MLB 2017: The Yankees are dead, Yankees burn in hell

[Jedi_Master]

To be fair, the stadium blackmail racket is a problem that is not limited to Major League Baseball, but it is particularly egregious when you see stadium after stadium with giant blocks of empty seats, only a half dozen teams have any real chance of making the playoffs in a given year, owners consistently running tiny payrolls and raking in league profit-sharing, almost zero outreach to minority communities, slave-labor level contracts for a massive pool of minor leaguers, etc. etc.
Why do these extremely privileged billionaires get to build a business plan based on the availability of cheap public money?

 

[Timby]

Why do these extremely privileged billionaires get to build a business plan based on the availability of cheap public money?

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Edit: I'll always be disgusted by the Marlins financing deal. The public is on the hook for something like two and a half billion dollars in construction bonds, plus Miami is on the hook for upkeep of the stadium, and the team keeps the parking lot revenue. I mean, the Dinger Machine is majestic and all should stand before it and despair, but holy shit.

 

[Timby]

Rumors are flying that the Marlins have been sold to Jorge Mas (who was seen in the owners' box tonight) for a little under $1.2 billion. The team is vehemently denying it at the moment, but Loria is known to have been actively shopping the team for over a year.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

^Interesting, as ESPN was reporting that Michael Jordan had joined the group including Derek Jeter that wanted to buy the Marlins but hadn't said anything about a sale going down. Apparently, Loria was dick to several reporters who asked him about the upcoming sale earlier this week. I'm hoping Loria is finished as an MLB owner after this. He ran the Expos into the ground and has done everything he can to alienate the Marlins fanbase. Several civil suits pertaining to botched season ticket-holder packages are still pending, and another is under appeal. This guy leaves a trail of shit behind wherever he goes, and then other people have to clean up after him.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^Interesting, as ESPN was reporting that Michael Jordan had joined the group including Derek Jeter that wanted to buy the Marlins but hadn't said anything about a sale going down. Apparently, Loria was dick to several reporters who asked him about the upcoming sale earlier this week. I'm hoping Loria is finished as an MLB owner after this. He ran the Expos into the ground and has done everything he can to alienate the Marlins fanbase. Several civil suits pertaining to botched season ticket-holder packages are still pending, and another is under appeal. This guy leaves a trail of shit behind wherever he goes, and then other people have to clean up after him.

Hopefully those lawsuites name Loria specifically instead of the Florida Marlins, but I'm probably just dreaming.

 

[Timby]

It's emblematic of how awful the Cubs' season has been that their sole All-Star blew the game after the season they've been having. Also, that it came off Davis giving up a dinger, despite having given up just one home run in 30 innings this season and four over 212.1 innings over the past four seasons.

 

[Timby]

According to Jim Bowden, the Cubs offered Schwarber to Detroit for Fulmer (lol) or Daniel Norris.

I imagine Al Avila laughed uproariously before hanging up on Theo.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

^It's amazing how quickly Schwarber's stock has fallen, but I guess that's what happens when you're a one-dimensional softball player masquerading as a baseball player.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I think he still has potential as a hitter, but he's too far down right now to be 1 for 1 for a top flight SP.

 

[Timby]

I think he still has potential as a hitter, but he's too far down right now to be 1 for 1 for a top flight SP.

I think the long story short is that he's destined to be a DH and even the worst GM in the league can see it, which means the Cubs have pretty much no leverage in a trade negotiation, between Schwarber's performance this year and having already been sent to Iowa once.

 

[Timby]

That's quite a package for Quintana. Holy crap.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

The White Sox have been making out like the Cubs did for a few years.

Obviously the big piece is Jimenez, but he would be a longer way from the bigs with the Cubs. Next biggest piece is Cease.

The only real problem is the Cubs' problems aren't about 1 SP, but pretty much all the SP's, most of the bullpen and half their hitters.

How long is Quintana signed for? ETA: Signed through 2020, so good on that.

 

[Timby]

The White Sox have been making out like the Cubs did for a few years.

Obviously the big piece is Jimenez, but he would be a longer way from the bigs with the Cubs. Next biggest piece is Cease.

The only real problem is the Cubs' problems aren't about 1 SP, but pretty much all the SP's, most of the bullpen and half their hitters.

How long is Quintana signed for? ETA: Signed through 2020, so good on that.

I guess my bigger issue--beyond what you mentioned about the rotation being a tire fire and half the bats being dead--is that it removes what could be a cog in an outfield that will desperately need help. Heyward, for whatever reason, seems permanently fucked. Jay is a temporary stopgap, Zobrist doesn't have a lot of time left on his clock, and now all of a sudden the Cubs have decided, a few days after trying to dump him, that Schwarber is the left fielder of the future? This feels like a panic move that was ordered from higher than Epstein, honestly (since the new plaza and the hotel are going to be opening up either next year or early '19).

I mean, I get that Jimenez was currently position-blocked (I'm not sold, at all, on Happ), and Cease has real question marks given his injury history and velocity. But those are two real, real good prospects with ridiculously high ceilings to cough up when you already tossed Torres for a Chapman rental last year, and the team is doing so in a season where, unless suddenly magic fairy dust falls, it's looking like "win the division or stay home," because both wild cards are currently coming out of the West.

 

[Kronos]

Years from now, history will clearly show that Chicago won this trade.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Tim Tebow won the second game of a double-header with a walk-off homer. He's coming, Mets fans.

 

[Skywalker]

Tim Tebow won the second game of a double-header with a walk-off homer. He's coming, Mets fans.

All he does is win!

 

[Timby]

Halfway through his five-year deal, the Red Sox have designated Pablo Sandoval for assignment.

Hell of a sunk cost, there. Ouch.

 

[Timby]

Ken Rosenthal says the Cubs are still in on Sonny Gray, but at this point I'm not sure they have much left in the farm system to give up beyond Candelario (and they need to keep him, because both Baez and Russell have imploded and I'm not sure both will recover).

 

[Scout101]

Reported in Boston that the Panda has been released back into the wild, will no longer be kept in captivity.

Wow, that's gotta be one of the worst contracts ever, eating almost $50M to get away from him. Figured he'd eat his way out of it eventually, but they never got the couple good years first, he sucked from day 1. (Josh Hamilton's contract had more dead money, but this is #2 apparently).

Right move, and had to just move on from him, but yeah, that sucked.

 

[Timby]

Right move, and had to just move on from him, but yeah, that sucked.

Some Boston radio guy tweeted this morning that the Sandoval contract was evidence that baseball needs to have buyout provisions or non-guaranteed contracts, because Sandoval just went home fat and happy. A few hours later, Keith Law dug up a tweet from him when the contract was signed, saying that people shouldn't be worried about Sandoval's weight.