Well, here we go. The deadline has passed. Which teams improved their lot the most, and who fanned? The Dodgers, after their initial flurry of activity last week, were expected to be in on just about every good starting pitcher out there. What ended up happening was not what the fans wanted. The Astros get Verlander from the Mets. Although the Dodgers were thought to be in on Verlander, I…
Digging into the Math behind the Trade Simulator I am generally a non-believer whenever I read anything, for the most part. This is my way of saying that I’m really skeptical. I’m mostly this way after taking a couple of college courses, A logic philosophy class and a statistics math class. My first statistics class had an assigned reading book called “How to Lie With Statistics” by Darrell Huff, which…
Jokers to the right… Here I am, stuck in the middle with you. The clowns are the MLB Owners while the Jokers are the MLBPA… and all the fans are stuck in the middle. Why cancel games? The MLBPA says that is unnecessary. They think the owners can just snap their fingers and here’s the game. All the players have to do is show up, but what if they are…
I am not a Manfred Man (see what I did there? Not everyone will get that…), but this delay of the baseball season is not on Rob Manfred. It’s on his bosses. He takes his marching orders from them – he does not tell them what to do. Baseball has a huge problem with its ownership. The “have” teams are getting filthy rich and they have a chance to win…
On August 12, 1994, the MLB Players walked off and the player strike began. The strike ended 232 days later on April 2, 1995, making it the longest such stoppage in MLB history. Who is hurting? The fans. The same people they (both sides) are trying to keep coming to games, parking, and buying concessions and souvenirs. It is hard to measure attendance due to the pandemic precautions from both…
We don’t know what Andrew Friedman and Company will do this offseason and we don’t know what will happen with the CBA between owners and players, but I know what I would do and I predict what the Dodgers will do. In some ways, I endorse many of the moves that AF generally makes. While I did not like the signing of Trevor Bauer, I get why Freidman did it…
Well, let the bidding begin. A number of publications have put out their top 50 Free Agents list. MLBTR is one of my favorites to follow. They are no better with their prognostications than are any other publication. They run contests every year, and many of the readers have turned out better with picks than the writers. One year I got 12 out of 50. Not bad, but there were…
There has been a lot of speculation about FA the Dodgers may want to re-sign or sign. We have no idea what the CBT will be, or what the penalties will be if a team exceeds that limit with the upcoming CBA. Currently the taxes can reach a maximum 50% for all salaries above the CBT, and can reach a total of 95% for all salaries greater than $40MM in…
Now that the WS is over, the MLB calendar is set (maybe). Maybe because we have no idea what will become of the CBA after the current CBA expires on 12-1. Tentatively, the MLB dates: November 3 – 160 players were declared Free Agents. The Dodgers have 11. November 3 – 7 – Free agents can only negotiate with their most recent team. November 7 – Options must be exercised….
NOTE: If I can get Jeff Dominique and Dodger Chatter to each post once a week, then I also have Bear and DodgerRick who want to post… maybe I can see a way to keep this thing going. I am going to reach out to Rick, Bear, and B & P and have a conversation about what, when, and where. What I am doing here is a 10-minute exercise. Here…