As the All-Star break continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. 2024 MLB schedule to be revealed:
Per an MLB announcement, the 2024 regular season schedule is expected to be revealed today at noon CT. The 2024 campaign will be the second to use the balanced schedule brought on by the most recent collective bargaining agreement in 2022. The new schedule, which is being used this season, reduced games against a club’s division rivals from 19 per opponent to just 13 per opponent while adding additional interleague games to the point that every MLB franchise plays every other franchise at least once in each season. Today’s full schedule announcement comes on the heels of yesterday’s reveal that the league will visit four countries beyond the US and Canada in 2024.
2. Harrison heads to the IL:
The Phillies will return from the All-Star break tomorrow without infielder Josh Harrison, who was placed on the 10-day injured list with a wrist contusion yesterday. It’s been a difficult 2023 campaign for Harrison, as the 35-year-old veteran has slashed just .219/.274/.313 with a wRC+ of 59 in 106 plate appearances. No timetable for Harrison’s return has been announced. Kody Clemens, Drew Ellis, and Jake Cave are among the options to replace Harrison on the bench in Philadelphia ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Padres.
3. Quintana continues rehab:
Mets left-hander Jose Quintana is scheduled to throw a simulated game today, according to MLB.com. Afterwards, the Mets are poised to make a decision on whether or not Quintana is ready to join the club’s rotation. The veteran southpaw has yet to throw a pitch for the club since signing a two-year, $26MM deal this past offseason. When healthy, Quintana has been a solid mid-rotation starter throughout his 11 seasons in the big leagues. He owns a career 3.75 ERA, 10% better than league average by measure of ERA+, with a 3.62 FIP. He posted a particularly excellent campaign last season, as he pitched to a 2.93 ERA (139 ERA+) and 2.99 FIP in 165 2/3 innings of work with the Pirates and Cardinals.
Dump the divisions and have the top 12 teams make it. You shouldn’t make the playoffs just because your division is weak.
I think the new scheduling has at least helped in this area. Also, in the old system just because a division winner had a lower record than other playoff teams it could be a result of parity within the division where they took teams beating up on each other. While another division had 2 better teams and the rest fodder.
For sure under the old system there are some examples to your point though.
The fact that the AL Central champ is games behind the Red Sox in standing is proof the division champs shouldn’t always get in the playoffs.
The Midwest teams and cities have less money than the East Coast and West Coast teams and cities. To keep the Midwest fans interested their teams need to be able to win their division and make the playoffs. Otherwise why would the fans be interested?
Divisions help prevent the large markets from dominating the playoffs. There are already enough advantages for those teams. Try selling expansion to a potential new owner, who knows they will be getting a smaller market with all the disadvantages, and then explain how for this enormous sum, the rules are being changed to make the playoffs an even harder goal to achieve.
One thing I learned from English PL soccer is, you never give up on your team. Instead of leaving with ten minutes left and their team down 1 – or 2 goals, there have been many times when the trailing team scores in the final minutes. I don’t give up on my team. It’s the White Sox. (Pray for me.)
stymeedone: Good point, but sometimes it’s the billionaire owners who don’t want to spend their hard inherited money. Look at Chicago. Third largest city in the country. The cubs owner has his wallet open and is putting his money into the team. Who would’ve thought they would have signed Swanson. The Sox, however, play like a small market team because their owner has his wallet welded shut. It’s very disheartening for the fans who have, unlike the owner, always taken pride in one of the AL’s original teams.
dump the divisions completely and use the same format used before expansion
And no wild cards, only the best team in each league goes head to head in the WS
I think with TV and all the other $$’s in play – free money since salaries are not in play – there is absolutely no chance anything like that ever happens.
Salaries may not be in play, but ballplayers do get a share of the gate from postseason games.
Actually, the players get extra money depending where they finish in the regular season, then even more money depending on where they end up.
They’ll never do it due to $$$, that being said that system was flawed and it would give lower payroll teams an even smaller chance to win the WS (that’s how the Yankees won 20 of their 27 chips).
@theman
And how do they make up the lost revenue from the contraction of the playoffs? I’m guessing by cutting payroll.
I totally agree with that. That’s how it should be. It’s the fairest way to determine the true champion.
That would turn MLB into the NBA. Who needs that?
This new scheduling format has already made baseball more like the NBA (or the NHL if you’re in Canada). And yes, it’s degraded the traditional rivalries on which baseball gets its biggest audiences.
I think there is too much history to get rid of the leagues.
But divisions have been in Flux for years and it’s time to get rid of them.
Which teams are in which league obviously doesn’t matter though, as Selig moved the Brewers to the NL then Manfred moved the Astros to the AL.
Add 2 expansion teams.
Sort by geography 16 eastern most teams in 1 league and 16 western most teams in the other.
Keep 12 team playoffs do not use as an excuse to expand the playoffs again
There’s barely enough talent to supply 30 big-league ballclubs. How would 2 expansion franchises help?
Since the last time there was expansion how much has the recruiting areas and population increased. Technology has also made it easier to find players that may previously fallen through the cracks.
Cuba has opened up adding enough players alone to fill a roster.
There are plenty of players out there for 32 teams.
The problem is, where do the White Sox, Tigers, Brewers, Cards, Reds, Twins, Guards, Rangers and cubs play? Which ones go west and which teams go east?
Astrosfn: If there’s enough players to fill 32 teams, then how do you explain all the dfa’s and 40-ish players and those who have spent years playing overseas filling out current major league teams? Expansion will only dilute the talent even more.
