Yesterday I got to watch my first televised A\u2019s game of 2026! Thank you MLB.TV\u2019s free game of the day special as well as the fine commentators behind the mic for the San Diego Padres. I mean, imagine getting to watch your favorite team play a spring training game? Imagine getting to know your rising prospects with a little sneak peak of how the fan favorites are fairing? What a concept! Such a swing and miss for the green and gold, not going all in on something like this \u2013 \u2013 especially with the team being in the middle of a transition period. We should be trying to reach as many people as possible here. Plus the A\u2019s have the best spring training uniforms BY FAR. No debate whatsoever. Now I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some broadcasting rights reason why Chris Caray isn\u2019t on this ish day in and day out but I don\u2019t care. Figure it out.<\/p>\n
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Side note: why is it every time they show footage of an A\u2019s spring training game on these SB nation posts, it\u2019s a highlight in favor of the other team? I swear, for the past week or so I have seen nothing but Edward Quero\u2019s two run single on repeat! Now, initially I thought this was due to a limited sample size of 2026 baseball content, but they\u2019ve already got Jase Bowen\u2019s homer from yesterday up there above a post, despite their being plenty of great A\u2019s clips to pick from now.<\/p>\n
SB Nation, what are we doing? Give us a little Sody pop!<\/p>\n
Did anyone see the announcement regarding the Spring Breakout Tournament they\u2019ll be hosting next year? Finally! I\u2019ve been saying this for years \u2013 \u2013 there is no reason for MLB not be incentivizing fans to watch spring training baseball. It\u2019s a cash cow waiting to happen. Starting with the Spring Breakout Tournament is smart if they treat it like NBA\u2019s summer league \u2013 \u2013 which is some of the most fun you\u2019ll have watching anything NBA-related these days. What the Summer League does so well is capture the spirit of college basketball, all while slapping NBA team logos all over the whole operation. I see a similar thing happening here with the Spring Breakout, as you\u2019ll get a bunch of ball players looking to get their licks in by whatever means possible, with most of them being probably fresh off the heels of a college career. All this spells success to me. Last year\u2019s little showcase against the Padres was very fun to watch. Look at some of these players who were featured:<\/p>\n
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Nick Kurtz<\/p>\n
Luis Morales<\/p>\n
Gunnar Hoglund<\/p>\n
Max Muncy<\/p>\n
Denzel Clarke<\/p>\n
All these dudes would be on the A\u2019s by the end of the 2025 season. Not to mention Tommy \u201cTanks\u201d White who hit an opposite field cranker in the third inning. Also playing for the Padres Spring Breakout club was our new shiny player of affection Leo De Vries (who went 2-4 against his former club today).<\/p>\n
In retrospect, the whole thing feels like that show Freaks and Geeks where you look back at the cast and go \u201cDamn, all these people were in this?\u201d Giving these young players a tournament-style opportunity to make a name for themselves this early on is like the second season of Freaks and Geeks we never got. One and done is not enough! Let them run it back!<\/p>\n
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I really want to get into today\u2019s exhibition against Team Brazil, but I\u2019m also doing the game threads AND the recap. Consider this me getting loose in the pen in between innings, waiting to see if the starting pitcher is going to get through the inning or not.<\/p>\n
Stay tuned. I\u2019ll see you all in a couple of hours.<\/p>\n
A\u2019s Coverage:MLB News and Interest:Best of X:<\/p>\n
Cooking with GAS<\/p>\n
People forget that 65% of West Sacramento\u2019s population is Brazilian.<\/p>\n
Really hope a lockout doesn\u2019t spoil this amazing concept\u2026<\/p>\n
I have to admit this stadium design is kind\u2019ve growing on me. I know! Hating everything Las Vegas A\u2019s is en vogue but I can\u2019t help it! The armadillo roof thing is quirky and I\u2019m into it. The whole thing will without a doubt be one of a kind \u2013 \u2013 for better and for worse<\/p>\n
Has there ever been a more reluctant A\u2019s legend than Jed \u201cTwo Flaps\u201d Lowrie??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday I got to watch my first televised A\u2019s game of 2026! Thank you MLB.TV\u2019s free game of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2391],"tags":[537,5,14905,1655,78628,706,1532,4,3226,459,18,38537,151,544],"class_list":{"0":"post-605022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athletics","8":"tag-athletics","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-denzel-clarke","11":"tag-gunnar-hoglund","12":"tag-jed-lowrie","13":"tag-luis-morales","14":"tag-max-muncy","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-mlb-athletics","17":"tag-nick-kurtz","18":"tag-san-diego-padres","19":"tag-spring-breakout","20":"tag-spring-training","21":"tag-tyler-soderstrom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116168994656269838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}