Random news and notes for MLB 2018

[jerichoholicninja]

Red Sox/Yankees tonight, Rick Porcello hits the leadoff batter of the game on an 0-2 count. Luis Severino throws his first pitch to a Red Sox batter at his head. Benches are warned. Alex Cora gets thrown out after putting up one heck of a fit. If MLB really wants to get rid of beanball wars, here is where they screw up all the time. There is about .1% chance that Porcello was throwing at the first batter of the game with an 0-2 count. Severino clearly was throwing with purpose. Toss him. A warning means nothing. If you want to stop it, stop it before it gets anywhere. There was clear intent in the pitch and the guy needs to be tossed, not warned.

[turnbow59]

I saw last night Oliver Drake became the first player since 1884 to play for five different teams in a season. How he keeps getting picked up by another team is beyond me.

[jerichoholicninja]

Was looking at the AL standings and its crazy how much the AL already looks like a foregone conclusion before the AS break:

 

- The Red Sox and Yankees have 14-16 games up on the 3rd place team. One will take the division and the other a WC.

 

- The Indians are 11.5 up on the 2nd place team -- they are winning the central.

 

- The Astros and Mariners will likely both be playoff teams. The A's are the only team within shouting distance and are STILL 10 games out of the division and probably don't have staying power.

 

Unlike the NL which should produce very exciting second half races, you can probably pencil in the Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, Astros and Mariners as the 5 AL playoff teams and the rest may as well sell.

 

Because baseball is weird, I would put money on one of those teams not making the playoffs. Every year there is a team that totally collapses in the second half.

 

Since the original post was made the Mariners are in free fall and only 1.5 games ahead of Oakland.

 

Mariners are now 2.5 games behind Oakland.

[reillymcshane]

I saw last night Oliver Drake became the first player since 1884 to play for five different teams in a season. How he keeps getting picked up by another team is beyond me.

That's awesome.

 

A Drake is another name for a Dragon.

 

Dragons are hard to kill.

 

Long live The Drake.

 

All-Star game next year. For what team, I don't know. But dragons are magical creatures. It's destiny.

[folly412]

I saw last night Oliver Drake became the first player since 1884 to play for five different teams in a season. How he keeps getting picked up by another team is beyond me.

 

Just saw Baseball Reference's Tweet.

 

 

April: Milwaukee

May: Cleveland

June-July: Anaheim / AAA-Salt Lake

Late July: Toronto

August: Minnesota

 

I think I might work a bit on my left-handed tossing, see if I can float around and make the minimum for a year or two.

[jerichoholicninja]

I saw last night Oliver Drake became the first player since 1884 to play for five different teams in a season. How he keeps getting picked up by another team is beyond me.

 

Just saw Baseball Reference's Tweet.

 

 

April: Milwaukee

May: Cleveland

June-July: Anaheim / AAA-Salt Lake

Late July: Toronto

August: Minnesota

 

I think I might work a bit on my left-handed tossing, see if I can float around and make the minimum for a year or two.

 

Drake is a righty. Imagine how long his career could be if he was a lefty though.

[Baldkin]

I loved this story.

 

https://apnews.com/9e39a73debec4ae6b5d0a04fcc08cd28/Khris-Davis-lets-Make-A-Wish-kid-sign-jersey,-slugs-long-HR

[adambr2]

I'm watching Rockies/Angels and i just don't know if some people truly have an appreciation of how good Mike Trout is. He isn't the greatest player in the game, he is the greatest player in any of our lifetimes unless any of you were around in the Babe Ruth era.

 

He has HOF caliber numbers now, and he just turned 27.

 

Is 50M a year unrealistic for what he might command in free agency?

[dlk9s]

I'm watching Rockies/Angels and i just don't know if some people truly have an appreciation of how good Mike Trout is. He isn't the greatest player in the game, he is the greatest player in any of our lifetimes unless any of you were around in the Babe Ruth era.

 

Briggs always liked Lou Gehrig ever since Gehrig gave him a wink and a smile at the Empire State Building ribbon cutting ceremony.

[CrewFanBrewMan69]

Cubs getting a new TV deal next year and are probably starting their own network. Looks like this will bring in around another $100 million a year for them on top of what they already get out of their current deal.

