New CBA could open the doors for Tigers to sign Kelly Johnson without penalty
by Tigerdog1 on Nov 19, 2011 4:06 PM EST
in Detroit Tigers Analysis
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PrintUPDATE: MLB will announce the terms of the new CBA on Tuesday, rather than Monday.
Per Ken Rosenthal on Twitter, news of some of the terms of the agreement on free agent compensation are:
Source: Top Type As - Pujols, Fielder, Reyes, plus former MVPs Ortiz, Rollins and others - still will carry draft-pick compensation this year. All remaining Type A relievers - Madson, K-Rod, Bell - will NOT be subject to draft-pick compensation this off-season. Teams that sign those relievers, and certain other Type As, will not forfeit picks. Teams that lose those players will still get them.
New rules take effect next winter. Elias rankings gone. Top FAs subject to comp if teams make them qualifying offers north of $12M per year. To those asking whether
#Phillies will still lose their first-round pick for signing Papelbon, the answer is YES.#Phillies, however, still stand to gain top picks if they lose Madson and Rollins
On Monday, Major League Baseball will have a big announcement to make. I’m not talking about Justin Verlander being named the American League’s Most Valuable Player, although that would be much bigger news than anything I’m writing about here. The terms of a new agreement between Major League Baseball (MLB, the owners) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) will be officially announced on Monday, and there will be some significant changes. Quite a few of those have bee floated by Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal already.
What impact will these changes have on the Detroit Tigers?
First and foremost, just reaching an agreement is good news. This collective bargaining agreement (CBA) will be a five year deal, and by the time it has run its course, we will have had over two decades of labor peace in Major League Baseball. Twenty-one years without a strike or a lockout. The two sides are smart enough to see what the last major work stoppage did to the game, how it took years for fans to come back to baseball, and now they are all reaping the rewards of an enterprise that is growing and thriving. Attendance is up every year, ratings are up, profits and salaries are on the rise.
Beyond that, the big change is that the Houston Astros are moving to the American League West Division, most likely in 2013, giving each league three divisions of five teams each. The owners approved the sale of the Astros on Thursday, and part of the agreement is that Houston moves to the Junior Circuit. Not only does this mean that the Tigers have a new opponent in their league that they will play between six and twelve times per year, but it also means that there will be some interleague play all season long. The odd number of teams in each league (15) guarantees that. The new schedule will have more balance, with teams in each division playing the same opponents each season.
There could be an increase in the number of interleague games from the current 18 per season up to 30 per year, which would mean 15 games per season in national league parks, instead of just nine. The Tigers will have to get creative to keep Victor Martinez, Alex Avila, and Miguel Cabrera in the same lineup for those 15 games. If teams continue playing each division opponent 18 games per year, that would reduce the number of Tiger games vs other American league teams in the east and west divisions to just six per season. This change would also begin in 2013.
The MLB will also formally announce that they are adding one wildcard team to the playoff format in each league, meaning that five teams in each league will qualify for the playoffs. The Tigers, along with every other team, will have increased odds of making the playoffs in a given season. The two wildcard teams will have a one-game playoff. This is actually not a "play in" because this is part of the playoffs, rather than the regular season. The added playoff team figures to make more games meaningful in September.
The new playoff format will mean that winning a division becomes that much more important, as division winners essentially have a bye in this first one-game round. Since the wildcard teams are likely to try to set up their ace pitchers to start the one game do-or-die playoff game, they may only be available for one game of the five game division series, giving a further advantage to the division winners. The new format could begin as soon as 2012.
There will also be changes to the compensation system for teams that sign and lose free agent players. The details of the changes are not clear, but from what has been reported, it is likely there will be fewer players who will be classified as "Type A" free agents, requiring their new clubs to surrender a draft pick to sign them. Clubs that lose Type A players will still be compensated, probably with a supplemental first round draft pick. There may also be fewer "Type B" players that will bring their former clubs any compensation. It is thought these changes will begin immediately, but some sources have said this will not begin until next fall.
