Frayed Knot

Signed just in case Rosario's game goes into a hand-basket.

Chris Berman?!?!? What did Sox fans do to deserve that? =G-Fafif post_id=2921 time=1550177579 user_id=55] Boston decided to upend its traditional setup and make its PBP more chatty (or some such nonsense).

Chris Berman?!?!? What did Sox fans do to deserve that? =G-Fafif post_id=2921 time=1550177579 user_id=55] Boston decided to upend its traditional setup and make its PBP more chatty (or some such nonsense).

Can't wait for Chris Flexen to miss most of 2019 and 2020 when he blows something out: https://the7line.com/blogs/the-7-line/mets-pitcher-chris-flexen-has-undergone-a-big-transformationhttps://the7line.com/blogs/the-7-line/mets-pitcher-chris-flexen-has-undergone-a-big-transformation So Chris is flexin'

But there is, unquestionably, a smaller market for free agents in recent years. And the reasons that I state above are why I think it's happening. But you also used the term "collective effort" which to me implies a degree of planning/tacit agreements/collusion which I don't believe exists. The problem with pacts like that is if just a few members refuse to go along it all falls apart and here there are clearly teams in the mix for both these guys making this FA period not even close to that of the late '80s when everyone was in lock-step. And the one reason you didn't state is simply that some clubs just don't think it's a very good idea to sign players, no matter what their age, to such long-term/big-money deals. MOST such deals in recent years (even among top players: Pujols, Cabrera) have wound up with the signing club regretting it and even the ones signed to players in their 20's (ARod, Stanton) resulted in the team wanting out from under it before the contract was 1/3 over. Not that every deal HAS to wind up that way but I think clubs opting to either tread lightly (the Yanquis are "monitoring" the Machado situation) or stay away completely can be justified in their own minds. And, yeah, if they opt to spend their money not on the high-ticket player but rather spread that same cash around more the result is likely to be a rise in total salaries that's less steep as compared to recent years. But that's happened before without it being a crisis as not every trend moves in a straight or predictable line. Back when ARod first signed his Texas deal I thought there was no way he'd actually invoke his (then novel) opt-out clause because he was so far ahead of the market that even several years into the deal no other contract had come close to matching his. But by years 5 & 6 the market started to do just that and he DID wind up opting out and was able to essentially duplicate the deal seven years later. Not surprisingly, the team that signed him to that one came to regret it as well - although there were a whole host of reasons for that one (as there always are). I don't think teams, or specifically owners, are dumb. In fact, I said they have made a series of shrewd moves to put themselves in this situation. This situation where their revenues are soaring but players' salaries are not growing proportionately. And I don't know if looking to maximize profits qualifies as "evil". I think that's just business. But it's important for fans to understand that owners are not on their side. Well the 'dumb' part comes from the idea that signing these players is a known 'Win-Win' for the owners but that they're too stupid to realize it. And the 'evil' part is the idea that they can all well afford it but simply choose not to because they'd rather lose (or be mediocre) and make $50 million than win and only make $30 (not that I believe those are actual numbers but am just illustrating a point). You're free to argue that they're wrong in their thinking, and they well may be, but I don't think there's the degree of malice in their decisions (we'll take 'dumb' and 'evil' and combine them into 'malice') that you seem to believe. Bottom line: not every short-term trend is the result of a long-term problem. In addition to Verlander calling the system "broken" the other day, one player (Neshak, I think) was recently quoted as saying "we signed a bad CBA last time". Well it was the same CBA they were happy with until right around this time last year. They're upset with FA compensation rules but those were actually lessened in the current agreement as compared to the previous. Draft rules were skewed more towards the owners at the expense of amateurs but the union has never shown any interest towards non-dues-paying players anyway so they've got no quarrel there. FA and arbitration rules have remained virtually unchanged for years now and the players weren't complaining until now. What's changed in the last year or two is the owners' evaluation of some of these topics. So if this cautiousness over older and/or big ticket FAs continues then it seems to me that the players are going to need to focus their attention more on adjusting the early career restrictions rather than judging their success solely by how high the ceiling got jacked up each year and hoping that the rising tide lifted the rest of the boats. And that's what CBA negotiations are all about. It could be worse. They could be the football union which signs shitty deals that they know are shitty when they sign them and yet do so in Ten-Year agreements that they are then stuck hating. As it is, the MLBPA will survive quite nicely during the next (two?) seasons under this deal which they didn't seem to hate until it was half over and then be part of the process which tries to correct what they don't like.

