What's new
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

MLB 2025: The Dodgers vs The Field

Cal Raleigh of Seattle has 32 home runs already, the most for a catcher before the All-Star break.

Of course, because this is the Mariners, Raleigh will end up hitting 60 HRs but the Mariners will miss the playoffs and Judge will still win the AL MVP.
 
Ohtani and Judge earn starting spots at DH and outfield, respectively, for the ASG for being the leading vote getters in Phase 1.

Phase 2 now takes the top 2 in each position for a run-off for the remaining spots. The Dodgers have finalists at every position except for a third outfielder, so LAD could end up with 8 starters.
 
Skubal is pretty good at pitching.
Besides the teams I root for he is first on my list of pitchers I like watching right now. Last night's performance was amazing. After 4 innings I was thinking no hitter, dare I say perfect game? He looked that dialed in. The only thing I thought that might stand in the way was a pitch county advancing too much (I hate pitch counts when that is how they factor into a game) because of all the strikeouts. He made maybe 3 questionable pitches the entire time he was out there, and it sucked that he left the one pitch Ty France hit for a single a little up in the zone. His changeup usually goes right to the spot he wants. The strikeout that ended the third inning was unreal to me.

Skubal has always had great stuff, but to see how he has developed into a true pitcher the last 2 or 3 seasons has been great to watch. I hope baseball fans get to watch this guy do this for another dozen years.
 
And speaking of pitching, here are some numbers that tell you how different the game is in 2025 than it was for basically all of the 20th century. Freddie Freeman has been a good hitter for his entire career, and a pretty durable guy. He's made 9042 plate appearances since his debut around 15 years ago. In that time he has faced 1423 different pitchers. The late Pete Rose made more plate appearances than any other major league player, 15890. In his entire career, he faced only 793 different pitchers. If Freeman had faced his pitchers the same number of times on average as Rose, he'd have only seen about 450 pitchers so far in his career.
 
And speaking of pitching, here are some numbers that tell you how different the game is in 2025 than it was for basically all of the 20th century. Freddie Freeman has been a good hitter for his entire career, and a pretty durable guy. He's made 9042 plate appearances since his debut around 15 years ago. In that time he has faced 1423 different pitchers. The late Pete Rose made more plate appearances than any other major league player, 15890. In his entire career, he faced only 793 different pitchers. If Freeman had faced his pitchers the same number of times on average as Rose, he'd have only seen about 450 pitchers so far in his career.
I'm not going to pooh-pooh that number, because I understand what it is getting at.

However, it is still inflated a bit because of interleague play. By default, Freeman sees more different teams in a season than Rose did, and thus will automatically have the opportunity to see more different pitchers.
 
I'm not going to pooh-pooh that number, because I understand what it is getting at.

However, it is still inflated a bit because of interleague play. By default, Freeman sees more different teams in a season than Rose did, and thus will automatically have the opportunity to see more different pitchers.
Freeman also sees more teams because of expansion. Also the NL only had 12 teams when Rose played so Rose saw teams significantly more often.
 
I'm not going to pooh-pooh that number, because I understand what it is getting at.

However, it is still inflated a bit because of interleague play. By default, Freeman sees more different teams in a season than Rose did, and thus will automatically have the opportunity to see more different pitchers.
Definitely. And not just interleague play, but more teams altogether too. Rose could have played against I believe no more than 26 teams in his entire career had he played in both leagues (he of course never played a regular season game against an American League team), whereas Freeman has played against 30 teams.

But it is still absolutely true teams use far more pitchers per game today than they did for pretty much the entirety of the 20th century. Todd Helton and Miguel Tejada both debuted in 1997, the first year of interleague play, and except for that first season, both played in an era of 30 MLB teams. Both finished their careers with more plate appearances then Freeman has now but Helton faced almost 200 fewer different pitchers and Tejada faced over 200 fewer.
 
Well yea...

Even in the 80's you only saw a team use approximately 2.5 pitchers/game. That number currently sits around 4.25-4.45 pitchers/game for each team.
 
The Mets' 4-30 three-game deficit against the Pirates is their worst series deficit of all time. When you beat the 62 Mets, you have reached a cold and lonely promontory of suck.
And they're still going to win the NL pennant.
 
Back
Top