Comments on Basement Dwellers: A late look at the new CBA

Posted this over at redleg nation, who was kind of...

2011-11-28T19:15:41.533-05:00

Posted this over at redleg nation, who was kind of to link over to here:

---
Thanks for the link, Chad!

As for international scouting...honestly, I'm so out of it baseball-wise that I missed that whole thing.

So...a $2.9 million limit per year on international signings?
http://www.ussmariner.com/2011/11/22/new-cba-hurts-mariners-in-big-way/
That's absurd, stupid, dumb...my goodness. To hell with international scouting!
-j

Thanks for dropping by, folks! What I meant by th...

2011-11-28T18:55:57.333-05:00

Thanks for dropping by, folks!

What I meant by the over cap spending being an advantage that small market teams could use is this: it's true that big market teams are certainly among those going over slot. But a small market team can become one of the "big spenders" with a relatively small increase in their overall team budget. It's a feasible thing to do. The Pirates have been among the biggest amateur draft spenders the last few years, and the result is a lot of new talent in their system.

Dave's right that this advantage will eventually disappear as the rich-but-not-well-run teams catch on. But for now, small market teams like the Pirates (for example) can make it happen.

This all sort of misses what I meant to be my main point, though: this is going to result in less money going to amateur players. This means that less talent, on average, is going to enter MLB. It certainly will mean that more players will go to college, which could mean more pitcher arms get shredded before they finish their tour there. But even worse, it may result in fewer players opting for baseball at all. Baseball has historically had an advantage over the NFL, in that MLB can get a top tier athlete a contract years before they would be likely to get one for football. That advantage is reduced under the new CBA, which I see as bad thing for baseball.

I'm not sure about whether the lack of major league contracts is a good thing for small market teams. The main thing I saw it doing is allowing teams to sign players for a smaller bonus than they would have been able to provide previously. It's one less carrot that teams can offer. It was a good thing to do when you had an advanced player (like Grandal, hopefully) who was likely to make it to the majors before they become minor league free agents, assuming you could spare the 40-man space.

As for the division size parity...I guess I'd be more concerned about this if the NL Central weren't the weakest division in baseball over the last several years. Yes, though, I've never liked that there were 4 teams in the AL West. But it still doesn't get me that excited, for whatever reason. The Astros vs. Rangers rivalry might be fun, though, at least once/if the Astros recover from the Ed Wade reign a decade from now.
-j

Interesting stuff. Two thoughts/questions: --Why ...

2011-11-28T15:16:13.007-05:00

Interesting stuff. Two thoughts/questions:

--Why would the cap on spending on the draft affect small market teams more? Seems like it would affect any team who wants to go over slot, and for a few years there wasn't that the Tigers, Red Sox, and Yankees who were doing that?

--Rather than dismissing the Astros moving to the AL as "meh," don't you think this is a good thing for the general fairness of the league? I've always HATED the fact that the Reds played in a 6-team division while the AL West was a 4-team division (and all the others were 5-team). Dismissing the fact that the Astros aren't good right now, it just seemed like an unfair structure.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Also I see the no Major league contracts as a huge...

2011-11-28T00:01:03.268-05:00

Also I see the no Major league contracts as a huge coup for small market teams with deep farms. It seems one of the toughest things to do in baseball is stage your prospects in the system to where they need to be developmentally, contractually, and still have the ability to control when an impact group hits the majors together. For low $ teams, this gives them the abilty to better manage talent into waves. I think the major contracts means nothing for the big$ teams as they already dont offer these.
Trade value of Yonder and Grandel would be higher if the didn't have ML contracts year 1

1. Nice analysis - got to post to RR, it's de...

2011-11-27T23:36:40.110-05:00

1. Nice analysis - got to post to RR, it's dead over there!
2. I think the draft cap and slottling was done the way it was in order to place more importance on the draft order having a greater effect on overall talent a team acquires. I don't buy that "it hurts the competitive balence" argument because as soon as the $$$ teams see the Pirates get a bunch of studs for 15 million they are going to start doing it to. When the $$$ teams spend on overslott guys it blows that whole argument out the window.