Holy @#%$!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: I mean to say that McNeil has had his position on the team encroached upon several times over now by big-ticket acquisitions.

McNeil himself will be a big-ticket acqusition. He's a star -- a two-time all-star and a batting champ with 20+ HR power. He won the batting title, as if that's not impressive enough, playing half his games in a pitcher's park, in the era of baseball in Denver.

[Frayed Knot]

btw, the C. C. deal is going to be a boon to the 'Wifey Watch' thread.

[stevejrogers]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: True. As evidenced by the Phillies lasting longer this year than the Dodgers, Mets, and Braves.

More importantly though is this fun fact



12 franchises have made 5 or more postseason appearance streaks.



14 1991-2005 Braves, 1 World Championship 5 years into the streak

13 1995-2007 MFYs, 4 World Championships, all within the first 6 years

10 2013- Dodgers, 8 years in and it took a pandemic shortened season to win their lone title

6 2017- MFYs, no titles

6 2017- Astros, 2 titles that sandwich the 6 seasons

5 1949-1953 MFYs 5 and fucking 0

5 1960-1964 MFYs 2 championships, both on the early side of that streak

5 1971-1975 Athletics, Three-peat in the middle

5 1995-1999 Guardians 0 titles as the franchise still waits for their first since 1948

5 2007-2011…SHOULD HAVE BEEN US, but only one title in the 2nd season of the run

5 2011-2015 Cardinals Title that first year, then just one NL pennant to show

5 2018- Braves, so far just the 2021 title to show for half a decade in the postseason.



Certainly plenty of league pennants and LCS appearances in each run, but even more so now just getting into the postseason is no guarantee of a championship parade at the end.

[Edgy MD]

Edgy MD wrote: I mean to say that McNeil has had his position on the team encroached upon several times over now by big-ticket acquisitions. McNeil himself will be a big-ticket acqusition. He's a star -- a two-time all-star and a batting champ with 20+ HR power. He won the batting title, as if that's not impressive enough, playing half his games in a pitcher's park, in the era of baseball in Denver.

Of course he will be. So was Jacob deGrom. And yet.



They've now come at McNeil several times with excess veteran middle infielders who have pushed him around the diamond to find playing time. Robinson Canó, Javier Báez, and now Carlos Correa. That's a similar message from three different GMs, so I don't know.

[Centerfield]

This medical condition is so bizarre. There are bits of information floating around, but I have yet to see anything definitive. None of this makes sense to me.



*The consensus seems to be that he "passed" his physical, but that the Giants took issue with something minor.



*Speculation is that the minor injury was a broken ankle from Correa's pre-MLB days



*Why schedule a press conference if you aren't happy with the medicals? I feel like you clear that hurdle before making arrangements with the press



*If it's true that the Giants wanted to renegotiate the deal, the injury must have been minor enough that they weren't yet ready to walk away



*The only real thing that makes sense is that the Giants got cold feet. And if that's the case, it's hard to understand how they will have any credibility in the marketplace again. Or with their fans.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, Correa isn't displacing McNeil, he's displacing Escobar. And McNeil is more established as a star now than he was when Javy Baez came to town.



Only time will tell whether or not any of this means anything, but I would like to see Alonso and McNeil stay around well past their eligibility for free agency. As Nimmo has.

[Edgy MD]

Certainly agreed on that.

[metirish]

Cry more

[kcmets]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I would like to see Alonso and McNeil stay around well past their eligibility for free agency. As Nimmo has.

Put me down seconding with a giant yay. A big purple yay.



[bIGPURPLE]Yay!![/bIGPURPLE]

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

https://twitter.com/WFAN660/status/1605624231366381568 Cry more

The owner of the New York Yankees complaining about another team spending money is funny. Considering he has spent in the neighborhood of $1 billion on Cole, Judge and Rodon in the last couple seasons and his ballpark is called a "mallpark" for sticking it to the fans.



More effective would be to ask the teams who think they have no chance -- or refuse to invest in their product -- why that is the case. Does the luxury tax Cohen will pay get distributed to the teams that don't spend?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I kinda agree wth Hal.It's not the Mets & Yankees fault that the Reds and Pirates don't do anything but it sucks for their fans to be so hopeless and it's no good for the game that we gotta play 'em.

[kcmets]

I may agree somewhat with all this and that but today, tomorrow and all

off 2023 I'm gonna sit here and look at all the nice shiny toys under the tree.

[Edgy MD]

Please invite Hal to get behind my campaign to end the anti-trust exemption.



Beyond that, I'm not sure what there is to "look at."

[A Boy Named Seo]

I didn't read the piece linked in the tweet, but I disagree with the quote.



Fans of the Royals, Pirates, Marlins and a few other teams feel they have no chance of making the playoffs pretty much always, but with 12 teams now getting in, most fans probably don't feel that way. The playoffs are realistic for most teams (even smart teams that don't spend shit), and as it's been said here a bunch of times, all of Steve's rich doubloons don't guarantee a WS ring because of the randomness of a tournament full of short series.



But if your fav team is built in such a way that on Opening Day it has no shot for even the 11th or 12th playoff spot, well that's not really Cohen's fault, whatever you think of him.

[metirish]

Most of these owners are billionaires , they just don't have Cohen billions , bit many of the bottom feeders could spend more, they choose not to

[Edgy MD]

Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Edgy MD wrote: Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

I admittedly know little about this stuff, but San Diego seems to be doing a lot to squash the market size narrative. I know they have an ocean and palm trees and all that, but they're right in the same mix with Baltimore, Cincy, Pittsburgh, Kansas City when it comes to market size. I don't even know how much SD's owner is worth (his firm is apparently worth $3B anyway), but he's not on any of the same richest guy lists as Cohen, that I know of. And some of the owners who aren't spending (especially the Guardians, whoa) seem to have https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/sports/richest-mlb-team-owners/quite a bit more in the bank than SD's guy. So step up Dolan. You, too, Angelos and Reinsdorf.

