MLB Off-Topic

[Speedy]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Twins had thoughts of moving to NC too.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Random rabbit hole I went down.

Selig was gonna contract the Twins AND Expos in 2002?!

What would baseball have looked like with 28 teams after just expanding 4 years prior?

I feel like MLB may be headed for a repeat performance if Manfred does indeed push for expansion before he retires. But my gut tells me contraction will go all the way through this time. I hate knocking on Tampa Bay but it would have made more sense to go with Bakersfield California, Long Beach, Virginia Beach, Tulsa, Omaha, El Paso, Mesa Arizona, or Fresno way before TB. Instead of expanding wisely MLB will wind up going for a sexy pick. What's really crazy is they ever considered Tampa sexy. They might be rated an office hot 8 but it's a real world 5. I know New York City and San Antonio aren't even in the running for an expansion team but it really would be the two healthiest choices they could possibly make. But MLB will probably do something silly and expand in Montreal and Salt Lake City in 2028 and 4 years later Cincinnati and Kansas City will have to pay for the mistake by killing themselves by retracting.

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I feel like MLB may be headed for a repeat performance if Manfred does indeed push for expansion before he retires. But my gut tells me contraction will go all the way through this time. I hate knocking on Tampa Bay but it would have made more sense to go with Bakersfield California, Long Beach, Virginia Beach, Tulsa, Omaha, El Paso, Mesa Arizona, or Fresno way before TB. Instead of expanding wisely MLB will wind up going for a sexy pick. What's really crazy is they ever considered Tampa sexy. They might be rated an office hot 8 but it's a real world 5. I know New York City and San Antonio aren't even in the running for an expansion team but it really would be the two healthiest choices they could possibly make. But MLB will probably do something silly and expand in Montreal and Salt Lake City in 2028 and 4 years later Cincinnati and Kansas City will have to pay for the mistake by killing themselves by retracting.

I don't see the league retracting at all.

Once the As and Rays situation is figured out they'll expand for sure. Too many markets and owners wanting teams for them to pass up on that opportunity.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I don't see the league retracting at all.

Once the As and Rays situation is figured out they'll expand for sure. Too many markets and owners wanting teams for them to pass up on that opportunity.

I hope so. They just need to do it smart and not award franchises to the flavor-of-the-month cities.

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I hope so. They just need to do it smart and not award franchises to the flavor-of-the-month cities.

No doubt they'll just give it to whoever is willing to pay the most.

What would MLBs expansion fees even be? NHL got 750m out of Seattle.

MLB definitely will be over a billion (which divided up is over 30m per team)

[Dead2009]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I feel like MLB may be headed for a repeat performance if Manfred does indeed push for expansion before he retires. But my gut tells me contraction will go all the way through this time. I hate knocking on Tampa Bay but it would have made more sense to go with Bakersfield California, Long Beach, Virginia Beach, Tulsa, Omaha, El Paso, Mesa Arizona, or Fresno way before TB. Instead of expanding wisely MLB will wind up going for a sexy pick. What's really crazy is they ever considered Tampa sexy. They might be rated an office hot 8 but it's a real world 5. I know New York City and San Antonio aren't even in the running for an expansion team but it really would be the two healthiest choices they could possibly make. But MLB will probably do something silly and expand in Montreal and Salt Lake City in 2028 and 4 years later Cincinnati and Kansas City will have to pay for the mistake by killing themselves by retracting.

New York doesnt need a 3rd team and if they ever got one, it probably would be the Blue Jays relocating to Buffalo since they have a history of playing there at times.

[zello144]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

https://twitter.com/Tobi_Altizer/status/1758641337052827865?s=20

Yeah I'm not buying a Nike Jersey. I'm keeping my old Victor Robles Jersey.

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

There's been exactly one franchise contraction in the "Big 4" North American leagues in the last 70 years: the NHL's Cleveland Barons (originally the California Golden Seals) merged with the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars) back in 1978. That's it.

Barring a complete implosion of the American economy (MLB didn't lose a single franchise during the Great Depression or World War II), I can't see contraction happening. There will always be another market to relocate to.

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

There's been exactly one franchise contraction in the "Big 4" North American leagues in the last 70 years: the NHL's Cleveland Barons (originally the California Golden Seals) merged with the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars) back in 1978. That's it.

Barring a complete implosion of the American economy (MLB didn't lose a single franchise during the Great Depression or World War II), I can't see contraction happening. There will always be another market to relocate to.

It also makes no sense to contract if you have even 1 owner wanting to buy the team.

And if nobody wants to buy it, the league just owning the team still makes more sense than contraction.

At least it's not the 1991 North Stars. I still don't fully understand it but apparently they held a dispersal draft with an expansion team drafting as many guys as they want from that North Stars team, then the North Stars would enter the expansion draft and draft a new team. So they didn't officially contract, but they dispersed some players and drafted new ones.

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

At least it's not the 1991 North Stars. I still don't fully understand it but apparently they held a dispersal draft with an expansion team drafting as many guys as they want from that North Stars team, then the North Stars would enter the expansion draft and draft a new team. So they didn't officially contract, but they dispersed some players and drafted new ones.

The North Stars owners wanted to relocate from Minnesota to San Jose. The NHL balked because the Bay Area was deemed a lucrative expansion market. So they cut a deal where the Minnesota owners would sell the North Stars and buy an expansion team in San Jose, but take a lot of (mostly prospects and minor leaguers) North Stars players with them. Then the new North Stars owners moved the team to Dallas a couple years later anyway.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

It also makes no sense to contract if you have even 1 owner wanting to buy the team.

And if nobody wants to buy it, the league just owning the team still makes more sense than contraction.

Greed is powerful motivator. The owners voted at the end of 2001 to contract 28-2. If the owners had succeeded, I believe the intent was to expand two teams back in a few years later, and do it that way so as to line their pockets with franchise expansion fees. Arizona and Tampa had paid $130 million a piece to join in '98. Only a court injunction kept the owners from pulling one over on Minnesota and Montreal, the two teams most likely to be contracted. Not coincidentally, these were the two teams that voted against contraction. Minnesota and Montreal knew what the other 28 teams plan was. So if MLB ever again tries to contract, I don't believe they would do it for any other reason than to get extra expansion fees by replacing those contracted teams pretty soon after.

[Sportsforever]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Help me out; I am hearing a lot of backlash to new jerseys (I didn't even know they were going to updated jerseys), but when I look them up in a fanstore or spring training pictures, I'm not seeing a difference. Do you guys know what the difference is? I read a few articles where players have complained that they feel cheap, etc, but it sounds like the material is lighter and made for breathability.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Help me out; I am hearing a lot of backlash to new jerseys (I didn't even know they were going to updated jerseys), but when I look them up in a fanstore or spring training pictures, I'm not seeing a difference. Do you guys know what the difference is? I read a few articles where players have complained that they feel cheap, etc, but it sounds like the material is lighter and made for breathability.

The letters on the back are much smaller, they look like little league jerseys

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Quality is also much cheaper/thinner.

When they switched from Majestic to Nike it was basically the same jersey just with the Nike logo on it.

Now with this new one, it's a different jersey and it's worse.

There's also a reason why fan jerseys from Fanatics in NBA and NHL are real unpopular too.

[Speedy]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Should've stayed with Majestic.

Logo on the side of the jersey sleeve, not everywhere in front of the team logos.

Shame what MLB did.