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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO

    Major League Baseball - 2019 Season

    It's time to begin our discussion of MLB for the upcoming season. Pitchers and catchers begin to report to training camp next week and by mid-month all the teams will have players at spring training.

    Just to kick off discussion, here's an article by Duke alum Barry Svrluga of the WaPo on the current activity -- really, lack of activity -- in the free agent market. He gives credit to his hometown Washington Nationals for their efforts to fill gaps and needs but points that the Nats have spent more than 14 other teams combined.

    And, of course, the mega-talented Bryce Harper and Manny Machado remain unsigned.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    He gives credit to his hometown Washington Nationals for their efforts to fill gaps and needs but points that the Nats have spent more than 14 other teams combined.
    The Department of Defense laughs...

  3. #3
    This may be my only post on the thread for this season.

    There used to be a team in Detroit.
    Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by weezie View Post
    This may be my only post on the thread for this season.

    There used to be a team in Detroit.
    As a Twins fan, I feel your pain.
       

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    Quote Originally Posted by weezie View Post
    This may be my only post on the thread for this season.

    There used to be a team in Detroit.
    I'm not sure I can name five guys on our formerly heroic team. Once again, the DirecTV Bezbol package will have to soldier on without me. We traded all our stars for a sack of beads.

  6. #6
    This doesn't really have any bearing on the 2019 season, but tough break for the A's, as Kyler Murray, their first round pick last spring (9th overall) says he's committing fully to football. They surely knew there was some risk when they drafted him, but it's still tough to lose such a high pick. They will retain his rights, but get no draft pick compensation.

    http://www.espn.com/nfl/draft2019/st...fl-quarterback
    Demented and sad, but social, right?

  7. #7
    Machado stays in SoCal and signs with the Padres. No terms yet, but supposedly they'd offered him $250MM for 8 years, so presumably in that neighborhood.

    https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/statu...09714153811968

    Edit - 10 years, $300MM. Not too shabby.

    https://twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1097911249399177221
    Demented and sad, but social, right?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    Quote Originally Posted by Blue in the Face View Post
    Machado stays in SoCal and signs with the Padres. No terms yet, but supposedly they'd offered him $250MM for 8 years, so presumably in that neighborhood.

    https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/statu...09714153811968

    Edit - 10 years, $300MM. Not too shabby.

    https://twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1097911249399177221

    I'm amazed by such. Maybe he could turn that around and put a 20% down payment on the Padres franchise.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by Blue in the Face View Post
    Machado stays in SoCal and signs with the Padres. No terms yet, but supposedly they'd offered him $250MM for 8 years, so presumably in that neighborhood.

    https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/statu...09714153811968

    Edit - 10 years, $300MM. Not too shabby.

    https://twitter.com/Feinsand/status/1097911249399177221
    Quote Originally Posted by camion View Post
    I'm amazed by such. Maybe he could turn that around and put a 20% down payment on the Padres franchise.
    Hmmm...dude who doesn't even pretend he likes to hustle gets a 10-year deal to run into his late 30s...this should go well.

    Meanwhile, there's growing frustration here in Atlanta about how even though the Barves' revenues from their tax-funded boondoggle, I mean stadium-centered real estate project, are higher than expected and still climbing, and the team recently sold off a significant chunk of said real estate at a profit, they still aren't plowing the money back into payroll as promised.
    It's almost as if a corporate entity 1400 miles from Atlanta doesn't actually care about the team's fortunes, and is just in the whole thing to make a buck! 400 million tax dollars to make burgeoning profits while the team keeps plodding along and calling itself "mid-market" despite inhabiting the 8th- or 9th-largest US metropolitan area (depending on who you ask) is one heck of a deal, especially in Cobb County.
    In case it wasn't clear, I'm still pissed and the Barves are still dead to me.
    Last edited by wilson; 02-19-2019 at 02:59 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    California
    Quote Originally Posted by wilson View Post
    Hmmm...dude who doesn't even pretend he likes to hustle gets a 10-year deal to run into his late 30s...this should go well.
    More like mid-30s...he will start the final season of that contract at age 35 (and he can also opt out at age 31). The Padres are locking up an elite player (who already has three seasons of at least 6 WAR, and another at 5 WAR) for several seasons as he is entering his prime.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    off the top of my head, I can't think of too many ten year baseball contracts that have ended well.

    To me, this represents the absolute opposite of The Belichick Approach (not that I like the man, but he knows how to manage salaries to remain competitive, albeit in a different league with much different circumstances).

