John_Havok

It's like they think the union is categorically stupid and won't be able to recognize being snowballed, or they just hope it wins them points in public opinion because they're the ones that made the offer and want the union to immediately reject it (which they should). They probably just want the "Well we made the offer to fix the problem..." to resonate with the drooling masses

More than all of us by far...that bastard.

If a draft lottery gets instituted where only the bottom X number of teams get in, and X is a small number like 5... yeah. If every non-playoff team is eligible for the lottery, then it makes 0 sense.

Yeah, they know the problem because they love having it as an option. Terrible way to address it though. That's one of those things that's akin to a slap in the face. "Hey guys, here's this problem that we know is a problem because we love having the ability to abuse it, so here's a completely non-sensical way to help solve the problem that we know is stupid, but we feel good because we offered to fix the problem."

His skillset announced his retirement years ago

So far, his exit velos are increasing, along with the avg launch angle. Sounds like he made some meaningful changes.

Do what I did, trade every prospect you ever drafted or picked up at their peak value for legit major leaguers, and win 2 seasons later. Whatever everyone else is doing, do the opposite.

When are they on?

I'd put Buehrle in before Lester, and I would never vote for Buehrle.

I've been listening to MLB network quite a bit the last few weeks... every single one of them have the stereotypical old school baseball opinions. Listening to them whine about A-Rod being the new co-host of a show MLB is doing was priceless. They are so out of touch it's kind of sad.

Andy Pettite lite?

Not really, it was almost 20 feet deeper than the joke of a RF porch in Yankee Stadium. 333 to the shortest corner. Now it could be as deep as 363 with a 12 foot fence. Oracle park in Frisco is 339 to LF, 10 feet high. Petco is 334, similar height. I know they said it could be moved "As deep as 30 feet" which might not mean a change to the LF corner and maybe they mean the LF power alley, but either way, a 12 foot fence with those kind of dimensions is pretty harsh.

30 feet + a 12 foot fence seems like overkill.

Until you take the numbers into context. PLus they generally only negotiate 5 year deals. The minimum salary has gone up every year since 2003, the increases are already a part of the CBA. From 2017 - 2021, the min salary went from 535,000, to 545, to 555, to 563.5 and 570.5. so the 10k per year increase was already happening, and i can only assume the slowdown towards the end was due to COVID negotiations. So, starting at 600,000 would be a decent start, but lets assume for a moment that if this wasn't being negotiated right now and there hadn't been a COVID slowdown... the min salary would already have been 575,000 for 2021 and would have expected to be 585,000 for 2022. so an extra 15k over what they already would have had for 2022 is supposed to be some monumental give by the owners? And instead of increasing by 10 K per year, if we assume a 5 year deal, they increase by 20. Well, they sure could spin it by saying they've doubled the yearly increase of league minimum. Sounds great, until the actual context is presented. If I were the union negotiator, my counter would be 750K for players in the first year, year 2 get 1 million, and year 3 (unless they get arbitration in year 3 as a super 2) gets 2 million. Then annual increases in that minimum can be tied proportionally to revenues or a static number, whichever is higher that year. There would also be bonuses for annual awards which the owners had proposed before. This counter would offer a concession that they don't change the current arbitration system and leave it as is. If the owners want less money than those minimums, then they'll be listening to a counter proposal that changes the arbitration system and gets players to arbitration sooner. That would be my angle from the players union, either you're paying up known quantities with increases tied to revenues, or we are re-doing the arb system to get players there sooner. I think the owners would rather do known quantities in order to preserve the ability to manipulate service time.

I wouldnt hate it, depending on who we gave up. He's a decent bet to bounce back at least a bit with the bat, and there's no question marks about the glove. But it would depend a bit on his medical, that surgery he had might just mean the end for him.

Yeah, that's a laughable increase. Last season the minimum was 575,000 and likely would have increased to 590,000 on it's own due to the built in way it already increased. If they even think an extra 10K is some massive gesture... they're smoking the good s***.

The one flaw with that plan is that you're trusting Bryant to be an effective defensive 3b as well as being a good bat, which ... I don't think is the case. He's clearly on the downswing at 3b, Biggio sucks at it, Moreno is an unknown factor and Espinal is the only real plus defensive option, with probably the worst bat depending on whether Biggio bounces back. This team's overall defense is really not all that good around the diamond right now. CF is decent, I think Bo will at least be average or better, Jansen is plus behind the dish. Beyond those 3 guys, there's a few runs being given away over the course of the season on D. Maybe over a full season it doesn't matter as much since they're still capable of outscoring their mistakes, but in short playoff series or 1 game play-ins, the D can't be a liability. I'd truly prefer they go after someone more defensively skilled with a capable bat for 3b, rather than a big bat with a suspect glove. Don't get me wrong, positional flexibility is a good thing, but it's only truly effective if the players are actually avg or better defensively at the majority of positions they move around to. What good is it to move a guy around if he costs you runs at every spot?

Yeah. If I was the negotiator for the PA, i would have been putting out a tweet or release every day stating that he/they were ready to negotiate and has reached out to the owners, waiting for their reply - while of course knowing they wouldn't. Obvious tactic to try and keep public sentiment on their side, but can be quite effective.

I don't think the plan is for Moreno to be the 3b in 2022. I think the plan is for the Jays to try him there in the minors as often as possible to see if it makes sense. He was a SS at 16 when taken in the international draft, so it's not like he's some brick-handed butcher the Jays are just praying can catch balls hit his way so they don't have to use him at C.

Typically they wouldn't, but they already have an extremely capable defensive catcher in Jansen who has always shown offensive potential that may have actually started to manifest last season. And as AG pointed out, catching prospects are a friggin' nightmare to project, they just so rarely make an instant impact due to the many demands of the position. I honestly think the Jays are hoping he pans out at 3B given their current catcher surplus right now.

There’s just a timed gap with stuff on the screen that says “commercial in progress.” MLB used to put short highlights on from years past to fill those gaps, but they don’t anymore.

It’s not about that, it’s about people not wanting to pay what cable companies charge for their subscriptions, and the subsequent sports packages. More and more viewership every year is switching to streaming services for sports consumption. Not the illegal stuff, the legal ones. People don’t want to pay for s*** they don’t use anymore.

You just made the list.

Honestly, I just really wanted to use the word ponce today.

Not overly serious, just when you comment on things that you haven't read, you tend to look like an uninformed ponce.