The Tigers have to be rooting for this change to begin immediately. That would mean that Kelly Johnson (stats) Toronto’s free agent second baseman who was classified as a Type A free agent, could likely be signed without the team having to give up it’s first-round draft choice. Other free agents who could be on the Type A bubble would include outfielders Josh Willingham and Michael Cuddyer, pItcher Roy Oswalt, and relief pitchers Octavio Dotel and Matt Capps. Only the "elite" free agents, if any, will require their new clubs to surrender a draft choice to sign them.
The Tigers may lose the possibility of receiving compensation for their Type B free agent players, Magglio Ordonez and Wilson Betemit. The Tigers may not have offered arbitration to either player in any case, so this may not matter. Again, the details of the new compensation system have yet to be announced, but we do know that changes are coming, and they may apply to the current free agents, and to the June, 2013 draft. Just having a clear set of compensation rules should spur some activity on the free agent market.
Some other changes are expected in the areas of the "competitive balance tax" also known as the "luxury tax" that wealthier clubs pay for exceeding a "soft" salary cap. Only one or two clubs per season have paid that tax under the current agreement. The Tigers paid a luxury tax in 2008.
Selig will apparently not get the "hard slotting" system which would set a fixed bonus for each player drafted, but there will be an overall spending cap on bonuses given to drafted players and possibly on international free agents. "Slotting" was being sold by the owners as a way to reign in spending by wealthier clubs, but the players weren’t buying that idea. Many clubs in smaller markets have relied on spending in the draft as a way to build their teams, since they can not compete with wealthier clubs on the free agent market. This issue was the biggest point of contention in the latest round of bargaining.
Regardless of the details of the terms in the new CBA, which I will update as they are announced, Tiger fans and baseball fans everywhere can rejoice in the fact that there will be baseball, without interruption, for another five seasons.
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100% Say NO!
so far….2 votes at time of this comment
by WorldSeriesTiger on Nov 18, 2011 9:09 AM EST reply actions
NO
Playing a one-game playoff after 162 regular season games is idiotic.
The two wild card system almost guarantees the Yankees and Red Sox make the playoffs every year (except for an epic collapse), which I don’t like at all.
Detroit Tigers: 2011 AL Central Champs
by cabby4mvp on Nov 18, 2011 9:32 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
I said yes.
But I’m really not sure. I guess I would be 50/50.
I wonder, can Vmart catch 8-10 games next year? If that’s the case then contrary to the belief in the Gerald Laird thread, we have an All Star Catcher who has a sweet swing and he needs his PA’s. If this were planned ahead of time, it could give Avila an opportunity to get some work at 3B during the offseason and some game action during spring training.
Other than that, I just don’t see an option where we could get our top 3 hitters into the lineup every game. And that is sad. I don’t see Miggy playing 3rd, and I definitely don’t see Victor playing anywhere else but first. So hoping he can catch a few games would be our best bet.
But someone please have a better idea. I’m grasping at straws.
Drink, and Drink, and Drink, and Drink, and Drink, and Drink, and Fight!
I said No - for a couple of reasons
The onegame format is going to really burn a team one day soon. I think that MLB pushed this through because of the excitement generated by the Tigers / Twins game 163 in 2009. Baseball has always been about winning a series not one game. Under this format there theoretically could be TWO one game playoffs in a given year and I hate to see a team lose because of weather condition like Verlander endured in Texas.
Secondly before ANY changes get made I thing MLB really needs to deal with the goofiness of two different sets of rules. The DH and NO DH issue. Frankly I don’t care which rule wins out but that back and forth in AL / NL penalizes teams, players, and fans. Now with Interleague every day and TEN playoff teams Baseball is becoming more and more like hockey. Why not have 20 teams have one game playoffs?
