2024 MLB Season - What I look forward to watching

[Senatorswin]

It should be a fun year with Soto in New York and Judge healthy. Those two should light it up on the biggest stage.

That and the Dodgers with all their new toys will be a lot of fun to watch also.

The Phillies/Braves battle for the beast of the east should be interesting with Harper healthy for a whole season for the first time in a couple of years and playing first and Wheeler and Nola getting the big bucks.

After the Padres and Mets blew up last year could that happen with the Dodgers? Unlikely.

After all that I can't think of any team who has done anything to blow my skirt up (true Lies).

[rileyn]

No mention of the Orioles?  As much as I hate to admit, they are going to be fascinating to watch.  I'm curious to see how much their attendance jumps.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Retitled thread to better describe the content.

In an odd way, I kind of look forward to watching 2 central teams, Milwaukee in the NL and KC in the AL, for their different approaches to potentially competing in weak divisions.

Milwaukee kind of decided they could be in the mix while taking a step back to build for the future. That's almost impossible to pull off, but the Burnes deal was about the future while getting some assets they can pencil in right away in Ortiz and Hall, the Hoskins signing is a nice patch for a weak spot, and they made some effort to patch together a rotation. Chourio is a legit RoTY candidate from the start of the year, maybe Yamamoto's biggest rival. Rooting for Joe Ross too. they project per FG at 80 wins, while the best team (the Cards) project at 83.

KC was a bad team that made a bunch of moves to try to put together a competitive pitching staff. They patched the position players with 3 vet signings, and they get Pasquatch back. In that division, that can perhaps get them near .500, which is enough to compete. It's sort of a cheaper version of how the Rangers decided to try to compete. Question is will it be ccloser to Rangers 2022 or 2023. Maybe the answer is either is ok  for KC. FG still projects them as 10 games below .500, but that's ahead of the ChiSox, while only the Twins (84 wins) project to be over .500 in the division.

[Senatorswin]

No mention of the Orioles?  As much as I hate admit, they are going to be fascinating to watch.  I'm curious to see how much their attendance jumps.

Good point. They will be fun to watch this year. With the supposedly top rated stadium (UGH) and young exciting team they should light up the turnstiles. But will they ? People aren't anxious to go to Baltimore these days. I bet them to win over 91.5 games.

[welch]

Baltimore Orioles might as well move back to Saint Louis, where they will find genuine baseball fans.

[Senatorswin]

Teams in the AL Central and NL Central really have no excuse to not winning their division. If just one of those teams in each division decided to put real effort to winning they should be able to take those weak divisions. In the other divisions even if a team loads up like the Mets or Padres did they still have stiff competition in their divisions and are assured of nothing.

[Senatorswin]

USA Today came out with a ranking of the ballparks today. Not as bogus as some other rankings but still not good. They rank Camden Yards 4th which is ridiculous. They rank Yankee Stadium 20th which is about right. They rank Nationals Park 25th but don't give a reason why so low. They just say the architecture fits for the city and the Presidents race is endearing.

I think it's just a matter of people who do these rankings haven't actually been to the stadiums and go chalk. They say they wanted to create the ultimate ranking. Not.

https://sports.yahoo.com/ranking-mlbs-stadiums-1-30-122318450.html?fr=sycsrp_catchal

[Slateman]

Nats Park is pretty meh. Its basically what a ballpark that is trying to be local and quaint would look like. Its perfect for DC and its suburbs.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

sight lines are good in Nats Park. Too much of the park is in the sun for a city as hot and muggy as DC.

[OfftheBat]

USA Today came out with a ranking of the ballparks today. Not as bogus as some other rankings but still not good. They rank Camden Yards 4th which is ridiculous. They rank Yankee Stadium 20th which is about right. They rank Nationals Park 25th but don't give a reason why so low. They just say the architecture fits for the city and the Presidents race is endearing.

I think it's just a matter of people who do these rankings haven't actually been to the stadiums and go chalk. They say they wanted to create the ultimate ranking. Not.

https://sports.yahoo.com/ranking-mlbs-stadiums-1-30-122318450.html?fr=sycsrp_catchal

I actually prefer Nats Park to Yankee Stadium & Rogers Centre, I highly disagree with those rankings.

[imref]

Nats park is a million times better experience than Camden imho

[blue911]

Nats park is a million times better experience than Camden imho

The open concourse design trumps the retro look with seats that aren’t oriented properly.


Edit: I like most minor league parks far more than the major leagues.

[imref]

The open concourse design trumps the retro look with seats that aren’t oriented properly.


Edit: I like most minor league parks far more than the major leagues.

have you been to fredricksburg? 

[Senatorswin]

The open concourse design trumps the retro look with seats that aren’t oriented properly.


Edit: I like most minor league parks far more than the major leagues.

