Eno Sarris has a great look at the money involved in the current MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement dispute over at The Athletic.
The article is a great breakdown of all of the key public proposals, along with an estimate of the gains those ideas could produce for the players and the owners.
The players benefitted from an $800,000 league minimum, reducing team control to five years/until a player completes his age 29.5 season, and the addition of the designated hitter. The owners benefit from adding patches to jerseys (the players receive a smaller benefit here) and expanded playoffs, giving two sources for new revenue to the game.
The numbers in the end evened out to the owners getting $242 million in new money, and the players getting $238 million.
One of the key issues leading to this lockout has been the declining share of revenues on the player side. Sarris broke that down in the article, noting the players have seen a decline. While the money in the proposed revisions to the game evens out, it ultimately would amount to the owners getting new money and giving it all to the players, which might help to reduce that imbalance.
That is, if the owners would agree to such a deal.
One random thought I had while reading this article: Why don’t we have a system where the players are paid for their production, when they produce? The current system restricts earnings during the younger years, when players are most productive. It then assumes the players will make up for that when they’re eligible for free agency. That hasn’t been the case, with the teams opting for younger and cheaper players across pretty much every market size.
I’m not sure how such a system would work. My idea is a universal metric like WAR, with a dollar amount attached. Each player would receive the minimum salary (the replacement level) and would get paid extra according to the value they produced that year.
Leave your lockout thoughts in the comments below.
*****
Tuesday Off-Topic Theme: Streaming Choices
What’s your favorite show that you’ve watched recently? Right now, Hawkeye is the only show I’m actively keeping up with. I might talk about that show on Thursday for the Marvel theme.
I’ve watched 11.22.63 and Wu-Tang: An American Saga recently on Hulu, which were both solid. I love how Wu-Tang details how they navigated the music business that is stacked against artists. I started watching 11.22.63 a few years ago, but never went back after the first episode, even though it was good. I finally committed to watching all six episodes.
What do you recommend? Leave your suggestion in the comments below, and maybe we can all help each other out navigating the endless choices of streaming options.
Daily Links
**Winter Leagues: Tsung-Che Cheng Picks Up Three Hits on Sunday Night
**History of Major League Baseball Work Stoppages
**Williams: Out of the Rebuild
**Pittsburgh Pirates 2022 ZiPS Projections Released at FanGraphs
**Card of the Day: 2005 Topps Heritage Josh Fogg
**This Date in Pittsburgh Pirates History: December 13th, Dale Berra and a Pair of Big Trades
PBN Updates
This week’s articles will focus on the Pirates’ rebuild, while also focusing in on the ZiPS projections that were released yesterday. I’ll also have some lockout thoughts each night in First Pitch.
Over at Pirates Prospects, we’ll keep you updated on the winter league results each day. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve got a series of articles coming on the changes to the Pirates’ player development system.
If you haven’t pre-ordered yet, we’ve got two books coming out in the next few months. The first one, John Dreker’s history book on the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys, goes to the printer this week. Information on the books is below, and you can pre-order each at the PBN Shop.
First Pitch: PRE-SALE for The 2022 Guide and The 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys Books
