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MLB Pseudo-Season 2020: Roger, Dodgers

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My parents are still waiting to hear back from Lancaster's minor league team. They'd bought a season ticket package, but even if the season does take place, neither of them are going to feel comfortable going to a ballpark anytime soon. They asked either for a refund or a credit that can be applied to season tickets for next season, but no reply yet.
 
Ar-Pharazon said:
After 'I gotta get my money' rant, Rays LHP Blake Snell drops agent for Scott Boras

Nothing says "where's mah money!" like Scott Bora$$. A match made somewhere south of heaven.
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Scott Boras has arguably been the greatest boon to players, their salaries and their benefits since Marvin Miller. I've said for years that he should be the executive director of the MLBPA, because he actually is a career labor lawyer who understands negotiations (unlike fuckin' Tony Clark).

Edit: And it's not like there isn't precedent for an agent to get directly involved in labor-management negotiations; Brodie Van Wagenen was a superagent--though admittedly not on the level of Boras--before he took the job as the GM of the Mets.
 
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As much as you say the greedy owners are part of the problem (and I'm not arguing that), I think agents like Boras (are there any more like him?) is the other half of the equation. They're the two extremes.

Does Boras even take on clients that aren't Harper level talent, that are gonna get paid no matter what?
 
Ar-Pharazon said:
As much as you say the greedy owners are part of the problem (and I'm not arguing that), I think agents like Boras (are there any more like him?) is the other half of the equation. They're the two extremes.
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In an ideal world, agents like Boras wouldn't be necessary. In a world where teams dabble in things like collusion to artificially hold down salaries and under report revenue from things like Regional Sports Networks, he and people like him are necessary evils.

In the here and now, players are the ones expected to sacrifice because of COVID-19, while when times are good ownership never offers to increase the percentage of revenue going to players.

As far as I'm concerned, ownership has made their bed with the way they interact with the players association.
 
Great how the owner doesn't have the balls to put his name on the letter...

Yesterday was a particularly dark day in the Athletics organization, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the team informed minor league players they will no longer be paid their stipend as of June 1. Robert Murray of The Score shares the email that was sent to Oakland minor leaguers — one which was signed by GM David Forst rather than managing partner John J. Fisher. (Forst, of course, is being asked to play the messenger in this instance and is not the one making the decisions.)
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And, of course, those minor league players are unable to collect unemployment because they are under contract, and cannot play in foreign or independent leagues.

Minor league players are generally undercompensated as a whole, and the $400 weekly stipend they’ve received over the past two months will now seemingly go down as the only baseball-related compensation they’ll receive in the calendar year. Their contracts, which are in a state of suspension but not terminated, bar them from “perform[ing] services for any other Club” and also render them ineligible for unemployment benefits, per The Athletic’s Emily Waldon
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https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/05/oakland-athletics-furloughs-stop-paying-minor-leaguers.html
 
Timby said:
Scott Boras has arguably been the greatest boon to players, their salaries and their benefits since Marvin Miller. I've said for years that he should be the executive director of the MLBPA, because he actually is a career labor lawyer who understands negotiations (unlike fuckin' Tony Clark).

Edit: And it's not like there isn't precedent for an agent to get directly involved in labor-management negotiations; Brodie Van Wagenen was a superagent--though admittedly not on the level of Boras--before he took the job as the GM of the Mets.
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But Tony Clark use to play in the big leagues! Actually is it just me but am I the only person who remembers along time ago when he was still in college and use to play with the Arizona Wildcats? Of course to me the weirdest thing to think is Cirroc Lofton is a nephew to Kenny Lofton who I also recall before he became a baseball star also played for Arizona Wildcats.

Jason
 
BillJ said:
C’mon. If he did that, he might have to downgrade from Shark Fin soup to Swordfish every now and then. Why do you want the man to have to live like an animal?!
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Well, his parents founded The Gap Co, and he and his brothers are on the Board. So, you know, have a little sympathy, retail is hurting right now.
 
Jedi_Master said:
Well, his parents founded The Gap Co, and he and his brothers are on the Board. So, you know, have a little sympathy, retail is hurting right now.
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Retail has been hurting longer than the internet has been around. Mostly because most places refuse to adapt to the next wave of cheaper stores.
 
Just some paper napkin math.

Oakland has 5 affiliated minor league teams
Let's be generous and say they have 40 contracted players per team.
40x5 is 200
200x400 = 80,000 a week
$80,000 a week x 40 weeks (projecting that the 2020 season is cancelled) = $3,200,000 = is about 0.15% of John Fisher's total net worth. One would think he could probably get a personal $4,000,000 LOC in about 15 seconds flat.
Oakland has built a team ethos and fan relationship around the concept that they are the "team of the people" - sticking up for the little guy, scrappy, tough, underpaid, but able to compete with the Yankees and the Red Sox of the baseball world. This is a very, very bad move.
 
Jedi_Master said:
Just some paper napkin math.

Oakland has 5 affiliated minor league teams
Let's be generous and say they have 40 contracted players per team.
40x5 is 200
200x400 = 80,000 a week
$80,000 a week x 40 weeks (projecting that the 2020 season is cancelled) = $3,200,000 = is about 0.15% of John Fisher's total net worth. One would think he could probably get a personal $4,000,000 LOC in about 15 seconds flat.
Oakland has built a team ethos and fan relationship around the concept that they are the "team of the people" - sticking up for the little guy, scrappy, tough, underpaid, but able to compete with the Yankees and the Red Sox of the baseball world. This is a very, very bad move.
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Billionaire treats labor like dogshit, sky blue, water wet, news at 11.
 
In March, the owners and players agreed to prorated salaries for the players based on (#games/162) x contract salary. This is eminently fair even though the players aren't actually bound to accept a reduction. They do after all have contracts. Now the owners drop a further salary cut bomb on the players. Another thing the players are not obliged to do is make up for the owners' losses. If the billionaires can't weather this storm, maybe they have no business owning a franchise. I'm sick of the games these men who have a legal monopoly as baseball owners continually try to pull in order to squeeze the last nickel out of the players who are 100% responsible for the quality of the product that makes the owners' dough.
 
BillJ said:
Maybe this is the time they kill the golden goose?
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At least 10 teams have released their minor-league players today. Agents have said it's "a bloodbath." MLB is cutting off its nose to spite its face.

Edit: One agent said, "This is the equivalent of trying to save money by cutting out your daily Starbucks trip while still driving an X5 you can't afford."
 
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