PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - International flair

Episode Date: March 10, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek discuss the international draft being the next hurdle for MLB and the PA, more games being cancelled due to the lockout, and updates from D-backs minor league mini-camp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the P. HNX D-Bax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is the mayor of PHNX, and I am furious. I am furious, and I am joined by my vice mayor, and he's angry, and he's never angry. He is the most well-mannered, fair-tempered individual you'll ever meet. He is my co-host. He is my friend. He is the Thunderstick, Jesse Freehap. I'm pretty angry, Derek.

That's a pretty fair assessment. I just cannot wrap my head around how this day has come and gone. We're recording this on Wednesday, March 9th, a day that none of us will want to remember. And I just cannot fathom how this day is come and gone, given just everything that went down, all of the things that were exchanged on both sides. and somehow we're still here with another week of games canceled. We have a lot to get into today, Derek. It's absolutely wild, Jesse,

but the thing that's most important to remember about today is that I may or may not have bought a custom-made slot machine that was made for Mark Grayson. That is the biggest thing to happen. This show, obviously, as has always, is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook. And right now, with the NCAA in full swing, you can get down on conference championships,

like never before. new customers can use our code of pH and X. They can bet $5, excuse me, $5 on any team to win their game and get $200 in free bets if they win that game. It's that simple. If they win, you win over at the Draft King's Sportsbook. And yes, Jesse, we had yet another day. I did not buy into this. I did not stay up late as much as I said I was going to.

You were on, you were on board. You were on board for a little while. And then things were not as exciting as last Monday. But what we got was word that seemed like there was still going to be some positivity. There were a lot of tweets from a lot of credible accounts and some less credible accounts that's losing credibility with us every single day of this lockout that made it sound very hopeful, very close, very close. very near that when we woke up today

that there would be a deal done on Wednesday, April 9th. There was, I'm not even going to, I'm not even going to like of course my sources are unreliable but I will just say that somebody directly told me

something that like I don't get a lot of information coming my way and when it does it's, you know, not from people who I expect to, like, actually have something, uh, or to, to be in a place of being credible. But this person was. And they said that today was a big day, big day. Right.

Like, they stressed it to me that it was a big day. Oh, so wait. So that quote that you tweeted was a real quote. It was a real quote. I wasn't just making that up. I really got that from a credible person that usually doesn't give me this kind of information. And.

Okay. Obviously, I was wrong. Obviously, you can blame your source, right? I'm not blaming my source on this one because I could have just kept it to myself. But I still think it was a big day. I still think that from what we saw from the final proposals from the back and forth, we saw the two sides are very close. I am still cautiously optimistic.

mystic that we're going to see a deal get done by the end of this week. However, I did say that exact same thing last week. So I don't know where I fall any longer on this. It seems like the fine print, the stuff that they were trying to sneak in at the last minute during the previous 16-hour negotiation session might have had something to do with the international draft. Because now it seems like the international draft is the point, despite the fact that the two sides are very close on the core economic issues that they were so far apart. Yeah. But now the international draft is the thing that might be holding up this deal from getting done.

Let's jump into the nitty gritties here. So the CBT threshold is the thing we've come back to time and time again. The last numbers that we have from both sides are pretty close. So MLB offered 230, $230 million for 2020, escalating up to $2.42 by the end of this new CBA. The PA countered with $232 for 2020, escalating up to $250. So you're talking about a difference.

It's about $5 million a year on average. And when you factor in how much money both sides lose, every single day that goes by that we don't play games, that that really starts to feel like pocket change. It's really not that important. And also the thresholds, it's easy to forget. The thresholds are just space. Like it's just spending room.

It's not actual money, right? And so obviously there's a reason that that's still a big deal because, you know, we've talked about how it can be used as a salary cap and whatnot. So it does result generally in more spending if those numbers are higher. But, I mean, the difference between a couple million is just not going to be that significant. The pre-arbitration pool, those differences are a little bit more significant.

