MLB 2023 Regular Season Thread

[CTTT]

I heard the Rangers picked up Marcus Simian in the offseason. Where did he play before?

[babyblob]

I heard the Rangers picked up Marcus Simian in the offseason. Where did he play before?

He started with the White Sox where he spent two years. Then went to Oakland for 6 then to the Blue Jays for one before coming to the Rangers.

[babyblob]

Nelson Cruz 7 time MLB All Star has announced he is retiring. A great career and I wish him well.

[MRP]

Game 5 had the highest ratings of this World Series, but it wasn't enough to prevent this World Series from having the worst TV ratings of any televised WS in history.

It had a lot going against it-2 smaller market teams, airing against Monday Night football for 1 game and other major sporting league games on others, a lack of marquee name players to draw fans in, a terrible post-season leading into it, etc. so it's not surprising it didn't fare well in ratings. We'll have to see if there's a rating hangover into next season or whether they bounce back form this to continue the positive ratings and attendance trends established in the regular season this year.

I hear a lot of complaints about playoff expansion and too many teams diluting the post season for baseball, my counter would be that playoff ratings are higher for leagues where half the teams make the playoffs (NBA, NHL) and for the NFL where a higher % of teams make the playoffs than MLB. The difference is MLB has a much longer regular season than any of those leagues, so maybe people feel it should screen out more teams than the other leagues, or that the tradition of having fewer teams make the post season is what distinguishes it form the other the other pro-sports league. I'm not sure what the answer is really.

My personal feeling is that the baseball season is just too damn long and by the time the post-season rolls around I am ready for something else, so if my team isn't in it, I don't have a lot of interest in it, and playoff expansion only makes the season longer. Playoff expansion also dilutes some of the excitement of the pennant races (and winning a pennant means far less), so that may be a factor as well. I know owners don't want to shorten the season or the playoffs because they don't want to lose revenue, but I think that needs to be balanced with the long-term health of the game's audience. Is it a case where short-term losses from contracting the season or the playoffs would reap long terms gains in terms of increased audience interest and long term revenue growth? I don't know. Growing up, baseball was the crown jewel of pro sports, football was the aggressive riser and the NBA and NHL were afterthoughts. That's changed. The NFL is certainly king and a dominant one. The NBA is a distant 2nd to the NFL, but the gap between the NBA and MLB/NHL is just as large as the one between the NFL an the NBA. MLB is a distant 3rd, pretty much an afterthought, and the NHL has grown but is still an afterthought compared to the others.

I'm not sure what MLB can do. I think the changes to the rules this past season showed improvements can be made to make the game more attractive to viewers and attendees, but they need to consolidate those gains by looking at the length of the season and how they format the playoffs, as this post-season showed how vulnerable those gains and their ratings are overall. But what the sweet spot between long and short term gains/losses is, or between tradition and innovation. etc. is I'm not certain. The one thing they can't do is do nothing though.

-M

[achilles]

Game 5 had the highest ratings of this World Series, but it wasn't enough to prevent this World Series from having the worst TV ratings of any televised WS in history.

It had a lot going against it-2 smaller market team, airing against Monday Night football for 1 game and other major sporting league games on others, a lack of marquis name players to draw fans in, a terrible post-season leading into it, etc. so it's not surprising it didn't fare well in ratings. We'll have to see if there's a rating hangover into next season or whether they bounce back form this to continue the positive ratings and attendance trends established in the regular season this year.

I hear a lot of complaints about playoff expansion and too many teams diluting the post season for baseball, my counter would be that playoff ratings are higher for leagues where half the teams make the playoffs (NBA, NHL) and for the NFL where a higher % of teams make the playoffs than MLB. The difference is MLB has a much longer regular season than any of those leagues, so maybe people feel it should screen out more teams than the other leagues, or that the tradition of having fewer teams make the post season is what distinguishes it form the other the other pro-sports league. I'm not sure what the answer is really.

My personal feeling is that the baseball season is just too damn long and by the time the post-season rolls around I am ready for something else, so if my team isn't in it, I don't have a lot of interest in it, and playoff expansion only makes the season longer. Playoff expansion also dilutes some of the excitement of the pennant races (and winning a pennant means far less), so that may be a factor as well. I know owners don't want to shorten the season or the playoffs because they don't want to lose revenue, but I think that needs to be balanced with the long-term health of the game's audience. Is it a case where short-term loses form contracting the season or the playoffs would reap long terms gains in terms of increased audience interest and long term revenue growth? I don't know. Growing up, baseball was the crown jewel of pro sports, football was the aggressive riser and the NBA and NHL were afterthoughts. That's changed. The NFL is certainly king and a dominant one. The NBA is a distant 2nd to the NFL, but the gap between the NBA and MLB/NHL is just as large as the one between the NFL an the NBA. MLB is a distant 3rd, pretty much an afterthought, and the NHL has grown but is still an afterthought compared to the others.

