Good veteran players have no problems getting paid in MLB. Middle relievers who are completely replaceable get $5MM per year. Veteran mediocre starters make $10-$12MM/yr. That's more than comparably important football players. Basketball is a whole different level of ridiculous because there are so few players. And why wouldn't fans take ownership's side? Fans don't want to win last year - they want to win this year. No one's going to pay for past performance unless they have to (fortunately, there are only so many prospects so many teams have to). Owners are doing nothing wrong either - its what the system is designed to incentivize. If it's to change, it has to be in the CBA. Owners I'm sure would be happy to pay young players more and veterans less as long as they shelling out the same amount of money - it spreads their risk more so they aren't stuck with some of those crazy 10-yr free agency contracts. But players aren't going to go for it.
Exactly! For instance, the D-backs left Deyvison De Los Santos exposed to the Rule 5 draft. He's a 20-year-old 3B/1B who's rated as highly as the Astros' top prospects. I'd be just fine "wasting" a spot on the 26-man roster to get a guy like that. Kid's got some power (albeit with a high K-rate).
Dependable as in I trust his ass every time he is on the mound. We shouldn’t have to question whether or not we will get good Framber are head case Framber in the post season.
The Diamondbacks are taking a calculated risk. De Los Santos long term will be a 1st baseman, which limits his value to a lot of teams and he has a high strikeout rate. So, Arizona thinks no one will take him. However - I agree with you, he was in AA this season at like 20-21 years old. I would trade with a team at the top of the Rule 5 pecking order and keep him on the roster all year long. The Astros need as many prospects as possible, and he has a chance to be a good bat.
Unless something has changed in the last 6 months - Framber Valdez wants to be an Astros player. He and his agent let the Astros know that he was interested in an extension. It was like 8-9 months ago that the Astros believed they would get something done with Tucker and Valdez. Neither happened. As for Valdez liking NY. Supposedly his wife enjoys NYC.
This actually makes the most sense and logic if you want to attempt to keep some sort of consistency and correct the “I’m only playing in LA or Miami”. Pay out more for rookies and less for vets. I think, my opinion, the discrepancy is too great. Not to mention if you commit to say James Harden and he decides he’s not playing for your franchise any longer there is some protection for the club with the top salary being weighted less of the whole. Players still get their share, they just more guaranteed up front. I brought the Rockets into this thread but I think this applies to both baseball and basketball. Both are similar in that contracts have longer term negative impacts on rebuilding teams with these two sports.
I get that I’m just saying there are VERY few who are more dependable If we replaced him with another starter as soon as that other starter had a couple of bad outings we would say we no longer trust him Framber is way better than he is given credit on this forum He likely wore down last year coming off the longest season/highest workload of his career and the short offseason if you asked me to rank our starters by trust level for next year he is easily #1 Framber Javier (basically no offseason last year) JV (completely because of age) Brown France/Urquidy Lance and Garcia aren’t trust options but guys who could potentially make a difference down the stretch
Framber Tucker Bregman all gonna have career years by leaps and bounds. I judt decided since they are playing for contracts they will plow thru 2024 and be Cy Young and MVP's Gonna be amazing and super fun!
Listened to it yesterday and I really enjoy both of your perspectives. Early offseason podcasts must be the toughest. I really think the offseason will end up being pretty mild with any moves being depth rather than impact but I will continue listening.
You make a very good argument for players to sell out a couple of arb years for a reasonable extension rather than wait out their team then expect to be rewarded. It is unrealistic to expect a youngster to be paid like an all star. Because they are so volatile there is no way to know from season to season how much they might be worth
I agree none of them deserve money handed to them. As a fan, I get attached to my favorite players. The problem I have is when a player has done well and outperformed his contract but the owner gives no consideration to that at all and refuses to resign him because he may not be good in the future. It's the system- not the owners or the players, but as a fan, I would like a system where players stayed on my favorite teams. I don't want owners to drop them because they are no longer cheap. I don't want players to leave my team for greener pastures because another market has more money.
I wonder if the Astros are quietly seeing what they can get for Peña, with the idea that they will split SS reps between Dubie, Grae, and/or maybe someone else.
I doubt it. Pena had a sophomore slump trying to fix his propensity to SO on sliders. He corrected that somewhat. I think he has shown that he has diligence to work with coaches on his swing. His defense is way better than Dubon’s. Dubon is an excellent utility player off the bench, not a starter on a contending team.
