Speaking to the press at the All-Star game, union chief Tony Clark addressed the question whether the Astros computer hacking scandal may have impacted the club’s free agent efforts last winter, as Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reports. It doesn’t sound as if Clark has any particular concern in that regard, though he emphasized that he would wait to pass judgment until the investigation is completed. “We have bits and pieces and some understanding,” he said, “but at this point in time, from what we understand, that concern [of market manipulation] isn’t there. Doesn’t mean it may not be there when all is said and done, based on the information we get, but right now it’s not there.”
- Commissioner Rob Manfred also spoke with reporters, of course, and mentioned that he was open to the concept of expanding the league’s number of teams, as ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick writes. “Maybe one of the reasons I got this job is, I’m bullish on this game,” Manfred said. “I think we are a growth business, broadly defined. And over an extended period of time, growth businesses look to get bigger. So yeah, I’m open to the idea that there will be a point in time where expansion may be possible.”
- Of course, any idea of expansion is likely a fair ways off, and there are more pressing franchise issues in the near-term — particularly, the stadium concerns of the Rays and Athletics. Manfred said that the league remains optimistic that neither team will need to move, but did indicate that his office was planning to look into new cities as alternatives. Per Manfred, MLB will “examine [new markets’] viability, think about what we can do to make them more viable, so that we have business alternatives that are available to us.”
- The draft is always exciting, but it can be hard to contextualize the players chosen. Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper took a preliminary stab at placing recently-picked players alongside existing prospects, in a reader Q&A. All said, he only sees about a half dozen players from this year’s class warranting consideration among the top-fifty prospects league-wide, with top picks like Brendan Rodgers, Dansby Swanson, Dillon Tate, and Alex Bregman likely falling “in that 20-35 range.”
- We are, of course, coming down to the wire on draft signings. Players must agree to terms by Friday afternoon. The first overall selection, Swanson, has yet to sign, although most reports indicate that a deal is likely. But Twins competitive balance selection Kyle Cody is a question mark, with Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweeting that he’ll have to decide whether to accept a lower offer than he probably hoped for. Indeed, ESPN.com’s Keith Law adds on Twitter that he believes Cody will head back to college along with Dodgers comp pick Kyle Funkhouser (among other draftees). And the Brewers appear out of the race to land 29th-round flier Donny Everett, as Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets that the talented righty will honor his commitment to Vanderbilt (as expected).
User 4245925809
Vandy commits are notoriously tough, probably the toughest of all colleges. Probably tougher than UNC used to be years ago.
Wonder if the league should put out a tough line to the cities of both Oakland and St Petersburg that if no concrete plans, along with funding are not in place for a stadium within say.. 2-3 years that both teams will either fold, or be auctioned off or moved regardless of any lawsuits those cities might bring?
petrie000
honestly, if i was the Commish, i’d just tell the respective cities that at the end of this season MLB will give it’s blessing to either team exploring other cities. Whatever Oakland and St. Pete wanna do is entirely up to them… but it’s time to start making real decisions. They either want MLB teams or they don’t.
Vandals Took The Handles
Fair enough.
Where do they go to that has a major league park ready; a fanbase that is large enough and wealthy enough to support a team; and an area where fans that now root for other ML teams will no longer get their games on radio/TV, and the existing teams they follow will be fine with losing the support they get from the area.
Sounds more like a threat to me. MLB needs contraction, not expansion.
Dock_Elvis
Good luck with that…the commissioner can sat what he wants, but these teams have leases with their current sites. The Rays want to leave…they’ll have to get out of their lease with St. Pete.
Perhaps baseball needs to be a bit more realistic in its market assessments. There aren’t many viable markets left. Sure, Montreal has turned out for a shirt series… But they’d need a new park and be able to support an 81 game schedule. Portland? Charlotte? San Antonio? Most cities will come with market size questions. I don’t see relocation as likely, simply because of stadium lease concerns… I could see expanison in about 10 years.
I’m all for Montreal..that was my place…but its a ways off
User 4245925809
Fold a team, begin a new one.. No lease, no team and a new one.. It’s the modern way to do things isn’t it? 🙁
Dock_Elvis
So are law suits launched by govt entities
petrie000
it’s actually not that big of an issue, the stadium thing. These leases aren’t actually all that expensive so a team like the Rays, for example, can just say “okay”, keep paying the lease but still move on. St. Pete would then be stuck with a huge empty stadium it can’t use unless it gets the Rays permission to so it makes no money off of, and no hope of being able to attract another team to use it until they settled the issues with the Rays.
It’s only breach of contract is the team stops paying the agreed upon lease. And if the Rays can actually find a viable market, they’ll still make more money even if they’re paying 2 stadium leases.