On the Astros move to the AL, it meatters little accept to teams and fans in the AL west. The seperation between the two leagues, once one of the charms of baseball, has disintegrated to the only difference now is the DH rule. The All Star Game and the World Series have lost some of their appeal to me in that that AL teams now SEE the NL teams up to 30 times nearly 20% of games played will be against the opposing league. I guess it makes sense when NY Yankees get to play NY Mets every season but the rest of the league doesn’t care about “Rivalry Games”.
didn't vote
I am pretty nonplussed about this whole thing, I like the wildcard and change to FA comp, but i’m not crazy about the spending cap. The OCD in me likes that the leagues will be even, but an increase in interleague play is a steep price to pay for symmetry.
you win for using nonplussed in a sentence
personally, i’m unsubtracted about the entire thing myself.
by Kurt Mensching on Nov 18, 2011 10:24 AM EST up reply actions
All this verbage is so underwhelming!
The bottom line here is that Bud Selig and some of the owners really wanted to implement a hard slotting system. The players could have just given in and extracted as much as they could in exchange, but they knew that it wasn’t good for the game. Current players would not be impacted, only players that have not yet been drafted. The players also insisted on evening out the number of teams in each division- something that isn’t in the CBA, but the owners could control. That has to do with fairness in the competition, rather than a money grab. In the end, Selig found a compromise and went with another five years of labor peace and both sides acted in the best interests of baseball. Very much unlike what is happening in other sports, these days.
"King of Minutiae"
Fixing the divisions was necessary...
..that was the most blatantly unfair situation in all of the major sports. I don’t like the increased interleague play one bit, but I would probably feel differently if the rules were harmonized . I probably would’ve proposed a system where one team per league is on “bye” every eight or twelve weeks. A few more breaks wouldn’t hurt anyone, and would probably keep everyone more healthy. There would be a lot of issues with that setup too though….
At first blush I really didn’t like the idea of a one game playoff after a marathon season, but if I think about it as increasing the importance of winning the division, I actually start to like it.
Another Wild Card Team...?
Man, 162 games just ain’t enough apparently…
(Un)Official President of the Team Jacob Turner Fan Club
Yet Another Movie Blog
by DetroitTigersGeek on Nov 18, 2011 10:37 AM EST reply actions
no.
I guess I’m just a purist and don’t want to see all the changes.
But this year is a perfect example. Look how exciting the end of the season was… especially that last night with all of the drama with the Rays getting in and the Red Sox missing out. With 2 wild cards, they would have both been making it either way and that would have made that last week very anti-climatic.
No longer the Founder, President and CEO of the Ryan Raburn Fan Club
But then it would've been exciting for the next for marginal team(s)...
There are usually going to be teams that barely miss the cut, regardless of how many teams make it.
I think the bigger question is how many teams deserve a shot at the title. You’d like enough to mitigate the randomness involved in slotting the good teams, but not so many that genuinely mediocre teams get into the playoffs. In my opinion, five from each league doesn’t cross that line, but it’s getting really close.
true
but exactly… do those marginal teams fighting for that last spot even deserve to make it?
I don’t think so. Then they can get hot, kinda like the Cards did and win the whole thing. I think it takes away from regular season success and that should be rewarded first.
No longer the Founder, President and CEO of the Ryan Raburn Fan Club
Yes
It was inevitable that some changes were coming.
An extra wildcard team and 1 game play-off was needed to give the division title more merit.
Also, if the changes are done properly, the ALDS should be more fair. The team with the best record should play the wild card team, no matter what. Then it would be possible for division rivals, like the Yankees and Red Sox to face each other. The play-off road for the wild-card teams should be the most difficult.
Hopefully they add more instant replay to umpiring decisions also
I hate it when they umps get it wrong. Make it right and reverse that bad call against Galarraga. Give him the Perfect Game. He deserves it.
