May 26, 2023: Summerteeth

After this holiday weekend, we'll open up the nominations for this year's Summer Mix, so start thinking about what you want tunes you'd like to add. Even if it's just one song, start picking it out. Who knows, maybe the mix will even come out in summer this year!

(By the way, Summer Mix 2022 is still up on the podcast feed if you need some good tunes this weekend.)

19 thoughts on “May 26, 2023: Summerteeth”

  1. there are only two teams in MLB that are in the teens for wins: Kansas City (15) and Oakland (10!)

    1. man, the A's are gonna be at -200 in run differential by next week. That's..... damn.

        1. It would never happen in the U.S. given how sports leagues are set up but can you imagine if we had relegation here in the U.S.? Those late season games between teams fighting to stay up would have huge ratings and interest. If you watched any of Welcome to Wrexham, one of the compelling things about that series is the "will they or won't they" promotion story arc. If it wasn't for that, no one would care about a level 5 soccer team in Wales.

          This weekend the only interesting thing about the EPL is that there are three teams fighting to stay out of the last two relegation spots. Those three games will be massively compelling with fans on the edge of their seats for 90 plus minutes. Can you imagine a late season game of the Royals v. A's? There might be 5,000 people in the stands and a passing mention on Sportscenter.

            1. It would also require a wholesale restructuring of the fiscal model for the minors, where all of the "talent" and the coaches currently are owned by the main clubs.

          1. I’m not familiar with how relegation works in soccer when it comes to individual player contracts, but I suspect baseball’s free agency system would need to adjust to address this. Are players who have reached free agency offered a release from their contracts if the team they were playing on is relegated?

            It seems like it would be hard for a rebuilding team to sign free agents they hope can help them bridge the development of their next competitive core as they emerge from the minors. Beyond that, I’m not sure it’s fair to relegate individual players who have reached free agency to playing in the minors because of a team failure — particularly when that failure is due to non-player factors like bad owners or incompetent front offices. At the same time, it wouldn’t be fair to force a former free agent out of a contract they signed with a club because it was being relegated, particularly if the player had sustained an injury during that season. And players on the cusp of free agency would likely have their earning power depressed if they had to spend another year playing in the minors instead of at the level fitting their skill.

            1. Teams relegated actually get a payment parachute over three years so that they don't have an automatic huge loss of TV revenue, I think it's something like 55% of Premier league revenue the first year and goes down from that.

              In addition some players will negotiate a relegation release clause that automatically triggers if a club is relegated. The owning club must accept a bid if a higher-division club makes an offer matching a pre-determined (usually quite low) value. Many contracts of established Premier League clubs will include this clause. Not so much for newly promoted teams.

              Teams will usually sell off players to meet new budget demands. Some players may have a clause in their contract that reduces their salary by up to 20 percent if they are still around after relegation and the sell off. Basically it's not a pretty sight. The good players typically find a good team and others see significant salary cuts.

              1. How many different teams have been relegated in the previous decade? Scanning the Wikipedia page, shows the Premier League has six dominant teams so that implies the other 14 may be at risk.

                1. What's really interesting is that Everton has never been relegated from Premier League but are in danger of being relegated this year. In fact while not really ever competing for a championship (never placing higher than 4th), they've been in the top league continuously since the mid-1950s! That could change on Sunday.

                2. Seven teams have never been relegated.

                  Arsenal
                  Everton
                  Liverpool
                  Manchester United
                  Tottenham
                  Chelsea
                  Brighton

                  Brighton have only been in the PL for 4 or 5 years, so they are part of teams coming up. The other 6 are founding members. And Everton is only 2 points out of relegation at the moment, so they still may well go down this year if the results on the last day of the season pan out just so.

  2. I was having our weekly meeting with my VP the other day and at the end of our time he pulled up a spreadsheet with my annual compensation and highlighted a line and said this is your new salary, we appreciate the work you do here, and it was 5% higher than my previous salary. This is on top of the merit increase I got earlier in the year. Out of the blue and unsolicited, so that was nice. I wonder how much I could have gotten if I'd actually asked for a raise.

    1. Well, the last time I asked for a promotion (that was about three years overdue) I got laid off, so there's that. So, congrats on the raise!

      On that note, I am going to enjoy the fact that, starting Tuesday when I start my new job I will have gotten a 20% pay increase from when I was laid off back in October.

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