Dock_Elvis
Are you positive on the lease? No stipulation that the franchise must place a team in it? What’s the buyout? That might very well be possible in the future, but don’t they currently run the lease through 2026 or so? And I’m sure that St. Pete would find something to file suit on.
petrie000
i’m sure they’d try, and it does indeed hinge a lot upon what the actual wording of the lease is… But even if they do sue that’s still good for MLB because it forces the issue. The biggest problem right now is the city’s dragging it’s feet on even considering a new stadium.
But once they actually hit the legal part of it, which MLB can afford a lot easier than the city itself, then they can start getting concrete answers. basically it’s a leverage thing… so long as the teams themselves try to be accommodating, the respective cities will string it out.
Time to play hard ball, IMO, because low attendance supplemented by revenue sharing hurts all the teams financially.
Dock_Elvis
From what I quickly gathered…the organization does not have a termination buyout structure in place. The Rays ask the city in March to renegotiate one into their lease… But the city bogged it down. The city apparently doesn’t want them out because they wish to develop the area surrounding Tropicana Field. Having a vacant stadium certainly won’t make that development the most attractive for the city or for tax purposes. St. Pete wants them in St. Pete. Problem is that if the Rays did stay in the area, they are likely looking at a more fan friendly location in the Tampa area.
After having been there in April…I can see why. It reminds me a bit of the SF bay area. If you can imagine the bay area fighting over where to relocate a single franchise there…that seems to be the struggle. Given also that the Rays don’t have much of a legacy where the fan base demands they stay in their park or city.
I believe Sternberg would be fine building even in St. Pete… Perhaps Tampa…but St. Pete wants a tenant in that monstrosity. St. Pete is going to fool around and perhaps lose the franchise for the entire region
losangiant
Rays go to Brooklynn and become the Brooklyn Rays; A’s heads to Portland, OR and become the Portland A’s. Either way hipster Meccas get a good dose of baseball, repleat with: huge IPA booths, pretzel bun meat snacks, taqueria and Korean BBQ trucks parked inside the venue, acoustic jam rooms with artisanal knot displays. I don’t know, a pregame butcher class given by the most red necked player available. The first farm to hog to hotdog booths in the country. Beardification stations…
Draven Moss
Does New York really need another baseball team? I’m sure there is another region that would benefit more.
Bronx Bombers
I’d say Indianapolis and San Antonio would be good expansion cities.
ronnsnow
Indianapolis is actually a pretty good baseball town. They support the Indianapolis Indians quite well. And Victory Field might be the best minor league ballpark. No doubt they could support an MLB franchise
Jorge Soler Powered
The Fort Wayne Tin Caps have the best minor league ballpark, by far.
christo14
If Nashville hadn’t just built a new AAA stadium I would say they might be a possibility. That city is growing by leaps and bounds, is not really in any other markets, and has shown the ability to support hockey and football.
willi
Agree, Make sure the RR know that Major League Players are Proud UNION Members .
Dock_Elvis
I beg to differ… Have you been to Clinton, Iowa….pure old school
Dock_Elvis
Much of it has to do with corporate sales..and unfortunately not enough to do with fan base. Indianapolis is a great place. Actually, if baseball could manage its payroll structure and keep balance somewhat there are about half a dozen places that would be decent baseball cities. I’ll exempt Las Vegas due to the tourist nightlife nature of the economy. People go there to go to casinos at night.
Dock_Elvis
In a market research study the NY-NJ and LA areas were seen as best fit to host a team. But its not likely that the existing teams will comply with another team in their market. Next on the list was Montreal, which clearly has the market size. The other remaining cities each had small market issues. The one city I would say that is coming along and moving up the list is Oklahoma City
BoldyMinnesota
Move Oakland just up the state to San Jose, at least Oakland fans wouldn’t travel to far if they still want to watch. Tampa should be moved to Montreal
willi
I Agree !
mrkinsm
Tampa should be moved to…..get ready for it….Tampa.
jackiemays
I think the Rays will ultimately reach a deal for a new stadium. But the A’s, whice has been from the Giants humilliating dominance in the area’s preference throughout the history (even in the Reggie Jackson-Catfish Hunter era), will probably indeed relocate (probably to Portland, maybe to the richer nighbor San Jose).
Meow Meow
I feel like we’ve crunched the numbers on this so many times and every time it shows that going back to colege for a year so he can get a slightly better signing bonus next year is a huge unnecessary risk for Kyle Cody. Even ignoring injury/decline potential, he’s just giving up a year of earning power.
ronnsnow
I think the Rays eventually move to Montreal. Ownership is not going to fund their own stadium, and its not right to use public money to build one, when most of the public couldn’t care less they even have a baseball team.