I agree- give us true "instant" replay
No need for a confab, and four guys marching down the tunnel, coming out ten minutes later to tell us all what we could clearly see while they were confabbing. Just put an umpire- a genuine major league umpire- in the booth next to the official scorer, and let him review any call at any base and make it right- instantly. We might miss the Billy Martin and Earl Weaver style tantrums, but we’d get the call right immediately. At least start with every scoring play, then maybe expand it to plays at every base. This is not a part of the CBA, but it should be part of baseball, IMO.
"King of Minutiae"
by Tigerdog1 on Nov 18, 2011 1:14 PM EST up reply actions 3 recs
It stinks when plays are wrong
That being said, the one thing I hate about football is the damn replay. It seems like every play is scrutinized to see if it was correct. I hate watching a replay seven times to see if the play was right.
Another thing that I don’t like about replay is that it affects my emotion when watching the game. If the Lions score a touchdown, I’d like to celebrate the play without thinking, in the back of my head, that the play might be reversed. Is this a “real” touchdown? You have to wait until the next play before you’re sure that you scored. The same emotional conflict is even present when the calls go the other way. If we fumble, I’d rather just be disappointed than wait and hope that maybe it isn’t really a fumble.
As a fan, I want to react to what happens on the field. Bad calls are a part of the game and make for great sports fodder. Maybe someday, science will enable calls to be made instantly and correctly, 100% of the time. I still don’t think I’d like it for some reason.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
Armando Galaraga
That’s all I can say. There needs to be some level of instant replay. Not the heavy-handed, NFL style, but one to catch the crucial errors.
Baseball is the only game without a clock. Also, the refs often congregate to decide on a call — how much different time-wise would that be than to have someone in the booth make a quick call from a better angle?
Instant replay would fit in just fine as long as they don’t go overboard with it.
The referee has a stop watch
there is no stadium clock like there is in the NFL, NBA, NHL, etc
"King of Minutiae"
I guess you could argue that cricket doesn't have a clock either
But I think it’s prudent to stick to mainstream American sports for the sake of this argument. Cricket matches can last forever.
I think we're really stretching...
… the definition of “sports” at this point. I guess you could throw in bowling, darts and poker as well.
At least chess has a timer.
And it'll cut down on the time of games without fundamentally altering the rules.
"You, on the other hand, make Eeyore look like Rainbow Brite." -johnmoz
"I think of you more as the blue book style essay of sports journalism."-Kurt Mensching
Contributor, Bless You Boys
by David Tokarz on Nov 18, 2011 4:50 PM EST up reply actions
That would be great
I’ve read that Selig has Joe Torre looking at ways to speed up the game, and I’m really afraid of what this might lead too.
I’m a radio fan, and I’ve listened to quite a few broadcasts of classic games (google “old time radio researchers library” and you can find a ton online there, dating back to the 30’s) and the actual pace of the game, pitch to pitch, hasn’t really changed that much. What has changed is the commercial time between half-innings and the amount of pitches seen.
Players used to come to bat looking to make contact, and usually did so within three pitches. Long at bats happened when the pitcher couldn’t find the plate, and not as a rule like we see in Yankees-Red Sox games. I think this is partly to do with the smaller strike zone, and partly to do with the increased value placed on drawing walks. This could start to subvert the spirit of the rules, because the reason walks and strikeouts were instituted in the first place was to force pitchers to throw reasonably hittable pitches and to force batters to put the ball in play. Contact is what you want as a a spectator: walks might be a great offensive weapon, but they aren’t exactly exciting to watch.
