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2018 MLB Off Season Thread


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8 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Expansion both to Tampa and to Miami were mistakes.  Florida is only for spring training.

 

Meh, I’d argue that Miami could have worked, given better initial ownership and circumstances. Keeping that 1997 team around and building on top of it, not bringing in Loria, and moving to Miami proper in a less messy way would have greatly helped matters. It’s far enough away from Spring Training land to work in ways that Tampa Bay would not.

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On 12/11/2018 at 8:38 PM, SFGiants58 said:

The Rays’ publicly-funded Ybor Stadium project is dead. Reports also claim that the team will play out their lease at The Trop until 2027:

 

 

 

It’s good that the public won’t be subsidizing the stadium. However, this does kind of put the Rays into an additional mess.

Well, my feeling is that hopefully this ball that got rolling was too little too late in regards to the 3-year window St Petersburg offered up in December 2015.  But this doesnt mean the ball stopped, theres a coalition in Tampa/Hillsborough County that was started by private entities that can continue to work towards a solution on their own seperate from the Rays and public offices.

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21 hours ago, Marlins93 said:

Phoenix is a great baseball market. The local government has just been pretty lousy at funding stadium renovations.

 

This is mostly true, sort of. Phoenix should be a great baseball market, and when things are working, it really is. The problem is that both the D Backs AND the state of Arizona have been run by a whole bunch of absolute dunderheads in the time they’ve had the D Backs, and they’ve both created/exasterbated major problems that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. 

 

I know that the trend of having multi-purpose facilities where baseball and football teams share is kinda looked down upon, but if there’s one market that should’ve consolidated from the very beginning, it’s Phoenix. Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field should’ve been a collaborative effort between the Cardinals and MLB and they could’ve created a facility that suited both teams needs at a quarter the cost of what it’ll ultimately end up being. The Suns and Coyotes should’ve as well done the same. I know America West was relatively new when the Yotes arrived and probably couldn’t be changed that easily at that point, but local government should’ve had at least SOME foresight into that being a possibility. It could’ve been two buildings right in the heart of downtown that would’ve completely revitalized the area and lessened the financial burden for everyone. Now they’re stuck paying for 5-6 sports facilities (because you just KNOW the D Backs and Suns will ultimately get exactly what they want) that’ll be away from downtown, which is insane. All that does is guarantee that downtown will be a crime nightmare (because who the hell wants to go downtown if there’s nothing to do?), and they won’t have the public money left to fund a police force to stop it because so much of it is tied up in giving swaggy new buildings to billionaires. And to billionares who don’t give a single :censored: about the well-being of the area past the dollars they pull in on the states fund. 

 

In Tampa’s case, I don’t really know what to tell you. The market was always going to be a difficult sell. But they stacked the deck even further against themselves by placing the Rays in an oversized basketball arena on the opposite side of the bay from the population center. I don’t know much about Tampa-Area politics, but that sounds even dumber than Phoenix Area politics, and they’re the biggest morons I’ve ever seen. 

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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On 12/12/2018 at 5:31 PM, the admiral said:

I don't see anywhere for the Rays to go. Orlando if they're interested and that's it. The Phoenix/Tampa expansion was a mistake.

As much as I would love seeing the Orlando Rays, I think I speak for the entire city in saying that I do not want to pay billions of dollars in taxes for a (fluke season every 5 years excluded) bottom 10 baseball team.

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13 hours ago, LMU said:

The Dark Knight of Gotham Garden Grove to the Angels.

 

Replacing the Garrett Richards Reclamation Project with the Matt Harvey Reclamation Project.

 

Okay. Not my money, and if he does regain form, that's a positive. But he did take quite the fall.

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| ANA | LAA | LAR | LAL | ASU | CSULBUSMNT | USWNTLAFC | OCSCMAN UTD |

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Safeco Field is now T-Mobile Park.

 

Soaking all of the power from the rest of Seattle to power pink lights seems a high price, but maybe the team will be good again.

