MLB 2023 Season - The Winter Stove of Warmth

Rays agree to trade Tyler Glasnow to Dodgers, sources say

Okay, Congress has gotta step in or something.

Y'know who is probably really peeved about the Shohei deal? The Devs of MLB: The Show and OOTP. Cuz' you know they've gotta almost totally rejigger the contract/finances in the game because of that.

I haven’t played franchise mode in The Show for a long time, but the finances didn’t seem to have much connection to reality back when I did.

OOTP has been badly in need of improvements to the financial aspects for awhile. They do allow you to offer back loaded contracts though nothing quite like this deal. When those were first introduced you could come close to looking like the Ohtani deal, but they players less likely to agree to such things eventually. It’s already the case that you can end up with massive contracts if you do things right (or wrong depending on your point of view). I’m guessing they just ignore it and continue to heavily focus on Perfect Team.

BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB7Qvm4WYAAUyRs?format=jpg&name=small)

There is great rending of garments and gnashing of teeth about this online, and I'm just laughing my ass off.

All of that, and the random number generator of the MLB playoffs means they have increased their chances of winning the WS to perhaps 20-25%.

This ends two ways. Either they win the whole thing, or they lose to a 84-78 team in the playoffs and I laugh myself sick.

If the NFL functioned like the MLB does in terms of being dominant in the regular season translating over into world championships, the Patriots would have only won maybe two Super Bowls under Tom Brady.

I am really not a Dodgers fan - although I have been following Joe Kelly‘s career for a while now - but I have to say that I am really curious in seeing what this new lineup manages to achieve.

So I expect to be a dodgers fan next season, since the games will be on tv. But as a newly minted fan, granted his numbers are insane but is it normal to sign a massive 12 year contract with a pitcher who's never thrown an MLB ball?

Anything above 8 years for a pitcher has not really ever been seen. 5-6 years for a pitcher is more normal. Dodgers are now the national "F" you team everyone not a Dodger fan will hate. Use to be the Yankees and all their spending on Mercs now the Dodgers just blew way past anything the Yankees ever did.

Yeah, 12 years for a dude who hasn't ever walked on a MLB mound is insane.

What's the success rate of Japanese players? Off the top of my head, really only Nomo, Ichiro, Matsui and Ohtani were star players. Most were just serviceable players with some real duds (*cough* Tsuyoshi Nishioka *cough*). This isn't serviceable player money.

Edit: Looking up WAR stats for Japanese players, Darvish has had a much better career than I remember (third in WAR behind Ichiro and Ohtani). I always felt like he was disappointing maybe just because the Twins were decent against him. Hiroki Kuroda, a guy whose career I have no memory of, is just under Nomo. There are a few more guys there that qualify as really good but then a lot of guys that fall into that serviceable player category. And then there's Nishioka all the way at the bottom. Maybe if f*cking Nick Swisher hadn't broken his leg he would have had more than -2.3 WAR.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

What's the success rate of Japanese players? Off the top of my head, really only Nomo, Ichiro, Matsui and Ohtani were star players. Most were just serviceable players with some real duds (*cough* Tsuyoshi Nishioka *cough*). This isn't serviceable player money.

Tanaka and Darvish.

Can someone explain the deferred comp aspects of Ohtani's deal? I can't find anything legit on it.

So, he's deferring $68mm/yr, right? Is there interest added to that each year? If yes, how does that make sense for LAD when the bill comes due? If no, how does that make sense for Ohtani (ie, why not just sign for $60mm/yr 'regular' elsewhere?)? Either the team is coming out ahead on the math or he is. And the party who isn't is a sucker.

This gets around "sAlArY CaP" because reasons. Sure. What happens when the balloon payments kick in? Are those also exempted from luxury rules? If yes, why isn't every team doing this (or at least a partial version)? If no, how does this make sense for LAD?

I mean, if championships were a real asset I'd get it but the marginal value of a championship is...kinda vague? And not guaranteed, so deferring a $680+mm payment (25% of the value of the franchise?) i to the future seems really risky.

But what do I know?

Nicely done Trevor Bauer. Travel to Japan because no-one in MLB will hire you, then piss off a bunch of people in Japan.

Former major league pitcher Trevor Bauer came under criticism in Japan on Wednesday after he appeared to express support on social media for a US Navy officer who had been jailed over a car crash that killed two Japanese citizens.

Bauer, a free agent who played the 2023 season with the Yokohama DeNa BayStars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball following his suspension and release from the LA Dodgers amid allegations of sexual abuse, posted an Instagram comment to the page of Lt Ridge Alkonis, who was released from Japanese custody last month while serving a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the negligent driving deaths of a woman and her son-in-law in May 2021.

