Is the Price right?

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Boston Red Sox fans were left reeling during the week when news broke that pitcher David Price was suffering from pain in his elbow and forearm and was being examined by surgeons. Invariably such news leads to a diagnosis of an elbow injury requiring Tommy John surgery and a year on the sidelines.

In this case, the news turned out to be more positive. Price will rest the elbow for at least 10 days and it seems that he may be able to avoid surgery, although you can expect the Red Sox to take a very cautious approach and that he is more likely than not to miss some time at the start of the regular season.

This comes just one year into Price’s seven-year, $217m contract with Boston. One of the factors behind the huge investment on the Red Sox’s part is that Price has been so durable in his Major League career. Between 2010 and 2016 he has averaged 32 starts and 218 innings per year.

However, like most other stats, you can interpret that in a positive or negative way. Does this consistency make him a strong bet to continue to pitch 200 innings per year, or has the workload taken a toll and increased the risk of him breaking down in future?

The truth is, nobody really knows in any individual case. The sensible approach is to bet on players that have demonstrated a proven ability to stay on the field and hope that continues, rather than expecting a player who has struggled with injuries in the past to suddenly shake-off their sick note status.

Although Red Sox don’t normally like looking towards the New York Yankees, they do provide a recent example that offers cause for optimism.

Masahiro Tanaka cost the Yankees $175m in 2014 (a seven-year contract and a $20m fee to his Japanese club Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles) and he landed on the Disabled List just four months into his Major League career with a partially torn UCL in his pitching elbow. This is the exact injury that normally requires surgery and a lengthy lay-off, but Tanaka went down the rest and rehab route (alongside an injection in the elbow) and has made 55 starts over the past two seasons whilst slightly altering his pitching arsenal to reduce strain on the elbow.

So although the news on Price may feel like it’s just delaying the inevitable surgery, it’s quite possible they’ll still get 170 innings from him (plus a play-off start or two) in 2017 after all. Few Red Sox fans thought that would be the case last Thursday.

Contracts under consideration

More widely, both players demonstrate the calculated gamble teams have to take if they want to commit to long-term deals to sign elite pitchers.

An interesting article was published on Vice Sports last June about insurance in MLB. It includes a quote from the Red Sox’s team chairman Tom Werner that they “have insurance on some players, not all players”. That was in reference to their decision not to insure Pablo Sandoval’s five-year, $95 million contract. I’ve not uncovered any definitive info on whether Price’s contract is covered, and that they would essentially get money back if Price missed significant time. It’s the type of large contract a team would want to get insurance on, but clearly the cost of doing so would be significant.

Jon Heyman’s recent article on FanRag looks at a potential future contract for Bryce Harper (he’s due to become a free agent at the end of the 2018 season, and due to get an absolute boatload of money) and includes the following comment on the potential 2018 free agent class:

“It’s no wonder some teams are lining up for 2018, with Harper and Orioles star Manny Machado at the top of a brilliant free-agent class that also includes Zach Britton, Matt Harvey and many other stars.”

I can’t be the only person who raised an eyebrow at the inclusion of Matt Harvey’s name in that group. There’s no question he has star-level talent, but there’s also no question that he has a troubling injury record, missing all of 2014 due to Tommy John elbow surgery and then the second half of 2016 after having surgery to correct his thoracic outlet syndrome (surgery that involves having a rib removed).

Harvey is making his first Spring Training start today (Sunday) and MLB.TV subscribers can watch that from 18.05 GMT. The buzz around every Harvey start should make every baseball fan (aside from those of the team he is facing on a given day) want him to return to form and fitness. If he can do that over the next two seasons then he will indeed be in line for a big pay-day; however, that’s a very big ‘if’ based on recent history.

Even if there isn’t a recent major injury scare to consider, taking the plunge on a large free agent contract for a pitcher is a risky business.

One of the few signs of trouble that Chicago Cubs reporters have been able to latch onto so far this spring is starting pitcher Jake Arrieta’s impending free agency at the end of this season. The above-referenced Heyman article notes that the Cubs don’t seem minded to extend an offer beyond a four-year contract and that Arrieta likely will be off.

