Peace In Our Time
Yesterday, Herr Selig and Prime Minister Fehr met in a beer hall outside Munchen to settle their differences. They arose with a 5-year agreement that'll assure us of continued peace long into the future -- or at least until the Sudetenland looks mighty attractive in '11.
The big news, well, at least for Nats fans, is that we'll still get compensation for Alfonso Soriano. To make a long story short, Type A free agents still get the same level of compensation. Type C free agents go away. But for Type As and Bs, the range of who qualifies as each narrows -- basically, the useless analysts at Elias rank every player in the majors based on rudimentary counting stats over the last two years, pro-rating for time lost to injury. Players ranked in the top 20% are Type As. Players in the top 40% are Bs. Additionally, Bs no longer require a team to lose their first-round pick. It's simply a sandwich selection. So, Soriano's eventual signing with another team'll still be gravy for us.
Federal Baseball and the Farm Authority do a good job running down some of the other provisions. There are some interesting angles with the revenue sharing program that could have an interesting impact, but without the actual CBA language, we're all just guessing.
The other key is that it changes around some things with the amateur draft to really put the screws to the kids. It doesn't institute a hard slotting system, but it really makes it difficult for a kid to use holding out as leverage -- for one, the signing deadline moves up to August, and also, teams that don't come to terms with a player get the exact same pick in the following year's draft. (NFA has a bit on that, and some other wrinkles -- good and bad -- with the minors).
But the best quick analysis of the thing I've read is from our friends at USS Mariner, and there's a good discussion in the comments. His point 4 about the marginal cost of mid-salaried players is an interesting one. It'll be fascinating to see how that pans out in the next few years.
So, good for baseball fans -- there's peace!
And good for Nats fans -- picks for A-Sor!
It's a shame we're not going to get anything for Joey Eischen though. ;)
(Oh, that's one more thing.... It seems (and I'm not 100% sure on this) that teams no longer have to actually offer arbitration to a FA to get the picks. In the past, small market teams, especially, were hesitant to offer arbitration to some good players for fear of having their budget busted. The most pertinent example is with Les Expos and how they received zippo for losing Vlad Guerrero.)
The big news, well, at least for Nats fans, is that we'll still get compensation for Alfonso Soriano. To make a long story short, Type A free agents still get the same level of compensation. Type C free agents go away. But for Type As and Bs, the range of who qualifies as each narrows -- basically, the useless analysts at Elias rank every player in the majors based on rudimentary counting stats over the last two years, pro-rating for time lost to injury. Players ranked in the top 20% are Type As. Players in the top 40% are Bs. Additionally, Bs no longer require a team to lose their first-round pick. It's simply a sandwich selection. So, Soriano's eventual signing with another team'll still be gravy for us.
Federal Baseball and the Farm Authority do a good job running down some of the other provisions. There are some interesting angles with the revenue sharing program that could have an interesting impact, but without the actual CBA language, we're all just guessing.
The other key is that it changes around some things with the amateur draft to really put the screws to the kids. It doesn't institute a hard slotting system, but it really makes it difficult for a kid to use holding out as leverage -- for one, the signing deadline moves up to August, and also, teams that don't come to terms with a player get the exact same pick in the following year's draft. (NFA has a bit on that, and some other wrinkles -- good and bad -- with the minors).
But the best quick analysis of the thing I've read is from our friends at USS Mariner, and there's a good discussion in the comments. His point 4 about the marginal cost of mid-salaried players is an interesting one. It'll be fascinating to see how that pans out in the next few years.
So, good for baseball fans -- there's peace!
And good for Nats fans -- picks for A-Sor!
It's a shame we're not going to get anything for Joey Eischen though. ;)
(Oh, that's one more thing.... It seems (and I'm not 100% sure on this) that teams no longer have to actually offer arbitration to a FA to get the picks. In the past, small market teams, especially, were hesitant to offer arbitration to some good players for fear of having their budget busted. The most pertinent example is with Les Expos and how they received zippo for losing Vlad Guerrero.)
posted by Chris Needham at
6:29 PM
1 Comments:
"It's a shame we're not going to get anything for Joey Eischen though. ;)"
That brought back a memory for me. I lived in Atlanta for the better part of the 1980s and saw a lot of bad Braves baseball played before sparse crowds in a poorly maintained Fulton County Stadium. At one game I heard a guy say that end-of-the-road Glenn Hubbard should be traded for a decent sprinkler system.
By
Anonymous, at 10/26/2006 8:24 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home