More Answers To Questions You Didn't Ask

You may have been wondering -- or maybe you haven't. Someone in the last week has posed each of these questions and so I answer them here:

Q. Where will Jose Bautista and Mark Trumbo end up?
A. After years of slamming its finger in the same door, the market is now properly valuing aging, immobile sluggers, and it isn't pretty for their agents. I believed one of the former Blue Jays would wind up back with Toronto because they obviously have a hole to fill at that position. With the parrot carrier now poised to bash homers in Cleveland for millions less than he was seeking, I wouldn't be surprised if Joey Bats re-ups at a discount with the Jays. He isn't exactly winning Miss Congeniality votes from other teams. And Baltimore seems to be in hottest pursuit of Trumbo, but also at pennies on his expected dollar.

Q. What are the Mets going to do with their outfield situation?
A. Give Terry Collins headaches? Best guess, unless something dramatic happens: rotate Cespedes and Granderson through centerfield, giving Lagares spot starts and and shuffling him in as a defensive replacement late in games. Send the non-CF Cespedes/Grandy to right and leave Comforto in left to show he can hit. Jay Bruce is a righty bat off the bench. Lots of options if someone gets hurt or doesn't pan out.

Q. Who are your World Series favorites right now?
A. Answering this question is a fool's errand, but I'm game. The World Champion Cubs are the same team as last year, flipping Dexter Fowler for Kyle Schwarber and Aroldis Chapman for Wade Davis. In the AL, the Red Sox are poised to allow about 400 runs next year. The Cy Young winner is their #3 starter.


Q. Now that Bud Selig, who presided over the Steroid Era, is in the Hall of Fame, shouldn't we vote in guys like Bonds, Clemens and McGwire?
A. I don't really see that logic. Selig didn't cheat. That said, I've always been in favor of putting those guys in the Hall.

Here's the problem: you've got Bowie Kuhn in the Hall of Fame, a guy who had an 0-162 record fighting the players' union and who could hardly name a single accomplishment as the commissioner. You've got Gaylord Perry in the Hall, an inveterate cheater who got caught on the field altering baseballs. You've got Lloyd Waner, a thoroughly average Major Leaguer, in the Hall because he batted .316 for his career even though that was his signature skill and team batting averages topped .300 in the '30s. But you want to exclude the top player and pitcher of their era because there's evidence they took an unfair advantage during a portion of their career. It makes no sense.


Q. With the Braves signing all these old former stars, do they really think they have a chance this year?
A. Puff you're inhaler, Braves fans. These guys are just filler. They're signed to one-year deals. If they play well they'll be shipped out mid-season for more prospects.

Q. What do you make of the Diamondbacks?
A. Much like the United States of America, they hired a pair of amateur hacks to run the organization with predictable results. Now they've gotten professional management in there and find themselves with some promising young assets across the infield. Their task going forward will be to acquire some rotation pieces behind Zack Grienke or they'll never contend. Easier said than done.

Q.Not a baseball question, but what do you think of star college football players skipping their bowl games to prepare for the draft?
A. How dare they act in their own best interest! Major college football is about amateur athletics, not about some money grab, says the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl.

Q. If Mike Trout played at replacement level for five more years and then retired after the requisite 10-year career, would he get into the Hall of Fame? How about if he was average over the next five years?
A. No and no, because you need more than five stellar seasons to make the Hall of Fame. But the premise of your question is correct. Mike Trout is the greatest player in baseball history over his first five seasons. (He was also the greatest over his first one, two, three and four.) Give him three more Trout seasons and then five bad or mediocre years and he's in.

Q. What about Sandy Koufax? He was a below average pitcher who made the Hall of Fame with five great seasons.
A. Good point. Koufax got extrapolated credit for all the years he didn't pitch after retiring early. Had he pitched at replacement level for three seasons following that unbelievable run I doubt he gets in.

