biggentleben

This makes 7 inducted HOFers that have passed this year, the most ever in one year. That doesn't include Dick Allen, who will likely be inducted eventually.

Bell isn't exactly great outside of 2019, and he's a DH in the field. It will be interesting how he truly helps, but maturation from Kieboom and Robles could give the Nationals just enough behind their aging top 3 in the rotation to have one more run before FA and age closes their window.

Knucksie... Phil Niekro, 81. Can this week just be done already?

Tom Hanneman...sad day.

As far as the Braves are concerned, I've been a fan for a long time of doing a very minor adjustment to the present logo and renaming the team the Hammers in honor of its greatest player, "hammering" Hank Aaron.

The Braves' Chief Knockahoma was pushed out in the late 80s/early 90s. They had a logo changed due to it being an offensive representation in the 1970s. The issue goes back further than 20 years.

Charley was a team owner with the Rangers and played Negro League and minor league baseball. Impressive man.

I've got nearly 100 active podcasts and almost 40 that are "on a break" (between seasons) right now. A good chunk of them are sports, but here's a collection of some of the ones I'd strongly suggest giving a listen (some may be between seasons): Against the Rules Code Switch Invisibilia IRL Rough Translation Stuff You Should Know Ted Talks Daily Throughline

As a Braves fan, a rotation of: Soroka Fried Morton Smyly Anderson ...in some order is very nice, with guys like Kyle Wright and Bryse Wilson to quickly fill in. After seeing Robbie Erlin, Jhoulys Chacin, and Tommy Milone make multiple starts on a first place team, this is much better! Also, for those discussing "there's definitely money out there!" the Braves had more than $70M come off the books this offseason from contracts even with projected arbitration raises. If the team only replaced 70% of that and made 30% cuts, that gave the team in the area of $50M to spend this offseason just to get back to 2020 spending levels. Not every team has the same financial flexibility this year, so these numbers thrown out to Smyly and Morton may not be indicative of a market.

With a lot of the best bats in the market guys that work best with a team that has a DH available, it is notable that so far, the notable guys off the board have all been arms. I'd wager most NL teams would love to negotiate heavily with guys like Ozuna, Brantley, and Cruz, but if there's no surety about a DH in the NL in 2021, that changes the interest of those NL teams. Any good agent is going to wait until they can bring in the most potential teams.

Braves have gambled on one-year pitching and hitting deals that were top-end for one year. Hamels didn't work out, but Josh Donaldson and Marcell Ozuna were incredible buys for one year. Dallas Keuchel was a viable #3 paid roughly the same full-season rate as Hamels (many forget that Keuchel's 13 million was signed June 7, 2019). Smyly is expected to come in as the #4 starter. If he fails in that role, he's an expensive reliever, but just for one year.

And now Trebek. Just think of the Celebrity Jeopardy episode that Connery and Trebek are putting together now... RIP, Alex Trebek.

Wow...did no one have Connery?

Seems like this would really disincentivize the opener strategy in general. My fantasy teams would like that, but I'm not sure what I think about it as far as truly being better for baseball...

I know this is a Twins site, and this includes a player currently on a Twins rival, but if the World Series can have multiple of Mookie Betts, Ronald Acuna Jr., Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., and/or Mike Trout in their final four each year, it'd be very, very good for the game.

You'll hear a lot of stuff this offseason as MLB takes over the minor leagues and reshuffles what was once a very fun entity to follow.

Dodgers are the most analytically-inclined team in the majors, I'd argue. The interview with Buehler and Kershaw after the game asking about Snell being pulled was pretty telling. You could tell they were talking a company line, but both would prefer going out there when they were dominating at 75-80 pitches through 6, but both were pulled at similar numbers.

Now the BADgers vs. Nebraska game is canceled due to a COVID outbreak. Perhaps it isn't just Fleck...

If anyone listens to the SABR podcast, Boog Sciambi had an excellent discussion about the television delivery of the game. It likely will be the way the game is delivered primarily at least to begin 2021, so it would be to MLB's distinct advantage to work harder to make the game better to cover and better for the viewer on television.

Snell: "Skip, you gonna bring in some slapdick reliever to take my spot after I give up my second hit?!"

I would say the NFL has struggled worse than MLB did, but that's immaterial to this discussion.

Watched three plays. Three plays more viewing than the season deserved. "Clean it up, Fleck" ?!?! It's a global pandemic, playing a game where a NORMAL interaction sends spittle flying everywhere with no "bubble" enforced, and the coach is at fault that players were infected? I'm astounded Bateman returned to the team after initially opting out. After talking to multiple potential major leaguers who are still not allowed to work out at full strength and may never realize a major league dream due to catching COVID while an underpaid minor league player, risking the health of unpaid collegiate players for entertainment and potentially risking a future professional career for some of them is beyond absurdity to me.

Absolutely unbelievable that the fans that came to the game would find it in "good taste" to start the chop in Texas. It's bad enough that the team no longer plays the theme music. That was 100% bassackwards fans.

100%. I had zero issues with the Dodgers celebrations in the series, and there were numerous on catches and home runs. They were celebrating the moment, and they were doing so in pure enjoyment of the game and to rally their own teammates. I didn't once see anything directed at either opposing dugout. On the contrary, one thing that the announcers completely missed mentioning, but that the cameras caught, was Freeman ribbing Betts at first base the next time Betts was at the plate after robbing the homer in game 7. The two went back and forth a few times, both chuckling. That was great.

Most fans also know that the game in 1920 resembles nothing near modern baseball. The Cardinals were notoriously one of the last to integrate in the National League and paid for it while the Dodgers, Giants, and Braves fought for yearly supremacy of the National League in the 1950s. Even comparing the playoffs that the 1987 Tigers were trying to make (which Doyle Alexander did very well in achieving, making the deal exactly what you want a deadline deal to be if you're a 'championship or nothing' sort of fan) and the playoffs that exist now, even without the 2020 expanded playoffs. The Wild Card system has rarely placed the two best regular-season teams into the World Series, whereas those two teams ended up in the Fall Classic quite frequently in the initial division playoff model from 1969 to 1993. As a fan, I want a winning team on the field every year. The playoffs as currently constructed are a crapshoot, so I'd prefer a team that can produce a winning product each season. Just FYI, for those 8 organizations: Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta: 10,732-10,684 (.501), 26 playoff appearances, 17 pennants, 3 World Series wins Brooklyn/Los Angeles: 11,017-9,835 (.528), 34 playoff appearances, 24 pennants, 6 World Series wins Chicago: 11,016-10,430 (.514), 21 playoff appearances, 17 pennants, 3 World Series wins Cincinnati: 10,630-10,422 (.505), 16 playoff appearances, 10 pennants, 5 World Series wins New York/San Francisco: 11,194-9,718 (.535), 26 playoff appearances, 23 pennants, 8 World Series wins Philadelphia: 9,853-11,032 (.472), 14 playoff appearances, 7 pennants, 2 World Series wins Pittsburgh: 10,564-10,446 (.503), 17 playoff appearances, 9 pennants, 5 World Series wins St. Louis: 10,948-10,091 (.520), 30 playoff appearances, 23 pennants, 11 World Series wins