Austin Hays called up, Ryan Mountcastle not called up

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Also, the team can tell a guy in year two of a seven year deal to go pound sand.  You don't like your contract, you shouldn't have signed it.

The NBA team could as well, but it sure doesn't seem to work that way.

[NCRaven]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Thinking out loud about alternate contractual situations... I wonder what would be the impact if they just did away with the Bowie Kuhn rule - the one where he decreed from on high that you can't buy/sell players directly.  Change the rules so that any team can approach any other team and offer to buy a player.  If they agree to a fee, then the new team has X days to negotiate a new contract with the player and his agent.

I think you'd need strict limits on the number of players that you can have under contract at the minor league level, including the number of affiliates that you can have to prevent the large market teams from just buying good players from smaller market teams needing the cash.  You could end up with a situation like the Yankees had before the amateur draft was instituted.  I don't want to see another 20 some odd Yankee championships.

[Philip]

1 hour ago, mdbdotcom said:

Expand the players association to include all affiliated leagues and make sure everyone gets at least a living wage. 

Amen!

I despise the players union screaming and stomping about, “we deserve a fair wage” while they’re making literally millions of dollars, all the while ignoring the guys in the minor leagues who are making $500 a month and delivering pizzas.

[eddie83]

3 hours ago, mdbdotcom said:

A few random thoughts:

1. If a player with less than a year's service time spends at least half the major league season on the big league team, they will be credited with one year of service time. Computation of service time in subsequent years will remain the same as it is today. This should eliminate a lot of the game playing.
2. Eliminate arbitration and make all players free agents after three years of service time. If the owners want to go young, then free agency should go young.
3. Raise the pay of minor league players who are on major league contracts to 50% of the major league minimum. Because they deserve it.

Free Agency after 3 years would be great for the players but awful for competitive balance. 

Why would any players not wait out 3 years and test the market? 

[Frobby]

52 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I believe that the result of shifting a bunch of players from $8k a year to $40k a year would be the contraction of affiliated minors to 3-4 per MLB team.

Well, first of all, I didn’t say $40 k/yr.    I think $25 k/yr would probably be a living wage, keeping in mind that these guys can get some other employment about 5 months per year.    

Second of all, yes I suppose some minor league arrangements might not make economic sense if wages went up substantially.    If you figure on average you’re paying $15 k more per player, that would be $450 k per team below AA, and less than that in AA or AAA since many of those players either are on the 40 man roster or have prior major league service time (which also sets a higher floor for minor league salary even if they’re not on the 40-man roster).   

[mdbdotcom]

11 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Free Agency after 3 years would be great for the players but awful for competitive balance. 

Why would any players not wait out 3 years and test the market? 

I don't think we can assume it would hurt competitive balance. There would be a lot of free agents on the market each year, and a lot of decisions for teams to make about which to pursue. 

Yes, players would wait three years and test the market. I don't think that's a bad thing.

[DrungoHazewood]

36 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

I think you'd need strict limits on the number of players that you can have under contract at the minor league level, including the number of affiliates that you can have to prevent the large market teams from just buying good players from smaller market teams needing the cash.  You could end up with a situation like the Yankees had before the amateur draft was instituted.  I don't want to see another 20 some odd Yankee championships.

I've long thought about the impact of having everyone who's not on your 40-man (everyone!) at the end of the year becoming a free agent.  Rutschman would have to be on the 40-man by sometime this winter or anyone could sign him.  A guy like Hunter Harvey, after several years of injuries... you have hard decisions on whether to give him a 40-man spot.  If you're the Yanks and you spend all the money on international free agents, great, but you can only have 15 minor leaguers above and beyond the 25-man MLB roster that you carry over.  

One impact would probably be that Ryan Flaherty type players would switch teams every year.  No one would ever protect below-average players while letting actual prospects go.

It might be relatively chaotic, but there would be a huge influx of available talent for teams trying to build.

[DrungoHazewood]

28 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Well, first of all, I didn’t say $40 k/yr.    I think $25 k/yr would probably be a living wage, keeping in mind that these guys can get some other employment about 5 months per year.    

