On the heels of some early morning news out of St. Petersburg, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Spring Training begins! (For one club):
Dodgers players are reporting to camp today, marking the official beginning of Spring Training for the club. While most clubs are reporting next week, L.A. and San Diego are both reporting early in preparation for the Seoul Series, where the Dodgers and Padres will kick off the 2024 regular season with a two-game set in South Korea. That series is set to begin on March 20, just over a week before Opening Day for the other 28 clubs occurs back in the states on March 28. With the Dodgers’ spring ending a week early, the club is kicking preparations for the season off ahead of time as well to ensure its players get a full Spring Training.
It’s been an exciting offseason for Dodgers fans, highlighted by the club’s acquisition of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. Looking beyond their most famous acquisition, L.A. overhauled its rotation by adding Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and James Paxton to a group that already featured the likes of Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller. They also transformed the outfield mix with the additions of Teoscar Hernandez and Manuel Margot, as well as a reunion with Jason Heyward.
2. Kershaw to undergo physical:
Longtime franchise face Clayton Kershaw returned to the Dodgers earlier this week on a two-year deal earlier this week. The tentative pact between the sides is pending a physical, which will take place today. After pitching through shoulder woes last season to post a strong 2.46 ERA in 131 2/3 innings of work, Kershaw went under the knife back in November. Assuming the contract becomes official post-physical, the club will need to open up a 40-man roster spot for Kershaw going forward.
Fortunately, with camp opening for the club today, the Dodgers will now be able to place players on the 60-day injured list, which removes them from the 40-man roster for the length of their stay on the IL. With Kershaw not expected back on a pitcher’s mound until August at the earliest, the veteran figures to be placed on the 60-day IL himself alongside righties Tony Gonsolin (Tommy John surgery last August) and Dustin May (Tommy John revision and flexor surgery last July).
3. Manfred to hold press conference:
As noted by Evan Drellich of The Athletic, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to speak with reporters later today following the conclusion of the owners’ meetings in Florida. The comments from Manfred come not only at the cusp between the offseason and the return of baseball, but also amid a push for MLB players to participate in the 2028 Summer Olympics. Prior to the World Series back in October, Manfred declined to discuss potential rule changes for the 2024 season, though he noted that any changes would be smaller than the ones implemented last year. 2023 saw the league implement a pitch clock, larger bases, and infield shift restrictions among other rules.
Pitch clock is definitely coming down to 18 seconds with runners on base unfortunately.
I’d like to see them leave the rules alone for a few years to wait to see their true effect. A couple tweaks reduced game times by half an hour and increased steals and base hits, there’s no need to tweak them so soon after getting the outcome they wanted.
The games started out on a quicker pace but as the season went on the players started to learn how to game the system. MLB was serious about a quicker pace and the higher attendance proved them right. If the players start gaming the new clock rule expect MLB to further adjust the rule.
A lot of “purest” hate the new rules and get mad every time a rule is changed or tweaked but I’m in favor of them.
I guess I fall into the other camp though I can appreciate those who want a faster pace. I do believe I am in the minority of avid fans who attend multiple games a season vs those who attend one maybe two of just their local team. But for my experience I always enjoyed the baseball conversations between myself and other fans especially when visiting a game outside of SF as travel for my work allows often. I enjoy the stories and insight of broadcasters not named Joe buck, and 4 hour or even 5 at the ball park is something I always enjoyed. But I understand the pace of todays world makes it seem to many especially the younger crowd under 40 that even 3 hours is too long to commit to any single form of entertainment such as movies theater or sporting events.
Personally love baseball so much that I don’t mind spending half the day at the ballpark. But I also get that most fans are casuals, and mlb has to cater to them to make the money.
Truth be told, baseball, as a whole, doesn’t care about attendance. Sure teams may care since it generates a good source of income for them but MLB/Manfred does not. He cares about TV deals because that is where the money is. Tv, ads, streaming deals so the moves that may is more about watchability on tv vs the stadium experience.
Unless it’s their phone apparently, lol
drasco empty stadiums are bad for tv. It’s a very noticeable thing when watching a game with few fans in attendance.
Why do people always take things to the extreme? Did your mind honestly think from my statement that no fans would show up?
