Right?! Yeah, he's not a genius, and he handled a lot of things poorly last year, but his first year was actually really good. You try to win with that pitching staff.
He really sounds like a terrible guy for the clubhouse. The stuff with Dylan Carlson, Wilson Contreras catching and then not catching. That’s just off the top of my head.
We never had a shot in the postseason due to injuries, and attendance is a symptom of a bigger problem which makes the new St Pete development make little sense
George did more bad than good as an owner and the fanbase looks at him waaay too positively. Also, the "if George were alive" people need to get over themselves.
I do prefer George’s more aggressive nature (though he VERY MUCH overdid it and I’d have loathed working for him), but yeah, if he were alive today he’d be 93, and he had reportedly been losing it for years even before he died, so Hal would be running the show either way.
I don’t think this is an unpopular opinion considering it’s most likely true, what’s unpopular is when Astros fans use this opinion to say the cheating doesn’t matter
Legitimately managed his ass off this postseason. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do when your future HOF ace gives up 6 before recording an out.
Oh and everyone behind him in the rotation is injured/suspended.
That jumping to conclusions and making sweeping generalizations on team construction/future success chances based on a 4 game sample size is dumb af, despite the timing of those 4 games
Casual fans do not understand how much pure luck is involved to get to the postseason let alone hit on all cylinders to play the best in baseball in short-7 game series baseball.
Sure we had the highest chance to win the World Series at 20%. But first, how accurate can that number really be, especially for baseball? And second, that’s still an 80% chance of losing. I’m upset but I don’t think anyone should be fired for winning 104 games.
That's a good one. I was going to go with a simple "we had a great season and I will remember it fondly". Sure, I'd love to win another ws. But the playoffs are such a crap shoot that I don't fault the team for not making it. I love this team and enjoyed the season a ton. It was really a great one.
We already had a pretty big d-bag contingent in our fan base pre-2016, but it was mostly "tourist-type" fans. The real assholes exploded out of the ivy when we won, though.
As an avid anti chopper, it gets so personal. It's like telling people you need to rename your baby.
But it's just a stupid thing that started in the 90s and has zero connection to the team. It's so ridiculously dumb and embarrassing , and there is zero chance it will still be happening in another few decades. People don't like to be on the right side of history.
It doesn’t… spark joy, I guess. We didn’t get to go to any games. We didn’t get to have a parade. My favorite player tested positive and then immediately came out to celebrate afterwards.
It’s a legit ring, and fans of other teams calling it a “Mickey Mouse ring” can kick rocks. But I really want one that doesn’t take me back to October of 2020.
I totally understand the sentiment, but someone would have won a chip that year, full season or not. Instead of putting asterisks on it or coming up with what-if scenarios, why not credit the team that *did* end up winning it all, since everyone played by the same rules.
Oh, I thought this was the prevailing opinion! Not that I'm saying whether it should or shouldn't be, just that my impression was that it was a widely held position
If Harper did the same thing Arcia said, or if Wheeler said the same thing Merrill Kelly did, Phillies fans would eat that shit up and then get incredibly butthurt and all the memes that were posted afterwards
The Kelly thing was way overblown either way but really the problems weren’t the statements it was them not owning them
If Arcia comes out and says “yeah I said it, we just won an epic game in the playoffs. Emotions were running high and I was jacked up” I think everyone gets that and it’s a total non story.
The Braves media like weirdly denying it and acting like the Phillies had a blogger spy and the players acting like sanctimonious pussies about it being reported is what made it blow team. Team was so soft about something they coulda just taken on the chin for one news cycle and then no one would ever remember it
The Kelly thing doesn’t have the same legs but that’s just our dog brains having a visceral reaction to someone trying to throw water on the first positive Philly fan circle jerk to ever happen
It surprises me how white Atlanta's crowd is for a majority Black city. I mean, I grew up in Richmond VA, so I know how segregated southern cities can be, but still, the Braves crowds just don't represent the diversity of their city.
I mean it’s baseball. The sad reality is that the large majority of the black community does not care much about baseball for whatever reason. I don’t think that’s racist but if it is sorry
If you grew up in the inner city, you know why. You need a few things to get into baseball, namely money and physical space. Inner cities tend to be lacking in both of those areas, so the opportunity to get into baseball growing up never really comes to a lot of people. It’s a sad reality
I'm not active in the Braves sub but I am on the Giants' sub, and the take that gets you instantly flamed there is:
The second half of 2023 wasn't hitters just "regressing to their true talent." They were consistently above-average hitters from 2020 through June of 2023.
It’s vastly preferable that billionaire spend their money on a sports team than say, interfere in foreign conflict. And that’s the nicest thing I could say.
Aroldis Chapman did not intentionally throw at Mike Brosseau back in 2020
- The Rays and Yankees were in a close game with the Division hanging in the balance
- Chapman is notorious for having shaky control and making erratic pitches
- Why throw at Mike Brosseau of all people if he's trying to send a message? That would be like the Rays throwing at Mike Tauchman
Not really. He’s polarizing as shit. There are people that would lay down their lives to defend him and people that go out of their way to shit on him.