The smart Cubs Front Office probably thinks there are better ways to spend the $200m Arrieta is seeking than on a pitcher who turns 31 tomorrow, although the first-year return on Jason Heyward’s eight-year, $184m contract shows that even multi-year contracts for position players are a risky bet.

The one thing that is certain is that any player can suffer a serious injury, so it’s hard to criticise a player for seeking the biggest guaranteed pay-day whilst they can.

Will the World Baseball Classic be a Classic we can’t watch?

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The World Baseball Classic begins on Monday morning.

The tournament opener comes from Seoul where South Korea will host Israel. The latter defeated Great Britain in the final of their qualifying tournament last September to reach this stage, so British fans might be forgiven for not wanting to watch what might have been.

However, as things stand, they won’t have to make that choice.

Currently there appears to be no coverage of the WBC on UK television and, as MLB.TV’s coverage is exclusively available to U.S. customers, no other way to watch the event.

The distribution rights for the tournament are held by a company called MP & Silva. Two deals were announced on Thursday regarding coverage in Latin America and Australia, but not details have been forthcoming in regard to Europe.

The 2013 event was shown in the UK on ESPN (now part of the BT Sport stable of channels), with the semi-finals and final also shown on Eurosport the day after they took place. BT Sport would be the realistic home for the WBC as the holder of MLB rights; however no WBC games are on their own TV guide schedule for the next week at time of writing and looking a bit further ahead on other TV schedule sites (Radio Times etc) doesn’t offer any hope either.

It may be that BT Sport and/or Eurosport will show the tail-end of the tournament, but even that is not guaranteed right now.

All of which is a real blow for baseball fans in the UK. None of us would expect there to be a fierce bidding war for baseball rights here, and perhaps Great Britain making it through to the main event would have changed things, yet failing to get the tournament on British TV would be a real negative at a time when MLB is actively seeking to bring games to these shores in the near future.

The MLB.TV blackout is especially frustrating in this context. If we can’t watch the games on TV (nor perhaps baseball fans in other countries), why not allow MLB.TV subscribers to watch them via this method instead?

Maybe there will be a solution from somewhere. Perhaps a deal will be concluded and TV coverage will be available (although that doesn’t look likely, at least for the majority of the event) or maybe once the tournament begins we’ll find that those of us in non-TV coverage territories will be able to watch it online (streamed on YouTube for free etc)?

Or maybe we’ll just be left reading stories and watching post-game highlights?

Considering the WBC is designed to be MLB’s big event to raise global exposure of the sport outside of the States, that would be a huge disappointment for us all.

To bastardize a well-known saying, if the baseball-promoting World Baseball Classic isn’t available for us to watch, does it really promote baseball at all?

Spring Training 2017 – MLB.TV coverage

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We’re almost there. Friday marks the first day in 2017 on which those people with an MLB.TV subscription will be able to log on, sit back and watch some baseball.

Yes, it’s only Spring Training.

No, the results don’t matter.

No, you might not recognise the names of most of those playing past the fifth inning.

However, right now, who cares? We haven’t seen MLB teams playing since the epic World Series Game Seven and some baseball is better than no baseball.  If you haven’t eaten all day, even a basic Tesco sandwich can be savoured like a glorious plate of steak and chips.

And the negative points about Spring Training games are accompanied by positive ones. Okay, the games don’t matter so the gut-wrenching tension isn’t there, but sometimes it’s nice just to enjoy a relaxing game without your team’s closer giving you a heart attack. Most of the players in later innings are Minor Leaguers, but that will include prospects that we’ve read about and now get a chance to have a glimpse of in action.

MLB.com is promising to broadcast approximately 300 games via MLB.TV (by my reckoning, there are currently 283 on their list) as well as radio coverage from pretty much every contest. The limited number of games is simply a result of the limited coverage on U.S. TV. The full list of MLB.TV games can be found on MLB.com.

