2023 MLB Season Thread

[JGibson]

This is the thread for the happenings of the 2023 MLB season, from the Cooperstown Ballot on to the World Series. The Houston Astros are your World Series Champions. Scott Rolen was the only one to get inducted into the Cooperstown via the BBWAA ballot. Fred McGriff also got inducted via the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot.


Also, during spring training, the 2023 World Baseball Classic will be held. It was delayed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States are your defending champions.
 

The 2022 season was the first to have the NL adopt the DH on a permanent basis, after temporarily adopting it during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. This past season featured an expanded playoffs, where 6 teams per league make it in (3 division winners + 3 wild cards) for a total of 12 teams. That meant that the game 163 tiebreakers are extinct.


The upcoming 2023 season will feature some big rule changes, including the banning of the shift, introduction of the pitch clock (15 seconds with bases empty, 20 seconds with at least one runner on base), a limit of 2 disengagements (aka pickoff attempts) without penalty per plate appearance, and a balanced schedule where every team plays everybody at least one series a season, akin to the NHL.




2022 Thread:  https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=481000.0

[JGibson]

2023 BBWAA ballot update: Scott Rolen barely cleared the 75% mark for induction, and Todd Helton came close. Jeff Kent gets kicked off after 10 years eligible, and his fate lies in the Contemporary Era Committee.


https://twitter.com/baseballot/status/1618025277195526145

[JGibson]

LHP Aroldis Chapman heads to the Royals for one year.

[JGibson]

Chip Caray has been name the Cardinals Play-by-Play voice for Bally Sports Midwest games, replacing Dan McLaughlin. Caray was previously a broadcaster with the Braves.

MLB.com:

Through the years, when Chip Caray would return to his hometown of St. Louis as a visiting broadcaster, he would hit his favorite haunts for toasted ravioli and frozen ice cream. He’d visit his mother who still lives west of the city, and he’d honor as many ticket requests as possible for his many cousins in the area.

[...]

Caray, 57, will get to see the photo tributes to his late grandfather daily during the baseball season after being announced as Bally Sports Midwest's lead play-by-play announcer for the Cardinals on Monday, per the club and network. Caray will take over much of the same duties that Harry held while serving as the radio/TV voice of the Cards from 1945-69. Caray’s late father, Skip, was also a broadcasting icon in St. Louis, serving as play-by-play voice of the NBA’s Hawks before the franchise relocated to Atlanta.

[...]

Caray takes over for Dan McLaughlin, TV voice of the Cardinals for the previous 24 years prior to his December resignation following a third arrest for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Caray called McLaughlin “a dear friend” and someone who is “like a brother to me.” The two spoke often in recent months and Caray said he knows now McLaughlin is on the road to recovery.

While millions of Americans felt they knew Harry on a personal level because of his everyman broadcasting style, Chip did not have such a relationship and they didn’t develop a bond until years later. When Chip took the job to call Cubs games in 1998, plans were in place for him to work with his grandfather, but Harry’s death dashed those dreams. After graduating high school in suburban St. Louis, Chip went to college at the University of Georgia to be closer to his father in Atlanta. When Chip left Chicago for Atlanta in 2005, he did so for the sole purpose of working alongside his father on Braves telecasts.