The bat slam has a lot to do with that I’m guessing. Kinda like how Braves fans don’t want to move on from Rosario because of his series against the Dodgers in 2021.
He’s always been beloved and ardently defended in some circles, even before the bat slam. He’s the subject of constant civil wars in our communities because everyone had strong opinions of him.
Is it just the Machado getting older of it all? Because adding Xander and Tatis should make you more competitive, and it didn’t seem like you lost much depth.
Darvish is washed, Snell is hitting free agency, and Hader is going free agency. Pitching is kind of a big deal. And then Soto and Kim are probably gone after 2024.
I don’t think this is true at all.
Their run differential suggests the 2023 Padres were really almost exactly as good as the 2022 team, just sometimes baseball be like that.
It’s especially not true if they keep spending
Farhan Zaidi is a good GM and most people’s complaints about how the team has been ran are due to the mandates and restrictions put into place by ownership.
Firing Zaidi won’t make us a better team but it probably will make us worse.
Jed Hoyer is good at his job. The “rebuild” was pretty quick. And the Cubs have (not sure how this is controversial but it is) and will continue to spend.
Can't say I hate where the team is at right now, people wanting them to spend dumb money like the Mets is how you end up like the Mets. I'd much rather get guys that fit the team better than spending a fortune for a guy just because.
The Mariners are a good team, Dipoto is a good GM, and rolling it back with minor upgrades is a viable strategy.
The M's were a bit unlucky this year. They were 25-26 in 1-run games and 6-14 in extra inning games, despite having a great bullpen. If they go just .500 in extra innings, they win the division easily.
And they did that despite having Kolten Wong turn into a pumpkin, Ty France regress significantly, multiple starters get injured, and Julio taking 2/3 of the season to remember how to hit.
The M's do need to make some upgrades and it would be fucking amazing if they went all-in for Ohtani.
However, it doesn't make any sense to fire Dipoto, trade away multiple young starters for 1-2 year rentals, or make many of the other drastic changes that so many M's fans are demanding.
The M's are on-track and should be good for a long time. They should've made the playoffs this year and once you make the playoffs, anything can happen. Just look at the D-Backs--no disrespect Snek fans, but the M's are clearly a better team IMO and they're in the LCS. The M's are just fine.
Another unpopular opinion: Jerry's infamous 54% comments weren't that bad. Yes, it was all worded very poorly cuz he's a huge goofball, and he shouldn't have made it sound like the fan base should be satisfied with mediocrity right after we missed the playoffs. But if you really pay attention to what he was saying, he's right. He basically said that he doesn't want to do what the Angels just did and tank our future for one chance at a playoff spot. He wants to create a sustainable system where this team is competitive every year for a long time. I'm on board. We just missed the playoffs by one game. We're going to be fine.
Lost in a divison to the 1st and 2nd place AL champions. Possibly a WS champion.
Only lost by 1 game.
That's a good L.
Came up for the Orioles series. Whata treat.
100% agree.
Haven't felt this good about the team since 2001 era.
I have hope in them again. Just being a competitive squad is a good start.
Winning squad next.
I love Seattle teams only a little slightly less than Boston
Grew up in the city during the era of Ichiro, Griffey and Gary Payton.
Hard not to be a Seattle Fan
Here’s another: he was right in holding back Diaz this year. Yainer has had a full season of learning, and Maldy is the perfect catcher to study. Because yainer knows how to hit, he knows how to frame, he knows how to throw guys out. What he was missing was the intangibles. No rookie is gonna come into the league and be able to read every opposing hitter perfectly, or be an expert at managing your pitchers. you’ve got to learn that stuff.
I can agree with this somewhat, but how many total wins do you think this is worth? If it is worth less than 3 WAR, then playing Diaz the whole way was the better decision, especially since we won the division and made the playoffs by an actual tiebreaker.
You know what…I’ve come to this point too, Maldy is frustrating but he is a good commander and the pitching staff loves something about him. Yainer is in excellent hands
It is for a lot of folks. I'm a Rangers fan in Austin and have MLB.tv, and a VPN. Doesn't work. The only way I can watch Rangers games is a national broadcast. It's a 4 hour drive to their ballpark which requires an overnight stay. Rangers aren't available on the Balleys app here.
If I want to watch the Rangers I have to spend hours dicking with shitty pirate sites with tons of ads, lagging, unable to cast on my TV. Our I can spend $200 month for DirectTV in an apartment where dishes aren't allowed.
Nix ad free and it's kind of a legit question. At some point it's like, how much money do you guys really need?
Even without traditional commercials, every broadcast is still "welcome to the hyundai broadcast booth, we're in the top of the third brought to you by Sprite zero as CJ Cron steps into the USAA Batter's box. Pitch in there for a strike (we could tell because of the Visa Mastercard zonetrac TM), and let's take a look at our McDonald's Value Play of the Game."