The good thing for us is that the vast majority of Spring Training games are played at around midday local time, so they are evening viewing/listening in the UK rather than in the early hours. One thing to note on that is that most of America moves into Daylight Saving Time in the early hours of 12 March, whilst we don’t move to British Summer Time until 26 March. That means there’s a two-week period in which the usual time difference (Eastern – Florida games – 5 hours behind, Pacific – Arizona games – 8) is reduced by 1 hour.

To make things a bit easier, I’ve created a schedule of the MLB.TV games putting them into UK time. This first installment covers the games up to 11 March. I’ve used grey shading to more clearly separate out the days and then itallicised games that do take place in the early hours. For those games, I have still listed them under the date in which they are played in the States, so, for example, the game on 1 March between the Dodgers and Giants is actually at 1.05 am 2 March for us.

One thing I always add in my MLB.TV Spring Training round-up is that, whilst the TV pictures are great, I love listening to spring games on MLB At Bat just as much.

That’s especially the case when it comes to my own team, the Oakland A’s. I don’t normally listen to the whole game, maybe just the first hour or so, but it’s a great way to catch up on all the stories from Spring Training camp. If it’s a cold and/or rainy British evening after a long day at work, little cheers me up more than being transported across to the sunny, relaxed atmosphere in Arizona courtesy of the A’s radio crew.

If you need any further details about MLB.TV, please take a look at my overview of the 2017 offering and the ever-growing helpful comments from other Brits that use the service.

The early days of Spring Training

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We’re in phase one of Spring Training, the point from when the players report to camp up until the games begin.

It has to be a difficult period for team beat writers.

There really isn’t whole lot going on to report about, other than occasionally having to react to news such as the St Louis Cardinals’ young pitcher Alex Reyes requiring Tommy John elbow surgery.

Most of the time, the word count that needs to be fulfilled drives the reporters around different players seeking a story or two about hopes for the season ahead, littered with stories of new players getting used to their new teammates, new pitches being added to a hurler’s arsenal, or a new batting stance that a hitter helps to propel baseballs, and their playing stock, to new heights.

The Oakland A’s are my chosen team and Jane Lee, the MLB.com A’s reporter, has ticked most of the boxes over the past few days with stories on Jesse Hahn “hoping to find early-2015 form”, pitching prospect A.J. Puk resurrecting his curveball and outfielder Rajai Davis’s return to the Green and Gold.

Long gone are the days, captured in Roger Kahn’s wonderful ‘Boys of Summer’, when beat writers could file a few stories and then have a drink with some of the players.

Nowadays, social media is as much a part of the job as writing the main articles. I doubt many people are interested in watching shaky 30-second footage of pitchers throwing in the bullpen, but all the beat writers post them all the same. It proves that pitchers are indeed in Arizona/Florida, that the respective beat writer is there too and the world is still turning. That’s essentially social media in a nutshell. I don’t know if there is a Twitter account that just has someone posting ‘still alive’ every five minutes, but there probably should be.

Anyway, the main news at this time of year centres around injuries. Alongside the Reyes blow, the key points so far have been:

Adrian Beltre has a strained left calf muscle so will miss the opening round of the World Baseball Classic for the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile Adrian Gonzalez is dealing with inflammation in his right elbow and it seems likely that Mexico’s lead player will have to sit out the Classic.

The Washington National’s Max Scherzer has casted doubt on his availability for Opening Day due to a finger injury, whilst another predicted Opening Day starter, the Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Tillman, will definitely miss that assignment as his ongoing recovery from a shoulder injury means he will have a delayed start to the regular season.

The Atlanta Braves’s Sean Rodriguez is likely out for the season having just undergone shoulder surgery after being involved in a car accident.

However, the early contender for most bizarre injury of 2017 has come from Kansas City’s relief pitcher Brian Flynn who will be out for eight weeks having suffered “a broken rib and three minor vertebrae fractures in his back” after falling through a barn roof. The Baseball Prospectus 2017 profile on Flynn notes that “walks continue to be an issue” for him, making it tempting to suggest he couldn’t hit a barn door with a baseball, but can hit a barn roof with his rear end.

