Stuff is expensive. You might have heard. Or maybe you bought something. But that’s not the inflation I’m talking about.
Rob Manfred really inflated the progress between MLBPA and MLB owners. He says he anticipates a full season. His statement that the union and owners had agreed on a draft lottery and the universal DH, however, was blowing smoke. Each side has proposed the DH and lottery, but nothing’s actually been agreed.
But the lockout isn’t Manfred’s fault, just ask Rob Manfred.
The owners will present a core economics proposal to the union tomorrow. I’m hoping it is a meaningful good faith effort towards a deal but I’m also hoping my hairline stops receding and there’s no signs of either happening.
In the meantime, “the status of spring training is no change” per commissioner dumbass. Camps are closed, spring training home cities are in limbo, and nobody can make plans. Particularly me.
I was all for the universal DH until I realized this:
Sadly, the most Angels centric news comes out of Texas where Eric Kay stands trial accused of selling Tyler Skaggs pills that killed him.
We are doing our best to keep the page up to date and even bring in some Rev takes on it. However, we aren’t there and the best sources I’ve found are Sam Blum and TJ Quinn on Twitter. Those links take you right to them.
Quinn is really hitting it out of the park, IMO, and it sounds like this trial is going to be really tough on Skaggs family.
When baseball is played again, the epic battle between pitchers and hitters will resume. FanGraphs does a great job of looking at the huge advantage a pitcher gains by getting a first pitch strike. Not necessarily throwing it in the zone, but getting ahead 0-1.
In the “that’s way too young” category, former CSU Fullerton Titan and MLB’er Jeremy Giambi passed at way at 47.
Sorry about the short links, folks. Without looking at a calendar I assumed this coming Monday was President’s Day and made plans with the family. Just learned today that it is not President’s Day. So I’m trying to do two days worth of work in one. I swear I’m not going senile, ha ha.
Enjoy your weekend and please link anything I missed.
As predicted, the players Union is unimpressed.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-lockout-mlbpa-unimpressed-with-owners-latest-core-economics-proposal-per-report/amp/
Regarding the delay of spring training and all the related workouts, I wonder if there’s any chance the union or some group of players get together and start doing this on their own. We have the recent precedent of alternate training sites and whatnot from 2020; MLBPA ought to give Driveline and a few places like that a call and set something up. See if you can get the megacontract players to chip in for a fund to cover 2-3 months of the pre-arb guys and top prospects living expenses if necessary.
It seems like a wise thing to do for their own health and performance if/when there’s a sudden breakthrough in negotations. Plus it would really send a message to the owners that says “We’re ready to play ball, what the fuck are you doing?”
Do they all pay dues to the Union? Funding that kind of thing (in other fields) would be something the Union might do – especially for the PR boost you suggest.
But yes, players better ready to start day one, less likely to get hurt, and sooner baseball is all something I could get behind.
Judging by the MLB proposal today, we are not going to get any baseball for awhile.
I think so? It’s a little unclear but all you have to do to qualify is be on the 40-man roster, and it says dues are $85 a day on their site. Not sure if that’s automatic unless you opt out or what.
“See if you can get the megacontract players to chip in for a fund to cover 2-3 months of the pre-arb guys and top prospects living expenses if necessary”
I chuckled with evil ha haz at this. The idea that the rich assholes who wear the same hat as me sometimes are somehow better assholes than the owners always mystifies me. If the MLBPA gets something like this together it’ll get paid for by the MLBPA, but I doubt Fernando Tatis is buying 30 lunches for 30 players in 30 days or something.
It’s not about more or less evil, lol. Bauer, Osuna, and others like them are still assholes at this very moment. This is about power in the context of baseball and how to use it.
While it’s a niche case with skewed net worths involved, the MLB lockout boils down to workers vs owners like every other labor dispute. And like essentially all of those disputes, it’s the workers who inherently create the bulk of the value in the industry. We all show up/tune in to watch the MLBPA members do their jobs, not to watch the owners and executives chill in the luxury boxes. If the players wanted to, they could really turn the narrative in their favor and I think eventually get most of what they want.
I agree though that this type of thing would probably best be organized by MLBPA instead of random players. Just not sure what set up they have to do so. They could also set up basically a strike fund like other labor unions have recently (see the Kelloggs strike for example) and ask any interested veterans to pitch in. It’s not uncommon for vets to buy dinners and things like that for whole minor league squads (example) when they’re on rehab assignments, so I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch.
Plus, think how funny it would be if a couple different camps of players cropped up for MLBPA’s alternate spring training and they had to come up with/crowdsource some funny-ass team names and logos. The players aren’t totally blameless in how we got here, but the owners fired the first shot and deserve to get beat. Hopefully in the most entertaining fashion possible…because what else are we going to watch?
Manfred and owners won’t formally/publicly give up on Spring Training dates and the season starting on time because they still want to sell tickets to the suckers who will buy them.
Am I sucker if I was gifted tickets? Does that count?