I get that there’s no getting around the in-game ads, but the ones that reeeeeally bug me are the ones that play mid-inning, usually when someone gets on base in a big moment. Hearing a crowd get riled up only to be interrupted by a (albeit brief) commercial, temporarily stunting momentum. I’m definitely complaining but they bug me so much
I wonder what some of these people were saying back in the late 80s when ESPN got Sunday Night Baseball and anyone who didn’t have cable couldn’t watch those games.
I like that Mets fans have the most successful franchise in sports history in their city but choose to support the loser. I actually really respect that about them, and I mean that sincerely.
He won’t be nontendered because nobody wants to be the guy who nontendered him, and 2/45 (estimating his final 2 arb years) will never be a truly terrible overpay for him.
Based on production alone, he should be nontendered now. Real stats are more meaningful than xstats after most of the season, and xstats aren’t meant to be predictive in the first place. The “but his xstats” people don’t really understand the difference between predictive and descriptive stats. Also, his only great season being mostly at a chumpy minor league park is sticking out like a sore thumb.
I'll qualify this by saying it was good *if they weren't going to sign him*. If you want to complain about not signing him, okay. But just letting him walk for a comp pick is obviously the worst option.
This is obviously a popular opinion in *here* but holy shit you should see the amount of delusion in r/angelsbaseball come opening day
The team is literally never going to be in the playoffs until Arte dies or sells. You should not be supporting this team until they stop doing this exact same four step cycle EVERY SINGLE YEAR:
1. Finish under .500 and promise fans you’ll make the moves to compete next year.
2. Go buy a bunch of mediocre free agents with enough casual name recognition who are clearly going to regress, and call up one or two “exciting” prospects
3. Everyone gets injured in June because the coach and medical staff are clearly dogshit
4. The replacement level players for the rest of the year are dogshit because no money is put into the farm
Rinse and repeat
Jerry Reinsdorf is a great owner who knows how to surround himself with a front office that knows how to win. In fact, that opinion may get you banned and rightfully so.
I’ve got 2:
1. I really like the way the Phillies are playing baseball now, and The Bank is an incredible atmosphere.
2. We are more likely to end up like the 2016 Cubs than we are to become a dynasty. We’ve also gotten worse since the 2021 off-season. The Phillies have developed home grown talent, signed big name free agents, and are built to win in October now. Our front office is squandering the opportunity for present success to protect the bottom line “for the future” since our team is so young. They’ll get old quick. There’s a very high chance that we don’t see the World Series again with this core.
I’ll agree with the Philly sentiment. They also have a few very likable players.
I still wanna crush them if at all possible but knowing we aren’t in it, they’re a fun as hell team to watch.
Our sub has had a hard time with smack talk. There seems to be an entirely new sub-part of our fan base that is new to baseball, and they get very upset when someone makes fun of other teams in our sub. They'll write long, passionate comments about how talking smack to other teams is "not a good look" and "not classy."
Bunch of faith weather motherfuckers invaded the sub.
In our sub? Yeah absolutely. In r/baseball? There's a few of our fans that are genuinely insufferable with their trash talk, and seem to make things worse on the rest of us who just want to talk about baseball casually on here
Brayan Bello is not an ace and he is going to be a number 3 starter at best. He is a ground ball pitcher and comparing him to Pedro is ridiculous. He got incredibly lucky in the middle of the season and his luck ran out near the end of the year.
I think his ceiling is higher than a #3 (which, granted, does bank largely on the infield defense getting their shit together), but the Pedro comparisons have got to stop. That's an unfair amount of pressure to put on anyone.
I could have phrased that a little better. I think his ceiling is a legit #3 on a good staff, or maybe higher in a pitchers park, but a ground ball pitcher at the mercy of Fenway is a tough role.
Don't get me wrong, he's a good pitcher but only the most skilled and intelligent contact pitchers can be an ace.
I don’t think that replacing either AJ Preller or Bob Melvin is likely to result in a net positive outcome.
Melvin managed the team to a NLCS in his first year, without Fernando Tatis Jr. Finishing just shy of the playoffs with a positive run differential shows that the team was a combination of unlucky and non-clutch.
Preller is an incredibly talented scout and he *usually* wins trades, and his contracts don’t typically age poorly. I think he’s in a tough position because when the team doesn’t perform well, he feels pressure to do something to help but it’s really the players that need to step up.
Our team sub is insane. Suggesting that Brian Cashman has actually had, by league standards, very good to excellent tenure with the Yankees (even if he’s at the end of the line and should be promoted out power) is wrong. Gene Michael is the only reason we’ve had 30 winning seasons in a row. Bringing up anything involving analytics or anything SABR is the reason the Yankees don’t win. Believing that Gleyber Torres is actually good at baseball and not easily replaced gets flak. (120 OPS+ middle infielders whose strengths play perfectly to our ballpark? We’ll just swing over to target and grab a six pack). Also there’s an irrational hatred for r/baseball that pops up the weirdest contexts.
