Around Baseball 2018

[TheHurl]

To save some money - EE has a $5m buyout in 2020.

 

$52.5M for Santana remaining. $26M for EE. Trade at the deadline of EE can't get a prospect probably but will get you out of some of that money

[Bobthe4th]

$52.5M for Santana remaining. $26M for EE. Trade at the deadline of EE can't get a prospect probably but will get you out of some of that money

 

Santana has a buyout too but not until 2021 so you can knock $17m off his deal. But yeah, Seattle still saves money by getting EE.

[Ray]

Colorado interested in Justin Smoak. Flip him for a pitching prospect then sign Goldschmidt next year?

[Laika]

Colorado interested in Justin Smoak. Flip him for a pitching prospect...

 

We can do better. Toronto should whip open the trench coat and peddle Smoak + Stroman + Pillar

 

... for I don't f***ing know. David Dahl and some pitcher?

[TheHurl]

Santana has a buyout too but not until 2021 so you can knock $17m off his deal. But yeah, Seattle still saves money by getting EE.

 

ugh, $35M over 2 years vs. $26M in 1 year, and get the worse player likely seems extra stupid. Really banking on EE to bounce back and have a good start (good start and EE...I know it's funny)

[P2F]

Seattle also gets a Comp Round B pick in the Edwin deal. Sorry if this was already posted.

[Carlos Danger]

Read again

 

And he will

 

Appears speculative only... He is still a Mariner, and there was no agreed upon exchange (that we are aware of) as part of the three team deal.

[TheHurl]

Rays also got Cole Sulser in the deal. Insane K/BB ratio (14.09k to 2.51bb) last year over 50 innings.

[Terminator]

To save some money - EE has a $5m buyout in 2020.

 

Oh ok I thought his 2020 contract was guaranteed.

[Carp12]

Saves Seattle about 10m and they can still flip EE elsewhere. Plus get a pick. Not bad.

[Spanky__99]

That's way too expensive for us and a lot of other teams. The Red Sox giving 4/68 to Eovaldi and now the Yankees 3/51 to Happ, they're playing in a different park than the majority of the league with these contracts.

 

The Yankees are far from done this offseason, they are going to have a real powerhouse next season and beyond. The evil empire is back.

 

Very different market than last year that's for sure, except for 1B/DH's, Harper and Machado are going to get large. Also, I agree with you on Kimbrel, if he gets the term he's seeking 100+ isn't out of the question or it'll be close.

[Spanky__99]

Seattle - why?

Rays - okay, must like Yandy

Cleveland - nice.

 

Agree for the most part, but Yandy for Bauers is head scratch worthy.

 

Nice trade by the Indians.

[TheHurl]

It seems f***ed up that Homer Bailey has 10 and 5 rights. 10 starts in 5 years maybe.

[Spanky__99]

It seems f***ed up that Homer Bailey has 10 and 5 rights. 10 starts in 5 years maybe.

 

lol

[Spanky__99]

Groundwork's been done. s*** will bleed now until February.

[Spanky__99]

Personally, Jays don't sign s*** until February. Tanking... Jr is are hype in April. That's it, or a trade of Stroman or Sanchez.

[Bobthe4th]

This twitter account just posted a series of pretty cool tweets:

 

 

 

[P2F]

That Twitter account exclusively posts only cool tweets. @PitchingNinja is a great follow.

[jays4life19]

Padres sign Kinsler for 2 years because who knows why.

 

Weird with Urias ready to go.

[G-Snarls]

Kinsler to Padres 2 years 8M total

[Spanky__99]

What on earth are the Friars doing?

[Laika]

Padres sign Kinsler for 2 years because who knows why.

 

Weird with Urias ready to go.

 

What on earth are the Friars doing?

 

Nice deal for SDP. Kinsler has been worth more than 2 WAR in each of the last two years, despite below average hitting. Urias will play short.

[Spanky__99]

Nice deal for SDP. Kinsler has been worth more than 2 WAR in each of the last two years, despite below average hitting. Urias will play short.

