harmony
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Everything posted by harmony
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Because of reported budget limitations, I don't see the Diamondbacks as major players in the J.D. Martinez sweepstakes.
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The Carson Smith trade has been a win for the Seattle Mariners as well. A good trade should have two winners.
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That may be backward. If the Red Sox have the current best offer J.D. Martinez would be likely to accept it because I suspect he and Scott Boras see no other team under intense pressure to sign the top free agent hitter.
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Offers are not made public in the highly confidential negotiations. A fuzzy report of an offer might be leaked out by an underling who risks losing his or her job with the team or with the sports agency. I suspect J.D. Martinez has several offers and any Red Sox offer, pending or expired, is/was not the best offer. Martinez, thinking that the Red Sox are under the most pressure to sign the top free agent hitter, may be waiting for the Sox to top the current best offer. Or not.
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Spring Training has gotten expensive. Last fall I spent about $15 on the secondary market for a seat on the lower level by third base for a San Francisco Giants game at AT&T Park (granted, the Giants were winding down a 98-loss season). Now I'm shopping for tickets to the Seattle Mariners' game at the Giants' Spring Training stadium and the cheapest tickets -- direct from the Giants or on the secondary market -- are running $40 apiece. The Mariners have instituted value seating for Spring Training, charging $8 for a lawn seat one night in a game against the Athletics and $12 for a lawn seat the following night against the Giants.
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I suspect the Pirates are ahead of the curve in devaluing distant prospects in favor of MLB-ready players with higher floors (albeit possibly lower ceilings).
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Rumor has it that Travis Shaw might be headed to the Yankees, Braves or Mets if the Milwaukee Brewers sign Mike Moustakas:
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I pay admission when I attend baseball games at my two daughters' universities: a Division I private school with an endowment of $22.4 billion and a Division II state school with an endowment of $1.4 billion.
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I acknowledge that's a far more serious issue in our society.
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Each year I attend a few NCAA Division III games with free admission, free parking and a seat behind home plate. For the love of the game.
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I suspect players don't play for the betterment of society.
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MLB players are essential cogs in the lucrative revenue stream. Baseball knows what happens to revenues when substitute players take the place of striking (or locked-out) union members. I would be concerned if player salaries were outpacing MLB revenues. Conversely the growth of MLB revenues should not be outpacing the growth of player salaries.
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Should the owners get richer at a faster pace than the players whom the public pays to watch? Over the past decade MLB revenues have risen 67 percent while the average salary has increased 52 percent, according to this Sports Illustrated article: https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/01/11/free-agency-hot-stove-slow-pace Should owners get an increasingly larger slice of the revenue pie?
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What about the owners whose revenues have outpaced player salaries over the past decade?
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Those are the risks management takes after paying a player such as Mookie Betts the league minimum for two years and then a less-than-market salary for four years (for most players it's three years and three years). What percentage of players who sign professional contracts make it to the Major Leagues? What percentage of players who make it to the Major Leagues make it to the six years of MLB service required for free agency? The rare free agent cashes in on a system that suppresses salaries for the vast, vast majority of valuable players. It's a system agreed upon by management and the players union.
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I get it. Many opposing fans despised Pedro Martinez for being the best at his job (although I've always held Martinez in the highest regard).
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The discussion went off the rails when terrorism, organized crime and Bernie Madoff redirected the conversation. I've limited my points to baseball.
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It was wrong enough that management and the players union agreed to amend the Collective Bargaining Agreement to forbid the practice.
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Players and their agents enter contracts for the representation. Either side can sue for breach of contract. Scott Boras lost his grievance against Carlos Beltran even though Beltran hired a different agent four months before the expiration of his contract with Boras. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/03/26/scott-boras-grievance-carlos-beltran-robinson-cano-switching-agents/6934915/
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You're probably being too harsh on management.
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The Red Sox have "continued to thrive" financially. Does that raise ethical issues? Was it ethical for the Red Sox to stash the contracts of Rusney Castillo and Allen Craig off the 40-man roster in order to avoid luxury tax consequences? The moves were legal under the Collective Bargaining Agreement at the time but would not be permitted under the revised CBA. Do the Red Sox have any ethical obligation to the 30-year-old Castillo, who is effectively barred from pursuing his career at the MLB level?
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I have a great appreciation of an effective analogy. That's not one. A player, through his agent, can refuse to deal with any team just as any team can decline to pursue any player. The (limited) free market, at least theoretically, should arrive at appropriate contracts.
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I have a great appreciation of an effective metaphor. Others have offered similar sentiments using less colorful language. Scott Boras is probably the most scrutinized player agent in sports: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbelzer/2017/09/25/the-worlds-most-powerful-sports-agents-2017/#47f68e811086 Teams can refuse to do business with unethical business partners but the Boras Corporation continues to thrive.
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Here is a more complete story about Scott Boras and his "pawn shop" statement: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/scott-boras-marlins-turned-pawn-shop/story?id=51770998 When was the last time the media disseminated a statement directly attributed to Scott Boras? I suspect Boras is busy negotiating the best deals for his clients (just as front offices are negotiating the best deals for their teams).
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Agents and MLB front offices have professionals who understand each other's positions. The sides avoid poisoning the well, such as labeling the adversary "Bora$$" or telling him "I hope he enjoys not contending for a division championship and not contending for a ring."* We leave that to unprofessional fans. * especially from a club, with three first-place finishes and three last-place finishes in the last six years, that is barely projected among in the top quarter of 2018 teams: http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=3