Second of all, yes I suppose some minor league arrangements might not make economic sense if wages went up substantially.    If you figure on average you’re paying $15 k more per player, that would be $450 k per team below AA, and less than that in AA or AAA since many of those players either are on the 40 man roster or have prior major league service time (which also sets a higher floor for minor league salary even if they’re not on the 40-man roster).   

I did some back of the napkin math and I didn't use exactly your assumptions, but fairly close, and I got an upper bound on the cost of giving everyone not on the 40-man a $40k salary a little less than $5M.  In reality it's probably less than that.  So maybe 2% of Orioles revenues.  Seems like the kind of thing they could absorb, but I don't know.  

The other side is always that there is a nearly unlimited supply of players willing to play for $8000 a year.  And if every MLB team dropped 2, 3, 4 affiliates many of those wouldn't go to independent ball but instead go out of business and a lot of people would lose their jobs (services along with players and staff).  Admittedly mostly low-paying jobs in taxpayer-subsidized stadiums.

[Can_of_corn]

I think the impact would be felt most in Latin America. 

[Roll Tide]

No Akin per Roch

 

”The clubhouse won’t include Norfolk’s Ryan Mountcastle, Austin Hays and Keegan Akin, as I also reported yesterday.”

[atomic]

5 hours ago, EricK said:

The NHL 27 or 7 for free agency is along those lines.  NHL teams only have one or two affiliates; so the long player-development process of MLB is different.  But I could see the next MLB CBA being closer to the current NHL model than the counting days of MLB's current CBA.

https://www.liveabout.com/nhl-free-agents-explained-2778995

Really other than goalies, not too many real prospects hit the ECHL.  So really one level. But they have junior hockey through age 21 so players develop there if they are Canadian or European leagues if they are European.  So not only 1 level in reality.

[Frobby]

Ryan Mountcastle won’t be part of the expanded roster, as I reported earlier in the week.

“There was a lot of rationale behind it,” Elias said. “We still think he is developing. We’re thrilled with the season he had offensively. If there’s something to nitpick there it’s his plate discipline, and he knows that. He’s not a big walker and he’s still striking out a little bit. But that’s not to put a damper on what he’s done at age 22 in Triple-A.

“He’s also still doing some work on his defense and, long story short, I think he’s going to spend some more time in the minor leagues as a result of those two things. But also at the major league level here we’ve got quite a few players here that we want to provide these at-bats to in September. A guy like (Renato) Núñez or even a Mason Williams and a Santander.

“There’s just a lot of people here that we need to continue evaluating, both in terms of our short- and long-term plans. So just didn’t see the avenue to call up Ryan at this time. But he’s going to be here and he’s going to be a big part of our future at some point.”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2019/09/orioles-recall-austin-hays.html

[Can_of_corn]

I don't see how spending September in the majors wouldn't help his development.  No reason for Davis or Trumbo to get at bats.

 

[Frobby]

The Orioles want Mountcastle to work on plate discipline - more walks and fewer strikeouts - while also learning two new positions. There’s also a glut of corner infield/outfield/DH types on the roster.

“It is a factor,” Elias said. “We have a lot of players that play the same positions that he does who are here right now that need to hit, too. With us not being in a hurry to graduate Ryan and having other things to develop with him, and the fact that we need to see what we continue to get with these guys, it is a factor. So I think it’s nice we’re in a position where we don’t have to rush him up. As we’ve stated all along, the degree to which we can prioritize development over major league need, we’re going to lean that way right now. But yeah, it’s part of the equation.”

Elias is encouraged by reports of Mountcastle’s work in the outfield.

“He’s been good in left,” Elias said. “Obviously, he’s not perfect. He just started playing there this year. I think he said he’d only played there, like, once in high school, and he’s shown some good ability in left field. And his arm has been playing well out there, relative to the infield, so we want to continue to keep that as an option, first base and third base, to whatever degree possible.”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2019/09/more-on-hays-promotion-and-other-roster-decisions.html

[atomic]

Must be really discouraging for Mountcastle to read that. If I were him I would request to be traded and not show up next year.  How is Hays ready and not him.