Q. Will the Red Sox regret trading Clay Bucholz? You can never have too much pitching right?
A. They won't regret getting $10 million closer to the luxury tax cap.

Q. Should the Mets trade Jay Bruce?
A. Okay, you're the GM of another team who could use a big bat. The Mets offer you a 30-year-old .250 hitter with 30-homer pop and mediocre defensive skills. What would you give up to get that? For now, I think the Mets should be glad that they have some hitting options to back that pitching staff.

Q. What do you see from the vantage point of San Diego?
A. The ocean.

Q. Come on, I mean what are the Padres' prospects for 2017.
A. At least they have the ocean.

Happy holidays to all!

In Praise of Bud Selig

The Baseball InterVerse is aflutter this week with doomsday discussion of the . . . Yankees. The questions being flitted about -- can their top prospects rescue the team, should they trade their veterans to restock the farm, are they the worst team in the American League -- have to be making Boss Steinbrenner spin furiously in his grave.

That's the New York Yankees we're talking about, lord overseers of the horsehide world. The franchise that has appeared in 40 World Series and won 27 of them, and earned playoff berths every season from 1995 to 2012.

It's the Evil Empire of baseball that flaunted the built-in advantages of the nation's largest market, its media capital and its massive financial power to bully its competitors.

The Drew Henson Case
Case in point: In 1998, the Yankees could afford to draft star Michigan quarterback and third baseman Drew Henson in the third round and sign him to first round money. Henson appeared headed to the NFL, but the opportunity to play for the flagship franchise enticed him to start in the minors.

After a year on the farm, the Yankees traded Henson to the Reds. He immediately packed his gear and announced his intention to attend Houston Texans training camp. Reluctantly, Cincinnati traded Henson back to the Yankees for pennies on the dollar and he immediately rescinded his departure.

That it all came to nothing in either sport -- he completed five NFL passes and had one big league hit -- is beside the point. The Yankees ruled the baseball world at every level not too long ago. Teams in "small" markets like, well, everywhere else, but certainly the likes of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Minneapolis and San Diego, could do little more than develop the players who would sign as free agents in the Bronx.

The World Is Upside Down
Today, all the Yankees' strength is reserved for holding up the AL East standings from the bottom. Their roster is decrepit, expensive and way past its expiration date. The promising pitchers like Nova, Tanaka and Severino don't seem to have panned out. The future is no longer now, or at least that's how it appears 40 games into 2016.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals are the World Champs and teams like the Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, cash-strapped Mets, and Pittsburgh Pirates were all playoff teams in 2015. Everyone has a chance to compete every year. 

Your nose runs and your feet smell. The world is upside down.

Thank You, Bud
How did this happen? Hate the commissioner emeritus all you like, but this Bud's for us. Following the destructive lockout that cancelled the 1994 World Series, Selig was able to wrest some measure of control from the free-spending teams and institute brakes on franchise costs. The luxury tax, reinforced in subsequent negotiations, and the co-opting of revenue streams to MLB, like all the digital properties owned equally by the teams, has dramatically smoothed the revenue curves and negated much of the financial advantage that big market teams used to enjoy.

At the same time, the Internet has made it possible for top stars to shine from any home base. The entire slate of games is available to any American with the proper cable/satellite deal or with $150 for MLB-TV on their computer. Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and Manny Machado can enjoy superstar brand status from DC, Anaheim and Baltimore just the same as if they were standing right on Madison Avenue.

More money is still a useful tool, but the game is awash in it, from Phoenix to Cleveland and St. Petersburg to Denver. Today, if your team perennially stinks, it's not the market's fault, it's management's, even if they blame the manager and fire him.

And if they're perennially contending, thank the people running the franchise, and Bud Selig too. Even if you hate him for cancelling the World Series.

Blue Ribbon Red Tape

When I covered state government as a reporter it was commonly known that if the governor didn't want to address an issue, he appointed a committee to study it. The more accolades he heaped on the committee members, the less likely we'd ever hear from them again.

