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.

[JGibson]

The 2023 World Baseball Classic rosters came out last night.

https://www.mlb.com/news/2023-world-baseball-classic-rosters

[JGibson]

Albert Pujols is back with the Angels, this time as a special assistant.

MLB:

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Fresh off a Hall of Fame-worthy 22-year career that saw him become the fourth player in AL/NL history to reach 700 career homers, Albert Pujols has rejoined the Angels’ organization as a special assistant to the club.

Pujols arrived at camp on Tuesday and met with the media on Wednesday to discuss his role with the Angels. He said he always planned to honor his 10-year personal services contract he signed as part of his original 10-year, $254 million deal with the Angels, even after he was released by the club during the 2021 season.

[JGibson]

The biggest pitch clock causality so far came towards the end of the Red Sox-Braves game yesterday, in which the violation resulted in an automatic strike and thus ended the game in a 3-3 tie. 

Braves SS Cal Conley, batting with the bases loaded on a full count in the bottom of the 9th, got charged with a pitch clock violation to not only strike out but end the game in a 3-3 tie.

https://twitter.com/JomboyMedia/status/1629584817623904258

[JGibson]

The World Baseball Classic has started. The Czech Republic (Czechia) team could be a mainstay in future tournaments.

Top 4 teams in each group automatically qualify for the 2026 edition.

[JGibson]

Team USA needs to win tonight against Colombia in the WBC.

[JGibson]

The USA came back to beat Venezuela 9-7 to head to the semis against Cuba in the World Baseball Classic, thanks to Trea Turner's grand slam.

[JGibson]

The USA are in the final to defend their WBC crown, as they await the Mexico v. Japan winner.

[JGibson]

MiLB and MLBPA have reached a tentative 5-year deal that would give minor league players large pay raises and more rights.

Pay increases per year:
AAA: $17,500 to $35,800
AA: $13,800 to $30,250
High-A: $11,000 to $27,300
Single-A: $11,000 to $26,200
Complex league: $4,800 to $19,800

Jeff Passan at ESPN:

Minor league baseball players and Major League Baseball struck a tentative deal Wednesday on the first collective bargaining agreement between the sides that will more than double player pay and represents the largest-ever gains in the rights of minor leaguers, sources familiar with the agreement told ESPN.

The deal, which will last for five years, comes after a rapid and successful effort last year by minor leaguers to unionize under the umbrella of the Major League Baseball Players Association and follows previous improvements in housing and pay. MLB formally recognized the union upon its formation, paving the way for a negotiation that finalized the deal on the eve of major league Opening Day.

After years of disillusionment among future major leaguers about paltry salaries forcing them to work offseason jobs, and coincidentally on the day a judge approved a $185 million settlement the league will pay players who accused it of violating minimum-wage laws, the parties agreed on a deal that went out to a vote among the union's rank-and-file and will need to be approved by owners as well before it is formalized. The agreement could be announced officially as early as Friday, the first day of games in the minor leagues.

[JGibson]

Waino sung The Star-Spangled Banner (US National Anthem) today for the Cardinals home opener.

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1641534122282680320

[JGibson]

The Tampa Bay Rays winning streak to start a season got snapped at 13 games, as the Toronto Blue Jays won 6-3 tonight.


Last night, Cardinals OF Jordan Walker's 12-game hits streak to start his MLB career ended. 

[JGibson]

Cardinals OF Jordan Walker got sent down to AAA Memphis.

INF/OF Taylor Motter, who was DFA'd a couple days ago, is back up with the big club.

https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1651331105658683401

[JGibson]

Cardinals announcer Mike Shannon died at 83. He was the announcer on radio for the club for 50 years, the majority of them on KMOX. 

https://twitter.com/ksdknews/status/1652733366356041733
https://twitter.com/Cardinals/status/1652731948731715585

[JGibson]

The Cardinals end their 8-game losing streak, as they beat the Tigers 12-6. Paul Goldschmidt had 3 homers.

[JGibson]

Cardinals are slowly but surely making a move out of the NL Central basement.

[JGibson]

Albert Pujols got hired by the MLB Network and will serve as a special assistant to Commissioner Rob Manfred.

[JGibson]

Cardinals are doing terrible this season. It may be time to pink slip Oli Marmol.

[JGibson]

The first game of the London Series ended in a 9-1 win for the Cubs over the Cardinals. This matchup was initially supposed to have taken place in 2020, but COVID restrictions caused the series to be delayed to 2023. 

[JGibson]

Cardinals won 7-6 in the 2nd game of the London series, spitting it 1-1.

[JGibson]

Cardinals found yet another way to lose while leading in the 9th, as Jordan Hicks's throwing error led to the Marlins winning 10-9 in walkoff fashion in the bottom of the 9th. A half-inning earlier in the top of the 9th, Jordan Walker's homer gave the Cards the 9-8 lead that would have possibly been enough to give the Cards the win.

[JGibson]

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wins the 2023 Home Run Derby and sets the record for most homers hit in a HRD final (25). Also, he and his father Vladimir Guerrero are the first father-son duo to win the Home Run Derby.

[JGibson]

The NL end the 9-game ASG winning streak of the AL, as the Senior Circuit wins 3-2. Rockies C Elías Díaz's game-winning homer gave him the MVP.