I don't believe that there are super secret meetings where the owners are saying "hey, no one sign Bryce Harper". But I do believe there is a collective effort on the part of owners to suppress players' salaries overall. And a combination of shrewd moves by the owners and lack of pushback from the union has now led to this situation where good and great players are getting tepid or no interest. They're getting screwed. Not sure how this "collective effort" is manifesting itself in the case of these two unless somehow the league got together and decided that only certain clubs would be in on the bidding. Harper, by announcing goals of $400 million ("and why stop there?") ahead of time, rejecting an offer of $300 right out of the gate, and now announcing that you won't accept short(er) offers, has effectively eliminated potential employers. Machado, according to his father, has "four or five" firm offers and that statement goes back at least a month now. But he too is holding out for something different than what he's already heard. In fact I suspect that each one is, in effect, in competition with the other so as to "win" the FA season meaning the waiting has as much to do with the other player as it does with the various teams. All perfectly within each of their rights of course, but the definition of collusion doesn't involve a situation where you don't get everything you want, when you want it, and in your choice of colors. Bottom line is, it's tough to make the case that the top two FAs being unsigned at this late date points to a "broken" system (acc to Justin Verlander) when each has either rejected, or is currently sitting on, multiple options. Your comeback to this is that more teams should be both willing and anxious to pay the players' demands and therefore are either dumb or evil for not doing so. That may or may not be true but I'd hardly consider it a stone-cold fact and am guessing they'd disagree with the assessment. The rest is essentially explaining why the system should be different going forward than it is now, something that's fine with me but that doesn't have any bearing on this particular off-season.

I don't believe that there are super secret meetings where the owners are saying "hey, no one sign Bryce Harper". But I do believe there is a collective effort on the part of owners to suppress players' salaries overall. And a combination of shrewd moves by the owners and lack of pushback from the union has now led to this situation where good and great players are getting tepid or no interest. They're getting screwed. Not sure how this "collective effort" is manifesting itself in the case of these two unless somehow the league got together and decided that only certain clubs would be in on the bidding. Harper, by announcing goals of $400 million ("and why stop there?") ahead of time, rejecting an offer of $300 right out of the gate, and now announcing that he won't accept short(er) offers, has effectively eliminated potential employers. Machado, according to his father, has "four or five" firm offers and that statement goes back at least a month now. But he too is holding out for something different than what he's already heard. In fact I suspect that each one is, in effect, in competition with the other so as to "win" the FA season meaning the waiting has as much to do with the other player as it does with the various teams. All perfectly within each of their rights of course, but the definition of collusion doesn't involve a situation where you don't get everything you want, when you want it, and in your choice of colors. Bottom line is, it's tough to make the case that the top two FAs being unsigned at this late date points to a "broken" system (acc to Justin Verlander) when each has either rejected, or is currently sitting on, multiple options. Your comeback to this is that more teams should be both willing and anxious to pay the players' demands and therefore are either dumb or evil for not doing so. That may or may not be true but I'd hardly consider it a stone-cold fact and am guessing they'd disagree with the assessment. The rest is essentially explaining why the system should be different going forward than it is now, something that's fine with me but that doesn't have any bearing on this particular off-season.

So Harper/Boras have rejected (at least one) long-term deal and say they won't accept a short-term one? Tough to claim collusion with that mind-set.