I don’t want to see a pitch clock in baseball. Reduce commercial time 30 seconds per break (just charge more for commercial- a quicker game will raise ratings). If necessary, call the high strike. But the game is far from broken and does not need a radical transformation. The balance between offense and defense is really quite good right now. This is really a great era in baseball and we are seeing, for me, a better brand of play than we have seen in decades. The time of games is comfortable under 3 hours even with all of the extra commercials. Please no gimmicks to speed up the game, Bud and Joe, we just don’t need it.
by norman.leroy on Nov 19, 2011 4:39 AM EST up reply actions
In the 30's, 83/84% of plate appearances in the NL
resulted in a ball in play. In the 40’s, about 81%. In the 50’s, 78-80%. In the 60’s and 70’s, about 77%. The last few seasons have been around 72%. So we are seeing a more static game with less balls put into play. My perception is that we are seeing more pitches per game and per PA as well, but I don’t have numbers for that- it would be interesting to know.
by norman.leroy on Nov 19, 2011 9:06 PM EST up reply actions
no
baseball and football have the best regular seasons because of the difficulty in making it to the postseason.
in my 20 years of following the red wings, this is the first regular season that feels like it matters because i’m not 100% positive that they’ll make the playoffs, and that is actually a bit exciting to me. (yeah i know 2 years ago was close too)
also, i hate that the cardinals won – feels cheap. 2nd time in 5 years too. the best teams should win, and smaller postseasons help to ensure that.
Yes
But I’m 55/45 on this.
I don’t mind the wild-card playoff. As mentioned, it does give more value to winning the division title. But I hope there’s a caveat that a division can only have one wild-card.
I’m 100% against more inter-league games, and if I had my way, there’d be no inter-league at all. It’s an abomination against baseball.
I’m 100% against standardizing the rules (DH and double switch). As I mentioned in another thread, this is one of the things that separates baseball from all the other major sports. There’s something special about having two different approaches to the game, and the freshness of the World Series having two teams that have no chance of seeing each other during the regular season. They get to see each other during Spring Training anyways — that’s enough. If they want to preserve “rivalries” then they can go back to what the Cubs and ChiSox used to do and play an exhibition early on in the season.
I’m only 34, and I’m already feeling like I’m yelling at the kids to get off my lawn.
I voted No
1. A one-game playoff is dumb unless teams are actually tied at the end of the season.
2. A one-game playoff is dumb unless teams are actually tied at the end of the season.
3. This plan gives too big an advantage to division winners. Often, we get division winners who have substantially worse records than the wild-card winners. For instance, the Yankees were 5 games better than the Rangers in 2010, the Red Sox were 9 games better than the Twins/Tigers, in 2009, the Red Sox and Brewers were 6 games better than the White Sox and Dodgers, respectively, in 2008, the Rockies/Padres were 4 games better than the Cubs, etc. This is really a byproduct of having 3 divisions in each league, which often leads to very weak division winners. It is a problem that could easily be solved by either going to two divisions or simply eliminating the division winner auto-berth and just seeding the teams in order of record.
4. A one-game playoff is dumb unless teams are actually tied at the end of the season.
5. The reason a one-game playoff is dumb in this situation is that the Wild Card winner often has a much better record than the second place team in the Wild Card race. In 2010, the Yankees had a 6 game advantage over the Red Sox. In 2009, the Red Sox had an 8 game advantage over Texas and the Rockies led the Giants by 4 games. In 2008, the Red Sox had a 5.5 game lead on the Yankees. In 2007, the Yankees led the Tigers by 6 games. And in 2006, the Tigers had a 5 game advantage on the White Sox. These substantial advantages occur most years and a one-game playoff would make these teams play what amounts to a coin-flip game to see who advances.
It's progress though
I remember the 1984 season, back when there were only 2 divisions in each league. The Tigers won the East with 104 wins. The Athletics won the West with just 84 wins. 84 wins in the East would of put the A’s in 6th place that year. Having just 2 division winners in the play-offs was just plain wrong and needed to be fixed. Adding another division and expanding the play-offs gave more deserving teams a chance to make the post-season. Winning the World Series is now much more difficult. A dominant team like the Yankees won’t win nearly as much now.
You can’t really eliminate divisions either. They are needed to limit the already crazy travel schedule.