Dock_Elvis
By the time the Rays get out of their lease in St. Pete…Montreal might be granted an expansion franchise.
mrkinsm
If it’s not right to use public money, how exactly is Montreal going to build a new stadium to entice them? Without one they aren’t getting another club.
bobbleheadguru
Move one team to Ann Arbor and have them play in Michigan Stadium with Polo Ground dimensions. Sell 70,000 tickets/game for $5. Have a double header with a Michigan football game. /outOfTheBoxIdeas
Vandals Took The Handles
As far as expansion and moving teams go…..
1. MLB already has so few quality teams. Players are being called up and down from the minors daily for short-term advantage as there is little difference between high minors players and 5-8 guys on most major league rosters. Platooning is rampant, The level of play from 2/3’rds of the teams are poor. We go into the break with each league seemingly having 2-4 wild card contrenders that are not very good teams (MLB is beginning to look like the other leagues, where the regular season is becoming almost meaningless.) It seem to me that were the quality of the product paramount, the Commissioner would consider contraction.
2. Cleveland’s situation may be fine regarding it’s park, but the situation with attendance and support is as bad, if not worse, then that of the Rays and A’s.
3. As far as looking for another location – there is no other municipality in America or Canada that has a major league ready park to play in. In this economic climate it is going to be very unpopular for any localities politicians to use resources to pay to subsidize millionaire players and billionaire owners. Another issue is the price of going to a game – it is no longer cheap. Additionally, they’ll be canalizing areas that are now in markets of existing teams. So I expect that they’ll be looking to maybe Mexico City and San Juan (as either Adams or Todd suggested). But those are far poorer areas.
Dock_Elvis
I’ll generally agree, but say that it’s MLB that’s lowering the bar by allowing .500_teams a chance to win a world series.
Expansion or relocation is realistically not going to happen much prior to 2030.
As far as Mexico or Puerto Rico….their economies are atrocious… Puerto Rico is just about belly up. These aren’t places that will financially support teams… People in most MLB cities are troubled at ticket prices….can you imagine dropping a $40 avg ticket price on those economies… Just not happening. Baseball knows this which is what got them away from that big target they had on Guadalajara.
Dock_Elvis
I misspoke.. It was Monterey that MLB was viewing with interest.
willi
There are 8 Million people in Metro Mexico City Area, More than enough to Support a Team Profitability , Better than Pittsburg or Kanas City.
Dock_Elvis
And of that 8 million people how many people are living in poverty that would make Americans cringe? How many Mexican corporations are going to sponsor a team? How many players are going to avoid playing in Mexico? If population is the only basis for supporting a team then why not Hong Kong or London? Population is only part of market compatibility.
Dock_Elvis
I grew up in the KC market…I’d say when taking in Kansas, 1/3 of Missouri, SW Iowa and Nebraska…that’s a sizable, if distant market. The other thing about a team in Mexico is their interest to US marketers and viewers.
But I’m not going to make a case outside of the Mexican economy which is not what MLB wants to get involved with
Dock_Elvis
I would make this same argument about quality…but MLB will counter with ticket sales..corporate sales…sales of all kinds. They’re a business, and they would put AA teams on the field if they could sell seats and sponsorships. But I’ve said it a million times…they’re in trouble… The younger generation doesn’t have that much affection for the game, nor do they have bright economic prospects… And much of the baseball economy is built on consumer debt. Baseball essentially doesn’t have cash in hand…it has Visa and MasterCard buying much of these things for the fan base. The bills will come due at some point
willi
Return MLB to Montreal, With a Marketing plan and an owner who will spent money.Build a Retractable Dome Stadium. With both Private and Public Monet ( Hotel Tax )
Dock_Elvis
I love that auto correct error.. “Public Monet!. Yes! Monet for all! Art to the people!
Actually… About 2025-30 Montreal could make tons of sense. The game has gone international….global multi media presence. Montreal is the gateway to Europe and it looks like perhaps they have circled back around. I ask that the old logo be reinstated as well
willi
Sorry , Spelling Bee Champion.
Dock_Elvis
My auto correct gets me constantly…lighten up Billy
willi
Mexico City or Havana are Baseball Crazy towns , With Little here and there , Time to expand to Spanish speaking peoples countries , That’s where all the MLB players “STARS” will come from in the next 20yrs
petrie000
you do realize both those cities are very, by american standards anyways, well, poor? They may be baseball crazy, but there’s not a lot of people there who can afford to pay even the MLB average for the ‘cheap seats’. Good luck convincing any owner to sign up for that experiment.
Dock_Elvis
Good luck…William keeps stating the population as a grounds for a team. 8 million people…as if that relates in contrast to a typical American city. They have an earthquake in Mexico City and a ghetto building falls and traps thousands of people because many are living 3 families to a.room