Balta1701

What is to stop a bunch of teams from sitting there with low payrolls and winning 70-75 games a year if there is league wide revenue sharing?

The owners have had enormous success during this CBA. They restricted player salaries and were able to grow the amount of money going to the owners by something like a billion dollars a year or more (outside of COVID weirdness). The owners want the status quo, effectively. The big proposal they gave publicly would have added a minimum payroll but made the luxury tax level way lower (creating more shared dollars in tax penalties), changing the way the offseason works but basically leaving the revenue breakdown as-is and limiting payroll growth for the entire next CBA. They would be happy with new revenue streams from more playoff games, but they do not want to give back to the players what they gained this round. This issue is why these two sides will take this into a fight. It has gotten out of balance in favor of owner revenue, the owners will not give that up without a fight and the players won’t agree to a new normal without a fight.

Like last week when you said you were certain that Kimbrel’s option was going to be declined?

Even if the rest of the league disagrees and then the player stays healthy and has success elsewhere Hahn cannot be wrong? Well, ok.

If he has a deal worth more than $20 million, yes.

I’ve long since used up my Washington Post free articles, but I saw what seemed really important yesterday if this is in there. The MLBPA apparently has a 6 member steering committee or whatever it is called, with some actual power in that organization. Now that Semien is a Boras client, 4 of the 6 members of this committee, a majority, are Boras clients.

That the players the Braves got were only available because so many teams like the Royals had thrown in the towel before the season started. That the teams really trying to win are being screwed over by teams taking shortcuts like the Braves.

No way that’s the spring training deadline. They pulled it off way faster in 2020. a deal mid June and half the season lost would be a more plausible result of “bad as ever”.

I think he does too, but also remember he has an extensive injury history.

I get why people are insisting the division will be pushovers, but I do think we need to have some caution in that. First of all, Detroit will likely spend some money. Second, Minnesota could as well, and although they crumbled this year, if they landed a Rodon and a couple of relievers that could be a place for a rapid turnaround. Third, it is possible the CBA could force Cleveland and KC to spend more - a minimum payroll would do that. Second and a bigger one - talent doesn’t always equal record. Last year Seattle outplayed their Pythagorean record by 14 wins and that was after trading away their closer. Had Cleveland done that, the White Sox miss the playoffs. In 2019 the Brewers outplayed their by 8, the 2018 Mariners outplayed theirs by 12. I believe it was 07 when the Diamondbacks made the World Series with a negative regular season run differential? Point being, don’t count out teams just because you have a talent advantage, some randomness is guaranteed. Finally, 2 wins last year earns home field advantage, and even though you don’t have to agree, I give the white Sox a much better chance of those first two games were at home.

With this roster’s injury history I think you can readily make a case for signing Leury and another utility player and stashing Romy at AAA so that your bench is 3 deep in case of multiple injuries.

Bah, Rick Hahn is not going to tell you they’re signing a catcher even if they’re signing one tomorrow. Aside from December 2018 where he confusingly gave away both of his catchers.

Everyone freak out I’m about to agree with CWS. I played the “oh payroll can’t possibly go up their revenues make no sense” game in 2015 and then they still signed Cabrera after that, so I’ve been burned on that thinking before. Some numbers - from 2008-2010 the White Sox averaged about a $110 million payroll, with a $125 million peak. League wide, from 2008 to 2019, revenues more than doubled, from under $5 billion to $10 billion. Inflation has been very low this decade so most of the other costs haven’t changed all that much, that’s real growth in money coming in. a lot of it is revenue shared, so it’s going to teams including the white Sox. With playoff ticket sales this year, those years shouldn’t be aggressive comps for next year. If salary stayed the same fraction of revenue, $220 million would be plausible, with a higher peak. No I don’t think this team will pay the luxury tax, but aside from that, I’m not going to guess payroll limits at least until I see a CBA. The players are not happy about that massive drop in their money share and they probably won’t sign anything that doesn’t partially correct it. If it was clear that teams had to spend more over the next few years - it makes sense for the white Sox to do that sooner rather than waiting because their team can win right now and that might not be the case in 2 or 3 years.

Bah it only takes a couple implosions before that strategy would be given up.

Totally disagree and think that's a bad summary of the season, but not going through that again so you may have the last word if you want.

That one was not meant in a bad way, but whatever.

No, Fried had a hamstring injury in April and a Blister in June for 2 IL trips. But they also had a rotation that was deeper than the White Sox, without even counting the injuries to Soroka.

Yes, deciding not to try for home field advantage was a bad decision by the White Sox’s coach. It was wrong and a better coach would have recognized that as a possible issue and not done it.

Said at the time - roughly half of those runs were avoidable with better coaching. So while pitching does have its issues, don’t dump blame onto the pitchers for not being able to do things they should never have been asked to do.

Gios counting stats were higher because of innings pitched though - the Braves didn’t push as many onto Fried as the White Sox did on Gio, at least until the postseason. I can’t disagree with saying it was close, but this season you wanted Fried out there if you had to win a playoff start and had the choice.

It’s not as sexy as an everyday starter, but equal to those needs for the current roster are bullpen help and bench help. Right now Romy and Engel are the 2b and RF starters, if those positions are filled they become weak bench options and there’s still an open spot. Backup C is a big hole. The bullpen is losing Kopech and Tepera as of now, Lopez and Kimbrel are question marks at best. These may be solved readily, but they can’t be ignored.

I’d say it was absolutely a mix of both. Big games by Anderson and Fried were key for the Braves in being able to deploy their bullpen the way they wanted. Their bullpen holding the line allowed them to survive the loss of Morton. If the Astros had one more starter ready and didn’t have to go to short rest Valdez, do they push that to a game 7? Decent shot. You need a balance. The white Sox aren’t far from having that, but they probably have to overdo it on several parts to overcome the issues in their coaching staff.

I’d go Lynn and Morton as much better comps. Anderson this year is hopefully where Kopech might be next year. Unfortunately this season Fried was solidly better than Giolito, maybe that swings the other way next year but that’s just what they were.

Fried and Anderson? The 2020 Dodgers? 2019 Nats? 2018 Red Sox with some dude named Sale? Verlander and a trash can in 2017?