The Swamp

I for sure thought we'd get Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, and Carl Crawford back in the deal. Very underwhelming.

But for real. Fuck this bullshit.

The fact that they're replacing a wildly popular top 5 player of seemingly unimpeachable character with a headliner of Alex Fucking Verdugo is pretty unreal.

As a Yankee fan all I can say was it was a great trade.

Fucking dombrowski. I understand but never happens if you dont give him the keys. Guy has zero vision.

brian wrote: ↑Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:25 pm

mister d wrote:Dombrowski in Boston is reeeeeeeally interesting given his predilection for big names and unconventional trade targets.

Yeah, some of that was driven by his payroll which is likely not going to be an issue in Boston either. Interesting is the perfect description.

Heh.

Yeah well never too late to do the right thing. Apparently they've got someone smarter at the stick now. Just 20 more years before another generational guy comes through the system. Still, times done changed and sox aren't the stepchild anymore. Even Chaim will appreciate the extra swings Henry provides. Still got talent just need to replace broken pitchers on a-list contracts.

Sale feels like the type who would retire rather than play out a bad contract, which sucks.

Not paying Lester led to overpaying for Price which led (along with other bad decisions) to the Betts trade. So which outfielder do they overpay next offseason leading them to be "forced" to trade away Devers in a few years?

Instead of getting the pitcher with a questionable arm, Sox get a catcher rated as the 24th best prospect on the Dodgers and a guy named after Derek Jeter. Sox still get to hold on to the guy with the questionable character, so that's wonderful. They can't even get one good pitching prospect for Mookie Fucking Betts.

Also, the Dodgers getting Price at half price is pretty good too. 3 years at $16m per year isn't bad.

I think they’re doing better now than before, but I also think it’s still pretty awful and that David Price at $16MM per is atleast a neutral and maybe an asset. Downs can and should become a regular but JFC is that soft for a top 5, minimum, player.

What if we found people to run MLB who actually liked their product? Can we try that?

Those proposed changes are nonsensical.

A_B wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 8:17 pm Those proposed changes are nonsensical.

Just fuckawful.

What baseball needs is a 16 game season (17 if the players agree) followed by a single-elimination tournament.

1. Yankees
16. UMBC

I mean, Manfred could have really investigated the cheating thing rather than mostly sweeping it under the rug but , hey, fucking with baseball’s DNA to distract from your own incompetence was a move too I suppose.

Hey, let's put the best teams in a bad position of giving their opponent extra motivation to start the playoffs!

A_B wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 8:32 am Hey, let's put the best teams in a bad position of giving their opponent extra motivation to start the playoffs!

Right? I don’t understand why so many people hailed that as a good idea.

If you want to expand the playoffs and add a stupid gimmick, expand to 32, four divisions, six playoff teams, and all wild card series start with the higher seed up 1-0 in a first to two series, beginning on the road.

These are so dumb. Same ideas have been offered in the NHL and rejected.

Baseball is so desperate for national eyeballs in the playoffs that they will cheapen it. But it will backfire because the chances to a Rays-Padres World Series just went up. You cant have everything.

L-Jam's Plan, in 6 Easy Parts:

1. Expand two teams to 32, putting one in each league.

2. Offer Milwaukee and Houston the opportunity to move back to their original teams, so Boomers and Gen X-ers don't keep getting confused.

3. Remove the divisions. Make them two, 16-teams leauges, doubling what it was from 1900-1968.

4. Everyone plays the other 15 teams in their league 10 times: 5 home, 5 away.

5. Interleague games take place the week before and the week of Memorial Day to keep it special. Everyone plays their geographic rival for 3 games, alternating home and home by year. Play three other interleague series against teams in a rotating schedule, meaning each team will play each interleague team every five years. Alternating home and home over 5 year spans, meaning every ten years each team will visit every ballpark.

6. Playoff seeding goes 1, 2, 3 in league standings. Teams 4 and 5 play a one-game Wild Card round. Play Game 163 (or more) if necessary to decide 3 vs 4 seed (if head-to-head is tied 5-5), or 5 vs miss playoffs.

7. Most wins in the regular season hosts the World Series.

This removes the built-in advantages of playing in a weak-ass division. It also removes the punishment of two teams that are strong, like the Yankees and Red Sox, being forced to play a Wild Card even though they might end up with the second most wins in the league, while removing the advantages of teams like the Athletics who play in a weaker division because they decided in 1955 to leave Philadelphia for the West.

As balanced as that is that is a lot of travel. The Mariners and the Rays having to play each other 10 times.

Without divisions and unbalanced schedules, youd have to have an Eastern and Western Conference and put in the DH for everyone.

degenerasian wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 10:13 am As balanced as that is that is a lot of travel. The Mariners and the Rays having to play each other 10 times.

Without divisions and unbalanced schedules, youd have to have an Eastern and Western Conference and put in the DH for everyone.

I think another travel issue is you'd have a lot of two-game series to reach the five home/five away part. Teams would play a weekend set, travel to a city to play Mon-Tue, then travel to another for Wed-Thu. Offset would be the potential of a five-game series including the weekends, but it's harder to balance knowing the league wants days off to come during Mon-Thu to keep ticket sales up on weekends.

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 9:32 am4. Everyone plays the other 15 teams in their league 10 times: 5 home, 5 away.

Counterpoint: Interleague, especially unbalanced interleague, is bad. If you do divisions, you can play 14 in (a 3 and a 4 games series both home and away) and 8 in the other division (4 and 4). Perfection.

The closest to perfection mankind has ever come was 12-team league, two divisions of 6, 18 games with each team in your division and 12 games with each team in the other. Everything breaks down into 3-game serieses. The teams from the East had two nine-game west coast road trips a year and vice versa.

If you expand to 36 teams, with three divisions of six in each league, and totally eliminated interleague, you could come close to replicating that - you'd play each team outside your division 6 times. But then you'd have no interleague at all - which would be fine with me but is probably a non-starter.

If you adopted the NFL playoff approach, you'd need more time for the playoffs. So let's go back to double-headers.

Does the PA even agree to more playoff games?

degenerasian wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:57 am Does the PA even agree to more playoff games?

Presumably, yes. Hard to imagine most players wouldn't like a better shot at the postseason. They might pretend to be concerned to try and extract something else in negotiations, but seems like a win for the players.

That was my initial thought too, but then it was pointed out it'll be a natural salary suppressor. Most teams follow the Oakland belief that you make the playoffs then hope for the best; if its easier to make the playoffs, you don't have to spend as much to get in.

Aubrey Huff not invited to Giants reunion for 2010 WS team.

You truly hate to see it.

What about the 1st amendment???

TIL that the Mets' new manager, Luis Rojas, is Felipe Alou's son.

Anyone available to do a wellness check on Mister D?

Forearm is always goddamn TJ so I've been fast tracked to step 3 since the first news broke. Step 4 commences.

Luis Severing o(ld tendon and replacing it with a different one)

TJ TJ TJ TJ TJ TJ TJ TJ!!!!!

I’m a bit late but is anyone available to do a wellness check on Mister d?

I think it’s good. I think injuries actually make teams better.