Brock Beauchamp

Oh, I'm quite happy with the responses. I put on a football helmet and prepared for the worst when I hit "Submit" on this thread. All of you are being quite welcoming and polite considering the scope of the news. I really appreciate it.

Oh, Rob Manfred is a very smart man with an explicit role defined by his ability to break the back of labor. It has been his career, dating back well before he ever became involved in baseball. He is a terrible choice of commissioner. He'll win the short-term battles but will continue to lose the long-term battles (ie. the sport is already in decline and that will only accelerate the longer he is commissioner and maintains this hard line of "five dollars today at the expense of losing ten dollars tomorrow, but hey at least I beat the hell out of the union in the process"). The owners would be so much better served if they have enough vision to realize that they need to hire someone who will steer them away from their worst tendencies, not eagerly shove them toward buying all-in on those tendencies.

I think all we need to know about the priorities of the owners is that Dick Monfort, owner of perhaps the most incompetent organization in the sport, is their lead negotiator. Just ugh.

I really hope the media puts the owners and Manfred on blast for the way they've handled this situation. I've seen a lot more anti-owner media pieces than back in 1994 but we also haven't seen a lot of "casual" media coverage of this yet and now that Opening Day is being cancelled, we'll likely see a lot more "I barely understand this situation but am covering it anyway" coverage from large media sources.

Okay, we're going to have a few opinions about this, it appears. Let's shelve it for now and we will talk about it more as we approach launch, we'll probably just put it to a vote with options determined by the mods because they're the ones who have to moderate content.

Yeah, we're in an awkward space with video, as we just rolled it out last August. We hadn't tried video before then and we're still working out a lot of details. On the upside, the new site will not launch with video. I'm not sure when it will appear but it won't be at launch. In other considerations, we're actively exploring a much more robust video platform that gives us granular control over the display, frequency, and ads within videos. We've wanted to do this from day one but we first had to prove video was a working model for us and we could pay content creators because video is *crazy expensive* to host. Now that we're more comfortable and experienced with it, we're confident enough to start spending more money on it and improve the experience because, like you, I'm not very happy with the current presentation.

If this is how the community feels about that, great, I never even considered that aspect of it. And if the community wants it changed to "Yikes", consider it done.

There's no beating around the bush; ads suck. But let me address this in two parts: 1. We pride ourselves on paying most of our revenue to our core content creators. We take a very bottom-up approach and nurture and encourage the next generation of writers and video creators and as a result, proportionally we pay *much better* than the corporate conglomerate team sites that have sprung up in the past decade (who shall be left unnamed but we all know who I'm talking about). And we can't do that without the ads. So, yeah, no one likes ads but I hope the content is so good and in-depth that tolerating new ads is something we can all deal with in the long-run. 2. The ads need work. The way ads are delivered on Twins Daily is that our ad provider chooses where they go on the site and then delivers them. Over time, this has led to some "ad bloat" on Twins Daily that I'm not fond of, particularly in the forums. At some point, I will find the time to methodically go through the site, find where ads are populating and why, and then send a list of changes to the ad provider. When will that happen? Dunno, but it's certainly on the list. I use the site more than anybody so if something bugs you, it probably bugs me, too.

A completely separate set of forums will exist as well.

Yep, already part of the package! At first I'll just use the base Twins Daily reacts (currently Like, Sad, Yikes Bro, ***, and Incorrect) but those can be easily changed to fit whatever the community here wants. Okay... so one of them is starred out here. :D Obviously, that one will change.

Wait, this site was borne out of the ESPN board? That's... crazy. My Twins forum was also borne out of the ESPN board.

