Baseball Offseason

[JimJam19]

Is it me, or has it just died down %100. There's no talk coming out of baseball lately. The whole Vlad situation is a rather big deal. The second best player in baseall, in my opinion, is still just hanging around free agent land. Also have the likes of Maddux, I-Rod and others still out there.

[Easy Mac]

Collusion

[Pacersfan46]

The owners would NEVER do such a thing!

*walks away laughing at his own comment*

HAHAHA

[ISiddiqui]

Perhaps they decided that they couldn't keep giving $20, $25 million a year deals to guys and still turn a profit. The owners are trying to get a little bit more of their power back.

[The_herd]

I don't understand how keeping salaries in check in order to make a profit can be considered collusion. The teams that can easily turn a profit are still spending, its the mid-small market teams and teams that decided that spending money blindly (Mets and Rangers) isn't the best plan and are holding off on the spending.

[Easy Mac]

I'm just kidding, but I wouldn't put it past the PA to say the owners are colluding.

[The_herd]

Originally posted by Easy Mac
I'm just kidding, but I wouldn't put it past the PA to say the owners are colluding.

I knew you were kidding, but the PA has been investigating the possibility for over a year now. From what I read, its just a matter of time before they start making the official accusations.

[ISiddiqui]

Ugh... the MLBPA soooo needs to be broken. I can't stand them.

[oykib]

Originally posted by ISiddiqui
Ugh... the MLBPA soooo needs to be broken. I can't stand them.

I still don't understand this. TTHe owners still offer every contract that the players sign. THey speak the rhetoric that advances their cause. BUt every business, club, union, or special interest group does the same thing.

Also, despite the broadly held belief, what the players make has no impact on ticket prices, cable bills, or your taxes.

So what reasonable thing about them, exactly, do you hate?

[JimJam19]

I also can't stand the MLBPA.......I already posted my disgust with them with the whole ARod situation. The way I see it though, is who do these guys think they are? If the owners want to hold out and wait to sign players, ITS THEIR CHOICE. Their money, they can do whatever the hell they wanna do. And even if the owners all decided to hold out and wait, so what. Like I said before, it's their choice. I wish the owners would say "Yea, we are holding out and we have all decided to do so, what are you gonna do about it?".......The owners make me just as mad as the players, they need to take a stand and stop letting the players push them all over the place. Ok, my ranting is done.

[ISiddiqui]

So what reasonable thing about them, exactly, do you hate?

Well the A-Rod thing is the last in a long line. Their opposition to steriod testing. Their opposition to any meaningful revenue sharing / salary cap. Their insistance on keeping the DH, even when the owners offered an extra MLB roster sport to get rid of it.

Argh!

Give me the owners anyday!

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by JimJam19
The way I see it though, is who do these guys think they are? If the owners want to hold out and wait to sign players, ITS THEIR CHOICE.

Not if they collectively determine to do it. That's illegal, in baseball and every other industry.

The economy will help the owners' argument that they are not colluding. What is going to hurt are the number of 2 year/$6M deals that are being signed by Grade C free agent OFs and 2 year/$7M deals being signed by Grade C starting pitchers. It's beginning to look like the NFL draft in terms of slotted deals for certain kinds of players. Which means the owners are actively pooling their knowledge and collectively agreeing to pay X amount for a certain class of player.

It's also widely known that there is an "offer bank" held by the commissioner's office. This was something they tried to get the union to agree to during the last near-strike, but the union balked. In retrospect, it appears that the owners were simply attempting to get the players to sign off on an illegal activity they were already undertaking.

[oykib]

In addition, I don't know any industry where labor is in favor of limiting their own top salaries. Why shouldn't the union fight a salary cap. As for revenue sharing, the MLBPA has said that is a decision for MLB. They have conceded that they have nothing to do with it.

However, the owners want to tie revenue sharing to payroll. That clearly acts as a drag on salaries. It's a de facto salary cap. If they just tied it to revenue or team finish, the union wouldn't fight it.

[Young Drachma]

The owners of full of crap. The fact they've dragged their feet with the sale of the Expos, to the point where almost NO ONE is going to want them, just shows you how seemingly inept the people in baseball are.

Instead of putting a team in market where people may actually want it, with talent already on it, they just screw them over again and again.

I'm not sure who is going to fork over $200+ million for the right to have the team that LOST Vlad, JVasquez and who's biggest signing was Carl Everett (solid, to be sure - but c'mon).

[JimJam19]

Thanks for letting me know Ksyrup. Didnt know it was illegal. I suppose I am a bit of a hipocrit (i hope thats how you spell it) because I feel the owners should have the right to do this in MLB, but although I am 19 with no job, I can understand in a real working environment that this would be wrong. But I don't consider MLB to be a "real working environment".