2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

So it acts as a form of a salary cap would. Is this not what certain people wanted?

 

If we're the Nationals, shouldn't this be shut down for the rest of the season? Don't want overuse my mouse.

 

I'm sorry that you and Rick can't keep up with my counter-argument. That is your failing, not mine.

I admit when I'm wrong, as I did regarding Burnett being a worthy pick-up for the Pirates. You and Rick are welcome to do the same on this point.

 

I'm 85% sure that going into this argument, OOP wasn't aware that the Pirates' draft pick gets replaced next year after they don't sign Appel.

 

You are 100 percent wrong. Again. I knew that. I've been following this and reading about how it works because I thought it was an interesting move by the Pirates.

This post of yours just proves you aren't getting my point, if you even bothered to try to read it.

 

I get your point.

Your point is "Wah, this sucks for my Pirates so it must suck for all small-market teams."

Suck it up. It sucks for the Cubs, too.

 

Thank you for again proving my point. You aren't even bothering to read it. Utter failure on your part.

 

Cubs sign top-10-pick talent Jorge Soler for $30 million.

Was their ability to do that fair or unfair to small-market teams, OOP?

 

Yeah, I never quite understand why everyone thinks MLB games are so expensive. With a family of 4+, absolutely I can see where it's a once-a-year luxury. Kids get antsy after a few innings and want food or souvenirs, and that all adds up quickly.

But if you're solo/paying for your own or just with a friend/spouse ... sorry, but it's entirely possible to see a game at most MLB parks for under $40.

Hell, even when I was dead broke in the early 2000s, I was able to go to a dozen Braves games a year by myself with just a twenty-dollar bill and not spend it all: $1 Skyline seat (or $5 GA seat, if I didn't get there early enough for skyline), $8 parking, $4.50 hot dog, $3.50 soda (or $1 ice-cold water bottle bought from a "vendor" outside, once they allowed you to start bringing in food again). I never sat in my seat, just wandered the concourse and snuck down behind the dugout or behind the plate in the middle innings when the ushers stopped paying attention.

At most parks, even for good teams, tickets are plenty cheap through Stubhub, especially on weeknights and Sunday afternoons.

Really, the most important factor in keeping costs down is not drinking at the game, which isn't that hard to train yourself to do. Do your drinking before or after, and you've just saved yourself $25 apiece.

If you can't find relatively cheap parking in a major league city, you're not looking hard. Dodgers suck the life out of you at $15, sure, but I had a regular $5 lot I'd go to in San Diego, a regular $6 lot in Phoenix now. All less than 4-5 blocks from the park and in well-lit, well-patrolled areas. Angels were $8 in the stadium lot while I was living there, then $10. Braves were $8, then $10 in the upper stadium lot that I liked to use.

Obviously, if you HAVE to have multiple drinks and HAVE to sit downstairs and HAVE to eat multiple big-ticket food items during a game ... you're probably going to rack up a hefty bill. But it's not that hard to enjoy a game on a budget, as long as you know what you're doing.

 

Okay, Pirate-jacking and OOP-baiting (don't want to get those two mixed up) aside, it looks like Appel is the only first-round pick not to sign. The Marlins signed theirs after leaking that they had no chance of signing him, and Gausman signed a few days after announcing he was returning to college. Proving once again that outside of extraordinary cases (like an already rich Boras client who lets people know in advance he won't sign for anything less than No. 1 overall pick money), everybody signs.

 

How does that address my point? Oh. That's right. It doesn't.

 

Your argument is that being able to win amateur talent through essentially a bidding process favors small-market teams because they can compete with big-market teams on that scale, and therefore acquire impact talent that they couldn't otherwise.

Under the new system, big-market teams could not pay that much for a player such as Soler, and small-market teams would have a chance at him.