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by budwom View Post
    off the top of my head, I can't think of too many ten year baseball contracts that have ended well.
    And it is doubly bad when a small market team does it. See Cincy/Joey Votto. Not that he has been awful(last year wasn't great), but the ensuing roster inflexibility means you can't make any mistakes.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by YmoBeThere View Post
    And it is doubly bad when a small market team does it. See Cincy/Joey Votto. Not that he has been awful(last year wasn't great), but the ensuing roster inflexibility means you can't make any mistakes.
    Yup. Another case in point: Last year, the Twins gave Joe Mauer 20% of their team payroll to hit 6 dingers and put up a WAR of 1.2. In related news, the Twins finished a distant second in the worst division in baseball.

  14. #14
    After weighing his options in a manner worthy of Danish princehood, Bryce Harper is going to Philly. 13 years, $330MM, no opt-outs.

    https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/statu...10023240204288
    Demented and sad, but social, right?

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Blue in the Face View Post
    After weighing his options in a manner worthy of Danish princehood, Bryce Harper is going to Philly. 13 years, $330MM, no opt-outs.

    https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/statu...10023240204288
    Interesting. If those numbers are correct, that would represent a bit of a loss for Harper. He goes to a place that was reportedly lowest on his destination wish list AND he gets substantially less AAV than either the Machado deal or the rumored offer from Washington.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Harper

    13 years playing for a Philadelphia team is a long, long time.

    As a Nats fan living in DC, I was ready for him to move on. I thought the Nats’ offer last year was more than fair. And I won’t miss his very poor defense and his 110% hustle 75% of the time. He may have another MVP year in him, especially in that small park, of course, but I’d rather sign Rendon to an extension.

    Ahhhhh, seee ya, Bryce.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, D.C.

    Actually

    Quote Originally Posted by CDu View Post
    Interesting. If those numbers are correct, that would represent a bit of a loss for Harper. He goes to a place that was reportedly lowest on his destination wish list AND he gets substantially less AAV than either the Machado deal or the rumored offer from Washington.
    The offer from the Nats apparently had significant deferrals, so the true AAV might have been less. Nats deal probably would have been better from a tax point of view, however. But Harper apparently really wanted to have the biggest FA contract ever. Of course, Betts and Trout may soon break that record.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    North of Durham
    Quote Originally Posted by MChambers View Post
    The offer from the Nats apparently had significant deferrals, so the true AAV might have been less. Nats deal probably would have been better from a tax point of view, however. But Harper apparently really wanted to have the biggest FA contract ever. Of course, Betts and Trout may soon break that record.
    Also, I saw a quote from Boras claiming (I personally think it is a lot of spin) that Harper wanted the longest deal possible and wants to stay in one place for the rest of his career, and that was more important to him than AAV.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington DC
    Quote Originally Posted by MChambers View Post
    The offer from the Nats apparently had significant deferrals, so the true AAV might have been less. Nats deal probably would have been better from a tax point of view, however. But Harper apparently really wanted to have the biggest FA contract ever. Of course, Betts and Trout may soon break that record.
    I get the feeling that the Nats were ready to move on (they have their outfield, invested $ into pitching and saving for Rendon, and didn’t love Bryce in the clubhouse), and their $300 M offer (with substantial deferralas as you mention) was a public marker as a favor to Boras. The Nats have done a lot with Boras over the years with Stras and Scherzer, and have Rendon coming up, so I think the public $300M/10 was for Boras to use as a negotiation lever with other teams. Obviously as more time passed folks realized there was not that kind of market for Bryce. I’m actually surprised he got what he did as recent rumors were that he wouldn’t even get to the $300 the Nats had “offered”.

    As for the merits of the Nats offer, I’m not sure how deferrals work. Do they take the nominal amount and spread it out over a longer time, or is there an inflation factor built in? Without an inflationary component the NPV would be much much worse with a deferred contract. Also from a tax perspective I could argue that longer is worse since the current tax rates will expire in a few years raising the top bracket back up to where it was prior. Though who can guess what tax rates will do over 13 years.
       

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!
    Verlander throws his third career no-hitter. To put that in perspective, here is the total list of everyone who has thrown 3 or more no-hitters.

    Nolan Ryan (7)
    Sandy Koufax (4)
    Bob Feller (3)
    Larry Corcoran (3)
    Cy Young (3)
    Justin Verlander (3)

    -Jason "dayum!" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

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