[cal sharpie]

6 teams per league make the playoffs. In the NL last year it was Mets, Braves, Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Padres. Given this offseason it sure feels like those same 6 teams will be there next year. Hard to make a reasonable case for other teams to be there. The Brewers haven't improved nor the Giants. Maybe the Cubs a bit although they lost Contreras. The rest look like they have no shot at all.

[batmagadanleadoff]

If baseball had a hard salary cap of, say, two million dollars a year, there'd still be teams with no shot at the title. Was there ever a season where every team in every league in every sport had a shot? What's fair about anything? So all of a sudden we're now gonna start drawing a line with baseball because now the Mets are owned by a superduper rich fuck who's so rich, he makes other rich people look like paupers? If you want fairness, the first thing I'd do is confiscate all of Ivanka and Jared's money and then make them wash toilets in Times Square with their fucking tongues on National TV.



This is long term capitalism. In the end, the top zillionth of one percent get to own everything.

[A Boy Named Seo]

cal sharpie wrote: 6 teams per league make the playoffs. In the NL last year it was Mets, Braves, Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Padres. Given this offseason it sure feels like those same 6 teams will be there next year. Hard to make a reasonable case for other teams to be there. The Brewers haven't improved nor the Giants. Maybe the Cubs a bit although they lost Contreras. The rest look like they have no shot at all.

I think those six teams have a great chance of being there again because they're great teams. There are a lot of super rich owners below them in the standings who are at those places in the standings because they've been in charge of hiring people to assemble teams that are not as good. That will happen in sports regardless of money.



The American League is more muddled. The O's finished three games out of the wildcard. How much would it cost for them to add three wins? The White Sox were five games out. The Red Sox and Twins eight. Would keeping Correa's 4.4 fWAR and adding Carlos Rodon's 6.2 make the under .500 Twins a playoff team? Beats me, but if I were Twins fan, I wish ownership would make a run so I could find out.

[Edgy MD]

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. I admittedly know little about this stuff, but San Diego seems to be doing a lot to squash the market size narrative.

My narrative is less about market size and more about the allowing the free market to operate.



The system as it is set up now has few consequences for failure and a lot of consequences for chasing Cohen around. Along with the increasingly liberal playoff field, the whole deal is set up to incentivize mediocrity and restrict baseball's growth.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Edgy MD wrote: A Boy Named Seo wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. I admittedly know little about this stuff, but San Diego seems to be doing a lot to squash the market size narrative. My narrative is less about market size and more about the allowing the free market to operate. The system as it is set up now has few consequences for failure and a lot of consequences for chasing Cohen around. Along with the increasingly liberal playoff field, the whole deal is set up to incentivize mediocrity and restrict baseball's growth.

I agree with all of that.

[Centerfield]

Kinda wishing I came up with a better thread title than I did. Certainly doesn't hold up to the standard around here.



But I also kinda like that I came immediately to CPF and posted my immediate reaction.

[Edgy MD]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=115330 time=1671675706 user_id=68]So all of a sudden we're now gonna start drawing a line with baseball because now the Mets are owned by a superduper rich fuck who's so rich, he makes other rich people look like paupers?

[Edgy MD]

Kinda wishing I came up with a better thread title than I did. Certainly doesn't hold up to the standard around here. But I also kinda like that I came immediately to CPF and posted my immediate reaction.

Yeah, you did good.



Centerfield to Self: "I could do a Correa/Korea pun, but fuck that noise. I'm thinking Holy @#%$! and I'm going with Holy @#%$!"

[Frayed Knot]

=Centerfield post_id=115340 time=1671682487 user_id=65]
Kinda wishing I came up with a better thread title than I did. Certainly doesn't hold up to the standard around here.



But I also kinda like that I came immediately to CPF and posted my immediate reaction.

[Frayed Knot]

On the whole parity/spending issue: I bring this up from time to time, mainly after I hear someone in sports media talk about how the NFL's hard salary cap has made that

league the paragon of parity and equality while disparaging MLB as exactly the opposite. Except that over the last 20 years the results of MLB & NFL seasons are almost

identical in terms of the number of different champions, the number of different contenders for championships, and also the number of teams on the outside looking in.



Number of different World Series/Super Bowl winning franchises over previous 20 seasons: MLB 14, NFL 13

Number of franchises with at least a WS/SB appearance: MLB 20, NFL 20

# of franchises failing to make the 'final four' (Lg/Conf championship game): MLB 5, NFL 6



And this is not just some snapshot in time that happens to be more or less equal right now. I've been tracking this for years now and this is actually as close as it's been.

The matchup usually tilts more in MLB's favor and this is before even factoring in the more liberal playoff system in football (for much of that 20 years there were 1.5x

more playoff teams).

[Benjamin Grimm]

If we want to translate his name to English, it would be "Charlie Strap".

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://resizing.flixster.com/bDrXzLWhdhgqgONEffgnu3-Q3DI=/300x300/v2/https://flxt.tmsimg.com/assets/p16255_k_h10_aa.jpg>



There's actually a cartoon character named "Charlie Strapp". He's the one on the left, with his friend, "Froggy Ball". Maybe the Mets can get a player named "Bola de Rana" to complete the set.



(EDIT: I'm not used to seeing cartoon characters with five fingers!)

[G-Fafif]

Consensus is forming around an ankle injury from 2014, which Correa sustained in the minors, as the Giants' alibi for backing out.