2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

You're wrong because, and this is going to sound very weird, but the Pirates are a lot smarter lately than the average small-market team. The new CBA takes away a market inefficiency that some smart teams, mostly big-market but also the Pirates, had discovered.

However, you can't extrapolate that from "The Pirates' major strategy has been nerfed" to "The new system screws small-market teams." The Pirates were just one small-market team, and most teams didn't look at the draft the way they did. The list of teams looking to dump a ton of money into amateur players was growing in recent years, and like all competitive advantages it shrunk as more teams copied it. But on the list of big amateur spenders in recent years, the Pirates stick out as the exception: Boston, Texas, Chicago, Toronto and Pittsburgh were the big overslot teams in the last years before the new CBA. While Pittsburgh was smart to get ahead of the curve, most small-market teams were being left out. I didn't see a lot of small-market teams in on Jorge Soler, a top-10-pick quality Cuban prospect who was the last true prospect to go under the old CBA rules. The big-market Cubs threw their money weight around and got him.

The new system takes market-size and spending ability almost entirely out of the amateur talent acquisition process, and replaces it with previous year's record. While that may be bad for the Pirates, who are a small-market team who weren't afraid to spend on amateur talent and are on the verge of good records, it's very good for most small market teams, who no longer have to worry about being priced out of top international talent or seeing the Bostons of the world stock up on a bunch of overslot draftees. Basically, this screws over *smart* teams. Smart teams had already identified amateur talent as a great market inefficiency and began spending accordingly, and now that inefficiency has been taken away. Meanwhile, small-market teams now get a free draft pick and larger draft pool every year. If you look at the league as "Pirates vs. everyone else," then yeah the new changes suck. If you look at it as "All small market teams, dumb and smart, vs. all big market teams, dumb and smart," then there's no way you can deny that in sum, this CBA helps the small-market teams. They now have a major in-draft advantage.

Okay, and moving away from the league as a whole and back to the Pirates, it does suck for them that they can no longer use overslots to improve their amateur talent (although, as I said, that advantage was starting to shrink as more teams caught on. Without the new CBA, I suspect the advantage would have been non-existent in a year or two anyway).

But they aren't getting screwed on not being able to sign Appel. Appel would have never fallen to them without the new CBA. The new CBA meant that only the team with a very high pick, probably No. 1 overall, could hope to sign him. That's working as intended: They don't want high picks using bonus demands to price themselves out of small-market teams' means and forcing a fall to the deeper-pocketed teams later in the draft.

The Pirates knew full well they weren't going to be able to sign Appel. My guess is they took him with the intention of not signing him. Instead of the No. 8 pick in a draft with a big fall-off after the first six players this year, the Pirates are gambling that the No. 9 pick in next year's draft (and the flexibility that comes with the extra bonus pool money) is a better value. Rules changes always create new market inefficiencies, and the teams quickest to figure them out are the ones to benefit. Looks like the Pirates are already ahead of that curve.

 

Just jerking his chain...feeling feisty on a Friday.

It's funny how California is usually so much more expensive than everywhere else...but my wife and I go to Angels games (cheapo StubHub tix), park (down the street, $10), eat and drink for between $50-$75 max.

 

I have never seen that typed before unless you are describing their hitters trying to hit one.

 

That is your opinion. Please stop trying to post your opinion as if it was fact.

Players fall farther than they should all the time, especially Boras clients. You don't know where Appel would have gone. You are guessing.

The Pirates were willing to overspend on amateur talent because they can't do that with major-league talent. It is the one place where they can take on the big boys because overall the price tags are lower.

Now? That option is gone, taking a potential method for evening the playing field with it. Thus, the change works against the small markets.

 

Yeah, you can't see past your Pirates on this one, and I'm not going to keep bothering to explain it to you.

So why am I not allowed to guess that Appel wouldn't have fallen to the Pirates without the new CBA, but you can guess that they could have drafted and signed him without the new CBA?

 

I never said they would for sure. Go back and read the initial post. The Pirates not signing Appel is simply an example of the way the new system can work against small markets.

You explained your point of view just fine. I just think you are wrong and that you can't see past your need to be a baseball apologist.

Really, it's ok. You can love the sport and still be critical of the league. Hell, I tell everybody the NFL's system is superior all the time, but I am still plenty critical of that league as well.

 

Hey, this thread now has a full season's worth of pages.

In 1960, it would only have been 154 pages long, though.

 

*

 

Well played, Baron

 

Jesus OOP, he more than explained his post well. Baseball apologist has nothing to do with it, he explained, and explained quite well why you were wrong. Is it that hard to admit when you might be wrong? My bet is you don't even truly understand the new system. My bet is most of us don't have a great grasp on the new system.

I will let you have the last word, I know if I don't this will go on for pages upon pages. Although, I do reserve the right to pull a Shotty and return.

 

Thanks, Ford Frick! ;D

 

New CBA: Teams can no longer use extra money to sign better amateur talent, and small-market teams get free draft picks and bigger bonus pools.

It takes a certain tortured POV to twist that into somehow being *bad* for teams without a financial advantage.

To bring my own fanboi tendencies into this, this completely sucks for the Cubs. Using their big-market resources to dominate the amateur talent market was a big part of the new regime's plans, and they got hamstrung before they could even get started. Other than signing Soler.