Chicago White Sox

Just for discussion purposes:

Oh totally agree, just saying it’s hard to pat yourself on the back for saying it was going to be horrible signing when one of his two years was good and he has one left. That being said, I’m not optimistic and would love to add another impact starter.

True, just feels like having sand in your eyes when reading his tripe.

We were already within $15M of the old threshold.

It also gave us more money to throw at our targets.

Didn’t he get Cy Young votes the first year of the deal?

Starting with me! ?

Are you saying Bob said we’d acquire an upper echelon SP?

I get it’s his job, but got I hate Scott Merkin sometimes.

Make the pre-arb bonuses $50M with increases and wrap this b**** up. That would cost each owner what, $2M to $2M max? Stop haggling over what are penny’s in the grand scheme of things.

I think minor gaps quickly get settled once the big ticket items like the intentional draft are in place. No one wants to concede any further on the smaller items until then.

Yeah, but let’s be honest, if they wrap up a deal in the next couple days they will reinstate all games. Cancelling games right now is just a really dumb negotiating tactic, although there is a point quickly approaching where you can’t un-cancel. They need to figure this shit out and fast.

Who knows? The owners don’t design the negotiating strategy.

If the union caves on the international draft (at least kicking it down the road to Nov 15) it seems like a deal is possible.

Exactly…not negotiating for a month plus after initiating the lockout is 100% on him. That was most definitely his tactic to break the union and he overestimated how easily they would fold this time around. And now with TV money at stake, he finally decides to get serious halfway through March. Fuck Manfred.

Your entire argument seems to be centered around the idea of prospects potentially being blocked and choosing quicker paths to the majors. How many quality prospects are blocked indefinitely and have to wait until the Rule 5 draft / minor league free agency to get their opportunity? The answer is very few as prospects are far too valuable to sit around idle in AAA. Either they will be moved to another position (like Vaughn last year) or will be traded for something else that can help the team. This hypothetical problem of yours really isn’t a problem. As for this idea that players are paying off their debts at “minimum wage” before hitting free agency is also absurd. Right now, they’d only make $2M over their first three years before reaching arbitration where they make exponentially more money. Poor Manny Machado only made $34M prior to reaching free agency. Sounds like modern day slavery to me. Also, let’s not ignore the +$5M bonus he received before ever playing a minor league game. Should all the prospects who fail (which is the majority) pay back their signing bonuses to the owners? The way the draft works today is not the problem. The real problem is minor leaguers working at below minimum wages and not being provided basic necessities like housing & food. Those are the people who should be the priority. After them, pre-arb players should probably get paid a bit more and that’s actively being negotiated through a minimum salary increase and a bonus pool for performance. And finally, revenue sharing should require a minimum payroll to ensure the middle class of player isn’t getting fuck once they hit free agency. None of those require the elimination of the draft and awarding free agency from day one. The MLB desperately needs more parity not less.

Yes I believe he did

Who you thinking? Bassitt?

Honestly, doesn’t feel like Congress does much in this partisan era. Might as well fix baseball.

Great post by Heyman. Cal

Damn this would be sweet if Congress actually did something about this.

Didn’t you literally argue last week that using fWAR instead of arbitration was evil?

Honestly at this point fuck them all. The moment we start losing games it’s very clear that neither side gives a fuck about the fans.

You don’t like the idea of surplus value? Should players reimburse owners when they underperform their contract?

Do you want like 15 teams including five super teams because that’s what you’re going to get if your argument is simply let capitalism dictate a major sports league? Teams like the Pirates would have zero chance of lasting in the long-run under your scenario. But hey, if even worse parity and 400 less major league jobs is what you’re after it’s a great plan!