Around Baseball 2021

[Krylian]

So the Mets GM (Zack Scott) was apparently busted for a DUI at 4AM last night after he was at Steve Cohens house in Connecticut for a fundraiser.

 

Quite the season they’re having, those Mets.

 

[Carlos Danger]

So the Mets GM (Zack Scott) was apparently busted for a DUI at 4AM last night after he was at Steve Cohens house in Connecticut for a fundraiser.

 

Quite the season they’re having, those Mets.

 

If I was the Met's GM, I would be drinking heavily also....

[BTS]

So the Mets GM (Zack Scott) was apparently busted for a DUI at 4AM last night after he was at Steve Cohens house in Connecticut for a fundraiser.

 

Quite the season they’re having, those Mets.

 

My god the Mets are a mess

[Stangstag]

So the Mets GM (Zack Scott) was apparently busted for a DUI at 4AM last night after he was at Steve Cohens house in Connecticut for a fundraiser.

 

Quite the season they’re having, those Mets.

 

Lol these millionaires (billionaires in some cases) are too cheap to call a cab or hire a chauffeur. Unreal

[BTS]

Yu Darvish sucks now

[Spanky__99]

Yu Darvish sucks now

 

It' scaring me in LOD... he'll get it back right?

[BTS]

It' scaring me in LOD... he'll get it back right?

 

I think it's mostly just bad luck. He still has like a 5.5 K/BB since the start of July.

[Brownie19]

Yu Darvish sucks now

 

It's because Snell is good again. Can't have them both dominating at the same time apparently.

[connorp]

Lol these millionaires (billionaires in some cases) are too cheap to call a cab or hire a chauffeur. Unreal

 

Serious case of entitlement maybe? Now that he got popped though, probably learned his lesson

[Stangstag]

Serious case of entitlement maybe? Now that he got popped though, probably learned his lesson

 

Probably not... none of these rich guys will ever “learn their lesson” unless jail time is involved. Money is nothing

[TwistedLogic]

What the absolute f*** hahahahaha

 

 

[Stangstag]

What the absolute f*** hahahahaha

 

 

 

Jesus

[Abomination]

Our GDT should have the ump's season scorecard posted as part of each one

[connorp]

So JA Happ is pretty much the new Tommy Milone. Lost track he was on St.L, just looked at box score to see who got shelled

[Abomination]

Cole dominating tonight with 15 K's. I have to think he's done though. Would have been interesting to see if he could have gotten to 20 or 21 if the pitch count wasn't so high.

[Abomination]

This ump in the Dodgers / Braves game is really, really bad.

[Abomination]

Pulling Scherzer after the 6th of a 2-0 game while he only threw 76 pitches and wasn't coming up to bat, with the Dodgers setup man and closer unavailable, is a ... bold move.

 

edited: Yep, and 3 batters later it's a tie game.

[intentional wok]

The remaining two games being played tonight involve all four teams likliest to be in this year's NLDSes. Both games are tied at 2 in the 7th!

[Ehjays]

The owners want to set an age for free agency not years of service. It would be a bad thing for players coming up young but good for late bloomers like Donaldson. At least they are talking.

 

MLB Proposal To Players Association Included Changes To Service Time Structure

By Anthony Franco | September 1, 2021 at 10:59pm CDT

 

Major League Baseball proposed a radical altering of the league’s service time structure in collective bargaining discussions with the MLB Players Association last month, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The league’s proposal included an offer to make players eligible for free agency at 29.5 years of age. It also involved a $1 billion pool (which would be tied to revenues in future seasons) that would be dispersed in an unspecified manner to replace the current arbitration system.

 

Both features were part of a broader package proposal the league made to the MLBPA in mid-August, which Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported also included the lowering of the first luxury tax threshold to $180MM and the institution of a $100MM salary floor. Much about that proposal still remains unclear, although the lowered tax thresholds alone seem likely to make it a non-starter for the Players Association, which is widely expected to push for higher tax thresholds in the upcoming CBA.

 

The current CBA is set to expire on December 1, leaving three months for the parties to continue to negotiate before the current deal lapses. (It’s not entirely clear what kind of impact such a scenario would have on the offseason were it to come to fruition, as teams were still permitted to make transactions the last time the CBA expired without a new agreement). It seems likely those talks will pick up in earnest the closer we move to the winter, but intervening reports offer a glimpse of how those more serious negotiations might take shape.

 

MLB’s offer to base free agency qualification on age is in response to players’ concerns about service time manipulation. Under the current system, players first qualify for free agency at the end of the season in which they accrue six full years of MLB service time. A full year of service is calculated as 172 days, meaning players first promoted to the big leagues in late April of their rookie seasons fall just short of that benchmark. Not coincidentally, various top prospects have been held in the minors until just after that cutoff point in recent seasons — ensuring their teams essentially gain a seventh year of control over the player.

