It's the company party tonight. Jane hadn't gone in years as we don't have any babysitters or grandparents in the vicinity. But last year we decided that Pete was old enough to at least supervise the situation himself. No one died, so we're giving them another shot. Same as last time, they'll be in a hotel across the street and can call if they need anything. We'll fill them up with junk food, video games, and movies, and hopefully peacefully enjoy a few hours to ourselves.
The Gigantes defeated Estrellas 6-4 yesterday. Estrellas had just three hits, all singles. They were fortunate to score four, getting the benefit of five walks and three errors. Robinson Pina started and pitched 2.2 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. The loss went to Domingo Robles (0-1), who pitched 1.1 innings and gave up two unearned runs on two hits and a walk, striking out one.
Caribes built a 9-4 lead and held on for a 9-8 victory over Caracas. Willians Astudillo was 2-for-5 with a double. Luis Sardinas was 2-for-4 with a home run (his fifth) and a double. Kevin Vicuna was also 2-for-4 with a home run (his second) and a double. Edgar Escobar (3-2) got the win, pitching five innings and giving up two runs on three hits and two walks and striking out three. Luis Amaya (1) gave up a hit and a walk, but got the last out to get a save.
That's double the Mets' 2023 payroll.
When they started cutting back the past couple years, you knew they were saving up for this.
Convenient to not move after changing jobs.
Will this be MLB's KG contract moment?
I hope they don’t put in a max salary, it doesn’t help that much with competitive balance, IMO. The product would be a lot better with a relatively hard cap, though. I say follow the MLS direction and have a hard cap, but allow teams up to three “designated players” that have a limited charge against the cap, but can be paid anything.
I don’t necessarily mind Ohtani getting a bajilion bucks from a big market, but I do mind the big markets getting all the big free agents.
With Soto a Yankee and Ohtani a Dodger, if any other team makes the World Series I suspect people are going to get fired.
Eff the Evil Empires East and West.
This
Yes, but at least Ohtani made them pay. It would be worse if they somehow got him at a discount. They have a boatload of money, but even so, $70M/year is a lot.
I don't begrudge any pro athlete getting paid.
But holy hell. The next highest paid players are Scherzer and Verlander at $43+ million each.
I just read that a lot of it is deferred. Which is basically a discount for the Dodgers (PV versus FV and inflation and all that), so now I’m a lot more irritated about it.
My back of the napkin math says that if they sold out Dodger Stadium for the next 10 years, they would need to raise an extra $15/seat for the entire 10 years to pay for the contract. That’s a lot considering you need to also pay for the rest of the team, but maybe it’ll work out for them.
I also guess that I don’t mind when the players as a group get paid, versus the owners pocketing that much money, but it doesn’t sit that well with me having one guy making 50-100% of a lot of team’s entire payrolls when so many young players are drastically underpaid.
The irritating part to me is the way the deferral is structured to, essentially, get around competitive balance rules. The tax is designed to keep teams close enough to each other, and this keeps them more easily under the tax limit. Who knows what the rules will be in the future? Maybe the tax will go away, or go up in a way that doesn't hurt the Dodgers.
Honest question, how much do you think the deal counts for the CBT? Right now, we don't know the details so it could be the AAV is $30 million or it could be $60 million. The estimates I've seen suggest it is closer to $60 million and this isn't an Ilya Kovalchuk contract. I'm reserving judgment until the details are released.
A fair question. I was extrapolating based on some earlier reports I read about Ohtani's desires to ensure a competitive team surrounds him.
I don't know where I'd draw the line, but I'm not super happy with any CBT avoidance.
Two words - salary cap.
The CBT mostly acts like one.
If a lot is deferred, Two words: Bobby Bonilla.