 

Can he play Short? Just looked up his SR, apparently he can, cool.

[Laika]

Can he play Short?

 

I dunno. He is now.

[Spanky__99]

I dunno. He is now.

 

Yeah, I just read it could be passable.

 

Really liked him last year as a second baseman in Lake Elsinore, and his new look at shortstop in AFL was even better. Rangy and athletic to both glove side and into the hole; covers ground with quick reactions and plays bigger than he is at the six-hole. Will make plays on the dive; sense of urgency there with good internal clock to make plays on fast runners. Impressive physical stature with maturity and poise; situational awareness good enough to play short at the next level. Unsure if he’s a true everyday guy there in the big leagues, or if he’ll move back to second base, but he can undoubtedly handle the six-hole and it’s impressive how much he’s improved to assert himself in a year’s time.

[jays4life19]

haha

[jays4life19]

This was a pretty good read about baseball coming back to Montreal. Thought i would share.

 

_____

 

Stephen​ Bronfman,​ it would​ appear,​ is​ taking​ things to​ a new level.

 

The lead investor​ of a group​ looking to bring Major League Baseball​​ to Montreal — a group that identified itself officially for the first time Thursday — has had a decent run of good news over the past eight months or so, basically ever since Bronfman expressed some frustration over how slowly the process was moving in late March.

 

“We have a window of opportunity, and the further that we go down the path with nothing, the window starts to tighten a little bit,” Bronfman said then. “I mean, I’m super positive and excited about this idea, but we’re at a bit of a tipping point where if there’s no real concrete anything in the next little while, I don’t know how excited we can keep people. I don’t know how excited I can keep the people that are around me, or even myself … I’m a realist. I’m an optimist, but a realist. You can only keep that flame burning for so long.”

 

That flame is now burning brighter than ever. Since saying those words, Bronfman met with Montreal mayor Valérie Plante and came out of the meeting with a positive endorsement from City Hall, an important step in the process considering the political capital that was believed to be lost from the project when former mayor and die-hard baseball fan Denis Coderre lost his re-election bid to Plante.

 

Then on Thursday, Bronfman’s group released the results of a market study conducted by U.S. firm Conventions, Sports & Leisure, or CSL, that concluded “Montreal has the market characteristics to support an MLB team effectively over the long term.”

 

But it was the timing of that release that was so intriguing, because it came two days after Rays owner Stuart Sternberg declared his team’s plan to build a new ballpark in Ybor City to be dead, and in so doing put the future viability of the Rays in Tampa Bay into serious doubt.

 

It was apparently a coincidence; or, as Bronfman called it, “kismet.”

 

But Bronfman got the blessing of Major League Baseball before releasing the study when he did, about 10 days after it was completed and delivered to the ownership group. Coincidence, kismet, whatever you want to call it, the timing of the release made the impact of that study far greater and extended its reach all the way down to the Gulf Coast of Florida.

 

“We try and do things quietly and not step on toes, so from a distance — and I’m not in daily contact with anyone in Tampa or Oakland or in New York, for that matter,” Bronfman said Thursday evening. “At the end of the day, it’s not disastrous in Tampa. They’ve got a stadium, they’ve got a 10-year lease, they’ve got a good television contract, it doesn’t mean all that much. It just means that they don’t have the chance to build a nice, swanky new ballpark that they need. I don’t know what their business looks like. So is their television contract strong enough to keep them going regardless of fan attendance? Maybe, that could be, because this is a media business.

 

“But optically it doesn’t look good and I’m sure that their revenue share number is pretty high. But these are all just assumptions, it’s me looking at it the same as you. I read the paper, I look at what’s happening, it’s not good but it’s not the end of the day for them, right?”

 

Of course, Bronfman is not looking at the situation in Tampa Bay the same as anyone else, except maybe his fellow investors in Montreal. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said on numerous occasions — something he has specifically said to Bronfman as well — that expansion will not happen until the stadium situations in Tampa Bay and Oakland are resolved. So the longer those situations drag on, the longer Montreal or any of the other potential landing spots for an expansion team will have to wait.

