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having hilarious dreams of mlb regulating the crap out of technology and throwing out trackman and advanced tech, devastating all organizations... ...except the white sox who own the next decade because they never got started.

there should be a rule that if you land at #7 four years in a row your front office has to be fired.

I also heard that Mike Trout wears an oven mitt when baserunning to hide the electronic sign relay switch he carries in his hand.

Aren't we all murderers, when you think about it?

That's a respectful way to describe the numbers.

Look, man, I'm all for calling out cheaters, but Iet's be reasonable about how were looking at the so called proof.

This phrase needs to go away.

Part 2... Why is MLB viewership declining? First off, it's just the casual viewership that has declined a bit. And it's easy... You want casual viewership like the NFL and NBA? Do things that will ruin the game for the rest of us. Cut the season in half and make it the length of NBA/NHL. 82 games. This chops the rotation in half, gets rid of the fat and ensures quality on the mound every night. Your bullpen is ready and your positional guys never need rest. Then, you make the game 7 innings long. So, it's a 2 hour length. No mid-inning pitching changes either barring injury. You start it, you finish it. I f'ing guarantee that the above would increase viewership and interest in baseball. I'd bet my house AND my car on it. But none of us want that, do we? I sure as hell don't. I rather chop my d**k off than watch that brand of Major League Baseball. We on the same page? Nice. It's not rocket science. The game is slow, people. It's honestly f'ing boring if I just look at it from a neutral perspective. I love it. This game is my first love... but when you have smart phones, social media, video games that are more fun to people than real life, unlimited internet porn at the click of a mouse. Come on... you people really can't understand why the game of baseball is not generating the interest that it used to? 162 games, played nearly every day, your star pitcher only plays 1/5th of the games.... Hell, your star hitters only succeed 30% of the time at the plate. Think about that vs football/basketball and the rate that star QB's fire completions and star shooters make baskets. Your blinded by your love for this game if you can't see why it's losing favor to NFL, NCAAF and NBA. It's obvious. Not only that, it isn't fixable. Not unless you destroy the game as we know it.

Wasn't it something like Netflix that had 119 new programs in the last year? That's nuts. And 32 Golden Globes nominations for their films. 1) Esports/Computer games 2) XGames/extreme sports 3) Ubiquitous nature of Social media (which obviously has to be more incorporated into the sports world) 4) Middle class is working increasingly longer hours, or two jobs (single parents)...generally economic decline leading to decreased family viewing and attendance versus corporate/elites/comps for clients/suite rentals 5) Cord-cutting, pay t.v. is too expensive 6) More engagement in politics than at any time in recent memory 7) Lots of Americans prefer hunting/fishing/camping/hiking 8 High cost of sports attendance/concessions/souvenirs leading to less loyalty (see Greg775) 9) Increased interest in futbol/soccer around the world 10) Lack of nationally-identifiable stars to promote the sport (see Commissioner's lectures on Trout's ambivalence) 11) Fewer nuclear families, so there's less of a bond between fathers and sons around watching the sport or playing catch in the backyard 12) Times and pace of games 13) Cost of participating in summer/touring teams...many are being priced out, just simple access to fields, equipment, etc. 14) Quality of baseball instruction at lower/youth levels declining..."win at all costs" parents who live out their lives vicariously through their kids and fight either the refs/umps or other parents 15) Increased disconnect between billionaire owners, millionaire players and consumers...more found at college and low minor league level 16) Professional sports increasing politicized/political correctness movement/attacks on mascots or even Title IX/gender equity backlash

MLB just has to do a better job of policing itself or one day the sport will truly suffer. Gambling had been a big problem with Baseball before 1919 but the powers-that-be looked the other way. Then came 1919 and the sport was lucky to survive. MLB knew about Rose and his gambling long before the Dowd Report. And we fans probably know only a fraction about what happened with Rose. And now the player with the most hits in history isn't even connected with the sport. All together Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa hit nearly 2,000 home runs, yet none are in the Hall of Fame yet. Fans want this minimum: They want an honest game, Yes, they realize many players are far from being role models. But if the game will not survive if fans believe games are being fixed one way or another.