I also want to include our mission statement from Twins Daily so you can get a feel for who we are and our ultimate goals for creating a new community: Twins Daily is more than just daily news about the Twins. It’s a community built on three pillars: read, react and write. You need not participate in all three, but they’re available, and if you’re willing to reach out, you’ll find a far richer experience. So let’s talk about them. Read Obviously, there are the stories. The site was founded by four bloggers, all of whom understood the value of providing their own unique coverage of the Twins. Non-traditional voices - whether they are sabermetric, prospect news, mechanical analysis, cynical, hopeful, satirical, whimsical – are the core of what we are. We want to be a place where baseball coverage is expanded in non-traditional ways. And we try to foster that organically by encouraging our readers to…. React At the end of every story, you’ll find a comment area where you can react to our stories, provided you register. But we want you to be in the driver’s see, too, so we also have our forums, where you can ask your own questions, post your own opinions, and explore your own topics. The rules are pretty simple: don’t be an ass. Our moderators work hard to keep it civil, and our community works hard to keep them welcoming. We want you to find your voice because we want some of you to… Write Our blog area provides a place for those called to write to further develop their writing style. Any member can start their own blogs and post when and how they want. It’s a little like playing in the minors – the crowds are smaller, but that also means it’s an excellent place to make mistakes or try a writing style that might be out of your comfort zone. The comments are generally encouraging, and when we think you’re ready, you’ll be invited to contribute regularly to the front page, where we pay for your work. Twins Daily goes beyond the traditional publish-only model that corporate media embraces because we’re trying to do something different. We’re trying to develop a community that can gather, share and ultimately support itself. You, just be reading this, are already part of that community. We hope you’ll continue exploring and reaching out to other Minnesota baseball fans. We’re glad you’ve joined us.

Hi everyone, this will come as a surprise to some of you so I’ll just tear off the band-aid: I’m part of a group of baseball fans that has purchased BrewerFan.net. I’ve been in talks with Brian for awhile and we reached an agreement last week. We own and operate Twins Daily (maybe you’ve heard of us) and I want to bring that same enthusiasm to the Brewers community (as a former WI native, my “second team” so I’m personally very invested in this site, just as I’m invested in Twins Daily). Change is really hard and we’re hopeful all your great moderators and community leaders will stay on board through this transition; our goal is to modernize the community at BrewerFan but not change how the forum operates. You’ve all built a community that you enjoy and we want to preserve the community for years to come. Our entire mission at Twins Daily centers around community so all of you aren’t only important to us, you’re vital to our core mission of presenting everyone a voice and audience to create and participate in Brewers content. What we will do is surround this community with daily news, video, user blogs, and a slew of other features we offer our users on Twins Daily. We’re not some giant conglomerate like SB Nation or their ilk, we’re just five guys who really like baseball and have spent the past couple of decades learning how to survive onslaughts from Facebook, Reddit, SBN, et al and maintain not just a community, but a thriving community. You’ll all see me on this forum regularly, participating in game threads and talking Brewers so you’ll all get to know me over the course of the season, whenever it starts (sigh). There will be visual changes to the site, of course. We will migrate to a modern platform and the visuals of the site will change considerably. When it’s possible to do so, I will invite all of you to check out the new site on a temporary staging ground so you can acclimate yourselves with the technology and features, of which there are so many that I can’t even begin to list them here. When will this happen? Well, we’re not sure, baseball itself may play into how quickly we move on specific pieces of the new site. If owners continue to lock out the players, we may not see a new site for a month. If the lockout ends suddenly, we may move up the timeline in an attempt to launch before Opening Day. In 2-3 weeks, I hope to be able to show all of you the test site but our timelines are very fluid on all of this. Your usernames, passwords, post histories, and account information will transition to the new site, though how you log in will change slightly (email address to log in, which is more secure than logging in with a front-facing username). All of the content in the forums will remain on the new site, only with a different visual presentation. All of your years of content and participation will still be here. That’s about all I can think of right now. If you have any questions or input, please share below. If there are features you’re interested in seeing, please share below. This will be a very collaborative effort and I always try to be responsive to user requests for site improvements so if you have ideas, we welcome your input on pretty much anything and everything. I’m really looking forward to the 2022 season and getting to know more of you along the way!

Good news, for sure. I've somewhat resigned myself to expanded postseason. I don't like it but I don't really hate it, either. But I hate the idea of nearly half the league (14 teams) making the postseason. That's just nonsensical in baseball. Twelve teams in the postseason would actually be pretty reasonable if the league stops exhorting existing cities to buy teams new stadiums and just adds two new expansion teams. It has been almost 25 years since the last expansion, it's probably time to add two more.

