MLB - NEWS & NOTES

Except revenues and franchise values are still going up and the players are supposed to get a certain percentage of that money...I don't see how the owners are holding up their end of the deal here.

If your employer was making money hand over fist and told you to take a massive paycut below what you're worth and that you should just STFU and be thankful to have a job at all, I don't think you'd be particularly psyched about that.

 

YEAH Well I worked at a place we didn't get raises for 2 consecutive years and the company was a global companies with thousands of employees and our bosses told us exactly what you said - be lucky you have a freaking job.

 

Worked? You mean you don't work there anymore? How come? Did it not suit you to be humble and take whatever they gave you?

 

listen u dog- I am not an overpaid athlete bitching about millions of dollars they aren't getting on top of the millions of dollars they already got. I'm a humble office worker trying to survive and make it to retirement. these athletes due to past paychecks are set for life moneywise. they are complaining now bc no one wants to OVERPAY them anymore. smart baseball ! My job isn't the same comparison. I'm not holding out of work. I'm not picketing outside crying "unfair pay or practices." These athletes are choosing not to lower their demands. I am not. I come to work.

1-my boss was racist and against me and docked a yearly raise bc in her words "I started at the company when the company was doing better, so I make more money than 2 of my co-workers are currently and she deemed that wasn't fair, so they got higher raises than me to catch up." also - "if she was my boss at my hiring, she would've never given me the salary I had." keep in mind I have a college degree and was there 6 yrs bf the other 2 who have no degree and were there 2 yrs.

2-if you work and live in the city of Philadelphia - they tax you heavily. it's called "city wag tax." when I got my current job out of the city, I moved out of the city too. no more city wage taxes. the first day at work I asked HR about how much tax was now in my paycheck per pay period - it was $91.50. not chump change.

3-i got a better job that paid $15,000 more than my last job and FREE BENEFITS. My old job I paid $125 a paycheck for shitty benefits. Now they're free and much better.

4-i worked for this company for 10 years AND took every shitty thing they did to me. 10 yrs U DOG. the company give out no raises 2 years and when they merged with another company NOT pay out the 7 months of accrued sick time I saved up NOR TOLD US WE WERE LOSING IT when we merged Jan 1 !!!!! That's theft to me. So yeah U DOG I FUCKING LEFT.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/j-d-martinez-fed-red-140636019.html

exactly what I'm talking about. Sox offered 5 yrs $100 mil and Martinez doesn't like it. I don't have this option U Dog to decline my pay. I either take it or I can resign. Martinez is offered $100 million dollars and he doesn't like it. well too fucking bad. you sit out then.

 

Isn't that exactly what he's doing? Why are you begrudging him his right to make what he's worth just because it happens to be a lot more than you make?

By your logic, since you survived on what you made before, you should give back the extra 15 grand and go back to paying 125 a week for your benefits and be happy to do so.

 

Its all just talk and lobbying, posturing, positioning, cat n mouse, chess game type stuff that goes on every season. The complaining by both sides is expected and healthy for the game actually as these things are necessary to balance things out and usually help in adjusting the market values.

Both sides have the right to do what their doing... its just a matter of who balks (pun intended) first. If JD wants $20M/season, that's what he wants. If Boston cant afford that, which is doubtful in my opinion, these two sides will eventually meet in the middle. If they don't, they don't. JD will simply sit out till someone comes a callin' with an offer he cant refuse.

Ive always suspected the shit would eventually hit the fan over these huge contracts, but no one side is to blame... they are equals in this and there is no unbalanced, unfairness taking place. Its all the American way of capitalism and free enterprise, lol.

 

who declared his "worth?" him? his agent? that's the problem. the players ALWAYS wants more. I'm not begrudging him jackshit. $100 mil and he doesn't like it. he gets no sympathy from me. you're missing my point. my point is their need for more. arrieta wants 5 yrs and $200 mil. jd wants $150 mil. the right to make $1 is taking away his right to play baseball. I'm not doing that. teams are offering FA money. they don't like it and WANT MORE and are pissed teams are lining up with a checkbook. this isn't a right to take away their ability to make money. it's finally putting a stop to the overspending of baseball players.