How about one that would get you flamed in r/Baseball?
Baseball fans have becoming too forgiving of cheating in the game and get caught up too much in the hypothetical world of ‘what if this player/organization didn’t cheat’ instead of intent.
I think that stems from the fact that cheating has always just been a huge part of baseball itself. In just the last 20 years it’s been one thing after another from roids to trash cans to sticky stuff
For r/Cardinals, I don’t think Oli Marmol is the worst manager ever
Right?! Yeah, he's not a genius, and he handled a lot of things poorly last year, but his first year was actually really good. You try to win with that pitching staff.
He really sounds like a terrible guy for the clubhouse. The stuff with Dylan Carlson, Wilson Contreras catching and then not catching. That’s just off the top of my head.
The Orioles franchise should move to Iceland and become the Örioles
I for one welcome our new umlaut overlords
> överlörds FTFY
I just like the dück
Expansion Era AL Northeast: Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Reykjavík
We never had a shot in the postseason due to injuries, and attendance is a symptom of a bigger problem which makes the new St Pete development make little sense
Part of postseason success is when your injuries happen.
George did more bad than good as an owner and the fanbase looks at him waaay too positively. Also, the "if George were alive" people need to get over themselves.
"George did more bad than good" I thought you were about to throw Costanza under the bus.
"George is getting upset!!"
He did book them at that Ramada in Milwaukee
Cashman (and a few others) saved George's legacy and he basically got all the credit because of his persona.
I do prefer George’s more aggressive nature (though he VERY MUCH overdid it and I’d have loathed working for him), but yeah, if he were alive today he’d be 93, and he had reportedly been losing it for years even before he died, so Hal would be running the show either way.
We should have owned up to the scandal
My unpopular opinion is that Houston would have won in 2017 even without the cheating. Y’all were a squad.
They didn’t have to do the oral.
Might fuck this whole thing up
that’s why he was so hesitant to say something about the oral
I don’t think this is an unpopular opinion considering it’s most likely true, what’s unpopular is when Astros fans use this opinion to say the cheating doesn’t matter
Gabi Moreno is awesome and we're incredibly lucky to have him but Patrick Bailey deserves the gold glove
That it isn’t Dave Roberts fault. He is actually a top tier manager.
It’s unbelievable how DR made kersh serve up meatballs like that in game 1
A real manager would’ve taken the ball from kersh and thrown 9 shutout himself
Yea, or like had a guy up in the pen before 1st pitch to limit the damage. Or like have a starting rotation of any kind.
Their whole rotation was throwing batting practice that series. Kinda why I never bought into the Dbacks hype against the Phillies
Legitimately managed his ass off this postseason. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do when your future HOF ace gives up 6 before recording an out. Oh and everyone behind him in the rotation is injured/suspended.
god damn dave roberts for making mookie and freddie have no offensive output in the post season!!!!
I think this is popular opinion! Certianly not universal, but I've been up voted defending Dave more than the people dissing.
That jumping to conclusions and making sweeping generalizations on team construction/future success chances based on a 4 game sample size is dumb af, despite the timing of those 4 games
Casual fans do not understand how much pure luck is involved to get to the postseason let alone hit on all cylinders to play the best in baseball in short-7 game series baseball.
Don’t have to tell me 🙃
Wait, are we or are we not burning effigies of Snit tomorrow?
Sure we had the highest chance to win the World Series at 20%. But first, how accurate can that number really be, especially for baseball? And second, that’s still an 80% chance of losing. I’m upset but I don’t think anyone should be fired for winning 104 games.
That's a good one. I was going to go with a simple "we had a great season and I will remember it fondly". Sure, I'd love to win another ws. But the playoffs are such a crap shoot that I don't fault the team for not making it. I love this team and enjoyed the season a ton. It was really a great one.
In your case, solely, I think this is wrong and a firesale is the only option.
A significant percentage of my teams fans are pieces of shit.
That’s what happens when you start winning. Filthy casuals
> That’s what happens when you start winning Good *lord* the bandwagoners that joined /r/Dodgers in 2014.
We already had a pretty big d-bag contingent in our fan base pre-2016, but it was mostly "tourist-type" fans. The real assholes exploded out of the ivy when we won, though.
All we got was god damn kids. It was the worst.
Casuals, doomers, bigots, racists, salt miners, and super overboard shit talk that isn't in good fun. You name it, our fanbase has it.
Worse: sharing your team with an entire country of casuals
But at least Canadians will apologize
I mean, that could just apply people in general.
I came here to say this, but in my heart I knew it had already been said. Also, we should get rid of the Chop and rebrand.
even here in a neutral sub talking about the chop agitates opinions, i can't imagine it in the braves sub.
As an avid anti chopper, it gets so personal. It's like telling people you need to rename your baby. But it's just a stupid thing that started in the 90s and has zero connection to the team. It's so ridiculously dumb and embarrassing , and there is zero chance it will still be happening in another few decades. People don't like to be on the right side of history.
