IheartLA

I disagree. This wasn't your ordinary recruitment process. The angels FO and Ohtani's agent/people were building a long term relationship/ wining-dining, schmoozing whoever needed to be. On the outside we underestimate the amount of face to face time agents/FO have. Why do you think the Nationals are Boras' client warehouse, he obviously has a good personal relationship with the people there. Eppler definitely pitched to Balelo that Ohtani would be taken care of if he came here and every effort would be made for him to succeed. Kind of like how Pete Carroll would have recruited a 5 star QB to USC. Telling his family that he will be treated like a son and that this is a long term investment between the organization and the player. There's honestly not even that much to be worried about from the pitching side, he's still K'ing people and throwing some good stuff. I'd be more worried about his hitting because he's not hitting anything in the air and is rolling over everything on the ground.

Kind of hard to believe that his agent didn't go through all the scenarios in the recruitment pitch. Remember the Angels were a long shot, they promised him the moon to get him to come. Sending him to AAA is an overreaction. Is anyone judging Trout or Pujols on ST? It's just because of the hype surrounding him, even if he's not the Japanese Babe Ruth he can still be a contributing player. If 20 PA and 5 INN were enough to change someone's mind then Eppler and co. wouldn't be the businessmen they are. No way his agent agrees to push his FA back one year. They'd probably give up hitting for a year before that. All the possible scenarios were probably covered before he agreed to come.

You must have a low IQ, I meant top US criquet player moving to play in India because I thought they were #1 in criquet. I picked a random sport. Ohtani doesn't speak any English and the culture shock from Japan to USA is huge. I used an American going to India as an example so people would understand the gravity in change of culture. Everyone here is probably an American so they probably can't really relate to the culture/language shock.

I remember in ST 2015 Jung Ho Kang was terrible for the Pirates then once the season started he went beast mode. Same for Hyun Soo Kim in 2016. Those stories are well documented. Imagine a top US player took a criquet job in India and was expected to go ham from the word go with no language/friends/etc. I think if he was just a pitcher no one would be really that worried, he's been K'ing people pretty nasty, he'll be an asset to the staff. However the hitting side he could definitely be a negative value, and how exactly is he going to improve if he's expected to pitch at the MLB level. And considering he's got some work to do on the mount he can't just go cruise control on pitching and focus more time on film/cages on just hitting. If he's pitching like 3.5ERA 1K/1IN he's still plus value for us so he's not going to get sent down, but if he's hitting .200 then we can't really just give at bats away. This experiment only really will work if he's good at both or good at pitching/average at hitting, and since he's a DH the bar for an average hitter is actually quite high.

he's listed at age 29, going to be 30 in April... I don't think so Anyone wanna guess his real age? 32, 33?

think Marte still has the edge. Should be ok for an emergency couple of innings if Kinsler got hurt in the middle of the game. If he got injured not in a game they would then probably call up a Cowart/Fontana/etc.

who's going to play 1B against LHP when Pujols is DHing?

LOL.

Let's not get carried away people

Valbuena really can't hit left handed pitching. When a LH starter is on the mound we're kind or missing a bat. I think Marte has the best chance unless another signing is made.

Did someone say 3 WAR?

SWEET!

you guys that are trying to make the argument against the players really are tunnel visioned. Forget Martinez, Hosmer and the 1% of 1%. So after the top ten or so free agents how are the other 95%, aka the middle class, doing? Do Moustakas or Morrison have any offers? Even 1 year offers. Howie Kendrick hit over .300 and got $3.5M. Adam Lind hit over .300 and didn't even get $5M. Any player over 33ish even if they do well the year before like Pagan in 2016, Freese in 2015 are basically forced to take a couple million if they're lucky. A lot of guys in their thirties are now forced to take minor league 1 year deals with a spring training invite. Teams would rather go with a guy from their system making $500k for 3+ years then sign a veteran solid player. That's what's scaring the players and the agents.

The more this drags out the less I see the situation changing next year, the year after that, or really anytime till the next CBA. The data teams are getting isn't changing, their ability to analyze it is getting better, the problem is the system. There is no incentive for teams to spend more with the current rules being what they are. They aren't going to wake up tomorrow and start signing 30+ year olds like they did in the past. To me it's like the manufacturing jobs the midwest lost, they aren't coming back no matter what. Companies can go anywhere in the world for slave wages, the only way they will come back is if the marginal value = cost. Same thing for the teams, there are too many players that are young and due to the system be paid nothing for good production. The Yankees would rather have Andujar/Torres for the minimum over Frazier/Moustakas/Castro. Even if they made $5M that's 10 times what the rookies would make. The luxury tax and revenue sharing was supposed to the exact opposite of what's it's doing now. All thirty teams were supposed to be able to compete, spend, and have some hope every year. Instead we now have a cap on the teams that do want to spend and owners have a bullet proof investment sure to generate tremendous cash flow for years to come. Instead of 30 teams bidding, we have 10. This is a squeeze on everybody.

