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bccran said:
“I could easily see a bench of Nootbaar, Donovan, Yepez, Rondon, and Knizner…”
Has any MLB team ever had a bench made up of three rookies and two second-year players? Usually you want veterans, bccran, having cited Beltran and Berkman as examples in the past more times than I can count. Why the change of view now?
P.S. Assuming a DH and 26-man rosters, the bench would be just four players.
Beltran and Bergman were badly needed MOTO starters. We’re talking here about guys who can come off the bench and perhaps get a key hit when needed. Plus fill in as needed for a spell as injuries occur. It gives them a taste of the majors which they may be able to capitalize on to earn a starting position some day.
This YouTube video says Corey Seager wants $300M. A team would have to be an absolute idiot to pay him anywhere near that. Maybe $30M for three years, $10M AAV.
r/Esteemed Rat
Do you mean greed on both sides or are you criticizing players for exercising their hard-earned right to choose their own employer?
Greed on both sides. But in this case a player who actually believes he’s worth $300 million dollars. I feel for the poor guy who makes a decent living but can no longer afford to take his wife and two kids to a ball game and sit in decent seats. Because of the greed of the industry.
If you think the control sports teams have over young players is bad you should check out the music industry – it is obnoxious there to the point of almost being evil.
The vast majority of professional athletes do not get ‘set for life’ financially; at best they get a few seasons in the sun but are soon replaced and have to move on with another profession. The boiling down process starts in middle school.
The very tip of the player pyramid obviously does extremely well.
Business is business is business.
The very tippy top of the player pyramid does have choices most don’t have. For example, Puhols was already insanely wealthy before he signed the Angels deal. He could have chosen to stay in StL for less money and still been insanely rich.
I don’t blame anyone for making as much money as they can for as long as they can but I do question choices made by a person who already ‘has it made’.
In the end it is their business and they are free to make whatever decision they want to for their own reasons – part of being a ‘public figure’ is that the public is going to discuss and speculate about what you do.
All true, ZTR. But remember the Mark McGwire story. He could have opted to make a lot more money, but he said the amount of money he was already making was insane.
McGwire is 20-year-old news and is the rare exception. By then he had already made tens of millions and had a failing body. He didn’t take more of DeWitt’s money than he already had, but it isn’t like DeWitt gave it to charity or lowered ticket prices.
That is very different from the subject under discussion here. Seager has finally reached to point he can have his first big payday. If an owner is willing to pay him $300 million (which they surely can afford), good for the player.
That you don’t like the system is fair criticism, but it is misplaced here. Seager making a stand and refusing millions would not fix anything and just make him look stupid. Mom and Pop still wouldn’t be able to afford to attend games even if Seager never existed.
P.S. Before we bestow sainthood on McGwire, know that his charitable foundation disappeared as soon as he stopped making big money and no longer needed the tax writeoff. Such is the way of the world.
It’s not just that situation. It’s the expectations. I talked to an agent one time about his players. He just laughed and said his clients had no sense of reality.
All they can compare their worth to is other players. If another player is making
$20 million a year and I’m a better player, then I deserve to make $25 million a year. It’s a false and faulty way to look at things. As far as the best in your profession? When the Teacher of the Year is named in St. Louis or some city in Connecticut, what is that teacher paid? We all have a right to our opinions.
If MLB has a work stoppage because of arguing over money when so many millions have suffered through this pandemic, shame on them.And that agent is fighting for every dollar for his clients because he gets a big cut. His fingers are in the pie, too.
You are complaining about a basic tenet of a free economy. Goods fetch what the market will bear. In this case, the market limit is defined by ownership’s willingness to pay.
Strikes happened before and they could again. If so, people will assign blame to one side or the other based on their predetermined notions or which side has the most favorable “leaks”. In reality, from our detached view, it is very difficult to know what really happens behind the scenes.
On one point, I think we agree. No one cares about the fan. It is all about the money. To think otherwise is naive.
But back to the discussion at hand, I repeat my view that Seager deserves to get whatever owners think he is worth to them. If no one will pay him $300 MM, then he will have to lower his sights if he wants to play.
I’m all for the Dodgers or Yankees giving Seager 300 million if it eliminates the possibility that Mo would give him 120 million.
What they need is payroll parity. A hard cap. Many teams have no chance every season. Of course that will never happen.
I wouldn’t give Seager $100M. $300M is insane.
While I don’t see Seager getting $300M in the end, to say that he’s not a $100M player is pretty off base as well. His overblown fragility aside, he’s been a very valuable player in his pre-free agent years. He’s not quite the player that Manny Machado was before signing his huge deal, but he’s one of the top 20-30 players in the game right now. He will deservedly fetch 7+ years and $200+M and I predict that like most of the bigger deals, he will be worth the outlay. It’s the middle $$, no ceiling players that mostly fail to pan out at all (Leake, Fowler, Cecil, Miller types).
Arte’s Angels don’t have a shortstop since they released Iglesias, and they have a huge cash incinerating contract coming off the books. Maybe he will start a bidding war.
Baseball doesn’t need a hard cap. They need to get rid of handouts to billionaires that incentivize them to claim poverty rather than invest in their business. The Cardinals are in the 20th largest market but draw well because of sustained winning. The owners of Oakland, Tampa and Miami have prioritized revenue sharing handouts to maximize profits instead of investing in their own business.
But back to the topic at hand – what should the Cardinals do? Pitching, pitching, pitching. Whether it’s free agency or trade, we need another front line starter. Also, probably need 1-2 relievers.
Gallegos, Garcia, Reyes, Hicks, Helsley, Woodford, Cabrera, Fernandez, McFarland, Jones, and Whitley.
Bullpen seems pretty full with some quality arms.
Garcia and McFarland are currently not on the roster. Reyes, Hicks, Cabrera, and Helsley are all hard throwing wildcards who are rather combustible. I don’t trust them.
Assuming a DH and 26-man rosters, the bench would be just four players.
I am thinking we will not see one guy who is the primary DH. A 5 man bench. A couple of which get most of the DH ABs, with other bench guys and normally starting position players rotating into the DH slot and a bench guy taking the field. This seems in line with the ‘putting the analytics to use’ thing. Matchups, etc. Of course, if they hire a DH, then the ‘best way to use talent that is brought in’ thing will prevail. I think Mo and BDW have told us what to expect.
I agree the DH assignment could be rotated, but my point stands that at any given time the bench will only be four players. Whoever the DH is that day, he will be in the game.
I’d be a little surprised if the DH happens and the Cards have no one beyond a year of MLB experience in the mix for the spot. I’d also be a little surprised if they don’t add someone to hit righties better, which was their big weakness. It might be Brad Miller and we know that Gorman will be up eventually but there’s not a lot going from the LH side of the plate for this team right now.
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