Abomination

I don't know, it's not like Votto isn't providing good value on his contract so far, and is almost a year younger. I'd rather pay 25M / year for Votto than 20M / year for EE, even if the back end of the contract is a little uglier due to length. Aside from his injury plagued 2014, Votto's worst year in the last 8 years produced more WAR than EE's best year.

Average age is much less important than core age (although ours isn't great there either). A couple of relievers or bench players pushing the average age up isn't a major concern. Having older core players definitely is.

Smoak for Ethier straight up is a no brainer imo. Ignoring the buyout, we'd be getting Ethier for basically 13.5M a year and filling a position of need.

The only way I could really see it happening would be if we took Ethier and his full salary off their hands, and gave them a good prospect on top of that. It might be worth it, but that's probably what it would take.

Joe Kelly. I think the Red Sox figured it out at the end of last season though.

I'm basing the 300 off press releases this year. Keep in mind that they usually show multiple national games in the same time slot. Here's the full list (scroll down a little) for this year: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/sportsnet-unveils-national-hnic-broadcast-schedules/ By the sounds of that link you gave, it works out to an average of 30M, but it escalates like the NHL deal does (they probably get less right now, maybe 20M ish). Regardless, local advertising rates will usually be higher than national ones in general, because it adds local businesses to the competition for ad slots. For example, a local business in Ottawa doesn't give a rats ass about how many people in other provinces see their ad. They'll only be willing to pay a rate based on their expectation for what it brings them in added business. For your postseason argument, I didn't include it because the NHL one also includes postseason rights (and there's more NHL postseason games given 7 game series and an extra round on top of that). Baseball games being 30 minutes longer doesn't necessarily mean anything, but the number of ad slots and length of the slots can. That's information I don't have, especially for hockey. I suspect that MIGHT favor hockey slightly overall when you factor in the intermissions, but it's probably pretty close. I think the 100M is pretty damn close. This year it would probably increase to maybe 125M or so. Again I'm just talking the approximate likely value that would be paid for the rights on the open market.

You misunderstood what I said, but regardless looking into it a little further it seems Rogers in 2015 paid 300M for the NHL rights (it scales), and are believed to have made about 10% on it. (last year was probably worse with no Canadian teams in the playoffs) So 330M over (300?) national games, all star game, postseason games, some rebroadcast games from the States, and NHL Center Ice and Gamecenter Live revenue. Getting the revenue in fewer nights a week should significantly boost advertising rates, as should the tradition of HNIC. Even ignoring that though, and if we assume the hockey games have roughly the same average viewership as the baseball games, knocking off a guess of maybe 30M for NHLCI and Gamecenter, we'd arrive at roughly 1M / game for the actual revenue the Jays broadcasts would have generated last year based on the hockey numbers. Now that doesn't fully factor in the large viewership increase since I think many of the slots are negotiated well in advance, so that's probably a more fair guess for next year than last. Also, broadcasters would expect to make a profit on the broadcasts, so the team wouldn't get 100% of that (maybe 80 to 90%?). With that considered, taking maybe 80% due to pre-negotiation and a generous 90% to the team, we'd arrive at ~$117M for last year. Now that also doesn't factor in Rogers pawning off the French language rights for 65M / year average which I forgot to factor in above, which would reduce that figure another 20% possibly. I think it's reasonable to assume that last year the fair market value of the tv rights was probably a little under 100M.

Apparently DeMar and JV are the first teammates to ever have a 40 point and 30 point game in a season opener.

I think their deal gives them exclusive, region free rights for games involving Canadian teams on those nights, but also gives them non-exclusive rights to all the other games as well (among other things).

GD didn't appear to be setting his lineups last week either.

TV revenue figures are constantly rehashed around here, but all we can do is guess. What we DO know, is that the advertising rates we get here in Canada is a fraction of what they get in the States for the same number of viewers. Also, merchandise sales are part of revenue sharing, as are 31% of other local revenue. Of the revenue sharing, I don't think we get the full amount of that back either because we're in a bigger market. I think we also outsource the concessions (no idea why), so probably don't get much if anything extra from that. Also, keep in mind with New York that the Yankees managed to get a deal pushed through with YES network that is insane. Basically everyone in New York with cable has to pay for YES whether they want it or not, and I think it's $10 or $20 a month that they pay. I have no idea how anyone was willing to let that get passed.

It seems pretty likely that they will. They're gonna really want to capitalize on the renewed fan interest. I would expect probably 160M, but it would be nice if that was a little flexible for the right fits.

I suspect they'd probably eat some of Robertson's salary rather than lessen a return (which wouldn't make sense for where they are).

LeBron is fun to watch when he's not playing you in the playoffs.

If we could net a high end young position player, we'd have to at least consider it. In general though, it seems like pitching is harder for us to attract than bats are. Developing our own is probably more valuable to us than it is to other teams.

Saunders coming back as the DH wouldn't be the worst thing in the world imo.

He's a free agent, isn't he? Regardless, signing a player coming off what is almost certainly a career year seems like a bad idea.

I'm not sure Asdrubal is really a plus defender, although he has improved the last two years. He also got that contract coming off seasons of 0.3, 1.6, and 2.2 WAR.

Around that range, yeah.

I doubt they'd have to eat much contract, unless they wanted to get a high end return. Heck, if Tulo were to hit the free agent market right now, he'd probably get pretty close to his current remaining contract.

He could be twice bitten, three times shy too... On the other hand, I'm not sure Edwin's skill set will decline the same as other players.

The Red Sox might have a right handed version of Miller in Joe Kelly too.

Cecil and Holland together probably come in at less than Chapman will get per year.

Well, he was 12th in WAR amongst center fielders last year, which is ahead of some pretty big recognizable names earning a lot of money. In 2015 he was 7th in the league.

I don't think he necessarily has to be a DH. He's probably average to above average defensively at 1B if he plays there all season. Keeping his mouth shut should be part of his next contract though.