MLB came out with 40 million today. MLBPA countered with 65 million. So a little bit of a bigger difference there. I imagine there's still some negotiating to be done on both of those things. But those were not, I mean, that was not the crux of the issue today. And that's really why I'm so shocked and so angry that we are here today without a new agreement, without a new CBA agreement because those are those have been the core issues from the beginning that have held this thing up from the beginning and and like you said Derek the international

draft this new thing that has come out of nowhere that all of a sudden has has really stolen the narrative of this entire thing we're not really talking much about the CBT and and pre-arbitration pool anymore at least today the the story was all about the international draft and basically what happened is the international draft had not really been in previous conversations. Max Scherzer tweeted out today that in their last negotiations last week that MLB basically said that they wouldn't be willing to offer anything in exchange for the international draft. So at that point, it wasn't really seen as something that the Players Association wanted to do because they weren't going to get anything in exchange for accepting the international draft

from the owners. That changed suddenly when the owners decided to say, all right, we'll give you the international draft in exchange for getting rid of a draft pick compensation with qualifying offers and that whole mess that is haunted the free agency process for so long. And that was sort of a sort of a last minute edition that according to Max Scherzer had not been in any conversations before. And so from what we can tell Derek, most of today was based basically MLBPA scrambling trying to figure out, okay, we haven't really thought much about this international drafting. Is this something that we're ready to just implement today without really, you know, seeking out all of the advice and everything that we want to? And they consulted a

number of people. We know David Ortiz got involved today. And there was some hesitance about moving forward with that. And so that's basically what, what led us to where we are. And there's obviously a little bit more to exactly how that happened. But yeah, this issue that none of us really saw being a problem somehow that seems to be the reason that we're without a deal right now. Well, I know for, I forget who tweeted it, but I know there was talk about how like Puerto Rico used to not be part of the draft and then they joined the draft and they said that that strongly impacted their developmental baseball leagues in Puerto Rico.

that used to be very strong. Now those same developmental type leagues are very strong in the Dominican Republic. And now a number of guys that have experienced from there have spoken out against it, including Fernando Tatis Jr. and David Ortiz. Fernando Tatis Jr. said the international draft is going to kill baseball and DR in the Dominican Republic. It's going to affect us a lot because there will be many young people who used to give them the opportunity to get a bonus. and with the draft, it will not be the same. David, David Ortiz said, per Jeff, Jeff Passon tweet,

the system in the Dominican is not ready to have a draft next year. The Dominican is not the U.S. You can't snap a finger and everything lines up to operate the right way. We've got a new president who's trying to improve things. We need to do this slowly. I value the input of people who not only are currently in, you know, Major League Baseball or a legend like David Ortiz, but have also

have insight into what's going on into the Dominican Republic as far as, you know, their culture, their government situation, all of that. I don't think owners care about that kind of thing.

I don't think MLB necessarily cares about that kind of thing. I think that they're just trying to necessarily do whatever they can, much like what we talked about with the Cuban boom during the Yasman. Tomas era for instance caused a lot of you know there the Yassil Pug

obviously being the most notable first one out of there that kind of started that but you know there there was a situation where all of a sudden it seemed like everybody was interested in that and and the international draft is still something that produces or I guess the international market is something that still produces a lot of superstar players. And despite yes and knows about some of the guys that came out of Cuba, this is still going to be a big part of scouting and for baseball for the future. The international draft just can't be snuck in, I don't think,

into a CBA without, you know, being well thought out and planned out. So now what we have is we have two sides closer than we ever thought they would be on economic issues without the CBA being done. But new issues being, you know, added in that cause complications that don't necessarily need to be included in the CBA. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, it's just, it's just a total.

