OnlyBucs

There is a lot of rumor and innuendo in this article, but if there is some truth to it, the implications are huge for this year and for the future of baseball.



https://sports.yahoo.com/heres-baseball ... 38354.html

thanks for posting. I couldn't find article at that link.

Editing his post to fix the broken link. Should work now...

That worked. Interesting article.

If only there were some mechanism that would compel teams to spend money on payroll.



Confounding, there must be collusion.

One opinion I read basically put it down to how unbalanced the league is. Basically there about six or eight teams that have any chance next year, and everyone knows it. The teams on the outside don't have a reason to buff when they still wouldn't be able to catch up, and teams on the top see no need to hurry.

So basically, if I'm a MLB player and am under my entry level deal and am pretty good. My team has approached me about a contract that would give me a raise and buy out some FA years. If I'm Bryce Harper or Manny Machado I can say "thanks, but no thanks" because teams will be waiting with quarter billion dollar contracts when I hit FA. But if I'm Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, it's not guaranteed that Chicago, NY, Boston, LA will be interested, so I need to scrounge up interest from the middle market teams.



So then you have like the Brewers, Twins and Padres bidding with contracts commensurate with their payroll and market.



The problem is that the demand for those mid range FA targets is depressed by the lack of interest/demand for 75% of the teams in the league.

This quote from the article caught my eye: "...the willingness of teams to treat competitiveness as an option, not a priority."



Sound like any franchise we know?

Pittsburgh's problem is that, every year, they have a prospect that will be ready for a position later in the year, or next year, or mid-next year, so long term deals don't appeal so much to them. The article mentions one-year deal offers as a sign of collusion, which may be, but when you are counting every nickel, it's also a way of life. Players figure into this as well. They are asking for three to five year deals at large numbers and haven't shown any sign of bending. What we have is a standoff, with no one willing to bend. NH can't go in a pick among the bones until there are bones to be picked. So we wait.

1D392D25204C0 wrote: This quote from the article caught my eye: "...the willingness of teams to treat competitiveness as an option, not a priority."



Sound like any franchise we know?




Right. And from the sounds of it, they are not alone in that approach.