I agree
Those two-division days were a bit crazy.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
Royals won the west in '84, actually. They called it the "American League Worst"
They went to that format in ‘69 after they expanded to 12 teams per league. Take the standings from 1968, take the top five teams and put them in one division, the bottom five in another, and add two expansion clubs, that’s what they did.
It grew to 14 in the AL first, then the NL expanded twice. Moving Milwaukee to the NL should never have happened. Selig has been the big proponent of Milwaukee to the NL, of the unbalanced schedule, of the uneven number of teams in each league, and of hard slotting for draft bonuses. He admitted in his presser, which is on mlb.com, that he was the last to come around to evening out the divisions. The players gave him some sort of limits on draft spending in exchange for that, and Houston goes to the AL after 50 years in the NL.
"King of Minutiae"
Thanks for the correction, yes it was the Royals.
I was looking right at the standings too and for some reason I kept seeing and thinking A’s.
My mind plays tricks on me sometimes. For some reason I sometimes think the Cardinals won the 1985 World Series. My mind refuses to accept that the Royals won it. I was a huge Card’s fan back then.
A's were the enemy in '72
The Bert Campaneris, Lerrin LaGrow series.
And ’06, of course, but they were merely a speed bump, like the Royals in ’84.
"King of Minutiae"
BTW- The Tribe designated your boy Valbuena for assignment
Tigers could do worse than add him on the cheap. See if he catches on, or if he pulls an Iorg.
"King of Minutiae"
I figured he would be available
Someone will grab him. I doubt he’d make it with the Tigers, but he’d fit well in Toledo at SS/2b or 3B. I’d like to see him compete with Danny Worth for the infield utility role that Ramon Santiago had. He’d be a much needed depth guy.
We would still need a starting 2B and 3B.
DFA- they have ten days
Probably, they’d like to outright him, but they didn’t just put him on waivers, figuring they could lose him for nothing if they did. They’ll first try to trade him for something. If they can’t in about a week, he goes on the waiver wire. That would be the time to put in a claim if DD wants him.
"King of Minutiae"
Divisions
1. If you form two divisions a league without stacking one of the divisions, then you are far less likely to see a crappy division winner than you are with three divisions. The two divisions of old stacked the AL East at the expense of the AL West and unsurprisingly, the AL West was often not good. With fewer divisions, there is a lower chance that one of the division winners will be undeserving simply because the chances of having no deserving teams out of 7-8 teams in a division is less than the chances of having no deserving teams out of 5.
2. I wasn’t advocating for eliminating division-based travel. I was advocating for eliminating an auto-berth to the playoffs if you win your division and just taking the 4 best teams in order of record. So sometimes, you’d see a division winner not make it to the playoffs.
Done deal, announcement Tuesday instead of Monday.
Monday is JV day!
Some changes to draft compensation will be implemented this year, some next year.
Astros move to the AL in 2013. Season long interleague play begins also in 2013, but the exact number of interleague games, divisional games, etc, have yet to be decided. There is some resistance to increasing to 30 interleague games.
Limits on draft spending will not be “hard slotting” but will be a type of luxury tax, maybe resulting in money and loss of draft picks for teams that go above the limit. Danny Knobler tells me on twitter that teams and agents are really upset over this.
Sounds like Wild cards will be added in 2012 with a one game playoff.
"King of Minutiae"
What drives me nuts is the luxury tax on the draft.
It’s utter crap, and it’ll land up driving players away from baseball.
"You, on the other hand, make Eeyore look like Rainbow Brite." -johnmoz
"I think of you more as the blue book style essay of sports journalism."-Kurt Mensching
Contributor, Bless You Boys
I hardly think that will dissuade players
If you’re going to make it to the Majors, there should be an inherent love for the game. The money comes with success. Even a minor league contract is better than waiting tables at Denny’s.