So what does it tell us that Bud Selig has appointed a Blue Ribbon Panel to study...everything?

And what a distinguished panel it is. It could hardly get more distinguished if it comprised Kennesaw Mountain Landis, Abner Doubleday, Connie Mack and Branch Rickey.. No, really. Because the only difference between my group and Bud's is that my group is actually dead.

Bud's committee is the same retreads as every other Blue Ribbon Panel he's ever appointed. A bunch of old owners, a bunch of old executives, a bunch of old managers, a bunch of old players and representing all of fandom, a bunch of old George Will. Is there anything this illustrious group might conclude that they haven't already whispered into Bud's ear? It'd be like appointing your wife to study your sex appeal.

Among the issues this group will purportedly investigate are:

1. Whether there should be expanded instant replay. So is there an umpire on the committee? Uh, well, no.

2. How to speed up the action. So is there a player on the committee? Uh, no.

3. How to attract more young fans. So is there anyone under 40 on the committee? Uh...

4. What to do with the DH. So is there a union member or executive on the committee?

If Bud wants to know how to improve baseball, he could start by getting a Blue Ribbon Panel to tell him how to appoint members of a Blue Ribbon Panel. Of course, that's not the point, is it? What Bud really wants is cover for doing nothing by pointing out that the best minds are working on the great issues facing the game. Then, when they conclude that the solution to all of baseball's problems is a salary cap (of which, admittedly, I'd be fond) the Commish can simply blame others when it doesn't get done.

It's a great strategy for keeping the status quo. But Bud already knew that. The same distinguished gentlemen of his last Blue Ribbon Committee told him so.
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Are You (World) Serious?

Could baseball have it any more wrong in the playoffs? It's as if Bud Selig were working for the NFL.

They play 2430 games during the regular season, almost all of them in pristine conditions. If it's freezing or raining, they postpone the game.

In the playoffs, when the World Championship is on the line, they play in rain and cold together. They play in insect infestations. What's next, slaying of the first born? Game One of the World Series this year, and Game Three last year, were both mockeries, with fans huddling and players squinting through the elements in their long sleeves. You think steroids corrupted the great history of baseball? How about outfielders running through ponds during the World Series?

In the regular season, teams play six days out of seven. They need at least a four starters, and often five. In the playoffs, when the mettle of the finest clubs are being tested, they alter the game. Scheduling contests every other day -- as if it were yoga class -- creates an advantage for teams with thin staffs. Scheduling four-five-six-day breaks between series simulates -- what? The All-Star break, perhaps. Think how many showers Manny could take.

The one change MLB should make to the playoffs -- schedule East Coast games at 7:00 p.m. -- is the one overlooked. The result is that only the unemployed -- admittedly a growing cohort -- can watch to the end. When fans can't see the conclusions of the most consequential contests of the season, they lose ownership and interest in the sport.

Maybe it's a coincidence that the last good World Series was eight years ago. Maybe it's not. But let's not argue about it in the freezing rain.
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Commish For A Day

Happy 75th birthday to Bud Selig, neither the best nor the worst commissioner in MLB history. People like to pile poo on ol' Bud, but when you consider that he's the owners' minion, he's done a credible job of innovating, keeping up with technology, going global and keeping labor peace -- after a painful apprenticeship. Blaming Selig for steroids is like blaming George W. Bush for September 11, except in reverse. No one saw 9/11 coming; we all knew in their hearts that players were taking steroids.

Suppose you were commissioner for a day and had absolute power. What one thing would you do? Here's my top priority.

I would remind Major League Baseball that, first and foremost, it's in the entertainment business. And sometimes, it's lousy entertainment. No nine-inning game with fewer than 20 runs scored should take more than two-and-a-half hours. The first two hours of a game are fun. The last inning or two can be exciting if the score is close. Beyond that is simply keeping us up late.

