MLB 2023: the Year The RSNs Broke

MLB could tack on a ridiculous fee to MLB TV per user to let them watch ‘blacked out’ games, even by team, and they’d make a fortune. Not that they don’t already but, you know.

Man, if they let me watch Nationals games in-market, I would for sure think about killing my cable subscription. That’s about 75% of why I have cable in the first place.

Not even Cardinals fans deserve that pain.

Ah well. Chip Caray ain’t great, but he’s a little less prone to flubbing so many calls as he was during his early years (and every announcer flubs calls, btw). Just wish he wasn’t still so hung up on batting average and pitcher wins…ick.

Nice to see you reached acceptance quickly.

Heh. Honestly I usually have the game on with the sound down a lot anyway. And it’s not like there’s anything I can do to change it.

Maybe my final bit of denial stage: there apparently exists a scenario where DannyMac gets his life in order and in a few years is reconsidered to get his old gig back.

Had no idea Harry had ever called games for the cardinals.

He was on Cardinals games for 25 years, I think, and for like the last 10 it was Harry Caray and Jack Buck calling Cardinals games together.

Rumor is that Harry was having an affair with team owner Gussie Busch’s wife, and so he fired him abruptly at the end of the 1969 season.

What a painful reminder of how far we’ve fallen.

I just knew him from Cubs games on WGN as a kid.

Rolen to Cooperstown by the hair of his chinny chin chin. Discuss.

In the history of the BBWAA voting process, no player had ever gotten less than 15% support on his first ballot and gone on to be elected by the writers.

I hadn’t thought of him as a HoFer until seeing the stats in that article. Some guys careers just go under the radar.

Rolen is your Ripken type/ anti Pedro type. One where they were a good player for a long time, but outside of the 2004 season you never could really call him one of the 10 best players in baseball (maybe not even the National League either), but he maintained a high level of play for longer than many.

Rolen had an exceptional first 8 years of his career, and then had that collision with Hee-Seop Choi at first base in May of 2005 and it essentially destroyed his shoulder. Completely altered the trajectory his career was on and he was never the same again. But he managed to have a few decent years and a lot of fair ones where he at least was a good defender at third.

But Scott Rolen is in the Hall Of Fame for those first 8 years with the Phillies and Cardinals, I suspect. That, and a better understanding of how his defense contributed to his value overall (his 70 bWAR is a pretty solid counting stat for a third baseman.)

Scott Rolen tells his parents that he made it.

I have a hard time thinking he’s HOF material. If he is how can Hernandez still be getting snubbed? Whatever…As far as I know SNY still hasn’t resigned Keith for the booth. I will be super bummed if that falls through. He’s hilarious and always one slipup from getting cancelled. ;)

Keith Hernandez played 2088 games and hit .296/.384/.436 at 1B while Rolen played 2036 games and hit .281/.364/.490 and played elite 3B defense. I think that’s a pretty big gap there to explain the difference.

I think there’s a gap between Rolen and Hernandez, but it’s not in their slash lines or defensive skills. Hernandez won 11 Gold Gloves to Rolen’s 8. His career OPS+ is 128 to Rolen’s 122. They both played 17 seasons. From that perspective, they are almost identical players.

The reason Rolen is going to be a Hall of Famer and Hernandez is not (yet) is that he hit almost twice as many HRs and has the 69th (nice) most WAR in MLB history, according to Baseball Reference.

So total WAR isn’t just Offensive+Defensive WAR because of position adjustments being double applied and other details, but the reason Rolen has the WAR advantage is because elite 3B defense is way more valuable than elite 1B defense.

Hernandez: Offensive WAR 46.3 Defensive WAR 1.3
Rolen: Offensive WAR 52.8 Defensive WAR 21.2

Completely agree. But you can’t hold it against Hernandez that he was a first baseman and not a third baseman. I agree with you that Rolen is a Hall of Famer and overall a better player than Hernandez, I was just quibbling with the evidence you offered to demonstrate that. Their slash lines are remarkably similar and while Rolen played a more defensively-valuable position, Hernandez is widely considered the best defensive first baseman of all time. That’s all. :)