Opening Day World Series Season Game thread

[Pharmabro]

Shitty

[Southpaw773]

Homer or nothing and shit pitching is the game summary.

[seth8734]

Julio and Cal coming up just feels like a strikeout guaranteed.

[Southpaw773]

Julio and Cal coming up just feels like a strikeout guaranteed.

Yeppppp. Even Randy got a hit.

[DavidGee24]

Typical Logan Gilbert, a 0.94 WHIP and a 5.06 ERA. I mean, he has the weirdest WHIP/ERA splits in MLB history, he dominates but always gives up the big hits that lose the game.

Oh well, it's one game. Hopefully tomorrow we right the ship, knock these bums down and fart on their heads.

[bpj]

Homer or nothing and shit pitching is the game summary.

Which brings up an interesting point. What to do in a league where ~50% of runs are now scored by homerun?

Lean into it?

This article says that the % of runs scored via homerun has looked like this historically:

~33% in 1960
~25% around 1980
~42% in 2017

and has probably not gone down since then.

https://baseballwithr.wordpress.com/201 ... roduction/

[Michael K.]

Another solo job, good grief is this the only way they can score?

Yes, that is the lineup they have constructed. I'd be a lot more pissed if that wasn't basically every lineup in baseball. These guys don't give a shit about what wins games, they all swing to hit bombs, and organizations reward them by paying them when they do.

Top 10 Highest-Paid MLB Players (2026 Projections)
Juan Soto (NYM): ~$126.9 million+ (includes signing bonus)
Shohei Ohtani (LAD): ~$102 million (salary + endorsement income)
Blake Snell (LAD): ~$65.6 million
Aaron Judge (NYY): ~$48 million
Zack Wheeler (PHI): ~$42 million
Bryce Harper (PHI): High salary + endorsement portfolio
Cody Bellinger (NYY): ~56.5 million
Kyle Tucker (LAD): ~$110M over 2 years
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD): Top AAV pitcher
Max Scherzer (TEX/Various): High-AAV veteran contract
Spotrac.com

Note: Rankings based on projected 2026 total earnings (salary + bonuses) from reports

What I see? Power bats and power arms. Am I wrong? If you knew that you'd get paid for striking out and hitting HRs, and if you do the little things that win baseball games you won't get paid nearly as much? What would you work on?

My boss tells me to sell X, compensates me much more for selling X? I don't spend as much time slinging Y, now do I?

EDIT: Sorry, I now see that BPJ posted something very similar about how the game is played today.

[Michael K.]

“A bloop shot to start it,” Gilbert said. “I made a good pitch, slider down (to Schneeman). He just put good swing on it. And then made a mistake with the cutter and left it down instead of up. So really, out of those three batters, I felt like one pitch that I wish I had back.. Unfortunately, that’s the pitch that mattered the most.”

Toronto kind of did the same thing to us right? Even that comment annoys me. Just because we don't have the ability to simply put a tough pitch in play for "just a blooper"? Base hits win games. Again, I know the game has changed, but you can't just hope for two walks and a bomb all the fucking time.

Gilbert's ERA is now over 5. One game? Sure, but I feel he is being talked about as if he had some great game. I'll take 8 strikeouts instead of 12 if you stop giving up three runs every five innings. I just don't like watching that guy pitch. Not sure why, but this is just his MO. Dominate, then give up a big inning, and we lose. Zero clue how it was him on Openning night. I know I am VASTLY in the minority there. But he did nothing last year to tell me he should be the opening day starter on a rotation that is supposedly one of the best in baseball. Last night sure didn't change my mind.

[desbcoach]

Biggest crime of the game was not using one ABS challenge.

[D-train]

so what's a single big expectation to get excited about? Mine is Julio getting off to a hot start. Wouldn't that be something

Womp