 

The one advantage Montreal currently has on places like Portland or Las Vegas or other interested cities is that there is a stadium ready to welcome a team right now until a new downtown ballpark can be built in the event of a sudden relocation. Olympic Stadium is far from an ideal building to host baseball games, but it can work on a temporary basis. The Rays, with the number of years left in their agreement tying them to Tropicana Field until 2027, don’t appear to be a candidate for anything sudden. But while Bronfman acknowledges he is not looking at the situation from the same perspective as everyone else, he is connecting many of the same dots.

 

“What I meant is I read the papers like you, so you make your own assumptions out of what’s going on, so the assumption that you’re making is the same assumption that I’m making is the same assumption that Guy Caron in Bagotville is making, that all this stuff could be positive for a movement to Montreal,” Bronfman said. “So you sit back and say, ‘OK, maybe something like that will happen.’ But again, not wanting to step on toes and wanting very much for Major League Baseball to make these decisions, we go about our business and prepare for hopefully, what we feel is an eventual return of Major League Baseball to Montreal. How that’s going to pan out, I don’t really know. But this might be one of the ways.”

 

The findings of the market research are obviously encouraging in the way the investors group spelled them out here (the group has decided not to release the full report from CSL). But aside from the positive news release, two other things happened Thursday that were arguably more significant.

 

The first came at the bottom of that release with a list of names, marking the first time the potential ownership group revealed itself in any official way. Many of the names on the list were already known, but most of them were never tied in black and white to the project like they were Thursday.

 

 

 

This is important. The group is not keeping quiet anymore. The project is optically moving out of the shadows.

 

“I think it’s important because I think things are starting to get more and more serious,” Bronfman said. “I think it’s time for people to understand who the group is. We’re trying to be as transparent as we can.

 

“It’s a great mix of successful Montrealers that I think adds a lot to what we’re talking about. I don’t have some sort of PR machine behind working it saying we’ve got to release this then, this is done all just discussing together. We just feel it’s time we come out and show at least our hands of who we are and to come out in concert with all this really positive news and just hope these trends continue and we’re able to keep on providing more and more updates as we’re climbing up this big hill.”

 

The second came via a tweet from Quebec Premier Francois Legault showing him meeting with Bronfman on Thursday and saying, “Good meeting with Stephen Bronfman to talk about the possible return of Major League Baseball to Montreal.”

 

View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

 

François Legault

✔

@francoislegault

Bonne rencontre avec Stephen Bronfman pour discuter du retour possible du baseball majeur à Montréal.#PolQc

 

704

2:18 PM - Dec 13, 2018

297 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Again, much like the meeting with Plante earlier this year, this was a significant meeting. And, just as he did after meeting with the Montreal mayor, Bronfman came away from his meeting with Legault very encouraged.

 

“It’s the first time we’ve met (since Legault was elected,” Bronfman said. “Everyone has always told me if the CAQ get elected, this is really good for your project because every time Legault speaks about it, it’s all very, very positive and he’s very supportive. So meeting with him today, just the two of us, it was indeed that. It was a very, very positive meeting. It wasn’t me going to him with a specific ask dollar-wise or whatnot. It was sort of just giving him an overview of what’s gone on, where we are and what kind of role he could play either as a possible partner or someone who could help realize the project. There are lots of things where the province can help, the city can help, and all these are pieces in the puzzle that are going to make this project work.”

 

Bronfman has never denied that the project will need governmental assistance, but he has been very careful to make it clear the ownership would not be seeking massive public investment in a new Montreal ballpark. But the group will need some help from the city, province and perhaps even the federal government. The task is now convincing each level of government that having a Major League Baseball team in Montreal is economically beneficial.

