This is the most disappointing thing about baseball right now, at least to me. How many current players are there that, when their name comes up, you immediately associate a personality with it? Now compare with how many current players you associate with steroids when you hear their name. I want to see more liveliness, it's possible to enjoy the game and have fun with it without destroying your public image.And then you lose a sense of having all these characters. We had so many characters on that team—characters with personality—and it was all about playing baseball.
Maybe it's team to team. As an O's fan, I feel like I personally know everyone on my team. They click really well and there are so many moments they show where they are really good friends with each other and don't sit stoically, and with Gary Thorne as our commentator, it feels really alive.
It probably has something to do with the Yankees revolving door of contracts. The home grown guys like Gardner, Betances, Robertson, and Solarte (okay, he didn't really go through our system but still) are the players people relate to. Also, Michael Kay. Eh.
The idea of the Yankees has really hurt baseball's image. The team that buys series. Selling off huge swaths of players as if it's literally a farm. It makes it hard for the casual viewer to feel a connection with the game, like the personal aspect is gone, mostly because it makes it hard to feel like the team is really, well, a team. It's fluid and unless you're really versed in players, how would you know these guys? It's not necessarily true, of course, but the Yanks are the face of baseball, and it happens so much there. I'm not sure it's really a small market vs. major market thing either. There are examples of good and bad on both sides.
Yes and no. The 90's and early 2000's run didn't have extravagant spending despite still leading or near-leading in spending, and they had a lot of players that went through the farm system. After that though, it's been all about the big name players...which hasn't exactly worked. I'm aware of everybody on the Yankees, but it's the guys who go through our system that I root for the hardest. And Tanaka, because he's just so much fun to watch. But yeah, if there's one thing I like about the NFL that I wish MLB would have it's the salary cap.The team that buys series.
So far Tanaka has one weakness and one weakness only: Rain. His only two less than stellar starts have been in poor weather.
If you ever doubt the stupidity of this new emphasis, take a modern-day speedster, subtract his caught stealing total from his singles and convert his stolen base total from singles to doubles. Then see what his numbers look like. This not factoring in a) the disruptive influence on the pitcher of having a very fast player on base, b) the many, many ways speed on the basepaths is vital other than just stolen bases and c) the correlation speed has with good defense.There’s still old-school players, but I don’t think you have scouts going out and looking for them. You’re not seeing a premium for speed. But I was just looking at the guy who’s leading the league in stolen bases, and there’s been a massive drop-off on that, so that’ll show you right there how the game has changed.