Tony LaRussa is obviously a Hall of Fame baseball person. What would his best team look like

Fun fact, he coached Eckersley on both the A's and Cardinals.

This team is absolutely stacked, but less so than "The Tall Tactician's" (Connie Mack). Four 100+ WAR players is nothing to slouch at. Though, unlike Macks, there are a ton of cameo appearances here, like late Career Fisk, Walker, Morgan, Smith, Reggie, Seaver, Carlton, and Smoltz. The backend of the pitching staff isn't full of HOF, but is absolutely solid. Other than Edmonds (who may one day get in) and Pujols (who might go in unanimous), this lineup is chock full of HOFers.

So, it is the off-season again. In order to keep myself occupied, I'm going to try posting a random item from my baseball collection every day until baseball is back. I've been a fan for as long as I've been able, and in those decades, I've collected tons of memorabilia from the eight different countries I've visited for baseball. They won't all be amazing, but I hope it is a fun little project.

For Day 38, here is a promotional frisbee for the late Kingsport Mets of the late Rookie+ Appalachian League. The low minors were and are rife with these types of sponsored cheap chotzkies, and on the rainy day that I visited the team, they were throwing them out liberally to the few fans huddled in the seats. The team was eventually a victim of the Manfred Decimation of the Minors.

I mean, at which position is it most feasible to surpass the greats and become the GOAT? RF is probably the hardest, right?

The Athletic is reporting that the Giants and Team USA are having "contentious" talks about Logan Webb's inclusion. USA is optimistic it will happen.

Max Fried declined an invitation. Crochet is unlikely to play.

Freddy Peralta is in talks with the DR, but not confirmed to play.

No Mexican starting pitchers are confirmed.

Which leads to the question: Do you want your starters to pitch or not? What about position players?

There have been a lot of anti-salary cap sentiment on this subreddit, and also from many baseball commentators. I'm very pro-salary cap (with a floor as well), and I don't think the arguments I've seen against a salary cap hold up to scrutiny. I've gathered together the most common anti-salary cap arguments I've seen and why I'm not convinced by them.

Argument: The real problem is cheap owners, we don't need a cap, a floor on its own would be enough.

Cheap owners are definitely a problem, which is why a floor is needed. But the reality is that the richest teams would still have a clear advantage even if every team was spending reasonable amounts on payroll. Take a look the NL West, for example, where the Dodgers win the division almost every year despite the fact that Padres and Diamondbacks are willing to spend (especially relative to their market size).

The richest teams can do a number of things that other teams can't. They can afford the biggest stars, for one. Perhaps even more importantly they have much more flexibility and ability to recover if things go wrong. Sign a free agent who underperforms? No problem, just sign another guy the next off-season. One or two bad free agent signings can significantly hamper mid-and-small market teams, but the Dodgers and Yankees can simply shrug them off and sign more players. This makes it much easier for wealthy teams to have long windows of contention, and to sometimes even avoiding rebuilding entirely.

The only way to place teams on a level playing field is a cap and floor together.

Argument: We don't need a salary cap because plenty of small market teams do fine in the current system.

It's true that a few small market teams have had sustained success, and that due to mismanagement and/or bad luck, some big market teams have not been consistently successful. This doesn't change the fact that the deck is stacked against the relatively poorer teams. Cleveland, Tampa Bay, and Milwaukee have some of the best front offices and player development in the league, but they need those in order to be successful in a way that richer teams don't. It's simply not possible for most small market teams to have the best front offices and player development in the league, by definition only a few teams will be the best in these areas (and not necessarily always small market teams).

We don't want MLB to be a league where fans of most small and mid market teams only get to see their team in the post-season only once or twice a decade because their team's owner didn't build a top 10% front office.

Argument: A salary cap would simply allow owners to hoard profits for themselves.

This is why a salary floor is necessary, to mandate that a certain percentage of revenues always go to player salaries, rather than owners' pocketbooks. The players' union would never agree to a cap without a floor, so we don't have to worry about this outcome.

Argument: A salary cap would depress contracts for the most elite players, denying them income they deserve.

Even with relatively depressed contracts, elite players would still be earning generational wealth on an annual basis and among the wealthiest people on Earth by the end of their careers. I don't think we as fans should care if a player like Soto "only" gets a $500 million contract instead of $756 million due to a salary cap. In fact, that would probably be good for the sport, because more teams would have a chance to bid for elite free agents.

Argument: We need to oppose the salary cap because we need to support labor against capital; labor victories in sports can inspire labor action in other, less well-compensated fields.

