You’re right that the team was terrible and needed to tear things down and start over. But they’re planning on being awful and cheap for several years and there are options other than paying some guys $30 million a year and having a team where I don’t think a single player is making average MLB salary. I realize the Astros are compensating by offering a lot of cheap tickets this year and making other moves, but it’s still pretty awful. I don’t think the scandal here is Alex Rodriguez is making too much money.
I hope I’m wrong, but having inter-league games all years seems like a sure recipe for a bunch of injured pitchers.
I’m not a fan of the DH, but what’s done is done. Due to the strength of the player’s union, we are never getting rid of it so it’s probably time to make it uniform throughout MLB.
I’m not sure I follow, Blank Slate. Are you saying that AL pitchers are more likely to get injured batting because the inter-league games aren’t all bunched together?
If so, then they need to suck it up, the wimps! Everybody fields, everybody hits. Anything else is heresy.
Marley, the scandal has always been A-Rod making too much money. What has he ever done to earn it?
Pretty much, because it means that pitchers will or should take batting practice and participate in baserunning drills throughout the season. Rather than making them better hitters, I envision AL pitchers pulling more hamstrings and breaking their wrists in bunting practice. I could be wrong, but it’s pretty nerve-wracking watching some of these guys try to hit.
ETA: I was wrong in thinking there would be more interleague games this year. It’s going to be a strange schedule.
He put up Hall of Fame, best-ever-at-his-position-type numbers for a decade. (And yes, he’s also a cheat.) Meanwhile, this is the conversation small market cheapskate owners always want to have, and it really is deceptive and wrong: they cry poverty while making a profit, getting revenue sharing money while putting a shitty product on the field. It really isn’t about A-Rod.
So we should stump for what, no revenue-sharing? Modified revenue-sharing? A minimum number of wins over 5 years or the owners are forced to sell? What can be done to address the issue?
Not like I really care much. The Dodgers never have to worry about any of it. 
A salary floor and rules that say you have to spend your revenue-sharing money on the team. This is a broader complaint than just the Astros. I’ve seen reports that Houston is spending a lot more money on its farm system, which is good because the team obviously needed to do it. It’s a broader issue that some of the small market owners have taken advantage of for years and years, some of them (mostly Jeff Loria) egregiously and horribly so.
And while we’re at it, let’s tie at least some of the revenue sharing to market size. Houston is the 5th largest MSA in the US. Why should they get a money transfer from much larger cities just because they have a crappy product?
ETA: And Miami is 8th-largest. Gutting your payroll to make a tidy profit off the well-run teams is ludicrous.
They spent money for one year and it didn’t work. What were they supposed to do- make some changes and spend some money for two years in a row to put more good players in their brand new publicly funded park? That’d be madness. If this is going off-topic, my point is this: Alex Rodriguez is making more money than he’s worth, but isn’t it just as screwed up - maybe more - that an entire team is making $25 million?
Two huge contract extensions, by the way: the Tigers will pay Justin Verlander $180 million over seven years (possibly $202 million over eight), and the Giants will pay Buster Posey $167 million over nine years.
Oh, I agree completely. I just thought the A-Rod figure was worth commenting on.
This is talking about baseball. There’s no “on topic” in talking about baseball.
And Adam Wainwright gets $97.5 million over 5 (starting in 2014).
Of those I like the Posey one best. Sure, he’s a catcher, but even they age better than pitchers.
Just got back from conducting some business at Dodger Stadium. Amazing how much construction is still going on, even with an exhibition game there tonight, and the home opener three days away.
I’m more concerned about the team being ready than the stadium, though. Let’s go, already!
I hadn’t heard that (and it raises the question of how long Posey will be a catcher). For the record, Posey just turned 26 on Wednesday, Verlander turned 30 last month, and Wainwright will be 32 in August.