MLB 2019: Can't Hurdle the Turtle

Royals announce Salvy Perez has a torn UCL and is getting a second opinion from the Jobe clinic. If its confirmed, he’s probably done for 2019.

sigh

Now who’s gonna dump the gatorade for the (recalculates) 57 wins we’ll get this season?

There go our playoff hopes!

Guess it’s time to see what Viloria or Gallagher can do with a bunch of playing time.

There’s always the free agent market!

Countdown to Derek Norris signing in 5…4…3…

Bring back Butera!

lights MLB subscription on fire

Buried the lede here: roster expansion to 26 with a maximum of 13 pitchers and a 3 batter minimum are very likely happening. The three batter minimum blows, so I hope at least that part is nixed.

Couldn’t you just fake “shoulder soreness” after the 1st batter? What are they going to do, call you out as a liar and make you pitch through the fake pain?

I would imagine you could get away with it once or twice before you’d hear from the league office.

That, or force a player currently playing a position to finish your 3 batters and/or force a 7-day DL stint. It’s easy enough to do, and I CANNOT WAIT for this change. There’s no better way to suck all the drama and tension and momentum out of a game than with the goddamned reliever parade with the associated mound visits, bullpen cart, warmup pitches, etc, etc.

I’d also like to see them do something about the AAA shuttle, where smart teams are shuffling marginal guys who are on the 40-man but not real prospects to and from AAA constantly. Maybe that’s not that big an issue though and just annoys me as someone who follows the sport relatively closely.

13-pitcher max, hooray! 26-man roster…uh, sure!

I’m pretty on board with all of this.

Oh I’m on board with it too. Are there any restrictions on the batting team? Can they put in a lefty bench bat to get the other team to switch pitchers, then sub in a righty? Probably not an issue with how few bats are on the bench now I guess.

Oh wait, I thought that 3 batter minimum was a change for just the All-Star Game. They’re talking about it for regular season play? Can’t see that happening with the ultra-specialization of today’s bullpens.

The option system is such a mess; it helps players by making sure they’ll eventually get to the major leagues if they have the talent and production, but it arguably hurts the product by starving the fanbase of some excitement. I can’t count the number of times someone has said any given prospect should be in the big leagues. They’re normally right except for the business concerns.

explainer for non-baseball nerds:

Summary

There is a 40-player major league roster for each team. Out of those 40, 25 (apparently soon to be 26) can be on the active portion of the roster (the guys who can be used in a major league game at any given point). The rest are “optionally assigned” to the reserve roster, something which can typically only be done unilaterally during 3 seasons. If a player on the major league roster is going to be optionally assigned at some point for a 4th season, they need to be exposed to waivers which would allow other major league teams to claim them.

One would think, “Oh, well let’s just keep 25/26 guys on the major league roster and promote one when we need them.” Good plan, except players not on the 40-man roster are exposed to something called the Rule 5 Draft; minor league players who have been playing for at least 4 years and haven’t cracked that list can be drafted by another team and placed on their active roster (if the player is later removed, they need to offer him back to his old team).

So the design here is to prevent teams from hoarding good players in the minor leagues. On the flipside, once a player has been on the 25/26-man active roster (or disabled list) for a total of 6 seasons, they become free agents at the end of that season. So teams still hoard, but for a limited time.

Can they make any of those changes without the players union approving? I thought roster size and limitations were covered by the agreement?

I do think a pitch clock will be coming by 2020.

Looks like they’ll be talking about a universal DH also. I’m good with that. I think the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

Pitch clock is one of the things that Manfred is reportedly backing off of for a couple years to get the MLBPA to the table. It sounds like both sides are well aware that the current free agent/arbitration situation is bad and want to get ahead of it before the CBA expires. A lockout could be really ugly if they don’t.

However the CBA shakes out, I look forward to the $25 beers, $15 hot dogs, and $80 parking that will support the new salaries. Glad to see it looks like the Twins are supporting reasonable concession prices though. $2 cokes, $4 hot dogs…makes a night at the park actually affordable!

I have so much beef with this line of thinking (not trying to single you out, just railing at a misconception that irritates me).

Payrolls have not grown anywhere near apace with how revenues have exploded. MLBAM and the crazy regional cable deals are making the owners completely absurd money, and the tiny fraction of players getting theirs having survived to free agency bothers me not at all.

eta: Abuse of revenue sharing absolutely must be addressed. The Pirates owners pocketing the Yankees’ money while fielding an absolute joke of a roster, not to mention the ongoing atrocity in Miami, are absolutely embarrassing for everyone involved.

Whatever the cause, I’m not sure it looks good when you pay a player $330M while gouging the hell out of anyone that actually wants to see a game. I’m not saying it’s the players’ fault for accepting crazy high salaries. The way that the concession & ticket prices have just kept going up is ludicrous but somehow it’s just become acceptable. Then people wonder why attendance drops or people stop caring about it.

Boooooooo!!! BOOOOOOOO!!!

You’re not wrong about any of that, far from it. What really chaps my ass is the parade of seasonal temps grinding it out for minimum wage serving $12 hot dogs. Pro sports really are the perfect expression of fucking late-stage capitalism in many ways.

e: Fuck universal DH, and I say this as an American League fan. Asymmetrical weirdness is a legit awesome part of baseball and should be preserved!