MLB 2016: It's an even number year

Whoa.

Also apparently the luxury tax is getting more punitive.

Big win for the players there.

Still something being discussed there, I guess.

I tend to trust Ken R. most of all these Twitter guys, so Morosi probably jumped the gun a little.

BTW, if in the next few weeks MLB only issues fines but no personnel penalties for the Cardinals in the Astros hacking case, the CBA may be why. Apparently Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt was a big player in getting a CBA resolution tonight.

OK, I think–based on numerous tweets–here’s how the compensation thing for free agents is set to work:

  1. Old CBA rules apply to this class of free agents. New rules are for 2017/18 class.

  2. Draft pick compensation only for free agents signed above a certain threshold, may be higher than $50m.

  3. Draft pick compensation will not be a first rounder.

So…still a pretty significant win for the players. Teams will happily cough up a 2nd or 3rd rounder for a free agent more readily than a first rounder.

Interesting wrinkle:

We’ll see how that plays out, but the free agent comp rule worked out poorly. Basically a tiny subset of players got absolutely screwed each year, and nobody else was affected outside of wage pressure effects.

Man, this seems way better than the old system. And with the twist that only teams that are over the luxury tax have to give up draft pick compensation, and it’s no longer a first rounder…that doesn’t seem like a big deterrent I wouldn’t think. Certainly much better for players than the old system.

And it certainly seems like something that would help small market teams out.

Yeah, I mean, honestly any change is good change. The previous rule meant well but ended up cocking things up pretty good. I haven’t looked at the specifics (thanks for the summary, but it doesn’t really tell me enough to pass meaningful judgment which I know everyone is waiting for with bated breath, heh) enough to have anything useful to contribute beyond that.

Be nice if they shortened ST a little too, though I guess it’s a pretty big business at this point.

We’ve dispensed with this nonsense, apparently:

WS home field advantage will go to team with best record. (Before “This time it counts”, it alternated yearly between AL and NL. No more.)

Oooh, also the minimum DL stint is reduced from 15 days to 10. That’s a biggie.

Yay! It was an idea that always sounded better on paper. ‘Lets do something to make the All Star Game meaningful’ is not a bad thing inherently, but the implementation just did not work.

I say dispense with the game entirely, and make it purely a skills competition. Home Run Derby, obviously, but for pitchers maybe do something like the dunk competition where you set up ‘trick’ pitches, with props if you choose.

Because, lets face it, nobody cares about the game itself.

Bah, while we are fixing baseball, just add two teams, go to four divisions of 4 teams, and get rid of interleague play. With that tiny tweak the all-star game is awesome again.

I’m certainly excited to see an all-star game brought down to the level of the NBA and NFL’s offerings.

Eh, why not. All Star games are dumb, and who cares about them. What do people actually watch/ talk about? Because I assure you more people know who won the home run derby most years than who won the All Star Game.

And yet, some of baseball’s greatest moments happened in All Star games. Bo Jackson’s HR to center. Ray Fosse getting smoked by Pete Rose at home. Carl Hubbell whiffing his way through the most fearsome group of batters in baseball history. Williams and Musial ending the games in walk-offs. Reggie putting a baseball 500 feet onto the roof at Tiger Stadium. Ted Williams surrounded at the pitcher’s mound by all the modern players. Cal Ripken hitting a HR in his last ASG.

Nah. Keep it.

1989, 1970, 1934, 1946, 1955,1971, and the only one of the 21st century, 2001.

Look you’re not wrong that there have been memorable moments, but the baseball all star game faces the same problem that all the other all star games have, namely declining relevance. Once upon a time this was the best, and only, way to see all the best players. In the days before international broadcast contracts, YouTube, 24 hour sports networks, and streaming highlights, the ASG was often the only time you may see some of these players, especially if they were in the other conference/ divisions. It had a purpose and place.

But that purpose is largely eaten up today. You don’t need to have Nolan Ryan pitch to Andre Dawson in the All Star game to see two of the best players of their generation play. You just pop up YouTube, or the MLB webpage with the best plays of the day. You can watch Mike Trout play even if you are a NL team fan living in the midwest.

And like the other sports ASG, there is the problem of players not wanting to hurt themselves. You may want to preserve some purist form, but the reality is that for many players the ASG is already diminished. They play not to get hurt. Same for the fans, it is a joke to many in these days of ballot box stuffing fan votes. People don’t vote for who they think is the best player, they stuff the ballot for their home town favorites, the name brand but overrated player cough Jeter cough, or someone as a lark.

The players don’t care as much, the fans don’t care as much, and the main purpose is better served elsewhere. Why pretend that the ASG is some vital thing that is of huge importance. Would losing the chance of those increasingly infrequent memorable moments not be offset by making the festivities more fun and entertaining elsewhere?

It won’t happen anyway, but I’ve long since gone past caring if the ASG existed or not. Severing the one forced push towards relevance finally does it in, in my opinion.

Besides we all know what the most memorable moment in baseball this century will be, and it happened in the 10th inning on November 2nd, 2016 ;)

yes please…I am so done with interleague play

Only if you keep Cubs-Sox.