I'm not sure what MLB an do. I think the changes to the rules this past season showed improvements can be made to make the game mare attractive to viewers and attendees, but they need to consolidate those gains by looking at the length of the season and how they format the playoffs, as this post-season showed how vulnerable those gains and their ratings are overall. But what the sweet spot between long and short term gains/losses is, or between tradition and innovation. etc. is I'm not certain. The one thing they can't do is do nothing though.

-M

I think you hit the nail on the head with this. It's probably a thing for a lot of fans.

[achilles]

Ugh, Clayton Kershaw had surgery on his shoulder this morning, and is making noises about playing next year. Please don't, just go out with some dignity. You're already a definite HOFer, and nothing you can do in one season will make your chances better. You have talent, and could step into an announce role if you want. I hate it when the greats don't know when to call it quits. Watching him pitch last season, it was clear he'd lost it, four seamer in the low 90s. And his movement isn't. And unlike Shohei, he's not a killer DH. And you know the Dodgers are going to earmark any money he might want in their bid in the Shohei wars. And a lot more besides, but now Shohei's upside is still evident, but Kershaw? Another season like last, only just a little bit worse because of the injury.

[CTTT]

I think you hit the nail on the head with this. It's probably a thing for a lot of fans.

Oh that's nice. How about we change the game of baseball to something else and not call it baseball? It used to be 154 games a season until 1961 and it didn't change the format till 1995. Now all of a sudden we need to change the the schedule of the games because people's attention spans are too short? PGA golf hasn't changed so why should baseball? They play four rounds and 18 holes each round. No one ever said reduce to 9 holes to keep audience interest. Keep the game the pure way that it is. They don't need to change anything for baseball. It's why it's the national past time NFL be damned.

[MRP]

Oh that's nice. How about we change the game of baseball to something else and not call it baseball? It used to be 154 games a season until 1961 and it didn't change the format till 1995. Now all of a sudden we need to change the the schedule of the games because people's attention spans are too short? PGA golf hasn't changed so why should baseball? They play four rounds and 18 holes each round. No one ever said reduce to 9 holes to keep audience interest. Keep the game the pure way that it is. They don't need to change anything for baseball. It's why it's the national past time NFL be damned.

They also played exclusively day games, and used lots of doubleheaders to get those games in a shorter span of time, had fewer rounds of playoffs, and fewer teams, and none of it was televised, just radio broadcasts-should we have stayed with all of that just because that was the way it was done. . The only constant in baseball is change. And baseball has not been the national past time in decades, mostly because it hasn't kept up with the changing interest of its audience. If baseball doesn't change, but its audience does, it becomes irrelevant to the audience. I mean vaudeville shows were one of the dominant forms of entertainment in baseball's early heyday-how many people go to vaudeville shows today? Why not? Audience interest changed and vaudeville became irrelevant. And baseball's audience has definitely changed in the last few decades.

-M

[useridgoeshere]

Market size can’t be blamed. DFW is the fifth largest DMA in the country and Phoenix is eleventh. They’re not small TV markets. The Rangers are from the largest US AL market to make it to the playoffs this year.

I don’t think either team has a rabid fanbase and there wasn’t a compelling storyline. My partner and I watched the playoffs to see Houston lose and Philly win, but skipped the WS, because it just didn’t seem compelling.

[achilles]

Oh that's nice. How about we change the game of baseball to something else and not call it baseball? It used to be 154 games a season until 1961 and it didn't change the format till 1995. Now all of a sudden we need to change the the schedule of the games because people's attention spans are too short? PGA golf hasn't changed so why should baseball? They play four rounds and 18 holes each round. No one ever said reduce to 9 holes to keep audience interest. Keep the game the pure way that it is. They don't need to change anything for baseball. It's why it's the national past time NFL be damned.

In a perfect world, sure. But times have changed. They changed rules last season, and it...worked, for the most part. I get that tradition is especially important to a sport such as bb, but even that has to bow to reality. Hell, I enjoyed the college BB season a lot, and there were only a few games for me to see, (the home games). I don't feel cheated by that.

[MRP]

Market size can’t be blamed. DFW is the fifth largest DMA in the country and Phoenix is eleventh. They’re not small TV markets. The Rangers are from the largest US AL market to make it to the playoffs this year.

I don’t think either team has a rabid fanbase and there wasn’t a compelling storyline. My partner and I watched the playoffs to see Houston lose and Philly win, but skipped the WS, because it just didn’t seem compelling.

