DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Rob Manfred announces universal DH rule

Meh, cry me a river.

Isn't that the way it always works? The only people that end up actually paying the price are their employees, which are the players, or the fans. Sometime both. They certainly not going to cut their profit margin even when it's themselves that inflicted the damage.

I get your point, but I'm having a hard time feeling any kinship with MLB players who turned down a minimum salary of $740K because they want $775K. At some point, the proportions involved cancel out the principle of "solidarity" with the working man.

Wasn't really looking at it from a solidarity standpoint. And yeah, I'm not one who is in a tax bracket that I relate to people that make 700+k a year. What I have seen however is that my comments are a systemic issue that includes everyone from the bottom up. Businesses make a huge mistake? Who pays for it? From a purely mathematical standpoint the lockout means the overall income of baseball will go down for the season. You can bet the owners won't cut their profit margins because of it.

Maybe. Unlike the NFL, I think only some of the owners are making any real money. I think the majority of teams are running things pretty tight.

All you have to do is look at the payrolls of teams to tell who has the cash and who doesn't.

j/c...

Pitch clock....good idea for the most part. I am not sure how that will work against holding runners.

Ban shifts...I don't see the point. They will line up just "outside" 2nd base and slide over a few feet at the pitch. Maybe goofy hitters should just learn to poke it though the hole, take the hit and increase the batting average?

Larger bases,,,,how does that work? If 1st and 3rd extend in to foul territory like safety bases in low levels of baseball...ok..that helps prevent injury. How do you do that at 2nd base? Maybe extend it out to left to allow more room behind the base. If it shortens the basepath, I don't like it. It should still be 90 feet between bases, If not, you are
changing the future record books. The distance is a perfect balance between stealing a base and getting thrown out.

The big hang-up is the "luxury tax. The players and some owners want the amount raised, and some owners don't. As a fan of a small market team, I don't want it raised either. The large market teams already have a big advantage and want the untaxed portion to increase, as do the players, in essence raising the salary cap...a cap most teams can't hit.

If some of you think the small market teams are just greedy and can hit the payroll figures a team like the Yankees or Dodgers can hit, you are out of your minds. They can't.

As I said in another post, this is a fight between the owners as much or more as it is between players and owners. The large market teams are all for it while the smaller market teams aren't. The large market teams get way more broadcast rights. It far easier to get and keep advertisers paying higher rates then it is to get fans to pay more to go to games. It's easier to get 3 million people paying maybe $50 each to go to 1 games in LA v 1 million people paying $50 a pop going to 3 games each in Cleveland.

Why MLB owners want bigger bases, explained

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. You may have come here wondering why Major League Baseball owners want bigger bases going forward. Wondering what’s up with that? We’re here to help.

The MLB lockout continues, but there’s been progress when it comes to rule changes.

Among the changes that the MLB Players Association agreed to in 2023 were a pitch clock, outlawing the defensive shift … and bigger bases?

Initially, that may seem kind of ridiculous. But as we’ll get into, it’s actually a smart idea that’s been tested:

... Bigger bases?
Yup! And they were tested in the minor leagues:



How much bigger are we talking here?
This big:

The bigger bases in the minors were 18 inches square instead of 15.

And why is this a thing?
Think about it. Given the game in 2021 — with the ball in play less than ever between the shift, pitchers throwing better than ever and hitters going more for dingers and striking out more — there needs to be more action.

So this is one way to do it. You could get more stolen base attempts and perhaps more safe calls at first.

There’s another change. From the New York Post in 2021:

You know the play in which a guy steals second base, pops up and separates from the bag for a blink as the middle infielder keeps his glove on him, which replay confirms upon a manager challenge, thereby sending the baserunner back to the dugout? Wouldn’t it be great if that play ceased to exist? While full eradication might prove too ambitious, a bigger base surely would help.

“The current base, if you don’t hit the front of it and stop, you’re going through it,” Chris Marinak, MLB’s chief operations and strategy officer, told The Post on Thursday in a telephone interview. “And this base is a little more forgiving in the sense that, if you hit the front of it, hopefully there’s more catch on the base. You can actually stop on the bag without popping off. Certainly that’s one of the ideas behind it.”

https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/mlb-lockout-rule-changes-bigger-bases-why

Seems like a deal is coming today

Split the difference and call it a day. This has gone on long enough.

Might have to wait a little longer....

The international draft is such a departure from the current system that I don’t understand how the league thinks it can be implemented at all let alone in two years.

“Canceled”

Alright!

j/c:

So now won't there be a flurry of transactions?

What’s more than a flurry?

j/c:

I think a plethora = mega-flurry.

super duper flurry?

A blizzard.

Looks like April 7 is opening day. Apparently they are planning on still playing 162 games with some double-headers mixed into the schedule.

Not disputing it, but just can't find anything on the start date. Where did you see/hear it?

Local sportstalk on 92.3 FM.

This was actually tweeted before the announcement of players accepting the deal.

What does it mean that the elected subcommittee voted against the deal?

Thank you, Dave.

Not sure, really. It would be interesting to see the sequence of voting. If the subcommittee votes first before the player vote, is that an attempt to influence they players subsequent vote. If so, at least in this instance, it didn't work.

But I don't know how any of this stuff works, but it was curious Passan included in the tweet.

When you look at the makeup of the MLBPA executive committee - Francisco Lindor, Max Scherzer, Gerritt Cole, Andrew Miller, Marcus Semien, James Paxton, and Jason Castro - there's some mega contract guys in that group who may not be all that in tune with the rank-and-file players making league minimum or a fraction of what some of their salaries are. For example, the increase of minimum salary from $595K to $710K is a big deal to a lot of the young players in the league. Not a big deal to most of the executive committee. They were probably much more concerned with the CBT numbers.