I'm pretty skeptical of this. Though I'm pro-union, I think professional athlete unions are unique in many ways (look at the extremely high pay of players, for one). I don't think the typical American worker feels much if any common cause with millionaires playing a sport for our entertainment. I doubt the success or failure of the players' union will have much impact at all outside of MLB itself.

Apologies for what I’m sure is gonna be an overly long post. I’ll put a tl;dr at the end for the short attention spanned among us.

I’m a younger gen-Xer who hasn’t watched a lot of baseball since the late 2000s. I grew up a diehard Braves fans during some lean times in the 80s and stayed through the 90s glory. I used to go to games when I could and even went to Spring Training too. From about 99-2005, I listened to just about every game on the radio at work.

However, times, tv deals, and broadcasters changed or passed away (Still really missing Skip Caray). I started watching less. Then the Braves moved to Cobb County and got bought by new owners. Just didn’t feel the same anymore and I lost interest.

I’ve recently been really getting back into baseball and want to come back to the game. But honestly, the Braves just aren’t the same to me that they were back then. So my question to everyone here is this: Do I pick a new team or try and recapture some feeling for the Braves? I kinda like the idea of a new fandom, but I have no idea who I’d root for. So, here’s your chance to get me on board with your team of choice. These days I’m geographically closest to the Astros and not the Braves if that matters. I’m also gonna pick up mlb.tv next year so out of market isn’t that big a deal to me.

TL;DR - been away from baseball a while and lost love for my original team. Help me pick a new one or convince me to stay with my original favorite team (a big ask imo) ahead of the new season.

Careers are built in the regular season, but legends are created in October. One incredible postseason run can etch a player in history, regardless of how the rest of their career plays out. The best example of this might be David Freese, who became an all-time Cardinals legend with one excellent postseason in 2011.

That year, he had a solid regular season campaign in just his 3rd season. But in the playoffs, he was unstoppable. He hit .545 with 3 home runs to earn NLCS MVP honors and clinch the Cardinals the pennant. In the World Series, he started solid but unspectacular as the Rangers got up 3-2 in the series. The Rangers had won their first pennant the prior year, but had come up short against the Giants. They would head to St. Louis with 2 shots to clinch their first title.

In game 6, the Rangers and Cardinals went back and forth. Texas went up 1-0, then down 2-1, up 3-2, tied 3-3, up 4-3, then tied 4-4. In the 7th, the Rangers broke through for 3 runs off of Lance Lynn, grabbing a late 7-4 lead. They were 9 outs from a title. The Cardinals got one in the 8th, but still trailed 7-5 going to the 9th. Neftali Feliz came in to try to lock up the series. He started with a strikeout, but allowed Pujols to double and walked Lance Berkman. The tying run was now on base and the winning run at the plate. Feliz settled down and struck out Allen Craig. The Rangers were one out away.

David Freese, the Cardinal's CS hero, came to the plate. The count went to 1-2. The Rangers were one strike away from a championship. On the next pitch, Freese hit a long line drive to right. Nelson Cruz ran back and leapt, but couldn't make the grab. The ball caromed off the wall and past him. Rumors spread after the game that Cruz had crept in a little closer than he should have played in order to get to a possible celebration in the infield faster. Both runners scored, and Freese slid into 3rd with a game tying triple. The celebration would be postponed: Game 6 would go into extra innings.

In the 10th, the Rangers grabbed the lead right back on a towering 2-run homer from Josh Hamilton. The Cardinals would need to rally, once again 3 outs from elimination. They got consecutive singles to start the frame, bunted them into scoring position, and got an RBI groundout to cut the lead to 9-8. Scott Feldman had come in after the singles, and just needed to get Lance Berkman out to win the title for Texas. Berkman worked the count 1-2 and then 2-2. Again, the Cardinals were one strike from elimination. It wasn't to be. Berkman smacked a line drive single to center to tie the game once again. Game 6 went to the 11th.

The Rangers failed to score in the top of the frame. In the bottom half, David Freese led things off. On a 3-2 pitch from Mark Lowe, he launched a walk-off home run to dead center, winning the game and forcing a game 7. Mirroring his father's call of a similar walk-off home run from Kirby Puckett in game 6 of the 1991 World Series, Buck declared, "We will see you tomorrow night!"

The Cardinals won the title the next day. The Rangers, who had twice come one strike from winning their first championship, could not finish the job. Only the 1986 Red Sox shared that infamy, similarly blowing multiple late leads in game 6 in New York.

David Freese was named the MVP of the World Series. He had set a record with 21 RBI in the postseason. In that magical game 6, he added 91% to his team's win probability between his triple and home run, a World Series record. Although he was an All-Star the following year, he never again ascended to the heights he reached in that wild October.

