OC Register: Cuban posting system, two-way players top baseball’s storylines to watch in 2019

[AngelsWin.com]

A minor baseball video game title, “Super Baseball 2020,” was released in North America in 1993. Its vision for the future of the sport was more ambitious than its low-res graphics. You could play as a man, a woman or a robot. Every game took place at the same indoor facility, Cyber Egg Stadium. A clock ticked away in the upper-left corner of the screen. Home runs only counted if they were hit to center field. Robot umpires governed with infallible judgment.

The next 363 days will point the way toward baseball as it will actually be played in 2020. That might not be enough lead time for robots and women to compete alongside men in Major League Baseball, but perhaps the league will get around to enforcing its existing pitch clock rules.

That one didn’t make the cut for the top storylines to watch in baseball this year. Here they are, in order of intrigue.

1. Cuba

The joint agreement announced Dec. 19 by MLB, the MLB Players’ Association, and the Cuban Baseball Federation teemed with optimism. Its proclamation was simple: a new posting system, similar to that between MLB and Japan, which would allow players to leave Cuba for the United States within a set of agreed-upon rules. Such a system could potentially end the dangerous practice of smuggling players, their friends, and family members off the island.

But was the optimism premature?

If the agreed-to parameters did not involve the Cuban and American governments, the answer would be no. Reuters cited an MLB official who claimed that the Office of Foreign Assets Control determined teams could transfer money to the Cuban Baseball Federation because it isn’t an agency of the communist government.

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However, that determination was made during the Barack Obama administration. Now, OFAC could simply change its mind, according to subsequent reports. MLB is already operating without competition under an antitrust agreement. Its relationship with the federal government is further entwined in a grand jury investigation, first reported by Sports Illustrated, into allegations of corruption tied to the recruitment of Cuban players by MLB teams. The Dodgers “figure most prominently” in the allegations, according to SI.

It’s a complicated situation that could turn on a whim – if the federal government ever goes back to work, of course.

2. Two-way players

Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch in 2019, but Matt Davidson, Kaleb Cowart and others might.

The Mariners recently acquired Cowart, a career infielder with the Angels, and invited him to spring training as a pitcher-slash-infielder. Matt Davidson was non-tendered after hitting 20 home runs for the Chicago White Sox in 2018. The Yucaipa native also retired nine of the 11 batters he faced as a pitcher, and he reportedly wants to keep pitching in 2019. Throw in Rays prospect Brendan McKay and the wave of two-way talents begins to resemble a trend.

If Ohtani’s rookie season is a harbinger, the onus is not simply on these players to prove full-time pitching and hitting can coexist in one player’s repertoire. The Angels handled Ohtani with great care from the outset of spring training. His schedule was heavily regimented, his press conferences limited. That his right UCL ultimately caved to pressure likely said more about his usage in Japan – though another Tommy John surgery could make teams wary of turning two-way players into a trend.

3. Gambling

Gaming magnate MGM Resorts promised “a new one-of-a-kind fan experience for baseball fans” when it announced its landmark partnership with MLB in November. We’re still waiting for the important details about what that experience entails.

Count us surprised if MLB and MGM roll out more than a handful of bells and whistles in the first year after the Supreme Court relaxed restrictions on gambling in sports. Baseball is the most traditional of the American pastimes, if not the most popular. As is usually the case, the league must strike a delicate balance between its past and its future that invites new fans without alienating its base.

4. “Openers”

If starters routinely pitch one or two innings in 2019, we can all point to May 19 and 20 of last year as a turning point in baseball history. That’s when the Tampa Bay Rays started veteran reliever Sergio Romo on back-to-back days against the Angels.

The idea of removing a starting pitcher in the second or third inning by design is not new. However, no major league regularly practiced it until Rays manager Kevin Cash used the strategy when his five-man rotation was depleted by injuries. The Rays won 90 games, the A’s used an opener (Liam Hendriks) in the American League wild-card game, and the Brewers used one – actually three – in the NLCS.

Newly appointed Giants general manager Farhan Zaidi said he would embrace the “opener” strategy in 2019. Perhaps other teams will follow suit.

5. The changing shape of free agency

One agent to several unsigned free agents recently hatched an idea: institute a second trade deadline, in December, as a means to speeding up another slow offseason. Once again, everything old is new again.

A trade deadline was observed at the Winter Meetings until 1984. Immediately, the meetings lost their urgency. They only carried the convenience of bringing executives and agents into the same hotel for four days in December. That felt like incentive enough to make major deals until last year, when several veteran free agents (J.D. Martinez, Yu Darvish, Eric Hosmer, Jake Arrieta) did not sign contracts until February. Others (Greg Holland, Jose Bautista, Matt Holliday) did not sign until after the regular season began.

The pattern is repeating itself. Bryce Harper and Manny Machado remain unsigned, to say nothing of the large “middle class” of free agents. Considering the rancor among players and agents, a second trade deadline seems like a modest proposal. Upheaving a system that grants free agency to players after six years of service time isn’t out of the question for baseball’s next decade.

6. Minor league team names

This is a silly one, but even Super Baseball 2020 might blush at the idea of the “New Orleans Baby Cakes.”

Minor league team names have never looked more ridiculous on a baseball jersey. The Rocket City Trash Pandas will begin play in Madison, Ala., in 2020. Pity the unlucky player who also wears the uniform of the Rocky Mountain Vibes or the Amarillo Sod Poodles.

We’re left to wonder: when (and how) does this end? Hopefully not with Trouble in River City.

7. Home run milestones

The list of active home run leaders hasn’t looked like this in a while. Albert Pujols sits comfortably in first place with 633. A steep dropoff follows: Miguel Cabrera is next with 465, followed by Edwin Encarnacion with 380. The top 10 players on the list are all 35 or older. Unless Mike Trout hits 60 home runs this year – never say never – only Giancarlo Stanton will enter the 2020s with 300 home runs by the age of 30.

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This is, of course, a dramatic departure from the norm of the last 20 years. The 400-home run club included 29 members in 1999. Today it’s up to 55 – but only two of those players are active.

It’s been argued that performance-enhancing drug use cheapened the value of traditional hitting milestones. Now that most of the PED era’s peak performers have retired, it’s a good time to survey the leaderboard landscape again. It hasn’t looked like this in a while.

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[arch stanton]

Sorry but even if Cowart pitches I'm not calling him a two-way player

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, arch stanton said:

Sorry but even if Cowart pitches I'm not calling him a two-way player

They will differentiate somehow. There will probably be two-way utility players being used more frequently from here on out, but I believe there is only one two way star, and that's Shohei Ohtani. I'm really excited at the prospect of Kaleb Cowart being a utility infielder and mop up reliever for the Mariners, and I think that's inevitably what will lead Bo Way or Jared Walsh into a major league job, the fact that they create roster flexibility. 

But there isn't a single other player that is good enough at either to be a two way star. The closest is Brendan McKay, who will be a great pitcher, but won't be anything more than a power bat off the bench. Basically what Madison Bumgarner is right now. Even William English, the first inner city Detroit kid selected in however many years, the Angels took him in the fifth round. He can sit 93 on the mound, and can also cover some acreage in CF. 

But there's a vast difference between someone than pitches 25 low leverage innings a year, that hits .250 in a reserve role, compared to comeone that hits triple digits on the mound for 150 innings a year as an ace, and smacks 20 HR's a year in a part time role. 

Othani is a unicorn. The rest of these guys are horses with a paper towel roll taped to their head. They may look similar, but let's not kid ourselves about their actual function and utility.