It's already complicated enough. Why are you adding additional, you know, like, this would be like the players bringing up the pre-arbitration. pool now, but not bringing it up at any point up until now in a way. I mean, I think that's a bigger, like, that's a bigger financial. Without a doubt, but I'm just saying it's like a thing that they want that all a sudden they're springing kind of into the negotiations pretty late considering that they have almost 100 days at this point to negotiate this stuff because everything so far that

they've been negotiating has all kind of been simultaneous. They're not dealing with one thing at a time. They're negotiating about all of these topics that they want. Now all of a sudden the international draft is the thing that's come up. We heard players talk about them adding additional things that they were trying to get in when the talks went very late, went past midnight, when these 16-hour negotiation days were going on. And it just seems, again, crazy when, you know,

it's it's already difficult enough for them to see eye to eye on the basic issues that they've already been negotiating about, let alone just adding in new new things that now they have to essentially start completely all over again on negotiating about these issues that they haven't even talked about yet. Right. Yeah. So basically what happened is major league baseball offered really two different options that the PA could could choose from. The first one was to agree to eliminate draft pick compensation and examine the international draft and give Major League Baseball the option to reopen the CBA in a couple of years if the union won't agree to the draft. So like for the moment, let's just take the deal as is.

And then, yep. And then after the end of the 2024 season, if the PA decides that they don't want the international draft, they could reopen the CBA and renegotiate at that point. And I think, the union was kind of afraid of the idea of reopening this in a few years, which, which I mean, I don't think I need any more CPA negotiations for at least five years. So I can't, I can't really blame them for that. The second option was to just agree to the international draft and the elimination of draft pick compensation exactly as Major League Baseball outlined it. So they basically gave them those two options.

And there was the 6 p.m. Eastern Time deadline. and the players came back after that deadline and said, hey, we don't want to do either of those two things. But what we do want to do instead is basically just sort of delay the process, give ourselves more time to think about this and just kind of continue with things as they stood right then and there. And that was not something that Major League Baseball was willing to agree to. They put the hammer down because it was after their deadline.

And I just think that is so incredibly short-sighted on the part of Major League Baseball. That was a completely reasonable counteroffer from the Players Association to basically just take this a little bit slower and not let it really affect things right now and move on with the other parts of the deal and come back to that down the road. But Major League Baseball said, hey, this is after our deadline. We said we were going to cancel games after 6 p.m. and it's after 6 p.m. so we're going to cancel games. games and they sent out the press release and that was the end of that and and here we are having another week of games canceled and i don't think any of us fully understand why like like why couldn't you have just not canceled those games and continue talking for the rest of the day they're clearly close on the other issues it just seemed like a like a power move like an empty power move

on the part of major league baseball to assert their authority over the players at a time where all of us just want baseball. I mean, I want to believe that the owners want baseball at this point, too. And it's, it's really hard to believe that right now after the decision they made. Let's take a trip down to Bob Nightingale timeline, shall we? 11 hours ago today at this point. Before we, before we do this, I have to, I have to acknowledge that imagine how much easier our lives would have been the last week and a half. If we all just unfollowed. all of the big baseball writers breaking the news, except

Jeff Passon, and then maybe Ken Rosenthal and Evangrelic. Evan Drill did nothing. He deserves, yeah, you don't unfollow him, but... Right, right. They're fine. But the problem is that some of these other reporters there's just...

All right, so... Earlier today, while I was out at minor league minicamp, Bob Nightingale tweeted something that excited me. He said, if an agreement is reach the tentative plan is for opening day to be april six through the seventh with the regular season extended by three days the other missed games from the week long delay would be made up in double headers during the season meaning all 162 fucking baseball games would be played right that's what

that meant right then some more tweets about eight hours ago from when we recorded this, he tweeted out, MLB is now beginning to study the player unions formal written response to MLB's last offer. And that, again, got very excited. Then he said, deja vu, another marathon negotiating session one night, followed by another day of little progress. The next, the international draft is still that huge boulder standing in the way of these talks. What? When did it go from being? we're about to the the pro the didn't he just say the tentative plan and now of a sudden there's little progress not a few hours a few hours go by they talk about where they're at

and essentially we get around to bob tweeting out MLB has just canceled another week of games until at least April 14th so the first two weeks and a few days have been canceled from the MLB season. I don't know how to feel about this. The MLBPA sent out a statement. They said the owner's decision to cancel additional games is completely unnecessary after making a set of comprehensive proposals to the league earlier this afternoon and being told substantive substantive.