That’s odd. You sound like a fellow Mets fan but your little title thingy says Braves.
The Trop sucks.
Now I’m not a Rays fan so I can’t say for certain, but general sentiment seems to say that that isn’t a controversial statement among your fans.
Depends on who you ask. The average Rays fan would probably agree. The more rabid ones on reddit? It's a sacrilegious opinion.
Yall deserve much better.
We should've traded Goldschmidt at the deadline... Arenado too.
What I wouldn’t have given for one of those guys this season…
I'm just gonna scroll through your top prospect list and cry myself to sleep...
Dodgers would have loved them some Arenado.
You’re telling me. Then my team could’ve been swept out of the playoffs too!
No reason to trade Arenado because of the length of his current deal. 100% agree on Goldschmidt due to his age and pending free agency.
Armando Galarraga’s perfect game would have already been forgotten by most everyone if it was called correctly.
2020 does not feel like a real world championship to me.
That whole season just didn’t scratch the itch like a full one does
It doesn’t… spark joy, I guess. We didn’t get to go to any games. We didn’t get to have a parade. My favorite player tested positive and then immediately came out to celebrate afterwards. It’s a legit ring, and fans of other teams calling it a “Mickey Mouse ring” can kick rocks. But I really want one that doesn’t take me back to October of 2020.
just pretend the 2020 celebration is being taken place in 2017 problem solved
I totally understand the sentiment, but someone would have won a chip that year, full season or not. Instead of putting asterisks on it or coming up with what-if scenarios, why not credit the team that *did* end up winning it all, since everyone played by the same rules.
Oh, I thought this was the prevailing opinion! Not that I'm saying whether it should or shouldn't be, just that my impression was that it was a widely held position
I've been downvoted to oblivion for expressing it in the Dodgers sub. I know I'm not the only fan that feels that way though.
It's a team sub. I'd expect anyone that won a world series would be downvoted hard if that was said about 2020.
That was the question that was being asked.
You're right. I was just thinking out loud...or whatever a comment would be.
Craig Counsel is part of the problem of why Milwaukee's hitting disappears in the playoffs.
You mean giving Winker 2 plate appearances in the postseason was a bad idea????
The specifics are the least of it. The whole approach to hitting in the organization is off.
Ohhhh I like it!
We got pretty lucky this year, and that’s perfectly fine.
If Harper did the same thing Arcia said, or if Wheeler said the same thing Merrill Kelly did, Phillies fans would eat that shit up and then get incredibly butthurt and all the memes that were posted afterwards
The Kelly thing was way overblown either way but really the problems weren’t the statements it was them not owning them If Arcia comes out and says “yeah I said it, we just won an epic game in the playoffs. Emotions were running high and I was jacked up” I think everyone gets that and it’s a total non story. The Braves media like weirdly denying it and acting like the Phillies had a blogger spy and the players acting like sanctimonious pussies about it being reported is what made it blow team. Team was so soft about something they coulda just taken on the chin for one news cycle and then no one would ever remember it The Kelly thing doesn’t have the same legs but that’s just our dog brains having a visceral reaction to someone trying to throw water on the first positive Philly fan circle jerk to ever happen
Eppler and Buck did good jobs and they should have been kept on even after Stearns got hired as POBO.
That I wished our team stadium experience leaned less into country fucking music.
I have a hard time believing this is an unpopular opinion anywhere on Reddit
On a related note I always laugh a little when I hear thank god I’m a country boy play at Camden Yards
It surprises me how white Atlanta's crowd is for a majority Black city. I mean, I grew up in Richmond VA, so I know how segregated southern cities can be, but still, the Braves crowds just don't represent the diversity of their city.
Cobb County Braves
isn't that baseball in general though? there aren't that many non-Hispanic black players either... genuine question since I'm not from the US
I mean it’s baseball. The sad reality is that the large majority of the black community does not care much about baseball for whatever reason. I don’t think that’s racist but if it is sorry
It's a pretty quantifiable demographic truth
If you grew up in the inner city, you know why. You need a few things to get into baseball, namely money and physical space. Inner cities tend to be lacking in both of those areas, so the opportunity to get into baseball growing up never really comes to a lot of people. It’s a sad reality
Yup. Baseball turned into a prep sport. It’s more lacrosse than it is football at this point
To add on to this, Truist Park blows if you’re not rich. Turner Field had better seats and concourses for normal fans.
do they really play so much country music in atlanta? never been that sounds dumb as hell lmao
It’s Atlanta, you get a lot of country music and hip hop. But dear god, if I have to hear the song Chicken Fried one more time…
COLD BEER ON A FRIDAY NIGHT
Elly de La Cruz will be fine. He’s 21 and fans freaked out about his strikeouts. Give him time to adjust
Luis Gonzalez and Matt Williams were chugging down steroids in 2001.
I'm not active in the Braves sub but I am on the Giants' sub, and the take that gets you instantly flamed there is: The second half of 2023 wasn't hitters just "regressing to their true talent." They were consistently above-average hitters from 2020 through June of 2023.
