MLB Offseason: Owners got a dinger of a CBA

[Ar-Pharazon]

Javy Baez to the El Tigres for 6 years/$140M. Detroit fans should get ready for lots of excitement with some WTF moments mixed in....and yeah, he will swing at pitches 2 feet over his head or 2 feet outside, so be prepared for that.

Meanwhile, the Cubs signed LF Clint Frazier to a 1 year deal and C Yan Gomes to a 2 year deal.

 

[Starbreaker]

Braves have resigned Heredia and Arcia. We're going to have a deep bench again.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

R.I.P. pitcher LaMarr Hoyt at 66. One of only two White Sox pitchers to win the Cy Young.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Braves have resigned Heredia and Arcia. We're going to have a deep bench again.

What's the latest on Freddie?

 

[Starbreaker]

What's the latest on Freddie?

He's a World Series champion. Completely silent on both sides.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Actually, what I meant was... have the Braves re-signed him, or has he gone off somewhere else now?

 

[Starbreaker]

The lockout is about to happen. I guess we'll find out in weeks or months.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I would be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very surprised if Freddie left the Braves.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

"A lockout of Major League Baseball players appeared imminent after talks between the league and union ended after just seven minutes of negotiations Wednesday afternoon, less than 12 hours before the expiration of the game's collective-bargaining agreement."

 

[cardinal biggles]

Deadspin is reporting on a story originally published in Business Insider confirming that MLB intentionally deadened the ball this season, but their efforts were undermined by them mixing in "live" balls leftover from the 2020 season. I guess this is the sort of fuckery we should come to expect when the league owns Rawlings.

 

[Timby]

Javy Baez to the El Tigres for 6 years/$140M. Detroit fans should get ready for lots of excitement with some WTF moments mixed in....and yeah, he will swing at pitches 2 feet over his head or 2 feet outside, so be prepared for that.

Meanwhile, the Cubs signed LF Clint Frazier to a 1 year deal and C Yan Gomes to a 2 year deal.

Frazier is an interesting reclamation project. If they can fix his swing (lol) he could be a valuable piece. Signing Gomes probably means Contreras is on his way out of town.

The Cubs have also signed Marcus Stroman, no contract details yet (they're probably rushing to get his physical done before the lockout begins in four hours).

Deadspin is reporting on a story originally published in Business Insider confirming that MLB intentionally deadened the ball this season, but their efforts were undermined by them mixing in "live" balls leftover from the 2020 season. I guess this is the sort of fuckery we should come to expect when the league owns Rawlings.

While I'm loath to give Vichy Deadspin any clicks, I'm not terribly surprised by this. MLB did admit that they deadened the ball, and Rawlings admitted to also tightening the seams, but there were too many hits this year that should have been bloop singles with the dead ball but became dingers, and vice-versa.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Looks like the Cubs have signed RHP Marcus Stroman.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

"A lockout of Major League Baseball players appeared imminent after talks between the league and union ended after just seven minutes of negotiations Wednesday afternoon, less than 12 hours before the expiration of the game's collective-bargaining agreement."

I know it's not a surprise at all.

But it still fucking sucks.

 

[Timby]

I know it's not a surprise at all.

But it still fucking sucks.

It sucks, but it's not unexpected. The game's economics are badly tilted in favor of ownership (spoiler alert: there's no such thing as a poor team), and the union got rolled, horribly, with the 2016 agreement. There's a reason--well, many reasons, foremost among them that the union's executive committee would have revolted--that Tony Clark stepped aside from leading the negotiations and the MLBPA hired Bruce Meyer to be their new lead negotiator. Meyer has led union negotiations for the NBPA, NFLPA and NHLPA, he knows his way around labor law and sports economics, and he's not going to eat a shitty deal like Clark did five years ago.

 

[Timby]

MLB is still filing papers with the NLRB, but there is officially a lockout now.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm sure MLB will spin all of these big contracts that were signed before the lockout like "Well, look at the value of the contracts we agreed to! We're not the ones being greedy!"

 

[Spider]

In the grand scheme of things, the fact that a sports player will make millions a year while teachers, firemen, policemen and the like don't make shit shows how our society values things.

Apparently sports is more important than your kids getting a good education.

 

[Starbreaker]

The fact that people will spend $5k on a World Series ticket or $18 on a movie ticket is what puts keeps these billionaires rich. The highest paid athletes and actors don't hold a candle to the owners.

 

[cardinal biggles]

In the grand scheme of things, the fact that a sports player will make millions a year while teachers, firemen, policemen and the like don't make shit shows how our society values things.

Apparently sports is more important than your kids getting a good education.

Given how much time and money is lavished on athletics at every level from the pros down to your local high school — they'll decimate arts & humanities programs no sweat, but keep your dirty fucking commie hands off our football team — sports are always more important than letting kids get a good education. It's one of the myriad ways this country has its priorities up its ass.

 

[BillJ]

Apparently sports is more important than your kids getting a good education.

It is the gambling aspect that is more important than kids getting a good education.