Category: MLB

On no-trade clauses and ‘losers’

Eduardo Rodriguez is stuck with a losing team for a couple more months, but it’s in a city his family doesn’t mind being in.

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On Thursday, Ken Rosenthal wrote about the failed trade of Eduardo Rodriguez to the Dodgers for The Athletic. It broke down the trade that failed to materialize thanks to Rodriguez’s invocation of his no-trade clause, which came out of a desire to stay in Detroit, where his Miami-based family didn’t mind spending their summers. In the piece, Rosenthal says there are no winners here, that both the Tigers and Dodgers failed in different ways. That, there should be no problems with: the Tigers could have used some pieces to help a rebuild along, the Dodgers needed a starter like Rodriguez (who has a 2.96 ERA right now and who has been pretty damn good outside of his last year in Boston, which was just average) right now. Neither got what they wanted, and since Rodriguez can opt out of his Tigers’ deal at year’s end, and very well might do so given his performance so far this season, well. There won’t be another chance to collect on him.

What I take issue with is this line of thinking that followed:

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The Orioles won’t ‘set the minors on fire’ by making a deadline deal

Prospects are there to fill holes, whether by promotion or trade, and don’t let Mike Elias’ preemptive defenses for standing pat tell you otherwise.

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Remember when teams really loved to brag about the importance of having financial flexibility so they could someday make moves when they truly needed to? It allowed them to care more about the flexibility to do hypothetical things than to actually do the things they were supposed to do with said flexibility. Craig Goldstein’s piece on the subject from 2019 remains vital, but it’s worth pointing out that “flexibility” isn’t always just about space on the payroll. Or, at least, that’s not the only thing that the word is used for.

Having a deep farm system can also be a kind of flexibility, and just like with payroll space, you’ll see general managers saying it’s important for them to have a strong farm system for when they need it. What do they need it for when they say this? To fill holes, of course, but when a defense like this one comes out of the mouth of Orioles’ general manager Mike Elias…

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The Angels are trying to win, which is good, unless it’s bad(?)

The prospect hugging has gone a little too far if there’s whining about trading a top 50 one in order to give Shohei Ohtani a better chance at the postseason

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The Angels aren’t in possession of a Wild Card spot at present. They’re certainly not atop the AL West. They’re also playing through what very well might be the final season of Shohei Ohtani’s time with the organization, which doubles as the last time they have both Ohtani and Mike Trout together on the same roster. Another way to read that is that these last two-plus months of the season might be the last time the Angels have the last two players in the league who have had genuine Greatest of All Time labels attached to them, and accurately so, on the same roster.

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Rob Manfred will be re-elected as commissioner (and that’s okay)

Rob Manfred is good at the things the owner wants him to be good at and bad at the things I want a commissioner to be bad at.

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Per The Athletic, current MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to be re-elected for a third term at some point this week. While I understand the grumbling and gnashing of teeth and all that over the imminent re-election of a man who has to be constantly given column space to assure us that no, he actually does like baseball, the reality of things is that this is good news. No, really!

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Notes: MLB airing D-Backs’ games, more bad Las Vegas journalism

Another team dropped by Bally, and another piece of “journalism” on the Las Vegas A’s ballpark.

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MLB announced on Tuesday that they are taking over the production and distribution of Diamondbacks’ games. A bankruptcy judge approved Diamond Sports Group’s request to “shed” their contract, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez put it, making Arizona the second club to have their broadcasts become MLB’s responsibility: less than two months ago, the Padres became the first.

Blackouts for fans in the “home television territory” have been eliminated for Diamondbacks’ games in the process, by way of a few different options. A “direct-to-consumer” streaming plan through MLB.tv is available, for either $19.99 per month or $54.99 for the rest of the 2023 season: it should be pointed out that this is a separate charge from the usual MLB.tv subscription, so if you’re in Arizona, for instance, and wanted to watch Diamondbacks’ games on the service you previously could not since they were blacked out, that’s still designed solely for out-of-market games.

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A’s ‘not likely’ to hit public funding cap with Las Vegas ballpark, says people who are new at this

We’re gonna need some better journalism than this.

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Good news, everyone! The CEO and President of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said that the A’s aren’t likely to use all $380 million in public funds that they’ve been allotted for a new ballpark in Vegas. The Las Vegas Review-Journal relayed the news in the way only an outlet that regurgitates authority figures without checking them can: by quoting them extensively and never raising an eyebrow about it.

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At the break, 2023 is looking historically bad on the losses front

The record for 100-loss teams in a season is four, and it’s a possibility that record will be matched again in 2023 just like it was in 2022.

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Major League Baseball has had a problem with imbalance for too much of the last decade. As has been written about in this space on numerous occasions, there have been so many 100-win teams in the last few years, but they’re not quite as good as their record, since their 100 wins are compiled against too many clubs that aren’t trying to win. With all of those additional 100-win team clusters comes 100-win loss clusters, or at least something close.

We’re “halfway” in the All-Star break sense through the 2023 season, with the new schedule arrangement that cuts down on divisional play in favor of spreading everyone around a bit more over the course of 162. Let’s take a look at how many teams are on pace for and in danger of losing 100 games before this thing is over.

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Educators against the Las Vegas A’s

The A’s stadium is probably happening, but there’s a new hurdle to clear, at least.

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If you’re still holding out hope that the Athletics are stymied in their quest to take up residence in Las Vegas, then you’re not alone. The Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) has formed a political-action committee called “Schools Over Stadiums,” with the aim being pretty clear from that name. From the Los Angeles Times’ story:

[Alexander] Marks said his organization is concerned about the more than 3,000 statewide vacancies for teachers and educational staff and is outraged that a stadium is being presented as a financial benefit for the people of Nevada.

“Our priorities are misguided,” Marks said. “If stadiums were the fix, I don’t know why we wouldn’t build 10 of them.”

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On AQI, solidarity, and scabs

Something has to be done that treats dangerous AQI with the gravity it deserves.

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When will Major League Baseball games set to be played in dangerous air quality conditions be regularly canceled instead of becoming a debate every time out? Maybe it’s best not to ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. What we do know, however, is that Thursday’s contest between the Pirates and Padres in Pittsburgh was delayed due to the poor Air Quality Index, and then eventually played.

We’re going to have two stories converge into one here, so just bear with me. Jason Mackey, the Pirates’ beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published a story on the delay and the game on Thursday. That story won’t be linked to here, because the Post-Gazette is on strike, and has been for months — so yes, McKay continuing to write for the Post-Gazette (along with other portions of the sports desk there) is scab behavior and should be treated as such. What I can link to, though, is McKay’s tweet on a quote that didn’t make it into his story.

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Notes: MLB commissioner, Royals’ stadium, media and sports gambling

You don’t want a better liar even if you think you do, what’s going on with the Royals’ stadium search, and when a reporter also partners with a gambling site.

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“Surely things will be different with a new commissioner,” you think. No, no they will not. Maybe you’d be a little less angry at a new commissioner’s general public attitude, but their job is to be the representative of MLB’s 30 owners, which is to say, the job is to lie. To you, to local, state, and federal governments, to the players, to anyone who needs to hear the lies that would benefit the owners if they’re heard.

I got into this at Baseball Prospectus last week, in the wake of Rob Manfred basically making fun of A’s fans for getting together for one last home game to tell John Fisher where he could shove the Las Vegas stadium legislation. People dislike Manfred very much, and think things would be better with a new commissioner, but that’s just not how it goes by design:

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