too. Substantative. I can't. I can't. I just can't even talk. I can't read. Responses with forthcoming. Players have yet to hear back. Players want to play and we cannot wait to get back on the field for the best fans in the world. Our top priority remains the finalization of a fair contract for all players

and we will continue negotiations toward that end. I find it funny whenever they just capitalized players. I know it's the players Association, but... Like they're like a deity or something. Like they're gods. Yeah. Like, that's definitely the feeling I get from that.

Aside from the fact I can't read, any surprises there, Jesse, as far as the player's response. Yeah. This not happening. They're surprised. Any of this, I mean... They're right, Derek. They're so right. It was completely

unnecessary for Major League Baseball to do that. These deadlines, as we talk, about yesterday have been like oddly effective and that somehow these have been the nights that were staying up until you know well past midnight waiting for something to happen because the sides are negotiating for 17 consecutive hours or whatever it is so they have been effective in a sense but but major league baseball basically just major league baseball is like they're setting these deadlines that are really just arbitrary deadlines at the end of the day and then when their deadlines pass, they're like actually inflicting the, the unnecessary ramifications of these deadlines

that they are fabricating themselves. Like, there is no reason for them to have gone out and, and canceled an entire week of games. I mean, maybe you have to cancel one series or something. I understand that, you know, days are going by on the calendar. And by the time people listen to this, it's March 10th. And opening day theoretically is three weeks away, right? Like, we have to make sure the players have the time that they need to ramp up and whatnot. But it was just unnecessary to come out and cancel a full week of games, especially because you had an offer on the table that they just for some reason decided they weren't even going to entertain.

The other part of this, though, Derek, is that spring training, I really, and I mean, I don't really feel this as much because for the time being, I'm up here in the Northwest and I'm not there. but spring training is one of the greatest parts about being an Arizona. And for yet another season, the third consecutive season, it is going to be completely fractured to the point where I don't even know if there's going to be much to see. I know there's going to be some games whenever this deal does happen.

There's still probably going to be a couple weeks of spring training games that will happen in Arizona. Governor Doug Ducey spoke about how he's been reassured of that. but it's not going to be, you know, the six weeks of awesomeness that we are all accustomed to. And that's another thing that is a direct result of what happened today. Well, and I will have some more information about that coming shortly over at go phtnx.com. If you're not already a member, sign up to become a member now. You can get Jesse's breakdown of Ken Kendrick's spending and how that's impacted this team for the better or for the worst.

considering especially he was one of the only owners, one of four, that proceeded to vote against the MLB's best and final offer, that obviously was not their final offer. If you sign up now to become a member over at go phtonx.com, you can get an annual membership and I'll get your free t-shirt over at the p.m.x locker.com. Obviously, I've talked about how great our t-shirts are. I don't know how much more I can sell them. I wear them all the time. I have one underneath this incredibly comfy hoodie that I'm wearing right now. This hoodie was given to me by Megaran from his All-Star NBA journey that he took on behalf of PHNX. But I am wearing my PHNX shirt underneath it. I'm showing it to the camera so Jesse can see. But I don't.

It's real people. I know you guys can't see it. It's fine, but I'm still doing it. I want you to understand that these shirts are incredible. I wear them all the time. And of course, you can get yours over. at p hnx locker.com, you can get a free one by signing up for the annual membership. And if you're not interested in that, you can get the monthly membership.

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sunshirts over at the PHNX locker for members only. And again, best value that you can get. Not only do you get that free t-shirt, you get all of me and Jesse's content, all of this beautiful, wonderful content. Jesse had a great piece. Like I said, I have something coming. Some very interesting information on the economic impacts

of spring training on the Arizona area at the very least in cities here. And I don't know. I don't know if still having those games is going to be the same effect. It's not because a big part of it from my understanding is the tourism that's brought in, right? The fact that people do fly in from other areas to watch these spring training games. The local, I guess, tourists, as you could say, that travel across town, you know, to watch games. Because that, I mean, that's something you could say, right?

