2013 Baseball Thread

[Rich Gapinski]

I start this one every year, because, for some reason, I still love baseball.

I am sure some of you have heard the hilariously unsurprising news about more PED links to Alex Rodriguez, but I figured I would just start this season by explaining a couple things people may have missed.

In a rare moment of weakness, I gave the MLBPA and Bud Selig rare acclaim for the almost 20 years of labor peace last year, but two things happened in the negotiations that people may not realize:

1. There are now first-round draft draft picks tied to major free agent signings. The details are very boring and intricate, but basically, you give up your top picks for a big signing unless you have a top ten pick, which are exempt. It is a amazing that the MLBPA allowed this to get by because guys like Michael Bourn and Kyle Lohse had problems finding new teams because they were unwilling to part with such high picks. Lohse still is unsigned.

2. Small market teams should probably go ahead and build up disdain for John Schuerholz, President of the Atlanta Braves. John did not like that smaller market teams were spending so much money in the draft and on foreign players. With a team that hovers aroun $80MM in total payroll, he did not like the need to keep up with the Pirates and other teams in draft and overseas spending, so he came up with the idea of a draft cap. So, basically, one way small market teams had a chance to make themselves attractive was by spending enough money to build a farm system. Now, there is little difference in signing with the Pirates or Yankees in terms of dollars. Also, there is a slotting system in place along with the cap that would cost future draft picks if teams break the bank. It doesn't take much of an overpayment to get to the penalties, either.

So, player development must be perfect for small market teams and they will have less frequent and possibly shorter windows to win titles because of mis-steps by both the owners and the MLBPA.

[Rich Gapinski]

Finally, how does this allow me to complain about the Mets, a team I still somehow follow despite a recent trade of the Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey, my second-favorite player on the team? Well, because the new CBA did not address it, the Mets did not get Michael Bourn because the Pirates could not sign Stanford right-hander Mark Appel last year. Since the Pirates could not sign Appel, they get a top ten pick that they normally would not have had. The Mets would have had the #10 pick of the draft if the Pirates had signed Appel. Now, the Mets have the #11 pick, a pick now that may or may not be protected. The league office never answered the Mets inquiry about how it would logically make sense that their pick would be protected, so Bourn got tired of waiting, got a similar deal with the Indians in terms of dollars and now the Mets may play something named Collin Cowgill in an already pathetically-skilled outfield.

[Andy Freeland]

This time of year I generally have 2 thoughts:
1. Go Reds
1a. Go Red Sox

I've made a slight revision this year:
1. Go Reds
2. Please don't completely suck Red Sox

Prediction - the Red Sox will ignore my plea.

[Rich Gapinski]

My Mets prediction- Bad, real bad, but not Astros bad. I may be moving to Houston, because, I think I have something left in my arm and I really might have a shot.

[tubbs1518]

The Reds should have as good a chance as anyone to come out of the NL this year. And if Chapman can pitch as a starter as good as he did as a closer, they should be the favorite.

[wxwax]

Bourn's first half was as great a his second half was forgettable. The Braves don't think a four year deal made sense, that a speed guy won't last. I think maybe the mets escaped a future problem.

I don't get the beef with the Braves. They're basically a small-market team in terms of budget, no?

[Rich Gapinski]

Bourn's first half was as great a his second half was forgettable. The Braves don't think a four year deal made sense, that a speed guy won't last. I think maybe the mets escaped a future problem.

I don't get the beef with the Braves. They're basically a small-market team in terms of budget, no?

Lower-Middle, but I am a Mets fan tortured by the Braves my whole life. So, yes, I don't like them, but my beef is more with Schuerholz since it was reported that he was behind the terrible draft cap ideas. He felt he was helping small market teams by controlling what they spend in the draft and overseas, but was way too myopic in thought. The move is bound to hurt smaller market clubs in the next five years. Under the old system, the Pirates would have been able to throw around a Strasburg-like signing bonus and they would have had Appel in their system to go with Tallion and Cole.

Surely, baseball's biggest issue is the broken economic system in terms of a level playing field. Now that the Yankees started YES and the other bigger markets are following suit with ways to make huge sums of money locally while the Brewer-like teams of the world deal with much lower cable revenue and smaller population bases, I wonder if the nice time that baseball has had with nice playoff turnover, despite people wrongly trying to say the opposite, is about to end. With the unpredictability of the timing of specific player development, baseball will never get as bad as the NBA, but it is on a trend that isn't helping itself. And baseball doesn't need any more trends where it doesn't help itself. There is no one who should understand this problem more than Trader Bud, but he has proven himself to be about as useful as the cleaner next to Andy's microwave. As long as the the revenues continue to rise with better TV deals and rising miscellaneous income in the stadiums themselves, there will be nothing done, but if baseball ever wants to get to the point of true parity it says it wants (which, maybe it doesn't), there is a large fight ahead in 15-20 years that will require intervention from outside of the commissioners office. Owners, though, mostly have no incentive to change. It has long been a story about how the Pirates stink and the owner continues to make money each year. If Pittsburgh isn't griping yet, then maybe there isn't even sticks available to rub together for smoke.

[KabaModernFan]

Bourn's first half was as great a his second half was forgettable. The Braves don't think a four year deal made sense, that a speed guy won't last. I think maybe the mets escaped a future problem.

I don't get the beef with the Braves. They're basically a small-market team in terms of budget, no?

The thing about Bourn is, with the contract he signed with the Indians, he's not being paid to be the same star player he has been for the past four years. As long as he can give Cleveland average production for four years, they'll be getting their money's worth.

[wxwax]

I'm the farthest thing from a budget guy, but I would have thought that a cap on draft spending would ultimately favor the poorer teams. Perhaps once in a while a poor team might splurge, but surely over the long run it's the rich teams that would overpay to get young talent?

[Rich Gapinski]

I'm the farthest thing from a budget guy, but I would have thought that a cap on draft spending would ultimately favor the poorer teams. Perhaps once in a while a poor team might splurge, but surely over the long run it's the rich teams that would overpay to get young talent?

Throughout the free agency period, the rich teams tend to be the ones that spend more on free agents and current talent. While your thoughts are reasonable and normal, the truth has been different. What you said is something the richer teams COULD have done. While baseball has plenty of busts like every other sport, the top talent would go to the worst teams because of the draft system, but signings would ultimately take place a large percentage of the time. Now, the Pirates can't give more than the Yankees can next year because of the cap. It will be harder for the Astros, Pirates, Marlins, Rockies, Indians and other to sign their picks because they can just wait it out and probably go to a better team. The richer teams tend to overpay for older talent, not younger talent.

As far as overseas spending, the big team that has had success for years there is the Dodgers. The Braves, Pirates, Indians and Astros have routinely been going down there to get the young talent as early as possible. The Red Sox began to get better at it with Theo Epstein and the Yankees continue to lag behind.

That is the basics of the history, but other than that, I can only ask you to trust me on this one because we won't see the real effect for 4-5 years.