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It's really hard to pick which side is more ridiculous. Since the owners did the locking out I will call them the worse party I guess.
MLB may have a deal in place.......
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It's really hard to pick which side is more ridiculous. Since the owners did the locking out I will call them the worse party I guess.
Players want the owners to quit crying poverty while also flouting record revenues for TV deals.
Owners are treating the CBT as a cap without a floor, and then gaming the shit out of roster construction to limit the arbitration eligibility of players so they can pay them less for longer.
Average salary is down half a million from 2017. The guys at the top are getting theirs, but the guys at the bottom are getting hosed. Owners have also cut minor league jobs, and are considering further cuts.
Owners now have basically decided not to play the first few weeks, because they don't have to start returning TV money until about 20 games are missed. They're fine with moving Opening Day because the fans will still show up for the first game. They lose a few shitty gates, get to dock the players for missing games, and pocket more money.
Also, fuck a 14-team playoff.
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Fuck the owners and players.
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Fuck a 14 team playoff, and fuck the defensive shift restrictions. I was surprised that there were actual talks on it.
Shifting is a direct result of MLB emphasizing home runs and approaching at-bats as a zero-sum game where a strikeout is no longer a "bad" at-bat. Hitters aren't taught to fight, they're up there hoping a pitcher screws up and hangs an 0-2 meatball. The really good hitters still can hit away from shifts, but guys like Didi Gregorius and Joey Gallo aren't about to turn into 10-15 homer guys that hit .260.
I’ve certainly come across as pro player in this thread. I’m not, but I have come across that way. This is not a situation where it’s possible to feel great sympathy either way.
I’m looking at it more as what’s keeping me from watching games, considering a trip to Clearwater for a ST game, etc. Spring is in the air and there was no pitchers and catchers, no ST going on.
The owners have played this game for a few off seasons now of gaming the process of signing players, waiting longer and longer each off season until you are making huge signings right on top of ST. It looks as much like collusion as anything I’ve ever seen.
Now they want to continue using all the ownership benefits of a cap, without any players benefits like a floor. And that’s just not how business and negotiation works.
They are greedy fuckers still printing money hand over fist (fuck all the poverty talk). They are the reason there are no games coming here.
If they just put a fair compromise out and the players reject it my angst could switch blame…:but they are not even interested in good faith here.
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Millionaires versus Billionaires.
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Contracts are bigger for guys that hit bombs. Not too mention bonuses and arbitration. But Gallo cracked me up the other day we he said it needed to be fixed.
“I get the defensive strategies, I do. I’m 100 percent not against that. But I think at some point, you have to fix the game a little bit. I mean, I don’t understand how I’m supposed to hit a double or triple when I have six guys standing in the outfield... I think (that no-infielders-in-the-outfield rule) would be huge for the league. You can still shift, but you can’t put multiple guys in the outfield. And at the end of the day, I think extra-base hits are important. And line drives to the outfield should be hits.”
At the end of the day, these guys are arguing over money, and rich people are taking entertainment away from me, and are hurting some other working class folks as a result.
The players are not blameless, but they're at least negotiating.
I’m torn on this issue…..but agree on the genesis that’s gotten us here. It’s ruined the game for me. I’ve always enjoyed a team that can strong 12-14 hits a game together over a team that gets 7 hits but two are home runs. I grew up learning batting strategy and how you work the count and fight off pitches.
I find an 11 pitch at bat with 6 foul offs with a two strike count more exciting that most home runs. You see that kind of thing less now, and often when you do see it the 11th pitch is put into the outfield where 4-5 guys await it.
It’s just not fun to watch. On the flip side though….I don’t like the idea over legislating the game to this degree.
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They don't really care for the average fan.
I just said I’m not super interested in legislating the game so much. But I could get behind the “no inflelders in the outfield” suggestion that Gallo mentions. Infielders can still move back on the hit to field shallow outfield stuff…..just can’t start out there.
But…the millionaires are coming off as the side willing to negotiate. It’s past time for the billionaires to put something out that is balanced and in good faith and force the millionaires to put up or shut up.
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They all make good money now.
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One, I'm not really for that. Hitters need to learn to adjust. I know that's very difficult, especially with today's pitching, but other hitters are able to figure it out. If Gallo wasn't a homerun or bust guy, it wouldn't be as big an issue for him.
Two, not sure how you could really regulate that fairly. So what, now an infielder can't even be set up on the grass at all?
I don't like the idea of legislating where defenders can or can't line up. Kids don't shift to the degree that they do in MLB, but you know who the good hitters are, and playing deeper or shallower is part of the game everyone grew up in.
I'm sure there's a counter to the shift working its way up through the ranks, because shifting is more prevalent at the development levels as the data is more accessible.
There are ways to beat the shift available now. Hitting to the opposite field, bunting, etc. Guys just don’t do it. You get a few guys bunting for base hits and people start to be a little more honest. But they’d rather swing away right into the shift.
Again, function of what the league (and, by proxy, the high school/travel/college/minors) has moved towards. A guy with 20-25 HR and a .220 average gets more PT than a .250 hitter with 10 dingers.
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Add the fans to people I have no sympathy for.
They scream and holler and blame the lockout on Manfred. Which is just what the owners want. Manfred is the fall guy when he is just doing what his bosses tell him to do.
These fans go on Twitter "if I was Commissioner, I would..."
You would do what your bosses told you to do or you would be fired.
And these same people will be the first ones to fist over their money as soon as baseball comes back.
Fuck em.
They don't deserve any sympathy either.
They scream and holler and blame the lockout on Manfred. Which is just what the owners want. Manfred is the fall guy when he is just doing what his bosses tell him to do.
These fans go on Twitter "if I was Commissioner, I would..."
You would do what your bosses told you to do or you would be fired.
And these same people will be the first ones to fist over their money as soon as baseball comes back.
Fuck em.
They don't deserve any sympathy either.
Manfred isn't just some sort of puppet, though. He got to this point in his career by being a labor lawyer for MLB. So his thumbprints are all over this stance by the league.
Without a clear understanding of which owners are the primary drivers of this, it's easy to blame the commissioner, as he's the smarmy, punchable face of ownership here.