caulfield12

Who's going to underwrite the insurance on that one? Lloyd's of London or a specialty shoppe?

Clevinger and Santos and Shaw...Scholtens to a lesser extent. Those were the so-called pleasant surprises...along with Burger and Robert, of course.

Fans of the Top 8-12 franchises probably wouldn't see that in their interest...as they are the ones annually spending closer to the ceilings and beyond. It's going to take relocations or mergers...to eliminate non-viable markets whose fans completely lose interest. Royals and Pirates both went for 20+ year periods with a playoff run and came out the other side...KC getting a new downtown stadium, for example. A's moving to Vegas. Biggest remaining issues continue to be in Florida.

Ohtani or including Betts as well to bring them under tax threshold #2 that bites really deep...?

https://japanball.com/articles-features/japanese-baseball-news/yoshinobu-yamamoto-the-greatest-japanese-pitcher-ever/ I would be more concerned about the numbers of pitches thrown at the Koshien/annual high school tourney in Osaka. But that seems to be more of a concern with Sasaki. Also has passed all the Olympic and WBC tests with flying colors...White Sox should be building their rotation around him like they supposedly offered to do with Masahiro Tanaka unless that was the typical JR non legit offer that was never going to be signed...done just to raise the hopes of fans like the SF Giants.

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/did-the-dodgers-overpay-for-shohei-ohtani-examining-his-700-million-deal Already talking possibility Soto could eventually a land at $500-600 million mark and 12 years with Boras... Hard to imagine anyone else but Acuna being in that stratosphere...but he doesn't carry the viewing weight of the 3/4 GDP country in the world nor the ability to pitch at an elite level for 3-5 years still along with him. (Ofc either one of those guys could end up as creative disappointments (see Soto in August/September 2020I...honestly would want Soto for half that amount after watching him consistently for 1 1/2 years.)

Interestingly, Clevinger's name starting to pop up more and more on the periphery of top tier FA targets with teams like the Mets Yankees Dodgers.

LA has always maintained relatively affordable seats and parking. They understand their market perfectly. And four superstars didn’t guarantee anything but a .500 team in SD…the same fate likely awaits the Dodgers unless the fix their starting pitching and bullpen to a lesser extent. At any rate, the obvious fault lines will be when lower and middle tier teams attempt to raise prices without increasing the quality of the product on the field.

Both those guys are on the development committee for baseball in Nashville...but it certainly not sounds like more of a human interest/civic engagement story with Tony's role neutered.

https://sports.yahoo.com/shohei-ohtani-agrees-to-join-dodgers-winners-and-losers-from-his-historic-mlb-free-agency-213609427.html

No more Tim Anderson, in all likelihood. Probably ends up a Dodger, lol. JR controls a big chunk of NBC Sports Chicago, along with NBC Universal and the Blackhawks. No danger of the Sox going off the air anytime soon...like with the Bally/RSN situation that affected roughly half the teams in baseball last year.

On behalf of TLR on behalf of Dave Stewart, to be more precise...

Unless it's women's basketball...crazy that a number of campuses the women are now outdrawing the men.

They were already 100% familiar with Hedges' pros and cons...and he actually played last season. How many times have guys missed large parts or a full season and come back seamlessly like Stassi is attempting to do at age 33 next spring training, as a catcher? Hedges is 31...well, we'll just have to wait and see which proves to be the better move.

Isn't Glasnow projected at $25ish million next year?

Mid first round draft picks are almost never going to fall off any team's Top 10 lists...based on just a couple of months of play after a LONG collegiate season.

Chiefs learning the hard way how difficult it is to compete with such a rag-tag receiving corps. What the heck is going on with the NFL today? So many bizarre results. Other than the 49ers (as long as they're healthy) being the best team in football, there aren't many certainties one can rely upon.

The obvious problems are RF, whether they hold onto Jimenez and pretty much the entire rotation and bullpen after a Cease trade and with Santos likely out/possible surgery. Finding it hard for some reason to imagine Eloy staying healthy (and putting up a 2.2 as a DH, but why not dream?) and Moncada also staying entirely healthy, but we shall see I guess. Not sure how many tickets they'll see...but they're going to "lose" significantly less money with this roster approach. Not that most fans care about JR's pocketbook in the least. They simply care about having a competitive team that plays the game both hard and cleanly.

They will go for two year deals...no Burnes. Depends on asking price with Bieber. Glasnow just creates more payroll issues.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-players-react-on-social-media-to-shohei-ohtani-s-contract Mark Feisand MLB.com "Per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, Ohtani’s deal includes what one source called “unprecedented deferrals,” including the majority of his salary -- which was Ohtani’s idea. He wanted to mitigate the CBT and cash-flow burdens to let the Dodgers have the flexibility to be competitive. There are also tax benefits because of the deferrals, the source told Feinsand, but they were “primarily about allowing the team to be successful on the field, because above all else, he wants to win.” That flexibility will be important, as Ohtani now being off the table allows the trade and free-agent markets to get moving -- and the Dodgers still have moves they must make, even with their new superstar in tow. The biggest need is at least a couple of starting pitchers to reinforce a currently thin staff. The biggest available options via trade are the Brewers’ Corbin Burnes, the Rays’ Tyler Glasnow and Dylan Cease of the White Sox, all three of whom the Dodgers have been linked to."

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-players-react-on-social-media-to-shohei-ohtani-s-contract It also surpasses the roughly $679 million Kylian Mbappé would earn if he opts to stay with PSG through 2025...but in terms of actual/present day value, most economists are placing it somewhere around $588 million, a much more complicated version of the Betts deal with a lot of deferred payroll to protect near-term payroll flexibility and stay far away from the second/higher luxury tax threshold.

A-Rod's $252 million Rangers' deal...

ESPN/Dave Schoenfield: The Dodgers will have to reconstruct their starting rotation as Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May are out for 2024, but they're getting Walker Buehler back and still have payroll room to add a free agent starter or two and do have an intriguing group of young starters, including Bobby Miller, Ryan Pepiot and Emmet Sheehan, plus prospects like Nick Frasso, Gavin Stone, River Ryan and Landon Knack who could all pitch in the majors this season. Also, if Yamamoto ends up much higher, closer to $250-325 million...then the Dodgers might end up taking the fallback Japanese option in Shota Imanaga.

Now ALL the interest in baseball shifts to Yamamoto and Bellinger....along with Korean OF Jung-ho Lee and Shota Imanaga, both in the vicinity of $75 million. Also looks like brisk market for Blake Snell is coming back down to earth (peripherals) as Yamamoto ascends.

https://africa.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39078719/shohei-ohtani-contract-los-angeles-dodgers-passan Jeff Passan's massive headline story