The Royals are undefeated in Arizona. The Yankees are no longer clean. ESPN broke up with baseball. And the Royals were never seriously in on Nolan Arenado.
That pitch chart from Friday is insane! Also, make a note to send the Yankees front office your most excellent PFP GIF; they’ll stare at it for a decade or so before doing anything about it, but best to help folks in need.
Three teams not to even be considered from the get-go by Arenado: Angels, Tigers & Royals. Interesting. Cardinals fans will probably be happy to pay Arenado for the next three years with each ticket purchased. He turns 40 ... when?
Cards fans: drive to KC, spend a weekend and watch the Royals play where Kansas Citians in 3 counties subsidized Royals Stadium, the K. The two state of Mo. subsidies to build 2 Busch's is about paid off (🙃🥴) by all the people in Mo. And so Arenado will be, too. Soon. Real soon.
Thanks! But we'll get the new stadium built in KC by then. (Maybe we won't get Mo. state subsidies... look where it got St. Louisans with the good ol' boys in Jeff City the last 20 years.)
I commented about the ESPN thing on a baseball Facebook group, and the responses were basically what you'd expect from a Facebook group. "EPSN is woke, good riddance," and "MLB is better off without ESPN," or "ESPN doesn't care about baseball anyway." You get the idea. And while, unfortunately, I do believe the last one has more than a little truth to it, I think it's very short-sighted to celebrate this move or even shrug it off.
As I said in that post, I don't believe the sky is falling or that baseball is going to collapse in the near future or anything like that. This is not catastrophic, like it would have been if ESPN had suddenly decided to drop baseball in, say, 1995 or something like that. But I don't see how it's a good thing. ESPN is not what it was and there are other options, I get that. But it's still the biggest sports station out there, and it's on every traditional and streaming cable service, not to mention it's owned by the same company that runs Disney+ and Hulu. Hardcore fans will always find baseball wherever it is, but if the Royals' issues with Ballys/Fan Duel have shown us anything, casual and middle ground fans will give up if you make it hard for them to watch. Accessibility to games is, in my opinion, one of the biggest issues facing MLB right now. I haven't been able to watch MLB Network in two years because YouTube TV dropped them. I don't know what its status is on other streamers, but YouTube TV is a big one, and it's the one I have. And as much as I want MLB Network, I don't want to start over with a new provider. I've been paying for the Ballys app to watch the Royals for two years, and I'm not thrilled about that either.
Anyway, my long-winded point is this. ESPN isn't what it once was, especially for us baseball fans. But while it is far from a death-blow for the sport, I don't see how losing a weekly showcase on one of the most accessible platforms for sports, and the revenue that goes with it, is a good thing for the sport.
Well said, Patrick. A parallel I saw drawn was the situation with ESPN and the NHL several years ago. When hockey left, the network basically stopped paying attention to it. I don't think that happens with baseball, but I wouldn't be surprised if the time devoted to it on its various Sportscenters and talking head shows greatly diminished. And it's not that great to start.
I think for me, Baseball Tonight lost a lot of its juice when Gammons started losing his fastball. He was The Guy.
That pitch chart from Friday is insane! Also, make a note to send the Yankees front office your most excellent PFP GIF; they’ll stare at it for a decade or so before doing anything about it, but best to help folks in need.
I'm all for helping those in need. Except for the Yankees.
Three teams not to even be considered from the get-go by Arenado: Angels, Tigers & Royals. Interesting. Cardinals fans will probably be happy to pay Arenado for the next three years with each ticket purchased. He turns 40 ... when?
Cards fans: drive to KC, spend a weekend and watch the Royals play where Kansas Citians in 3 counties subsidized Royals Stadium, the K. The two state of Mo. subsidies to build 2 Busch's is about paid off (🙃🥴) by all the people in Mo. And so Arenado will be, too. Soon. Real soon.
Thanks! But we'll get the new stadium built in KC by then. (Maybe we won't get Mo. state subsidies... look where it got St. Louisans with the good ol' boys in Jeff City the last 20 years.)
I commented about the ESPN thing on a baseball Facebook group, and the responses were basically what you'd expect from a Facebook group. "EPSN is woke, good riddance," and "MLB is better off without ESPN," or "ESPN doesn't care about baseball anyway." You get the idea. And while, unfortunately, I do believe the last one has more than a little truth to it, I think it's very short-sighted to celebrate this move or even shrug it off.
As I said in that post, I don't believe the sky is falling or that baseball is going to collapse in the near future or anything like that. This is not catastrophic, like it would have been if ESPN had suddenly decided to drop baseball in, say, 1995 or something like that. But I don't see how it's a good thing. ESPN is not what it was and there are other options, I get that. But it's still the biggest sports station out there, and it's on every traditional and streaming cable service, not to mention it's owned by the same company that runs Disney+ and Hulu. Hardcore fans will always find baseball wherever it is, but if the Royals' issues with Ballys/Fan Duel have shown us anything, casual and middle ground fans will give up if you make it hard for them to watch. Accessibility to games is, in my opinion, one of the biggest issues facing MLB right now. I haven't been able to watch MLB Network in two years because YouTube TV dropped them. I don't know what its status is on other streamers, but YouTube TV is a big one, and it's the one I have. And as much as I want MLB Network, I don't want to start over with a new provider. I've been paying for the Ballys app to watch the Royals for two years, and I'm not thrilled about that either.
Anyway, my long-winded point is this. ESPN isn't what it once was, especially for us baseball fans. But while it is far from a death-blow for the sport, I don't see how losing a weekly showcase on one of the most accessible platforms for sports, and the revenue that goes with it, is a good thing for the sport.
Well said, Patrick. A parallel I saw drawn was the situation with ESPN and the NHL several years ago. When hockey left, the network basically stopped paying attention to it. I don't think that happens with baseball, but I wouldn't be surprised if the time devoted to it on its various Sportscenters and talking head shows greatly diminished. And it's not that great to start.
The Royals don't need Arenado, so no harm done. When the season is done and Garcia has just hit .270 with 9 triples and 40 bags, no one will care.
Some kind of optimism on Garcia!
There's a universe where Arenado improves the Royals in the short term, but the cost associated with that improvement is steep.
I spent all day yesterday raving about John Rave's swings during his at-bat which ended in a triple Saturday afternoon.
Then I saw Jac Caglianone's swing yesterday afternoon.
My goodness.
It was nice, wasn't it? I try to temper prospect hype, but...yeah.