Mstrat

Players will unionize in single group after starting as multiple. States will move to cut funding, college teams will be forced to become full on licensed affiliates of universities and the big conferences will act as essentially upper end developmental league to the NFL, etc. As ratings for sports continue to decline, companies will pay less and less,tickets prices will soar up. TV deals and what not will become less lucrative and more sponsorships will be had for college athletic league.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/story/2022-07-17/usc-trojans-football-charles-white-dementia-heisman-trophy-winner

Is this someone Crane was interested in as GM? Did he know he’d get reinstated? https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35412262/ex-braves-gm-john-coppolella-life-ban-lifted-mlb

PSA if not already linked:

This is where I see the MLB divisions trending from this offseason. Most Improved 1. NL East - Mets have spent enough, Phillies are spending again, Braves have traded up, Marlins and Nats are in the celler 2. AL West - Rangers have some decent arms, Mariners added a little more firepower to their lineup, Astros held about the same overall, As are still weak, and Angels I suspect will actually hold together a bit better this year. 3. AL East - Yankees will have a good year with Bader and their new pitchers helping them win some games when Judge’s bad isn’t going, O’s will be steadily improving, Jays slightly improved, Red Sox are tanking, Rays are meh Most regression 1. NL West - Shocker is how fast the Dodgers have been gutted, Padres are slightly better, the rest is meh. 2. AL Central - Guardians and Twins are about the same, Sox are going down to visit the Royals and Tigers 3. NL Central - Cubs are somewhat better and everyone else is about who they were this past season.

Not terribly surprising. Tucker is the newsmaker if we are in talks with him on an extension.

Maybe instead of taxing teams that go over the luxury tax (Mets) repeatedly is to revoke their first round draft picks the following year on first consecutive year violation. The more consecutive years you break, the more draft picks you forfeit.

We’ll see but based upon who will have expiring contracts after next season, there’s no one we’d want to trade for.

Vegas can’t go of the Dodgers. That will change by February as they’ve been gutted with very little to replace their losses.

I think it means we couldn’t promise the playing time behind the plate.

You DONT do trade deals without a GM. Fuck this speculation. I hope that was the ask and someone in Houston said GFY. I’d rather come up short next year in the playoffs than mortgage the ENTIRE reason we’re okay with letting Verlander walk.

Looking ahead at the FA class of 2024, there are no good options at catcher. The OF options aren’t so great either. This is the offseason to make those moves.

There is no reasonable or somewhat unreasonable offer for Tucker the Astros could make. I’m convinced he wants to be somewhere else.

For Houston to be this hard up on catchers makes me think they don’t believe Diaz/Lee are ready. We don’t have much farm, so Vasquez for 3 years makes sense. With LF/DH I have to think beyond just 2023. RF if we keep Tucker is 7-8 years 300 million at this rate. If they can’t tie him up in time before arbitration, we need to be looking to replace Tucker somewhere in the lineup. Maybe Benintendi (if still available) starts looking like a super great deal.

Weird. I thought the pitch was more WAR than Murphy. Looking him up, I see a lower WAR. I’m team Vasquez letting him catch 4 out of 6 starters.