 

Under an age-based system, there’d be no incentive for teams to keep prospects down past the time they’re deemed ready to play at the major league level. It’d also be a boon to late-blooming players, many of whom have to wait until they’re into their 30’s — and potentially past their physical peaks — to market their services around the league. Sherman cites Yankees star Aaron Judge — whose free agency timeline would’ve accelerated from next offseason to this winter if eligibility were set at 29.5 years — as an example of a player who would stand to benefit from such a change.

 

That said, setting the free agency qualifying age at 29.5 would have an adverse effect on many of the game’s top stars. It’s not uncommon for the sport’s brightest young talents to reach the big leagues in their early-20’s in spite of the existing service time structure. Those players will often reach free agency before turning 29, setting them up well to land lengthy mega-deals. For reference, three of the top four players on MLBTR’s most recent Free Agent Power Rankings — Carlos Correa, Corey Seager and Trevor Story — wouldn’t be eligible for free agency this offseason if it were only granted for players 29.5 and older.

 

So while an age-based system would benefit some players, it would likely depress the earning potential for some of the game’s top free agents — many of whom land market-resetting deals precisely because they’re young enough to shop around multiple seasons of prime-age performance. Young, extremely talented players who are most likely to land top-of-the-market contracts are also the ones most likely to be impacted by service time manipulation in the first place.

 

That makes it all the more challenging to find an age the league would find agreeable that meaningfully changes those players’ free agency outlooks. For instance, Kris Bryant — whose delayed 2015 promotion pushed back his free agency until this winter and led the MLBPA to file a highly-publicized service time grievance on his behalf — wouldn’t have reached free agency until this offseason regardless if the qualification age were set at 29.5 years. That’s not to say MLB’s proposed age threshold couldn’t be modified in future negotiations, but it also demonstrates that basing free agency eligibility on age isn’t inherently a universal benefit to players.

 

As with free agency, arbitration eligibility is presently determined by service time. Under the current system, players qualify for arbitration upon reaching three years of MLB service. Players in the top 22% of service among those with between two and three years will also reach arbitration as Super Two qualifiers. If the team and player can’t agree on a salary, it is decided by a panel of arbitrators, who use comparable player salaries often based upon traditional statistics.

 

That can lead to a bit of a disconnect between arbitration values and teams’ valuations of players, which are often based on more advanced analytical data. Arbitrators’ heavy reliance on traditional metrics can fuel non-tenders for players whose box score statistics (e.g. home runs, RBI, pitcher wins) are more impressive than a team’s ’wins above replacement’ type of formula or Statcast data.

 

On the surface, it does seem revamping or replacing arbitration could be a positive endeavor for players. Sherman estimates that arbitration-eligible players made approximately $650MM this past offseason, so the $1 billion pool would be a rather significant increase. But Sherman also notes that a revenue-based pool system might be viewed by the MLBPA as too closely resembling a salary cap — which the union has always rejected. It’s also not clear how that money would be distributed or how arbitration eligibility would be determined if the sides were to abandon service time considerations.

 

Sherman also offers one additional piece of information on the league’s proposal. While MLB’s offer included a lower first luxury tax threshold, the league was willing to remove escalating penalties for repeat tax payors. The current CBA requires teams to pay a 20% tax on the first twenty million dollars above the lowest luxury threshold. That tax increases to 30% for teams that exceed the threshold in two consecutive years and escalates to 50% for teams exceeding the threshold in three or more years straight.

 

The escalating penalties have led some high-spending teams to pull off a tax reset. A team that exceeds the threshold in Year One has extra incentive to dip below for a year and reset their penalty bracket before going back above the mark the following season. That seemed to be of particular import this season for the Yankees and Astros, both of whom exceeded the threshold in 2020 but appear to have narrowly dipped below the mark this season.

 

It bears repeating that MLB and the MLBPA remain in the very early stages of bargaining. Drellich and Rosenthal previously reported that the MLBPA made its first offer in May, and last month’s proposal was the league’s first. The full terms of both sides’ initial offers remain unclear. There should be plenty more about the sides’ back-and-forth that emerges over the coming weeks and months.

[Brownie19]

Pulling Scherzer after the 6th of a 2-0 game while he only threw 76 pitches and wasn't coming up to bat, with the Dodgers setup man and closer unavailable, is a ... bold move.

 

edited: Yep, and 3 batters later it's a tie game.

 

tight hamstring bruh.

[Abomination]

tight hamstring bruh.

 

That wasn't reported last night, but at least that makes a little sense. It must have been extremely mild because he was bouncing all over the dugout after he was pulled, laughing and joking with everyone.

[Laika]

I am not sure about the specific age proposed but I really like the idea of an age for free agency because it would incentivize bringing players up earlier.

 

They would still need some exceptions, probably, for exceptional situations. Imagine a college pitcher who has multiple surgeries and debuts at like 27. Merryweather for example. Free agent at 29.5 would be kind of BS.

[John_Havok]

I am not sure about the specific age proposed but I really like the idea of an age for free agency because it would incentivize bringing players up earlier.

 

They would still need some exceptions, probably, for exceptional situations. Imagine a college pitcher who has multiple surgeries and debuts at like 27. Merryweather for example. Free agent at 29.5 would be kind of BS.

