The Crane Pool Forum

Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 6:34 pm Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

I admittedly know little about this stuff, but San Diego seems to be doing a lot to squash the market size narrative. I know they have an ocean and palm trees and all that, but they're right in the same mix with Baltimore, Cincy, Pittsburgh, Kansas City when it comes to market size. I don't even know how much SD's owner is worth (his firm is apparently worth $3B anyway), but he's not on any of the same richest guy lists as Cohen, that I know of. And some of the owners who aren't spending (especially the Guardians, whoa) seem to have quite a bit more in the bank than SD's guy. So step up Dolan. You, too, Angelos and Reinsdorf.

6 teams per league make the playoffs. In the NL last year it was Mets, Braves, Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Padres. Given this offseason it sure feels like those same 6 teams will be there next year. Hard to make a reasonable case for other teams to be there. The Brewers haven’t improved nor the Giants. Maybe the Cubs a bit although they lost Contreras. The rest look like they have no shot at all.

If baseball had a hard salary cap of, say, two million dollars a year, there'd still be teams with no shot at the title. Was there ever a season where every team in every league in every sport had a shot? What's fair about anything? So all of a sudden we're now gonna start drawing a line with baseball because now the Mets are owned by a superduper rich fuck who's so rich, he makes other rich people look like paupers? If you want fairness, the first thing I'd do is confiscate all of Ivanka and Jared's money and then make them wash toilets in Times Square with their fucking tongues on National TV.

This is long term capitalism. In the end, the top zillionth of one percent get to own everything.

cal sharpie wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 9:04 pm 6 teams per league make the playoffs. In the NL last year it was Mets, Braves, Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Padres. Given this offseason it sure feels like those same 6 teams will be there next year. Hard to make a reasonable case for other teams to be there. The Brewers haven’t improved nor the Giants. Maybe the Cubs a bit although they lost Contreras. The rest look like they have no shot at all.

I think those six teams have a great chance of being there again because they’re great teams. There are a lot of super rich owners below them in the standings who are at those places in the standings because they’ve been in charge of hiring people to assemble teams that are not as good. That will happen in sports regardless of money.

The American League is more muddled. The O’s finished three games out of the wildcard. How much would it cost for them to add three wins? The White Sox were five games out. The Red Sox and Twins eight. Would keeping Correa’s 4.4 fWAR and adding Carlos Rodon’s 6.2 make the under .500 Twins a playoff team? Beats me, but if I were Twins fan, I wish ownership would make a run so I could find out.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 7:49 pm

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 6:34 pm Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

I admittedly know little about this stuff, but San Diego seems to be doing a lot to squash the market size narrative.

My narrative is less about market size and more about the allowing the free market to operate.

The system as it is set up now has few consequences for failure and a lot of consequences for chasing Cohen around. Along with the increasingly liberal playoff field, the whole deal is set up to incentivize mediocrity and restrict baseball's growth.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 10:07 pm

A Boy Named Seo wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 7:49 pm

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 6:34 pm Well, in most regards, it's both more and less than a simple matter of free choice. The stakes are very different in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

I admittedly know little about this stuff, but San Diego seems to be doing a lot to squash the market size narrative.

My narrative is less about market size and more about the allowing the free market to operate.

The system as it is set up now has few consequences for failure and a lot of consequences for chasing Cohen around. Along with the increasingly liberal playoff field, the whole deal is set up to incentivize mediocrity and restrict baseball's growth.

I agree with all of that.

Kinda wishing I came up with a better thread title than I did. Certainly doesn’t hold up to the standard around here.

But I also kinda like that I came immediately to CPF and posted my immediate reaction.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 9:21 pmSo all of a sudden we're now gonna start drawing a line with baseball because now the Mets are owned by a superduper rich fuck who's so rich, he makes other rich people look like paupers?

Is somebody drawing a line?

Centerfield wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:14 pm Kinda wishing I came up with a better thread title than I did. Certainly doesn’t hold up to the standard around here.

But I also kinda like that I came immediately to CPF and posted my immediate reaction.

Yeah, you did good.

Centerfield to Self: "I could do a Correa/Korea pun, but fuck that noise. I'm thinking Holy @#%$! and I'm going with Holy @#%$!"