Baseball, again, as a whole, doesn’t care if attendance is down as long as viewership is up and record tv deals still come in. Attendance right now isn’t baseballs problem and frankly, it hasn’t been for a while. A large portion of the seats are owned by corporations anyway, they pay year in and year out if they go or not. Season ticket holders continue to buy seats if they go or not.
You say “empty stadiums” are bad for baseball viewership? Attendance hasn’t effected tv deals and until it does, no one gives a flying f
drasco I’m not taking anything to an extreme but I do think attendance matters. First it looks better on tv for seats to be full and when negotiating for millions of dollars for tv rights you want every advantage you can get. Second guaranteed those penny pinching owners want all they can get. Attending a baseball game isn’t cheap and evey empty seat can be easily $100.00 that they don’t get. Attendance does matter.
You’re misunderstanding me, when I say MLB, I mean the corporate offices, Manfred and such. They don’t care about attendance as long as the league continues to make record profits via tv/streaming deals.
Teams care but Manfred could care less if the Reds attendances drops. If MLB actually cares, they would dictate more of the fan experience vs leaving it in the hands of team ownership.
You’re a Yankee fan so you get it, large market teams drive the industry as much as small market fans want to turn a blind eye, it’s a fact. Yankees go to Tampa and Rays attendance and viewership goes up. Cubs go to Cincinnati, attendance and viewership goes up and so on. Small market teams think competitiveness is good for the sport, it’s not. Look at college football. Second most popular sport and you can pencil in the playoffs every year before the season starts most of the time. There are maybe 10 viable contenders. MLB would be tickled hitless if the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Braves Cubs etc were in the playoffs more often than not. Small market teams are the at large teams in the NCAA tournament “oh how cute this Cinderella story is beating the big boys” they get to the World Series, great, MLB can market the crap out of it, like they do whenever the Rays are in the playoffs. If they don’t, even better! The large market teams have a huge national following and will tune in. Rays and royals need to make the World Series once or twice every decade.
Anyway, attendance doesn’t matter right now. It’s fine in their eyes if it continues to drop for now and honestly, they can CGI fans. If 5 thousand fans show up to Royals/White Sox, mlb doesn’t care. It’s not a national televised game anyway. Those fans will still watch if they want to. When the Yankees go to KC, that stadium will be full because kids want to see judge and Soto, Yankees have plenty of fans and families circle that game to see stars. That may be nationally televised, that they care about.
drasco I think we are mostly in agreement with the exception of the commissioner’s office. I do think they care, even Manfred. Pushing through these (what has proven to be popular) rule changes shows that. Definitely more can be done for the smaller market teams but I don’t know how much Manfred can really do.
I think baseball should consider a posting system for players.
Luxury tax paying teams receive no financial gains for posting (they basically get the qualifying offer return for profit sharing recipient teams)
Teams that do not get profit sharing receive a certain percentage plus an additional pick
Profit sharing recipients get a larger percentage and a draft pick.
This would be for players who reached 6 years of service time vs 7 years. Players who reached free agency can still receive a qualifying offer.
**posting teams can choose to match the offer and retain the player similar to hockeys restricted free agency.
@Joe says…
At what point does the gaming stop? It’s been engrained in baseball since the beginning. It’s part of the strategy of baseball. Are we going to get to the point that the clock is 2 seconds? What a joke!
Old York good question actually and I have no idea what the answer is. I do know this though, as I mentioned MLB was serious about this change and the attendance numbers backed them up and they aren’t going to roll over with this. If I had to guess, it wouldn’t be any more reduction in the clock but a reduction in time outs, step offs etc.
Je…
“it wouldn’t be any more reduction in the clock but a reduction in time outs, step offs etc.”
This is a reasonable response
Not a dumb response like a 2 second clock
@filihok
It’s even dumber assuming tinker around the actual problem will solve the issue of lack of action. But, let’s not talk about that.
OY
I know I’m going to regret this:
How would you solve the issue of lack of action?
@filihok
I see you have a short attention span when I wrote that for you above.
OY
Please show me where you wrote that above
I don’t see all the replies because I have people muted
Your insult, based on your faulty assumption, is noted.
@filihok
You haven’t muted me so you should be able to read what I posted. But I get it, you like to play the troll games instead of having an adult conversation. It’s a lot easier than actually having to think.
OY
Muted
@filihok
Good, thanks for the immature conversation all these days.
Some people mute everyone who disagrees with them. I’ve seen thicker skins on a papaya.
maybe we can reduce the amount of damn commercials!!!
