Reds have somehow won three straight road series; now we await the expected sell off before the trade deadline.
Steer likely off the table for the sell off and they just put him on DL with a sprained wrist.
Iâm not sure if I were any team in MLB right now, in the playoff hunt, that I would waste valuable trade capital, now that Skubal is on the Dodgers. Could they be beaten? I suppose. But that lineup is an all star team. Why trade away valuable prospects to try to beat a team that likely, very likely, wonât be beat.
All the talking heads were saying the âasking price for Skubal is enormousâ. The truth is the Dodgers got him and only had to give up their 4th-best OF prospect, a pitcher who blew out his arm in 2024, and a prospect far from the majors. Essentially, Detroit got very little. And far from âenormousâ.
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As a Pirates fan waking up to the Skubal trade my first thought was âlol why even tryââŚ
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Iâm excited for the lockout
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Exactly!
I was born in 1994, a few months before the strike started. My wife and I are expecting a son in January, I would be shocked if it wasnât a few months before a long stoppage as well. Thereâs no way weâre getting baseball played in 2027 before Memorial Day at this rate.
I donât know what the sentiment was like back then, but this might be one of the first times the fans are solidly more on the owners side in order to implement some sort of cap
Nah. Iâm always on the playerâs side. Fans of a team with cheap owners shouldnât toe that line.
100 percent on the playersâ side.
Iâm on the fans side. The Dodgers broadcast revenue is almost $300,000,000 more than the Reds. Look at that number. Something needs to change.
Having huge broadcast $$$ doesnât guarantee a good team, see the LAA and Mets, but boy it gives you a lot more leeway to make mistakes on your large contracts.
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If you include luxary tax payments the Dodgers will be paying over $600M in salary this year. 95% of the league cannot do that. Something has to change
One of the things Iâve read recently in reading all the angst about the Skubal trade is that the Dodgers are able to withhold a (sizeable? significant?) chunk of their TV revenue from revenue sharing as a result of their bankruptcy from whenever that was. I donât know if that number covers their annual luxury tax fully but it certainly doesnât hurt and just makes the inequity even larger.
Iâm definitely not a pro-owner kind of guy but Iâd also like to have a system where small to mid market teams actually have a chance to sign their homegrown stars to long term contracts in their prime. I also want a high enough floor to force Bob Nutting to sell the Pirates âŚ
Something needs to change with the MLBâs economics. The players absolutely should get theirs, but baseball is the only league without a salary cap and you donât hear many other high profile athletes crying poor.
The Dodgers save $60 million a year from the agreement mentioned above. Other teams that own (or have partial ownership) also donât fully realize their income. The Yankees are reported as making $500 Million a year from Yes network, but they only include 40% of that for revenue sharing purposes. The Braves make a ton of extra money that isnât included in revenue sharing by having a controlling interest in an adjacent entertainment district. Other teams now looking for a new stadium are demanding a similar agreement, and was a key point in the Aâs leaving Oakland and the Raysâ stadium problems.
With all that said, I think a more robust revenue sharing arrangement that is audited to avoid exemptions and hidden revenue, as well as a salary floor, could fix the problems without the need for a hard cap. But as is right now, 40% of teams are basically eliminated before opening day, and that is doing a disservice to the sport.
If the issue is owners hiding revenues from other owners, why is the solution to limit player earnings?
Thatâs not my solution to the problem. I donât think a salary cap is the only solution, just the most simple. Itâs not what I would do if I were i. charge.
I just learned this over the weekend. Apparently the Dodgers 15 years ago when Frank McCord was selling the team and threatening bankruptcy, got a provision that allows the Dodgers not to pay as much of their TV revenue as other teams. The Dodgers also are able to defer payments. They have deferred over a billion dollars. Something other teams canât do. Largely in part because they donât have the TV revenue stream the Dodgers do.
The critical points of the McCord agreement are:
- The Bankruptcy Settlement: In 2011, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig rejected a proposed $3 billion local TV deal that McCourt had negotiated. To avoid protracted litigation and the risk of a bankruptcy judge imposing an even less favorable agreement, MLB reached a confidential settlement with McCourt.
- The âFair-Marketâ Valuation: As part of the settlement, MLB and McCourt agreed to set the baseline âfair-market valueâ for the teamâs TV rights fees. When new ownership (Guggenheim Partners and Magic Johnson) later negotiated a massive 25-year, $8.35 billion deal with Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum SportsNet LA), the initial value was locked in at a much lower baselineâroughly $84 to $130 million annually (with small, roughly 4% escalators).
- Revenue Sharing Exemption: Under MLB rules, large-market teams must share a percentage (currently around 34% to 48%) of their local television rights fees with smaller-market teams. Because of the McCourt bankruptcy settlement, MLBâs revenue-sharing cut is calculated based on the much smaller initial baseline figure rather than the actual multibillion-dollar windfall.
- Competitive Advantage: This arrangement allows the Dodgers to shield a large portion of their multi-hundred-million-dollar annual TV revenue from league-wide revenue sharing. It provides the franchise with a distinct financial advantage, enabling them to regularly commit massive contracts to players.
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Any new agreement needs to include a Fanâs Bill of Rights, including the ability to purchase all of one teamâs games on one streaming service for one price, in-stadium $5 16 oz draft beers and $3 hot dogs, no public money ever for stadium construction.
âŚno matter where you live