 

Simple compromise would be like anything else, have both an age and a service time, they go to FA whichever threshold is crossed first. I swear some of these negotiations drag out unnecessarily just for ego's sake.

 

Like with the last NHL lockout thing, everyone and their dog knew they would eventually settle at 50/50 revenue split...yet it took months to formalize it.

[Laika]

Simple compromise would be like anything else, have both an age and a service time, they go to FA whichever threshold is crossed first. I swear some of these negotiations drag out unnecessarily just for ego's sake.

 

Like with the last NHL lockout thing, everyone and their dog knew they would eventually settle at 50/50 revenue split...yet it took months to formalize it.

 

Right. Not "whichever is crossed first" but when both requirements are met.

 

Example:

 

A player shall enter free agency in the offseason following the regular season period in which both of the following requirements have been met:

a) the player is 29 years and 6 months of age for at least one day of the regular season

the player has accrued 4.000 years of service time by and including the last day of the regular season

 

Something like that would mean most players reach free agency after the age threshold but some late debut guys would reach free agency a little bit later.

 

You'd still need to figure out how arbitration or salary escalation will work in relation to this but that's not impossible. It could still be based on service time and just go on in perpetuity. So someone who only has 4 MLB years before free agency only goes through arbitration once, in year 4. And someone who debuts at 19 and is under control for ten f***ing years goes through "arb 3" seven god damn times and probably makes something close to free agent AAV in all of those years anyway.

 

I like it. I really like it. Anything that would incentivize teams to promote players is better than the current system.

[intentional wok]

With the exception of 2017 and 18, the two successful Wild Card qualifiers have been separated by one game or fewer (since the addition of the WC playoff in 2012). That's pretty interesting. Several of them would have just been tie-breaker games pre-2012.

 

Like any curmudgeon, I am skeptical of any changes to the season, but I really think this system is excellent. It puts that much more value on a division title, hasn't watered down the competition in the playoffs, and still provides a nice mirage to mediocre teams to keep them from obviously chucking in the towel.

[Stangstag]

With the exception of 2017 and 18, the two successful Wild Card qualifiers have been separated by one game or fewer (since the addition of the WC playoff in 2012). That's pretty interesting. Several of them would have just been tie-breaker games pre-2012.

 

Like any curmudgeon, I am skeptical of any changes to the season, but I really think this system is excellent. It puts that much more value on a division title, hasn't watered down the competition in the playoffs, and still provides a nice mirage to mediocre teams to keep them from obviously chucking in the towel.

 

I agree. The wildcard game doesn’t need to be a 3 game series. Win the division if you don’t want to play in a sudden death crapshoot game.

 

I also think the wildcard game is the most exciting part of the playoffs aside from any game 7s in the CS or WS.

[intentional wok]

I agree. The wildcard game doesn’t need to be a 3 game series. Win the division if you don’t want to play in a sudden death crapshoot game.

 

I also think the wildcard game is the most exciting part of the playoffs aside from any game 7s in the CS or WS.

 

More: with the exceptions of 2013 and 19, the home team (Wild Card #1) has always won the WC game. Both exceptions were the Rays.

 

This obviously only pertains to the AL, but it's really working out for at least one half of the league! The separation between NL WC1 and 2 is a bit larger since 2012 (about 3 or 4 GB), but it's still not that bad.

[John_Havok]

Right. Not "whichever is crossed first" but when both requirements are met.

 

Example:

 

A player shall enter free agency in the offseason following the regular season period in which both of the following requirements have been met:

a) the player is 29 years and 6 months of age for at least one day of the regular season

the player has accrued 4.000 years of service time by and including the last day of the regular season

 

Something like that would mean most players reach free agency after the age threshold but some late debut guys would reach free agency a little bit later.

 

You'd still need to figure out how arbitration or salary escalation will work in relation to this but that's not impossible. It could still be based on service time and just go on in perpetuity. So someone who only has 4 MLB years before free agency only goes through arbitration once, in year 4. And someone who debuts at 19 and is under control for ten f***ing years goes through "arb 3" seven god damn times and probably makes something close to free agent AAV in all of those years anyway.

 

I like it. I really like it. Anything that would incentivize teams to promote players is better than the current system.

 

My only disagreement is that under that system, a 20 year old star player is under team control for nearly 10 years with no chance at free agency until he's 30.

 

Sure... he could likely be paid well having gone through arbitration 6+ times, but then there's 0 competition for his services each and every offseason, which could be highly beneficial to him if he hit free agency at 27, rather than 30.

 

That's my only real concern. An age based system would greatly benefit the players that are maybe slightly above average or lower, but star players that are up before they are 23 wouldn't have the same type of freedom to land that mega-deal.

[Spanky__99]

Oakland already pushing the Tiger's s*** in. 4-0 in the 1st. Lets Go Tigers...

[Krylian]

Oakland already pushing the Tiger's s*** in. 4-0 in the 1st. Lets Go Tigers...

 

The joke's on them. Now they have s*** all over themselves.