs from Camden Yards on Thursday, taking down “The Sun” signage from above the center field scoreboard and the Dempsey’s Brew Pub sign on the B&O Warehouse.

The team said it’s opening the scoreboard space for sponsorship opportunities and that the future of the restaurant and its space are to be announced. In January, the Orioles replaced its longtime concession operator with a new company for the upcoming season.

The Baltimore Sun logo had been featured atop the ballpark’s scoreboard and in its clock since it opened in 1992, becoming closely associated with the iconic venue. The clock numbers that spelled out Baltimore Sun were being covered Thursday.

Warner Bros. Discovery Looks to Get Out of Regional Sports TV Business

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. .. is informing the professional-sports teams whose games are carried on three of its regional sports networks that it wishes to cease operating the channels and exit the business, according to people familiar with the matter.  The channels—which are still branded as AT&T SportsNet—serve teams in Pittsburgh, Houston, Colorado and Utah—and carry baseball, basketball and hockey.

In a letter sent Friday from the unit’s president Patrick Crumb—a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal—teams were warned that “the business will not have sufficient cash to pay the upcoming rights fees,” people familiar with the letter said.

Jocko Maxwell, the forgotten sports broadcasting great

“This was the first African-American sports broadcaster on radio,” Donna Halper, a professor at Lesley University, SABR researcher, and the first woman to ever host a broadcast at Northeastern University, said in a recent phone call. “He’s the first—and I love firsts, I’m a media historian—but given all the things that Jocko Maxwell achieved, what does he have to do to get into Cooperstown?”

It started out as five-minute segments, giving the scores and updates of the day. Soon it grew to 10 minutes, then 15. He went from WNJ to WHOM, he held call-in broadcasts on Brooklyn’s WLTH, and eventually went to WWRL, where he would be named its sports director in 1942. His shows aired multiple times a week on multiple stations across the dial.

...

How Should You Interpret [Fangraphs’] Projected Win Totals

Here’s the base level: the average error of our win total projections is 7.5 wins, and the median error is 6.5 wins. In other words, if we say that we think your team is going to win 85.5 games, that means that half the time, they’ll win between 79 and 92 games. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results, but for what it’s worth, that error has been consistent over time. In standard deviation terms, that’s around 9.5 wins.

The whole article is interesting.  However, I am extremely skeptical of this claim regarding trades:

Teams that we think will be awful are indeed awful, and they’re even a little worse than we think they’ll be. Likewise, teams that we think will be very good are indeed very good — better than ...

OT - 2023 Spring Football thread

XFL - Let’s try this again, shall we?

We started an article with that exact phrase in 2020, when we previewed the return of the XFL after two decades in stasis. And you know what? For a month, it was a lot of fun. Though viewership was beginning to trend off by the end of the season, XFL games were quick and exciting, in front of crowds of about 15,000 people, or even 20,000 in Seattle and St. Louis. Social media was fun and buzzy, and we saw a number of players who would go on to make minor impacts in the NFL, including Taylor Heinicke and P.J. Walker. Things were going quite well. We were enjoying it!

And then a global pandemic hit and the world shut down. The XFL was no more. Without games to play, the league quickly went bankrupt. ...

Get Bent, Tax Rules

Spreading out the cost of a superstar contract makes life easier on the team, as does pushing that payment into the future, when inflation and the perpetual economic growth demanded by our civic religion will actually make $27 million a year worth less in 2029 than it is now. But a reduction in non-inflation-adjusted dollars, as was de rigeur in the NHL a little over a decade ago? That happens rarely, and not to the same extent.

Darvish’s base salary peaks at $24 million and bottoms out at $14 million. Bryce Harper’s peaks at $26 million and bottoms out at $22 million at the end of the deal — a barely perceptible difference, and both players’ salaries are augmented by bonuses. The closest thing to an NHL-style long-term contract ...

Rays’ Ryan Thompson reviews, criticizes MLB’s arbitration process

Fascinating thread here.

My thoughts concerning arbitration: (THREAD)
I want to make clear that although I lost my case, there is absolutely no ill-will towards the Rays as they were as professional and respectful as possible considering the circumstances. This is merely a review of the process.

— Ryan Thompson (@R_Thompson15) February 23, 2023

Noah Song set to report to Phillies after Navy service change

Right-hander Noah Song plans to report to Philadelphia Phillies spring-training camp Thursday in hopes of making the team’s Opening Day roster after he transferred his status with the Navy from active duty to selected reserves.

Song, 25, was taken by Philadelphia in December’s Rule 5 draft from the Boston Red Sox. He last pitched in 2019, when he posted a 1.06 ERA in 17 Low-A innings after the Red Sox drafted him in the fourth round out of the Naval Academy and signed him for $100,000.

Song was denied a waiver by the Department of Defense to forgo his military obligation and had served on active duty since. His move to the selected reserves, which calls for one weekend of service a month and two weeks a year, allows him to resume his ...

Curt Schilling joins Outkick, Clay Travis welcomes him by slamming ‘pathetic losers at ESPN’

Former Major League Baseball pitcher and ESPN analyst turned-far-right political pundit Curt Schilling is joining Outkick.

Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports broke the news Tuesday morning, reporting that Schilling will launch a baseball show for the conservative-leaning outlet founded by Clay Travis.

