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MLB Offseason '13-'14 |OT| Where the best fans live

BFIB

Member
No thanks to Cruz. Shitty defender who doesn't get on base very well.

Choo could hit 25 bombs in YS. I'm just worried about the years it would require to sign him.

If Ellsbury got $153 mil, I'm sure Choo is looking at around $100 at least.
 

aFIGurANT

Member
How the fuck does McClouth get playing time in the NL, for the Nats? That's the shittiest contract for a fourth outfielder I've seen (OK that's not true *cough Vernon Wells cough*) and a waste of talent on top of it all.
 

Sanjuro

Member
How the fuck does McClouth get playing time in the NL, for the Nats? That's the shittiest contract for a fourth outfielder I've seen (OK that's not true *cough Vernon Wells cough*) and a waste of talent on top of it all.

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aFIGurANT

Member
No, I'm pointing out how absurd some of you guys are with some of these signings.

TWO YEARS TEN MILLION GOODLAWD!!!

Bunch of supermarket moms in here.

Welp paying 5.75 million for a bench bat seems pretty stupid. Sorry if that disagrees with your sensibilities but that's what the offseason is all about - judgement.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Welp paying 5.75 million for a bench bat seems pretty stupid. Sorry if that disagrees with your sensibilities but that's what the offseason is all about - judgement.

Johnny Gomes was a terrible signing. I have no idea what we were thinking! Certainly didn't pay off.
 

aFIGurANT

Member
Johnny Gomes was a terrible signing. I have no idea what we were thinking! Certainly didn't pay off.
Nice stealth brag...too bad the cards didn't eliminate the perpetuation of this hindsight bias that says everything the WS winner did was a perfect move.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Nice stealth brag...too bad the cards didn't eliminate the perpetuation of this hindsight bias that says everything the WS winner did was a perfect move.

How is that a stealth brag? It's countering your point.

Even if we didn't win the World Series, he was a fine signing and still would have matched your "shittest contract of all time".
 

aFIGurANT

Member
My hyperbole aside it's stupid to let a young guy who did well last year get paid to ride the pine/wait for an injury. I'll look up his age but I'm sure I'm not too far off that he's ~30 at the oldest.
 

aFIGurANT

Member
Then that gets back to why would you pay him over 5 mill.... I'm just trying to get a grasp on how the price for a FA has skyrocketed so suddenly. Is baseball just finally catching up to inflation or something? I'm sure someone's read an article that doesn't cite the TV money as the only factor in all this money being thrown around.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Then that gets back to why would you pay him over 5 mill.... I'm just trying to get a grasp on how the price for a FA has skyrocketed so suddenly. Is baseball just finally catching up to inflation or something? I'm sure someone's read an article that doesn't cite the TV money as the only factor in all this money being thrown around.

...because ball players cost a lot of money?
 

aFIGurANT

Member
Look I hate the Red Sox so anything you say is just fueling my desire to argue. But since this thread is getting shit upon with our back and forth I just have to say:

Why are baseball players so expensive? Ridiculous numbers going on today if you ask me, without exception.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Look I hate the Red Sox so anything you say is just fueling my desire to argue. But since this thread is getting shit upon with our back and forth I just have to say:

Why are baseball players so expensive? Ridiculous numbers going on today if you ask me, without exception.

Highly original. It's not really back and forth when you don't make any points.

They are expensive because they make owners billions of dollars selling hot dogs and beer.
 

BFIB

Member
Look I hate the Red Sox so anything you say is just fueling my desire to argue. But since this thread is getting shit upon with our back and forth I just have to say:

Why are baseball players so expensive? Ridiculous numbers going on today if you ask me, without exception.

A weaker free agent market means that some teams are going to overpay to get what's out there.

As far as the Cano deal goes, that's just Seattle doing something desperate to try and turn the ship.
 

CygnusXS

will gain confidence one day
Baseball players are so expensive because MLB is seeing record high profits. It's really that simple.
 

aFIGurANT

Member
Highly original. It's not really back and forth when you don't make any points.

They are expensive because they make owners billions of dollars selling hot dogs and beer.
Well if you follow other sports you'll see that baseball is paying out the nose comparatively. Maybe you can chalk it all up to twice the regular season games vs the next sport but to me there's something vastly different to baseball that's driving all this. Is it popularity, low overhead, or what? I fail to see what makes some of these guys so exceptional that they dwarf entire team's salaries in other sports.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Well if you follow other sports you'll see that baseball is paying out the nose comparatively. Maybe you can chalk it all up to twice the regular season games vs the next sport but to me there's something vastly different to baseball that's driving all this. Is it popularity, low overhead, or what? I fail to see what makes some of these guys so exceptional that they dwarf entire team's salaries in other sports.

There isn't a salary cap.
 

