One of my favorite general-sports blogs, The Big Lead, asked me to do a wide-ranging Q&A for their Opening Day … uh, edition. For those of you who came over from TBL, welcome. If you share our interests in food, books, and the occasional movie, feel free to stick around.
Also, I’ll be on the Pulse radio show shortly after 9 pm EDT tonight, and my Hot List hit is now 4:10-4:20 pm EDT.
Keith, if you ever head to the Farmington/Plainville part of Ct. J.Timothy’s is a decent place for a meal. Bristol is not too far away from those cities.
Judging by your free-market views, you cast a vote for Ron Paul in your primary, right?
Keith, I thought that the MLB pension was changed many years ago so that it kicks in on day 1. Am I wrong about that? If so, what’s the rule exactly?
Keith, this is what I’m remembering (click on my name).
“After 1981’s 50-day strike, the vesting requirements for medical benefits were reduced from four years of major league service to one day. For pension benefits, the requirement was lowered from four years to 43 days.”
I don’t know the current rule.
I didn’t vote in the Presidential primary this year. I believe I was out of state, and I’m not registered with either party anyway.
tango, you may be right. I don’t have my rulebook handy to check it, but I was far from certain.
Bob, I’m almost never in Bristol for dinner, which is why I picked a lunch place. And I do really love 5 Guys. I think in the almost two years I’ve worked here, I’ve been here for dinner once.
Keith, I just saw you on the Giants’ homepage on ESPN. I have the Giants at 56 wins this season. Too much or too little? Also, I think I heard the Giants were starting Tim Alderson at High-A this season and have also asked him to start pitching from the windup. Are my concerns legit or no?
John Russell shows that young managers really need to learn how to use a bullpen.
What’s so bad about a salary floor? Is there any reason why a franchise (like the Marlins) should be permitted to spend less on their ML payroll than they recieve in revenue sharing? Granted, spending more money on players doesn’t necessarily make a team better, but still.
For the record, I think revenue sharing is BS (check out this Michael Lewis piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/opinion/03lewis.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin). But if we’re going to go with it, a salary floor should go hand in hand, right?
Fantastic interview. And I’m totally with you about enjoying work. Prior to joining the Jays, did you have the majority of your work experience post-MBA or pre-MBA?
LM: Think about it this way. What if a perfectly-run team had, through scouting, player development, and dump trades, acquired a team of players who hadn’t reached arbitration yet but who were, to the last man, superior baseball players to anyone available on the open market? Their optimal baseball strategy would be to field the 25 men they’ve drafted, developed, and acquired, but a salary floor would force them to either sign inferior veterans or to overpay the players whose salaries they control through a collectively bargained system.
You can imagine a realistic scenario where a team’s optimal baseball strategy involves employing in-house players who are better than the available free agents, but where the salary floor prevents them from doing so.
Francis, I had almost identical work experience in terms of time pre- and post-MBA when I joined Toronto.
Keith — Interesting point about a perfectly-run team, and how a salary floor would negatively impact them by forcing them to spend more than they need to. But is it really that realistic? Players are eligible for arbitration in two or three years, and is it not unrealistic to think that all of the players on their 25-man have such little service time? If even a couple of them have 2-4 years service time, and they are the best team that the team can field, shouldn’t there be enough players in arbitration to cover the threshold? Isn’t this scenario a bit too idealistic, similar to how a communist believes it is possible to achieve a classless society? My guess is it all depends on what the floor is, and what arb levels are; but with Howard’s $10mil win, it seems that players are getting paid handsomely before FA, especially with so many teams locking their best young talent up long-term. I am not arguing against your point, more just playing devil’s advocate, and am interested in your thoughts.
I think we can all agree that a salary-cap is a bad idea since it just keeps the revenue with the owners instead of distributing it to the players.
Keith, I liked the bit about the economy in your chat. I have to admit though that I’m not really in the know when it comes to economic stuff and taxes (raising/cutting/effects/etc.) Is there a good book or website that is average-person-friendly that’s a good primer into the world of economics and such?
I agree with you on principle on the salary floor, Keith, but at the same time I hate to think of that money going straight into the owner’s pocket. If I were a Marlins’ fan, I wouldn’t want them wasting any money on free agents, but I would want that money to be spent on scouting and drafting rather than buying the owner a new mansion (ironically enough, I’m sure the teams that have to give up the money would rather see it go into the owner’s pocket instead of having more competition scouting and drafting). In any case, I wonder if teams could be required to spend the surplus money, if perhaps not in the draft because of the silly slotting system, in signing international prospects or (even better) in developing international or inner city facilities to help grow the game, whether those facilities were specifically associated with the team or just with MLB.
Also, since the owners are so awash in money can they start paying for their own goddamned stadiums? Everyone was so congratulatory with the Nationals’ stadium opening, but no one talked about how DC is a failing city where $611 million could have gone elsewhere. Kudos to the people of Seattle for not bowing to the the Sonics’ owners demands for a new publically financed ATM machine to line his pockets.
(publicly, rather)
Keith, you said that you saw Gavin Floyd this spring, and that his curveball appeared to be gone. Couldn’t that be affected by the weather and how breaking balls supposedly don’t break as much in that area?
malcolm – pre-FA players are being paid a fraction of what they’re worth on the open market. Howard’s salary supports that point, as he would easily have earned $18MM or more if he was declared a FA this offseason.
Neil – that’s a stretch. Surprise is only about 1000 feet above sea level, and the day I saw him it was about 75 degrees out, hardly unusual conditions.
Ok. I don’t really know anything about where they were playing, so I just suggested a phenomenon I’ve heard from random people.