eaterfan

I think there were questions with Kendrick's defense in the minors. People (minor league evaluators) were pretty surprised with his defense when he came up. I think part of it may have had to do with the other guys in the system. Aybar and (I can't recall the second baseman that we traded to KC and eventually got back) were both supposed to be awesome defensively.

Then pay them for their time there! "These guys work hard all day, we shouldn't pay them. What use would they have for money when they spend all day at work?" Maybe it's just me, but I don't think these guys work such long hours that they don't need money is a persuasive argument that the system isn't exploitative.

Sadly, this may be worse than exploited college athletes. 1) NCAA players get to pick where they play. MiLB (and MLB players for that matter) are assigned where they play 2) NCAA players are housed, fed, and provided an education which is worth more than what MiLB players are paid (salary, not signing bonus) 3) NCAA players can transfer. You don't like the situation at school one, you can move to school two. MiLB can't change teams. This isn't true for all athletes and all sports. Baseball players on partial scholarships aren't in as good a situation as football or basketball players, obviously. Also, there are certainly advantages to MiLB. If you are drafted early, you get a signing bonus. (NIL rules may mitigate these advantages going forward). And coaches in the minor leagues are trying to develop players and not win at all costs. Pitchers don't throw 130 pitches in a game or 250 in a week in the minors. Hitters aren't bunting every 5th PA, etc.

Stop comparing the crappy job you had in high school or college to minor leaguers. You didn't get drafted to out of high school to flip burgers at McDonald's halfway across the county. They didn't cap how much money you could make based on when you were drafted. When Burger King offered you more money or better conditions you could go there and work for them. MLB isn't a free market. Everyone saying "you're worth what someone will pay you" are using that in the wrong way. As MLB owner Steve Cohen pointed out, draft picks are worth 5x their investment costs. But beyond that, everyone pointing out that Arte should invest in minor leaguers is right. NCAA programs invest so much money is food and training facilities. Owners spend so much money on their big league teams (I'd argue they should put more in payroll). But for the price of a decent middle reliever you could pay every minor leaguer in the system enough to be able to afford food and rent and they could focus only on being a good baseball player instead of making ends meet. It's classic penny wise pound foolish behavior from Arte.

I think it would be a nightmare to set up, though. There are bascially 3 options: 1. Keep the money the same as now and have equal high school and college draft pools (moneywise) - High school kids are not getting as much money and might go to college instead of signing. 2. You have a smaller college player draft pool and a larger high school one - People will complain that MLB is screwing over kids who "did the right thing" and went to college. 3. MLB increases the draft allowance and keeps the pools even - I still think the high school players will be more apt to go to college, because they still have more leverage and will feel like they are getting screwed. Plus, MLB isn't going to approve spending more money than they have to. If you want to keep the draft (and a cap on draft signing salary) and have the teams draft for talent instead of signability, I think the obvious answer is hard slotting for each pick. This means the first pick gets $7 million (or whatever) and the 2nd pick gets $6.8. The NFL and NBA have hard slotting and teams there draft for talent. In the NFL signability was a little bit of a thing before. Middling QB prospects used to go later in the draft because they were harder to sign.

30 is reasonable, but they are just trying to limit the number of relief pitchers a team has. I know the new rules limit pitching changes, but I'm sure they are worried about teams figuring out ways around it and games taking forever.

I don't like to see people fired, but I really didn't like him as a broadcaster and I'm not particularly hard on them. I am even okay with everyone else on the broadcast. I just found him unlistenable. The timing is weird, but whatever. Hopefully, they can find someone better.

What do you think we'll get for Adell at this point? Are those guys worse than Lagares?

McDonalds switched the Quarter Pounder to fresh beef. It's actually really good.

I think you're looking at this the wrong way. 20-30 years ago Percival was a stud with a rocket fastball that hit 95. Now everyone has 6 arms out of the pen that sit at 95. The alternatives out of the pen are better.

I eat there way too often because I love their hot sauce. I keep extra packets and put it on stuff at home.

Not only was it an extension, it was signed with two years left on the current deal. There was no need to extend him that early!

I am a little sad I didn't get to see him play one last time.

It will be weird watching without him on the team. I've gotten used to it.

I'm very happy with the Chargers' pick! I hated the Herbert pick, so what do I know?

I am no fan of the Broncos, but I think this is a good move for them. It brings in some competition for Lock, and it doesn't cost so much that they can't take a QB if their guy falls to them. This keeps them from having to trade up to get a top flight QB if they don't want to.

Better than Trout, I would say he is more talented than Trout. Trout is more valuable, but Ohtani can do more things than Trout. A team of 25 Ohtanis would beat a team of 25 Trouts and I don't think it would be close. If I were trying to win a WS though, I would take Trout.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2018/08/23/mike-trout-emotional-message-brother-law-social-media/1077279002/ Trout went on the DL on August 1st and his brother-in-law died August 15th. I am unsure when he would have returned had that not happened, but he returned to play on 8/24. So the most it cost him was a week. His foot injury was extended for a long time, in 2019 because the season was out of hand.

Trout was on the DL with an injury in 2017, 2018, 2019. I'm not counting 2020 for anything.

Yes. I think this describes it pretty well. My thoughts are that we've gone from Trout being the best player each season to Trout is the most consistently great player and if I were betting on a player to have the best season he would still be my top choice even though one or two guys may have a better season one year and it will rotate which guy it is.

I am not saying I'd do it, but I think pretending Trout hasn't shown some signs of slowing down isn't helpful. From ages 21-25 Trout played 157+ games every season. Since then he hasn't played more than 140. Yeah, last year was a short season, but it was also his worst OPS since his age 24 season and his defense has declined. His stolen bases in 2018 24 to 11 in 2019, and 0 so far this year. Trout is still awesome and the SB numbers don't really matter that much, but the games played trend at least has me concerned.

It's weird how my employer infringes on my right to free speech to call my boss a jerk and express myself through nudity and my right to carry a gun on their premises. They also violate my freedom of religion by making me work on the Friday past sundown. How is any of that legal? Forget the fact that mandating vaccinations effects public health.

Yes. MLB controls where a player can play and how much they will be paid for the 10 years of their career and we are worried about them mandating a shot in the arm.

An honest answer is that would encourage teams and players to hide positive tests and it could lead to further spread of the virus.

Slippery slope to what? Soon we're going to allow people to marry turtles!