Yep, I hadn't been to Camden Yards for quite a while before going again last year. After spending so much time in the open atmosphere of Nats Park I was surprised how many things about Camden I didn't like. The concourse was closed in. They used to make a big deal about the warehouse beyond right field but at the end of the day it's just a big building that blocks all other views that way. My seats faced the bullpen in left/center field. The scoreboard was really small and hard to read.

[Senatorswin]

I actually prefer Nats Park to Yankee Stadium & Rogers Centre, I highly disagree with those rankings.

I agree they messed up when they built the new Yankee Stadium. They should of worried less about making it like the old Yankee Stadium and just made a new park.

I'm going to Rogers Centre sometime this summer. Looking forward to that.

[OfftheBat]

I agree they messed up when they built the new Yankee Stadium. They should of worried less about making it like the old Yankee Stadium and just made a new park.

I'm going to Rogers Centre sometime this summer. Looking forward to that.

Yeah and I prefer the Nats Park concourse mainly over the new Yankee Stadium's.

Rogers Centre is nice too but not top tier like the parks ranked in the top 10 of this article 

[Senatorswin]

The Arizona Republic had a list of the top 10 highest paid pitchers for 2024. Shocking:

My comments are after the money.

1) Los Angeles Dodgers RHP Shohei Ohtani: $70 million. - Can't pitch in 2024 due to TJ.

2) Texas Rangers RHP Max Scherzer: $43.3 million. - Won't pitch until mid-season at best.

3) Houston Astros RHP Justin Verlander: $43.3 million. - Begins season on injured reserve with shoulder issue.

4) Texas Rangers RHP Jacob deGrom: $40 million. - May or may not pitch in 2024. Or ever.

5) New York Yankees RHP Gerrit Cole: $36 million. - Could be headed for serious arm injury.

6) Washington Nationals LHP Patrick Corbin: $35.4 million. - Highest ERA in MLB of any regular starter. Stinks.

7) Washington Nationals RHP Stephen Strasburg: $35 million. - Will never pitch again.

New York Yankees LHP Carlos Rodon: $27.8 million. - Was horrible last year when the little he did pitch and so far has lost his fastball.

9) Philadelphia Phillies RHP Aaron Nola: $24.5 million. - Second best pitcher on the team. 4.46 ERA last year.

10) Seattle Mariners RHP Luis Castillo: $24.2 million. - Good Pitcher. Worth the bucks.

[rileyn]

The Arizona Republic had a list of the top 10 highest paid pitchers for 2024. Shocking:

My comments are after the money.

1) Los Angeles Dodgers RHP Shohei Ohtani: $70 million. - Can't pitch in 2024 due to TJ.

2) Texas Rangers RHP Max Scherzer: $43.3 million. - Won't pitch until mid-season at best.

3) Houston Astros RHP Justin Verlander: $43.3 million. - Begins season on injured reserve with shoulder issue.

4) Texas Rangers RHP Jacob deGrom: $40 million. - May or may not pitch in 2024. Or ever.

5) New York Yankees RHP Gerrit Cole: $36 million. - Could be headed for serious arm injury.

6) Washington Nationals LHP Patrick Corbin: $35.4 million. - Highest ERA in MLB of any regular starter. Stinks.

7) Washington Nationals RHP Stephen Strasburg: $35 million. - Will never pitch again.

New York Yankees LHP Carlos Rodon: $27.8 million. - Was horrible last year when the little he did pitch and so far has lost his fastball.

9) Philadelphia Phillies RHP Aaron Nola: $24.5 million. - Second best pitcher on the team. 4.46 ERA last year.

10) Seattle Mariners RHP Luis Castillo: $24.2 million. - Good Pitcher. Worth the bucks.

Wow, that list is definitely a cautionary tale. 

[Senatorswin]

Wow, that list is definitely a cautionary tale.

Could be a reason Snell and Montgomery are still available.

[imref]

at least Ohtani can hit.

[Senatorswin]

at least Ohtani can hit.

Yep, the Dodgers knew ahead of time he wasn't going to pitch this year but if he can't pitch for multiple years like he was the $70 million a year for just batting is a disaster.


Looking at this list you can't blame the owners for not wanting to pay big bucks for multiple years to a pitcher. Nola has disaster written all over it.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Yep, the Dodgers knew ahead of time he wasn't going to pitch this year but if he can't pitch for multiple years like he was the $70 million a year for just batting is a disaster.


Looking at this list you can't blame the owners for not wanting to pay big bucks for multiple years to a pitcher. Nola has disaster written all over it.

eh, it's really a $46 million a year contract in terms of present value and the luxury tax

[Senatorswin]

eh, it's really a $46 million a year contract in terms of present value and the luxury tax

Yeah but at the end of the day they're still paying him $700 million to play for 10 years.