Like somebody that's not necessarily going to go out to Maryvale that lives in Phoenix or Scottsdale. that's still somebody that's traveling and probably going to eat over there and spend money in a different town. It's great and all, but it still pales in comparison to what, you know, people that fly into town and stay here do not only for this state, but also for these small cities that are so strongly impacted by this spring training time of the year. It's there. You know, we've talked about it a bunch, but it's their Christmas. You know, it's their Black Friday, if you will. It's the time that people come into town and spend and stay in local, you know, close places to the, to the ballparks as far as like hotels and things like that, restaurants, all of that.

It's all impacted by this. But of course, I also have to tell you guys something because not only is Blue Gatorade, the official sponsor of this podcast. It's the official gatorade of the P HNX podcast. But we have a brand new sponsor, Jesse, that I need to tell you all about. I am very proud to say that Derek Montia is proudly sponsored by Espos. Wow. The best name and host on the PHNX Suns podcast,

which, again, is the finest podcast on the PHNX network. Use code ESPO at checkout at the PHNX Locker.com. for a surprisingly 0% off discount that you can get on our merchandise. I'm required to read that because ESPO paid me $10 to. I just thought I would let everybody know just for transparency reasons. What did you use the $10 for? I used it on this slot machine, Jesse, that's back here in the corner.

That's what I used it. Oh, okay. And that's also because very early this morning, ESPO contacted me through our work slack. You know, the thing we use for work, we're supposed to message each other for critical updates, things we need to know about work, important assignments and such.

And he let me know that this was available on the Facebook marketplace. So he found it. He found this for me. Wow. He found this for me and told me how much I needed to own it. So that started the tale, that started the journey, that started the adventure of me contacting Jerry,

who is the owner of this very special Arizona. Did we get a story from Jerry? Did we know why Jerry owned this thing in the first place? So Jerry basically purchased it at a sports auction for a lot of money. We will say close to 10 times the amount that I paid for it today. Jerry tried it out at the auction. Apparently, the machine worked.

Everything was good. They gave Jerry a large bag of coins to take home with the slot machine. So for which you could put in the machine. I thought at first, Jesse, to be honest, glancing at them that they were actual silver dollars. So my first thought was, did I just get paid money to take the slot machine? The coins are more valuable than the machine. I don't know. A big bag of silver dollars he sent me on my way with after I purchased this machine.

But he clearly stated and very posted very honestly in his message that there was something wrong with it. He didn't know what was wrong with it. But it did plug in. It did light up. And it was a very beautiful machine. So I contacted Jerry. The first thing this wonderful man did was try to talk me. of purchasing it not really talking out of purchasing it but he tried to really warn me that it didn't

work right to which i understood i knew what i was buying it for i was buying it for this podcast because again much like me showing you the shirt i'm wearing underneath this sweatshirt right now i'm showing you how in the corner you can see the slot machine and you can't even really see it the lights are too bright on the machine itself for it's come across on the camera good and everything like that but i thought it would make a great visual on camera. So that's why I paid $100 American dollars for this slot machine. Jerry then needed me once again to know that it does not work. And he couldn't get it out of reset mode is what he called it.

Oh, interesting. So I asked him where he wanted to meet. I set up, you know, the essential drug deal deal on Facebook, you know, on the Facebook marketplace. And he actually was kind enough to meet me. at Salt River Fields, considering I was going out there for minicamp today. Oh, wow. It was great. Once again, by the way, yeah, the guys doing batting practice.

There's an epic shot. If any of you haven't seen it, Derek took an epic photo today. It's pretty good. You captioned it like the future or something like that. And it's Corbyn Carroll and who else is in that picture? Alec Thomas, Domcan zone, and Patino is also in that. Who's in their top 30 ranked outfielders as well. Yep.

