Month: July 2023

The Orioles won’t ‘set the minors on fire’ by making a deadline deal

Prospects are there to fill holes, whether by promotion or trade, and don’t let Mike Elias’ preemptive defenses for standing pat tell you otherwise.

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Remember when teams really loved to brag about the importance of having financial flexibility so they could someday make moves when they truly needed to? It allowed them to care more about the flexibility to do hypothetical things than to actually do the things they were supposed to do with said flexibility. Craig Goldstein’s piece on the subject from 2019 remains vital, but it’s worth pointing out that “flexibility” isn’t always just about space on the payroll. Or, at least, that’s not the only thing that the word is used for.

Having a deep farm system can also be a kind of flexibility, and just like with payroll space, you’ll see general managers saying it’s important for them to have a strong farm system for when they need it. What do they need it for when they say this? To fill holes, of course, but when a defense like this one comes out of the mouth of Orioles’ general manager Mike Elias…

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The Angels are trying to win, which is good, unless it’s bad(?)

The prospect hugging has gone a little too far if there’s whining about trading a top 50 one in order to give Shohei Ohtani a better chance at the postseason

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The Angels aren’t in possession of a Wild Card spot at present. They’re certainly not atop the AL West. They’re also playing through what very well might be the final season of Shohei Ohtani’s time with the organization, which doubles as the last time they have both Ohtani and Mike Trout together on the same roster. Another way to read that is that these last two-plus months of the season might be the last time the Angels have the last two players in the league who have had genuine Greatest of All Time labels attached to them, and accurately so, on the same roster.

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Rob Manfred will be re-elected as commissioner (and that’s okay)

Rob Manfred is good at the things the owner wants him to be good at and bad at the things I want a commissioner to be bad at.

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Per The Athletic, current MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to be re-elected for a third term at some point this week. While I understand the grumbling and gnashing of teeth and all that over the imminent re-election of a man who has to be constantly given column space to assure us that no, he actually does like baseball, the reality of things is that this is good news. No, really!

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Notes: MLB airing D-Backs’ games, more bad Las Vegas journalism

Another team dropped by Bally, and another piece of “journalism” on the Las Vegas A’s ballpark.

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MLB announced on Tuesday that they are taking over the production and distribution of Diamondbacks’ games. A bankruptcy judge approved Diamond Sports Group’s request to “shed” their contract, as ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez put it, making Arizona the second club to have their broadcasts become MLB’s responsibility: less than two months ago, the Padres became the first.

Blackouts for fans in the “home television territory” have been eliminated for Diamondbacks’ games in the process, by way of a few different options. A “direct-to-consumer” streaming plan through MLB.tv is available, for either $19.99 per month or $54.99 for the rest of the 2023 season: it should be pointed out that this is a separate charge from the usual MLB.tv subscription, so if you’re in Arizona, for instance, and wanted to watch Diamondbacks’ games on the service you previously could not since they were blacked out, that’s still designed solely for out-of-market games.

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A’s ‘not likely’ to hit public funding cap with Las Vegas ballpark, says people who are new at this

We’re gonna need some better journalism than this.

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Good news, everyone! The CEO and President of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said that the A’s aren’t likely to use all $380 million in public funds that they’ve been allotted for a new ballpark in Vegas. The Las Vegas Review-Journal relayed the news in the way only an outlet that regurgitates authority figures without checking them can: by quoting them extensively and never raising an eyebrow about it.

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At the break, 2023 is looking historically bad on the losses front

The record for 100-loss teams in a season is four, and it’s a possibility that record will be matched again in 2023 just like it was in 2022.

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Major League Baseball has had a problem with imbalance for too much of the last decade. As has been written about in this space on numerous occasions, there have been so many 100-win teams in the last few years, but they’re not quite as good as their record, since their 100 wins are compiled against too many clubs that aren’t trying to win. With all of those additional 100-win team clusters comes 100-win loss clusters, or at least something close.

We’re “halfway” in the All-Star break sense through the 2023 season, with the new schedule arrangement that cuts down on divisional play in favor of spreading everyone around a bit more over the course of 162. Let’s take a look at how many teams are on pace for and in danger of losing 100 games before this thing is over.

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Educators against the Las Vegas A’s

The A’s stadium is probably happening, but there’s a new hurdle to clear, at least.

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If you’re still holding out hope that the Athletics are stymied in their quest to take up residence in Las Vegas, then you’re not alone. The Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) has formed a political-action committee called “Schools Over Stadiums,” with the aim being pretty clear from that name. From the Los Angeles Times’ story:

[Alexander] Marks said his organization is concerned about the more than 3,000 statewide vacancies for teachers and educational staff and is outraged that a stadium is being presented as a financial benefit for the people of Nevada.

“Our priorities are misguided,” Marks said. “If stadiums were the fix, I don’t know why we wouldn’t build 10 of them.”

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