Talon

Member
Well if you follow other sports you'll see that baseball is paying out the nose comparatively. Maybe you can chalk it all up to twice the regular season games vs the next sport but to me there's something vastly different to baseball that's driving all this. Is it popularity, low overhead, or what? I fail to see what makes some of these guys so exceptional that they dwarf entire team's salaries in other sports.
What 3 letter league has teams that are spending less than $24 million on an entire roster (that is not the Astros)?
 

aFIGurANT

Member
What 3 letter league has teams that are spending less than $24 million on an entire roster (that is not the Astros)?

I'm thinking of MLS specifically. That's not a big american sport but when the championship (tomorrow's game) has a team that is barely over 3M for their entire roster vs a team that's comparable (not sure on SKC's payroll, soccer is weird and hides that stuff if it can) it's a bit unreal.
 
But seriously Mariners. Don't trade Taijuan Walker for David Price.

Just sign one of the FA pitchers.


All of you guys need to understand the Mariners NEEDED to pay that much to try and change the fucking terrible culture/stigma surrounding the Mariners.

I'd take a slightly overpaid Matt garza/Cruz or Beltran team than a Price team sans Walker.
 

CygnusXS

will gain confidence one day
I'm thinking of MLS specifically. That's not a big american sport but when the championship (tomorrow's game) has a team that is barely over 3M for their entire roster vs a team that's comparable (not sure on SKC's payroll, soccer is weird and hides that stuff if it can) it's a bit unreal.

Wouldn't MLS be the outlier here though?
 

Talon

Member
I'm thinking of MLS specifically. That's not a big american sport but when the championship (tomorrow's game) has a team that is barely over 3M for their entire roster vs a team that's comparable (not sure on SKC's payroll, soccer is weird and hides that stuff if it can) it's a bit unreal.
This is a completely unbalanced comparison. The MLS, talent and money-wise, is a bottom tier national league within its own sport.

The MLB is the premier league (no pun intended) within its sport.
 

aFIGurANT

Member
Wouldn't MLS be the outlier here though?

Definitely, but it's expanding in the US to where you'd think there would be some kind of similarity. I mean Beckham was only pulling in like 5 million or so iirc. Seems weird that my favorite sport league (MLB) is some behemoth that is worth 6 billion USD. It just makes me wonder why we are having a hard time pulling talent from football and basketball, really.
 

CygnusXS

will gain confidence one day
It just makes me wonder why we are having a hard time pulling talent from football and basketball, really.

I think there are a couple explanations for that:

1) Baseball's conservatism turns off a lot of young athletes;

2) Baseball's development system takes years longer than any other sport and is highly prone to failure.
 

aFIGurANT

Member
Yeah I mean the fact that you need to wait like five years, while in the majors, to ever enter FA in the first place is probably one daunting roadblock. I guess for every Mike Trout there's a JD Drew that just never makes it?

I sort of want to like baseball less since it's turning so damn viciously competitive in the offseason. I like it but it's crazy money for entertainment, crazier than most industries I would guess, except maybe war and that kind of shit.
 

Chuck

Still without luck
Wow, so many crazy signings! The craziest is probably Scott Feldman. He's a nice guy though, so I give him congrats on getting such a generous offer.
 

Sanjuro

Member
I sort of want to like baseball less since it's turning so damn viciously competitive in the offseason. I like it but it's crazy money for entertainment, crazier than most industries I would guess, except maybe war and that kind of shit.

What does any of the money being spent have to do with your day to day life? They could make salaries private and it would change nothing.
 

clemenx

Banned
Yeah I mean the fact that you need to wait like five years, while in the majors, to ever enter FA in the first place is probably one daunting roadblock. I guess for every Mike Trout there's a JD Drew that just never makes it?

I sort of want to like baseball less since it's turning so damn viciously competitive in the offseason. I like it but it's crazy money for entertainment, crazier than most industries I would guess, except maybe war and that kind of shit.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say with JD Drew as an example? The dude made more than 100M in his career when it was done and he was never a superstar or something.
 

Opiate

Member
There are really two ways to approach baseball salaries; normatively and positively.

Positively, the correct salaries are whatever the market will bear. Demand drives pricing, and MLB players are in demand in a way that MLS players are not. Positively, baseball players are payed appropriately.

If we want to make normative statements (i.e. what baseball players "should" be making), then sure, baseball players are overpaid. Why are guys who hit balls with sticks for a living making orders of magnitude more than firemen or teachers or even doctors? As soon as we open this door, however, the same would be true for every other sport and lots of other things, and we're basically reshaping the entire economy in fantastical ways that have no bearing on current reality.
 
No one's paying to watch teachers, firemen, etc. do what they do. And let's not act like baseball owners haven't had their way with baseball players for ages. It was a long arduous road to get to this point.
 
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