Yep. Yeah, pretty, pretty epic, pretty epic photo. So honestly, PHNX underscore Dbacks is worth the follow just for because like no one else posts any pictures or videos that we can really tell from. It's so weird. Like I've seen some pretty fantastic like the Diamondbacks account just posted a fantastic video that was very short of I'm guessing kind of like a preview of something they're working on. but like they seem to have some pretty incredible, you know, camera work and access. I don't know why they're not giving you more.

I would like more from the D-Backs account during this minor league thing. And maybe that's it. Maybe it's because it's the D-Bax account. And these are more minor league accounts. Meanwhile, I'm out here not to pat myself on the back, a fool of Barry Horowitz over here. But they, I'm posting pictures and videos that are getting retweeted by the minor league teams because they're they're not here and they don't have the access to right

and i'm sure they would love to retweet high quality pictures and videos and images and such from the debacks account but they're not posting them right so and now and now uh fans can come that's right take their own pictures and videos theoretically and no i mean honestly the fan presence is great out out there everybody seems to be like this big crowd gathers as the intra-squad game takes place. And it's this combination of some of the younger players who stuck around, even though they're not in the intra-squad game to watch it. It seems to be like family members, fans, you know, media,

a couple of us are out there, right? But, yeah, I mean, you even still have the eye of Brent Strom, who was right next to me, Tori Lavallo, Mike Hazen, all these guys are out there. Yeah. They can't do anything. They can't talk to anybody. You know, and the players are very...

They can't talk to the players, even? No, they can't. Even the minor league players. They can't talk to them. They're not allowed to talk to the minor league players. They don't make any contact with them, but they're fully watching everything they're doing. And the thing is, is they can still make contact with the minor league coaches, I believe. so if they need to like pass something along,

I'm sure that just goes down to the tree to the coach that would handle that guy or whatever a little bit. Can they talk to each other? Yeah, yeah, oh yeah. Can they talk to their families? Can they talk to their wives? That I don't know. I don't know who we can talk to.

I don't know who they can talk to. I don't know anything anymore, Jesse. It's just got to be so awkward. I mean, imagine being a 19 or 20-year-old coming into mini-camp, excuse me, and you just have a bunch of the major league coaches surrounding you, and yet you can't say a word to them. It's like, don't make eye contact. Don't, like, it just has to be a very uncomfortable situation for them.

Bryce Jarvis had a really awkward answer because someone had asked him about Brent Strom, and he like, I don't know if he was coached to say it, and it's not true. I don't know. I don't want to speculate that he's lying, but he was very firm on the fact that he hasn't spoke to spoke to brett strom almost too firm like the way you would overcommit to like no no i haven't talked to him at all i haven't i haven't talked to him i've talked to everybody but i haven't talked to him yeah i mean that could i mean if he's not allowed to then yeah he doesn't want to be on record saying that he that he did talk to him so i gave him a lot of credit right because he gave us a

pretty honest answer about this situation. And he talked about how he felt like, you know, he obviously was in favor of what the Players Association is fighting for, considering that he is that next generation of player that's coming up that they're trying to make baseball better for, right? Like they're trying to leave the game better than they found it. And that's how the players right now are viewing this entire negotiation process. I've had to explain this so many people about how weird it is that like some of the wealthiest players in baseball are the ones arguing on behalf of the young guys. Yeah.

Those guys. And also like like Max Scherzer, let's face it is also arguing on behalf of of Steve Cohen, his owner, who he who he probably absolutely adores and he wants to make sure that the highest CBT threshold is as high. as can possibly be to make sure that his owner is not de-incentivized from spending absurd amounts of money, which I imagine there's really nothing that anyone could do to stop Steve Cohen at this point. I think the thing is, is that they, here's really what it is. And before we get into that, I don't want to get into that. We're going to tease you on that one. But before we get into that, I just want to remind you that Draft King's Sportsbook is the official sports betting partner,

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new customers only, minimum $5 deposit. Eligibility restrictions apply. see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. And yes, Jesse, I have this crazy theory that I think is probably more correct. And I think a lot of the CBT threshold might just be more about impacting teams like the Diamondbacks. How so? Well, as you very eloquently revealed in your article about the Diamondbacks spending, the Diamondbacks have seen more success at times from spending less than they have from spending more.

