Fear The Chorizo

MLB has to get broadcast/TV revenue sharing squared away. As a fan of the smallest market team in baseball, I'd be OK with a new CBA that doesn't include a salary cap or luxury tax structure, includes a $100m salary floor, and fully shares broadcast revenue across the league. Big market teams will still have payroll advantages but the current deferred money advantage the Dodgers have baked into their revenue stream to skirt even crazier luxury tax penalties would be significantly impacted. Right now, it's honestly like mlb has built in relegation and there's no chance a handful of huge market clubs don't make the playoffs every year. In the playoffs anything can happen for baseball, but when roughly 25 teams besides the huge market teams who win divisions annually are vying for 7 mostly wildcard spots that wind up opening with best of 3 game series to even reach the division series round, it's getting too predictable. Mainly, this is a Dodgers problem....

With the current economic disparity in baseball, I don't see why Attanasio's comments should be viewed negatively at all. He doesn't even own more than half of the Brewers, the smallest market in all of mlb, and people are ticked he isn't trying to spend $40m more on payroll? What's the point when any larger market team could suddenly decide to spend $80m more much more easily and outbid them for players they may be targeting? Until mlb does something to actually even the playing field between a team getting close to $350m annually for their games being televised and a team getting $20m annually, I have zero problem with Mark A. being as open and honest about what the Brewers can and can't do in terms of player payroll.

I think people underestimate how much of a grind a MLB regular season is, particularly for younger players who haven't been through it. The idea of Frelick being 25lbs heavier now that he was at the end of last season isn't very far-fetched considering he probably dropped weight over the course of the season from where he was entering Spring Training in 2024. Knowing MMA contestants routinely are able to gain a couple dozen pounds in a few days between weigh ins and the actual fights doesn't make putting on 25 lbs seem that impossible. Properly hydrating your existing frame compared to it being in a mildly dehydrated or fatigued state is typically good for 10+lbs on a normal frame, too.

I don't think Chourio was moved too fast at all - expecting any prospect/young player, no matter how talented, to never have any extended stretch of struggles adapting to a new league (particularly MLB) is unrealistic. Had Chourio continued struggling through the AS Break and wound up finishing last season in AAA instead of putting up borderline MVP-caliber production from July - September in Milwaukee, then yeah I'd say his Opening Day promotion as a 20-yr old was probably a bit too hasty. Start Made at A ball stateside this season and let his performance dictate his progression the same way Chourio's did. It wasn't until Chourio's 2nd MiLB season where many people started going "OMG!!!" when he started destroying A+ and AA pitching as a 19 yr old. Made won't turn 18 until May of this year.

Despite their occasional disfunction, the Eagles were by far the most talented roster heading into the playoffs (Lions would've been in that conversation if not for all their injureis) - with good gameplans and efficient play from Hurts, they proved just that.

The Eagles are just better....way better

Also, last i checked trees grow in other places besides Canada...and if the US was ever truly pinched by a group of countries economically it has plenty of its own resources and manufacturing capacity over time to start drawing from to help offset any pain for long enough to cripple the other countries first. Other countries depend on the US to buy both raw materials and finished goods far more than the US needs specific countries to provide those items at the cheapest possible cost. That's why these tariff threats work to at least get other govt leaders to the table to discuss issues related to trade, and frankly completely unrelated issues.

Which is exactly what it is - and it's also way too soon to assume what's being done at present is economically damaging.

For Contreras, it guarantees him more $ this season than what he would have gotten with a losing arby case, and also guarantees a nice pay bump aligning with what he would be valued at assuming another all star caliber 2025 season - if he gets hurt in May he's still guaranteed a 2026 salary based on his 2024 production. For the Brewers it gives them cost certainty both this year and more importantly next, when other teams that might be looking to trade for him will now know exactly what his 2026 salary will be.

I do understand that the poster boys tend to get more calls go their way than not in the NFL....but at some point there has to be a critical game where 100% of those calls don't go their way. The fact that has not happened for 3 seasons running with the Chiefs (and predated some of their current run, tbh) is alot more than just what we've grown used to seeing from NFL officiating over the years.

Here's the thing that makes me crazy about KC and the refs.....yes there was a defensive hold call on that key 3rd and 5 that would have negated an INT or given them a 1st down if the review did deem it an incomplete pass (which it should have since neither player demonstrated possession when that ball hit the ground). But why is the defensive hold call overlooked by people about that entire sequence/call, when Mahomes' TD run late in the game was heavily influenced by an obvious offensive hold on the perimeter that wasn't flagged? Those type of subjective calls (defensive/offensive holding away from the ball, illegal contact, etc) that many people say could be flagged on nearly every play are simply not called with any consistency when the Chiefs are on the field. The defensive hold in that situation was marginal, and it occured on a receiver not involved in where the ball actually went. Then later in the game we're seeing refs throw holding/PI calls on Bills' DBs getting launched from 30 yards downfield. Also, why aren't we made aware of whatever late flag that was picked up by the officials on that 4th down heave a Bills receiver dropped? I'd assume that flag got dropped in the event the Bills completed that pass somehow and got a 1st down, and it was some sort of ineligible downfield or illegal formation or offensive hold that would have negated that play, too. There are layers to the insanity that is the officiating support KC routinely receives, and frankly expects, at critical points in playoff games. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but it's to the point with the Chiefs and refs that I can't help myself - too much smoke not to be something going on.

