I thought baseball would give everyone a little time to enjoy the end of the labor dispute and the excitement of spring training games and the season that will start on its heels. You only tune in to see the sun again if you want to feel the reflected heat of the Arizona and Florida sun. Maybe if you are a fan of the Mets, Braves, or any of the other teams, you will feel that way. That wasn't a problem before.
You don't wait around to be an asshole.
The A's and Reds either started a teardown or pushed one into hyperdrive after the Lockout. They were scared off diving to the bottom by the draft lottery. Chris Bassitt was catapulted to Queens by the A's after they packed Matt Olson into a box. Matt Chapman and others are not far behind.
The Reds, who had already started burning down the bar for insurance money, didn't lose any steam when they sent Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez to Seattle. It came after the Twins traded Sonny Gray to the Twins for a bunch of kids studying for their social studies test. Nick Castellanos probably hasn't gotten a phone call from the Cincy front office to tell him to quit. The Reds are determined to prove that they are the ones who have been crying the most.
The A's and Reds join the Pirates, Rockies, Orioles, and Marlins as teams we know aren't even trying. Maybe the Cubs are on this list, though they will make a lot of noise that their not, right up until the point they trot out the moronic husk of Andrelton Simmons at short on opening day. Your mileage on the D-backs, Royals, and Nationals may be different. Three seasons ago, the latter provided a World Series win.
The World Series champ just replaced the most beloved player on their team, Freddie Freeman, without so much as a phone call because Matt Olson was cheaper. Braves ownership isn't exactly finding lint and moths in their pockets.
The season can pass by up to a third of the league. Wasn't this the problem? The Angels were a hardliner about the CBT threshold during the Lockout, and the teams making a go of it. The Braves were mentioned. How many new avenues did the plates open up to get more money? What are the fans of those teams supposed to be excited about? Yeah, prospects. The promise of tomorrow. The leader of The Simpsons will take them all to salvation if they eat lima beans for the next few years. Is it just pocketing all the money?
They weren't done yet. Did you think you were free of the ghost runner? You are not. The players and owners want to bring it back. People like it because they don't want to spend six hours at the park. The owners don't want to have to do as many Triple-A shuffles and pay more players a MLB per diem and salary. The NHL does the same thing, even though it gives MLB a cartoonish gimmick to end real games that impact the regular season and playoffs.
Who says we need to be more like hockey?
Fernando Tatis Jr. broke his wrist in a series of fights with his motorcycle over the winter and will be out for at least the first two months of the season. It's cool.
Steve Cohen doesn't give a fuck.
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