the pitch clock is counting down to the MLB 2023 REGULAR SEASON THREAD

The Mets are just buying prospects but wow.

DONE

this appears to be the only move the yankees have made since july 1? bonkers

The Yankees have obtained reliever Kenyan Middleton from the White Sox

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) August 1, 2023

tommy pham to arizona
jack flaherty to walltimore

congrats to the pirates for getting international pool money from texas in exchange for catcher austin hedges, who ends his pirate career with a .180/.237/.230 line and -1.0 bWAR in 187 plate appearances. he leads the majors with nine sacrifices tho!

Josh Bell to Miami

pham is becoming a low-key immaculate grid stalwart -- this will be his seventh team in just 10 seasons

lol at cleveland being *one game* out of a playoff spot and selling

i guess it's reasonable to recognize that they're a bad team and would go nowhere even if they made the playoffs, but it's really disheartening

LKIGS--nope, too much.

Yeah, it's Cleveland.

pham is becoming a low-key immaculate grid stalwart -- this will be his seventh team in just 10 seasons

Max Scherzer did not think he would be traded. He was not, in his words, “itching to jump ship.” But he said he agreed to waive his no-trade clause when Mets owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler informed him the team was taking a step back next season and building more for the future.

“I talked to Billy,” Scherzer told The Athletic. “I was like, ‘OK, are we reloading for 2024?’ He goes, ‘No, we’re not. Basically our vision now is for 2025-2026, ‘25 at the earliest, more like ‘26. We’re going to be making trades around that.’

“I was like, ‘So the team is not going to be pursuing free agents this offseason or assemble a team that can compete for a World Series next year?’ He said, ‘No, we’re not going to be signing the upper-echelon guys. We’re going to be on the smaller deals within free agency. ‘24 is now looking to be more of a kind of transitory year.’”

- from Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic

yankees are cooked. directionless, unserious franchise.

Giants were asked about picking him up and they said doing so was against their DV policy

I hope this is a joke, if not then they are wrong. It's a nothing burger and Joc would probably agree.

yankees are cooked. directionless, unserious franchise.

Smells like . . . victory.

Even better that the same can be said of the Mets.

it's kinda funny that scherzer is torching the mets on the way out -- historically the mets fire the first shots -- but one big reason they're folding is because max himself put up a 102 ERA+ and allowed a league-leading 23 homers for $43m

lol the reliever the yankees picked up is a free agent at the end of the year. i've long thought that brian cashman gets unfairly shit upon, but enough is enough

idk, i think the mets are being fairly smart? they went for it by getting scherzer and verlander, it didn't work, and they moved on. they're both almost done; there's no reason to think that they would be stronger contributors next year. so they got what they could for them. cohen can afford it all, but there's no point in pouring money down the drain

sometimes you get speedbagged

yeah the mets made prudent moves to build for the future when they easily could’ve deluded themselves into running back the same underperforming roster in 2024

yanks didn’t improve in the present or make moves to secure the future

They still suck.

Giants were asked about picking him up and they said doing so was against their DV policy

I hope this is a joke, if not then they are wrong. It's a nothing burger and Joc would probably agree.

In all seriousness, I inquired about whether Tommy Pham would be a complete non-starter for the Giants. Was told unequivocally that they will not consider anyone with a DV incident in their past, which includes Pham. They consider the Joc slap an assault.

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) August 1, 2023

Was it domestic tho?

There’s literally bad blood between those two. It’s either misleading (and offensive) to label it DV, or there’s some untold story here.

Makes sense from a baseball view not to get him though, do not want to disrupt the locker room. Jock’s a hometown boy, I’d assume he has slightly more sway in that locker room than his stats suggest

there's literally bad blood between those two because tommy pham is a tightly wound asshole

not ideal to add the D to the V given that actual DV victims have suffered far worse than being slapped, but that guy is a loose cannon and i respect not wanting him on your team

anyway tommy pham is 35 and will be out of baseball soon. and his blend of resentment/aggression is going to be bad news in the real world

Oh 100%. Based upon his “i am a high roller at Vegas casinos” thing as well, I think he’s going to find some bad news in his personal life as soon as mlb money stops rolling into his account

he said “high baller” at the time

You heard it here first: Kiké Hernandez is so back 🤩

Also I know it’s the Oakland A’s but uhhhhhhh, Lynn through 5 innings, 2 h’s, 0 runs, 5 so’s, 1 bb. Feels good

yankees are cooked. directionless, unserious franchise.
Smells like . . . victory.

