Yordan, Pena and 50M for Skenes who says no? Both teams probably? Sign JV. Move Arrighetti for a good OF bat with a couple years left. Roster: Skenes, Brown, Javier, Burrows, JV, blubaugh Bullpen Diaz, backup Catcher, Walker, Altuve, Correa, Paredes, new OF bat, meyers, smith, Cole, Dezenzo, AE v 2, Matthews.
Astros get: SP Payton Tolle 1B Triston Casas 2B Henry Godbout Red Sox get: 3B Isaac Paredes This trade is geared more toward the long term than the short term. If Casas can’t play LF and if Houston can’t find a taker for Walker, then Casas can be optioned. Tolle could be repackaged with another prospect or 2 to get a ToR SP if Houston doesn’t think Tolle and the other in house options give them enough pitching to contend. Godbout gives Houston a solid middle infield prospect in AA to upgrade the weakest group in their farm.
My current dream moves for the rest of the offseason: Trade SS Jeremy Pena, CF Jake Meyers, SP Spencer Arrighetti, and SP Bryce Mayer to Milwaukee for SP Freddy Peralta, OF Sal Frelick, and SS Cooper Pratt. Sign C Christian Vazquez $10M/2yrs Sign P Justin Verlander $25M/2yrs plus bonuses for ip Opening day roster: LF Frelick 3B Paredes DH Alvarez SS Correa 2B Altuve 1B Walker RF Sanchez C Diaz CF Cole Bench: Matthews, Vazquez, Allen, Trammell SP: Brown, Peralta, Verlander, Javier, Burrows, Weiss RP: Hader, Abreu, Pearson, King, Okert, Munoz, McCullers Optioned: Blubaugh, France, Gordon, Alexander, Ullola, Sousa, Murray, Salazar, Smith, Whitcomb, Dezenzo IL: Walter, Wesneski, Blanco DFA: De Los Santos, Ort That’s an extremely deep roster with upside to be dominant. Peralta, McCullers, Abreu, and Okert would be the only pending free agents. The farm would feature 2 Top 100 prospects (Pratt and Matthews) plus Smith (who would be a top 50 prospect if he hadn’t graduated), and a loaded bottom half with a big draft class on the way.
I put the chances of losing games to a work stoppage at less than 5% I know baseball has a history of nasty labor issues, but we haven't lost regular season games from a work stoppage in over 30 years. The money has gotten so big for both sides that the stakes of missing games is huge for both sides now. The other big difference is social media which makes everything so much more emotional. It took steroids and chicks diggin the long ball to get fans to come back 3 decades ago, if we had a serious work stoppage where many regular season games were missed now, the backlash would be like none we have ever seen in professional sports before I could see something like 22 where there is a lockout and ST begins late, but almost everyone is assuming we are going to miss part or all of the 2027 season and I just don't think either side is dumb enough to commit league suicide
I mostly agree with you. I would put the odds of actual lost games at <50% but a lot higher than 5%. But yeah the consequences of a completely lost season would be devastating. I don’t think a shortened/compressed season would be that costly.
I think you are both bring extremely hopeful. Several owners are hell-bent on a salary cap and the player's are steadfastly against it. I hope, like crazy, that I am wrong but I put a work stoppage at about 5000%, actually losing games because of it at about 80%, and losing at least 50% of the season at about 25% Another 60 game season, like 2020 would not surprise me at all.
Would set back baseball financially for at least a decade, maybe longer. It would shock me if both sides are stupid enough to do that. The situation 30 years ago when we last lost regular season games to a work stoppage couldn't be different from today. Not just the things I mentioned earlier, but the who RSN atmosphere was just starting to explode money into the situation back then, today not so much We shall see what happens, but it would shock me if they make the decision to kill baseball
I don't mind a two year deal for anybody we sign this winter. The odds of a 2027 season are pretty small. Paying for that 2nd year seems unlikely.
COVID cost them 100 games of a season and it didn’t kill baseball. Losing an entire season and not having baseball at some point during the summer would be devastating. But if both sides dig in and end up not agreeing to a deal until ~ late May I won’t be surprised and I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal in the end. It will be stupid and they’d be way smarter to get a deal done earlier, but I don’t think it’ll would kill the sport.
MLB must have a salary cap like all the other leagues.. It's laughable that they are still doing business like they are. If a lost season needs to occur to get the cap in place. Sign me up.
I am too old to lose a season now, I may not make it to 2027 and I do not want to go through a season without baseball.
Covid was a WAY different deal than a work stoppage though People understood why MLB cancelled games during Covid. Even those who were on the side of "we should be living our lives normally" didn't revolt on sports leagues cancelling games with everything else around them also shut down. Many didn't like it, but they understood Would be a completely different situation if there was a major work stoppage. As I said earlier, social media has made the world MUCH more sensitive to issues. There are some diehards like those of us on this board that just want baseball But the vast majority of those who go to the park would just see "Rich Owners" and "Rich Players" arguing over billions of dollars, and it wouldn't end well. Most didn't even have a PC in their home last time there was a real work stoppage, much less the ability to voice their opinion in an instant and then get in heated arguments about it. And yet it hurt baseball in a huge way, it took steroids to get the crowds back, so mlb turned a blind eye It would be a HUGE mistake, and i have to believe enough of them know that to keep it from happening
If a work stoppage leads to actual, structural changes in MLB, fans would rejoice. The only way it has any huge detrimental effect is if they just apply bandaids and kick the can.
Except Owners AND Players are making more money than they ever have And MLB doesn't have to worry about those of us on a fan site message board who are sharing opinions in the middle of the offseason, they know we will be back We represent about 1% of the people who go to MLB games
Interesting You really think the rank and file million who go to MLB games care more about the CBA than going to games and enjoying them? Would be interesting to hear why you feel that way League wide attendance in 93 was over 70 million and they were on pace to go over 71 million in 94 before things came to a grinding halt When they returned in 95 attendance barely rose above 50 million And again, that was with no one being able to instantly share their opinion about it and argue about it constantly on social media. It's a MUCH more emotional world we are living in now Maybe i'm wrong and all the 71 million who showed up last year care about it a salary cap. I'm just not thinking that's the case
Half (more/less?) of the fans around MLB cities know that they have a slightly non-zero chance to compete given the current financial situation. Changing that situation would absolutely make fans understand why missing games/a season was necessary.
I don't think half of the fans that show up to games even know whether or not there is a salary cap or not I also don't think fans will react well to "Millionaires and Billionaires" fighting over money Haven't in the past, that's for sure. Maybe the world is much more calm cool and collected now than it used to be though, and just care about fairness between cities. Hmmm