 

Why shouldn't they want more? They're the labor and the product. The league is generating 10B a year in revenue. Half of that is supposed to go to the players. The average MLB salary is $4M, based on revenues it should be about 6.5. If other similar or inferior players are making more, why shouldn't they want to be paid accordingly? You didn't like it when less qualified people you worked with at your other job got paid as much you. Who determined what you were worth? The employer determines what they think you're worth, but the decision is still ultimately with you.

You're scourging the players for not being willing to settle for less than they're worth just because it still happens to be a lot of money.

 

TEN. BILLION. DOLLARS. Billion. Let that sink in. Those players are the reason for those revenues. They are not overpaid.

 

bc some players push the scale off the cliff like pujols making $300 mil for 10 yrs or Stanton. All the players are saying now is what Gordon Gekko said in "WALL STREET" - "GREED IS GOOD."

more power to them, but I don't care about poor JD Martinez's feelings Boston isn't offering more money to him or any other club.

 

Fine, but let's just be clear...owners aren't reigining in spending because the players are overpaid...they're reigning in spending to keep more of the money for themselves.

 

LOL, this just popped up in my news feed...I swear I am not Tim Dierkes nor did I read this article before we started this discussion:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/02/mlb-players-overpaid.html

MLB players earned more than $4MM on average in 2017, with some players’ salaries exceeding $30MM. For most people, that’s an unfathomable amount of money. Many people feel that baseball players and other athletes are overpaid, with the median American full-time worker earning around $45K per year.

Why do people object to MLB player salaries? One reason is the nature of the profession – Major League Baseball is a game played for the public’s entertainment, while baseball itself is a game many of us played in our youth for the sheer enjoyment of it. MLB players don’t serve an essential function to society like a teachers or doctors. And to many, the work of an MLB player seems less difficult and much more enjoyable than a typical job. It can be difficult to stomach professional athletes earning 100 times or more than that of a typical American.

Another reason some fans consider players to be overpaid is ticket prices. For a family of four to see the Cubs host the Cardinals on a Saturday in July, sitting in the upper deck, currently costs $565.91 on Stubhub for tickets alone. Of course, context is everything. Go to a Rays-White Sox game on a Wednesday afternoon in April, and a family of four can get in the door for $50 or less. At the heart of the matter: how much do player salaries actually affect ticket prices? I’m not an economist, but I think one would argue that teams will charge what fans are willing to pay. If player salaries were magically cut in half tomorrow, but demand for tickets remained the same, would you expect teams to reduce prices?

The other side of the coin is that, as difficult as it may be to accept given their salaries, MLB players might be underpaid. As an industry, MLB’s revenue has grown to $10 billion. As Nathaniel Grow wrote on FanGraphs a few years ago, the players’ percentage of that pie has dropped from a peak of 56% in 2002 to less than 40% in 2015. No one’s suggesting fans should feel sympathy for wealthy MLB players, but rather that they are entitled to fight for their fair share of the sport’s revenue. After all, without these 1,000 or so players, there’s no MLB. More money for the players doesn’t have to mean higher ticket prices; it would just mean less for the owners. Those on this side of the debate would note that MLB players are highly compensated because there are so few people in the world capable of doing their jobs, and interest in watching them perform drives the sport’s revenue.

 

agreed. Greed is good, but it's even better to be an Owner !

 

u dog- I laughed when I saw the sentence "MLB players might be underpaid." I don't think the salaries and ticket prices are linked together. I do think it's supply and demand of the players, only 30 teams, 25 man rosters, specific positions not everyone plays and who else can play the sport at that level, which is the highest in the world.

 

I really cannot fathom players getting that much money. Great players yes, but scum getting 10 mil per year to not hustle cracks me up.

 

Home of the Toledo Mud Hens... right now.

 

^^COME ON SPRING!!

 

Darvish to the Cubs...

Finally, there was another big-name signing this offseason. Saturday afternoon, the baseball world learned that the Cubs had scooped up free agent starting pitcher Yu Darvish on a six-year deal worth a base of $126 million that could grow to $150M with incentives.

 

Cubs - frontrunners now in the NL. Loading up for a big season to reclaim the WS Title.