Even better that the same can be said of the Mets.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, August 1, 2023 7:09 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

great time to be a fan of another team that listens to WFAN for daily humor.

The Mets lose on a balk-off from a pitcher who hadn’t even thrown his first pitch yet the day after their fire sale. Talk about committing to the tank

Guys you literally do not have to analyse the Giants not wanting Pham on their team, the policy is probably called assault and dv or something & Baggarly paraphrased.

Xps to HP: good luck with that prize u speak of
https://i.postimg.cc/MZdC0F9J/IMG-6793.jpg

Also I know it’s the Oakland A’s but uhhhhhhh, Lynn through 5 innings, 2 h’s, 0 runs, 5 so’s, 1 bb. Feels good

Really feel for Alcantara seeing this, good Lord
https://i.postimg.cc/g0W82NFn/IMG-6794.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Qx7bb6Dd/IMG-6795.jpg

Real anatomy of a disaster stuff
https://i.postimg.cc/PrqHvwny/IMG-6796.jpg
https://wompampsupport.azureedge.net/fetchimage?siteId=7575&v=2&jpgQuality=100&width=700&url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.kym-cdn.com%2Fphotos%2Fimages%2Fnewsfeed%2F002%2F080%2F600%2Faab.jpg

Conveniently cut off august where he already has a whole 1 (ONE) more rbi than his last month. Stats nerds will never get the joy of Kiké. And Lynn went pretty good, till the next inning, good place to start from for his dodgers stint

Don’t have to talk about anything tbh, weird to bring up what we have to/don’t have to talk about on an online message board 🤷🏼‍♂️

Yeah I mean I only watched Kiké kill rally after rally with his constant grounding out to short and sulking after getting benched despite Cora giving him a million chances over guys who were actually hitting - but sure. Stats nerd.

I’m not sure Lynn giving up 3 ER to the 2023 Oakland A’s is what they were looking for with that trade but I guess a body is a body. The point is you don’t have to pretend bad players are good just because they’re on your team.

Oh, the semi-sardonic tone didn’t come across….

Yet again, no one has to do anything, yet we do. Let me know if I’m wrong about that though and I can check all my thoughts and posts in with you first

>>The point is you don’t have to pretend bad players are good just because they’re on your team.

New board description

Btw I had a look at the AB to see how dramatically Kiké has improved and noticed that the guy Kiké hit that double off is the South African reliever the Sox called up to eat some innings in early July. He came into a blowout against the Cubs and melted down so badly that they had to warm up Kenley (🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻) to get the last few outs and save the game. He finished it in literally three pitches. I don’t think they even waited five minutes after the end of the game to DFA him. Anyway nice that he’s still in the big leagues!

Oh, the semi-sardonic tone didn’t come across….

Yet again, no one has to do anything, yet we do. Let me know if I’m wrong about that though and I can check all my thoughts and posts in with you first

I have opinions on that, as well as a number of other things. Just send me an email about what it is I have to/and what it is we’ll agree to not so we can get things all in order. Thanks! ☺️

Thanks for checking out that Kiké pitcher as well! But we don’t have to go that deep into analysis over a jokey comment.

xp I’d rather not, I’m sure your wife doesn’t need to be bothered any more with this stuff

No, though i and the rest of the board would love to hear you post about us getting divorced. Thanks! ☺️

And no honestly not trying to analyse that any more than, huh, Tayler Scott?! I was just genuinely shocked someone picked him up. I think Tracer Hand & I were actually texting the 🫣🫣🫣 emoji back and forth when he loaded the bases in the bottom ninth of an 8-3 game. The point is, I would have said he was too bad even for the A’s.

Weren’t you told off recently about being the unofficial board cop and the intimidating bully? Nice return you’ve made here gyac, a real changed woman!

That’s cool 🤙🏼

My man, it’s absolutely ok to make fun of the idea Kiké & Lynn being good players. Some people would call that banter.

Okay, I don’t want to banter with you because you’re a cop and a bully. Thanks! ☺️

Damn I forgot my “cue gyac reversing who initiated an aggressive argument as soon as she gets some push back” post! Must have got lost somewhere in the midst of this

I’d say it’s interesting how you took a comment that applied to jimbeaux and mookieproof exactly as much as you, two of my favourites on this whole board, and went off but you know. Draw your line, idc.