Around Baseball 2021

[glory]

 

The Yankees clearing salary room like the small market team that they are.

[glory]

BREAKING Arizona’s Cactus League tells @MLB it wants to delay start of spring training because of Maricopa County’s high COVID infection rate. #12News

 

If MLB actually wants to start the season on time (debatable), then moving the teams in the Cactus League to another makeshift ST site is probably doable (Texas, Florida, etc). Not ideal, but doable. It's imperative that they actually play exhibition games though since you can't expect pitchers to be ready for a 162 game season without a proper ST.

 

The owners would clearly prefer a delayed season, but players want 162, and I don't think Manfred can do anything about it this season.

[Laika]

If a team is offering 5/175 say (which is practical).. with opt outs even... but they won’t let Bauer pitch every 4th day, he would be a f’n idiot to turn it down out of some kind of machismo principle. All signs point to him cashing in/selling out from all the smack talk he’s done

 

I dunno.

 

A) He kind of is a f***ing idiot, or at least the type of person to be blinded by how much he loves himself

If he gambles on himself a bit and it pays off he could not only make much more money but he could go down in history

 

I actually don't think a team is going to pay him quite as much as 5/$175. I think he's looking at $150 max on a traditional deal.

 

Let's say he signs the deal I envision and then in 2022 he pitches 280 innings with 25 wins, 330 strikeouts, and another Cy Young, along with an MVP. How much does he get that offseason? I think he would be attracted by the chance to go for it and elevate his historic status.

 

It's also not like it's a massive, all or nothing gamble, based on the possible contract. If his normal contract right now would be 150-175M, he's only gambling like 50-75M.

[Jimcanuck]

....... only gambling like 50-75M.

 

hmmmm

[max silver]

 

The Yankees clearing salary room like the small market team that they are.

 

That's a nice deal for the Red Sox. Boston bought a prospect with money, and if Ottavino has a good year they have a chance to flip him at the deadline for another prospect as well.

[Olerud363]

Let's say he signs the deal I envision and then in 2022 he pitches 280 innings with 25 wins, 330 strikeouts, and another Cy Young, along with an MVP. How much does he get that offseason? I think he would be attracted by the chance to go for it and elevate his historic status.

 

I think the 330 strike-outs is high for a guy who has only pitched 200 innings once, going to 280... I see him being perhaps like Roy Halladay 2003ish if he really want 280 innings, presumably would have to hold back a bit for that

 

a) team lets him go every 4th game 6-7 innings most days, sort of a Roy Halladay 2003 with more starts but less complete games

 

25-14 40 starts 280 innings - 3.32 ERA 200 ks.

 

team lets him go every 4th but don't tell him about their application of hyper optimization of matchup and pitch count will limit hitm to 4-5 innings each of the 40 starts, in this case no holding back. Balls to the wall for 12, 14, or 16 outs each time

 

15-2 40 starts 190 innings 250 ks, 1.57 era

[Olerud363]

It can't be long until someone figures out how to make the 'vulture' role a big one. Maybe even a role the best pitcher on the team.

 

Vulture

 

40-50 games

all critical

3-4 innings a game

sometimes he comes, in the second, after the opener, his team leading 2-0 already

sometimes he starts

sometimes he comes in in the 9th when it's tied

 

The key is this. The manager feeds the vulture "win" opportunities, like he would feed a closer "save" opportunities. Vulture can win 20 with 150 innings.

 

I guess the vulture can't go in back to back days... but he pitches, 2 days off, then may or not pitch the next 2 days depending if a vulture opportunity comes up, then pitches no what after 3 or 4 days rest.

[jerb]

 

Jon Heyman

@JonHeyman

 

MLB memo says union rejects deal for DH and expanded playoffs

 

Jon Heyman

@JonHeyman

 

MLB offered a universal DH if the union agreed to expanded playoffs. Union rebuffed the deal, which included extra money for players, so at least for now there will be no universal DH.

[G-Snarls]

f*** off

 

No DH for what will likely be one year is stupid

[glory]

Knowing how MLB works, they'll agree to expanded playoffs and a universal DH on March 27. It's ridiculous that they are using the DH as a bargaining chip. At least expanded playoffs would involve some type of revenue split, so that makes sense as a bargaining tool (as annoying as that is for fans) but the DH seems like a really arbitrary thing to postpone.

