Northern Star

If I recall correctly, Chase didn't even bother trying to hide it, he was very blatant about it. Wonder how that sat with some of his teammates.

He deserves a portion of the blame, but Arnold Rothstein's share is bigger. It's a fascinating example of the futility of hooking up with criminals and expecting them to be on the level. I strongly recommend "Eight Men Out" (the book) to anyone interested in reading about the scandal.

Five games in is a robust sample size, so how will this season finish for the Sox?

We should consider trading every player at every time so long as the price is right. Because you never know when an opportunity is going to present itself to improve the ballclub. I know some of you will respond with "trading Mookie won't improve the ballclub" to which I refer you back to "so long as the price is right."

Maybe putting "World Champs" in the game thread titles is jinxing them?

Also, Zack Hample.

Pete Rose ring a bell?

This is an interesting article. When salaries started ballooning I thought a rising tide would float all boats, which would be bad because mediocre players would be overpaid in relation to the salaries the top guys are getting. Nowadays, maybe that's not really true and we're seeing a hollowing out between the ultra rich and most of everyone else. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26408949/huge-contracts-big-concerns-going-mlb-salaries

On the plus side, ....wait, there is no plus side.

...but give him time.....

Excuse me for asking this question at this juncture, but what the f*** is going on?

Funnily enough (or maybe not) just ten minutes before reading this thread, I was thinking of the epic "besides that, how did you like the play, Mrs Lincoln?"

But how do you separate them? You can't pay them on real-time performance, agreed, but how do you devise an equitable system? Players like Mookie are killing it right out of the gate, when salaries are restricted by the terms of the CBA. So what to do? Have them arbitration eligible from year one? Give arbitrators the ability to set a figure between the two being presented by team and agent? I'm not attacking you here in any way, I'm saying so many are crying about players being underpaid, yet like you say, performance based pay is unfeasible, so what are we left with, besides paying them after the fact in future contracts? If, as seems highly likely, Mookie gets a longterm FA contract of $35mil per year, was he still underpaid right now when considering total career compensation? Because is his future production really "worth" $35mil if you're not paying per HR or per WAR? Obviously, not all players who play well at the start of their career go on to the jackpot contract. Should they be earning more, sooner? What does that do to the economics of the game, where the price of good tickets are already the best part of, if not actually, triple digits? Is it sustainable to have an overwhelming majority of players earning north of $1million in their first or second year? And I'm just throwing out questions here, I don't know the "answer" - as if there is one that will please everyone.

Yeah....still not feeling much sympathy for the players right now.

So what's this "underpaid" crap?

As Christian Bale would say, "The f*** are you DOING?"

Missing Girardi already?

And we need to be careful about linking salary to stats, because it incentives them in the wrong way.

Nice. At least you didn't pat him on the shoulder and put him on the DL for six weeks.

Typo mojo!

I notice some members are now attacking other members in their signatures. Can we clean this up and put a stop to it please?

Wait, you're Wayne Gretzky??

"I'm a fantasy of the Red Sox" doesn't really make sense, though.

OK, I got the answer. Trade Mookie to the Yankees for their entire bullpen. Who's with me on this?

I blame Ben.