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2018-19 Non-Red Sox Offseason Thread
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Post by rjp313jr on Jan 28, 2019 13:56:17 GMT -5
So apparently, the deal does a have a team option to buy out one year of free agency. Merrifield must really need the money and/or he really loves KC. You can go either way if this was a good deal, but with the way free agency is trending, it might be just good enough. He essentially only took a raise in the first 2 years of the deal and he took a pay cut by the last 2 years if he keeps producing in his 30's. For all the talk of the weakness of the free agent market, it seems to me that what the player's union should really be gunning for is A) a greatly increased league minimum salary and B) expanded rosters. Take the guys riding the AAA shuttle or the phantom DL and give them real MLB jobs higher base salary. Get more players to free agency sooner, partly by simply increasing the amount of service time that's available, and by giving them less of a reason to sign these team-friendly deals. And, the gains from this plan would go to players that actually need them in a more real way than the Harpers and Machados of the world. It's not that uncommon for guys to play ten-plus years in pro ball and maybe see parts of two or three MLB seasons during that time. For players like that, increasing the base salary really would make a difference in their lives that isn't just about how many fancy cars they get to own. AND, on top of that, teams would probably be more willing to spend a little in free agency if the alternative wasn't getting a bunch of pre-arb guys to play essentially for free. But the union doesn’t fight for those guys. The complaints are around guys not getting the top end deals they want. I think we’d all agree that paying minor league guys more money makes sense on a lot of levels but that won’t be part of the labor negotiator either.
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Post by mredsox89 on Jan 28, 2019 13:57:24 GMT -5
The Merrifield deal aside, I do think we've begun to see player coalescing around the bad parts of the current system far more than we've seen in the past. Will it be enough to force a labor stoppage? Who knows. It's going to require a hell of a lot of work on the MLBPA side of things to get the union to strike, but the more players like Bryant etc. start talking up how bad it is that so many top FA's are unsigned just weeks before ST, the more believable it is that they may actually strike.
I wonder if something they may be able to get is maybe take away an arbitration year, which in turn allows players to get to FA a year earlier. I'd also like to see an amnesty clause like the NBA has used in the last couple CBA's, an increase on the league minimum, and potentially, if it's usable, a max contract like the NBA, but I don't think that's happening.
They also REALLY should pay MILB guys FAR more than they currently do, but since the MILB guys don't have a seat at the table, I find it hard to believe that the MLB franchises will actually do that
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jan 28, 2019 14:04:22 GMT -5
The union worries about the top $ earnings/earners but doesn't worry about the minor leaguers and doesn't address the pay inequity for your productive ballplayers.
Long-term contracts are what teams are pushing back against and they should - there is a ton of evidence to suggest that they are doomed to failure most of the times.
Union officials should smarten up in the same way and realize that most productivity is based during most players' first five to seven years or whatever it is and try to get their players paid better at that stage rather than trying to get their players future pay for previous performance that clubs know won't pan out.
No reason why rosters can't be expanded a bit to alleviate all of this up and down shuttle and the DH implemented in both leagues. That is something the players' union should be able to accomplish, but they have to get off of this "collusion" type of thing. They also need to establish some kind of salary "floor" penalty if teams drop under just like there's are salary "cap" type penalties if teams go over.
They need to stop worrying about getting their best players to make $50 million or whatever it is because if one player is taking up at least 20% or more of the teams' payroll it makes it hard for the team to compete and to play other players a higher salary.
Another thing they should do is try to get compensation for teams who lose free agents but not punish those who do - like why should you lose a draft pick if you sign a free agent. If a team loses a draft pick, then ok give them a compensation pick but you don't have to do it at the expense of the signing team.
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Post by rjp313jr on Jan 28, 2019 14:12:19 GMT -5
Also, they should re-examine the draft so the worst teams don’t get the best picks. It’s no secret teams have deliberately tanked and not spent money because they weren’t going to be very good. Which makes sense with the current set up, but if you establish a salary floor (even if it’s a sliding scale based off of revenues) and do something like the bottom 10 teams pick in reverse order so if you’re dead last you actually get the 10th pick then teams Might be less inclined to tank.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jan 28, 2019 14:16:51 GMT -5
Also, they should re-examine the draft so the worst teams don’t get the best picks. It’s no secret teams have deliberately tanked and not spent money because they weren’t going to be very good. Which makes sense with the current set up, but if you establish a salary floor (even if it’s a sliding scale based off of revenues) and do something like the bottom 10 teams pick in reverse order so if you’re dead last you actually get the 10th pick then teams Might be less inclined to tank. Or maybe they can use the Ping-Pong balls for the worst 10 teams. Don't know if that's a better solution. All I know is in your scenario I'd love to be the 21st best team in baseball, although in my scenario being 21st best gives you a chance rather than total certainly of being the top draft pick team. Being 20th would be disappointing. One thing we shouldn't forget is that the draft order was instituted partially to break up the Yankees dynasty and prevent teams from being the Browns, Philly/KC A's, Senators teams that stunk just about every single year for long stretches of time (along with the Phillies as well).
