Balta1701

The "Whiny narrative" from the fans has absolutely nothing to do with the whiny executive VP of baseball operations whining repeatedly about payroll flexibility, of course. It's only the whiny fans who count.

Sounds like a number of these are now official for this year and next year. Single trade deadline for this year with all star reformats, roster changes and 3 batter per pitcher limit coming in 2020. MLBPA and MLB also agree to begin negotiating on a CBA fix immediately.

Sorry, the bloody thing ate the text that I was trying to put in the link 3 different times before I was able to get it to edit in text.

Soler and CJ Edwards in their 2015 top 5 haven't done much.

Yes. Was almost guaranteed.

Is that really true? If you know you can generate $10m in cap space, can't you negotiate with the guy, actually have the offer on the table and have them ready to accept before you do the restructuring of the other guy's deal?

We don't know what was offered before the 2017 season as far as I know, there was a report that the steelers thought they had it done and then it turned out they didn't have it done before the deadline for signing tagged players, I don't believe we saw a dollar amount. Pre 2018 they offered him a 5 year, $70 million deal that would have paid him just a little less than Gurley got on a per year basis, but that deal only included 1 year/$17 million guaranteed money. Considering the tag locked up $15 million of their cap space last year once they offered it, there was basically no new money in that deal, it was just a repeat of the franchise tag values and any time Bell got hurt or his performance dropped he could have been cut. If he twisted an ankle last year he could have been cut with only $3 million in dead cap space this season. It was a frankly disrespectful offer from Pittsburgh's front office in the modern league, and conveniently they probably missed the playoffs because of it.

I think that comes this year. He's due for an extension soon.

Can we take a moment to appreciate what has happened in the Steelers FO the last 2 seasons? Start off pre-2017, they have one of the best sets of skill players in the NFL. Bell is a FA and they tag him for $12 million/1 year guaranteed. Negotiate a contract but don't reach an agreement, Bell plays the year, they lose to the Patriots at the end of the game on a catch call so bad that it leads to changes in the catch rule after the season, they lose the #1 seed and they get caught offguard by the Jags in the playoffs thinking they'd have an easy march to a rematch. Pre 2018, they extend Brown, putting something like $8 million on their cap but leaving them with a substantial future commitment. They franchise Bell again, putting $15 million in held money on their cap. They low-ball Bell, with a contract that has a $17 million guarantee - they coulda put a $30 million guarantee on the table before 2017 and had things done, but nope. Directly leads to a toxic environment as players are calling out other players before game 1 of the year, circus atmosphere. Bell holds out the whole year, so their $15 million in cap space is completely blown. Play out the season, Steelers even actually beat the Patriots but collapse in the 2nd half of the season, miss the playoffs. No playoff revenue, could have had a legit chance at the Super Bowl. Brown winds up making the atmosphere 10x worse, gets benched. Steelers trade Brown, leaving them with another >$15 million in dead cap space for 2019. Maybe he'd have still blown up had the Steelers been on their way to the playoffs, Bell's mess didn't make him facebook stream a team meeting, but it certainly didn't help the environment. Altogether, they had Bell play for them affordably in 2017, had something like $32 million in dead cap space in 2018 and 2019, missed the 2018 playoffs, and had their QB get a couple years older. This is epically bad. Sign Bell to a reasonable extension before 2017 and he's already through his guaranteed money and at the very least you've got a 2018 playoff run. Rick Hahn looks at this and shakes his head.

"I've had better nightmares" -Natasha Romanoff

But since any bonus converts into a salary when a guy is traded don't you need to be able to absorb the full cap hit? Like $18 million a year?

So you're saying Robert is still out today?

There's nothing wrong with adding arms to Charlotte, the Knights have to play games too.

I hate the concept of changing the mound position mid season. Do it at the start or not at all.

On paper the White Sox are a better team right now than they were to finish last season, with a marginal improvement in the bullpen, Eloy added, and minor downgrades across several other positions in the lineup. Furthermore, some of the guys they played for the full year last year should improve. So, on paper, they should have hit bottom last season - but it's not a guarantee. What would it take for this team to be worse next year? Struggles from the guys who struggled last year, and 1 or 2 major injuries, just like last year. Basically, for 2018 to not have been rock bottom, things just need to go like they did last year, which is at least worrisome because there's a clear path for how it could happen. Hopefully that's a remote chance and when the season is over people will act like it was obvious how much they were going to improve this year, but it's not overly pessimistic to worry at this point, because you can back that storyline up with how things went last year.

You know what? Just stop replying to me if you just want to make personal insults over and over again.

One G*dD*mned win gets us a rematch with Sparty and may put us in the field of 64.

That is ridiculous money for those players. Basically every contract on this page.

Mid 2016 was not 4 years ago.

Um, the 5.5 years and mid-4s ERA with the Yankees?

That's what happens with inept management.

I'm totally ok with a 2-3 year window where they are actually in the playoffs and winning 95+ games per year, so that it's not just a one and out Wild Card. Right now that still seems remote. Frankly, with the rise of what I believe to be the "Superteam era", I think that's what you have to play for. I think the notion of sustainable winning is going to wind up being a myth, because to compete with the 105 win teams you're eventually going to have to trade players away from the guys you don't want to give up. That's what has happened to the Cubs.