Man, it would have been so killer if that robertson for luzardo and that crappy 3b trade happened.

That was very well done thank you for sharing. I think every damn person in that entire organization knew exactly what was going on and that includes the piece of crap owner who sold evryone out to save his own skin.

The truth will eventually come out, but I agree with Joe Posnanski, I'm just struggling to connect the dots on Hinch's role: https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/hinch-and-hof-part-deux

How about some more fun from Tommy Pham?

Really? Pitchers throwing a lot of inside sliders these days?

And it’s all about knowing when to get your barrel through the zone. A lot easier to adjust to direction as opposed to speed.

I played at a high level facing pitchers who threw in the 90s, and when I knew it was an off speed pitch coming instead of a fastball, it made hitting so much easier.

And I hate nothing more than the "just look at him" argument. Frank Thomss was clean; but Just look at him! Dee Gordon did steroids; but just look at him. This isnt 1990 anymore. Steroids have come a long way. It's not a bulk inducing drug only anymore.

Thank god you're clever enough to see this obvious truth about Mike Trout and regularly remind the board just how clever you are. People will see the light eventually, just need to beat them over the head with it a few more times.

SSS? We're talking about thousands of ABs here.

Moan4Yoan hoping Hahn goes dumpster diving??? This offseason really has had everything.

Mad props to Beltran for owning this, not downplaying his role or the help it provided, apologizing and making zero excuses. This is the nature of the game and you can get caught up in it as you grow within the game - searching for that edge. Beltran didn't blame the game... or coaches and other players. He said I was wrong and I'm sorry. That's really all I ask of people who make mistakes because no one is perfect. He gets respect from me for that, even if people are ripping him endlessly.

Its not coming from just 'internet dorks', players are saying the same thing.

Anybody who thinks Trout isn't on PEDs is incredibly naive. I've been saying it for years. It's pretty obvious.

The baseball subreddit is getting dangerously close to 'we did it reddit' levels of dumb over the confetti

It depends on why you watch and what you consider the line not to cross when cheating. If you watch for entertainment, it doesn't matter. If you consider PED and sign stealing equal in crimes, you shouldn't put everything on the outcomes of games. Personally, I don't consider sign stealing and PEDs the same.

So the video game stuff/eSports is kind of funny to me. I'll give a quick online video game history lesson. I played competitively for $ at the very start of competitive console gaming on a website that used to be called SocomBattles.com around 2003/2004 when I was 14 or 15. The website was for the Playstation 2 game SOCOM 2 and had a very competitive ladder. Socombattles.com turned into Gamebattles.com which I played a ton of competitive games such as Socom 3, Socom 3: Combined Assault, then eventually the original CoD 4: Modern Warfare, RBSV 2, CoD Black OPS, CoD MW 2 et cetera. CoD4 onwards turned into Major League Gaming on the website and in turn exploded to what is now eSports. Around the same Counter Strike was the competitive game on PC IIRC. Fun times.

This is incredibly anecdotal but at least on my Facebook with my friends it's easily NFL, MLB, NCAA then a mixture of Hawks/Bulls depending if their good or not. I'm in my very early 30's. I don't think there is necessarily some down swing in MLB viewership in my age group. There are just a shit ton of Boomers.

Legal gambling is on the rise and cheating will not be tolerated.

Wonder if the Indians’ drumming guy will switch it up for Houston?

"Texas man arrested for following Dallas Keuchel around banging on a trashcan"

Unless Balta does something crazy...

I’ll take neither.

I'll take ventura over ricky in-game.

Pretty impressive that Farquhar was the guy to figure this out. The more I read about Farquhar -- his work with pitchers while he was playing, his recovery from the terrifying brain issue -- the more impressed I am. He strikes me as a really smart, thoughtful, and interesting guy, and I'm glad he's in our organization.

Danny Farquhar also knew exactly what he was throwing. The ump doesn’t. Farquhar, as far was we know, is also the only person who reacted to it in game.

Funk should have stayed in radio because you can't see how bad he is when you are listening to a game, you just trust he is being honest with the game call. When you are watching a game he is working, your eyes tell you how bad he is.