There is a large consensus building that agrees with that setiment
and apparently there are many GM’s who are livid with the terms, whatever they are. I was hoping that there might just be some token cap that has no practical impact to throw Selig a bone, because he made it his parting mission, but it seems that it’s worse than that. I hope they don’t also limit bonuses to international signings as well.
"King of Minutiae"
I broke the tie!
I voted no. The unequal number of teams in the divisions has always bothered me but I really really hate interleague play. Surely there was a more creative solution.
"Some guy told me I should walk with the Lord. I'd rather walk with the bases loaded" Ken Singleton
Get the DH implemented across MLB and I don't have an issue with interleague play
In fact, I’d rather have more interleague games and fewer than 18 games against the same division opponents. It’s having to sit your DH and watching pitchers swing a bat that irritates me. There may or may not be more interleague play in 2013, but it will definitely have to be spread out the entire season.
"King of Minutiae"
I can't stand interleague play
but you may be on to somthing Tdog. If the NL had the DH I might lighten up a bit. I also voted yes.
YES
but barely.
I like more teams making the playoffs (as I recall, the MLB was dramatically below the other major pro sports in terms of postseason participants).
I do not like the format of the one-game playoff for the wildcard teams. As mentioned by somebody previously, baseball’s long season necessitates a long-term attitude, and the absolute must-win game contradicts the series factor that many fans enjoy and to which many players/managers are accustomed.
Speculative list of players that may lose Type A status
If MLB does as I suggested and ranks players according to the average annual value of their new contract, things come out a bit different than if they continue to use the formula developed by the Elias Sports Bureau. Let’s say that just over half of players (overall, not just free agents) in each position group would lose free agent status. That group would look like this:
Ramon Hernandez, Reds – 78.947
Roy Oswalt, Phillies – 78.350
Michael Cuddyer, Twins – 77.671
Josh Willingham, Athletics – 77.534
Kelly Johnson, Blue Jays – 74.725
Matt Capps, Twins – 73.788
Darren Oliver, Rangers – 72.880
Jose Reyes, Mets – 77.249
Jimmy Rollins, Phillies – 76.720
Francisco Rodriguez, Brewers – 75.671
Octavio Dotel, Cardinals – 70.922
Takashi Saito, Brewers – 69.627
Francisco Cordero, Reds – 68.486
Players that would still be Type A would be:
Albert Pujols, Cardinals – 95.200
Prince Fielder, Brewers – 91.200
C.J. Wilson, Rangers – 90.988
David Ortiz, Red Sox – 86.000
Ryan Madson, Phillies – 82.948
Heath Bell, Padres – 81.437
Carlos Beltran, Giants – 80.879 (cannot be offered arbitration)
Jonathan Papelbon, Red Sox – 80.292
Madson and Bell could even be chopped from the list, and probably would be if they didn’t categorize players by position group.
Reyes, no doubt, would still be Type A if the dollar value of the contract has anything to do with how players are ranked.
Eliminating compensation for Kelly Johnson, Cuddyer, Beltran, Willingham, and maybe Oswalt might be of interest to the Tigers.
Of course, we could just wait until Tuesday and they’ll tell us, but I don’t want to wait. I want to speculate.
"King of Minutiae"
UPDATE:
I’ve updated the story with some comments from Ken Rosenthal on Twitter regarding the terms of free agent compensation. The big changes will be for next year, but part of it is implemented this year.
The relievers, other than Papelbon, and guys like Kelly Johnson will not require compensation for the team that signs them.
"King of Minutiae"
Didn't read everyone else's comment, but no...
This would have made the Braves/Cardinals and Rays/Red Sox finishes at the end irrelevant. Either way it would have came down to a playoff, and that’s just stupid =\
President of the Tony Scheffler Fan Club
well I am sympathetic to your "no"
and yes, it would have taken away game 162 fun this year, it’s possible it would have added similar game 162 fun in other seasons, and it may in future seasons.
by Kurt Mensching on Nov 19, 2011 7:18 PM EST up reply actions
hGH testing is also part of the new CBA
and the minimum salary goes up to $ 500 K by the end of the agreement, reportedly.