So i took a look at some numbers of the top 30 WAR leaders for hitters over their combined stats the last two seasons (2016+2017). Only 7 out of 30 players were in their thirties for both seasons. #6 Donaldson (30,31) - 3B #8 Votto (32,33) - 1B #11 Turner (31,32) - 3B #18 Murphy (31,32) - 2B #20 Cano (33,34) - 2B #21 Beltre (37,38) - 3B #29 Kinsler (33,34) - 2B The other 23 were at least in their twenties for 2016. The first thing you notice is all are infielders. MLB really is becoming a young man's game. It's hard to see a lot of thirty year olds in the leaderboards. I can kind of see why front offices look at 30-32 as basically the end of a player's elite level unless you're a freak like Beltre. It seems like this game is becoming filled with younger and younger players, especially in the outfield. I honestly don't see Harper getting $400M next year, he probably won't even get the $325M Stanton got. Even ten years takes him through age 35. OF prospects are everywhere, even our system has three good ones. If you went to college you're definitely not getting to FA until 31-32ish. Meaning in today's game it's going to be really hard to get paid. If you came out of HS you'd be around 27-29ish, you might get a 5-7 year deal once you hit FA. I don't think even Trout will get anything beyond age 36ish, and he's the GOAT.

an entire thread of me agreeing with you, I think you have got this spot on

your ticket price isn't because of Trout's contract. This is a % of revenue issue.

What about Posey, Bumgarner, Kershaw, Freeman, Votto, Scherzer. Jose Ramirez, Altuve, Simmons, etc. have all outperformed their extensions. And take Cano off your list, he's performing above average into his deal up to this point.

well the university accounting programs are basically funded by them so they have a lot of say in how the process is run. Depends on what you mean by training. Post graduation the firms send all their new hires to basic training before starting full time employment. This is all paid for by the company.

Why do fans always treat sports differently, people go to Coachella or a Led Zeppelin concert for entertainment. Same thing with a movie. But athletes always make too much money for sports fans.

I'm a CPA currently working for a BIG4 accounting firm, but I can say when I was in university all the top firms invested massive amounts of money in the universities which now seems very sketchy. They viewed recent graduates at top universities like Ucla/Usc as feeder schools where they can get cheap, smart labor that they could exploit. 18-22 year old kids were filled with propaganda from professors/recruiters of how great it is to work for these mega companies, which they had to do b/c so much of the program was funded by them. No overtime, low salary, your first few years are absolute HELL. Honestly coming from this type of background and seeing the entire "scheme" I see LOTS of similarities. The MLB clubs are investing in Latin America like a factory. With a population boom, thousands of kids are funneled into these academies where maybe 1% will make it. The club will throw the 99% away like trash. We see Altuve but no one sees the thousands of kids that were thrown to the side. The difference between this and a regular American athlete is the exact same as mega companies bringing in cheap labor south of the border to replace domestic workers. MLB teams know there are MANY players from Latin America that could be regular everyday players that will play for a fraction of the cost. This is the entire process from initial signing bonus, cost to cultivate the talent, lack of education making them easy for agents/teams to exploit when it comes to extensions, etc. Some agents have touched on it but there are too many good players right now in MLB. Boras mentioned how every team now has 5 choices it seems and there is a supply issue. To correct this there needs to be chances to the salary floor/arbitration to adjust for the new realities in the game.

So you'd be ok with tech companies from Silicon Valley bringing in 2 billion Indians/Chinese b/c they're cheaper? Or 500M Latin Americans to replace the more expensive/spoiled Americans?

It's not just the old players. Heyward was 26 when he signed his massive deal and he has been terrible so far. His response has been that he isn't thinking about it and he has "earned" his money. Similar to Pujols. http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/jason-heyward-predicts-he-will-be-mvp-2018-cubs Looking at Heyward's page it's obvious he wasn't compensated fairly for his 5-7 WAR seasons he was putting up in arbitration years. As for big mega deals Posey, Kershaw, Arod's 1st deal, Votto, Scherzer, Freeman have all worked out ok. Even Cano was been pretty good value so far. Murphy/Donaldson will be entering their age 34 seasons when they hit FA. Dozier will be 32. They're probably looking at 3-4 year deals MAX. And these are basically the best players in the game.

That's a terrible idea. Why shouldn't arbitration just pay FMV year to year. To get to arbitration meant you played 2.5+ years on $500k. If there was an arbitration hearing for a 5 WAR CF then he should be paid like a 5WAR CF, 3 WAR 2B should be paid like a 3 WAR 2B. That would give 3-4 years of team control at FMV for both player/team. Then he'd hit FA at 29-32 and sign a 3-5 year deal and not feel the need to make up for 6+ years of underpayment when his skills are declining.

To be fair Arte has always been about winning. Him messing around with Norris/Chavez's bonuses might make people think otherwise, but he's always been an owner that's willing to spend if he thought they were good. I feel like he's more a fan than other owners, that's why he takes it so personally when he invests a lot of faith and it doesn't come off.