[BTS]

Would be cool if the owners approved universal DH because it makes for a better product, instead of pretending like it's a significant concession to the PA and trying to leverage it into concessions from the players. But this is MLB, so of course that's a fantasy.

[G-Snarls]

Knowing how MLB works, they'll agree to expanded playoffs and a universal DH on March 27. It's ridiculous that they are using the DH as a bargaining chip. At least expanded playoffs would involve some type of revenue split, so that makes sense as a bargaining tool (as annoying as that is for fans) but the DH seems like a really arbitrary thing to postpone.

 

All it's doing is making NL GMs uncertain how to plan their roster and leaving Ozuna and Cruz out in the cold

[max silver]

Would be cool if the owners approved universal DH because it makes for a better product, instead of pretending like it's a significant concession to the PA and trying to leverage it into concessions from the players. But this is MLB, so of course that's a fantasy.

 

It's win win for players and fans, but of course MLB has to be miserable pricks on such a no brainer move. Do teams even want to see pitchers batting anymore at this juncture? It places pitchers at more injury risk than simply allowing them to perform their primary job, so who does not adopting the universal DH benefit other than owners maybe saving a few million bucks in payroll?

[connorp]

It's win win for players and fans, but of course MLB has to be miserable pricks on such a no brainer move. Do teams even want to see pitchers batting anymore at this juncture? It places pitchers at more injury risk than simply allowing them to perform their primary job, so who does not adopting the universal DH benefit other than owners maybe saving a few million bucks in payroll?

 

I think the opinion has been expressed on here before that owners are probably mostly indifferent to it, save maybe for a few of the really wrinkly traditionalists. It’s like politics where they’re just packaging some stuff together to get their objective

[Carlos Danger]

I think some of you are confused, it is the players union rejecting the expanded playoffs, and in this case the DH. Not MLB, not the owners.

[connorp]

I think some of you are confused, it is the players union rejecting the expanded playoffs, and in this case the DH. Not MLB, not the owners.

 

Yeah but it seems the poison pill is the expanded playoffs and the DH was something the owners were offering as a concession

 

The confusion actually becomes the people that come away thinking the PU is against the DH. Again politics is like this where they’ll include money for wounded puppies in with a poison pill and when it gets rejected, being like “these people hate puppies”

[Laika]

I think some of you are confused, it is the players union rejecting the expanded playoffs, and in this case the DH. Not MLB, not the owners.

 

Yeah but it's politics as connorp says. The players are only rejecting it because it's part of some omnibus deal MLB has presented that includes expanded playoffs and (presumably) inadequate monetary compensation to the players for expanded playoffs.

 

Basically, MLB is pretending that the universal DH is worth more to the players than it is. It's not a big deal to the players.

 

Objectively it's just something that the league should do because it's good for the product, so better for players and owners.

 

This is only leaking today because MLB decided to leak it to make the players look bad.

[Orgfiller]

I think some of you are confused, it is the players union rejecting the expanded playoffs, and in this case the DH. Not MLB, not the owners.

 

I think you're the one that's confused about what people are talking about. The DH isn't nearly a strong enough concession for the players to accept the expanded playoffs which benefits the owners massively. The DH is much better for the MLB product itself, watching pitchers flailing away is bad.

[Carlos Danger]

Yeah but it's politics as connorp says. The players are only rejecting it because it's part of some omnibus deal MLB has presented that includes expanded playoffs and (presumably) inadequate monetary compensation to the players for expanded playoffs.

 

Basically, MLB is pretending that the universal DH is worth more to the players than it is. It's not a big deal to the players.

 

Objectively it's just something that the league should do because it's good for the product, so better for players and owners.

 

This is only leaking today because MLB decided to leak it to make the players look bad.

 

The reason the players are rejecting expanded playoffs is not because of compensation for the playoffs.

 

The reason is free agency.

 

If more and average teams can make the playoffs every year, there is no incentive for owners to go after big time FAs when they know they can make the playoffs with average Joe or Juan. That is why the MLPU is rejecting it.