When prognosticators are pretty consistent at putting Made into that top 100 at this stage - which is way before Chourio ever sniffed a top 100 list - it is pretty damn exciting. I do think the Black conundrum can be solved at the MLB level by simply letting him play everyday and see how he adjusts

yep...especially because he unquestionably got the 1st down. I will say this about KC - they simply do not beat themselves and force opponents to make plays through the final whistle to beat them. That is a combination of coaching and personnel that is a tough out in the playoffs in today's NFL. Defensively, they are consistently aggressive at "winning time" instead of playing coverage or any sort of prevent style defense, and more often than not opponents aren't equipped to handle that pressure and make plays consistently. Offensively, there hasn't been a coordinator/offensive head coach that is a better combination of play designer/play caller than Andy Reid in NFL history - that's a bold statement, but one I feel is true considering how long Reid has been in the league doing it with different teams/personnel/roles. That mix plus the consistent calls KC gets from officials at critical moments of a game essentially make them unbeatable unless a team can find ways to generate multiple turnovers - honestly what the Eagles did to Washington Sunday is the exact blueprint to beat the Chiefs..disruptive Dline with an aggressive secondary behind it and LB's constantly trying to cause fumbles when tackling ball carriers. Coupled with an offense that can run the football from multiple formations and a pair of receivers who can abuse press man coverage and make plays downfield. Eagles have to get their Center/Guard situation shored up with all the walking wounded lineman they currently have so Jones doesn't wreck the game, but if they do that and the officials let the secondaries play physical on equal terms I think Philly should win.

Bills need a fluky turnover to win this game

The Bills have big plays all day down the field if they want them with the insane coverage kc is playing As i type this, there's one

Hamlin got held on the edge on that TD run, too

Yep...it's been enough at critical points to flat out be rigged, and there's nothing the league can say or do to convince me otherwise.

I dont know how the footage wasn't definitive...smh

Living just west of MPLS, so not really WI-specific winter weather - lack of snow is getting annoying, but temperatures have been much more winterlike compared to last year...so much so that there's pretty much 2 solid feet of really good ice on local lakes and unleashing anyone with ice fishing gear out on them. Happy about that after ice was barely walkable for a small portion of last year's winter around here! Could really use a week or two to get some legitmate snow on the ground so my son has more than fake snow to learn how to snowboard on a few times, lol

that is way oversimplifying things considering Sasaki is 23 and can essentially step into MLB on day 1 as a TOR-type pitcher, where most international signees get signed 6 or so years younger and teams do have to wait 2-4 years to understand if they're destined for MLB or not. The Dodgers can afford only signing 1 international player in this type of cycle when everyone knows he's a MLB-ready bonafide ace, and they have no need to worry about what their roster will look like 5-6 years from now since they can just sign the best free agents almost at will to fill any holes down the road.

Yes - why any other organization in MLB is willing to make any sort of trade with the Dodgers is beyond me. Honestly, I don't care if they have tons of great prospects/blocked young players. Honestly, screw them and force them to have to flat out release young talent for nothing because they have an all star team all on longterm deferred money deals. I would be fully on board with an extended strike that costs a season or two when the next CBA gets negotiated if it meant evening the financial playing field and taking away all the advantages the Dodgers organization currently has over the rest of MLB. I don't know why more small to mid market teams aren't already fully on board with that premise. You can pencil in the Dodges for 95+ wins every season in perpetuity - even with the rest of their division doing everything it can to try and keep up.

That's a different ballgame...im not saying teams can throw a challenge flag - the amount of time it would take a booth official with a monitor to overturn a terrible personal foul call is equal to the time it takes for officials on the field to state the penalty. It's gotten bad enough where something needs to change

Yeah that's an impossible topic for Mahomes to answer honestly....but then just shut your mouth and say we play to win the game and not to influence officiating calls or something like that. At this point it's obvious, even to Chiefs fans, that the officials are in Mahomes' and companies' back pockets. I really hope the NFL fixes this over the offseason by making all 15-yard unsportsmanlike calls for "late hit/blow to the head/unnecessary roughness/etc" reviewable by an official in the booth who can radio down to the head umpire while they are in the process of assessing that penalty to tell him to pick up a bad flag. I also think there should be the ability for referees to throw an unsportsmanlike conduct flag on a player that's actively trying to draw these type of late hit flags or embellishing contact along the sideline/after a play is finished in hopes to draw a 15 yard penalty.

If they take on all of Metcalf's contract, a late 2nd/early 3rd rounder sounds about right + Doubs....although that assumes Doubs' multiple concussions late this year aren't a longterm concern. Knowing whoever would trade for Doubs would likely need to extend him diminishes his value even further.

I think you're right - there's definitely a growing chasm between those top 5-6 teams and the rest of the league. What's even a bigger joke is the yearly payrolls don't take into account the financial gymnastics huge market teams make with deferred salaries each year (i.e., Ohtani's payroll figure for the Dodgers was $2M last year). The deferred money weirdness teams with huge TV contracts can do skews haves from have nots in terms of who can actually pay the "going rate" for top tier free agents, too.