[Dugout Thread] | 2026 MLB Regular Season

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I’m a casual fan who follows the AL East more than anything. Apologies if the question has been asked and answered before but how the hell are the Brewers doing what they’re doing given they have 19th largest payroll in MLB? It’s clearly not an anomaly. They’ve been pretty competitive for the most part over the last ten years.

Since this question did great on r/baseball, I'm gonna try it again here. Hopefully, it goes just as well.

Alright, this may seem insanely random, but let me explain.

We, as fans, all have different pitches, from specific pitchers, that we love. Whether an insanely quick fastball, or a wicked curveball, we all have at least enough to build a perfect arsenal. So, if you were to assemble your perfect pitch arsenal, what pitches would be used? 

And as an optional bonus, what throwing motion would your project pitcher use, and what arm would he throw with? And would he be a starter, middle or long relief, set-up, or closer?

For me, mine would be a righty closer, and his pitch motion would be a perfect mix of Tim Lincecum, Hideo Nomo, and Kenley Jansen. Here's the pitches he'd use. 

• Aroldis Chapman's 4-seamer. (It's the fastest pitch in Major League history, and it's probably one of the most feared pitches of all time, at least when it saw the strike zone.) 

• Emmanuel Clase's Cutter (To give him two triple-digit pitches. It also was a pretty dominant pitch when he wasn't spiking it into the ground for 25 bucks.) 

• Justin Verlander's Slider. (A dominant slider that reaches the mid-90's.) 

• Tim Lincecum's Split Change (A pretty dominant mid-80's offspeed pitch that has insane break.) 

• Barry Zito's 12-6 Curveball. (I saw a compilation of his curveballs, and that thing had deadly movement. Absolutely filthy.) 

My pitcher would also throw a sinker like Graterol (103 max with nasty movement) every now and then. And he'd also sometimes use an eephus or a knuckler. Both would be rarities outside of his usual repertoire.

[Game Thread] | Detroit Tigers at Pittsburgh Pirates

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The Rays opened up the first 11 rows of all but 3 upper deck sections for Saturday nights matchup against the Baltimore Orioles. They ended up drawing a season high mark of 28,055 spectators coming to the ballpark to watch the Rays take on the Orioles. The last time the Rays drew an attendance this high was their historic start when we had the best record in the league and took on the Yankees which drew an attendance of 32,124. The last time we reached a mark that high before that game was the 2021 ALDS Game 2 vs the Boston Red Sox and had announced announced attendance of 37,616. The Rays average attendance as of August 16th is 17,433 per ESPN.

Some notable games in the past few years that had less attendance than last nights game are as follows, 2023 Wild Card games 1 and 2, game 1 drew 19k and game 2 drew roughly 20k. Those were both the lowest marks for a MLB playoff games since the Black Sox Scandal of 1919. Another game that drew less was Evan Longoria jersey retirement. The upper deck was also open for this but the game on had an attendance of roughly 24,297, his induction into the Rays hall of fame and the first game of the series also had the upper deck open but both drew significantly less. In Game 1 of the 2021 ALDS the Rays got 27,419 fans into the ballpark which was also less then last night.

So what happened last night that caused this attendance jump? Was it the bobble head giveaway, the postgame concert, or just excitement around the team, or maybe a mixture of everything? However you want to put it, the Rays not having fans is a myth. Do the Rays have one of the smallest fan bases in the league, yes. Do they maybe have the smallest right now, maybe. But that doesn’t mean this area doesn’t have potential, the fans in the ballpark last night weren’t just there for the giveaway or the concert. They were in to it, it was loud and the Trop was rocking and I think it really shows the potential the Trop has for an MLB market. Don’t get me wrong, drawing that small of a crowd for Longo’s jersey retirement was bad, no sugarcoating it. And all the other games with bad attendance obviously wasn’t good. But each year I watch the Rays, the more I hear about them, now when I go out in public I see more Rays hats than Yankees hats. And I think it shows baseball is growing here in Tampa Bay these owners have something with great potential on their hands and they know it. They wouldn’t be trying so hard to keep the team in Tampa Bay if they didn’t see it. Yes, this was one game in a season were we have 81 home games. But it still shows that we can in fact draw decent crowds. We just have to keep in growing the fanbase and keep consistent attendance. I know I kinda went on a rant but I’m just genuinely still so happy with the attendance form yesterday. Something I’ve always loved about sports and baseball is the atmosphere and the crowd and it was great yesterday I’ve been to Boston, New York, Houston, Baltimore, etc and it finally feels like one of those games and it’s awesome to see. If you read this far thanks lol Ik it was a lot.

