Random MLB news that is pointless to say anywhere else thread

[TooLiveBrew]

Thus, the Yankees get additional attention every October that other teams only get every few years. They always are given the prime time TV slot. MLB directly controls that.

 

Are you sure the TV networks don't control that? I honestly don't know.

 

 

In order for other teams to get attention, the Yankees need a few years where they fade into oblivion by July.

 

The Rangers, Phillies, & Rays all got significant attention this season imo.

 

 

You can't just ignore teams like the Rangers and Giants for 90% of the season and then expect them to draw ratings. The only time any of these guys get attention is the All-Star game. The Sunday night baseball game on the last day of the season was Yankees-Red Sox, not Padres-Giants. There was no build up toward anything except "Can anyone beat the Yankees this year?"

 

West Coast teams are always ignored in that fashion, though. It's just a product of the timezones. It seems to me that you're overgeneralizing out of frustration.

 

 

The Yankees are relevant every single year.

 

And there are teams with huge payroll advantages that aren't. While the Yankees have a ton of money to spend, they're also a well-run organization. The Cubs had the third-highest payroll in MLB this season. It's not a system that's set up to favor the Yankees. It's a system that inherently favors well-run organizations that also have a lot of money to spend.

 

It seems to me that some fans tend to oversimplify their loathing of the Yankees. The Yankees are good every season first & foremost because they're run very well. Secondly is that they have a ton of money to spend. It's a lethal combination, but to imply it's all about the money is inaccurate.

[logan82]

The Brewers are for the most part a well run organization and have virtually no chance next year. Without doing something more drastic in regard to money, it will always favor teams with money. In a couple years when other teams with money start to get smarter things are going to get ugly.

[GAME05]

money isn't everything but it's sure a huge part of it. i don't even think that the Yankees are all that much smarter than other teams, maybe even worse. it's just their mistakes aren't as noticeable because they just spend money to fix the problem. the Carl Pavano contract would have sunk any other team for years, but the Yankees just signed another top FA and went on their way.

 

what makes the Yankees so smart, anyway? Cliff Lee is as close to a can't-miss superstar as you can get, so they're going to just outbid everyone else and get him. where's the strategy in that?

[owbc]

Yeah, I'm definitely frustrated. I do understand that the Yankees got where by running their organization the right way. But I do not think you can fairly compare them to the Cubs in 2010. The Yankees payroll was $60 million more than the Cubs--which is too big of a different to put them in the same category. The Yankees have an incredible margin for error.

 

It all depends on what you consider to be fair, I guess. They run their organization well and are popular, so does that mean they deserve to get all the top free agents? I think it has created a cycle where the Yankees continue to get better, richer, and more popular, while everyone else gets left behind.

 

I think it's gotten to the point where MLB's popularity is skewed by the Yankees. If the Yankees are involved, MLB is very popular--high TV ratings, dominant in the news/sports conversations, etc. If the Yankees are not involved, the World Series is blown away by Monday Night Football. If some of the less popular MLB teams played in the World Series, the ratings would be abysmal.

 

Obviously, you would never expect a Brewers/Tigers World Series to draw the same audience as a Yankees/Dodgers World Series. But the point is that you can only exclude people from success for so long before they stop caring--and for many MLB teams, the time between successes is becoming so long that people are going to stop caring.

 

After Tiger Woods starting winning everything, the PGA started "Tiger-Proofing" their golf courses to level the playing field. I think MLB needs to invest in some "Yankee-proofing" to allow other teams to have a chance to share in the limelight.

[TooLiveBrew]

The Yankees payroll was $60 million more than the Cubs--which is too big of a different to put them in the same category. The Yankees have an incredible margin for error.

 

I wasn't comparing the Cubs to the Yankees as much as I was the Cubs to the rest of MLB. The Cubs payroll was higher than any playoff team not named the Yankees:

 

~$5M > PHI

~$50M > SF & MIN

~$60M > ATL

~$75M > CIN & TB

~$90M > TEX

 

The Yankees, Cubs, and about 4 or 5 other orgs. have a pretty huge monetary advantage over the rest of the league. But it's not the most important component. The two WS teams this season operated with payrolls at 47% & 27% of the Yankees'.

 

 

They run their organization well and are popular, so does that mean they deserve to get all the top free agents?

 

If the Badgers football team is run well & wins a lot of games, do they deserve to get better/the best recruits?