Alkonis was released from US custody on Friday, one month after he was returned to the United States and placed in a federal prison. His family has said the crash was an accident that was caused when he lost consciousness while on a trip to Mount Fuji. Japanese prosecutors maintained that he fell asleep while drowsy and shirked a duty to pull over as he became fatigued. The case has generated substantial publicity over the past year and a half and had become a periodic point of tension between the two allies.

Bauer’s brief message under a photo on Alkonis’ Instagram feed – “Welcome home Ridge!” – kicked off a social-media firestorm in Japan, where a tweet denouncing the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner has been retweeted nearly 20,000 times with more than 26m total views.

I can't wait for him to end up in the KBO and praising North Korean propaganda or something.

Top_Shelf wrote:

Can someone explain the deferred comp aspects of Ohtani's deal? I can't find anything legit on it.

So, he's deferring $68mm/yr, right? Is there interest added to that each year? If yes, how does that make sense for LAD when the bill comes due? If no, how does that make sense for Ohtani (ie, why not just sign for $60mm/yr 'regular' elsewhere?)? Either the team is coming out ahead on the math or he is. And the party who isn't is a sucker.

This gets around "sAlArY CaP" because reasons. Sure. What happens when the balloon payments kick in? Are those also exempted from luxury rules? If yes, why isn't every team doing this (or at least a partial version)? If no, how does this make sense for LAD?

I mean, if championships were a real asset I'd get it but the marginal value of a championship is...kinda vague? And not guaranteed, so deferring a $680+mm payment (25% of the value of the franchise?) i to the future seems really risky.

But what do I know?

Not much to explain.

It's really good for the Dodgers and I'm not sure if it was in a podcast or article but it boiled down to what he wanted.

He's already stupid rich and wants to win. The winning part also leads to more richness.

Ohtani was asking questions like who's who in your minor league system etc. Dodgers were best positioned to go on a dynasty run and he will still make crazy money.

Ok. He wants to win. But also wants some money approaching most of a billion. Sure.

How does this circumvent salary cap rules? Won't LAD face an enormous penalty when the payments hit a la Bonilla's contract? Those payments need to be kept as a liability for 10 years! $680mm worth! 25% of the company!

Top_Shelf wrote:

Ok. He wants to win. But also wants some money approaching most of a billion. Sure.

How does this circumvent salary cap rules? Won't LAD face an enormous penalty when the payments hit a la Bonilla's contract? Those payments need to be kept as a liability for 10 years! $680mm worth! 25% of the company!

Bonilla is like $1m per year, which is pretty meaningless to an MLB team at this point. Amusingly, the original defferred amount was only ~$6m.

Anyway, they probably assume the luxury tax threshold will rise over the next 10 years, making that $68m less of a big deal than it would be now. Also, IIRC this ownership group has shown a willingness to go over the threshold in the past, so maybe they just don't care.

billt721 wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

Ok. He wants to win. But also wants some money approaching most of a billion. Sure.

How does this circumvent salary cap rules? Won't LAD face an enormous penalty when the payments hit a la Bonilla's contract? Those payments need to be kept as a liability for 10 years! $680mm worth! 25% of the company!

Bonilla is like $1m per year, which is pretty meaningless to an MLB team at this point. Amusingly, the original defferred amount was only ~$6m.

Anyway, they probably assume the luxury tax threshold will rise over the next 10 years, making that $68m less of a big deal than it would be now. Also, IIRC this ownership group has shown a willingness to go over the threshold in the past, so maybe they just don't care.

Exactly.

The owners were not afraid of spending already and the Ohtani terms were very team friendly.

I have no clue what kind of revenue MLB teams do in Japan with merchandising etc but the Dodgers just cornered that market.

Make or break will now obviously be if they actually win. Not sure what the breaking point is of titles vs profit but it might even be 0.

HoF ins - Joe Mauer, Todd Helton, Adrian Beltre

Gary Sheffield is again kept out, which is IMHO dumb, but whatever.

Also, FWIW, I think Bonds should be in, because if you cut off all the steroid years I think he's still a clear HoFer, but they will NEVER let that man in.

Honestly, very surprised Mauer got in first ballot. I mean, he should but voters tend to be stupid.

I am truly the dumbest boy alive because MLB has released their 2024 top prospects list and my FIRST THOUGH was "....should I fire up OOTP again when I get home?"

Some celebration in Baltimore tonight, John Angelos has reportedly agreed to sell the Orioles.

(To two private equity billionaires, but they're sports team owners, you're only going to get so much.)

Yes, because private equity billionaires are renowned for letting people run the business who actually know how to run the business.

Listen, as far as Baltimore fans are probably concerned, Kim Jong Un would be an improvement on Angelos.