Dick_Pole

I get why they want to do that. So a scrub 78-84 team that finds its way into the playoffs has the odds stacked so heavily against it winning the series that it's a rare occurrence. Because as we know, a 70 win team does have a reasonable shot at winning a three game set over a 90 win team throughout the course of the year. It would be far too embarrassing if it happened in the playoffs more than once in a blue moon. Basically the owners want the extra revenue of playoffs while still trying to maintain the integrity of the regular season. What's the point of having a 162 game season when a 93 win team has a 35% chance of being ousted by a team in the 75-85 win range in a three game playoff?

If there is one team in the top 4 slots I'm picking for the Raptors to upset in the first round, I'm 100% picking the Bulls hands down.

There is zero chance any MiLB players with a hope of getting into the majors will go for it. The scrubs who are looking for a pay check even if only for a few weeks might. That's some pretty A level quality baseball. I can imagine the gamblers going nuts for it because the sharps would steal Vegas money for weeks before the lines adjusted. Pretty much anyone else would hate it.

I'm the biggest capitalist pig here and even I cringe at this level of bad take. Baseball would exist if players had the ability to play and there were people who wanted to watch them play. There would have to be someone doing administrative duties and marketing, just like in any sort of organization. But that doesn't mean without billionaire owners the league wouldn't exist.

Whatever the NBA is doing, that's the fairest structure in terms of balancing younger versus older player salaries, team control etc. MLB would blow their heads off before they accept anything near that kind of deal though. As an aside, since when did the NBA have more competitive balance than the MLB? The field is wide open this year on the NBA Championship.

Leafs-Flames would be an epic final. Call it the Freedom Cup. Gary Bettman's head would explode at lack of U.S. teams. Come on let's make this happen.

I've trained myself to exclusively say Rogers Centre now even though I hate it. I passed the fake age test with all of the college chicks on Tinder until Skydome slip ups. I won't make that mistake again.

I wonder how long it's going to take before everyone is going to start calling the Indians the Guardians? Or is it like one of those things when you're referring to the Cleveland team before 2021 it's still the Indians? Definitely not catching on as smoothly as "Washington Football Team" was.

Who needs the politics thread to dunk on Jim when he's been dunking on himself here.

If there is one thing from the Godfrey/Ricciardi era that will have a long-lasting legacy, it's the inferiority complex that the Jays can't compete with the Red Sox and Yankees. Up until the mid-90s, the Jays had absolutely no problem outspending and outcompeting both of those teams. Rogers is richer than Fenway Sports and the Steinbrenners combined. This isn't 2000 anymore. The Red Sox sold off Betts and the Yankees are starting to come to terms with the fact that they have assembled inefficient, overpaid teams with holes in them since they last won a championship. They're not going to go buck wild with their payrolls anymore because there's more and more evidence that this simply doesn't work. Especially post-steroids era where giving a multi-year contract to someone over 30 is a big gamble. What we need to work on is competitive balance and divisional realignment so that three, sometimes four, 90 win teams that somehow get to that level despite facing each other 19 times each aren't competing for three playoff spots while the one half decent AL Central team cruises. But I'm not opposed to the Jays competing with the Yankees and Sox.

At some point in time, the owners are going to turn on each other. Some like Steve Cohen are wannabe Elon Musks in terms of adoration and public perception and this lockout is only going to hurt that attempt. Other owners lose big time money if the season is lost and would be much more flexible in terms of giving players a reasonable deal. While the owners of the bottom feeding franchises thrive off of paying the majority of their roster $600K salaries for as long as they can and will dig in their heels. I really hope owners like Rogers are aggressive in leading to a deal. Rogers has everything to lose and nothing to gain with a prolonged lockout. The team could absorb concessions made to players. Meanwhile a lockout will cost them tons of eyeballs on their own media platforms. The team is good right now so they want them to play. Finally, a deal in the players' favour could really screw the Rays, an irritating division rival that has caused a lot of the problems in suppressing player salaries by gaming the system for so long.

You guys sound super jealous for not having assets. You should try getting some. It's great.

This confusing trade makes the Lowry deal look worse. Had to give up a first round pick just to get rid of Dragic and let some other team buy him out.

That's an incredibly stupid argument, even if it was true. Billionaires don't put ALL of their money into the stock market. They put it into alternative assets to stocks like art. And some of them baseball teams. They even accept lower rates of returns in exchange for diversification of asset classes to guarantee a minimum level of wealth.

They also lost to the Braves in the NLCS, so...

Yeah I don't get this deal at all. Unless they are working some cap space magic. San Antonio is obviously dropping Dragic. They did this for the pick. Anyways, he IS a warm body that will likely be played to lengthen the bench just a little bit. The acquired Detroit pick will be #31 or #32. Raptors will probably finish somewhere 10-15th in the league which means giving up 15-20th pick and dropping down up to 17 slots for this guy. Maybe Masai is bullish on Drew Eubanks and did the ultimate bait and switch putting feelers out for Poetl instead?

I predict that Bauer will be deemed so innocent that the league invents a time machine to go back to 2021, unsuspend him, and re-do the season from the point he got suspended. Dodgers will be forced to play him or the team folds.

Obviously some fall out with the team happened that's worse than the theatrics that were reported when he first came here.

Joe West has had the dream boomer life. Stick around and suck at a job for way too long, getting paid. Then when things start to get hard for the industry (statcast, roboumps), ride off into the sunset with a sweet retirement.

Powell on the move again. Great trade for the Clippers. I would say it's a terrible trade for Portland except that I think they are trying to tank so it sort of makes sense.

Am I the only one who is not particularly disturbed over low MiLB player salaries? It's no different than people waiting tables in Hollywood and taking bit roles in hopes of making it big. It's a trade-off. Very low salary now for the very small percentage of getting a large salary down the road. It's not the owners' fault there are people willing to take this trade-off. Even if it's probably a smart idea from a player development perspective to treat them as human beings. If a bunch of low level players gave themselves a reality check and said "okay I'm not doing this because my chances of making it is nil", the supply of MiLB players would drastically decline. Then owners would have no choice but to increase salaries to lure some back. Simple shift in the supply-demand curve. Rather than trying to suckle MLB's teat, these type of players should try their luck at independent or semi-pro ball. Get some Sportbooks or something to sponsor them. Hell, make Pete Rose the face of the league and have them play at modified horse racing tracks if need be. There are enough degenerate gamblers out there who absolutely would support something like this.

It's almost as if people have missed out on life events over the past two years for some reason... I agree that the owners are at the advantage here. Not from a fan optics perspective (both sides will look terrible) but from a business perspective. The owners aren't in a rush to get back to the table thanks to the pandemic. I know how Ontario is, but are there any states that have severe capacity limits right now? I guess only Florida and Arizona matters for the next two months.

Don't jinx it. They have to finish 6th or higher or get placed in that stupid play-in tournament where anything can happen. The good news is that it's very likely they'll finish in the top 10 so at least they'll get the chance.

Plot twist: BBWAA writers were paid off by the league to take fans' attention and complaints away from the CBA and onto this instead. Might as well just open HOF voting to long term season ticket holders or something instead of the BBWAA.

I'll hate the idea until one of the AMC investor retards spends some money to put a Wallstreetbets/GME/AMC decal on Mets helmets.