Houston, We Have Rule Changes! The Official 2023 MLB Season Thread

[FAH1223]

 

[god shamgod]

Wow

Had them down to their last strike

 

[FAH1223]

 

[god shamgod]

Just gotta tip our hat & call the d backs our daddies shyt just got real

disaster road trip

 

[blues_funk_reggae]

The GOAT, Bartolo Colon

 

[EarlyEarly]

Baseball teams pop more bottles in a season than any other sport team.

Pop bottles for clinching a WC spot.
Pop bottles for winning WC series.
Pop bottles for Divisional series.
Pop bottles for the Pennant.
Pop bottles for the World Series.

I think that’s why they use beer more times because that shyt probably gets expensive.

 

[Remote]

MLB is 162 games.
It's the longest grind of any sport and celebrating is not only justified, but it's also a big relief.

Consider how small the margin is between making the playoffs and not.
You're talking about 6 months of games.

The Chicago Cubs are 6.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL Central title. That's a massive lead.
In the context of a full season, it's winning 1 more game a month.

That's all it takes. One game per month. You win, and you're in the playoffs with a chance to advance to the World Series. You lose, and you're an afterthought.

 

[Spence]

Mariners & Rangers had a chance to capitalize on us dropping 2 series against the worst teams in the league and they are still down 2 games

 

[Dem313wayz]

The GOAT, Bartolo Colon

Pitching is a mix btw science and artistry. This fat fukk didn't look like an athlete but damn he could pitch even into his 40s

 

[blues_funk_reggae]

Pitching is a mix btw science and artistry. This fat fukk didn't look like an athlete but damn he could pitch even into his 40s

Won 15, 14, and 15 in his three years with the Mets after he was 41, they will never credit Bartolo with having a high pitching IQ

 

[Remote]

Pitching is a mix btw science and artistry. This fat fukk didn't look like an athlete but damn he could pitch even into his 40s

I've said this before but for those of us who remember young Bartolo Colon, this guy used to throw straight heat. Mid-upper 90s fastballs.
At the end of his career, Colon was almost entirely a fastball pitcher. It shows up in pitch splits as Fastballs and Sinkers. But a fastball and sinker is more or less the same pitch. He just got way more movement with the sinker. (but the loss in speed with a sinker wasn't significant enough to classify it as a breaking ball).

And that's largely what it takes to be a successful pitcher. Throw strikes. Change speeds.
As they say: hitting is timing. Pitching is disrupting timing.

There's a viral video clip out there of Greg Maddux talking about how he needed to learn how to pitch slow. He already knew how to pitch fast.

This is why relievers are almost always guys who throw hard, but never learned how to pitch slow. They almost all throw fastballs and sliders. They never developed that 3rd pitch to disrupt a hitter's balance. You can throw 100mph and it's gonna get hit. Ask Armando Benitez.

The very best relievers, not surprisingly, are the ones who had great offspeed pitches. Trevor Hoffman with his change-up, for example.

Now I'm not saying every pitcher should be like Bartolo Colon and throw sinker/fastball all day long. But a lot of guys could learn from him.

 

[Dem313wayz]

I've said this before but for those of us who remember young Bartolo Colon, this guy used to throw straight heat. Mid-upper 90s fastballs.
At the end of his career, Colon was almost entirely a fastball pitcher. It shows up in pitch splits as Fastballs and Sinkers. But a fastball and sinker is more or less the same pitch. He just got way more movement with the sinker. (but the loss in speed with a sinker wasn't significant enough to classify it as a breaking ball).

And that's largely what it takes to be a successful pitcher. Throw strikes. Change speeds.
As they say: hitting is timing. Pitching is disrupting timing.

There's a viral video clip out there of Greg Maddux talking about how he needed to learn how to pitch slow. He already knew how to pitch fast.

This is why relievers are almost always guys who throw hard, but never learned how to pitch slow. They almost all throw fastballs and sliders. They never developed that 3rd pitch to disrupt a hitter's balance. You can throw 100mph and it's gonna get hit. Ask Armando Benitez.

The very best relievers, not surprisingly, are the ones who had great offspeed pitches. Trevor Hoffman with his change-up, for example.

Now I'm not saying every pitcher should be like Bartolo Colon and throw sinker/fastball all day long. But a lot of guys could learn from him.

One of my favorite Pedro videos on MLB network.

Colon had a 4seam fastball to get ahead. Then used a 2seam fastball and a cut fastball to disrupt the batters timing

 

[marleyg]

marley fre$h - $prite

 

[Spence]

Pitching is a mix btw science and artistry. This fat fukk didn't look like an athlete but damn he could pitch even into his 40s

And would hit bombs just like fat ass Zambrano. One of the last of the great hitting pitcher generations. Greinke is probably the absolute last one and even he isn’t allowed to hit anymore.

Showtime is not being mentioned here for obv reasons, he’s not 1 or the other.

 

[Spidey Man]

Rays announce deal for St. Petersburg ballpark

ST. PETERSBURG -- The message was splashed across every scoreboard inside Tropicana Field on Tuesday morning. It was reiterated by everyone who stood behind a microphone, from principal owner Stuart Sternberg to St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch to other club, city and county officials. The Rays...

www.mlb.com

Glad to see the Rays are getting a new stadium. They needed it and I hope they get a fan base now. Too bad it's not actually in Tampa