caulfield12

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.

According to a quarterly filing by team owner Liberty Media with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Braves’ debt as of June 30 included $297 million from the construction of Truist Park (formerly SunTrust Park), $206 million from the construction of The Battery Atlanta mixed-use complex adjacent to the stadium, $30 million from construction of a spring training facility in North Port, Fla., and $185 million for operations. The Braves’ debt load has increased from $559 million at the end of 2019, with the additional borrowing used for operations and for ongoing construction of the second phase of The Battery. That phase is expected to cost $200 million by completion, with about $95 million in additional debt funding remaining, according to Liberty Media. One way for the Braves to pay down debt could be the offselling of some parts of The Battery. The team sold the 531 rental apartments in the development in 2018 for $156 million. https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/how-the-braves-accumulated-718-million-in-debt/43R3KBSGIRFAJMIQ55QBFMS63M/ Sounds like a lot of creative accounting…just like if Amazon, Wal-Mart or the Reinsdorfs combined their company’s real estate ventures (tax write-offs) with baseball ops. This is also why fans totally get fed up, when they’re priced out of tickets for sports because of complicated debt financing that still benefits owners in the long term. See Cubs’ fans in a similar predicament with Ricketts off field investments.

This is not even true since the 1980’s, with much higher worker productivity leasing to tepid salary increases…at best. Now it’s more a calculus of how much they can exploit workers until a breaking point is reached, with older workers frequently retiring involuntarily after 55+ and the Millennials increasingly likely to take their services elsewhere. Part of it is salary-based, part of it is how owners value their contributions. (cue arguments from those who assert this youngest generation is lazier, e-sports-sports addicted and prefers to stay at home rather than working diligently to “get ahead”)

Somewhere around 44% of the billionaires and owners' class inherited their money. (I can't separate the data for China, but they have even more billionaires than the US and 90%+ of those are self-made, so the numbers in the US would be closer to 60-65% inherited.) They were just born luckier. So why would you side with them over players...the majority of Latin Americans coming from close to abject poverty in the Dominican or Venezuela....when they haven't even had to lift a finger to earn their positions, like Reinsdorf's kids? There are 2,604 billionaires in the world, and 55.8% of them are self-made. That’s according to the Billionaire Census published Thursday by market research firm Wealth-X. Taken together, self-made billionaires have a total of nearly $5 trillion. Another 30.9% of billionaires made at least some of their wealth themselves, according to the report, while 13.3% inherited their wealth entirely. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/wealthx-billionaire-census-majority-of-worlds-billionaires-self-made.html

And which MLB franchise is worth less now than it was on at mid-summer, 2020? Even the A's and Rays will get massive premiums on current cl valuations when they sell for relocation purposes... Also, guess we will see similar testing changes soon for MLB...an outdoor sport with even less physical contact. "The NFL will stop mandating weekly COVID-19 tests for asymptomatic vaccinated players, according to memos distributed Saturday that described a major shift in the league's approach to the pandemic. The new protocols, which take effect next week, could allow the virus to spread undetected through locker rooms, and could increase opportunities for infected but otherwise healthy players to participate in games. The NFL and NFLPA announced the "more targeted testing plan" in a statement, along with "more flexibility" for players "to attend meetings virtually" and opportunities for "high-risk players" to opt out of the remainder of the season."

Omicron is rapidly overtaking the lockout as the prevailing concern as we approach mid-January. They're going to have to dramatically change the testing procedures and protocols like the NFL and NBA are currently attempting to do on the fly or there won't be a viable spring training. https://www.yahoo.com/news/im-student-cornell-university-over-141329913.html Things are starting to move much faster than bureaucrats can react in real-time, and seemingly no one wants to take responsibility...leaving things basically up to fate.

One problem is that Tom Holland (and his significant other) gets lost in the redemption arc for the careers of Tobey Maguire and particularly Andrew Garfield. It felt like a bit too much fan service…but what can one realistically expect at this point? And why would the equivalent of Alex Jones consistently get their news updates in bright lights at Times Square?

What is the risk when your initial investment increases 20-30% per year in value regardless of what happens?

Baseball has actually done a great job protecting and expanding their revenue streams, especially for a sport where those who list it as their favorite are 57 years old already. That’s not the ideal target demographic for marketers, to say the least. Look at all the challengers and challenges. Minor league baseball…that’s always been there, of course. The Internet. Social media. Netflix. The rising cost of cable and satellite t.v. College, high school and NFL football towards the end of a season. Golf has been a lot more popular since Tiger Woods, NASCAR had its run, mixed martial arts, now the biggest thing around the world is e-sports. Disney+. Hulu. Home theatre systems and increasingly affordable big screen t.v.’s. The list goes on and on. Fewer and fewer African Americans engaging with the sport. 4 1/2 hour games, shifting and bullpen over reliance. Instant replay. Cue Greg rant about concessions and souvenir prices for good measure. If nothing else, 6.8% inflation guarantees rising costs…with everything likely going up at least 10-15% regardless of the lockout.

Are they teaching only Ayn Rand now in high school economics? It’s like 75-80% of the country “sympathizes” with job creators when only 2-3% in the US own and operate companies with over 100 employers. Then we look the other way when Zuckerberg, the Walton Family, Bezos and Trump, etc., pay less than 10% in Federal taxes and receive numerous write offs (written into the tax code as a result of lobbying and politicians in their pockets). They’re basically taking advantage of every possible loophole to get the government to pay as much as possible for health care (and retirement) so they’re no longer responsible like in the 1950’s through 80’s. When a venture goes awry, their vendors take a bath while they simultaneously declare bankruptcy. Read Black Edge about Steve Cohen, Poppysox. Look at how many SAC Capital Advisers went to jail while he got off scot-free. It’s like taking the side of the mortgage companies, banks and rating agencies over a decade ago. Until recently, they even got taxpayer financed public stadiums, or benefitted from TIF and various other abatements and workarounds. Now that window has closed, at least.

Greensboro in the Sally League had that name in the past as well...

I think a Spanish name might be a bit controversial...other than the obvious influence on the names of the US cities themselves. Then you have to consider the political correctness of cowboys vs. Native Americans, and the fact that the Dallas football team essentially has the same name. Roadrunners works. You have the El Paso Chihuahuas I guess, as well as the Diablos/Devils.

They're going to have to prioritize somewhere. It's going to be getting the younger players higher salaries and/or earlier free agency or veterans that are at risk of being pushed out of the game because of the overall affordability of much younger replacements...but it seems the only thing that would really help the mid-tier veterans would be the institution of salary floors. That said, more and more teams could continue the trend of going towards those early-career (or at least in mid 20's) extensions that we've seen the last 5 years with many White Sox players and Sale/Eaton/Q in the past...another form of redistribution from older to younger/youngish players.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/texas-mlb-expansion-team/ Here's a much more in-depth article that looks at the A's and/or Rays leaving their markets...with two more teams coming into the majors to balance it at 32 teams. Looking like more of a 7-10 year window, with the stadium issue (financing) being the single most important issue, as well as ownership groups/buyers. Obvious point is that it would pretty much have to be an NL team. Fire Ants? Lone Star Hipsters?

That's the interesting thing, because non-Texans think of it as more of a football state. Then again, with the all the Friday night and Saturday college games...and then the NFL having Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays now, there's bordering on too much football. (Surely, those words are sacrilegious.) SA and Nashville (to me) have always seemed like more viable minor league markets for baseball, but who knows. Charlotte (of the southern cities) seemed the likeliest, wedged between DC and Atlanta. However, with all the general population and specifically high tech movement into that area of Texas, anything is possible. https://www.opportunityatlas.org/ Going by these "wealth/higher salary" areas, the logical place would be the I-35 tract (most of the money in SA is in the northern or western suburbs) between Schertz and New Braunfels.

Well, the owners definitely have an idea how much it's already impact season ticket sales/deposits as well as promotional nights/sponsorships/giveaways.

Movies recently watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 3.5/4 Eternals 1.5/4 Power of the Dog 3.25/4.0 (although most reviewers are giving it 3.5 after a second watch, for quite obvious reasons if you have watched it) West Side Story 3.5/4.0 Dune 3.25/4.0 Tick, Tick...Boom!!! 3.5/4.0 (highly-recommended if you like musicals or Andrew Garfield) Licorice Pizza... 3.5/4.0 mix Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's feel with a coming of age romance (25 year old woman with 15 year old "boy") Really liked this one a lot...especially the fact that the two leads are pretty much unknowns. Others on the viewing list include some more GG nominees, like King Richard (Will Smith meets Richard Williams of Williams tennis playing sisters renown and aces the role, supposedly), Belfast, Being the Ricardos, A Hero (amazing Iranian director, also did A Separation)

Wouldn't you think it would be more or less midway between Austin and SA? Like Arlington, between Dallas and Fort Worth? Of course, that would create naming issues...since "Texas" already taken by the Rangers. Hopefully nothing to do with the Alamo.

https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/spider-man-no-way-home-review-tom-holland-1235132550/ This is the offending review referenced earlier....read at your own risk, roughly 2/3rd's of the way in.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32860460/college-football-top-10-bottom-10-moments-2021