Centerfield wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 11:14 pm Kinda wishing I came up with a better thread title than I did. Certainly doesn’t hold up to the standard around here.

But I also kinda like that I came immediately to CPF and posted my immediate reaction.

Fuck all that. This is up there for thread title of the year.
I had just heard the news on radio before coming here for the reaction all while fearing that the news was going to
be tacked on to some already-existing semi-related all-purpose thread. Instead, it not only got its very own thread
but also one that summed up the mood perfectly.

On the whole parity/spending issue: I bring this up from time to time, mainly after I hear someone in sports media talk about how the NFL's hard salary cap has made that
league the paragon of parity and equality while disparaging MLB as exactly the opposite. Except that over the last 20 years the results of MLB & NFL seasons are almost
identical in terms of the number of different champions, the number of different contenders for championships, and also the number of teams on the outside looking in.

Number of different World Series/Super Bowl winning franchises over previous 20 seasons: MLB 14, NFL 13
Number of franchises with at least a WS/SB appearance: MLB 20, NFL 20
# of franchises failing to make the 'final four' (Lg/Conf championship game): MLB 5, NFL 6

And this is not just some snapshot in time that happens to be more or less equal right now. I've been tracking this for years now and this is actually as close as it's been.
The matchup usually tilts more in MLB's favor and this is before even factoring in the more liberal playoff system in football (for much of that 20 years there were 1.5x
more playoff teams).

If we want to translate his name to English, it would be "Charlie Strap".

There's actually a cartoon character named "Charlie Strapp". He's the one on the left, with his friend, "Froggy Ball". Maybe the Mets can get a player named "Bola de Rana" to complete the set.

(EDIT: I'm not used to seeing cartoon characters with five fingers!)

Consensus is forming around an ankle injury from 2014, which Correa sustained in the minors, as the Giants' alibi for backing out.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 4:43 pm Please invite Hal to get behind my campaign to end the anti-trust exemption.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what there is to "look at."

I share most, if not all of your views on free markets and MLB. But not relegation, but that's neither here nor there. Still, if MLB was as free as you wish it to be, and its Anti-trust exemption was stripped away, even then, nobody would catch Steve Cohen and he'd still be the unicorn that he presently is and most teams still wouldnt be able to operate like he does. He has multiples more money than the other owners have and he seems to be running the Mets as if it were merely a game of Monopoly with the money being treated as if it were toy or make believe money.

It will be interesting, if it ever comes out during our lifetimes, to learn the inside story of why 26 other owners decided to vote to approve his ownership. He's going to help drive an increase in salaries across the game and even though his money can't guarantee World Championships, if the Mets are dominant every year, that's one fewer playoff spot available to each of the other National League teams.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ↑Thu Dec 22, 2022 9:15 am

There's actually a cartoon character named "Charlie Strapp". He's the one on the left, with his friend, "Froggy Ball". Maybe the Mets can get a player named "Bola de Rana" to complete the set.

(EDIT: I'm not used to seeing cartoon characters with five fingers!)

Especially…grasshoppers?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ↑Thu Dec 22, 2022 11:48 am It will be interesting, if it ever comes out during our lifetimes, to learn the inside story of why 26 other owners decided to vote to approve his ownership. He's going to help drive an increase in salaries across the game and even though his money can't guarantee World Championships, if the Mets are dominant every year, that's one fewer playoff spot available to each of the other National League teams.

it would be pretty fucked up to come out and say "you're too rich to own one of our teams" when every single one of them would hope to be able to sell their team to someone so rich and willing to pay for it.

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Some top banter in this tweet

Well, if you mentally link all of that to the signing, that takes the Mets 0.29% of the way down the road toward an even return!

Also, that statement, devoid of context, tells us nothing.

Indeed, I meant to imply that.

Hold the phone yall

The New York Mets, like the San Francisco Giants earlier in the week, have raised concerns about Carlos Correa’s surgically repaired lower right leg, potentially jeopardizing their 12-year, $315 million agreement with the star shortstop, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.

https://theathletic.com/4033222/2022/12 ... ed_article

Eeeeek, Christmas cancelled!