2019-2020 MLB Non-Phillies News/Notes Discussion

zambonir 2019-02-05 03:56:35 UTC #61

Interesting subplot. Would certainly set the market for Manny (and/or goose some teams who might have been eying Arenado instead)

A new deal for Arenado, 27, would figure to be at least eight years, with an average annual value perhaps exceeding the current record for position players – the $31 million the Tigers gave first baseman Miguel Cabrera in an eight-year, $248 million extension in March 2014.

Such an agreement would carry Arenado through at least his age 35 season, depending upon whether the contract overrides the record one-year, $26 million settlement the two sides reached last week to avoid arbitration, or is an outright extension.

Harper and Machado, both 26, are seeking 10-year contracts that also would take them through age 35.

(And: someone mentioned not being able to read an Athletic piece in another thread, so I'm sharing my reference code.

(One funny thing about this piece is Rosenthal actually replies to comments.)

bkox 2019-02-05 05:38:24 UTC #62

Philsmania 2019-02-05 15:06:10 UTC #63

On a similar note, fivethirtyeight did a survey of the political leanings of the fan bases for all of the NFL teams and of the major sports leagues in general. Surprisingly, MLB's fan base actually trends left.

EastFallowfield 2019-02-05 19:21:39 UTC #64

Seems like any sport that requires a large population (MLB, NFL, NBA) leans left and sports that don't (college and racing) can lean right.

andyb 2019-02-05 20:34:08 UTC #65

More free agent non-spending rumblings. Clearly we need to wait for the end of the offseason to take stock, but it definitely seems the reason for not spending money is not primarily analytics, but profit.

Philsmania 2019-02-05 20:50:40 UTC #66

Therein lies a very interesting dichotomy. Red areas of the country are generally less educated than the rest of the country but college sports is bigger than professional sports in those areas, particularly football.

julio 2019-02-05 21:09:33 UTC #67

Well... one shouldn't generalize from one's own experiences... but...

I grew up in central Pennsylvania, in a community where "less educated" was far and away the norm. Rabid Penn State football fans - notwithstanding that most of those fans had no personal association with the University - not as former students, not as family of students. Most of them never attended games at Beaver Stadium, many of them probably never actually visited State College (one or two of 'em essentially never left Snyder County). As the son of a Penn Stater, and then as an undergrad and an alum, it was just a little mystifying the degree to which these people identified with an institution that they knew essentially nothing about.

Well, they identified with the football team, and with Joe Paterno. Even today, if I mentioned the name of any of the faculty I knew who were at Penn State then, or any of the outstanding faculty who are there now, the names would be meaningless to 99% of the people in McClure, PA. (In other words, there might be 10 people out of the thousand or so who live there who would recognize any of Penn State's leading lights, excluding the football coach).

The Penn Stater i most admire? Richard Alley - followed closely by Mike Mann (and a 1980s post-doc named Joe Dondelinger). Because some things really can change peoples' lives - and football isn't one of them.

andyb 2019-02-05 21:22:18 UTC #68

Correa and Pham both win their arbitration cases. Arenado settled a little while ago also for a big number ($26 million).

It would be logical for arbitration awards to increase since the teams have been using analytics to show that free agents are less valuable. Chances of Nola winning probably have increased a bit.

zambonir 2019-02-10 22:37:12 UTC #69

Related to the Rays stadium policy

tom81 2019-02-10 22:47:20 UTC #70

NJ and Mass have banned it for brick-and-mortar retailers too. It does seem to be discriminatory against poor customers who don’t have access to credit or bank accounts, and seniors who aren’t comfortable paying with plastic or digital devices.

LoneStarPhan 2019-02-10 23:29:47 UTC #71

I had to laugh at seniors not being comfortable paying with plastic or digital devices. I really don't use digital devices except for a couple apps for places I frequent, but I have more than 53 years using plastic, as does my wife, who doesn't seem at all uncomfortable using it.

julio 2019-02-11 00:20:54 UTC #72

Interesting that nobody in any of these discussions ever suggests anything truly radical - like the post office deposit accounts provided in other first-world countries. Such accounts could provide extremely low-cost non-cash money management options for poorer Americans (since they could be set up on a non-profit basis - God forbid!). But not in these United States, where the God-given right to fleece one another must not be abridged.

My guess is that our economy will eventually be totally cashless. There will be bumps and hurdles on the way, but it looks inevitable to me that we'll eventually get to the point that all transactions use digital credit/debit, not cash... that is, unless we find a way to crash the whole society, and revert to barter (those of us who survive).

DurhamBull 2019-02-11 02:09:51 UTC #73

Sweden is further down the cashless society path than just about anyone. It's interesting to see how they're making the transition. One fact that jumped out at me in this article, "About half of Sweden’s 1,400 bank branches no longer accept cash deposits."

donaldorc 2019-02-11 12:22:13 UTC #74

OTOH, Switzerland, where I lived for a year recently, still is mostly a cash-based economy.

el-pietro 2019-02-11 12:47:27 UTC #75

My home city has been toying with the idea of going entirely cashless (or primarily cashless) for a few years now. My main concern is how that would affect tourists, but I don't think places should ever go 100% cash free.

I think Europe is a few years ahead of the US in terms of card technology and its prevelance. We have had the tap to pay technology for several years and had chip and pin for the previous decade. I'm always shocked when I visit the US that restaurants take your credit/debit card away from the table and they ask for your signature still. I don't even really have a signature.

Squire 2019-02-11 14:28:23 UTC #76

Rays announce that former 1B/LHP Brendan McKay will now be only LHP Brendan McKay

andyb 2019-02-11 15:09:58 UTC #77

Actually it seems they announced he will no longer play 1B but he will still DH. I think they want to remove the defensive reps to simplify his practice routine for the moment while also pitching.

Squire 2019-02-11 15:23:34 UTC #78

Was a typo - "not" supposed to be "now". Corrected

Squire 2019-02-11 17:50:57 UTC #79

Kyler Murray announces that he will pursue an NFL Career. Feel bad for the Athletics. I presume they get their money back but won't get a comp pick since he technically signed.

andyb 2019-02-11 17:58:55 UTC #80

At the very least one would hope they retain his rights. The rule 5 draft might make things tricky, but one never knows if he'll come back to baseball in a couple of years.