2018 MLB Thread

[Gabriel]

I like the NHL's system of having a Salary Cap and a Salary Floor. They have to be within a certain percentage of one another, and when one goes up, so does the other. It's entirely possible to win without spending outrageous amounts of money, but the teams in the MLB who aren't spending a lot aren't actually trying to field a competitive team, for the most part. They are trying to field a team good enough to sell tickets, but bad enough to draft high and build through the system. It's a broken system. A cap ceiling and a cap floor incentivize teams to better spend their money.

In the NHL, this system has seen good players on bad contracts wind up on teams who need to raise their payroll, and in effect, has helped improve some teams because of that. Higher payroll teams who need the flexibility of moving out a contract to sign another will move players who are good enough to have a positive impact on their new teams, which will help the smaller markets as they draft and develop, but also take advantage of bad contracts.

A cap floor would also stop guys from staying in free agency too long. If a small market team needs to spend $10 million or more to reach the cap floor, and they need a RF/1B, maybe Jose Bautista isn't sitting on the sidelines while the rest of the league gets ready to play. I mean, he had a shit year and wants a lot of money still, so he may not get a contract in that world either, but the point stands.

[The Buscher]

1 hour ago, Meacon said:

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Tampa ends up moving away instead of getting a new stadium. They can't even put people in their current one unless they're in the playoffs. I know they say it'll be a lot easier to get to the location of the new stadium, but professional leagues need to learn that people just don't want to go and watch sports games in Florida. 

I definitely could see Tampa moving to either Charlotte or Montreal within the next few years.

For that matter, I could see both of those cities getting teams if the league expands to 32.  And if the Rays are moving to one of those cities to create another opening, the Golden Knights and soon to be Raiders have me thinking Vegas is just going all-in on pro sports, so maybe they'll get a team too.

Not that I'm in favor of 32 teams.  I think talent is already stretched pretty thin and league realignment would be somewhat of a pain.  But I could still see it happening.

[Meacon Keaton]

They were talking about possible expansion on MLB Radio a couple weeks ago. They were talking about the different possible scenarios for league re-alignment. 

One idea they had, and one that I'd haaaaaaaate doing, a 8-divisions of 4-teams set up. They said you'd have a North, South, East, West, Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest set up. It's perfect for the NFL, but I'd not like that at all for baseball.

I'd love to see them do 4-divisions of 8-teams, but that'll never happen because they just added a second wildcard to prevent exactly what having eight teams in a division would cause; apathy at the end of the season by the fan bases of teams no longer in the hunt. 

Then they suggested maybe just have a sixth team in one of the divisions, like the NL Central use to before Houston moved to the AL. But they also suggested using the realignment to have things make more sense geographically. They wanted Montreal to join the AL East in place of Tampa Bay, so they could have a Toronto/Montreal rivalry in the AL East. They suggested moving Tampa Bay to either the AL Central or if they move by the time expansion takes place, AL West (Las Vegas?). I can't remember what the other suggestions were, but it was an interesting listen, which was nice since no one had signed a free agent contract at that point, so there literally wasn't anything else for them to talk about.  

[GhostMachine]

Expansion? 

Move the Rays to another state, and the Yankees to Antarctica first.... 

[Meacon Keaton]

 Oh you!

[The Buscher]

6 hours ago, Meacon said:

I'd love to see them do 4-divisions of 8-teams, but that'll never happen because they just added a second wildcard to prevent exactly what having eight teams in a division would cause; apathy at the end of the season by the fan bases of teams no longer in the hunt.

There's no chance they'd get rid of the wild card - if anything I think it would be the top three divisions champions get seeded one through three based on record while the fourth division champion hosts a play-in game with the wild card.  Essentially the same format they have now.

Other possibilities would be for that wild card/fourth seeded division champion game to be converted to a three-game series.  Or there are still two wild cards and the winner of that faces the fourth division champion for the right to go into the main tournament.  At a certain point though it might be a hindrance to the top three seeds to have to sit around for ages.

If that sounds like it would add too much time to the schedule, I think the drop to 154 games is inevitable, so they'd be gaining a week back.  Granted playoff expansion would offset the scheduling benefits of no longer having the World Series going into November every year.

[Meacon Keaton]

Working from home today and it’s raining outside. So I’m gonna watch some Major League, Money Ball, and maybe the Sandlot or the Natural, to get me through the day.  

[Your Mom]

I've actually never seen The Natural. I'm guessing it's worth a look?

[Meacon Keaton]

1 hour ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

I've actually never seen The Natural. I'm guessing it's worth a look?

I still love it, but I first saw it as a kid. It was pretty great for it's time, though maybe a little cliche now. If you've never seen it, I would suggest watching it at least once at some point. 

[Draevyn]

No Angels in the Outfield Meac? For shame!

[Meacon Keaton]

2 minutes ago, Forever Forky said:

No Angels in the Outfield Meac? For shame!

You want me to cry on my work from home day? Tony Danza is so young.  #spoileralert

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

My buddies and I used to say "Can we get some nachos!" in the squeaky/naisly voice that one kid does. No idea why it became a running joke but it did. I should go back and re-watch that movie. 

[The Buscher]

The Sandlot was totally the default "teacher's phoning it in, so we're watching an unrelated movie today" movie when I was in school.

[Draevyn]

Baseketball should also be on the list of movies to watch.

[Schlitzbrille]

5 hours ago, Buschoru Suzuki said:

The Sandlot was totally the default "teacher's phoning it in, so we're watching an unrelated movie today" movie when I was in school.

Replace that with Remember the Titans for me.

[The Buscher]

A little late to announce that they're tanking.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

3 team trade between Yankees, Rays and D-Backs. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/02/yankees-rays-dbacks-trade-brandon-drury-steven-souza.html

Yanks get Brandon Drury and a prospect.

D-Backs get Steven Souza.

Rays get prospects. 

[Meacon Keaton]

Ok, I like this. 

[Lowerdeck]

Yeah, the Rays aren't trying any more.

It would be nice to see them move to Montreal in a few years.  The Expos in the same division as the Jays and Red Sox would be great.

[GhostMachine]

13 hours ago, Meacon said:

You want me to cry on my work from home day? Tony Danza is so young.  #spoileralert

The hell with the remake. Go watch the 1951 original.