 

“[Legault] is a businessman who is focused on growth and visibility of the city and the province,” Bronfman said. “So he said it several times during our meeting, what’s really important to him is if there is a business case where there’s enough of an economic impact that it makes sense for them to be involved. Look what it does for visibility. He’s a brand guy, he’s directing a brand and that’s the brand of Montreal and Quebec, so what could be better than putting yourself on the pedestal of another major-league sport? If we weren’t in hockey, half the world wouldn’t look our way. We’re not in baseball, but if we are in baseball then a lot more faces turn our way, a lot more people come to visit, a lot more attention, a lot more serious thought maybe on the business side.

 

“There’s all kinds of potential pluses, of course. And then it’s an easy business deal because players come and they pay taxes, tourists come and they insert money in. That’s why the government decided they should step up and support Formula 1. Just look at the couple of years Montreal didn’t have Formula 1, look what happens to Montreal when we’re not in the playoffs, people’s faces are grey. I think that we’re all in the business of making our place a better place, and this is one of those things that can do that.”

 

The burden of proof on whether the return of MLB would be economically beneficial falls on Bronfman’s group, and he said they are putting together numbers to make their case, though they are not prepared to do so just yet. There is certainly some doubt on the economic impact of professional sports teams on a city, and there will be skepticism as soon as a single dollar of public money is committed to the project.

 

Bronfman knows this and is ready for it, but before getting into that he wants to make it clear that he and his fellow investors are doing this for the right reasons.

 

“We are going to present numbers and present a hypothesis that in our eyes is real,” Bronfman said. “We’re not a bunch of promoters, we’re not guys that are in for a quick flip. We’re guys who care, who are civic-minded and who are not here to make out like bandits. This isn’t the business deal of the century where we’re going for the great big swindle. This is something that all partners involved are very civic-minded, we’re all very involved in our city, our province, our country and we understand the importance of what another major league sport for our city can do. If this does happen, I’m going to go up against plenty of naysayers, and that’s part of the gig.”

 

The next step, Bronfman said, is to finalize the location of a new ballpark in downtown Montreal, something he hopes to be able to announce as early as this winter. That is when this thing will start to get really serious.

 

In that sense, Bronfman and his group find themselves in a very similar position to Sternberg and the Rays, with each of them looking for a baseball home.

 

The big difference is momentum. Both cities have some, but it is moving in opposite directions.

[Spanky__99]

[Carlos Danger]

This was a pretty good read about baseball coming back to Montreal. Thought i would share.

 

_____

 

Stephen​ Bronfman,​ it would​ appear,​ is​ taking​ things to​ a new level.

 

The lead investor​ of a group​ looking to bring Major League Baseball​​ to Montreal — a group that identified itself officially for the first time Thursday — has had a decent run of good news over the past eight months or so, basically ever since Bronfman expressed some frustration over how slowly the process was moving in late March.

 

“We have a window of opportunity, and the further that we go down the path with nothing, the window starts to tighten a little bit,” Bronfman said then. “I mean, I’m super positive and excited about this idea, but we’re at a bit of a tipping point where if there’s no real concrete anything in the next little while, I don’t know how excited we can keep people. I don’t know how excited I can keep the people that are around me, or even myself … I’m a realist. I’m an optimist, but a realist. You can only keep that flame burning for so long.”

 

That flame is now burning brighter than ever. Since saying those words, Bronfman met with Montreal mayor Valérie Plante and came out of the meeting with a positive endorsement from City Hall, an important step in the process considering the political capital that was believed to be lost from the project when former mayor and die-hard baseball fan Denis Coderre lost his re-election bid to Plante.

 

Then on Thursday, Bronfman’s group released the results of a market study conducted by U.S. firm Conventions, Sports & Leisure, or CSL, that concluded “Montreal has the market characteristics to support an MLB team effectively over the long term.”

 

But it was the timing of that release that was so intriguing, because it came two days after Rays owner Stuart Sternberg declared his team’s plan to build a new ballpark in Ybor City to be dead, and in so doing put the future viability of the Rays in Tampa Bay into serious doubt.

