Category: Management Bullshit

Notes: Rizzo on the Rockies, NCAA women’s tournament, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Someone else dislikes Dick Monfort as much as I do, why the women’s version of March Madness needs its own TV deal, and why the Jays were right to re-sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

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Before last weekend’s series between the Phillies and Dodgers, Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper made a perfect little statement. When asked about the Dodgers’ spending habits and all the complaining that’s been going on regarding said habits, he said, “I don’t know if people will like this, but I feel like only losers complain about what they’re doing. I think they’re a great team. They’re a great organization.” He’s right, in that this is some loser mentality stuff at work, but the thing is, we need more of that energy out there from players and the media to hammer home just how big that loser energy is.

Alanna Rizzo, formerly part of the Dodgers’ broadcast team but now back at MLB Network, apparently agrees. While speaking to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post about the Rockies, she did not mince words when it came to owner Dick Monfort and his thoughts on the Dodgers and spending:

Continue reading “Notes: Rizzo on the Rockies, NCAA women’s tournament, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.”

Notes: ESPN deal, Rob Manfred talks salary cap again

ESPN doesn’t seem to believe that the MLB relationship is over after 2025, and Rob Manfred is trying to put the cat back in the bag again.

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ESPN opted out of the final three years of their national broadcasting deal with MLB, which wasn’t a surprise, necessarily, especially given the league’s devaluing of their own product in deals with (arguably) Apple and (inarguably) Roku. Over at Sports Business Journal, though, comes sourced word from ESPN that they don’t see this as the end of the relationship between the two after 2025.

Someone might want to let MLB know about that, since the league has been publicly airing its grievances with the worldwide leader and its coverage — or lack thereof — of MLB’s games. You’ll also find plenty of fans who aren’t broken up about ESPN ending things, since they, a little too regularly, act like they’re embarrassed to be covering baseball games. Which doesn’t do much for growing the game, no?

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Notes: Jackie Robinson, Pirates debt, MLB broadcasts

A response to the federal government trying to erase Jackie Robinson, another responding to claim the Pirates are in debt, actually, and Rob Manfred’s latest on MLB’s broadcast plans.

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I had no inside knowledge that Steven Goldman would have a reaction to the Department of Defense briefly taking down Jackie Robinson’s military history to relabel it as “DEI,” but I knew he was good for it, and that it would appear if I would only be patient.

The reward for that patience was significant: Goldman wrote a wonderful rebuttal, explanation, whatever you want to call it to what went into the decision to remove Robinson, the history behind what made his being there in the first place such a significant deal, and some strong jabs at Thomas Jefferson’s trying-to-have-it-both-ways routine, for good measure.

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An announcement! The good kind!

A little update on me and this newsletter and also everything else.

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Good morning, Marvin Miller’s Mustache readers. I’ve got a bit of news to share, and it involves this newsletter a bit. First thing: I accepted an offer for a full-time gig last week, and I start next week. I can’t say where it is yet, but everyone will know in just a few days, anyway.

It’s an editing/writing position, so, I get to stick around in an industry that I was pretty sure I was only going to be allowed to remain in as a freelancer and creator of a couple of independent publications. It’s hard not to think those things when you’ve been unemployed since late-2018 despite applying to a whole bunch of other jobs, but such is the state of said industry. Here goes, though, I’m getting another shot, and I’m thrilled for it.

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Notes: Rays and the Trop, MLB scrubs diversity, the A’s and Las Vegas

The latest from two stadium subsidy quests, and MLB’s recent political erasures and silence.

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The Rays declined the massive public subsidies they had in place for a new ballpark in St. Petersburgh, but they haven’t abandoned the city or Pinellas County just yet. Which, to be frank, is a little odd, but it seems that current own Stu Sternberg wants to buy a bit more time, but not 30 years’ worth, while he figures out whatever’s next.

Continue reading “Notes: Rays and the Trop, MLB scrubs diversity, the A’s and Las Vegas”

The Rays won’t have a new stadium in St. Petersburg after all

The Rays are likely to stay in the Tampa region, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be in St. Petersburg.

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Earlier this week, at Baseball Prospectus, a piece of mine published explaining why it was that commissioner Rob Manfred — along with some team owners — were pressuring Stu Sternberg to sell the Rays. This one is free to read with an email login, so you can check out the whole thing if you’d like, but the key idea to take from it for right this second is that Sternberg was very likely to blow up the stadium deal he had been working on with St. Petersburg practically forever, because he only realized it was a bad deal for the Rays after agreeing to it.

Over the weekend, The Athletic reported that Manfred and Co. would even go so far as to use collective bargaining to pull a reverse A’s on Sternberg, if he couldn’t be convinced to sell the team before then. Basically, rather than using bargained and temporary revenue-sharing funds to help the Rays along in their search, like happened with the A’s, the other owners would instead use the CBA to throttle the Rays’ share of the revenue. If Sternberg barely has the funds he needs to operate the team at a high level now, or to pay for the increased costs that the delay in coming to a final agreement supposedly created, then having his revenue-sharing checks cut down was not going to help matters.

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In case it wasn’t obvious, Tony Clark is against a salary cap

It’s still good to hear it said, given everything else backwards happening in the world.

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You knew this to be true without the executive director of the MLB Players Association coming out and saying it, but just in case you needed the reassurance, here it is. Tony Clark has now said, out loud, that a salary cap “is not necessary,” despite MLB owners anonymously grumbling or outright saying the opposite to the press.

That’s per the Baltimore Banner, which has even more of a reason to cover this story than most, given Orioles’ owner David Rubenstein’s coming out in favor of a cap at the World Economic Forum in Davos, since MLB owners possess the kind of wealth that gets you interviewed while at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

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Notes: Brewers and the World Series, A’s in Vegas timetable

The owner of the Brewers had a quote you just have to stare at for a minute, and Rob Manfred talks about the projected A’s future

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Now here’s a fun quote that surely won’t come back to haunt Brewers’ principal owner Mark Attanasio:

“Is my job to win a World Series,” Attanasio said, “or is my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion and a way for families to come together?”

That’s from a Bob Nightengale story over at USA Today, on why the Brewers refuse to spend “despite decade of NL Central domination.” First off, dominating the NL Central is a lot like an elementary gym teacher kicking the ass of every kindergartener at basketball. It doesn’t mean he stands a chance against a real team. Second, oh boy, Mark Attanasio.

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Notes: IRS priorities, sports owners taxes, the cost of steel beams

It’s bad news all around. Well, okay, at least one thing is kind of funny if you aren’t a sports team owner.

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Let’s do a Friday roundup based on the idea that the return of Donald Trump to the White House means some potential changes are in store on the sports side of things. None of these issues are full-blown stories on their own at this point, but there’s something to watch for with each of them.

Continue reading “Notes: IRS priorities, sports owners taxes, the cost of steel beams”

Do MLB owners want a salary cap, or for everyone to believe that’s true?

Like with free agency, you have to think of why certain positions are stated in public.

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There’s been a whole lot of discussion lately, from the ownership and league side, anonymously and with names attached, to the idea of both an MLB lockout in 2026 when the current collective bargaining agreement expires, and the desire for a salary cap being part of the impetus for said lockout. I’ve already written about the lockout portion of things, but I wanted to reiterate something this morning, given that the owners wrapped their winter meetings in Florida, where the subject of discussion was often the game’s economics.

Evan Drellich wrote a story last week about part of that, headlined, “MLB owners debate push for salary cap at summit this week”. A key section from that piece, for our purposes:

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