Bombers

And Fiers with a huge strikeout - saves the inning phew - I was worried

A group of 4 of us are considering flying to Washington/Baltimore - probably out of O'hare as flights are really cheap. I am wondering for those who have knowledge of the DC area and/or the Pitt area. We are thinking of doing: 1. Fly in Saturday morning June 29th - Attend NYY @ BAL 2. Wake up early Sunday June 30th - Make 4 hour drive to Pittsburgh. (The group is all early birds so we would be on the road no later than 7) ... Would attend 1:30 game of Brewers @ Pirates. 3. Stay in Pitt and drive back to DC on Monday July 1st and attend the Brewers @ Nats that night. 4. Fly home on Tuesday. Is a 4 hour Sunday drive to/from Pitt to/from DC a good idea? ok idea? or horrible idea? Any tips?

This is where I am at. Put Narveson in the pen to be the long man. To me Estrada, Peralta and Fiers spots are locked, so Narveson is competing against Rogers. The Brewers will need more than 5 starters and I would expect Narveson to be that 6th guy. Similar to what Estrada has been in previous years. The only way I see him in the season opener starting 5 is, as TheCrew07 said, he is lights out in Spring Training and Rogers doesn't do well. Then it would be a difficult decision to put him in the pen and give Rogers the nod.

I would prefer Gonzalez starting over Green. I guess you could platoon them. Gamels "tweak" is just a reminder his injury struggles at the major league level

What? Football has been testing for roids longer than baseball has. Obviously players in both sports still will look for ways to beat the tests. Football doesn't test for HGH so they can do PEDs - just not roids

I like the move but as already said, I don't want to see Segura play less. Like when it's May 15th and he is betting .200 and Gonzo .300 and all the fans are calling for the switch, what will RRR do? Also in April/May, Ramirez can have an extra day off with Gonzo on the corner.

Costas' Eulogy for Stan "the man" Musial is worth the 20 minutes: http://m.deadspin.com/5979272/?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

And there it is ... No one gets put in ... http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8828339/baseball-hall-fame-fails-add-new-member-2013 68% for Biggio - I would assume at some point he makes it.

Thanks to Adam McCalvy for tweeting out the link to this article by Maury Brown. http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5775:biz-of-baseball-releases-comprehensive-mlb-final-player-payroll-figures-for-last-14-years&catid=26:editorials&Itemid=39 I went through and highlighted all playoff teams for each year, he had analysis for. Here is the breakdown for top 15 in spending vs bottom 15 in spending for each year. Year - Teams in the Top 15 - Teams in the bottom 15 2012 - 6 - 4 2011 - 5 - 3 2010 - 4 - 4 2009 - 6 - 2 2008 - 7 - 1 2007 - 5 - 3 2006 - 5 - 3 2005 - 7 - 1 2004 - 7 - 1 2003 - 5 - 3 2002 - 6 - 2 2001 - 6 - 2 2000 - 5 - 3 1999 - 8 - 0 So over the past 14 years of salary data; there hasn't been 1 year where more teams who were in the bottom 15 of spending made the playoffs over their counterparts who were in the top 15 in spending. Not 1. (They came close in 2010 where it was split 4/4) ... This just screams parity. I love 1999. 6 of the top 8 spending teams made the playoffs. Awesome. Rename the thread to, Does spending cause an unfair balance of teams making the playoffs? Call it, Can the Yankee's continue to buy their way to the post season, again? Call it, spending money, making playoffs and beating off trim ... I really don't care. But in the end, there is clearly a problem - whether you want to admit it or not.

No it doesn't because if that were true then the Angels would have made the playoffs last year right? The Angels spent a lot last off season and did not make the playoffs and they wouldn't have even came close to the playoffs if it were not for Mike Trout having an MVP like year as a rookie. The same can be said about the Red Sox who gambled everything on Crawford, Lackey, and Gonzalez yet they did not make the playoffs. It isn't 1:1 and you will always be able to find an example where it didn't work. but as shown above it has an affect. I am on the side that I think it is negatively impacting the competitive balance. I think it is beyond unfair to allow teams like the Yankees to set an all star team lineup which were mostly all bought. I agree it won't be apples to apples but MLB needs to do something. You state teams not being able to keep star players that is already happening and has been happening for years. The only way to keep a star player is to get him to sign in year 1 like Braun.

Reggie White, and that's basically it. Charles Woodson ... but that's the point. Building through free agency does not have a direct impact on making playoffs. In MLB, it does.

Maybe time for a 2013 batting order thread to kick off the soon upon us new year?

I think using the NBA is a bad example. Star players won't come to Milwaukee with or without a salary cap or a salary floor ... The NBA is the only league where one player can dominate a game. Those star players know that and levitate to big markets to maximize their marketability. I believe baseball should try to mirror football and reward teams who draft well and occasionally spend when needed. I guess in the end I am just tired of the direct impact spending has on making the playoffs. There is clearly a competitive disadvantage.

I agree this would be a step in the right direction

The only way for a salary cap to be introduced into MLB would be through a lawsuit. As the above posts mention, the players union would be 100% against it. And your owners would only be 50/50 at best for it. Getting a salary cap introduced was tried in 1994 and resulted in no post season. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_baseball_strike ... But I do believe the only way to introduce a salary cap into baseball will be through a lawsuit. With a lawsuit filed against MLB, you could argue the anti trust law (commonly referred to as the competition law) is being broken. (Going to court has already been done though - but mostly for getting free agency introduced) ... MLB’s anti-trust exemption comes from a 1922 Supreme Court decision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Baseball_Club_v._National_League). It was upheld again in 1952 and then again in 1972. On the wiki page about salary caps i found this note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salary_cap A number of the small market teams, notably the Milwaukee Brewers, have called for the introduction of a salary cap, but any introduction is opposed by the MLB players' union and the Yankees' ownership group; the latter have threatened legal action if such a cap is implemented. One could argue that MLB is creating a competitive disadvantage and thus a violation of the anti-trust law. Buyer beware, you will be heading to court against MLB and the Yankee owners group. So good luck. Having said that, I do believe with where we are at today the supreme court would probably look at this differently. (Look at how much sports have changed in the past 40 years) ... In the end, I believe some type of cap is inevitable and will be done at some point. Just a matter of how and when. I do like Monty57's idea about MLB Network owning the rights to all the games and then re-selling them to local stations. MLB would then own 100% of the TV/internet money and would be able to distribute that on an even field.

I like the signing too. It's funny that we picked up both lefties from Washington's pen. Obviously they must think they have better internal options?

I like the signing too ... 2 yrs at $10 mil - I'll take it.

Kind of seems like they just gave him away for salary relief as the Phillies send over 2 relievers http://m.espn.go.com/mlb/story?storyId=8726562 Maybe Rangers are trying to sign Greinke and Hamilton?

Now that the Chone Figgins release is final, do the Brewers have any interest? http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/11/mariners-release-chone-figgins.html I think he would be a good reserve. It's crazy how he went from a ~.300 hitter to a sub .200 hitter. Maybe a new hitting coach can bring him from the wasteland?

Thanks for the memories Nyjer ... Good luck

Now that Haren is a FA (http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/11/dipoto-on-haren-hunter-santana-greinke.html) ... What kind of deal do you think he will get? Sounds like a good target for the crew ...

Carlos Gonzalez wins it ... Braun played great. Hopefully he wins one eventually.

That is correct.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2012/10/28/aj-pierzynski-world-series-ratings-college-football-english-premier-league-soccer/1663723/ This series will go down as the series with the worst ratings ever. That isn't good.

Did I hear that right? The Cards have been in 7 LCS since 2002? ... That is some dominance