Extra-innings rules: trying to solve a problem that isn’t really there

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Rob Manfred has shown a willingness to challenge baseball orthodoxy since becoming MLB Commissioner in January 2015.

He has made improving the pace of play a central theme during his two years in the job, to mixed results so far, and over the past week ESPN’s Jayson Stark has reported that Manfred has suggested changes to the strike zone as well as making the intentional walk an automatic award, rather than requiring the pitcher to throw four deliberate balls.

Those two ideas are currently being considered by the Players’ Union, with the intentional walk proposal much more likely to be implemented than the strike zone change; however one further idea is going to be trialled in 2017 that may be a step too far for baseball enthusiasts.

Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan reported this week that MLB are planning to test a new extra-innings rule in the lowest levels of the Minor Leagues this season. This will involve placing runners (or a single runner – the full details are still to be announced) on bases when a game hits extra innings as a way to draw games to an early conclusion. Whilst Joe Torre, MLB’s Chief Baseball Officer, is leading the trial, it seems likely that this is led by Manfred’s ‘pace of play’ mantra and a wider effort to shorten game times.

The extra inning rule is already used in international tournaments. Here there are logical reasons why greatly reducing the chances of a game running 12-13 innings plus can be seen as more necessary. Fields will often be used for multiple games in a day and, with small grounds crews and operational staff compared to Major League set-ups, the impact on the event of a game going deep into extra innings  – let alone the impact on players – is something that is best to avoid.

However, even here there’s an argument that the logistical benefits don’t outweigh the detrimental effect the rule has on the sporting contest. Great Britain lost an extra innings game against Sweden in last year’s European Baseball Championship after they had battled back from a 5-0 deficit. Seeing a tight contest decided by the lottery of runners being placed at first and second base didn’t feel right and I’d think the same if GB had got the better end of the deal on that occasion.

In the Major Leagues, there are enough resources (from players to grounds crew) to absorb the genuine impact of long games. Although us in the UK enjoy a night-game going 5-plus hours and giving us some #BonusBreakfastBaseball, those working at the stadium have every right to be less than delighted by the novelty of a 16-inning game.

Yet that is how the game has always been played. If you’ve already battled through nine innings, a game shouldn’t then be decided by such artificial means.

The real head-scratcher with the plan is why it is deemed necessary. A quick check (i.e. don’t treat the number as complete gospel) on Baseball-Reference Play Index shows there were 55 MLB games that went 12 innings or more in 2016.

The Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays combined for the longest game of the season. It was a 19-inning contest that was deadlocked at 1-1 from the bottom of the 6th inning until the long scoring drought was ended by Carlos Santana launching a home run off infielder, and very temporary pitcher, Darwin Barney in the top of the nineteenth inning as the Tribe won 2-1.

The game lasted 6 hours 13 minutes.  If that was happening regularly, with games being decided by whose position players could pitch better than the other team’s, then considering changes would be more understandable.

But do we really want to change one of the most fundamental parts of baseball – that there are no draws and you keep playing in the same way until one team wins – just to mess around with barely two percent of games that go 12 innings or longer (based on 2016)?

It seems that they are looking to tackle a problem that isn’t really there.

MLB.TV 2017 subscription details announced

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The 2017 MLB.TV subscription details have been announced today.

Once again we can sign up to watch and listen to every MLB game across the season, alongside Spring Training games and the post-season (the latter available to non-US subscribers like us, so not mentioned prominently in the promotional material).

The subscription includes the $20 MLB At Bat app to allow us to use one of any number of different ‘connected devices’ to follow the action, as well as directly through a PC/laptop/Mac.

Same great service, but a Brexit-inspired real-term price increase

The yearly subscription has increased ever-so-slightly on last year’s price, going up from $110 to $113 (note that it was $130 in 2015) and UK fans have to add the 20% VAT on top of that as we have done the past couple of seasons. MLB.com calculates that tax as $22.60 making a total cost of $135.59.

The main change for UK fans is nothing to do with MLB and instead comes back to the Brexit-bashing to the pound which has hurt the exchange rate our end.