Except labor is an operating cost, not profit. Viewing the two as the same thing is wrong, as the players are literally the ones out there working to provide a product. Is the pay of the general manager profit, too? I don't get what you're saying. Of course profits and expenses are different, as profits are figured after expenses are taken out of revenue. The GM's salary is an expense just like the players' salaries. The GM isn't an owner, so how does he/she figure into your argument? If JosephC is correct that the average team profit is around $40,000,000, and the average opening day payroll in 2021 was $119,710,221, I think it's relevant to note that on average the owners bring home around 1/3 of what the players bring home. Are you arguing that the owners should not be able to make a profit, and that they should only be allowed to participate in the gains when they sell the team? I'd have to believe that since Attanasio is one part of a membership group which owns a smaller revenue team, that Attanasio will get less income from the Brewers over the next few seasons than Yelich. All I said was that the players seem to be doing pretty well, and you took offense to that. So, what is your argument? I didn't take offense at all, I just don't care for the comparison of labor to profit, as the owners have additional reasons to own a major sports franchise: long-term valuation gains, public prestige, and loads of satellite corporations that are also likely gaining them profits every year. And if the owners make a huge profit or no profit at all, it doesn't change my relationship to baseball in the slightest bit... but if the next Mike Trout figures he can make more money in football and pursues that instead of becoming the best baseball player in the world, the sport of baseball is diminished. So I care that players are being paid commensurate with other elite athletes, as that directly changes my relationship with baseball and its overall quality of play. My point about general managers is that I've never seen anyone compare their salaries to owner profit, yet it's being done with players pretty regularly right now... but essentially, both are just labor operating expenses.

I'm not sure it's accurate to base the long-term viability of the business and its profit when 33% of their reporting includes the dumpster fire that was 2020. The pandemic took a significant toll early in the 2021 season, too. Out of 36 months, roughly 18 of them were financially diminished in some capacity.

Except labor is an operating cost, not profit. Viewing the two as the same thing is wrong, as the players are literally the ones out there working to provide a product. Is the pay of the general manager profit, too?

I don't feel this is anywhere near "both sidesing" it. I agree that the players aren't doing a good job of protecting younger players while I also acknowledge the owners are a much bigger problem right now.

Perhaps pure equity isn't necessary but more parity is definitely necessary. The Yankees and Dodgers need someone to play, after all. And if smaller market teams are left to eventually wither and die, the sport shrinks. And baseball is already mostly a regional sport that younger people don't care about, which is why it's losing marketshare to football and basketball every year. The health of the sport is why more parity is important. I'm not sure we should strive for equity, as that's not necessarily the best option either, but more parity is definitely needed. And that's why I support a hard salary floor along with a more aggressive CBT, but not a hard salary cap.

Awesome, thank you!

Sorry if this can be found elsewhere; I did a search on the forum but didn't turn up anything relevant to recent history. What Brewers writers are you following and where can they be found? Are there any independent writers out there (ie. non-Athletic or SBN) creating content worth checking out? I've found a bunch of former writers who stepped out of the game in the past few years but very few writers still pumping out content.

Unless something changed, I don't think the rules allow a player to be listed at two positions to start the game. Since DH is a position, Ohtani would have to be either the pitcher or the DH, not both. If he goes out as the pitcher the new pitcher would have to be substituted for the DH, thus losing the DH for that game if they wanted Ohtani to continue to bat. When Ohtani pitches he bats as a pitcher. The Angels don't use the DH in those games. When he's removed from the game they use a pinch hitter for the pitcher spot, just like NL teams do/did. I based this off of 1 box score I looked up from this season. I suppose it's possible the one game this happened was the one I looked up but I feel pretty confident that is exactly how they use him when he pitches. I watched several Angels games last season and this is how they used him in the games I watched.

It's kind of unbelievable how short-sighted both sides are being about this situation. There are plenty of other things for baseball fans to do with their money and time, and MLB isn't in a strong enough position to just casually discard any of their already-aging fanbase. I so badly wanted to see a normal baseball season and, yet again, we're not going to get that in 2022.

I found MKE Tailgate after starting this topic and the one episode I listened to was really good. Thanks!

I want to catch up on the offseason and have been listening to the Locked On podcast. It's alright but wondering if there are other analytics-based podcasts out there I should be checking out. Thanks in advance!