2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

All teams already had that opportunity, as proven by the fact that the small-market Pirates were spending heavily on amateur talent.

One thing I did not realize. The deadline was 5 p.m. Friday. Appel is going back to Stanford.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/appel-spurns-pirates-stay-stanford-211020805--mlb.html

 

But Oop, what happens when the big money teams start doing what the Pirates and the smarter teams were doing?

 

Some already were, but many would be content to spend money on more proven commodities. There is a big risk in spending a lot of money on amateurs, but teams that lack the ability to compete for major league free agents have to take risks. The big markets don't.

Also, it's not like the Pirates had to compete with any other team for Appel, to use the guy who didn't sign as an example. It doesn't matter what the Yankees would pay in that instance. They aren't in the bidding.

 

Smart small-market teams need to be smarter than teams like Oakland. Trading away soon-to-be-expensive talent for prospects is fine, but at least hang in there through the last arbitration year and get max production. Better to nail down some keepers early, like the Rays did.

 

So under the old system, the only way for a small-market team to acquire top amateur talent was to outbid for it on the IFA market, or to draft it and pay whatever the talent demanded in a game that was causing draft bonuses to skyrocket.

In the new system, teams must fit their IFA and draft picks into caps designated by previous year's records and number of picks, and small market teams get extra picks and a bigger draft budget.

There's simply no way around it: That system clearly makes it easier for small market teams to acquire amateur talent. It nerfs one strategy that a certain poster's favorite team was engaging in, but small-market teams as a whole have more opportunity to scout well and succeed.

Bad cases make bad law, and trying to judge the value of the new rules by the Pirates taking and not signing Mark Appel is taking a bad case and extrapolating it to places it doesn't really go.

I'll concede that the new CBA hurts a small-market team with a late top-10 pick that thinks it can pick and sign a college junior who was a borderline top player in a weak draft but wanted No. 1 pick money or nothing else to sign, and comes from a rich enough family to not cave into the pressure to take the smaller bonus and sign.

But the broader benefits of the extra picks, bigger draft bonus pool and caps on IFA spending so clearly favors small-market teams that it's ludicrous and fanboi-ish to argue that the new rules as a whole hurt small market teams.

 

The system is what it is. There are unfair things that hurt teams like the Pirates and favor teams like the Yankees, just as there are unfair things that go the other way.
Mark Appel made his decision. As a Pirates fan, i don't like it, but it is what it is. But then Scott Boras opens his mouth . . .

No, Scott, it illustrates a real failure in the system FOR YOU. The only team who was affected among first round picks was one, by YOUR client who thought he was a No. 1 pick. Only problem was, he wasn't. Not 2, nor 3 or four or even 8, by the way. But don't let facts get in the way. He SHOULD have been a No. 1 pick, so that becomes fact. The Pirates were more than fair with what they offered. You and Mark Appel made your decisions.

I honestly couldn't care less. No one knows anything in the future, but if your client blows out his elbow making bumpkis at Stanford in his quest to join a better team, I certainly won't shed a tear. I may smile a bit.

 

I'm not even remotely convinced Appel was the best player in the draft. I'm not entirely convinced he was the best college pitcher in the draft.

 

I've never gone all the way to Howard, but coming from Indiana, I use the (free) South Shore parking lot at East Chicago, take that train to downtown, then walk two blocks west and get on the Red Line.

Interestingly, though, White Sox fans seem to be significantly more likely to drive to the Cell than take the Red Line, so I'm not sure how much the Red Line shutting down will hurt them. With the Cubs, it seems everyone either takes the Red Line or the bus.

And, on the subject of Milwaukee, I took my wife to Miller Park several years ago, and we got there ridiculously early. She says "there's an awful lot of people here." Me: "they're tailgating." Her: "you mean people tailgate baseball games." Me: "In Wisconsin, they tailgate everything." Needless to say, we were smelling brats and beer all the way to the park. The one time I've been to a White Sox game, I went with a bunch of Brewers fans, most of whom had relocated to Chicago. They had a helluva tailgate set out, but they were among the very few who were doing so.

 

Restating the same flawed point over and over does not make it true, Rick. You are entitled to your opinion, but you are completely wrong on my bias and you refuse to admit to your own. You are a baseball apologist. You've shown it before and you are showing it here. I haven't been a Pirates' fan for 20 years. I am sympathetic to small markets because I watched what baseball's financial system did to the team I grew up watching. Sure, the Pirates' own stupidity played a big part, too, but only a part.

I said Appel is just one example of how the entire system takes a potential advantage away from the small market teams. Yet you keep harping on your argument that he would have never fallen to the Pirates under the old system. One, it doesn't really counter my argument. Two, you don't know that. You are conveniently ignoring the past history of players falling because they were considered difficult, if not impossible, to sign.

This was one area where you could actually see small markets spending with the big boys and baseball puts a financial control in place, yet it does no such thing where it is really needed. The fact that you can't see both sides of this proves you are the one letting your bias get in the way.

 

Just my opinion from observation and participation: It won't hurt that much. Parking is more than adequate at U.S. Cellular Field, unlike Wrigley Field. Plus, it's easy to drive to, right off of the Dan Ryan expressway. I think that Wrigley has a higher percentage of city-dwellers in its attendance than the White Sox do, and when you combine that with the inadequacy of parking and the inconvenience of the location, public transportation is the answer. I have never driven to Wrigley Field. I have never done anything but drive to U.S. Cellular Field.

 

I have the luxury of parking across the street from Wrigley Field for free, but Dick's right. People drive to Sox games. That's why they can charge so much for parking. Although you can park within blocks for a lot less if you get there early enough and don't mind walking a half-mile or so.

 

Ryan Dempster's ERA down to 1.86 after today's start. Imagine what kind of attention that would be getting if he pitched on a contender on a coast (which he might begin to do in the next few weeks).