It wasn’t meant personally. The point is they are making statements focused on selling tickets rather than telling the truth re the reality that these games will not happen. Hope you get to go to your gifted games!
Many times…….NOT ALWAYS!
Reckless irrational behavior precedes death by OD. I never saw that out of Tyler in the days or months leading up to his death. Not to say it didn’t happen, however many big celebs who died like this did (Chris Farley & Amy Winehouse just to name two). I still remember Darryl Strawberry not showing up for a game against the Angels in the Freeway Series, and the late Tommy Lasorda trying to explain that he doesn’t know why he didn’t show up.
On today’s menu;
Suicide
Illegal drugs
Depression
Incompetence
Lies
Ego’s Bragging
Mismanagement
Soap opera? Nope just another day in Baseball…. 😢  😠 😪  👎 
Jeremy Giambi’s cause of death revealed
Just plain sad…..
Horrible. Condolences to his family and friends.
Big fan of the Giambi’s. Larger than life characters. They both owned up to taking PEDs w/o pussy footing around questions (unlike Barry, A-Roid, Clemens, Palmerio, McGwire). Lifted weights at the same small gym in Claremont as they did with many of their autographed photos around the facility. Feel read bad for the family, great people. Would have loved to help.
Wow. That’s really sad. No mom should find her son like that.
I’d assumed heart issues due to the roids and probably blow (the bros partied hard).
if you are married and have a woman listed as ‘Ben R’ on your phone, you are probably up to no good. However that does not mean that Kay did not supply him with the lethal drugs. This trial has become a mudslinging tabloid-fest.
There *could* be a good explanation for that, though I agree the only point of bringing it up is to throw mud at Tyler.
I’d want to show Tyler meeting g as many people as possible if I’m Kay’s lawyers. And doing it on the sky is even better.
All Kay needs is reasonable doubt and if Tyler met up with 2-3 other people, that doubt gets a lot more reasonable
Yep. That’s lawyering 101
Sure, that is a good explanation to bring up the meeting – but to suggest that it is extra fishy with a female contact listed with the name ‘Ben R’ is an attempt to make it salacious (and detracts from the argument, I would think, as it provides a ‘reasonable’ non-drug reason for that contact). That is why I think it is an attempt at mud-slinging – and makes it seem that they have less of a case than they suggest (they need to distract).
Exactly. What does cheating on the wife have to do with pink lines?
When the facts are against you, argue the law.
When the law is against you, argue the facts.
When both are against you, pound on the table.
Bringing up the alleged cheating is pounding on the table.
I wonder if Kay has claimed he fell off the wagon and took the same pills with no issues?
All of this is making me realize something. Of course it’s sad that this total stranger killed himself with drugs. It totally sucks, but it sucks on the same level as the next guy I hear about from the USPS plant who does the same.
But it makes me take measure. What if Skaggs didn’t OD that night? I mean, does anyone think it sounds like he’d have suddenly cleaned up? Does it sound like he was a good guy to have on our team? He was soon to be an FA. What if we’d signed him? Does it sound like he was going to anchor our staff or does it sound like he’d be another contract we bitch about Arte handing out? Sure, he could have survived and cleaned up at some point and that would be cool I guess. But as far as being any actual help to the Angels, which is his only connection to most of us….
Other than being dead, and paid less, how is this guy any better than Hambone?
It’s a fair point. Like everything, the public gets caught up in emotional stories. We like to pretend and believe that people who die are better than they actually were. Their flaws and, frankly, shitty behavior disappear and we build them up to mythical levels. But for this trial, our memory of him would mostly be limited to that remarkable no hitter following his death and the jerseys on the mound.
Meanwhile, the people who are alive doing the exact same shitty things are lambasted and skewered by the same people who will revere them once they are dead. As Holden Caulfield would say, most people are phonies.
Your premise is correct. Skaggs probably would have been a terrible free agent signing. Even at his best, he was a slightly better than average pitcher. He was clearly a flawed person who happened to play professional baseball. He unfortunately died too young. His family has sued as a result of his death and are attempting to get hundreds of millions of dollars. Those are the facts. I find nothing mythic nor even terribly sympathetic about it all.
Manfred is touting minor progress as though a deal is imminent. It’s like a husband and wife agreeing that the sky is in fact blue while going through divorce mediation. Yes – there is agreement on an issue or two, but they are minor progress at best and the core issues remain.
The main reason for Manfred’s PR-centric press conference was to attempt to place pressure on the players by portraying the owners as ‘incredibly reasonable’ – because they have agreed to universal DH and a draft lottery. It’s all PR bullshit. The goal is to make the players look greedy publicly.
Unless the proposal tomorrow addresses the core economic issues, the players Union is going to be pissed. 10 wasted days where the owners ultimately come back with concessions on the issues where concessions were expected and predicted – with none of the core economic issues addressed – is dirty negotiations.
I expect an angry press conference from the players Union this weekend.
Poor Carli Skaggs. What a devastating week for that family.
His mom testified too. This has to just rip open the wound and make it feel new, and public, again.