MLBPA threatens to file grievance

[Invader3K]

This kind of sounds like the usual empty threats they make every year, but it will be interesting to see if anything comes of it:

The Major League Baseball Players Association is thinking about
filing a collusion grievance charging owners with conspiring against
free agents last winter, according
to the Associated Press. Union head Michael Weiner confirmed to
the AP that there is an ongoing investigation.

"We have concerns about
the operation of the post-2009 free agent market," Weiner said. "We
have been investigating that market. Our
investigation is far along but not yet complete."

Agents
for players have claimed that they have received multiple similar
offers for free agent clients and have urged the union to speak up on
the matter.

[pingman]

The MLBPA needs to yank their collective heads out of their arse & take a look at the real world....there's a little something called a RECESSION happening with little hope of it ending anytime soon.... & it's hurting everyone except the priviledged few who have gigantic guaranteed contracts....

[RightFieldCoder]

Hmmm. Teams are investing millions of dollars in guaranteed contracts. Modern statistics can give an estimate of how that player will perform. Teams are using this information to postulate how much a player is worth. These teams are coming up with similar numbers. It must be because the teams are in collusion, not because they are all doing similar number crunching.

[sheethead]

The MLBPA should revise the grievance, charging the league with only having one New York Yankees team. There needs to be more than one virtually budget-less team.

[Teatoe993]

No kidding. The steroid era is over. Players are actually showing their age again. The money is now going to the guys who can run the bases and play some defense. Ex-mashers in their mid thirties looking for multi year deals at Yankee-type dollars are insane. It's not 2001 anymore.

[vacin8r]

While its easy to point a finger at the greedy players, the fact that the owners have been convicted of collusion in the past lends itself to this kind of thing. I wonder how much of the similar contracts thing has to do with how media has changed however. I can go on 100 websites now and have a pretty good idea of whats being offered for whom and make offers accordingly. The owners however really need to use Matt Holliday as exhibit A in their case. It seemed apparent to everyone other than the GM of the Cardinals that no one in baseball had offered him a contract even close to what they gave him and that screams either a lack of collusion, or a lack of one team not paying attention... or both.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Exhibit B should be a Jeff Suppan or Carlos Silva - perfect examples of why teams are reluctant to continue offering multiyear deals with huge, backloaded money for mediocrity...you could throw a collection of AAAA-type pitchers together to get the same production Suppan will most likely give the Brewers this year, at less than 1M salary total.

 

I think contracts spiraled out of control in large part due to steroids - MLB veterans were getting juiced up and artificially prolonging their prime years well into their mid-late 30's. Since they were all post-arby's, free agency completely blew up with the big market teams willing to pay a king's ransom for the productive juicers (probably a big reason why so many who have been linked to roids were Yankees/red sox/dodgers.) The recent decline in player salaries has so much more to do with teams going back to younger rosters that are under team control, and older players trending back to normal regression.

[CheezWizHed]

So, while all the teams are bidding to get the same players signed to compete against each other, they decide to all offer the same contract? If only the Yanks and Brewers had colluded on CC! Then he would have stayed...

 

If two teams really want the same player, there will be a bidding war on them. Sometimes even when only one team bids on a player (as mentioned for Holliday above). If teams only kind-of sort-of want them, you get a bunch of similar luke-warm contracts...

[rluzinski]

I have to agree with Robin. Teams are just getting better at estimating the value of players.

[topper09er]

Its like a few teams all valued a player at a similar amount and the agents actaully had to ask their clients who they would rather sign with instead of telling them who offered them the most money and informing them where they will be playing baseball for the next few seasons. The agents did not understand how to deal with this scenario so they assumed there must have been foul play.

Its so annoying to hear athlete after athlete say they signed with the Yankees because they wanted a chance to win, when that may be nice for them the real reason was because the Yankees offered them the most money. It would be so refreshing to hear someone just say I signed with this team because they offered me the most money...I mean seriously Adam Dunn you did just decide to play for the Nationals, just say why.

 

I can picture the Onion Sports headline now: Player signs with 3rd team in 6 years because they offered him the most money! and then elaborate on how this is a huge shock to everyone in the media/sporting world.

[Diskono]

I had a thought last offseason that untested AAAA superstars might be the next big "moneyball" thing. Teams have figured out that they don't have to give Braden Looper $5m for mediocrity when they can find some minor league free agent who projects to be equally good, if not better. MLBPA needs to come to grips with the fact that teams aren't as willing to overpay for intangibles that don't translate to wins anymore.

[Invader3K]

I think a good solution would be to give teams some recourse for recouping some of their money if a FA they sign performs significantly below projections or career norms. Of course, the union would probably never agree to this because it would hold players more accountable, and could be one step toward eliminating guaranteed contracts.

[snyttri]

I think a good solution would be to give teams some recourse for recouping some of their money if a FA they sign performs significantly below projections or career norms. Of course, the union would probably never agree to this because it would hold players more accountable, and could be one step toward eliminating guaranteed contracts.

It is already in the player's best interests to perform to the best of his ability. If the rest of the league doesn't cooperate by swinging and missing at his pitches he is not being unaccountable.

I think the MLBPA is talking about collusion because player salaries have been falling even though baseball revenues have held fairly steady and the failure of some teams to spend revenue sharing makes it look like they are not competing. The Josh Johnson and Sheets signings have been attributed in part to the threat of CBA grievances being filed by the MLBPA. The owners paid $12 million to the luxury tax fund as recently as 2006 in response to old collusion grievances (without admitting guilt) so I don't know if the the owners are taking a cavalier attitude about the collusion grievance threat. I think there might be more to this than the Barry Bonds and A-Rod collusion press releases.

[NievesNoNO]

Maybe it's collusion of the athletes to not accept a pay cut? Look, if you're good enough to play and willing to play for what you're worth some team will pay you. I guess it's just hard for some players to realize past doesn't equal present.

[snyttri]

Maybe it's collusion of the athletes to not accept a pay cut? Look, if you're good enough to play and willing to play for what you're worth some team will pay you. I guess it's just hard for some players to realize past doesn't equal present.

It's collusion for players to work together to negotiate salaries with a team as Koufax and Drysdale did with the Dodgers in the '60's. To prevent that the owners agreed they would also not work together to hold down salaries. But they have done so in the past, as when Andre Dawson in his prime had to give the Cubs a blank contract to play for a terrible team. Given the owners history the players have to be suspicious that something is fishy when salaries drop out of line with revenues.

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