NCRaven

He also hit well in spring training last year.

Biggio him to 2B.

Still believe that Tony LaRussa hurt baseball with his bullpen usage that has become the norm. But, also believe that the lack of balls in play is ultimately what will kill the game. The two are related.

This is what I like about America. You want a Mini, I want a 64 Mustang, others want their Escalade. If we can keep others from telling us what we have to buy because it's what's best for us, we'll still be in good shape as a country. Oops, politics.

Here are the top eleven US television markets. I figured the top 10 would be the top 3rd of the MLB teams and should qualify as large markets. I include #11 because it’s a surprise and proved a point. 1 New York 2 Los Angeles 3 Chicago 4 Philadelphia 5 Dallas-Fort Worth 6 Washington DC 7 Houston 8 San Francisco-Oakland 9 Boston 10 Atlanta This group of teams has largely dominated baseball over the last decade. 11 Tampa-St Petersburg My point, owners are liars. There are very few truly small markets in baseball. Milwaukee is 36 and they still find a way to compete. The luxury tax has no impact.

I would limit the three hitter rule to the first inning only. Tampa Bay had some games where the "opener" pitched to the first batter and left the game. I'd go back to the 15 day disabled list to prevent the Dodgers from playing games with their pitching staff. If rosters are expanded to 26, limit the number of players that are used primarily as pitchers to 12 or 13. But what they really need to do is figure out how to increase the amount of money paid to players in the early years when they are actually worth the most and provide a decent wage to minor leaguers. The owners share of revenues has grown tremendously compared to the players. I don't pay my money to stare up into the owners' skyboxes. They really should eliminate the luxury tax. It just allows the owners to have an excuse to pocket more of the revenue and hasn't done anything to prevent the large market teams from dominating.

Jacob DeGrom went 10-9 last year with a 1.70 era. I’m taking the under for Bundy.

Boras negotiated the deal in good faith. Davis may owe him his percentage whether he continues to play or retires. This point was made in a discussion on Fangraphs about Kyler Murray. He was a first round pick of the Oakland A's last year and Boras negotiated an exemption for one more year of college football along with a $4.6 mil (I think) signing bonus. Then Murray went out and won the Heisman Trophy and said he'd like to play both football and baseball. Sheryl Ring wrote an article pointing out that by signing an NFL contract, he would be in breach of his MLB contract with Oakland, that Boras might be due his full fee, and that he might have to pay back the signing bonus.

Plus defender at SS must have been the deciding factor.

Just in case we think that the Orioles were the only team in baseball that signed stupid contracts. Per MLBTraderumors: As the Mariners’ “reimagining” of their Major League roster continues, general manager Jerry Dipoto is “actively “making an effort to trade infielder Robinson Cano, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required). The challenges in moving Cano are obvious. Though the eight-time All-Star remained productive when on the field in 2018, he turned 36 in October, missed 80 games this past season due to a PED suspension and is owed a hefty $120MM over the final five seasons of a 10-year, $240MM contract (signed under former Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik). Cano also has the ability to veto a trade to any team, which only further muddies an already unenviable situation for Dipoto & Co.

Well, it should.

This article says that the Nationals have not received any TV rights money since 2011. Is that true? I thought the O's paid them the amount that they thought right and put the rest into escrow. No?

Another Baltimore team we can stick a fork in.

Were you born with a whip and your hand and images of dead horses in your dreams?!!

Looking forward to the many arguments to follow!

Oakland Raiders

I think it's possible, but couldn't assign odds. Before they were declared eligible, analysts at Fangraphs and others pegged VVM's value at around $3-3.5 mil, IIRC. We know that Gaston was offered around $2 by the Marlins before they pulled it back due to the PED pop. So it looks like both the Marlins and Rays went over the original expectations. Possibly because of the Oriole's bids for those players. We certainly forced the Marlins to trade off players for more cap space. So, the bidding may have hit a point were Graham just said that he didn't think they were worth more under the current system. I'm not saying that's what happened, just that there is some reasonable possibility. I'm also not saying that I'm happy with the outcome. Even if none of them made it too the majors, that doesn't mean that an investment of $6-7 mil in these players would have been wrong. Most prospects don't hit big. And, sometimes, they come out of nowhere - especially when you're talking about 16 year olds from Dominica and Cuba. I'd be willing to bet (but not alot!) that at least one of these kids that signed for less that $100k will turn out to be far superior to VVM. That's the nature of this market.

Unknowable.

Not necessarily true. Maybe Graham and Maduro are the ones telling ownership that the Mesas and Gaston aren't worth what the other teams offered?

Oakland Raiders, but we're not far behind.

We're looking at this trade as fans and not as management. If a major reason for the trade was to shed salary, both Gausman's and O'Days, it was a success. I don't like it now that they've failed to acquire any high ceiling international talent (believe I gave it a C at the time), but I am intrigued by Encarnacion and at least interested in Zimmerman. Phillips was a major disappointment and I really don't know what to make of Cumberland.

He’s not going to the AFL.

I think that Mancini is likely to start the season in RF with a Trumbo/Davis timeshare at 1B/DH. Hopefully, Trumbo plays well enough to be moved and at the halfway point of his 7 year contract, the Orioles decided to cut bait with Davis - assuming he still sucks (a good bet). If any of Hays, Diaz, or McKenna prove worthy of a ML promotion during the year, Mancini moves to 1B then.

In 1964, the average American family had an income of $4,576. in 1977, it was $9,779. It's certainly not the crazy money that players make today, but professional athletes were still well paid when compared to the average worker.

Just because sources have indicated that the O's had a deal in place doesn't make those deals officials. The source for many of those deals were probably agents or buscones anxious to have something to brag about for the next batch of 14 year olds that they're moving on. Most franchises only officially announce deals once they are signed, sealed and delivered. That's what I believe may be happening here.