 

 

https://www.cubsinsider.com/2018/08/28/new-tv-deal-could-earn-cubs-additional-100-million-in-annual-revenue/

[bill hAll Star]

Cubs getting a new TV deal next year and are probably starting their own network. Looks like this will bring in around another $100 million a year for them on top of what they already get out of their current deal.

 

 

https://www.cubsinsider.com/2018/08/28/new-tv-deal-could-earn-cubs-additional-100-million-in-annual-revenue/

 

This probably isn't random news when the deal goes through. Goodbye competitive balance (whatever was left of it) in the NL Central.

[KeithStone53151]

Cubs getting a new TV deal next year and are probably starting their own network. Looks like this will bring in around another $100 million a year for them on top of what they already get out of their current deal.

 

 

https://www.cubsinsider.com/2018/08/28/new-tv-deal-could-earn-cubs-additional-100-million-in-annual-revenue/

 

This probably isn't random news when the deal goes through. Goodbye competitive balance (whatever was left of it) in the NL Central.

 

It really makes you wonder why the Brewers tv deal is so dreadful. The number the Rays are getting is way more than the last number I remember seeing for the Brewers.

[trwi7]

Cubs getting a new TV deal next year and are probably starting their own network. Looks like this will bring in around another $100 million a year for them on top of what they already get out of their current deal.

 

 

https://www.cubsinsider.com/2018/08/28/new-tv-deal-could-earn-cubs-additional-100-million-in-annual-revenue/

 

This probably isn't random news when the deal goes through. Goodbye competitive balance (whatever was left of it) in the NL Central.

 

It really makes you wonder why the Brewers tv deal is so dreadful. The number the Rays are getting is way more than the last number I remember seeing for the Brewers.

 

Brewers are the smallest market and signed their last deal back at the turn of the century when they were terrible.

[bill hAll Star]

 

This probably isn't random news when the deal goes through. Goodbye competitive balance (whatever was left of it) in the NL Central.

 

It really makes you wonder why the Brewers tv deal is so dreadful. The number the Rays are getting is way more than the last number I remember seeing for the Brewers.

 

Brewers are the smallest market and signed their last deal back at the turn of the century when they were terrible.

 

In *somewhat* positive news, the Brewers' deal is ending when the Cubs' deal is (2019). So I do wonder if we're expecting to maybe go over that $110-120 million theoretical max that we believe Attanasio has either in 2019 or 2020. Obviously I'd expect the Brewers to go from $25m/year to like $45m/year so it wouldn't be that major of an increase.

[KeithStone53151]

[quote="bill hAll Star"

This probably isn't random news when the deal goes through. Goodbye competitive balance (whatever was left of it) in the NL Central.

 

It really makes you wonder why the Brewers tv deal is so dreadful. The number the Rays are getting is way more than the last number I remember seeing for the Brewers.

 

Brewers are the smallest market and signed their last deal back at the turn of the century when they were terrible.

 

That all makes sense. A 5 minute google search has told me the Brewers current deal runs through 2019. I've also read some really good things about our tv ratings this year. I would like to think we are going to see a very significant increase in tv revenue with the new deal after 2019.

[KeithStone53151]

Brewers are the smallest market and signed their last deal back at the turn of the century when they were terrible.

 

In *somewhat* positive news, the Brewers' deal is ending when the Cubs' deal is (2019). So I do wonder if we're expecting to maybe go over that $110-120 million theoretical max that we believe Attanasio has either in 2019 or 2020. Obviously I'd expect the Brewers to go from $25m/year to like $45m/year so it wouldn't be that major of an increase.

 

You don't think it would jump higher than that? Considering the ratings this year and we are in a competitive window. I found a 2016 fangraphs article that says the Rays got $20 million in tv revenue and that got bumped to $82 million per year. It sounded like the increases will be spread over 15 years, but still a much better deal. According to that article, the Brewers were at $24 million. I would like to think we can get a similar deal to the rays.

[CrewFanBrewMan69]

Brewers are the smallest market and signed their last deal back at the turn of the century when they were terrible.

 

In *somewhat* positive news, the Brewers' deal is ending when the Cubs' deal is (2019). So I do wonder if we're expecting to maybe go over that $110-120 million theoretical max that we believe Attanasio has either in 2019 or 2020. Obviously I'd expect the Brewers to go from $25m/year to like $45m/year so it wouldn't be that major of an increase.

