MLB 2025 Season

eeriepadave

The Juggler said:

igotid88 said:

Will this be the lowest rated World Series?

Yes and I don't think it will even be close. 

right on the nose with that one. I think the highest was game 2 at 9 million.

Congrats to the Rangers!

Johnny Abruzzo

That's a cute shirt. You need glasses pal.

I like those commercials.

Wobbie

The Juggler said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Wobbie said:

I am NOT a “learn to speak english!” guy but non-english speaking stars present MLB with an marketability issue the NFL, NBA, NHL and golf largely doesn’t have. Most of those non-americans are europeans and most of them are taught english in their school systems. not so in latin america, I don’t think.

P.S. the all white phillies don’t have this “problem.”

edit: NFL has very few non-Americans to begin with.

I saw Stephen A. Smith make this argument a few months ago regarding Shohei Otani, and I disagree. Think of all the biggest baseball stars of the past 30 years: Bonds, Griffey, A-Rod, Jeter, Trout.....I have never heard any of these guys ever say anything remotely interesting. Ken Griffey Jr. could've just as well spoke Japanese and I would've never noticed. 

Speaking of Griffey, how awkward are those terrible Geico commercials with him and his wife? 

I'm gonna make me a big salad.

Actually think those are funny

I like the “invasive weeds.”

josevolution

Congrats to the Rangers I’ll always be happy when a team that has never won it gets it done! 

Johnny Abruzzo

Wobbie said:

The Juggler said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

Wobbie said:

I am NOT a “learn to speak english!” guy but non-english speaking stars present MLB with an marketability issue the NFL, NBA, NHL and golf largely doesn’t have. Most of those non-americans are europeans and most of them are taught english in their school systems. not so in latin america, I don’t think.

P.S. the all white phillies don’t have this “problem.”

edit: NFL has very few non-Americans to begin with.

I saw Stephen A. Smith make this argument a few months ago regarding Shohei Otani, and I disagree. Think of all the biggest baseball stars of the past 30 years: Bonds, Griffey, A-Rod, Jeter, Trout.....I have never heard any of these guys ever say anything remotely interesting. Ken Griffey Jr. could've just as well spoke Japanese and I would've never noticed. 

Speaking of Griffey, how awkward are those terrible Geico commercials with him and his wife? 

I'm gonna make me a big salad.

Actually think those are funny

I like the “invasive weeds.”

"It came with a few concessions."

Hot dogs. HOOOTTT DOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGSSSSSSSSSS!!!! Hot dogs!

igotid88

Will Smith 3 World Series in 3 consecutive years with 3 different teams. And he's a free agent

Wobbie

igotid88 said:

Will Smith 3 World Series in 3 consecutive years with 3 different teams. And he's a free agent

will smith ain’t what he used to be.

igotid88

Saw this somewhere. The Rangers were 11-0 on the road this postseason. The teams they beat
Rays
Orioles
Astros
Diamondbacks 

Jearlpam0925

igotid88 said:

Saw this somewhere. The Rangers were 11-0 on the road this postseason. The teams they beat
Rays
Orioles
Astros
Diamondbacks 

Considering Tampa doesn't have any kind of home field advantage I'd say 2 of the 4 teams makes it impressive (aside from the fact that going unbeaten on the road is impressive on its own, and I believe they're the only team to do it and the previous high was 9).

F Me In The Brain

Jearlpam0925 said:

igotid88 said:

Saw this somewhere. The Rangers were 11-0 on the road this postseason. The teams they beat
Rays
Orioles
Astros
Diamondbacks 

Considering Tampa doesn't have any kind of home field advantage I'd say 2 of the 4 teams makes it impressive (aside from the fact that going unbeaten on the road is impressive on its own, and I believe they're the only team to do it and the previous high was 9).

Agree and to me what is most impressive is that they had shitty bullpen issues for parts of the year.  To have your guys locked in on the road in the (sometimes not so) imposing visiting atmosphere is a sign of a club and bullpen that have shit going, together, in the right way.

Poncier

igotid88 said:

Will Smith 3 World Series in 3 consecutive years with 3 different teams. And he's a free agent

Jearlpam0925

Much more impressed with Will Smith winning three straight World Series with three different teams. That's crazy.

tempo_n_groove

Lerxst1992 said:

The Juggler said:

tempo_n_groove said:

The Juggler said:

tempo_n_groove said:

The Juggler said:

tempo_n_groove said:

The Juggler said:

igotid88 said:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38782354/game-1-least-watched-world-series-game-recorded-history?fbclid=IwAR2-PVqZGqDU0CCZ4TYTDY27y4u4Ko5yndryi9cd8wEW5eYKvdO7r95Ryhw

Called it.

Gets worse too:
https://frontofficesports.com/world-series-tv-viewership-continues-to-reach-new-lows/


I watched more NBA than I did World Series tonight.

15 million watched that Raiders game? Really?  Dear lord.

So Baseball has 8 million viewers.  Don't blame it on not having Harper like the article says.  Didn't they have Harper one year w a low rating too?

I see it as good.  At least they still have viewership.  They just need to get some momentum with it.