[Carlos Danger]

I think you're the one that's confused about what people are talking about. The DH isn't nearly a strong enough concession for the players to accept the expanded playoffs which benefits the owners massively. The DH is much better for the MLB product itself, watching pitchers flailing away is bad.

 

I know full well the DH is a poison pill. Regardless, the MLBPA rejected it and didn't even counter. Read my above post as to why they don't want expanded playoffs, it is not because of compensation during the playoffs.

[Carlos Danger]

The owners want the expanded playoffs because it will lower player salaries. There's less of a need to spend to get over 90 wins because you'll make the playoffs with fewer wins. And then anything can happen.

 

Yup, this!

[connorp]

The reason the players are rejecting expanded playoffs is not because on compensation for the playoffs.

 

The reason is free agency.

 

If more and average teams can make the playoffs every year, there is no incentive for owners to go after big time FAs when they know they can make the playoffs with average Joe or Juan. That is why the MLPU is rejecting it.

 

Don’t agree. The big spending teams aren’t building around squeezing in the playoffs as a WC. Most judge success on how deep they go, not just getting there. The small market teams aren’t bidding up the big FA and for the middle crop, there prob becomes more of a market with teams trying to sneak in

[Carlos Danger]

Don’t agree. The big spending teams aren’t building around squeezing in the playoffs as a WC. Most judge success on how deep they go, not just getting there. The small market teams aren’t bidding up the big FA and for the middle crop, there prob becomes more of a market with teams trying to sneak in

 

Not my opinion amigo. I am stating the reason the MLBPA doesn't want expanded or diluted playoff format. It is NOT due to compensation for playoff games.

[connorp]

Playoffs may be a crap shoot but odds are not the same for everyone.

[Laika]

The reason the players are rejecting expanded playoffs is not because of compensation for the playoffs.

 

The reason is free agency.

 

If more and average teams can make the playoffs every year, there is no incentive for owners to go after big time FAs when they know they can make the playoffs with average Joe or Juan. That is why the MLPU is rejecting it.

 

Then the players are dumb (which is entirely possible).

 

Teams will still pay out the ass for Gerrit Cole and Mookie Betts types.

 

And with expanded playoffs the middle market will have more incentive to buy free agents, rather than the current state where a huge chunk of the league is rebuilding/retooling and trying to wait out the free agent market for bargains at the end.

[max silver]

Don’t agree. The big spending teams aren’t building around squeezing in the playoffs as a WC. Most judge success on how deep they go, not just getting there. The small market teams aren’t bidding up the big FA and for the middle crop, there prob becomes more of a market with teams trying to sneak in

 

This seems like an issue that could go either way honestly. I too think that more teams making the playoffs could potentially entice more teams to actually make an attempt to compete. With the limited playoffs under the current MLB financial structure the majority of the league is making no attempt whatsoever to compete and is presently attempting some form of rebuild. We've only had expanded playoffs for one shortened season and covid has baseball financials f***ed up around the league as is, so at this point there's no way to really know what effect expanded playoffs would have on player salaries.

[connorp]

Heck if Jays don’t have an exciting playoff push maybe they don’t sign Springer thinking they’re still couple years away

[Laika]

Sounds like Tanaka is about to sign back with his old NPB team. There were rumblings of this at the start of the offseason

[G-Snarls]

Sounds like Tanaka is about to sign back with his old NPB team. There were rumblings of this at the start of the offseason

 

Masahiro Tanaka In Negotiations To Return To Rakuten EaglesJanuary 25th, 2021 at 9:34pm CST • By TC Zencka

 

Masahiro Tanaka and the Rakuten Eagles are in the “late stages of negotiations,” writes Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com. An offer does not appear to be made yet, but a report from Sankei Sports suggests Tanaka is close to returning to the Nippon Professional League. Tanaka does not appear to have closed off the possibility of returning to MLB entirely, but opportunities to woo the right-hander may be dwindling. Tanaka played for the Eagles from 2007 to 2013. Caldera notes that Tanaka’s camp could receive the official offer from the Eagles sometime this week.

[Jays24]

This would suck... thats one less option we have and makes the price of others go a tad bit higher.