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1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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The Mariners are going to be ass and it'll be even longer before they're good again. They've jumped into the tanking pool, which is silly because a team in Seattle should have the resources to build a team without deliberately sucking, but that's baseball now. 

 

 

 

 

Matt Harvey never said as much, but I got the vibe all last season that he thought he was above working and living in Cincinnati. I would've been very surprised if he re-signed here. Another player the Reds let walk for nothing, so that's cool. I have to say that when they acquired him and all of New York media had the same take - "well good thing he's going to Cincinnati where there's nothing to do" I was a tad insulted. There's plenty of places for a party enthusiast to get into trouble in this town. Source: me. 

 

 

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On 12/19/2018 at 1:06 PM, Still MIGHTY said:

 

Replacing the Garrett Richards Reclamation Project with the Matt Harvey Reclamation Project.

 

Okay. Not my money, and if he does regain form, that's a positive. But he did take quite the fall.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat on this one. But hey, they signed Trevor Cahill now, too!

 

(Which I'm actually kind of ok with. He was a guy I wasn't exactly opposed to taking a chance on. A ground ball pitcher with Simba, Cozart and Fletcher behind him sounds ok to me.)

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I do hope the Angels realize they probably could have signed Dallas Keuchel or Patrick Corbin for about the same amount of money they spent on Harvey and Cahill combined.

 

If I’m spending $20 million on starting pitching, I would prefer some of the money go to someone who’s qualified for the ERA title at least once in the past three years.

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8 minutes ago, pmoehrin said:

I do hope the Angels realize they probably could have signed Dallas Keuchel or Patrick Corbin for about the same amount of money they spent on Harvey and Cahill combined.

 

If I’m spending $20 million on starting pitching, I would prefer some of the money go to someone who’s qualified for the ERA title at least once in the past three years.

 

They were "in" on Corbin, Happ and Eovaldi and missed out. You're not wrong by any means, but they also have more than 1 spot to fill in the rotation this season, along with one behind the plate and likely several in the bullpen. I'm not particularly optimistic about Harvey or Cahill, but I understand the move.

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On 12/20/2018 at 8:50 PM, Shumway said:

They were "in" on Corbin, Happ and Eovaldi and missed out. You're not wrong by any means, but they also have more than 1 spot to fill in the rotation this season, along with one behind the plate and likely several in the bullpen. I'm not particularly optimistic about Harvey or Cahill, but I understand the move.

 

You could have done what the Angels are doing for 1/4 of the money. Just sign Tyson Ross and Doug Fister.

 

The number one mistake I see GM’s make is overspending on good, but inconsistent starting pitching. This feels like that.

 

Best case scenario one of them pans out. Most likely scenario, neither of them do. And the Angels are placing a $20 million bet on that as the backbone of their starting rotation.

 

Their infield wasn’t that great either. Why not spend the $20 million there instead of trying to invent pitchers to give it to?

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16 minutes ago, pmoehrin said:

 

You could what the Angels are doing for 1/4 of the money. Just sign Tyson Ross an Doug Fister.

 

The number one mistake I see GM’s make is overspending on good, but inconsistent starting pitching. This feels like that.

 

Best case scenario one of them pans out. Most likely scenario, neither of them do. And the Angels are placing a $20 million bet on that as the backbone of their starting rotation.

 

Their infield wasn’t that great either. Why not spend the $20 million there instead of trying to invent pitchers to give it to?

 

I completely agree that they overspent for what they got. I hadn't realized that Tyson Ross signed for so much less, honestly. 

 

Infield isn't that much of a need outside of depth. An upgrade at 2nd or 3rd would be great, but I think they're high on Fletcher and are willing to give him a shot.

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13 minutes ago, Shumway said:

I completely agree that they overspent for what they got. I hadn't realized that Tyson Ross signed for so much less, honestly. 

 

Infield isn't that much of a need outside of depth. An upgrade at 2nd or 3rd would be great, but I think they're high on Fletcher and are willing to give him a shot.

 

Easiest way to add depth is to sign the best infielder they can grab.