 

 

I think MLB needs to invest in some "Yankee-proofing" to allow other teams to have a chance to share in the limelight.

 

Imo this would require a salary ceiling (which many small market owners would love) & a salary floor (which many small market owners would hate). There's a reason MLB doesn't have a salary floor, and it's because small market owners would make less money.

 

To get to your point about what's fair, what, realistically, should be done about the Yankees? There are always people to point out how they have an unfair advantage, yet what are the realistic solutions? The Yankees make a ton of money -- should MLB randomly seize some of that money from them? Should they not be allowed to spend the money they have on their team? I understand why smaller market fans get annoyed with the Yankees' financial reserves, but I don't really see a fair solution in terms of what should be done. What are some tangible ideas to "Yankees-proof" the system?

 

 

EDIT: To answer my own question, one idea I just thought of would be to make every free agent signing result in draft pick compensation. The instance I'm thinking of is, of course, the Yankees signing Teixeira in addition to Sabathia two offseasons ago. First, I would like to see the free agent rankings completely scrapped & re-devised (the way Elias & MLB rank FAs is archaic at best). From there, create "types" or "tiers" of free agents, down to the FAs signing MiLB deals -- and create draft pick compensation for everyone above that (lowest) tier.

 

Structure rules surrounding FA signings so that, any time a team signs a FA, the team losing said FA receives draft pick compensation relative to the status of the departing FA. You could still incorportate (and even expand) sandwich/supplemental picks, but I think the main impact would be to have teams lose their draft picks when they sign FAs. Even if a team signs multiple top-tier FAs, they would forfeit their highest remaining draft pick(s), in addition to sandwich-round compensation, relative to the FA's tier status. However many tiers of FAs there would be in any given offseason, that's how many sandwich rounds there would be generated in the draft (if that makes sense).

 

This is just a crude thinking-out-loud type of rambling, but I think the only real way to get teams to reconsider spending ungodly amounts of money on free agents is to have it wipe out their draft picks. I'm sure there are plenty of logistical holes in this idea, but I hope the premise is at least reasonable.

[GAME05]

But the point is that you can only exclude people from success for so long before they stop caring.

 

beautiful line, Obsessed. couldn't have put it any better.

 

i'll have to break out SPSS because i'm curious what the standard deviation is in terms of payroll spending. are the Yankees significantly different than the Red Sox, or can we say that just because the Yankees spend the most, that they're statistically similar to four or five teams. we know that money makes such a difference, and i think we need all teams, big-market or small-market, being within one or two deviations of each other.

 

how many new fans are the Pirates creating? the Marlins? the Brewers? MLB is focusing so much on the tv viewership of existing fan bases in NY and LA and they seem to really be ignoring everyone else. i still pay attention to the Brewers because i pretty much can't help it, but it's getting harder and harder to care when they may very well take another 26 years to make the playoffs again. yet look at the NFL and you have ever reason to root for the Lions because they'll be going from 0-16 to a Playoff team in maybe four years. maybe that hurts the Superbowl ratings sometimes when smaller cities make it in, but the even playing field is sure a boost to regular-season attendance.

 

i think one problem with all the plans that are out there is that they're all designed to cut off the head of the dominant team. you're not going to make baseball better by making the Yankees worse. then crap teams would still be crap teams. the NFL wouldn't suddenly be a better overall product if Tom Brady was removed from the Patriots. the problem with baseball is one of ownership and the union, not the way that the Yankees are able to successfully use their advantages.

[Warning Track Power]

I think one of the main aspects people forget about the "system" in MLB is the fact that these franchises are not in competition with each other in a traditional sense. Do they compete with each other for championships? Of course; it's the premise of the existence of MLB. However, they are not in competition with one another to drive the other out of business like in a free market economy. Not trying to delve too far into the economics of business but Target is in business to maximize profits at the expense of Walmart, K-Mart, etc...The teams of MLB are all like Targets spread out over the United States. Their real competition is the NFL, NBA and NCAA. Would the Yankees be able to make the profits they do without the Kansas Citys, Oaklands, Pittsburghs and yes, Milwaukees of the league? No. Their profits would dwindle. They wouldn't go out of business but they would dwindle. The Yankees need these teams and the sooner they realize it the better because, as evidenced by the World Series viewership, baseball's popularity is decreasing.