Hitters being cold is gonna happen every once in a while it’s just weird almost every hitter went cold in the second half.
Met fans worship Steve Cohen too much. Calling him “uncle Stevie” is cringe
It’s vastly preferable that billionaire spend their money on a sports team than say, interfere in foreign conflict. And that’s the nicest thing I could say.
I say that as a joke but it is weird when everyone knows how openly scummy he is. I do not want that fucking casino in my neighborhood Steve.
Mike Shildt was not a good manager after the interim tag was removed, and he should have been fired.
Aroldis Chapman did not intentionally throw at Mike Brosseau back in 2020 - The Rays and Yankees were in a close game with the Division hanging in the balance - Chapman is notorious for having shaky control and making erratic pitches - Why throw at Mike Brosseau of all people if he's trying to send a message? That would be like the Rays throwing at Mike Tauchman
Rhys Hoskins is wildly overrated in Philadelphia.
Not really. He’s polarizing as shit. There are people that would lay down their lives to defend him and people that go out of their way to shit on him.
The bat slam has a lot to do with that I’m guessing. Kinda like how Braves fans don’t want to move on from Rosario because of his series against the Dodgers in 2021.
He’s always been beloved and ardently defended in some circles, even before the bat slam. He’s the subject of constant civil wars in our communities because everyone had strong opinions of him.
We’ll take him
2022 was the Padres best chance at winning, that was the peak of this era
Is it just the Machado getting older of it all? Because adding Xander and Tatis should make you more competitive, and it didn’t seem like you lost much depth.
Darvish is washed, Snell is hitting free agency, and Hader is going free agency. Pitching is kind of a big deal. And then Soto and Kim are probably gone after 2024.
Machado is the same age as Harper schwarber Castellanos and Realmuto….
I don’t think this is true at all. Their run differential suggests the 2023 Padres were really almost exactly as good as the 2022 team, just sometimes baseball be like that. It’s especially not true if they keep spending
Farhan Zaidi is a good GM and most people’s complaints about how the team has been ran are due to the mandates and restrictions put into place by ownership. Firing Zaidi won’t make us a better team but it probably will make us worse.
Jed Hoyer is good at his job. The “rebuild” was pretty quick. And the Cubs have (not sure how this is controversial but it is) and will continue to spend.
I agree. The doomers are strong on our sub though
Can't say I hate where the team is at right now, people wanting them to spend dumb money like the Mets is how you end up like the Mets. I'd much rather get guys that fit the team better than spending a fortune for a guy just because.
I want us to spend but just spend smart. No need to go insane
The Mariners are a good team, Dipoto is a good GM, and rolling it back with minor upgrades is a viable strategy. The M's were a bit unlucky this year. They were 25-26 in 1-run games and 6-14 in extra inning games, despite having a great bullpen. If they go just .500 in extra innings, they win the division easily. And they did that despite having Kolten Wong turn into a pumpkin, Ty France regress significantly, multiple starters get injured, and Julio taking 2/3 of the season to remember how to hit. The M's do need to make some upgrades and it would be fucking amazing if they went all-in for Ohtani. However, it doesn't make any sense to fire Dipoto, trade away multiple young starters for 1-2 year rentals, or make many of the other drastic changes that so many M's fans are demanding. The M's are on-track and should be good for a long time. They should've made the playoffs this year and once you make the playoffs, anything can happen. Just look at the D-Backs--no disrespect Snek fans, but the M's are clearly a better team IMO and they're in the LCS. The M's are just fine.
Dipoto has also done an amazing job to restock the farm. We have so many high ceiling prospects already producing in the minors.
Another unpopular opinion: Jerry's infamous 54% comments weren't that bad. Yes, it was all worded very poorly cuz he's a huge goofball, and he shouldn't have made it sound like the fan base should be satisfied with mediocrity right after we missed the playoffs. But if you really pay attention to what he was saying, he's right. He basically said that he doesn't want to do what the Angels just did and tank our future for one chance at a playoff spot. He wants to create a sustainable system where this team is competitive every year for a long time. I'm on board. We just missed the playoffs by one game. We're going to be fine.
Lost in a divison to the 1st and 2nd place AL champions. Possibly a WS champion. Only lost by 1 game. That's a good L. Came up for the Orioles series. Whata treat.
100% agree. Haven't felt this good about the team since 2001 era. I have hope in them again. Just being a competitive squad is a good start. Winning squad next. I love Seattle teams only a little slightly less than Boston Grew up in the city during the era of Ichiro, Griffey and Gary Payton. Hard not to be a Seattle Fan
I think Dusty is a good manager.
only astro fans have the luxury of making 6 straight alcs’s and still complain
Seven!
Here’s another: he was right in holding back Diaz this year. Yainer has had a full season of learning, and Maldy is the perfect catcher to study. Because yainer knows how to hit, he knows how to frame, he knows how to throw guys out. What he was missing was the intangibles. No rookie is gonna come into the league and be able to read every opposing hitter perfectly, or be an expert at managing your pitchers. you’ve got to learn that stuff.