It's a large market sure, but it's not a baseball market, and especially not during football season. High school football will get more play in the media in that market than MLB. And none of the teams had fan bases that "travelled" i.e. has fans outside their limited home market that will tune in to follow that team. The thing with teams like the Yankees is that not only is NY a large market itself, the Yankees have fans all across the country that will tune in regardless of market. There are a handful of MLB teams that have that-Yanks, Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, and maybe 1 or 2 others. Most of those are large market teams sure, but the audience they bring transcends their local home market and that props up interest in post seasons where those trams are involved. Sure the Rangers have a large market in Dallas, but they don't bring in much in the way of fans from outside the Dallas market, and neither did the Diamondbacks, And neither of them had the compelling Cinderella story this year to bring in fans outside their normal base. And the pure baseball fan that will watch the WS regardless of who is involved is a rare and dying breed. The fact that this was the first WS win for the Rangers, could have been a compelling story that drew some interest, but it was more something reported after they won than something used to market their run towards the WS. And that was the issue this post-season-there were no teams drawing in casual fans, there were no compelling stories drawing in casual fans, no marquee players to draw in casual fans just to see them play on the big stage, and most of the series and most of the games were non-competitive so even the fans who did tune in didn't have anything to hold their interest or to interest them in coming back to watch another game. And with the bloat of regular season games and of the playoff field, even ardent baseball fans were losing interest by the time all was said and done because there wasn't anything compelling to keep their interest. It only takes 3 strikes ot make an out in baseball, and this post-season had more than 3 strikes against it.

-M

[CTTT]

In a perfect world, sure. But times have changed. They changed rules last season, and it...worked, for the most part. I get that tradition is especially important to a sport such as bb, but even that has to bow to reality. Hell, I enjoyed the college BB season a lot, and there were only a few games for me to see, (the home games). I don't feel cheated by that.

well, bowling hasn't changed their rules and yet despite its niche-ness ESPN still televises bowling for that audience. Not every sport needs to have banger ratings like the NFL. And tv execs and fair weather fans may find the game slow but too bad go watch basketball. To true fans it IS the national pasttime and it will remain so. It has a great tradition and they're already mucking it up by having a pitch clock and other things. If the gamer generation and ADD viewers think its too slow they can watch something else.

[skyvolt2000]

Market size can’t be blamed. DFW is the fifth largest DMA in the country and Phoenix is eleventh. They’re not small TV markets. The Rangers are from the largest US AL market to make it to the playoffs this year.

I don’t think either team has a rabid fanbase and there wasn’t a compelling storyline. My partner and I watched the playoffs to see Houston lose and Philly win, but skipped the WS, because it just didn’t seem compelling.

When the Rangers had losing season upon losing season that stadium stayed PACKED.

When folks were dropping dead from the heat-fans showed up before the dome stadium got built.

10 school districts shutdown on Friday including one that is nowhere near Arlington for the parade.

We have the fanbase-it's just that unlike the other teams mainly Dallas Mavericks-rivalries are not nearby outside of Astros.

Same problem with the Stars-they both got dumped into divisions with teams on the west coast. The NHL fixed the Stars.

Rangers have 4 teams in the west coast in their division. Who have all been various levels of horrible.

8 times that division has produced the World series winner or runner up.

[MRP]

well, bowling hasn't changed their rules and yet despite its niche-ness ESPN still televises bowling for that audience. Not every sport needs to have banger ratings like the NFL. And tv execs and fair weather fans may find the game slow but too bad go watch basketball. To true fans it IS the national pasttime and it will remain so. It has a great tradition and they're already mucking it up by having a pitch clock and other things. If the gamer generation and ADD viewers think its too slow they can watch something else.

Baseball is a multi-billion dollar business, not a quaint past time organized into competitive leagues like bowling. Yes it does need banger ratings like the NFL. It is fueled by the major TV contracts and billionaire owners and played by millionaire players. In order for the infrastructure to survive and the games to continue, it needs to have a huge revenue flow and be in the national spotlight. Without that so called gatekeeping true fans won't have a game to watch and be a fan of. Ask the true fans of baseball in Montreal what happened when the money didn't flow. Ask the true fans in Oakland what's about to happen to baseball in their town because the money wasn't flowing. Baseball is a business geared to make big money. It is not a past time any more, national or not. To some fans it may be, but not the people who make baseball happen, and without them, "true fans will have to go to little league and pony league games, and maybe the odd independent league game to get their baseball fix, because without making bank, MLB and all the minor league affiliates it supports wouldn't be playing ball.

-M

[achilles]

I never thought someone would literally copy the playbook from the plot of "Major League"....but the A's certainly are. I mean it suck for A's fans, but it is kind of funny.