 

Teams like the Yankees need to understand that MLB is becoming the K-Mart of the aforementioned sports and losing when it comes to the "product." Yeah they are relevant from time to time and most people will do their shopping there in the event other options aren't available, but they aren't the first choice. The NFL, with a different playoff teams ever year and the NBA, regardless of the Lakers dominating championships the past decade, provide a more balanced and fair product giving its "shoppers" more bang for their buck, like Target or Walmart.

[ttsather]

It's been exactly 13 years since the Brewers moved to the National League.

[Principessa21]

Miller and Morgan are gone from ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. LINK

[Patrick425]

I just saw that the Blue Jays acquired Miguel Olivio from from the Rockies last week and then on the same day declined his option for 2011 with the hopes of getting a compensatory draft pick when he signs with another team. I have never seen this type of maneuver before. Is this common?

[Principessa21]

I just saw that the Blue Jays acquired Miguel Olivio from from the Rockies last week and then on the same day declined his option for 2011 with the hopes of getting a compensatory draft pick when he signs with another team. I have never seen this type of maneuver before. Is this common?

I don't how common it is, but the Red Sox supposedly are doing the same thing with Felipe Lopez. I think it's smart, and it's also low risk.

I don't know how much people here watch AL baseball, but they announced Gold Gloves. I have mixed emotions because my favorite Yankee deservedly won his first one today (Cano) but Jeter also won one. And it even made baseball-reference's homepage:

http://imgur.com/DIVgI.jpg

[GAME05]

but i thought a team had to offer arbitration and have the offer declined before there could be any compensation?

[Principessa21]

but i thought a team had to offer arbitration and have the offer declined before there could be any compensation?

And that's the risk, but it's a low risk. Olivo and Lopez are likely to go the FA route , and if they accept arbitration, they aren't bad pickups for the team. Plus a team can cut the player in spring training and not be responsible for the arbitration salary.

[GAME05]

it's become tough for a lot of the FAs, too. decline arbitration and a team is a lot more hesitant to pick up a middling player and surrender the picks.

[Principessa21]

it's become tough for a lot of the FAs, too. decline arbitration and a team is a lot more hesitant to pick up a middling player and surrender the picks.

Definitely true, but I'd be surprised if Olivo didn't go the FA route, especially as a catcher.

Also the Blue Jays only gave up cash for Olivo, so they might basically pay for a draft pick.

[Warning Track Power]

BJ Surhoff had 2326 hits!! That blew my mind this morning.

[JimH5]

BJ Surhoff had 2326 hits!! That blew my mind this morning.

He's also in the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame, which blew mine.

 

 

[Principessa21]

Has anyone heard about Cleveland Indians Snow Days? I would love to do something like that at Miller.

http://mlb.mlb.com/cle/images/photogallery/snowdays/814x350_lf.jpg

[trwi7]

Makes a ton of sense to have that a day after Thanksgiving.

[Principessa21]

Brian Cashman is going to rappel down a building with Santa for a community event. I liked this quote:

“I’ve been leaving milk and cookies for Santa for some time now, but this year I wanted to take a more active role in assisting him. As an elf, you have to be willing to build toys, wrap presents, prepare reindeer for flight, or rappel off buildings for Santa. I take my role as an elf seriously because there are a lot of children out there counting on him.”

[Patrick425]

Makes a ton of sense to have that a day after Thanksgiving.

I think this event runs through Jan 2nd. Even if it were only one day, I don't understand why the day after Thanksgiving would not be a good day?

 

[And That]

Tony Gwynn, Jr. is going to be non-tendered by the Padres according to @FollowThePadres on Twitter. No one wins the Gwynn-Gerut trade... double TKO.

[Funketown]

Tony Gwynn, Jr. is going to be non-tendered by the Padres according to @FollowThePadres on Twitter. No one wins the Gwynn-Gerut trade... double TKO.

But Jody Gerut at least assured that we will never hear Chad Moeller's name again!

[And That]

But Jody Gerut at least assured that we will never hear Chad Moeller's name again!

Except that every time someone mentions Gerut's cycle, they will inevitably Moeller as the historical perspective. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

We need a good player to hit for the cycle sometime soon.

[Principessa21]

Mariano Rivera is taking less money and years to stay with the Yankees at 2/30. Even if you hate the Yankees, you have to admit how refreshing it is for an elite player to not just be all about the money.