You can always listen to the radio feeds, even when the live game is blacked out.
MLB 2019: Mad Max Beyond Astrodome
- Thread starter Timby
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You can always listen to the radio feeds, even when the live game is blacked out.
Thanks. Though the free game will do. I usually only catch a game or two a week. This represents a nice option.
I mean, really, that's about as much of an admission of soft collusion as you can get, in that the league is actively encouraging teams to hold salaries as low as they can. And they bragged about it to The Athletic.
Edit: And don't any of you point to the Machado / Harper / Trout contracts, because the average MLB salary has fallen for the second straight year, and something like 40 percent of players on MLB rosters are making league-minimum.
Edit: And don't any of you point to the Machado / Harper / Trout contracts, because the average MLB salary has fallen for the second straight year, and something like 40 percent of players on MLB rosters are making league-minimum.
And? I don't see how teams holding the line on salary arbitration is collusion. Trying to get the best deal possible is just being smart. Besides, what kind of trophy is it really (it is a dick move, but well short of what would be needed to prove collusion)? If you have Nolan Arenado on your roster, you weren't holding down the arbitration salary regardless of what you did.
What we have here is a perfect storm: players agreeing to an unofficial salary cap (luxury tax) which the biggest spending teams are no longer willing to spend past, not getting a guaranteed piece of the revenue pie, and the devaluation of older players (why pay millions for most 33+ year old players when you can get the same production from a kid at the MLB minimum?).
The players stupidly walked into the current deal. And for all the grumbling, I'm not sure when it comes down to missing paychecks, that they are going to have any kind of resolve to hold out for a better deal.
Sorry, but it is collusion. It may not be illegal restraint of trade, but when 30 supposed competitors all get together and decide on a common business strategy, it is most assuredly collusion.
There is no "trade", the player is still under control of the organization, and pretty much every organization has always tried to hold the line on arbitration salaries (going back as far as I remember, which is the mid-80's). We wouldn't have the process of going to an arbiter if teams just ponied up whatever the player wanted in every situation.
Like I said, the trophy is a dick move and making it public is sticking it to the players. Not sure why they would make that kind of reveal when their relationship with the MLBPA is tenuous at best. Bad public relations move, I don't see it as collusion.
The Cubs are scoring a lot of runs, but are 1-2. Everybody but Lester and a couple others is giving up shitloads of runs.
To be fair, a lot of pitchers are giving up a lot of runs, including good pitchers. The first four days have been brutal.
It's almost as though the Cubs should have spent money on their bullpen instead of signing Daniel fucking Descalso, claiming they were out of money, while at the same time renovating seemingly two-thirds of Wrigleyville.
As constructed, the rotation currently comprises a bunch of 2-3-4 starters, the bullpen was always going to be a disaster this year after everyone got driven into the fucking ground, and there are still far too many question marks in the lineup. Basically everyone beyond Hendricks, Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, maybe Contreras and maaaaybe Lester (I don't trust him to last the season) would have nearly zero value on the trade market.
Oh, hey, I hear Kimbrel and Keuchel are still looking for work...
100% correct. Kimbrel, particularly, would be a great addition. Both pitchers would be even better.
I wouldn't want either one at six years and a hundred-million dollars.
Yup, both are valuable pitchers but their contract demands are unrealistic. However, I'm sure at least one GM will blink and sign one or both over the next few weeks.
A GM would be a fool to give either more than three years at $45-50 million total. Which means one of them walks away with something like seven years at $160 million.
Kimbrel is arguably the most dominant closer not named Mo Rivera of the past decade, while Keuchel won a Cy Young only a few years ago.
I'd be hesitant to go longer than three or four years on Kimbrel because relievers are so fungible and prone to suddenly falling off a cliff, but I wouldn't hesitate to give Keuchel a five- or six-year deal with opt-outs.
Yes Keuchel did win a Cy Young award and seems to be trending downward. His year after the Cy was abysmal but he did bounce back in 2017. Last year he was good but certainly not great and his WHIP shot up to 1.314. He's 31 years old. Let's face it, he's never been as good as that one Cy Young year in 2015. He ain't getting any better moving forward. I'd steer clear unless it was for a 2-3 year max deal and he isn't willing to settle for that.
Kimbrel was great in Boston but last year he was awfully shaky at times. I still don't know how he didn't blow a couple playoff games. Overall, Atlanta got Kimbrel's best years. He will never be that good again. I would love to see him still in a Red Sox uniform but not for 5-6 years. That's just crazy talk.
I know you're pro labor and I don't begrudge any player trying to get max dollars but some of these guys are unrealistic about what they think they deserve. I also think it's irresponsible for owners to throw money at players just because they have it.
Kimbrel was great in Boston but last year he was awfully shaky at times. I still don't know how he didn't blow a couple playoff games. Overall, Atlanta got Kimbrel's best years. He will never be that good again. I would love to see him still in a Red Sox uniform but not for 5-6 years. That's just crazy talk.
I know you're pro labor and I don't begrudge any player trying to get max dollars but some of these guys are unrealistic about what they think they deserve. I also think it's irresponsible for owners to throw money at players just because they have it.
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I could've kept him, but because he wasn't getting signed and there was no prospect in sight (apparently not even the Brewers now even though they lost Knebel), I chose to let him go. Worked out for me because that empty spot allowed me to draft Treinen. 
No matter what else may happen, regardless of the troubles in this world,
There Is...Always...Baseball.
On one of my teams I have both Keuchel and Kimbrel. Friggin' autodraft
but my own fault for not ranking my players before the draft- Status