 

You don't think it would jump higher than that? Considering the ratings this year and we are in a competitive window. I found a 2016 fangraphs article that says the Rays got $20 million in tv revenue and that got bumped to $82 million per year. It sounded like the increases will be spread over 15 years, but still a much better deal. According to that article, the Brewers were at $24 million. I would like to think we can get a similar deal to the rays.

We are definitely getting a better deal, but I don’t know how much better. I would still think the size of the deal is largely based on market size and not ratings over a small sample of years.

[Dead Simmons]

Cubs getting a new TV deal next year and are probably starting their own network. Looks like this will bring in around another $100 million a year for them on top of what they already get out of their current deal.

 

 

https://www.cubsinsider.com/2018/08/28/new-tv-deal-could-earn-cubs-additional-100-million-in-annual-revenue/

 

This probably isn't random news when the deal goes through. Goodbye competitive balance (whatever was left of it) in the NL Central.

 

This is dreadful news. They will truly be the Yanks/Sox of the NL, leaving even LA in the dust.

[KeithStone53151]

Osuna generally seems excited for what actually happened to be released and available to the public. I'll be curious to see how this all plays out.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/08/29/roberto-osuna-astros-domestic-violence-justin-verlander/1125119002/

[young guns]

While other teams passed on acquiring Osuna before the non-waiver trade deadline, the Astros were lambasted when they announced the July 30 deal. The team had to waive its zero-tolerance policy on domestic abuse, saying it did not apply to Osuna since he wasn't a member of the organization when he was arrested.

 

Sounds like they need to change its name from zero-tolerance to as long as it happens outside the organization-tolerance.

[tmwiese55]

While I agree with a zero tolerance policy in general. There's also a weird area teams have to navigate during the whole waiting period of criminal action. This guy has already been suspended 75 games and fined millions and that article implies no one knows any details. Note, I did not google or dig deeper into further details. Think about it a bit from legal innocent til proven guilty and employee/employer avenues and this waiting period is odd. If you just perpetually suspend and fine and then it comes out this is all greatly exaggerated, falsified, etc, you will have given a massively severe punishment outweighing the crime and possibly could face a lawsuit back from him. When there is clear evidence and/or criminal proceedings completed you can make such clearer decisions, but teams aren't afforded time to wait in the current media climate. In an innocent til proven guilty society is it right that an accusation can ban a person from working indefinitely? That's a slippery slope to play with.

 

Note again, I didn't dig deeper to see if there is some hard evidence against him or not which would allow for quick judgment now. The article mentioned another player where a video surfaced of the act, that's an example where you know for sure. Ray Rice, pics of the victim, etc. But if you're just in a he said she said situation and you've already suspended this long with a bunch of money fined then it seems like you kind of have to let him play until you learn more while leaving the door open for further punishment/cutting.

[Boomer5]

When they said zero tolerance, that was only if he pitched like Albers.

[stalton]

Didn't the KRod alleged domestic issues happen between his stints as a Brewer? If that's the case, then we had no problems /blue

[lcbj68c]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24558108/gabe-kapler-philadelphia-phillies-says-pitchers-allowed-use-cheat-sheets

 

I thought this was an interesting random story last night. I applauded umpire West for taking the action in the first place, but I guess MLB is going to allow it. Anything they can do to slow down games. Instead of teams just following the rules of 6 conferences, now pitchers will start having a conference with themselves and a cheat sheet several times per inning.

[jerichoholicninja]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24558108/gabe-kapler-philadelphia-phillies-says-pitchers-allowed-use-cheat-sheets

 

I thought this was an interesting random story last night. I applauded umpire West for taking the action in the first place, but I guess MLB is going to allow it. Anything they can do to slow down games. Instead of teams just following the rules of 6 conferences, now pitchers will start having a conference with themselves and a cheat sheet several times per inning.

 

It takes about 5 seconds for a pitcher to look at the scouting report. All while the batter is standing outside of the box adjusting his velcro. This will do nothing to slow down the game and will only make it go faster since we don't need to have a mound visit every time there's a pinch hitter.

 

And the announcers said he's had it in his pocket all year. So of course Joe West decides in September with the pitcher's team losing by 6 is the time to make an issue out of it.