I got MLB.TV’s annual pitch in my email yesterday. For $116 (up from $113 last year), it’ll provide access to over 2000 live games spread out over seven months, plus condensed replays, full access to the mobile app, and probably more. If you’re a cord-cutter who loves baseball, that’s a sweet deal. On the other hand, if you tough it out, the price for the partial season always drops. Based on past seasons, I expect a large discount (of 30%+) in May, then a half-off offer, eventually winding all the way down to about $5 for September’s pennant race. Last year, I caught a flash sale at the end of June, getting the second half of the season for $10. Your mileage will vary.

Remember when Sling TV told me that it was going to leave Channel Master‘s DVR+ “soon”? Do you also remember that a couple of weeks later, during an all-day outage, I was convinced that it was gone for good? It returned the next day, and now it’s been eight weeks since that initial announcement; Sling still works on my DVR+. (On the other hand, the DVR+ appears to be gone from Channel Master’s web site, though its accessories are still available.) This week, I got a fun email from CM that said in effect, “If you thought you would receive your Stream+ receiver by the end of January, well, it’s February now. We’ll get it to you ASAP.” No problem, I still look forward to it. And about Sling, since conspiracies make better stories than coincidences, my guess is that Sling’s eventual departure from my DVR+ will occur about the same time as my Stream+’s arrival. I’ll let you know.