The question is how baseball revenues continue to rise when attendance and viewership are apparently dropping. That's why I raised the 'partnerships' thing as a possible explanation.
As far as obvious concrete examples go, you can't do any better than the '16 Cubs and the '17 Astros. Both teams somewhat notoriously tanked for a few years, scoring high draft picks that were integral to building championship teams.
It's one of those things that's just obvious.
When we talk about the farm, what we're really talking about is being successful at scouting, drafting and developing players.
You only lose pool money if you exceed the tax threshold AND sign a free agent who has rejected a QO.
http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/international-amateur-free-agency-bonus-pool-money
You really think most fans don't care if there are any exciting prospects in the system or not? You must think the average fan is basically an ignoramus, I guess.
Well, Bloom has his work cut out there, you have to admit.
We're going to be subtracting talent, clearly, from an 84-win team whose pitching rotation features health question marks in Sale and Eovaldi.
It's usually the way it works when teams win championships, though. A lot of stuff goes your way. It doesn't happen two years in a row. So we have no back to back WS winners any more.