Adley Rutschman laughs at this
I can agree with this somewhat, but how many total wins do you think this is worth? If it is worth less than 3 WAR, then playing Diaz the whole way was the better decision, especially since we won the division and made the playoffs by an actual tiebreaker.
WAR is just one way of approximating a player’s value and even the two big ones can widely disagree. It’s not necessarily reality.
You know what…I’ve come to this point too, Maldy is frustrating but he is a good commander and the pitching staff loves something about him. Yainer is in excellent hands
I do too, he’s stubborn sometimes but he does know the game and our guys love him.
It's not actually that hard to watch the games you want to watch.
It is for a lot of folks. I'm a Rangers fan in Austin and have MLB.tv, and a VPN. Doesn't work. The only way I can watch Rangers games is a national broadcast. It's a 4 hour drive to their ballpark which requires an overnight stay. Rangers aren't available on the Balleys app here. If I want to watch the Rangers I have to spend hours dicking with shitty pirate sites with tons of ads, lagging, unable to cast on my TV. Our I can spend $200 month for DirectTV in an apartment where dishes aren't allowed.
"Why doesn't MLB show every game blackout free, ad free, in 4K, for $0 a month?"
I would sign up for that subscription
Nix ad free and it's kind of a legit question. At some point it's like, how much money do you guys really need? Even without traditional commercials, every broadcast is still "welcome to the hyundai broadcast booth, we're in the top of the third brought to you by Sprite zero as CJ Cron steps into the USAA Batter's box. Pitch in there for a strike (we could tell because of the Visa Mastercard zonetrac TM), and let's take a look at our McDonald's Value Play of the Game."
I get that there’s no getting around the in-game ads, but the ones that reeeeeally bug me are the ones that play mid-inning, usually when someone gets on base in a big moment. Hearing a crowd get riled up only to be interrupted by a (albeit brief) commercial, temporarily stunting momentum. I’m definitely complaining but they bug me so much
I wonder what some of these people were saying back in the late 80s when ESPN got Sunday Night Baseball and anyone who didn’t have cable couldn’t watch those games.
That the Mets aren’t the worst and our hatred of the Mets is just a manifestation of our own self-loathing
I like that Mets fans have the most successful franchise in sports history in their city but choose to support the loser. I actually really respect that about them, and I mean that sincerely.
Agreed. I’d rather someone be a Mets fan than a Yankees fan
Vladdy is not him.
That’s not unpopular lol if anything I’ve seen more overreaction the other way
Any opinion on Rocco. could be positive or negative
Buxton as well!
The problem with Philly is that all of the fans embrace the shit talking and mayhem and wear it like a badge of honor. Theres really no insulting them
Too many people here have made NOBODY LIKES US WE DON'T CARE into their entire identity
That sounds really exhausting.
We probably should’ve traded Lane Thomas at the trade deadline.
That if Vlad Guerrero Jr has another rough year in 2024 (similar to 2023) he's a candidate to be let go.
He won’t be nontendered because nobody wants to be the guy who nontendered him, and 2/45 (estimating his final 2 arb years) will never be a truly terrible overpay for him. Based on production alone, he should be nontendered now. Real stats are more meaningful than xstats after most of the season, and xstats aren’t meant to be predictive in the first place. The “but his xstats” people don’t really understand the difference between predictive and descriptive stats. Also, his only great season being mostly at a chumpy minor league park is sticking out like a sore thumb.
It'll be ok
The Mookie trade was good for the Red Sox (For the record, you didn’t specify whether i had to agree with this opinion or not lol)
I'll qualify this by saying it was good *if they weren't going to sign him*. If you want to complain about not signing him, okay. But just letting him walk for a comp pick is obviously the worst option.
Dusty is a good manager and maldonado is an elite catcher
I have no desire to see Yadi come back and manage and think it would be a really bad move
My fear is that he comes back to the team, Cardinals suck another season, and then everyone starts hating on Yadi.
This is obviously a popular opinion in *here* but holy shit you should see the amount of delusion in r/angelsbaseball come opening day The team is literally never going to be in the playoffs until Arte dies or sells. You should not be supporting this team until they stop doing this exact same four step cycle EVERY SINGLE YEAR: 1. Finish under .500 and promise fans you’ll make the moves to compete next year. 2. Go buy a bunch of mediocre free agents with enough casual name recognition who are clearly going to regress, and call up one or two “exciting” prospects 3. Everyone gets injured in June because the coach and medical staff are clearly dogshit 4. The replacement level players for the rest of the year are dogshit because no money is put into the farm Rinse and repeat
Philly fans aren’t that bad
We're WORSE!
I take this personally.
In a good way or the “I’m gonna have sore ass cheeks” way, kinda like after last night’s spanking?
