37 thoughts on “February 10, 2020: Award Ceremony”

    2. Yeah, I don't think the trade is particularly good for the team or baseball, but I don't think that the commissioner blocking borderline trades sets a very good precedent. Would it just be because they're the Sox and can afford it? Should the commissioner's office have vetoed the Johan trade?

    3. No. This is exactly what the luxury tax is supposed to do—force big spenders to take a breather now and then. It’s not like Jeter dumping salary off the Marlins.

      1. Though they dumped salary to a team that is now over the luxury tax. The Dodgers still aren't #1 according to Cot's however.

        1. I mean, personally I feel like the luxury tax doesn't go far enough. I don't really like the idea of the commissioner's office micro-managing what to me is a cap issue. If the Dodgers are spending too much, then the issue is that the rules allow them to spend too much. My solution roughly speaking would be to make it a hard salary cap, give players free agency after 3 years, give players a revenue-based annual bonus (this would obviate the need for a salary floor), limit the max contract length to 3 years (maybe 3 + one player option year), figure out a way to grandfather the existing contracts into a hard cap situation. Teams won't really need to dump salary so badly if they aren't allowed to sign such long contracts--it would only take a couple of years for bad contracts to expire. Giving players free agency earlier, in combination with a hard cap, will flood the market with good free agents--certainly relative to the current situation--and as a bonus we can scrap the whole arbitration system. With limited years on guaranteed contracts, the per year value for top free agents will probably go up, but teams will pay a price for that in terms of cap space.

          I assume ultimately the MLBPA wouldn't go for such a proposal, and you'd likely have top-spending owners against you as well, but you'd really have maybe one or two dozen players who wind up worse off with this kind of proposal. Money would be siphoned off from the back end of 7- to 10-year contracts to players in their prime on years 4-6 in the league, and giving players a revenue-based bonus would spread the over-the-cap money out over all the players rather than just those who play in big markets. Plus I think the hard cap plus shorter contracts would keep fans in more markets more engaged as it would be a lot easier to turn around a bad franchise by improving the FO.

          1. Would you do anything for continuity? I'd hate to see so much player movement that I couldn't keep track of the players.

            1. Would be interesting to see a simulation of how it worked out. Of all the sports, I feel like baseball can deal with turnover the easiest—long season to get familiar with teams and not much interplay between teammates necessary.

  2. I'm going to put this here:

    As most of you know, I lost my sister a few years ago to Cystic Fibrosis. My brother also has CF. Every year we do the Climb for the Cure fundraiser, where we climb the steps of the IDS tower. We had to take off last year because of a family wedding, so we're trying to hit it pretty hard this year. My kids are also doing the climb this year. I greatly appreciate any donation anyone can make. Thanks!

    My page to donate is here.

  3. The Hold Steady are playing First Ave on Friday 4/3 and two shows at 7Th St Entry on Sat. 4/4

    Presale starts Wednesday.

      1. It's the start of the First Avenue 50th Anniversary celebration. That week they have a ton of cool bands old and new. Including Golden Smog (not sure what version).

          1. Reminder, that I will be in Peru the night of that Sturgill show and need to sell my ticket if anyone needs an extra.

            1. If I can't get the Hold Steady show to work, I'll see about getting the Sturgill show to work. Obviously, don't wait around on me if you find someone else.

    1. Geez, MLB baseball. If I have an oven that doesn't work, I don't change the light bulb in the refrigerator.

      Personally, I don't understand what they are thinking. I like the playoff format as is. If they are trying to get people more excited about baseball, I can think of at least 239 other things they could do before this.

      Now get off my lawn!!

    4. Well, this restructuring plan suggests Manfred has officially jumped Seligula. Only Ueberroth remains in his way for worst commissioner of my lifetime.

  6. Hmm. I might need to learn about some "new" authors.

  7. Earlier today, on the Norte side of the Corredor Norte in Panamá, we drove past the Estadio Nacional de Panamá - Rod Carew National Stadium. The Sur side is pretty much jungle.

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