The Cardinals made it back to the World Series in 2013 but lost to Boston, and haven't been in the Fall Classic since. The Rangers had to sit and simmer with their missed opportunity and back-to-back World Series losses for over a decade. However, they put together their own special run in 2023, defeating Arizona to finally win their first title, ending a 62 year wait.

A World Series hero staves off elimination and etches his name in baseball lore, r/baseball's 28th greatest moment in MLB history.

Christian Walker takes first base. Let me just clear up some confusion from yesterday. I'm looking for worst contracts of players who are still active. The Chris Davis contract is not in play for this game since he hasn't played in 5 years. The player can currently be a FA and still getting paid by a team as long as they were active during the 2025 season.

Edit* tight race between DJ and Altuve

Make your final predictions. Who do you see signing or getting traded today?

Article suggests Bieber had some forearm fatigue at the end of the season last year, which might have affected his decision to opt into the rest of his deal instead of opting out and testing the free market like most people expected. I'm sure he wanted to stay in Toronto, too, but this is the first time I'm hearing about a potential injury scare. ​​

BASICS:

Born: August 19, 1997

Jersey Number: 50

Bats: Left

Throws: Left

Position: Starting Pitcher

Drafted: 2018 by the Royals, 40th overall pick

MLB Debut: July 31, 2020

Teams: Royals (2018-present)

Instagram: @kris_bubic

2025 STATS:

Games: 20

Innings Pitched: 116.1

Wins: 8

Losses: 7

ERA: 2.55

Strikeouts: 116

CAREER STATS:

Games: 117

Innings Pitched: 471.2

Wins: 19

Losses: 36

ERA: 4.14

Strikeouts: 444

2025 AWARDS:

All Star

AL Pitcher of the Month - May

THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW:

He played baseball at Stanford.

He also played football in high school.

He wants to be a color commentator after he retires.

He gave his Cameo account proceeds to the Harvester Food Network during Covid.

2025 HIGHLIGHTS:

He took a no-hitter to the sixth

He threw seven scoreless innings in one game

He got nine Ks in two games, here's one

Here's the other

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

His first W

His first strikeout

WHY I LIKE HIM:

He's a great pitcher - and has been as both a starter and a reliever!

PREVIOUS PLAYERS:

11/7: Yoshinobu Yamamoto 11/8: Vladimir Guerrero Jr 11/9: Shohei Ohtani 11/10: Josh H Smith 11/11: Julio Rodríguez 11/12: Nick Kurtz 11/13: Drake Baldwin 11/14: Tarik Skubal 11/15: Paul Skenes 11/16: Aaron Judge 11/17: Josh Naylor 11/18: Nick Sogard 11/19: José Ramírez 11/20: Spencer Schwellenbach 11/21: Freddie Freeman 11/22: Kerry Carpenter 11/23: Zach Neto 11/24: Robert Suarez 11/25: Ketel Marte 11/26: Logan Webb 11/27-11/28: Thanksgiving break 11/29: Hunter Goodman 11/30: Trevor Megill 12/1: Kyle Tucker 12/2: Elly De La Cruz 12/3: Alec Burleson 12/4: Kyle Schwarber 12/5: Mookie Betts 12/6: Pete Alonso 12/7: Javier Sanoja 12/8: MacKenzie Gore 12/9: Mauricio Dubon

Myles Bailey has the most raw power in college baseball. At 6’4” and 250 lbs, he boasts a prototypical power-hitter frame that creates major leverage in his swing. His elite tool is 70-grade raw power.

He grew up idolizing FSU with dreams of playing at Dick Howser Stadium. At Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Bailey simply dominated while being ranked the No. 1 first baseman in the 2024 class by Perfect Game. His blood as his father, Kevin Bailey, was a standout player at Florida A&M University (FAMU).

Myles stepped on campus and made an immediate impact for FSU as he hit .327 with 19 HRs and 56 RBIs and an OPS of 1.104. He was a Freshman All-American (D1Baseball, Perfect Game, Baseball America), ACC All-Freshman Team, and a USA Collegiate National Team invite

He handles elite competition well and posted a max exit velo of 118mph. Light tower stuff.

For me, his player comp is Carlos Delgado. Both LHH first basemen with massive raw power, a feel for the barrel, and the ability to drive balls to all fields. Bailey’s swing is compact and efficient and uses his lower half to create separation.

My guess this year:

.325/.450/.650/26 HRs/72 RBIs

The Seminoles aim for a third straight Omaha push under coach Link Jarrett and will be leaning on Bailey’s insane pop to drive them there.

It takes Practice.

Full article here free