 

It was apparently a coincidence; or, as Bronfman called it, “kismet.”

 

But Bronfman got the blessing of Major League Baseball before releasing the study when he did, about 10 days after it was completed and delivered to the ownership group. Coincidence, kismet, whatever you want to call it, the timing of the release made the impact of that study far greater and extended its reach all the way down to the Gulf Coast of Florida.

 

“We try and do things quietly and not step on toes, so from a distance — and I’m not in daily contact with anyone in Tampa or Oakland or in New York, for that matter,” Bronfman said Thursday evening. “At the end of the day, it’s not disastrous in Tampa. They’ve got a stadium, they’ve got a 10-year lease, they’ve got a good television contract, it doesn’t mean all that much. It just means that they don’t have the chance to build a nice, swanky new ballpark that they need. I don’t know what their business looks like. So is their television contract strong enough to keep them going regardless of fan attendance? Maybe, that could be, because this is a media business.

 

“But optically it doesn’t look good and I’m sure that their revenue share number is pretty high. But these are all just assumptions, it’s me looking at it the same as you. I read the paper, I look at what’s happening, it’s not good but it’s not the end of the day for them, right?”

 

Of course, Bronfman is not looking at the situation in Tampa Bay the same as anyone else, except maybe his fellow investors in Montreal. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said on numerous occasions — something he has specifically said to Bronfman as well — that expansion will not happen until the stadium situations in Tampa Bay and Oakland are resolved. So the longer those situations drag on, the longer Montreal or any of the other potential landing spots for an expansion team will have to wait.

 

The one advantage Montreal currently has on places like Portland or Las Vegas or other interested cities is that there is a stadium ready to welcome a team right now until a new downtown ballpark can be built in the event of a sudden relocation. Olympic Stadium is far from an ideal building to host baseball games, but it can work on a temporary basis. The Rays, with the number of years left in their agreement tying them to Tropicana Field until 2027, don’t appear to be a candidate for anything sudden. But while Bronfman acknowledges he is not looking at the situation from the same perspective as everyone else, he is connecting many of the same dots.

 

“What I meant is I read the papers like you, so you make your own assumptions out of what’s going on, so the assumption that you’re making is the same assumption that I’m making is the same assumption that Guy Caron in Bagotville is making, that all this stuff could be positive for a movement to Montreal,” Bronfman said. “So you sit back and say, ‘OK, maybe something like that will happen.’ But again, not wanting to step on toes and wanting very much for Major League Baseball to make these decisions, we go about our business and prepare for hopefully, what we feel is an eventual return of Major League Baseball to Montreal. How that’s going to pan out, I don’t really know. But this might be one of the ways.”

 

The findings of the market research are obviously encouraging in the way the investors group spelled them out here (the group has decided not to release the full report from CSL). But aside from the positive news release, two other things happened Thursday that were arguably more significant.

 

The first came at the bottom of that release with a list of names, marking the first time the potential ownership group revealed itself in any official way. Many of the names on the list were already known, but most of them were never tied in black and white to the project like they were Thursday.

 

 

 

This is important. The group is not keeping quiet anymore. The project is optically moving out of the shadows.

 

“I think it’s important because I think things are starting to get more and more serious,” Bronfman said. “I think it’s time for people to understand who the group is. We’re trying to be as transparent as we can.

 

“It’s a great mix of successful Montrealers that I think adds a lot to what we’re talking about. I don’t have some sort of PR machine behind working it saying we’ve got to release this then, this is done all just discussing together. We just feel it’s time we come out and show at least our hands of who we are and to come out in concert with all this really positive news and just hope these trends continue and we’re able to keep on providing more and more updates as we’re climbing up this big hill.”

 

The second came via a tweet from Quebec Premier Francois Legault showing him meeting with Bronfman on Thursday and saying, “Good meeting with Stephen Bronfman to talk about the possible return of Major League Baseball to Montreal.”

