It's not odd at all. Fans cheer for the players. Owners don't do anything for fans to cheer about except increase prices and ask for the public to subsidize their new ballpark.
It's not the pitch clock. It's the increase in pitcher velo.
Murphy was noted to have increased his velo this offseason.
Watched part of an interview that Chris Bassitt did and he had a similar take:
To me, if you are trying to maximize the performance of the human body, it's going to breakdown at some point.
Crawford has pitched well and I'm relatively hopeful that Bello is a decent starter. Just the pivot to Pivetta being a potential Opening Day starter is GRIM. If I posted last May that Pivetta was 50/50 the Opening Day starter this year, I don't think it would have went over well.
@IanMBrowne
Kenley Jansen was again scratched today with lower back tightness. He needs to get right in the next day or two to start the season on the active roster.
Starting the year on the IL IMO.
The Dodgers, Phillies, Royals, Giants kept spending. When the Red Sox are outspent by the Pirates, it's a problem with a particular team and not collusion.
The Boras clients were all flawed FA's that were expecting way too much this offseason. Bauer didn't have a contract last year. It's not surprising Urias is unsigned at all. Clevinger?
Other unsigned pitchers:
Lorenzen
Greinke
Hill
Syndergaard
Tanking, but not for a high draft pick. They may acquire some other prospects via trades, but I think Breslow is using this year to evaluate what he has.
In the olden days, the rosters expanded in September. Under the new rules, the rosters don't really allow for a bunch of prospects to appear in 4-5 meaningless games anymore. The only way someone gets called up is if they are actually going to play for a few weeks like Rafaela and Abreu did last year.
Does that mean one of those three has to be called up this year?
I think Anthony is more likely to be called up IMO. If he's raking, he can slide right in on defense. With Teel, the offense is secondary.
IDK, for a young catcher I wouldn't rush them to MLB. Teel is 22. Rutschman didn't have an MLB appearance until 24. No reason to push it with him. He still has a lot to learn about receiving.
If Murphy was starting, this team was going to be in a rough spot.
Last year in AAA
Starter: 8.35 ERA, 2.05 WHIP, 36.2 Innings
Reliever: 1.69 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 16.0 Innings
Small samples, but he has never really been a good starter.