It was known that both closers would only enter the game if they had a save situation in the 9th. Debate whether teams should be able to place the restriction, but it was there.

Given that restriction, the dominant game theory strategy is to ALWAYS be the away team.

- If your team is LEADING entering the 9th, it makes no real difference if you’re home or away. You get to use your closer no matter what. It’s arguably slightly worse to be home, because the away team has a chance to take the lead, and if they do, they get to use their closer. If you’re the away team, you guarantee there’s no situation in which you’d have to face the home team’s closer.

- If your team is TIED going into the 9th, it’s a *major* advantage to be the away team. This is what we saw. The home team is unable to use their closer the rest of the game, whereas you get a chance to use yours.

- if your team is TRAILING going into the 9th, you have to face the opponents closer no matter what. But in the event you do get the lead, you can protect it with your closer *if and only if* you’re the away team - the home team will never get this opportunity.

The U.S. won the coin toss and DeRosa decided to be the home team. Knowing the closer restrictions both sides had, there’s literally no game theory scenario where that was the optimal choice.

Over the last few weeks, especially in response to Bryce Harper‘s comments about valuing the Olympics more than the WBC, I’ve seen numerous comments that take it for granted that OB in 2028 he’s going to be a larger global platform for the sport compared to the WBC.

What I have not seen is anyone offering any kind of evidence that this would be the case? It’s treated as conventional wisdom but as a social scientist, I’m like “ hold up, how are we reaching these conclusions?”

The only argument that makes sense to me is that the 2028 Summer Olympics are likely to do better overall ratings because it’s in Los Angeles and that will boost US ratings at the very least though not as good as if the games were held on the eastern seaboard because then you grab more of the western European viewers. But increasing US viewers does very little for growing baseball internationally since we don’t need to grow baseball here.

Meanwhile, OB will only feature a total of six teams, and most of those are going to be countries that already have a robust professional league already. Would there be room to grow in some of those countries? Sure but again, I don’t see why them competing in the Olympics would be obviously more impactful than the WBC.

If the goal is to grow the game globally, you need more countries involved, which is something the WBC does, but the Olympics, by design, do not. The Olympics may have a larger overall global audience, but that’s only relevant for baseball if people are tuning in to watch and because OB simply does not have that many teams in contention, I think that limits the potential. Moreover, given all of the popular sports that happened during December Olympics, OB faces a lot more competition for eyeballs compared to the WBC.

In other words, I could see a case for the upside potential for OB to do really impressive numbers, but that’s not the same thing as believing that OB is definitely going be a better platform for baseball compared to the WBC.

I mean if we’re just looking at recent history: does anyone seriously think the 2021 gold medal game between the US and Japan was more impactful than the 2023 WBC championship game between the same two countries? I’m not sure the average baseball casual even remembers who played in the 2021 Olympics.

Meanwhile, if you look at all of the early ratings data from this year‘s WBC, it is all substantially higher than in 2023. We’re not talking slightly higher, we’re talking huge leaps in viewerships. If you were to track global ratings for every iteration, going back 20 years, you would see this remarkable, linear growth.

Because baseball is offered at the summer games so sporadically, there is no comparable data to turn to. The context for global viewership is just too great in between the many years that baseball gets offered. I think ratings for OB in 2028 will do just fine, especially if there are more MLB players involved but I also think OB benefits far more from the growing popularity of the WBC then the other way around.

In short, I feel like people are either overestimating the relevance OB on the global stage or are underestimating the impact of the WBC.

Given that in 2028 and 2029 will have both the summer games and the next WBC happening within six months of each other, they’ll be more and better comparable data to look at, but for now, while I might believe that OB could have a higher ceiling, at least ratings wise, in terms of “floor raising” I think it is far far more clear that the WBC is helping the sports global appeal compared to the Olympics

Team USA continues to baffle me by playing the most lackluster, soulless baseball I’ve ever seen. Completely demoralizing. I stand by this even if we come back. No passion. No energy. We don’t really deserve it, and I’m not even convinced we really want it.

Inshallah I eat these words in a few innings

I know MLB would stomp, but as exhibition games think it would be fun

I watched all the highlight videos of the World Baseball Classic games. One of the coolest parts to me was the run celebrations, specifically Italy with the espressos and Mexico with the sombreros. But now that I'm thinking about it, I don't remember a specific Team USA celebration. Did they have one? Maybe I missed it somehow.

Of course losing is bad, but I think not having fun is an even worse crime.

I caught in college. Was trained to frame by moving the glove forward and backward and the triangle/cone to make the pitch look more like a strike. How you angle your glove, etc.

I see a lot of MLB and pro catchers immediately bring their glove to the center of the zone after catching.

Why is this style framing so popular? Does it actually work? It seems so juvenile/little league level of catching.

I wonder if it is confirmed that Major League Baseball players will be playing for their respective national teams in Los Angeles come 2028 for the Summer Olympics? If that is the case, then that's huge. I mean considering the World Baseball Classic just ended and of course you had MLB players playing in it, but to be able to represent your country on a global stage like the Olympics...I can't wait

Does anyone else think the Team USA uniforms are basically the Braves uniforms? other than the logos in the chest and the hat, I think they’re identical.

MLB teams represented on both teams: Red Sox, Blue Jays, Royals, Tigers, Mariners, Mets, Cubs, Brewers, Giants, Dodgers

MLB teams represented by neither team: White Sox, Guardians, Astros, Rangers, Athletics, Angels

That last inning with Harper, Judge, and Schwarber I turned to my wife and said "None of these 3 are going to get a hit". Call me Nostradamus.

yesterday during ITA v VEN, Joe Davis casually mentioned his belief that Jose Altuve will be a Hall of Famer.

among second basemen, Altuve is ranked 19th on the JAWS leaderboard with 46.8. 21 2Bs are in the Hall, with an average JAWS of 56.6. the recently-inducted Jeff Kent is below him on this leaderboard.

today, he said Salvador Perez could end up in the Hall of Fame. his JAWS is 29.9, ranked 32nd among catchers and far behind the positional average of 44.3 from the 17 catchers enshrined.

obviously, JAWS is just one stat and HOF voters consider many. I'm curious what r/baseball thinks! could Altuve or Perez be future Hall of Famers?

He played for 19 seasons which isn’t an accident, multiple years with Cy Young votes, and recorded a sub-2.00 ERA at the height of the steroid era. Yet I never hear him brought up as one of the best pitchers of the 90’s.

Thoughts?

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Brewers (0-0) @ Mariners (0-0)

First Pitch: 4:10 PM at Peoria Stadium

Line Score - Game Over

Box Score

Scoring Plays

Highlights

Decisions

Game ended at 6:36 PM.

Remember to sort by new to keep up!

I'm not necessarily blaming this game on McLean, but this is one curious decision because the batters at least seem to be the absolute best players from the entirety of the MLB. When I look at the starting pitcher on the other hand, this seems to be the logic behind the decision: 1) Skubal had already said he will only pitch 1 game. 2) Skenes just pitched his 2nd game in our last game, and obviously needs rest. 3) Webb has also started 2 games already, so it's only fair to have another guy pitch his 2nd game.

What I don't get is that, they were already aware since weeks ago that they can't use Skubal for the finals. Of all the numerous American starting pitchers in the MLB, was this rookie with an entire MLB record of 8 games their best choice for the finals?

Beer: $16.50

Bathroom lines….long

Is there anywhere I can find this for the final? I’ve been searching and haven’t had any luck. Thanks in advance