2025 MLB Thread

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by kq76

A lot of players have a negative dWAR. What matters is if they're a net positive with their offense.

Yes, but it still behooves the team to put them in positions where the D drains as little of their offensive value as possible. Pete Alonso has a negative dWar every year. I feel confident that the Mets are not considering moving him to CF any time soon.

I wish Bregman (sort of; still a cheating Asstro) and the Sox all the best. But this is as likely to work out about as well as when Boston tried putting 2-time Gold Glove winner George Scott at 3B, because Tony C was healthy again and they needed to move Yaz or Ken Harrelson to 1B to get all the bats in the lineup. Hawk ended up in Cleveland, Tony C ended up in Anaheim and when they finally put Scott back at 1B he won another 6 Gold Gloves (most of them for Milwaukee, alas…and then Boston got him back by trading away Cecil Cooper…)

It's not going to work. It'd be nice if it would…but it won't.

(And moving Mookie Betts to SS is very unlikely to work, either, but the Dodgers can probably recover from the experiment. JMO.)

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Rays "lying to our residents"

Thing is, as tough as they are talking now, I'm sure the politicians are going to give in. Rays will probably donate to one of their "foundations" or "political action committees" to get the city to fork over public dollars.

I don't think one can blame the Pinellas (the county, not Lou's family; besides, he has one more "i" in his name). Not when you look at this attendance record. Would that many more fans come to a brand new park? Maybe at first, but the novelty would wear off quickly. The team itself could be using this as an excuse to get the heck out of town.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Rays "lying to our residents"

Thing is, as tough as they are talking now, I'm sure the politicians are going to give in. Rays will probably donate to one of their "foundations" or "political action committees" to get the city to fork over public dollars.

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Cities seem to be more and more willing to tell the owners of these clubs to pound sand and frankly the Rays have never been particularly popular in Tampa anyway. I would not at all be surprised if 5 years from now we were looking at a move to Montreal or Buffalo...

[LD84]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. Cities seem to be more and more willing to tell the owners of these clubs to pound sand and frankly the Rays have never been particularly popular in Tampa anyway. I would not at all be surprised if 5 years from now we were looking at a move to Montreal or Buffalo...

Two awful cities to move to if you want to grow your franchise.

I would stay in the southeast and go for either Nashville or Charlotte.

[Amazin69]

Weather, stadium, language, and history issues aside, Montreal does have over 4.2 million people in the metro area, which is larger than Charlotte (2.6 million) and Nashville (almost 1.2 million) combined.

Whether that's enough to retour to the PQ, I leave for other times. But it is definitely an advantage in favor of Les Expos, I'd think.

[LD84]

If it was tried once and failed, I would be loathe to try again.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by LD84

If it was tried once and failed, I would be loathe to try again.

If they had decent ownership, I would agree. At the end though, the Expos had a penny pinching ownership group that sold all of their stars. So we can't blame the populace for not getting excited for a team that's not building to win on the field but in the ledger.

[Syd Thrift]

There were other issues there too, like not even having an English-language broadcasting team for several years in the 90s (which, sure, Montrealers mostly speak French but not everyone in Quebec does). It's also a very large city which all by itself should make it a destination regardless of how well it was "tried" there in the past. It definitely didn't have the rep of being a place that couldn't turn a buck a la Tampa until the last few years of the Expos' existence...

[LD84]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

If they had decent ownership, I would agree. At the end though, the Expos had a penny pinching ownership group that sold all of their stars. So we can't blame the populace for not getting excited for a team that's not building to win on the field but in the ledger.

The Expos gets some of the most revisionist history when it comes to their fans.

Their highest ever ranking out of NL teams for attendance was 3rd
In 1983

https://www.baseball-reference.com/t...N/attend.shtml

By % of capacity, it was 5th


I am not going to say that baseball will never ever work in Montreal.
But the previous 35 years that is was tried does not inspire confidence.

Moving a team takes a lot of effort, and lot of legal hurdles and a lot of money.

I hate even talking about take a cities team away. But if baseball is not going to work in the Tampa area, I think I laid out the best two alternatives unless you wanted to get a bit more radical and go away from the southeastern US

And it is not as easy as looking at metro population
There dozens of other factors.
City growth in the past 5-10-20 years
Income and GDP
Potential corporate sponsors
How many corporate boxes can we sell
Weather
Cost of infrastructure
Ease of getting to and away from the games
Metro access
Does a stadium already exist that can be used temporarily?
Media market
How have other sports fared there?
Competition from other existing franchises and media markets
What is the local high school/college talent?

That last one may make no sense, but when it comes draft and free agency time, knowing the local talent or having players who want to come back home can make a difference

It is a long process and not a decision to take lightly

But I do strongly feel that Nashville and Charlotte are the best cities in the southeast US

After that is probably Austin and San Antonio

The Sunbelt of the US is still petty under utilized for professional sports.
The eastern half of it still has a cost of living and construction costs that are reasonable and provides warm weather for sports like baseball and also weather than players tend to prefer to live in

[Cobra Mgr]

IDK Y we try to take something simple & make it difficult. If McD's makes it known they are shrinking the patties, charging extra for toppings, offering fewer drink choices, discontinuing fries & raising prices, how likely is it that people are going to find other food choices?

