caulfield12

We MIGHT hear for a day or two some talking points in Congress about removing the anti-trust exemption, but that never amounts to anything in the end.

Always nice to knee-cap one of the five most important columnists in the sport. And surely he will go somewhere else and write only glowing remarks. It seems the US is turning into China. You're either with the ownership class/government, or you're an enemy of the state, so to speak.

The Royals were bad for thirty years but finally hired the right talent evaluators....but Ewing Kauffman ran huge payrolls in the 1980s considering that market size. Then David Glass of Wal-Mart fame tried to apply the same philosophies to a pro sports team and it took them decades to fix it. So not tanking, just a small are the team with worst first round draft picks than the White Sox from the 90's until around 2010-11.

Incredible depth at Ohio State…when their 3rd and 4th receivers are putting up those numbers with CJ Stroud the Heisman favorite if he returns. Strangely becoming the Oklahoma of the Big 10.

Probably can add USC and maybe Notre Dame....at least until Riley goes to the NFL.

Something like 13/18 semifinal games have now ended up with double digit losses...pretty deflating ending for Michigan. Just shows the gap between UGA, Bama and the rest of college football.

Just listed as one of the biggest surprises due to his age and walking away from so much money…he did have 3.7 and 4.2 fWARs two and three years previously, but hard to say he was retiring at his peak. And 2005-2007 was when Ortiz was arguably the most dangerous hitter in baseball…and the Red Sox did lose to the Indians 3-0 before CLE went on to face the Cubs. That said, Ortiz fell off but never quite to the same degree as Posey, of course largely due to injuries/positional risk (Posey) and probably/possibly Ortiz had PED’s in his favor and the increasing likelihood of getting caught.

Initially thought it was KYyLe23 retiring from his moderating fortunes to take a job with Marvel or DC Comics... Adding to the list above Gil Meche, Sandy Koufax and Lou Gehrig (one of those just doesn't fit, haha)

How? Not played Moncada?...and it's not like any of the complementary or transition roster fillers that season (2018) turned out to be any good. I suppose they could have forced more young pitching to the big leagues...but none of them were really ready or even close other than those already acquired via trade.

Because the player's union tends to have reps that have more experience...and they are the ones the press most frequently goes to for quotes. In the same way, a first or second year teacher isn't going to the media and bypass their own union reps with 15-30 years of prior experience in dealing with administration/negotiations. And Giolito's still not really making big money...yet, fwiw.

The most obvious point is to have your 10-15% that you play around with in individual stocks, but the majority of investors under $10 million should be in just a few diversified index funds or ETFs, even though they're far less exciting. The last year or two, all the media coverage was Cathie Wood and ARK, but she might have the worst returns of anyone in that space. I really took a temporary hit on my Chinese stocks...which demonstrates no matter how much you know about a country, you can never underestimate Black Swan events like a government attempting a once every 30-40 years takeover of an entire economy that was previously humming along like none in modern history. I've had to learn about delisting and try to forecast that Alibaba, Ten Cent, and JD will be worth ten years from now. I committed a slightly different mistake 20 years ago, going after all the hot tech names after being disappointed with a relatively conservative fund that was getting trounced. While the individual stocks back then tanked (bought JDSU at $110, didn't get out at $140) and rode it all the way to the bottom as a write off. Recently, sold TSM way too early...at $90, still tripled money, and got out of Berkshire Hathaway (still a very solid return over 15 years) and plugged it into China. So not trusting my intuition to do anything but leave it in Vanguard, Fidelity, Oakmark, Legg Mason and Bill Miller Funds. And the one thing I did right was never selling low on any of those funds that got killed in 1998-2002 or even in 2007-08 or March 2020. And not being that interested in bonds or precious metals...missed out on Bitcoin but that's the case for most I imagine. If anything, should have added last year (John Deere from my hometown or Boeing) but at least we sold our family house for a tidy profit. Downside is no house or car if I can ever get back to the US to visit...sigh.

Now if only he could help sort out that current mess at Memphis...

Watch Garfield in Tick, Tick...Boom!!!

Going to have to report this to mods for malicious libel and slander...especially the Parkman one. Not sure you will receive the desired reaction from Ray Ray, however.

My goal is to defeat Ron and take over the world by trading laugh emoji's with Tray, who's actually a really good guy! Everyone would be satisfied with THAT Rodon, if we could get at least 150+ innings out of him, is the answer to the question. And I'd actually put pretty even odds between Scherzer, Verlander, Kershaw (whatever the eventual deal turns out being) and Rodon who gets the biggest bang for their contract dollars in terms of fWAR/$$$.

Depends on whether or not it's an elastic good or not. A good example is the cost borne by producers vs. consumers in the current trade war with China, not to mention the inflationary impacts on prices. Abstract A recurrent finding in estimates of the gate demand for sports events is pricing in the inelastic portion of demand. With few exceptions, this finding has either been ignored or (rather poorly) explained away. In this paper, the recurrent outcome is detailed and the explanations given by past authors are... https://www.jstor.org/stable/25151279 OAKLAND — A’s fans are not happy. Not only have their team’s dwindling postseason hopes taken a hit this week, season-ticket holders on Wednesday received an email from the team announcing ticket prices for the 2022 season would go up — way up — and that a fan-favorite A’s Access program would not be reinstated. On top of the uncertainty surrounding the team’s future home, the news did not sit well with fans. Fans vented at the ballpark and on social media, but haven’t heard from A’s president Dave Kaval, who did not respond to requests for comment about the hiked season ticket prices on Thursday and Friday. “Just crazy to see raised prices that much with no investment in the team, fan experience or commitment to stay,” said Bryan Johansen, a longtime season ticket holder who sits in left field bleachers, who said his season ticket prices jumped from $456 in 2019 to $840 in 2022. Will MacNeil, a longtime season ticket holder who sits in the right field bleachers, added, “I guess A’s ownership lost a lot of money during the pandemic. I don’t really believe it. But we have a billionaire owner. It really kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth going why is this happening.” ..... Others wonder if ownership is gouging fans to make up for financial losses during the pandemic. Frequent Coliseum attendees have grown accustomed to higher prices around the ballpark for the 2021 season — higher individual ticket prices, $30 parking and pricey food and beverage options. ..... “The price hike to me says this about ownership,” Guo said. “They’ve calculated that there are die hard fans that will come no matter what…What possible reason would anyone have to buy season tickets in advance when there is the flexibility of just doing single game tickets next year? Zero benefits. Unless we sign up by October, in which case we get a replica (Matt) Olson jersey. Does that mean he’ll still be on this team next year? We laugh.” ..... MacNeil saw his prices jump from around $1,100 in 2019 to $2,050 for the entire 2022 season. MacNeil plans to renew his season tickets, but fears the already tiny Coliseum crowds will shrink even more next season as more fans are priced out. “I know this is going to hurt our fanbase quite a bit as I know it will probably price some people out,” MacNeil said. “Which is a shame. I mean I’m almost priced out with the new prices they’re implementing.” “A’s Access is very much missed, as $14 beer hurts,” MacNeil said . (for Greg775) https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/09/24/as-fans-balk-at-season-ticket-price-increases-for-2022/

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32918902/report-mlb-payrolls-drop-4-percent-2015-levels

If a tree falls during a lockout, will anyone hear it? Btw Ron, you would have been a lot of fun as a debate judge. Not!

He has a very solid arm for LF. RF, below average....usually throws in the 84-86 MPH range. He generally throws to the correct base and hits the cutoff men, which makes a huge step up from Leury's much better arm but inability usually to take advantage of it. Trading him NOW makes little to no sense, because you're not valuing him as a 3-4 or even 5ish fWAR bat, same with Jimenez. Of course, that would require putting up Yordan Alvarez or healthy/peak JD Martinez types of numbers. The big question is how close he could come to doing that in 2023-25.

Right. Whether you work as a front office member, groundskeeper or vendor, you have a number of realistic career opportunities or at least some decent options. For professional baseball players, simply saying move to Mexico, Japan or Korea aren't realistic alternatives for the majority.

Minor league owners would never have dreamed of getting involved in player accommodations...at least back in the 90s. Maybe the wealthier AA and AAA teams that could leverage that housing to extract player appearances at schools, charities, hospitals and special events/promotions. At best, I would go with Hispanic players with limited English to help with a landlord, and we all had a few rooms at LA Quinta due to a promotional tie in, but not for long term stays.

This wasn't directed at you, btw.

Why are you so bitter towards players and sympathetic towards owners. This is like being on the side of Mr. Potts in It’s A Wonderful Life. Are you also more sympathetic towards banks and mortgage lenders than individual customers…or for-profit universities and student-loan originators? Aren’t the fans or taxpayers the ones who suffer the most, in the end? Or should we all become minor league baseball owners? Now, for a select few A teams, like Clinton or Burlington, that might have been possible to do with a few million. Of course, without teams now, those markets are worth less than zero. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Supply_Stadium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hendricks I guess we can applaud multi billion dollar companies financing stadiums so that pretty soon there will be no professional baseball played in Iowa, except Des Moines. That would mean the elimination of five markets…all because of Ayn Rand and “market forces.”

A-Rod as well…largely because there aren’t many billionaire players yet. They can be part of an ownership group, but usually not the lead investor, Wayne Gretzky, for example. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, LeBron, etc. You’re talking numbers in the mere handfuls with the necessary capital.