Whilst last year’s subscription ($132 with tax) worked out at approximately £91, 12 months on the $135 will set us back £108.  That’s a fair-sized increase for what predominantly will be the same service as last year and whilst that’s no fault of MLB, it will be something UK fans will take into consideration.

As I state every year, the service provided by MLB.TV really is fantastic and the ability to watch live or on-demand every single game across the season (plus Spring Training and the post-season) is something those of us who started watching baseball before broadband could only have dreamed of.

Whether the cost is worthwhile simply comes back to how often you will use it. If you just catch occasional games, especially if you already have the tv coverage via BT Sport, then £100+ may be a bit steep.  If you use it to watch plenty of games (or at least bits of games) every week then it will prove worth every penny.

New features

The new features are described as follows in the promotional details:

“The new array of features, debuting for regular-season games, includes a “team view” in which fans can designate a favorite team and enjoy a custom team-centric experience on supported platforms. Redesigned apps will launch on connected platforms Android TV, FireTV, Xbox and Roku. The HD media player, a responsive, in-page layout experience, will introduce additional playback controls, milestone markers and support for Chromecast and Chromebook”

A redesigned app for the Roku box will be welcome to me as that tends to be the way I watch through my TV, but otherwise the new features don’t look overly exciting at first glance. To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot MLB could add to the service as the reason to buy it is simply the ability to watch lots of games online, rather than too many bells and whistles adding to the mix. It does what it’s there for and does it really well.

Single Team subscription

Last year was the first time that MLB.TV offered a lower-cost subscription for people who bought the service to allow them to watch all of their chosen team’s games. That’s on offer again this year for $87.49, with the sales tax on top ($17.50) making a total of $105 and therefore costing approximately £84.

That’s the theory anyway. There were mixed messages last season as to whether the team package was available to non-US fans. The fact that the payment process allows you to select UK suggests that we will be able to buy this product but it will be good to get confirmation from other British fans in the comments to confirm.

World Baseball Classic excluded

One thing we do know is that the WBC this March will not be available as part of the MLB.TV subscription for us, even though it will be for US subscribers.

The same approach was taken four years ago. It was announced on that occasion that ESPN America (as it was known then) had got the rights for WBC and they did show the vast majority of the games live – with the rest on-demand – so it’s likely that BT Sport will be broadcasting the games this time around.

The rights to WBC are sold separately so it makes some business sense for the national broadcaster (whoever it is in each country) to get exclusive rights to show the event; however it is slightly odd that this international competition – designed to help sell baseball around the world – is only bundled into the MLB.TV subscription for those in the States.

Lots of baseball to enjoy

The annual full MLB.TV and Single-Team subscriptions are available to sign up to right now, with a monthly subscription option likely to be announced in the near future. Those of us on the auto-renewal list should see that take effect just before the Spring Training games get underway on 24 February.

If you have any questions about the subscriptions, please leave a note in the comments and either myself or other MLB.TV subscribers will do our best to help.

Counting down the days to Spring Training

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We are now less than three weeks away from the MLB Spring Training games beginning.

Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Philadelphia and San Francisco all play their first full Spring Training game (i.e. against another MLB team rather than a university side) on Friday 24 Februaury, with the rest of the teams getting going the following day.

It tends to be that the start and end of pre-season are when the games are worth a look.

The start of spring merits attention because even a casual pre-season friendly (in British sporting parlance) scratches the baseball itch after nearly four months without any MLB games.

The end of Spring Training offers games between close to full strength teams, wrapped up in the anticipation of the ‘real’ action being about to begin.

The two or three weeks of games between those two points usually are less than enticing; however this year we have the excitement of the World Baseball Classic to more than cover the gap.

It won’t be long before stateside baseball is here again and in the meantime the Australian League Championship Series takes place between 8-12 February and can be seen online.

Who’s gone where?

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The first weekend of February is a good time to take stock of the baseball off-season and to get your head around the question of ‘who’s gone where?’.

That led me to go through the essential MLB section on RosterResources.com and to chart out the main additions and losses for every team so far this off-season.

I started with two transactions in mind as the most important and the exercise confirmed that to be the case.

The Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians were two of the best teams in the Majors in 2017 and they’ve each made a notable signing this winter to reinforce their status as favourites to battle for the American League World Series spot.

Chris Sale’s trade to Boston from the Chicago White Sox adds an ace to a rotation that already boasted David Price and reigning Cy Young winner Rick Porcello. So long as Sale doesn’t get frustrated and go all Edward Scissorhands on us again, he should be a genuine difference-maker in the AL East.

As for Cleveland, they’ve responded to narrowly losing in the World Series by making an uncharacteristic splash in the free agent market. Few would have put much money on the Indians winning the bidding war for Edwin Encarnacion, but the former Blue Jay is indeed a new member of the Tribe and one of several reasons to be confident that their successful 2016 season will not prove to be a one-off.

What the winter hasn’t provided though is a clear case of a team making a big leap forward into the play-off reckoning.

That’s not a complete surprise as the 2016/17 free agent class was one of the weakest of recent years. Additionally, three of the most appealing free agents had come to the end of their contracts with the Los Angeles Dodgers: Kenley Jansen, Rich Hill and Justin Turner. The Dodgers used their financial clout to keep the trio out of the clutches of any potential rivals and made a small quality free agent pool even smaller.

We should also not forget that the team that made the biggest noise over the previous winter was the Arizona Diamondbacks. To say that their plan – if we can call it that – didn’t work out would be a huge understatement. Winning the off-season doesn’t offer guarantees that you’ll win in the regular season.

However, there have been some interesting transactions completed and here are three teams worth keeping an eye on.

The Houston Astros were a relative disappointment in 2016 after their play-off appearance the previous year. They completed most of their off-season work early, making it easy to forget that they have made some decent additions. Carlos Beltran, Josh Reddick and Brian McCann have joined a batting lineup that was already one of the better units in the Majors. Whether their pitching staff will take a step forward could be the key question for their 2017 prospects.

The Seattle Mariners’ General Manager Jerry Dipoto should simply referred to as ‘The Trader’. He is always keen on making a deal and has completed plenty of trades this off-season, with the most notable additoins being Drew Smyly, Yovani Gallardo, Jean Segura, Mitch Haniger and Jarrod Dyson whilst Taijuan Walker, Nathan Karns and Seth Smith head the list of players that have been moved on. They finished second in the AL West in 2016, albeit a fair way behind division-winners Texas, and we’ll see if the cumulative effect of the trades have made them better or not.

Finally, the Colorado Rockies managed a surprising third-placed finish in the NL West last year, although their 75-87 win-loss record showed that was more down to Arizona and San Diego’s poor play than their own positive performance. Undeterred, they decided to up the ante by signing Ian Desmond to a five-year, $70m contract and then announced that the intention is for him to play at first base. It ranks as one of the more baffling decisions made in recent years, worth keeping an eye on for the ‘so crazy it just might work’ potential it has.

Returning Rajai

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The Oakland A’s reunion with outfielder Rajai Davis isn’t something to get overly excited about for most A’s fans.

Certainly there are ‘feel good’ aspects to it as he was something of a fan’s favourite during his first run with the club between 2008 and 2010. He was a half-glass-full squad member for the A’s, a scrappy speedster picked up off waivers from Bay-side rivals the Giants. Davis’ contributions would have been more underwhelming as a touted prospect or splashy trade signing, but as an underdog with little in the way of expectations you could enjoy what he gave the team (mainly excitement on the bases) and let him off for the rest that he didn’t.

Davis turned 36 last October and whilst his post-season near-heroics with Cleveland might trick you into thinking otherwise, clearly he’s past his best, especially at the plate. In a season in which the A’s are outsiders, at best, for a play-off push, his signing could be seen as a way to get some veteran leadership on the team, a name that the fans will recognise, and a potential July trade chip.

But I’m a little more positive than most for completely non-analytical reasons.

I was working on a half-finished bit of research during last season, which I’ll endeavour to finish before Spring Training, in which I uncovered a group of MLB players that were born in Norwich. Unsurprisingly, that wasn’t the Norwich in England where I hail from, but I liked the link all the same.  The two names that stood out most to me – admittedly they were not an amazingly impressive crop from a performance standpoint – were A’s pitcher Jesse Hahn and none other than Rajai Davis.