For the “great good” of making the owners more money. Right…. Who are the greedy ones again?
Lemon I’m with you. After having 30% more pitching injuries than in any other non-COVID season you would think the owners would want to protect their investment and see if the injuries are a trend or were just an anomaly.
@Baseballislife 30% more pitching injuries? It’s the first time I’m hearing this. Everything I’ve heard, including this site, has said the injuries are on par with other years and maybe down a percentage point or two
Bwahaha. Record IL trips other than Covid years.
Feels good man….
Manfred will announce today that he is officially the worst and most hated commissioner in baseball history.
Always amazes me how someone is all good or all bad. There is no in-between. The worst thing Manfred has done was pull the All Star game out of Atlanta. Today we know that the district is one of the corrupt districts in the country and the changes were an attempt to clean it up.
The best he’s done is gotten rid of the shift, pace of play changes and brought back the Stolen Base.
Like most people, he’s a mixed bag.
The worst thing he’s done is the phantom baserunner to start extra innings.
Hubert. Well, I don’t like that runner, but virtually everyone in baseball does. And I mean everyone. From vendors and players, to media.
You’d be hard pressed to find a single person in baseball who doesn’t love it.
They love it because they consider it a work day, and they’re not hourly employees, so the sooner they leave the work place, the better.
“Most hated commissioner”..The hate mongers of America spread hate and pretty have brought “hate” to sports, right bjhaas1977?…People that “hate” over sports are just unhappy people who need someone or something to demonize in their very sad lives.
You’re half right, I’m a very happy person, but I do need something to demonize and the dodgers give me that. Go Giants!
True, but they’re also living in a fantasy world where the commissioner works for someone other than the 30 owners who pay his salary.
Of course he works for the 30 owners. Just like Miller, Fehr and Clark worked for the players.
But it behooves Manfred to care about the health of the product, Unions typically don’t care about the health of the product.
And how does ownership judge the health of the product, other than by how much money they are making from it?
What the union cares about isn’t relevant to this discussion, but they are looking after their interests and judge their success in doing so in the same way MLB does theirs.
We live in a Capitalistic society. The consumer tells you most of what you need to know.
God, how I love consumers. They are a lot wiser than Governments dictating how businesses should be run.
To the owners he is the best ever. They have seen the largest increases in revenue and team value during his tenure. Since Manfred works for them, not you, and attendance is also increasing I’m guessing the majority of owners and fans don’t agree with you.
Fire manfred…..!! Worst Commish in MLB History !!! He will Ruin our Beloved Game !!!
Bowie Kuhn and Bud Selig would like a word.
I can’t understand why they brought back Kershaw. He’s a racially season ace but got destroyed last October. That’s what will happen again this year. Teams are better pressure rises and he won’t answer the bill. Sad to say but that’s how i feel
@Shadow Banned: Racially season? Answer the bill?
OK then.
Autocorrect messed me up. He’s a Regular season ace. I’ve always defended Kershaw but it’s just plain dumb to hand him the ball in October. Teams are better they’re laser focused on beating him and a lot of times they do.
Obviously his employers have the completely opposite opinion.
MLBs action problem has nothing to do with adjusting the strap on your glove or stepping out of the batters box or the infield shift. It has to do with the focus of batters on power over contact. The league prefers the Three True Outcome players and has had to accommodate to their weaknesses by changing all the rules. Oh, no! The lefty always hits into the shift. That’s not fair. We need a rule to ensure he gets on base a bit more instead of expecting these athletes to actually learn to make contact and adjust their strategy based on the defense.
Push the fences back 30 feet. Now, you have to really earn it if you hit a home run (not like Matt Olson and everyone aren’t hitting missiles that average 440 feet anyway). The OFs have to be able to play the field. Athletes are generally better pure hitters than giant slugs who are employed to swat 30 and maybe run into 40 in a career year
OFs are able to play the field. Hence the term “outfielders.”
Then why not see them cover more territory, you know, be athletic. See how long a Schwarber can stick around and actually field a position.
Some cover more territory than others. Just the nature of human ability and talent.
But using Schwarber as an example, it’s the team’s prerogative to sacrifice defense in favor of offense.
What’s wrong with that?
Nothing wrong with that. I’d like to see the fences pushed back 30 feet and how that changes a teams decision about batting power versus defensive acumen. I’d rather see high OBP versus the 3 true outcome being rewarded and I think moving the fences back would accomplish that.
