Non-Phillies 2023 Major League Season Discussion

[bkox]

Billy Eppler quits as Mets general manager 3 days after David Stearns was hired...

[bkeich]

Well, luckily it has been a few years since I lived there (fun in my 20s, less fun as you get older). I guess my point is that having the stadium in Gwinnett is actually more convenient for most fans. The last two stadiums in downtown (one built for the Olympics, and then used for Baseball) were only accessed by people taking the train directly to the stadium. Driving there at night was sketchy at best (and leaving at night would be very bad if you did parking “near” the stadium instead of the stadium parking).

Having a stadium more in the center of the people likely to go improves the fan bases access. That is just an oddity of Atlanta, the center of the population is way, way north. In fact the actual city limits of Atlanta makes it a very small city, but when you include the northern suburbs it is something like the 8th largest metro area. (About 8% of the 6M population lives in the city limits)

[andyb]

I did a lot of work there a decade ago. Agree that downtown is empty. It really was a poorly zoned city. There just was not any mixed-use development until like a decade ago. Downtown was offices and nothing else.

The example of big cities like NY and Philly is really spreading now (more NY). Mixed use development means you can use the public transportation available much more efficiently. The way Atlanta developed is likely a vestige of the Jim Crow era that white flight dominated in the 1960s through the 1980s and people just did not want to build anything mixed in a predominantly Black city. It is changing now, just pretty slowly. Ironically if they built a downtown ballpark neighborhood and surrounded it with 10,000+ condos (like they are doing in the suburbs) it could be very popular.

Down here in DC they anchored a whole neighborhood with a ballpark and it has been extremely successful. Philly never really tried as they stuck to the South Philly complex (which while efficient, has never really anchored much of a neighborhood with lots of new housing).

[bkeich]

I actually lived there during the 1996 Olympics (and went 20+ events, it was awesome). They thought at the time that the Olympics was going to revitalize downtown and move people to the “center”. It worked for about a year, Centennial Park became a venue for everything, people went downtown, it became more “normal”. It just didn’t last, Atlanta has such a huge transitory population (more people from the northeast and Michigan than from Georgia) that it just has a strange dynamic. Our saying used to be that Atlanta wasn’t in Georgia, it was surrounded by it (not that I have anything against Georgia).

[zambonir]

lolMets

Billy Eppler’s unexpected Mets resignation came amid MLB investigation

(It was kind of surprising inasmuch as Eppler and Stearns are friends and it was always thought he was just kind of placeholding to eventually work under him.)

[bkox]

Savannah bananas coming to CBP next Sept

Savannah Bananas announce 2024 Banana Ball World Tour schedule, cruise

[zambonir]

I'm familiar with the show but how many people are they really going to draw to a major league ballpark?

[bkox]

I'm familiar with the show but how many people are they really going to draw to a major league ballpark?

From Google:

The Bananas' 2023 tour involved games stretching from California to Maine, drew more than 550,000 fans, had a ticket waiting list of more than 1 million names, and boosted the team's TikTok following past 7.6 million — more than doubling last year's total and larger than MLB's official feed.

By Comparison.. the A's had an attendance of 823K

[zambonir]

Wild. How is MLB supposed to compete with the Tik Tok team!?

[andyb]

Kind of like the Globetrotters I guess, though I wonder if the novelty will wear off this in a few years.

[BostonRoss]

I tried to get tickets for the Savannah Bananas in Portland, Maine but they had sold out months before. There was definitely latent demand. Not sure if it's enough to fill major league stadiums, but the Sacramento game will probably outdraw most of the A's games in Oakland.

When my kids were kids, I took them to a few Harlem Globetrotters games at the Garden in Boston. They didn't seem to come close to selling out, but that was 20-25 years ago, and they had multiple games each year.

[bkox]

IMO they should do a few "double headers" have a Bananas game before the Phillies game.. or do it on a Saturday with the Phillies starting at 3PM and the Bananas after.

[zambonir]

Well, clearly they don't need or want to do that, and certainly not for a single admission! They're coming during a Phillies road trip for just one game. I don't imagine the Phillies would even have the extra clubhouse space.

[zambonir]

The NY Times has a lot more scoop on this than its ostensible sports desk does

Baseball’s Mets Investigation Will Seek to Answer What Steve Cohen Knew

Why is MLB investigating the Mets? Explaining the Phantom IL and Steve Cohen’s...

[bkox]

The NY Times has a lot more scoop on this than its ostensible sports desk does

Every time I hear improper use of the IL.. Dylan Covey's name pops in my mind lol

[zambonir]

For sure. The Athletic story does a good job discussing the fact that almost any player can be "hurt," but sometimes the player and team don't always agree about whether an IL stint is necessary. But we also don't know. Maybe he was hurt. Or maybe he was hurt just enough that in July he simply would have missed a few days w/o going on the IL - we have certainly seen the Phillies go a player short for as long as 5 days or a week in those situations before - but given the timing and team needs this year it was a no-brainer.

But, per the Times (and that's a free link FYI):

The investigation into the Mets began when an anonymous whistle-blower sent the commissioner’s office a letter that said the team’s general manager, Billy Eppler, had put at least one player on the injured list this year even though the player was not injured.

The commissioner’s office does not know who sent the letter. Among the possibilities is one of the Mets’ trainers, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. At least one of the trainers is said to have acknowledged to others this season that he was concerned that the team was breaking the rules because a player who was healthy was put on the injured list, according to the person.

[bkox]

'Just an embarrassment:' Major League Baseball managers are grossly underpaid

[Philsmania]

All of the sudden, the Rangers are looking again like the team that stomped all over the Phillies during the season's opening series. Meanwhile, the Orioles look like one of those starry-eyed young teams getting a tough first taste of October.

And with last night's win, the Twins guaranteed the first non-sweep series of the Postseason.

[zambonir]

And yet it's very much the Rangers' first taste of October too. In fact both teams last made it in 2016. No question Texas could have just as easily been a 100-win team. But this also proves it doesn't matter how you finish the regular season. They dropped out of first place on August 24, didn't get back until September 22, and had a 2.5 game lead on September 27 (that they blew). I guess that supports your theory that it kept them sharp though (compared to the Rays as well as the O's).

[andyb]

Interesting that this Japanese prospect is going to play college ball. Article implies it is so he would not wait 7 years to be posted. It also talks about being eligible in 3 years, but if his goal is MLB I wonder if he takes the junior college route. 6'0", 250 pound 1B/DH type.

Japanese phenom to play U.S. college baseball