"King of Minutiae"
I voted no
Mostly because I think a one-game playoff in a sport where there is so much change in the players actually involved from one game to the next is stupid.
Interleague play wouldn’t bother me if baseball stops being stupid and institutes a DH for everyone. Yes, it is impressive if a pitcher actually has the ability to hit, but we don’t expect a third baseman to actually know how to pitch – and for goodness sake, some players aren’t expected to hit well if they are in a different spot in the lineup or if they are on a different side of the infield! With that much of a specialization expected, thinking that a pitcher should also be competent enough to not be a lousy batter is just dumb.
Other than that, a more balanced schedule is a good thing, as it the same number of teams in each division. It just makes sense.
Random nonsense at @Baroque97
"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." --Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)
With 2 Wild Cards
The 2001 Oakland Athletics would have needed a one game playoff against the Minnesota Twins, who were 17 games back of the As. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
That was a very rare and unbalanced season.
The A’s were 14 games behind the Mariners, but due to the wildcard, they made the play-offs anyway.
The Mariners won 116 games, while the A’s won 102 games. Naturally, the other play-off teams would have fewer wins. There are only so many wins to go around. I doubt something like that will ever happen again.
What I like most about adding another wildcard team
More teams will be in the play-off hunt come trade deadline until late September. Fewer teams will be giving up, since they’ll have a better chance to make the play-offs.
Fewer meaningless regular season games = Better attendance
I like that they are dumping the rule that says that two teams from the same division can't play each other in the LDS
so, the wild card playoff winner will play against the team with the best record, no matter what division they are from.
"King of Minutiae"
That makes it less likely that we get the Yankees
in the LDS. If 2 teams from the Central get in, I would rather not see a rival we have already played 18 times. Wouldn’t you rather see the Angels than the Twins in the post-season?
by manic in Detroit on Nov 21, 2011 7:13 PM EST up reply actions
Right now?
I’ll take the Twins any day of the week.
Actually, getting the Yanks in a five game series has worked out pretty well for the Tigers, twice, even though they had the league’s best record both times. Ya gotta beat them eventually, and I think I’d prefer the five game series. But yes, if there are two teams from the east, and they couldn’t play each other, that would increase the odds that we’d play them. Changing that rule reduces those chances. This year, the Rays would have had a playoff vs Boston, with the winner playing New York.
"King of Minutiae"
The Twins are getting under my skin a bit
They’ve made two minor moves (Doumit and Carroll) that I think have made them substantially better. Doumit adds depth at C and 1B, where the injuries to and uncertainties around Morneau and Mauer have crippled the lineup. Carroll has helped the middle infield a great deal after the signing of Nishioka backfired the ineptitude of Plouffe and Hughes proved fatal. Despite both signings being minor, the Twins are currently much better, in my opinion, than they were a month ago. Losing Nathan hurts, but now they have the cash to work the market a bit.
Of course, the Tigers are still my pick to win the AL Central next year, but I’d put the Twins in 2nd right now.
The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981
It is a done deal now but
Here is my scenario. Say we finish the regular season with 3 games at Minnesota, both teams tied for the best AL record. We lose the division on the last day, becoming Wild Card #1. We manage to beat Wild Card #2. What does that get us? Minnesota again, them having home field advantage.
At least with the old system we would get an opponent we have not already played 18 times. A little variety was guaranteed. I know it is less fair, but more interesting matchups imo.
by manic in Detroit on Nov 22, 2011 9:54 PM EST reply actions
Back to priority 1
Let’s get an infielder, either Kelly Johnson if the price is tolerable, or one of the trades we have been discussing. We don’t want to be left with the scraps when the table is empty.
by manic in Detroit on Nov 22, 2011 10:27 PM EST reply actions
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