Good luck convincing anyone of that.
I agree. Plus, seems like there’s more K’s than there used to be
D-N
Pitchers are so much better and harder to hit than before.
Hitters had to adjust.
Swinging für the fences was the adjustment. If it’s harder to hit the ball, you have to make the times you do hit it count more
We know whose hand will be up Manfred’a behind as the puppet talks.
Jeff Dunham?
Reminder to all that Manfred works for the 30 owners. His $14 million salary is dependent on pleasing Bob Dolan, John Fisher, John Henry, Rogers Communications, Liberty Media, etc. and not the fans of the game. You don’t hate the Commissioner, you hate the owners
“You hate the owners”…The people who “hate” over sports are far too dumb(and immature)to realize the commissioner is just a guy who gets paid to take the slings and arrows for the owners.
Exactly, he’s just the spokesman, the rodeo clown there to distract from the bull (owners)
Instead of taking a conspiratorial view, it helps to think of the commissioner as the CEO of MLB. Like any other CEO in any other business, he is hired to make money for his employers, and if he does that part of his job well then what the customers think of him is immaterial.
Pitch count violations
baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/pitch-timer-vio…
All
Fewest – Mariners 15,
Worst – Mets 55 total,
Avg. – 36/team,
Roughly 1 every 11 games for the best, 1 every 3 for the Mets
Pitcher Timer Fewest – Mariners 6, worst – Pirates 41
Batter Timer Fewest – Cards 2, worst – Nationals 17
Batter Attempted Second Timeout Fewest – 18 teams 0, worst – Rays 3
Catcher Timer Fewest – 18 teams 0, worst – 3 teams 2
Four teams were caught in Defensive Shifts (included under All)
First year, who knows what the norm will be but, to me, it looks like everyone adapted well overall. What do you think?
People should watch classic games of the 60s and 70s.
Pitchers got the ball, threw the ball, and although there was a 20 second pitch clock rule, and because no one abused it, it was never enforced.
Then through analytics, pitches found they could be more effective if they waited. The clock was abused, they were never called on it, and it got worse and worse and worse.
I wish a reporter would ask Manfred why it’s good for the league to allow John Fisher to kill one of their 30 franchises.
@Super2
Was it good for the league when they moved from Philadelphia and then KC before ending up in Oakland? The team has moved 2 times already so what’s wrong with a 3rd time?
I think because it’s a different game and a different world since those days. Back them you may have gotten snippets about the move in the newspaper but with todays 24hr/365 news cycles we are well aware of the convoluted mess this whole thing has been from the beginning.
@Rsox
I guess someone doesn’t remember the Cleveland Spiders. The owner bought the St. Louis Browns and thought it would be a better place for attendence to have a really good team there so he traded all his star players to the Browns, including future Hall of Famers Cy Young, Jesse Burkett and Bobby Wallace, as well as manager Patsy Tebeau.
Stanley Robison publicly announced his intention to run the Spiders “as a sideshow”, and fans took him at his word: after the first 16 home games, Cleveland’s total attendance was 3,179, for a trifling average of 199 people per game.
How is having the modern Cleveland Spiders good for the sport?
That was 1899 and there were only a handfull of teams and none west of St.Louis. today the entire world can follow the disaster Fisher has made of the A’s as both Baseball’s farm team and as the owner who has not and doesn’t seem to care to secure a home for his team beyond this season. The only thing moving to Vegas does is guarantee Fisher collects Baseball welfare for however long he owns the team.
There have been bad owners throughout Baseball history but Fisher is taking it to another level
@Rsox
It’s still the same nonsense. Fans and teams were well aware of the intentions of the owner so it’s not like it was a secret and no one knew about it. Teams refused to play in Cleveland because the shared money from attendance wasn’t wroth it. It was a gongshow then just like today’s Jokeland A’s. Yet, baseball still survived.
I think that is Super2’s point though is why in todays game with all of the money the league generates from so many other sources does Manfred and the other owners abide Fisher and his penny pinching that makes Larry Dolan and Bob Nutting look like George Steinbrenner
Because the owners have created a finance system that reliably makes money for all of them, large and small market teams alike. Why should we believe they care about anything else?
“Would ask Manfred why”…Manfred actually works for the people who make these decisions, dum dum.