So I would pour all my energy into juicing the game's entertainment value. I'd eliminate the parts of games that have high time-consumption-to-entertainment ratios. First culprit: the pitching change. A pitcher who hasn't started an inning may not be removed unless he gives up a run. Sure, it might dis-employ those left-handed specialists, but get us to the good stuff more quickly, particularly in the late innings when the tension, not the boredom, should be mounting.

And if that doesn't have sufficient impact, I'd crack down further by limiting mound visits or even more strictly limiting pitching changes. Because no one goes to a baseball game to watch the manager hold a committee meeting with his hurler, third baseman and catcher. Most of us get more than our share of committee meetings when we're not at the ballpark.

Second, there is no such thing as time out once a player comes to bat. Step in the batter's box and stay there. No practice swings (didn't you get enough of those in the minors?), no batting glove refittings (you make a mint: buy gloves that fit) and no mind games. The fans have trains to catch.

Third, just wave the guy to first on an intentional walk. I've heard the argument that throwing the pitch can lead to infinite possibilities, but in exchange for the excitement of the quadrennial wild pitch, we'll have the excitement of the actual game.

Fourth, limit pitcher pickoff attempts. Stolen bases are exciting; soft tosses to first basemen are not. Crisply played games are exciting. Staying up until 11:45 on a Tuesday is not.

That's my one day as commissioner. What's yours?
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MLB Staying True To The Game

The NBA and NHL are turning the ignition on their playoffs, which is always a good time for baseball. These two leagues have taken wonderful sports and diluted them to the point of irrelevance, a vivid contrast to baseball.

It's interesting too how basketball and hockey are so far apart on the playoff loop that they're in the same place. In the NBA, half the teams make the playoffs, but only four or five have any realistic chance of winning the championship. It makes the final weeks of the season and the first few rounds of the playoffs largely meaningless.

Hockey's just the opposite. There's little correlation between regular season performance and Stanley Cup results, meaning any team that makes the tournament has a realistic shot if its goalie gets hot. (The top regular season team in the league has never won the Cup in the expanded playoff format.) Since seeding is insignificant, so is most of the season. The only part of the regular season that matters in the NHL is the last two weeks as middle feeders battle for the final playoff spots. Ironically, the sports media seems to stop paying what little attention they give hockey at just that point.

As we inaugurate the baseball season, who's a playoff lock? The Yankees, Sox and Rays have to contend with each other. The Cubs look like a good bet, but so did Enron. And who's playing for honorable mention? The Pirates, Padres and Nationals to be sure, and I wouldn't want my life to depend on the Mariners, Orioles, Blue Jays or Astros either. Nonetheless, each of them has a better shot than the #8 seeds in the NBA playoffs, who have to beat Cleveland and L.A. respectively.

It's another feather to add to Bud Selig's hat. Most baseball fans think of him as Bozo the Commissioner, but there's a lot to be said for avoiding the temptation to rob Peter's regular season to pay Paul's playoffs. Have fun NBA and NHL, and let me know when you're done.

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Pudge, Mr Selig Will See You Now

At the risk of belaboring a subject that's seen more labor than Nadya Suleman, I see the commish has summoned a Mr. Rodriguez, two members of his legal posse and none of his cousins to a private tete-a-tete to hash out some steroid -related issues.

Apparently the baseball brain trust is shocked in a Captain Renault sort of way that one of its stars used drugs in an attempt to improve his performance six years ago. Except for the small detail that league offices have been in possession of Mr. Rodriguez's name all this time, it's easy to understand why it's imperative that they question him now.

No doubt the rug in MLB headquarters will be wearing thin this Spring as the other 103 players, whose names have also been known to the Selig Administration, march to and fro under orders to reveal all.

It's a brilliant PR stunt that serves to obscure the fact that baseball currently has the most comprehensive drug testing program of any of the major sports. And that another exciting season is about to start.