“I’m excited to be teaming with a group of motivated, focused people, who are intent on making OutKick a leader and most excited to talk baseball, and only baseball,” Schilling said in a statement to FOS. “After meeting the team and the opportunity to get back to the sport I love and focus only on that was too appealing to pass up.”

According to the announcement, The Curt Schilling Baseball Show will air every Tuesday and ...

Mookie Betts admits 2018 Red Sox occasionally used video to steal signs

The Astros’ scheme was the most prevalent, thorough, and arguably the most advantageous in terms of real-time at-bats. But Betts was candid when asked if he was aware that the 2018 Red Sox occasionally used live video to steal signs.

“Yeah,” Betts told Hernandez. “Everybody was.”

Betts, who endorsed Watkins’ hiring along with another former Sox regular in J.D. Martinez, said that Boston did not use any sign-stealing schemes during the 2018 World Series against the Dodgers.

During MLB’s investigation that resulted in Watkins’ suspension, the league ruled that the Red Sox utilized sign-stealing measures only during the 2018 regular season. The report yielded insufficient evidence of Boston using those same schemes during ...

Tangotiger: Who is the most fun player in MLB, outside of Ohtani?

Based on these polls, this is what I found:

Poll #2: 17.5 singles = 12.5 strikeouts, or singles valued at 1.4X the strikeout. That’s less than its intrinsic run value.

Poll #3: 15 SO = 5 walks, or strikeouts valued at 3X the walk. Fans really don’t like walks.

Poll #4: Fans FAR prefer 3 doubles and 1 out to 4 singles.

Poll #5: Fans somewhat prefer 4 triples to 3 HR and 1 out.

Poll #1: Fans somewhat prefer doubles to steals

Ex-pitching coach Phil Regan sues Mets for age discrimination

Regan was replaced on Dec. 8 by Jeremy Hefner, who was 33 at the time and still holds the job. Regan claimed in the suit the Mets offered him a minor league contract at reduced terms. Regan was listed last season as senior adviser, pitching development.

“BVW specifically informed Mr. Regan that he wasn’t being retained because of his age,” the suit said, referring to Van Wagenen by his initials.

The Mets declined comment and Van Wagenen, who was fired when Steve Cohen bought the team in November 2020, said he deferred to the team for any comment.

Regan’s suit contends the team “has further harassed and discriminated” against him by “further decreases in salary, further denials of opportunities which he deserved, and even a reduction in ...

OT Soccer Thread - Champions League Knockout Stages Begin

New soccer thread!

Milwaukee Brewers Sign First Baseman Luke Voit to a Minor League Deal

Voit, 32, is best known for his monster seasons in 2019 and 2020 with the Yankees, but his health and productivity have fallen off from there. Last season, split between the Padres and the Nationals, Voit hit just .226/.308/.402/102 wRC+, and there was not a robust market for him this offseason.

For the Brewers, Voit makes so much sense as a right-handed power bat, who can make appearances at first base (where lefty Rowdy Tellez is otherwise the starter) and at DH (where lefty Jesse Winker is otherwise going to appear a whole lot). It’s an almost perfect superficial fit, and the Brewers are getting Voit on a minor league deal.

The one big caveat there is that Voit has pretty significant reverse splits for his career, hitting fellow ...

Two-Time All-Star Second Baseman Jason Kipnis Retires

Two-time All-Star second baseman Jason Kipnis is retiring from baseball, he announced in a tweet Monday afternoon.

“I’d be lying if I said I wanted to write this. To have to officially acknowledge that my time as a player in the game of baseball is over,” Kipnis wrote. “I always heard you rarely get to end your career on your own terms. They weren’t lying.”

Kipnis played for Cleveland from 2011-19 and the Cubs in 2020.

In the mid-2010s, the Arizona State product ranked as one of baseball’s most consistently productive second basemen. From 2013-16, he slashed .277/.349/.429 over 575 games, compiling 162-game averages of 16 home runs, 73 RBIs, 91 runs, and 22 stolen bases. He was an American League All-Star in ‘13 and 2015.

  ...Read More...

MLB Creates Economic Reform Committee

One year after a tense period of CBA negotiations between MLB and it players that resulted in a lockout and a delay to the start of the 2022 season, it appears the league is already preparing for the next round of negotiations. According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, the commissioner’s office has formed what they’re calling an economic reform committee chaired by Dodgers chairman Mark Walter. Drellich reports that Tigers chairman Chris Ilitch, Red Sox principle owner John Henry, and Rockies chairman Dick Monfort are among other members of the committee of franchise owners. The current CBA is set to expire following the 2026 season.

As Drellich notes, the impending bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, owner of the Bally Sports ...

Chicago White Sox prospect comes out publicly as gay: ‘I wanna be an inspiration’

Chicago White Sox minor leaguer Anderson Comas publicly came out as gay in a message posted to his Instagram account Sunday.

Comas, 23, said he was “proudly and happily part of the LGTBQ+ community” in a message largely dedicated to “people like me” trying to chase their dreams.

“I’m also a human with a great soul,” Comas said in the post. “I’m respectful, I’m a lover, I love my family and friends and that’s what really matters, I enjoy my work a lot, being a professional baseball player is the best thing that happened to me so I just wanna say something to those people that says that gay people can not be someone in this life, well look at me I’m Gay and I’m a professional athlete so that didn’t stopped (sic) me to make my ...