CBA: Quick Hits
I’m holding off on the draft because the details are still rolling out. I need a bunch of questions to be answered yet before I make statements on how it will affect the market in the upcoming years. There are other aspects of the CBA that I can analyze now.
1. Houston changing leagues. Fortunately Wiers and I already tackled this. Here are our thoughts.
2. The second change was the added Wild Card. The instinct for the sabermetrically inclined is to say “This diminishes the playoffs even further.” Your right. But here is my counter – Is that really important? The best team rarely wins the World Series. I’m ok with this because I no longer have the expectation that the best team will win. I enjoy the playoffs because they are exciting. I enjoy them because they tend to be very good baseball. We see great pitchers, incredible hits, defensive plays and comebacks. We get drama that hopefully captivates average fans and increases the cultural pull of the game. A one game playoff only enhances this. As a Braves fan, I didn’t exactly enjoy the last day of the season but I can’t deny its appeal. We had 3 incredible games that directly influenced the playoffs. I remember the one game playoff where Matt Holliday didn’t touch home plate and the one where Alexi Casilla and Carlos Gomez broke the Tigers backs in the 12th inning. This is what 1 game playoffs do. They make for incredible drama and as a baseball fan I love it. Also, it only lessens the fact that the better wild card team advances. The wild cars play one another, not affecting the chances the division winners win the World Series.
3. Baseball added a 26th roster spot for double headers. Win for the MLBPA as it increases the number of players getting service time and Major League Salaries. The effect this will have on the game is basically zero.
4. The elimination of Type A/B Free Agents is a good thing. The valuation of players is always a gray area no matter how accurate we think our stats become. Getting rid of lines of demarkation between free agents just simplifies the process. Players are either worth compensation or not. I’m supportive of the new system, although I would rather see it jsut go away all together.
5. The super 2 deadline was also pushed back. It was done by increasing the percentage of players eligible from 17% to 22%. I like this as the extra month in the minors will make more teams say the hell with it and put their best players in the majors when they deserve it, not when their service time dictates it. Another good move by the MLBPA.
6. The tobacco thing is useless regulation. These are grown men, let them do what they please. This just reeks of a political statement for the purpose of making a political statement.
7. Baseball is going to mandate players wearing the Mr. Magoo helmet David Wright wore a few years ago. Obviously from a player safety standpoint I support this but I would support it even more if baseball had not written the helmet had become “less bulky.” I loved that helmet from a aesthetic standpoint. Everyone who wore it looked ridiculous.
8. I hate the LoMo twitter policy. More useless regulation. These guys are adults, let them do what they want outside of the stadium.
9. My most controversial statement is coming up, be warned. I hate the HGH testing. I firmly believe steroids do not help baseball players. Go here and just read for a few hours, you’ll agree. So all HGH testing does in my opinion is invade players privacy while not solving a problem. There is also a too little too late sentiment towards HGH. If players are serious about trying to gain an advantage there are always other performance enhancing drugs they can turn to if that do not show up on Major League testing. I just think this is unnecessary. Baseball and the MSM need to give up this steroid crusade and focus on things that matter, like DUI’s.
I think many people take the tobacco thing a lot more serious then you and I and that is why it was added. I usually think of the old days with guys having huge wads of chewing tobacco in their mouths while running the bases. Now all you see is guys chewing sunflower seeds like crazy. To me, that is no better.
Long, you need to change color/bold/underline the links to make it obvious to people that they’re actually links. I’ve made the same mistake before. Also, categorize your posts for the love of cake.
Tobacco is a known substance at this point. It’s addictive, it’s a carcinogen and really there is no upside to chewing it. I’ll always remember Alan Embree for having the biggest chaw in that I’ve ever seen. It must’ve been half a tin in his lip.
To compare chewing seeds and chewing tobacco is a pretty big stretch…