I never knew that Davis was from Norwich, Connecticut, when he was previously on the A’s, so I’m going to enjoy that tenuous connection during the time he’s on the team.

As for the rumours of the A’s being interested in free-swinging Mark Trumbo, well the former Angel has no such random saving grace. I’ll like that potential signing about as much as I liked the Billy Butler one two years ago, and we all know how that turned out.

Here’s to 2017

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I’ve been on a writing hiatus since October, leaving the incredible World Series to speak for itself, allowing the Collective Bargaining Agreement process to play-out and letting the first couple of months of an underwhelming free agent class pass by without comment.

It’s tough when the baseball season comes to an end because it’s such an all-encompassing endeavour, watching games every day, that the absence of any action really hits hard and all of the transaction rumours feel like a very poor substitute.

It’s a hard stretch of cold turkey, but things always seem brighter once we’ve enjoyed the hot turkey at Christmas and the calendar flips to a new year. We’re in 2017 now and that means the 2017 baseball season is officially on its way.

I’ve put together some plans to get the website back into fighting shape so that there will once again be regular features on MLB and British baseball, in a way that I haven’t been able to dedicate myself to for the last two or three seasons, and I’m really excited about all that there will be to enjoy this year.

So, why not start off 2017 by looking at things we won’t enjoy this year?

No Great Britain team in the World Baseball Classic

Watching Great Britain in the WBC qualifier last September was one of my baseball highlights of 2016. It would have been brilliant to be sat here now looking forward to Liam Carroll’s team heading to Seoul, Korea, competing in the WBC full tournament for the first time.

Unfortunately, despite a great effort to make the final, Israel were worthy winners of the qualifying tournament and it is they who will be joining South Korea, Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands in Pool A.

However that tinge of disappointment won’t stop me enjoying the WBC event. Every year we all get a week into Spring Training and then remember how long a month March always feels waiting for the ‘real’ games to get going. The WBC provides genuine passion and excitement and gives the month a completely different tone.

Anticipation for the event really starts to escalate at this time of year as the rosters start to take shape, with the United States team in particularly looking to have more leading players (at this stage at least) than in previous tournaments. It’s sure to be another thrilling event and one that will kick off the baseball season in style.

No MLB game in London

The high hopes that MLB games would be played in London during 2017 were dashed in the middle of last season when it was announced that this would be postponed. It was easy to be despondent and to wonder if the dream would ever become a reality.

Thankfully, the Collective Bargaining Agreement concluded in December eased those fears with a clear commitment from MLB owners and players in respect of playing games outside of the U.S. and with London being specifically mentioned.

Reports just before Christmas put forward the tantalising prospect of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry heading to London in 2018. Logic suggests that east coast teams are more likely to make the trip and bringing across a ‘big’ team or two would be important in selling the event from a public relations point of view (much as us baseball enthusiasts would love any MLB teams to come here).

My guess is if there are games played here in 2018 then they will be Tampa Bay Rays home games against a team like the Yankees or Red Sox, purely on the basis that they have the lowest home attendance in MLB (an average of 15,878 in 2016), with a potential Yankees-Red Sox match-up (or Mets-Nationals) as a follow-up event a year or two later.

No 100+ year Cubs World Series drought to write about

Where there is a pleasure there is pain and sadly for Chicago’s north-siders the joy of their World Series win in 2016 means they can no longer embrace their ‘lovable losers’ status.

I’m sure their fans are absolutely devastated by that!

As I write this, the lead story on ESPN’s MLB page is a fun open letter to Cubs fans speaking for Yankees and Red Sox fans.

The Boston comparison is the most meaningful because they were similarly under the fabled spell of a curse. The long wait for a World Series was a part of being a Red Sox fan, just as it was for the Cubs, and whilst Boston fans no doubt will be quick to confirm that winning isn’t all bad, it will take some adjusting to for fans in Chicago.