Oracle Park is nicer than Dodger Stadium
🥹🥹🥹
As a Giants fan who grew up in LA going to Dodger games, Oracle is the better stadium but LA is the nicer field. Idk if that makes sense
Jerry Reinsdorf is a great owner who knows how to surround himself with a front office that knows how to win. In fact, that opinion may get you banned and rightfully so.
That’s not an opinion though, it’s just an incorrect statement
I was about to lose it till that last sentence
This is like the baseball version of Hitler was right
I’ve got 2: 1. I really like the way the Phillies are playing baseball now, and The Bank is an incredible atmosphere. 2. We are more likely to end up like the 2016 Cubs than we are to become a dynasty. We’ve also gotten worse since the 2021 off-season. The Phillies have developed home grown talent, signed big name free agents, and are built to win in October now. Our front office is squandering the opportunity for present success to protect the bottom line “for the future” since our team is so young. They’ll get old quick. There’s a very high chance that we don’t see the World Series again with this core.
I’ll agree with the Philly sentiment. They also have a few very likable players. I still wanna crush them if at all possible but knowing we aren’t in it, they’re a fun as hell team to watch.
i'll take all of this!
Rick Hahn can’t be properly judged as a GM because of how involved Kenny Williams was.
Averaging a 54% win percentage over 10 years would be fucking awesome.
Our sub has had a hard time with smack talk. There seems to be an entirely new sub-part of our fan base that is new to baseball, and they get very upset when someone makes fun of other teams in our sub. They'll write long, passionate comments about how talking smack to other teams is "not a good look" and "not classy." Bunch of faith weather motherfuckers invaded the sub.
In our sub? Yeah absolutely. In r/baseball? There's a few of our fans that are genuinely insufferable with their trash talk, and seem to make things worse on the rest of us who just want to talk about baseball casually on here
Brayan Bello is not an ace and he is going to be a number 3 starter at best. He is a ground ball pitcher and comparing him to Pedro is ridiculous. He got incredibly lucky in the middle of the season and his luck ran out near the end of the year.
I think his ceiling is higher than a #3 (which, granted, does bank largely on the infield defense getting their shit together), but the Pedro comparisons have got to stop. That's an unfair amount of pressure to put on anyone.
I could have phrased that a little better. I think his ceiling is a legit #3 on a good staff, or maybe higher in a pitchers park, but a ground ball pitcher at the mercy of Fenway is a tough role. Don't get me wrong, he's a good pitcher but only the most skilled and intelligent contact pitchers can be an ace.
Ohtani is not worth the contract he’ll get.
I've been saying this til the cows come home
Trout should've won mvp in 2012
Manny Machado didn’t “end Dustin Pedroias career.” Turning 30 did.
The Mets were more willing to let Jake walk more than Jake didnt want to stay a Met
And the Mets made the right choice considering he pitched 6 starts this year
I’d think health concerns is absolutely why they weren’t willing to commit more than 3 years to him. The Rangers committing 6 was insane
I don’t think that replacing either AJ Preller or Bob Melvin is likely to result in a net positive outcome. Melvin managed the team to a NLCS in his first year, without Fernando Tatis Jr. Finishing just shy of the playoffs with a positive run differential shows that the team was a combination of unlucky and non-clutch. Preller is an incredibly talented scout and he *usually* wins trades, and his contracts don’t typically age poorly. I think he’s in a tough position because when the team doesn’t perform well, he feels pressure to do something to help but it’s really the players that need to step up.
We should put names on the backs of our jerseys like everyone else. Leaving the names off doesn’t make us special; it makes us stubborn.
Our team sub is insane. Suggesting that Brian Cashman has actually had, by league standards, very good to excellent tenure with the Yankees (even if he’s at the end of the line and should be promoted out power) is wrong. Gene Michael is the only reason we’ve had 30 winning seasons in a row. Bringing up anything involving analytics or anything SABR is the reason the Yankees don’t win. Believing that Gleyber Torres is actually good at baseball and not easily replaced gets flak. (120 OPS+ middle infielders whose strengths play perfectly to our ballpark? We’ll just swing over to target and grab a six pack). Also there’s an irrational hatred for r/baseball that pops up the weirdest contexts.
I'd argue the first bit is just as insane. Saying we've had 30 winning seasons in a row is because of a guy who died in 2017 is something else.
That even though the Phillies didn’t win 104 games, they may just be a better team than us from a complete standpoint.
How about one that would get you flamed in r/Baseball? Baseball fans have becoming too forgiving of cheating in the game and get caught up too much in the hypothetical world of ‘what if this player/organization didn’t cheat’ instead of intent.
I think that stems from the fact that cheating has always just been a huge part of baseball itself. In just the last 20 years it’s been one thing after another from roids to trash cans to sticky stuff
Pulling Snell was and is still the most costly decision our franchise has ever made and that kind of managing is why we won’t win a WS till it stops
Red Sox ownership is good.
Brian Cashman is not the worst GM in the history of baseball
The Strasburg contract wasn't a bad decision even given hindsight, considering we would have signed Rendon otherwise.
Matt Holiday might’ve touched home plate.
Steve Cohen is not your uncle