What do you suggest he do, Kemo Sabe?
@Baron
Organize the other owners and force Fisher out. Fisher has completely annihilated the A’s fanbase, and salted the earth in Oakland and bungles every attempt to move this franchise forward. He’s literally going to turn them into a barnstorming team with no home. As for Vegas, they aren’t building a stadium on the Tropicana site, it’s too small. The A’s only get the tax money if they build on the strip. John Fisher is too dumb and too cheap to get this done. Just like his other 4 failed stadium projects. That’s why they haven’t released renderings, they haven’t secured financing, nor is there any solid plan or location of the Vegas stadium.
But hey, if you think MLB should be happy with 29 major league clubs and one 4A team with no fan base, no media deal, randomly moving from triple A park to triple A park to play their “home” games is good for baseball… go work for John Fisher I guess.
And that becomes another issue entirely; Nevada has supposedly only agreed to fund $380 million but the stadium is expected to cost $1 Billion, so who is funding the other $620 million? Not Fisher
“Organize the other owners and force Fisher out.”
Putting aside whether it’s feasible, is that even legal? Honest question.
The NBA straight up forced Donald Sterling to sell. The NFL more or less forced Daniel Snyder to sell. It can be done.
They can’t even keep In & Out burger in Oakland.
At some point, blame the city.
You do realize that rising prices are based on demand, right? If people stopped spending their money on watching games etc, the prices would go down. The players are just trying to get their fair share of the cut.
He, and a lot of other fans, don’t realize it’s their willingness to spend money on the game that creates the ability of the teams to set prices. We’re talking to people who must have slept through Econ 101.
maybe we’ll get lucky and this is a presser to announce Manfred is retiring
….if that is what he’s instructed to do.
Force the A’s owner to sell and then allow the A’s to move to San Jose. The Giants can stuff it. Expect the owners to NOT do what is best for the game. Instead they only care about protecting their bottom line. And while were at it… get taxpayers out of stadium ownership and the upkeep business.
Ownership is supposed to care about something other than their bottom line? Do tell us what should that be.
Balancing the “bottom line” with what is best for the industry, as there would be a red ink “bottom line” if the industry loses it’s customers. In the case of the industry in question, (and many others) the “bottom line” is distorted by subsidies and a quasi-monopoly.
The bottom line is the bottom line. Whether you like or agree with how MLB makes money is irrelevant because the owners of the sport are in it for the money, and will always judge their success by how much of it they make. It’s highly unrealistic to expect this basic measurement of business success to change to something else, and it’s obvious that you can’t tell us what that should be instead anyway.
The “bottom line” is a hackneyed term that has no substance. No one is arguing that people (or corporations) should not or generally do not act in what they perceive to be their own best interest, and NO, not all MLB owners, are “in it for the money” all the time. “Self-Interest” isn’t always about maximizing profit, especially if there are no non-family shareholders, as with the Illitch family. Mike made a lot of decisions that ignored maximizing profit. In his later years, he judged his success by simply winning a WS. Whether it’s obvious to you or not, I did indeed offer an ideal system of maximizing profit within a more moral framework where government subsidies and their distortion of the marketplace no longer exist (call it-“enlightened self-interest”) but I’m not holding my breath waiting for it to materialize.
bottom line | ˈbädəm ˌlīn |
noun informal
the final total of an account, balance sheet, or other financial document.
So this is a term with actual meaning, particularly in the context in which it was used.
I hate to be the one who breaks this to you but all of the MLB owners are in it for the money. These are not billion dollar hobbies or charities, they are businesses. Big businesses with investors and employees. Good luck imposing a “moral framework” on them especially when you are deciding what is moral instead the people who actually own the businesses. Good luck also in getting rid of the state in local interest in the locations of sports franchises, as if that’s ever happened before. And since you admit that your version of a perfect baseball world will never materialize, maybe you should be open to the idea that the sport is in fact a business with owners who chase the almighty dollar.
I assume Manfred is also going to apologize for relying on his ignorance as rationale to pull the ASG out of Atlanta. It would be a bit late of course, but he has to delicately balance the need for support for subsidies from those who govern the larger cities and obligitory knee-jerk, conditioned, rhetorical responses whenever his bell is rung.
2 seconds. So dumb. Might as well make the pitch clock 0.
The Dodgers run out of gas every year. This year probably even sooner!