=metirish post_id=2782 time=1549986110 user_id=72]I followed her

=smg58 post_id=2728 time=1549898106 user_id=62] His minor league tenure is comparable to Paul Goldschmidt's --

I thought Jeter was declared to be the face of All franchises?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Maybe sometimes the Mets were faceless. https://images.hellogiggles.com/uploads/2016/05/24083705/faceless.jpg>

For at least the second or third year in a row now, the POST's Kevin Kernan is filing all the pre-ST stories on the Mets Today's he's https://nypost.com/2019/02/09/the-simple-routine-that-changed-everything-for-steven-matz/talking about Matz and the changes he's made to his mental routine, changes which will either mean a lot or maybe nothing, who knows. A couple of stats are thrown in which indicate that maybe Matz is on the verge of turning a corner, but they're all pretty selective in nature so you can take or leave them.

Yeah, but the universal DH increasingly sounds like it's a matter of when rather than if. This is like how bad governments act: OK, here's a rule that has been both unpopular and controversial since it was put in on an experimental basis as an antidote to conditions that no longer exist. But we now feel we have no choice but to expand it because temporary has turned into 46 years while we were doing nothing about it and so now it's been entrenched for so long we don't know how to end it. Back, I think it was in the 1930's, this country built up an 'emergency helium supply' just in case a war broke out and zeppelins were crucial to winning it. That of course never happened but that didn't stop the helium reserve from existing into the 1990s because: a) they had it; didn't know what else to do with it; c) and it provided jobs in some Congressman's district for some connected schlubs to make sure none of our enemies snuck in during the night and stole it all. Your tax money at work!!

Yeah, but the universal DH increasingly sounds like it's a matter of when rather than if. This is like how bad governments act: OK, here's a rule that has been both unpopular and controversial since it was put in on an experimental basis as an antidote to conditions that no longer exist. But we now feel we have no choice but to expand it because temporary has turned into 46 years while we were doing nothing about it and so now it's been entrenched for so long we don't know how to end it. Back, I think it was in the 1930's, this country built up an 'emergency helium supply' just in case a war broke out and zeppelins were crucial to winning it. That of course never happened but that didn't stop the helium reserve from existing into the 1990s because: a) they had it; didn't know what to do with it; c) and it provided jobs in some Congressman's district for some connected schlubs to make sure none of our enemies snuck in during the night and stole it all. Your tax money at work!!

Manfred says No changes to the DH rules or the draft procedures this year. Continuing talks will focus on pace of play adjustments for 2019.

So they're not changing it to the 'Crippled Dude List' ... or simply Crip-List for short?

=bmfc1 post_id=2631 time=1549657725 user_id=73].The games are Saturday at 1:10 PM (Eastern) and Sunday at 10:10 AM (Eastern).

Nah, I've already booked passage on the Lusitania II. It's scheduled to get me there in plenty of time, but even if things go the way they did with the first one I can just swim the last couple of miles. Fortunately, I think German U-Boat activity in the Irish Sea is down these days so I'm not that worried.

Nah, I've already booked passage on the Lusitania II. It's scheduled to get me there in plenty of time, but even if things go the way they did with the first one I can just swim the last couple of miles. Fortunately, I think German U-Boat activity in the Irish Sea is down these days so I'm not that worried.

Looking forward to the 7th inning spot of tea.

=metirish post_id=2605 time=1549647804 user_id=72] If you can go to @backaftathis and see Francesa talking about Robinson.

Who was the pitcher who Frank yanked by the collar and dressed down on the mound in front of a full stadium when said hurler casually flipped the ball in Frank's general direction because he was pissed at being relieved?

The final haul seems to be: Alfaro, plus pitchers Sixto Sanchez ® and Will Stewart (L), plus 250K of Int'l bonus slot money. Stewart, 21, former 20th round draft pick, good year over 20 starts at Low-A in 2018 Sanchez, 20,Dominican, top 20-30 prospect [#13 BA, #27 MLB, #23 BP] in this winter's lists. Pitched 8 starts at High-A in 2018 at age 19

'Robbie' was one tough SOB ... and that's what his friends said of him.