When fans recognize the ownership is not genuinely trying to win, they see no need to become invested in the diluted, scaled down product. No fan base should be judged based on management's purposeful wrecking of a team. In fact, they should be commended for not just taking anything the billionaires are willing to give them like Jets, Cubs, Browns, Maple Leaf & Knicks fans.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Hey, the final letter grades for the 2024-25 MLB off-season are out! See how your team did and follow the link for the short blurb of substantiation:

Arizona Diamondbacks: A
Athletics: B-
Atlanta Braves: C
Baltimore Orioles: C
Boston Red Sox: A-
Chicago White Sox: B-
Chicago Cubs: B+
Cincinnati Reds: B
Cleveland Guardians: C
Colorado Rockies: F
Detroit Tigers: B
Houston Astros: D
Kansas City Royals: B-
Los Angeles Angels: B-
Los Angeles Dodgers: A
Miami Marlins: F
Milwaukee Brewers: C
Minnesota Twins: D
New York Yankees: A-
New York Mets: A
Philadelphia Phillies: B+
Pittsburgh Pirates: F
San Diego Padres: C
San Francisco Giants: B-
Seattle Mariners: D
St. Louis Cardinals: F
Tampa Bay Rays: B-
Texas Rangers - B
Toronto Blue Jays - B+
Washington Nationals - C

No punches pulled. This is the assessment for the Miami Marlins: "This is not a serious major-league organization." Ouch.

Very, VERY sad to see the Cardinals fall off a cliff like this.

[Déjà Bru]

I admit, I am still a cable-hugger. (The wife likes her Turner Classic Movies among other things.) Someplace else, I talked about my favorite sports teams migrating and disappearing from the lineup but I still get my fair share of sports viewing.

Right now, college basketball is BIG. At this moment, I could watch any of nine games broadcasting at once, with more to come.

But I went with the baseball spring training game.

[Amazin69]

I wonder why the Mets game isn't on??

Anyhow, this is years in the future, but we may as well have advance warning: the players' union expects that ownership will lock them out at the start of 2027.

(Current CBA expires after 2026.)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

I wonder why the Mets game isn't on??

Mets were on the road today and not on TV, because - shock - the Rays can't be bothered.

[Amazin69]

Wow, between the Rays and the Fish, I haven't seen such dedication by Floridians to their jobs since the 2000 Presidential election!

(Of course, after that debacle, Florida made counting ballots quickly and accurately a priority and they're arguably the best in the nation by now. So…does this mean we'll see an I-75 World Series soon?

Probably not.)

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

I wonder why the Mets game isn't on??

Anyhow, this is years in the future, but we may as well have advance warning: the players' union expects that ownership will lock them out at the start of 2027.

(Current CBA expires after 2026.)

Needs to have a salary cap. Otherwise, your hundred dollar tickets will TRULY be unaffordable.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Needs to have a salary cap. Otherwise, your hundred dollar tickets will TRULY be unaffordable.

I am coming around to supporting a drastic correction of this bubble of money in sports, baseball in particular, even to the extent that if it meant MLB being offline for a year or two and a complete sweep of uber-expensive characters from the stage, I would be willing.

We now have a ballplayer — a man who plays with a baseball in pajamas — making $70 million a year. I choose not to support him directly or even indirectly if I can help it. I accept the portion of my cable bill that ultimately trickles into his hands, but that is it.

I am not as bitter as that sounded but I am concerned. Professional sports has turned into a vast wealth-transfer system with those at the top of it seemingly unaware that their golden rainbow is finite. More and more, people will become aware of this nonsense and resent that their favorite sports have been taken away from them thanks to elitism and over-pricing.

A market correction is in order.

[Westheim]

Slow down, guys, these gazillion dollar contracts are where trickle-down economics actually work. Look, Soto got all the dosh in the world from Uncle Steve, but he also bought Brett Baty, who otherwise has no future in MLB and with his skill set could never have afforded a new car in his life, a new Jeep / SUV / Tank for his #22 on the Metsies.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I am coming around to supporting a drastic correction of this bubble of money in sports, baseball in particular, even to the extent that if it meant MLB being offline for a year or two and a complete sweep of uber-expensive characters from the stage, I would be willing.

We now have a ballplayer — a man who plays with a baseball in pajamas — making $70 million a year. I choose not to support him directly or even indirectly if I can help it. I accept the portion of my cable bill that ultimately trickles into his hands, but that is it.

I am not as bitter as that sounded but I am concerned. Professional sports has turned into a vast wealth-transfer system with those at the top of it seemingly unaware that their golden rainbow is finite. More and more, people will become aware of this nonsense and resent that their favorite sports have been taken away from them thanks to elitism and over-pricing.

A market correction is in order.

It's called capitalism. They make a product, people are willing to pay for it, and some of the revenue goes to the people who actually do the work. (Better them than ownership, I always say. Besides, Uncle Stevie already has $765,000,000…that's how he can afford to pay it.)

Now, would it be great if we had a system where more of that $$$ went to teachers and nurses and firemen and conservation guides and…well, me? Yes, but that's an entirely different economic system and that would take a lot more doing than simply grumping about, as I'm sure you know.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

It's called capitalism. They make a product, people are willing to pay for it, and some of the revenue goes to the people who actually do the work. (Better them than ownership, I always say. Besides, Uncle Stevie already has $765,000,000…that's how he can afford to pay it.)

Now, would it be great if we had a system where more of that $$$ went to teachers and nurses and firemen and conservation guides and…well, me? Yes, but that's an entirely different economic system and that would take a lot more doing than simply grumping about, as I'm sure you know.

I have a good friend whose dad was a steelworker near Pittsburgh, from the late 50's to around 1980.

His dad told me, many years ago, that the unions KNEW that they were running their company out of business with their demands..."but we gave it a hell of a run."

I see baseball players doing this, cheerfully. They don't care about the fans, any more than the owners do. Or Scott Boras.

Anyway, I would be COMPLETELY OK with MLB going out of business, setting up a salary cap, and starting over, with all the players that want to play. It would cost them billions in lawsuits, money that they would make up pretty quickly.