They always get replaced with someone else.
There are 30 teams and 26 roster spots (780 players).
30 teams and 40 man rosters to cover injuries (1200)
32 teams would change that to 832 and 1280 respectively.
1495 players played in MLB in 2022
There are players out there.
Not all good ones. For example, the WSox have a 29 year old rookie playing 2b. When he doesn’t play, SS Elvis Andrus does. They have 1b man Gavin Sheets or rookie Oscar Colas in rf. Catching is the worst catcher in the game, Grandal. His backup, Sent Zevala, is veryy good defensively but can’t hit. The bullpen is a nightmare. You could probably take a closer look atother teams and find the same thing. No more expansion, please.
And some teams like TB or Baltimore probably have 50 or 55 players who could be solid MLBers
That’s an organizational issue not a supply issue.
I’m guessing all the people wanting to remove divisions root for large market teams. If there can be no illusion of an equal playing field, start looking at contraction, not expansion.
My personal preference to remove divisions is 2-fold
1) I want the 6 best teams to make the playoffs. Too many times a division winner has a worse record that a team that misses the playoffs
2) As an Astros fan, I am tired of having 3 of the 4 other teams in the division 2 time zones away. Balance the schedule (this year is better). Playing 19 games each vs teams from California and Washington when there are 6 other teams in the same timezone that they hardly play at all is crazy.
Northeast
NYY
Bos
Tor
Det
Clev
NYM
Phil
Pitt
Midwest
ChiC
ChiW
Milw
Minn
Stl
Cincy
KC
Nashville (expansion)
Southeast
Balt
Wash
Charlotte (expansion)
Atl
Mia
TB
Hou
Tex
West
LAA
LAD
SF
SD
Col
Ariz
Oak/LV
Sea
How about dump the current divisions and create ones based on market size? That way Yankees and Red Sox fans won’t be mad when teams like the Orioles and Rays keep them out of playoffs.
That would turn the MLB into NCAA.
Before you know it you will have big market divisions that pay more money have bigger names. They will be Power divisions
The smaller market divisions will rapidly drop in importance and become minor divisions
The Oreo’s have plenty of money, they topped out at 160mm in salaries almost a decade ago.
I’ve submitted the seeding possibility to the chat twice with no answer. I say seed the top 12 teams by record, even if you have more teams from one league than the other. With interleague play there really isn’t an NL or A L anymore until the PO. It makes no sense to have a team from the ALC participate in the PO with a sub-.500 record. Possibly the same with the NLC. We don’t need to have a 101 win team eliminated in the first round again.
All the large markets in one division, the small markets in the other two. One wild card.
All NL and AL references are useless anyway now with the same umps and the stupid DH everywhere.
Four teams, two tiers of the playoffs, may the best one win.
We don’t need to play until November.
This one belongs… Bad idea. Instead of wrecking the beautiful game with his cockenbull rule changes, Manfred should cap the owners, not the players. Small market team TB can play with anyone. There are other examples but, as the Yankees proved last season and the Mets this season, getting more TV and commercial money doesn’t mean a whole lot.
That 101-win team choked away the NL East in the final week of the season and then got knocked out in the wild-card round, at home, by a team with a worse record.
Such is the legacy of LOLmets.
Add two expansion teams, go back to East/West, rekindle former rivalries and Top 12 teams make it. Nice added injection of new money to 30 other teams. It’s been 25 years we are long overdue.
FREE SCOTTY JETPAX….one last time…….
C’mon Phillies
Has good numbers at AAA. Give him one last chance to earn that contract.
Kingery can play 7 positions and is in the last year of his deal.
He hits RH and would be playing for his “next” deal.
Interestingly enough Harrison, on the IL just passed his 10yr service time.
Once Harper gets to 1b, my hope is the bench consists of Kingery, Sosa, Cave, Stubbs.
What the balanced schedule has done is expose just how bad the Central Division in both leagues really is. The AL Central is 193-270 (69-69 against eachother, 123-201 against everyone else). The NL Central sits at 220-231 (63-63 against eachother, 157-168 vs everyone else). Its like the Southern Divisions in the NFL with the NL Central representing the-slightly-better-but-still-lousy-AFC South and the AL Central representing the-just-plain-bad-NFC South
32 teams – 2 leagues – each with 2 conferences – each with 2 divisions
Same Division – 14 games x3 teams = 42
Same Conference (other division) – 10 games x4 = 40
Same league (other conf) – 4 games x8 teams = 32 games (home and home series)
Other league – 16 teams x3 games = 48 games. Alternate years at each venue.
Each league playoffs are 4 division winners and the best non-division winner in each conference; top record in each conference gets a bye from a 5 game WC and then hosts 7 game conference championship.
As flawed as it is, the playoff structure is only going to change to let more teams in, which is a bit ridiculous, but that’s the participation trophy generation at work.
What I wouldn’t mind seeing is an ongoing five year “probation” period for every team. If you lose a certain number of games (TBD) over any five years, the ownership is out. If you fail to draw a certain amount of attendance over any five years, you are moved to another city.
No more expansion teams, please. Let’s have 30 reasonably competitive franchises with loyal fanbase support.
Hey, I can dream.
Today’s full schedule announcement comes on the heels of yesterday’s reveal that the league will visit four planets beyond the Earth and Mars in 3024.
There is also talk of finally setting up a special division for the Boston Bloomcoras who have now won 101 straight Solar System championships.