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Post by rjp313jr on Jan 28, 2019 14:45:36 GMT -5
Also, they should re-examine the draft so the worst teams don’t get the best picks. It’s no secret teams have deliberately tanked and not spent money because they weren’t going to be very good. Which makes sense with the current set up, but if you establish a salary floor (even if it’s a sliding scale based off of revenues) and do something like the bottom 10 teams pick in reverse order so if you’re dead last you actually get the 10th pick then teams Might be less inclined to tank. Or maybe they can use the Ping-Pong balls for the worst 10 teams. Don't know if that's a better solution. All I know is in your scenario I'd love to be the 21st best team in baseball, although in my scenario being 21st best gives you a chance rather than total certainly of being the top draft pick team. Being 20th would be disappointing. One thing we shouldn't forget is that the draft order was instituted partially to break up the Yankees dynasty and prevent teams from being the Browns, Philly/KC A's, Senators teams that stunk just about every single year for long stretches of time (along with the Phillies as well). There is no perfect system but it’s a lot harder to plan on being the 21st worst team than the worst. If nothing else bad teams would have something to play for, at least the front offices would. Maybe top prospects get promoted to help get a better draft pick? Idk maybe it’s a dumb idea
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Post by rjp313jr on Jan 28, 2019 14:59:30 GMT -5
Welp.
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Post by jimed14 on Jan 28, 2019 15:27:15 GMT -5
So apparently, the deal does a have a team option to buy out one year of free agency. Merrifield must really need the money and/or he really loves KC. You can go either way if this was a good deal, but with the way free agency is trending, it might be just good enough. He essentially only took a raise in the first 2 years of the deal and he took a pay cut by the last 2 years if he keeps producing in his 30's. For all the talk of the weakness of the free agent market, it seems to me that what the player's union should really be gunning for is A) a greatly increased league minimum salary and B) expanded rosters. Take the guys riding the AAA shuttle or the phantom DL and give them real MLB jobs higher base salary. Get more players to free agency sooner, partly by simply increasing the amount of service time that's available, and by giving them less of a reason to sign these team-friendly deals. And, the gains from this plan would go to players that actually need them in a more real way than the Harpers and Machados of the world. It's not that uncommon for guys to play ten-plus years in pro ball and maybe see parts of two or three MLB seasons during that time. For players like that, increasing the base salary really would make a difference in their lives that isn't just about how many fancy cars they get to own. AND, on top of that, teams would probably be more willing to spend a little in free agency if the alternative wasn't getting a bunch of pre-arb guys to play essentially for free. I'm fully on board, but we all know those employees are not the ones that the union has ever fought for or ever will fight for. Plus there are at least two factions on the owners side, one of which would fight that until the end of time. This is going to be a tough one to work out. Every side is going to have to think outside of the box. There are so many different factions so it'll be pretty impossible for one or some of them not to get screwed. You have the superstars, you have the middle ground free agents, the league minimum guys, the arb guys, the small market, middle market and large market owners. I'm skeptical that they're going to all work together. To me, the small market owners have been the ones that always get everything they want, but that's going to have to change in the form of conceding larger minimum salaries, way more arb money and/or less years of control and team salary floors. That's going to be a non-starter for just about all small market owners, so those are the ones that are going to have to crack.
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Post by jimed14 on Jan 28, 2019 15:28:47 GMT -5
It's going to be a long 3 years if everyone states there's gonna be a lockout after every single free agent signing. I mean what else is there to talk about? The signings themselves? Not every free agent signing has to turn into another lockout/strike discussion. There will be a lot of signings between now and then.
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Post by Don Caballero on Jan 29, 2019 11:46:17 GMT -5
The signings themselves? Not every free agent signing has to turn into another lockout/strike discussion. There will be a lot of signings between now and then. Yeah maybe the subject comes back to lockout a bit too often lol but it's just been sooooo sloooooow it's inevitable it turns into barely related talk. That being said, Twitter going nuts about Bryce Harper going to the Phillies being announced later tonight. Get your Ron Paul gifs ready friends we're about to go nuts.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jan 29, 2019 13:43:29 GMT -5
The signings themselves? Not every free agent signing has to turn into another lockout/strike discussion. There will be a lot of signings between now and then. Yeah maybe the subject comes back to lockout a bit too often lol but it's just been sooooo sloooooow it's inevitable it turns into barely related talk. That being said, Twitter going nuts about Bryce Harper going to the Phillies being announced later tonight. Get your Ron Paul gifs ready friends we're about to go nuts. I think that was a false rumor about Harper going to the Phillies. Harper might very well wind up in Philly but it probably won't happen until Valentine's Day at the rate they're going at.