Baseball does a pisspoor job at promoting players and their brands.  Jung and Carroll should have been celebrated all year but they didn't do squat for them.  

Espns coverage of baseball is pathetic.  They push NFL all year long and probably because they have them on their tv schedule.  I see more Hockey shows than baseball shows on ESPN...  MLB needs to get in bed w them to get some more viewership.

Ohtani and Judge can't be the only 2 players they care about.  Bring back TWIB to show highlights.

Thoughts?

Oh yeah.  Good game last night.  Yes I enjoyed it.

Last year's World Series averaged 4 more million viewers than this years'.
https://www.mlb.com/news/2022-world-series-tv-ratings-and-viewership

Again, see my other reasoning for it.  I listed quite a few of them...

You asked if they had low ratings last year too. They did. But still had 4 million more viewers. I knew this would be less and the reasoning is what I said last week. Lack of star players and nobody cares about these two teams outside of Texas and Arizona. Baseball is much more regionalized now than it was in the past. Plus, obviously, tv ratings for most everything are down. 

Agree on the ESPN coverage and baseball's poor job at marketing. I would definitely watch TWIB but that's not going to increase tv ratings significantly. Kids like other sports more nowadays. 

Give them a reason.  Explain why launch angle and MPH a ball is hit matters and how a HR actually happens.

I went to a Mets game because they were playing my Halos.  We stayed until the 9th to see a final AB by Shohei.  They walked his ass, we walked out, lol.

As we left the Mets fans were all yelling the same thing, "boo" and "who do u think we came to see?".  If you have players like this it will make people interested.

Toronto has Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero, great players.
Seager has been in purgatory until now in Texas.
Alvarez for the Astros is literally one of the best players in baseball and gets zero love.
Pete Alonso has hit more HR than anyone the past few years and no one cares... Mets have a great RC Japanese pitcher in Senga and no one outside of NY has even heard of him.
Padres have a hell of a team that can't do shit together.
St Louis same thing.
Cubs had Canairio come up.  Well they do have Alcantara to look forward to also and that Suzuki kid wasn't bad.

There are tons of stories out there that Baseball doesn't showcase.

Baseball has struggled to promote their players for decades. It's not a new problem. I don't think teaching about launch angle will do anything. The more older people hear about that stuff it turns them off actually. 

I do think the rule changes this year made the game more entertaining to watch. No doubt about it. So that is a step in the right direction. 

But part of the problem with the modern game is nobody wants to see bullpen games and everyone hates that most pitchers can't seem to hang for more than a couple runs through the order. That turns people off. I understand the reasoning for why managers do this but it's not what fans want to see. Literally everyone I know pines for the days when pitchers routinely went 7+ innings and bitches and complains that managers are over managing (most of these people I am talking about think it's just the Phillies who do this, which also speaks to the regionality in that they don't watch enough other teams to realize that is how the game is now). 

And the regionality thing has been baked in for multiple decades now. Even last year when we did have more star players and bigger markets, it still only drew 12 million viewers. Baseball is just not as popular, nationally, as it once was.

So this year's WS was just destined to draw way less. 

Wasn’t attendance up ten percent this year? Hasn’t baseball addressed a lot of the pacing concerns with the clock and limits on number of pitching changes? If the pitchers improved wouldn’t the casual fan complain it’s too low scoring?

Baseball is a summer sport we love to attend in person  that thrives when the weather is warm. Pushing the fall classic into November closer to the winter doesn’t help. Plus the WS has the misfortune of running into the buzzsaw of American football. Americas attention cannot look beyond football.

I agree with the regional problem. For example, as ive gotten older, I started caring less and less about teams out of my market, for every sport, so I tend to watch much less of the championship series for all of the sports, which is a bit sad.

I am intrigued about cricket. Imagine a ball game with hundreds of runs. FWIW yesterday I watched more cricket than WS. Intrigued by something new I guess.

Not sure where u live but we are getting World Cup cricket matches here on Ling Island!!!

Such a great game. Once you learn what an LBW is you've got it!

tempo_n_groove

Did anyone think that maybe Eavoldi could have been WS MVP?

I enjoyed this series too.  I thought it was well managed and played.

eeriepadave

tempo_n_groove said:

Did anyone think that maybe Eavoldi could have been WS MVP?

I enjoyed this series too.  I thought it was well managed and played.

I barely watched any of it or paid enough attention to see who played well and whatnot

tempo_n_groove

eeriepadave said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Did anyone think that maybe Eavoldi could have been WS MVP?

I enjoyed this series too.  I thought it was well managed and played.

I barely watched any of it or paid enough attention to see who played well and whatnot

Great comment!  Thanks!, lol

Wobbie

well, tempo...ESPN has my giants at #25 in their 2024 power rankings and your halos at #26. ugh.

tempo_n_groove

Wobbie said:

well, tempo...ESPN has my giants at #25 in their 2024 power rankings and your halos at #26. ugh.

If the Halos are healthy they are way better than that but since they never are…. 

The Giants are going to surprise people, watch.

igotid88

Stephen Vogt is the new Guardians manager. Went from a bullpen coach to manager in 1 year. Other than those who became manager with no coaching experience. This is a big jump. 

xavier mcdaniel

new Mets manager: