caulfield12

https://www.statista.com/statistics/193467/total-league-revenue-of-the-nba-since-2005/ MLB has passed NBA for revenue...almost the exact same revenue per team as MLB too...but NBA ratings for 2024-25 down12-28% across all networks, whereas Dodgers/Yankees way up. MLB gaining in Japan Korea Taiwan while NBA has already leaked long ago in China. $377.97 million U.S. dollars During the 2023/24 season, the average revenue per franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA) stood at 377.97 million U.S. dollars. This was an increase of over 20 million U.S. dollars from the previous year and over double the amount from ten years prior.

"Aaron Boone indicated that his starting outfield was likely to comprise Jasson Domínguez in left field, Cody Bellinger in center, and Aaron Judge in right. Trent Grisham is ticketed for a fourth outfield role. The eighth-year skipper suggested he hoped to keep Domínguez mostly in left field while using Bellinger a bit more flexibly." https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/yankees-planning-to-play-jasson-dominguez-in-left-field.html

https://www.mlb.com/news/max-scherzer-free-agency-outlook Blue Jays emerge as favorites for Max Scherzer

https://www.mlb.com/news/ryan-brasier-dodgers-contract Ryan Brasier on a two year, $9 million contract...can probably get half that money back from LAD to solidify the Sox bullpen with another flippable veteran. Beware the Sox prospect going back the other way... "Brasier/grove should be on the move... It would be great if we could unload Chris Taylor in a 2 for 1 to make room for k***..Rodriguez." Would have to eat a lot of money in exchange for an intl. lottery ticket. Banda Feduccia Outman the other three options, 90% likelihood it's a pitcher... "Ideally you send Brasier to an AL/NL Central team for a low level lottery ticket. A young arm out of the Dominican Republic with high velocity, but some control problems, that can be fixed by altering the arm angle..." Cali...Outman to the White Sox finally a realistic possibility!!! Throw in Robert to sweeten the deal lol.

Great strategy for building the game with kids. Would be interesting to see what options Japanese youth have for baseball e-sports...

Tax write-off against carried profits/capital gains...basically that's all the extra revenue that Ohtani created for 2024. Or $100/$277 million White Sox yearly revenues. 36%.

Yes, the brothers applied/accesed $50 million from Peter Seidler's private equity fund to pay down debt and are also access ing funds to increase their ownership shares against Sheel and her kids. And it's turned out she was a lot more intimately involved with running the team with Peter than any of the three remaining Seidler brothers, who now suddenly seem only interested in selling off the team at the highest possible valuation and cashing out. So everything is stuck in limbo and Preller's going to have to start selling off pieces to rebuild for another run 2-3 years from now...realistically. Or they fire Preller and bring in a Getz like figure to dismantle the team as quickly as possible depending upon the court rulings about the "control person" for the team moving forward.

"River Ryan is ranked 52nd by Law, even after the right-hander had Tommy John surgery in August that will likely sidelined him for this season. Law has consistently been the highest on Ryan among prospect rankers, and tabbed him at 33rd last season, noting that he might make his big league debut before September." Offered along with Gavin Lux for Crochet last summer. Z.Hope 58th after being unwanted. https://www.truebluela.com/2025/1/27/24352974/dodgers-prospects-top-100-athletic-river-ryan

"The team has reportedly been shopping several players, including reliever Ryan Brasier. That type of move could ease a potential logjam in the bullpen. With Yates, the Dodgers will now have seven veteran relievers with no minor-league options — a potential source of inflexibility for a team that has made a habit of shuttling relievers back and forth from the minors in recent years to ease the workload of its starting rotation." latimes.com/sports

MLB Revenues Hit Record $12.1 billion Maury Brown Senior Contributor The most recent Forbes valuations, which cover the 2023 season place the revenues for just the 30 clubs, and not including league revenues at $11.34 billion. That’s an average of $378 million per club—the steepest increase since 2015. The Sports Business Journal reported gross revenues for 2023 at $11.6 billion, making 2024’s figure an increase of +4.3%. When accounting for inflation, gross revenues have grown +15.2% since 2012. https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2025/01/27/mlb-revenues-hit-record-121-billion-in-2024/

https://www.truebluela.com/2025/1/27/24353426/dodgers-2025-international-signings Dodgers still announce 29 intl signings from 7 different countries...including South Sudan.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/orioles-jorge-mateo-avoid-arbitration.html More small-scale Orioles spending...

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/kirby-yates-passes-physical-signs-one-year-deal-with-dodgers.html $13-14 million for Yates...another drop in the bucket Congrats to Kirby after being out the better part of three seasons with injuries...feels like four before last season with the Rangers. Was also on the Braves briefly.

https://www.mlb.com/news/is-dodgers-roki-sasaki-best-mlb-pitching-prospect-past-two-decades?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-the-show-25-cover-athletes Skenes G.Henderson Elly de la Cruz share MLB The Show game covers

Kind of embarrassing they're somehow ahead of the Guardians with such putrid, history-setting results... Can certainly understand why Twins fans are angry and want them to sell (following up 2023 breakthrough with zilch zero nada)., but they're still far and away the biggest AL Central payroll at roughly $140 million. Finally, Mets and Dodgers blowing everyone else away...can't see that changing much, not any time soon.

https://www.mlb.com/news/austin-hays-reds-contract The other problem with White Sox would be Hays is NOT a RFer. So he's either a DH/1B (pushing out Vaughn or moving him to DH/platoon) or you're making Benintendi your primary DH with Hays instead in LF. Of course that's ALSO where someone like Vargas or Ramos might end up getting at-bats, Baldwin too. In an ideal world...Baldwin is able to handle CF over Fletcher if he's not basically your utility infielder, which is the role that Josh Rojas has now seemingly pushed him out of.

"There was some thought to push Salas even deeper because of those concerns, but given his age and potential ceiling, we settled on keeping him in the Top 35 but behind other catchers with more exciting feedback in Dalton Rushing and Kyle Teel." https://www.mlb.com/news/top-100-prospects-who-sparked-debate-2025?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

Not sure we need to bring presidential politics into this...our Filibuster section has long since passed away into oblivion with numerous casualties and hurt feelings left by the wayside.

https://www.cleveland19.com/2021/04/06/cleveland-indians-pitcher-makes-controversial-social-media-post-then-deletes-it/ The weird thing is we can't seem to get away from the story of Covid-19/vaccines and the Guardians...Clevinger Plesac (well his father through Cubs' broadcasting) Trevor Bauer and now Karinchak. All but Karinchak were pretty much banished by Francona from the organization...oh well I guess.

"Listening to Hot Stove on the MLB app this morning where Harold R, Matt V and Jon Lester were debating the various rumors involving Cease and King, when Harold says and I paraphrase, "the only move which could potentially make the Pads better would be to put Tatis on the market and hold onto both Cease and King." His reasoning, "pitching wins championships" and only by moving Tatis would the Pads be able to maintain their pitching for 2025, yet get a return which could also make them better in the long-term." gaslampball.com https://www.gaslampball.com/2025/1/28/24353543/good-morning-san-diego-sheel-seidler-comments-on-the-record The problem here is that Preller's too invested in Tatis as franchise foundational superstar AND there are zero guarantees they can sign Cease/Boras, King or Arraez before FA. The best thing would be to hold on until the trade deadline and then look for takers on Suarez and Cronenworth as well. SD right now fourth best in division behind SFG and AZ as well. Just no getting out from under Bogaerts deal...that's the one killing them performance-wise and also keeping payroll from being cut to below $200 million.

"After further negotiations (between FanDuel Sports and the Reds), the sides reached an agreement for 2025 that includes both linear and digital streaming rights and replaces the Reds-MLB arrangement. The streaming rights had not been included in the previous (existing) Bally contract. Team officials say the new agreement represents a "slight" increase in revenue over what was anticipated going with the MLB broadcast plan and presumably over FanDuel's last offer in November." So it clearly seems the best deals for most clubs are NOT there going with the MLB-produced and distributed broadcasts...MN Twins made similar decision/agreement recently.

So that's what "a little bit" of payroll flexibility buys in baseball these days. Two weeks after a renegotiated local TV deal resulted in a bump in payroll, the Cincinnati Reds agreed to terms with free agent outfielder Austin Hays to a one-year, $5 million deal, pending a physical, a source confirmed Tuesday. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/reds/2025/01/28/reds-news-free-agent-signing-outfielder-austin-hays/77997987007/ Will have to pass physical on hanstring as well as calf and then serious kidney infection/complications.