 

View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

 

François Legault

✔

@francoislegault

Bonne rencontre avec Stephen Bronfman pour discuter du retour possible du baseball majeur à Montréal.#PolQc

 

704

2:18 PM - Dec 13, 2018

297 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Again, much like the meeting with Plante earlier this year, this was a significant meeting. And, just as he did after meeting with the Montreal mayor, Bronfman came away from his meeting with Legault very encouraged.

 

“It’s the first time we’ve met (since Legault was elected,” Bronfman said. “Everyone has always told me if the CAQ get elected, this is really good for your project because every time Legault speaks about it, it’s all very, very positive and he’s very supportive. So meeting with him today, just the two of us, it was indeed that. It was a very, very positive meeting. It wasn’t me going to him with a specific ask dollar-wise or whatnot. It was sort of just giving him an overview of what’s gone on, where we are and what kind of role he could play either as a possible partner or someone who could help realize the project. There are lots of things where the province can help, the city can help, and all these are pieces in the puzzle that are going to make this project work.”

 

Bronfman has never denied that the project will need governmental assistance, but he has been very careful to make it clear the ownership would not be seeking massive public investment in a new Montreal ballpark. But the group will need some help from the city, province and perhaps even the federal government. The task is now convincing each level of government that having a Major League Baseball team in Montreal is economically beneficial.

 

“[Legault] is a businessman who is focused on growth and visibility of the city and the province,” Bronfman said. “So he said it several times during our meeting, what’s really important to him is if there is a business case where there’s enough of an economic impact that it makes sense for them to be involved. Look what it does for visibility. He’s a brand guy, he’s directing a brand and that’s the brand of Montreal and Quebec, so what could be better than putting yourself on the pedestal of another major-league sport? If we weren’t in hockey, half the world wouldn’t look our way. We’re not in baseball, but if we are in baseball then a lot more faces turn our way, a lot more people come to visit, a lot more attention, a lot more serious thought maybe on the business side.

 

“There’s all kinds of potential pluses, of course. And then it’s an easy business deal because players come and they pay taxes, tourists come and they insert money in. That’s why the government decided they should step up and support Formula 1. Just look at the couple of years Montreal didn’t have Formula 1, look what happens to Montreal when we’re not in the playoffs, people’s faces are grey. I think that we’re all in the business of making our place a better place, and this is one of those things that can do that.”

 

The burden of proof on whether the return of MLB would be economically beneficial falls on Bronfman’s group, and he said they are putting together numbers to make their case, though they are not prepared to do so just yet. There is certainly some doubt on the economic impact of professional sports teams on a city, and there will be skepticism as soon as a single dollar of public money is committed to the project.

 

Bronfman knows this and is ready for it, but before getting into that he wants to make it clear that he and his fellow investors are doing this for the right reasons.

 

“We are going to present numbers and present a hypothesis that in our eyes is real,” Bronfman said. “We’re not a bunch of promoters, we’re not guys that are in for a quick flip. We’re guys who care, who are civic-minded and who are not here to make out like bandits. This isn’t the business deal of the century where we’re going for the great big swindle. This is something that all partners involved are very civic-minded, we’re all very involved in our city, our province, our country and we understand the importance of what another major league sport for our city can do. If this does happen, I’m going to go up against plenty of naysayers, and that’s part of the gig.”

 

The next step, Bronfman said, is to finalize the location of a new ballpark in downtown Montreal, something he hopes to be able to announce as early as this winter. That is when this thing will start to get really serious.

 

In that sense, Bronfman and his group find themselves in a very similar position to Sternberg and the Rays, with each of them looking for a baseball home.

 

The big difference is momentum. Both cities have some, but it is moving in opposite directions.

 

Nope.....

[Captain Adama]

This was a pretty good read about baseball coming back to Montreal. Thought i would share.

 

_____

 

Montreal....baseball....1994

 

Montreal couldn't even get that dump of a stadium at half capacity for the last couple years for spring training. .