 

That $20 million would have been in the ballpark of what it would have taken to get Josh Donaldson. He signed for one year as well.

 

Who needs depth when you could have the best left side infield in baseball?

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On 12/13/2018 at 3:17 PM, Bucfan56 said:

 

This is mostly true, sort of. Phoenix should be a great baseball market, and when things are working, it really is. The problem is that both the D Backs AND the state of Arizona have been run by a whole bunch of absolute dunderheads in the time they’ve had the D Backs, and they’ve both created/exasterbated major problems that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. 

 

I know that the trend of having multi-purpose facilities where baseball and football teams share is kinda looked down upon, but if there’s one market that should’ve consolidated from the very beginning, it’s Phoenix. Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field should’ve been a collaborative effort between the Cardinals and MLB and they could’ve created a facility that suited both teams needs at a quarter the cost of what it’ll ultimately end up being. The Suns and Coyotes should’ve as well done the same. I know America West was relatively new when the Yotes arrived and probably couldn’t be changed that easily at that point, but local government should’ve had at least SOME foresight into that being a possibility. It could’ve been two buildings right in the heart of downtown that would’ve completely revitalized the area and lessened the financial burden for everyone. Now they’re stuck paying for 5-6 sports facilities (because you just KNOW the D Backs and Suns will ultimately get exactly what they want) that’ll be away from downtown, which is insane. All that does is guarantee that downtown will be a crime nightmare (because who the hell wants to go downtown if there’s nothing to do?), and they won’t have the public money left to fund a police force to stop it because so much of it is tied up in giving swaggy new buildings to billionaires. And to billionares who don’t give a single :censored: about the well-being of the area past the dollars they pull in on the states fund. 

 

In Tampa’s case, I don’t really know what to tell you. The market was always going to be a difficult sell. But they stacked the deck even further against themselves by placing the Rays in an oversized basketball arena on the opposite side of the bay from the population center. I don’t know much about Tampa-Area politics, but that sounds even dumber than Phoenix Area politics, and they’re the biggest morons I’ve ever seen. 

FWIW, St. Petersburg was awarded the ability to form a quasi-governmental sports authority back in 1977, just after Tampa was awarded the Buccaneers. They had an earlier site for  an open air stadium in 1978, but after visiting the Kingdome, decided against it.  

 

Then in 1982, Tampa announced a roofed/canopy baseball stadium plan and a week later St. Petersburg rushed one out too. Tampa's was to be built aside Houlihan's (nee Tampa) Stadium on where Raymond James Stadium* now sits. St. Pete granted their sports authority a 40 year lease on a 60+ acre property near downtown which was a city owned natural gas plant for $1/year.

 

After a couple of single failed referendums, they packaged the stadium with necessary services to have it pass on 6-3 vote by the city council and no public vote. The county was also put on the hook and it was later found out the vote was taken eight days after then-mayor Cole received a letter from then-baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth that said baseball could make no assurances St. Petersburg would get a franchise if it built a stadium and, "in our evaluation of potential cities for relocation or expansion, St. Petersburg is not among the top candidates."

 

Tampa never did anything more than discredit the St. Petersburg effort but never even conducted a transportation impact study on their own stadium site. Essentially, the Hillsborough County/Tampa folks were the potential owners, or actually purchased a team in Frank Morsani (42% of the Twins in 1984 and the Rangers in 1988), and Pinellas County/St. Petersburg folks had the venue. Morsani and the TBBG finally settled their suit against MLB in 2003.

 

 

*-After the baseball stadium failed, sports busines "expert" Marc Ganis was to privately build an arena on the same plot for the Lightning. Its basic design is the current Channelside venue, Amilie Arena (nee The Ice Palace/St. Pete Times Forum).

 

The Ybor City site is done, but there is still the possibility that the Westshore area of Tampa, near Tampa International Airport, could be a site.  The county owned land which both the Roland Park K-8 and Jefferson HS sits has been talked about for years as it's like 65 acres.

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