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Post by rjp313jr on Jan 31, 2019 15:31:30 GMT -5
SF Giants... Savage
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mobaz
Veteran
Posts: 2,780
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Post by mobaz on Feb 1, 2019 14:12:28 GMT -5
www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/01/rockies-avoid-arbitration-with-nolan-arenado.htmlArenado gets $26M in his last year of arbitration eligibility, beating Donaldson's record out by $3M How much of an impact is arbitration inflation going to have on the next round of CBA discussions? Owners can now claim that by year 5/6, superstars are getting paid like superstars (kinda sorta). Mookie set the bar for Arb-1 and Arb-2, and Arenado for Arb-3; those are the players you want getting paid in that process.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Feb 3, 2019 6:41:56 GMT -5
So Clemens still has a wicked slider for some reason lol.
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Post by James Dunne on Feb 7, 2019 14:59:05 GMT -5
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Post by jimed14 on Feb 7, 2019 15:13:28 GMT -5
I think that will get the ball rolling now. I think that was holding everything else up, including Kimbrel and a trade of one of the Sox catchers. Although, Alfaro going to the Marlins probably eliminates them as a Swihart destination.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Feb 7, 2019 15:13:30 GMT -5
A thing!
Dear God please let this start a slew of movement.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Feb 7, 2019 15:19:57 GMT -5
RIP to the Legend of Frank Robinson. Baseball just lost one of it's greatest immortal (so it seems) or legendary players it seems.
Arguably the greatest defensive third baseman of all time. One of the greatest players of all time.
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Post by James Dunne on Feb 7, 2019 15:22:47 GMT -5
RIP to the Legend of Frank Robinson. Baseball just lost one of it's greatest immortal (so it seems) or legendary players it seems. Arguably the greatest defensive third baseman of all time. Errr... I think you might be thinking of Brooks Robinson? Frank was an outfielder. But other than that, yes. Robinson was a true trailblazer, and one of the greatest players in history. That is sad to see.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Feb 7, 2019 15:24:55 GMT -5
RIP to the Legend of Frank Robinson. Baseball just lost one of it's greatest immortal (so it seems) or legendary players it seems. Arguably the greatest defensive third baseman of all time. Errr... I think you might be thinking of Brooks Robinson? Frank was an outfielder. But other than that, yes. Robinson was a true trailblazer, and one of the greatest players in history. That is sad to see. Lol got my legends mixed up. Yeap. They were never related were they?
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Post by jimed14 on Feb 7, 2019 15:27:57 GMT -5
Errr... I think you might be thinking of Brooks Robinson? Frank was an outfielder. But other than that, yes. Robinson was a true trailblazer, and one of the greatest players in history. That is sad to see. Lol got my legends mixed up. Yeap. They were never related were they? You might get your answer with a google images search.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Feb 7, 2019 15:33:11 GMT -5
Lol got my legends mixed up. Yeap. They were never related were they? You might get your answer with a google images search. That's embarrassing by me, but my legacy of screwing up names goes even further.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Feb 7, 2019 16:20:57 GMT -5
In all seriousness, Frank Robinson is one of those players where you can read about for hours. Two time MVP in both leagues. Player/manager. He only struck out 789 times to 698 walks. Unheard of in today's game. Nearly 600 homeruns. I need to go to baseball HOF to see a plaque like this someday.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Feb 7, 2019 16:54:40 GMT -5
I was about to say something nice about the Marlins, and then I saw that Jorge Alfaro had a 23.8% swinging strike rate last year. The number on that obviously don't go back too far, but it's fairly safe to say that no one else in MLB history has played anything close to a full season while missing the ball that often. Alfaro still has a lot of valuable skills, and the prospect haul seems ok, but yeeeesh.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Feb 7, 2019 18:38:58 GMT -5
I'm just kind of bumbed that the Sox will never have a chance to get Realmuto now. He'll sign long-term with Philly. They have the money.
Congrats on every team in the NL East besides the Marlins and Braves when it comes to caring about winning however. Braves signed Donaldson, but they are still being extremely cheap after getting a new ballpark.
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