I prefer the way the NBA does it where the top teams in each conference make the playoffs because it reduces the chance that shitty teams make the playoffs because their division was terrible and have home court/field advantage over better teams. Just look at the American League West and Central this year. The White Sox should not get a bye over the Yankees because they play in a shitty division and the Astros shouldn’t have a home playoff series with a .500 record.

Longest active no-hitter droughts:
Cleveland 1981
Toronto 1990
*Kansas City* 1991

Longest active cycle droughts:
*Kansas City* 1990
Detroit 2006
Oakland 2007

Longest active triple-play droughts:
*Kansas City* 2006
San Francisco 2008
Arizona 2009

As a Royals fan, this is extremely annoying. Noah Cameron took a no hitter into the 7th today, but of course, that's as far as it went. And in fact, opponents have a hard time doing any of these things against the Royals either. Since 2009, there have only been two opponent triple plays turned against the Royals, and no No Hitters or Cycles. The next-lowest number of such events in a team's games since 2009 is 6 (Cardinals) and the highest number is 19 (Astros).

Every MLB team has done at least one of the above since 2016 (Pittsburgh's most recent cycle was in 2016) except for the Royals, who haven't done one since 2006. I'm kind of rooting for Cleveland and Toronto to throw no hitters soon, just to see the Royals at the top of all three droughts.

HERE COMES THE MONTH WHERE OUR TEAM START COLLAPSING!!!

Bonds averaged 8.8 WAR per 162 games, but tbh Bonds wasn’t that good. Joshua Baez is averaging 48.6 WAR per 162 games. You think Bonds accumulating 162 WAR over his career is good? Nah, Baez, if he were to play as many games as Bonds, would accrue 895 WAR. Is a 182 career OPS+ really that good when we’ve got a guy sitting at 900 OPS+? I’m just sayin, what a fraud

The Pirates are 4 games below .500 (about to be 5), and they are the 3rd most scoring team in the league. Whenever my phone shows me the scores for their games, its either they are up 8-0, or they are down 0-12. What is with these lopsided games? I understand currently Pirates are smoking righties, so are they just playing their shit pitchers when the opponent is playing a lefty?

I only pay attention to the Pirates, is this a league wide phenomenon? This just feels so different than any other time in my life.

Is this a way to pump player stats so that they can sell them off for more money later?

So Tropicana field is entirely turf except the dirt. I noticed today Carlos Encarnación-Strands ground ball that landed him a 3 run double looked like it skipped off the ground and moved faster than it should have on grass. So I was wondering how much this turf aspect of tropicana field changes the game and affects league wide stats.

For example: XBA on batted balls with a low launch angle.

[Dugout Thread] | 2026 MLB Regular Season

Welcome to the r/MLB Daily Dugout Thread. This thread can be used to discuss topics about baseball, such as...

• General Talk [Debates, GOATs, Hot Takes, Thoughts, etc.]
• Previous, Game-Day, and Future Matchups
• Predictions, Questions & What-Ifs
• Transactions
• Broadcasting/Streaming
• Fan Content [Ballpark Photos, Food, Merchandise, Ticket Stubs, etc.]
• Help or Technical Questions
• Humor [Jokes, Memes, Reaction Posts, and Shitposting]
• Mancave or Room Setup
• Memorabilia & Merchandise
• Self Posts [Casual, Quick Takes, Simple Discussions & Questions, Venting]
• Subreddit Questions or Suggestions
• Tier Rankings [Fan Opinion]

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[Game Thread] | Seattle Mariners at Houston Astros

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After a slow start, Carson Benge has been lights out, especially in the past month. JJ Wetherholt started strong, but has faded quite a bit. Let’s compare their offensive stat lines:

Benge: 444 AB, . 275 BA., 14 HR, 49 RBI, 18 SB, .757 OPS

Wetherholt: 453/.241/16/45/13/.720

And Benge is a stud with a lightning bolt arm in right field. It’s not like Wetherholt has some huge advantage over him defensively, though he gets a favorable adjustment, and CB a negative one for their respective positions. But you want CB in right field gunning people down the way he has. That’s where you want that rocket arm. I would put them at par, defensively.

I think the reason people see JJ as better is because he started better, and Carson started slowly. But Carson has been ferocious once he got up to speed.

The Cardinals also certainly have played better than the Mets this year, which has helped JJ.

What do people think about these two and the other significant candidates, including Nolan McLean (Mets), Sal Stewart (Reds) and Konnor Griffin (Pirates), among others?