With that being said, you pair that with the fact that they get usually money from the CBT, right? The profit sharing from the fact that the Dodgers are one of the biggest offenders of going over the CBT. what incentivizes the Diamondbacks to spend more? What incentivizes them to be more competitive? When they can just lay in the cut, wait for the Dodgers to overspend, not really concern themselves with how full the ballpark is, and just continue to make money off of a team that lost 110 games plus, right?

Yeah. A team that can continue to maybe lose games for the time being. Right. I think if they with the raising of the CBT threshold, it might just be more about not providing the teams that don't spend with that money from the teams that do, right, which is then going to take their game plan and require them to change it in order for them to be financially successful if they're not receiving that revenue sharing.

Now, I don't know how much money the Diamondbacks received necessarily from that. But at times with the Dodgers and in some of these other divisions, like if you're in the division with the Yankees, you know, if you're if you're in the division with the Mets right now, for instance, that that doesn't seem to be something that, or that seems to be something that's quite beneficial to you as a team that doesn't spend money. Yeah, yeah. I think it's a, it's definitely a much smaller amount of money than teams receive from just the general revenue sharing pool, you know, that brings in. just revenue from the league that's just shared across all 30 teams. That's a much, much bigger amount of money. Last year, as we've talked about, only the Dodgers and the Padres or offenders, as far as the CBT threshold is concerned,

and only two teams paying that tax, you split that money up over the rest of the league. You're probably talking about a couple million bucks or something like that. At the end of the day, is not a huge number. But I think you're absolutely right in that the, the aversion to, you know, higher CBT thresholds definitely comes from teams like the Diamondbacks because they know that there's a lot of owners, probably about a third of the league has

owners that are willing to spend right up to that threshold, but not go over it. There were a number of teams that were within a few million dollars of it this past season. And people like Ken Kendrick know that those owners, you know, if that number if that threshold goes up 20 million, all those teams are going to spend 20 more million. I mean, you can just about bet the bank on that. And then the spending gap between those teams on the debacks, right?

It widens even further. Right. And baseball has a competitive balance problem, right? We have some teams spending 40 million a year and some teams spending 250, right? This is not news to anyone. And it's a very fair problem. point from the owner's side of things that like look is this really good for baseball to increase that number all the more obviously the ideal outcome is that all the owners just jump on board

and everyone is spending you know 200 million dollars that's what the players ultimately want but in reality that's just not going to happen whether it should happen or not it's just not going to happen it's why a floor was never part of these negotiations at all a floor i mean that was the very first thing that MLB came up with. And we are far, far away from the days of that being on the table. But you can understand how it kind of makes sense, right? Like if there's a $100 million floor, suddenly it's going to close the gap significantly between spending from those smaller market teams and spending from some of the big market teams. The problem is that the players know that the big money is with Steve Cohen and with, you know, the ownership.

group of the Dodgers and the Red Sets. Like that's where they know they're going to make their money. And so they're trying to appeal to the top, trying to get those owners to feel unhinged, like they can spend whatever they want to rather than, you know, tying, I don't know the name of the Pirates owner, but whoever it is trying to tie their hands to spend another, you know, 30 or 40 million dollars when that's not really something that they want to do. I'm pretty sure you named them in your article that you wrote. For your op hnx.com.

Ironically, I didn't because I named the four people who opposed the best and final proposal from last week. And what's weird is that not all of them, they're not the people you'd expect to see. One of them is the angels owner. Yeah. Well, come on. Who is who, yeah, I mean, people don't really like Art Moreno. But, um, but he is, the angels spend a lot of money. I mean, they sign Anthony Rendon to a monstrous contract, right?

So the Angels are not necessarily a small market team. And yet he was in there. I think the Tiger's owner was in there, the Diamondbacks owner. I want to say the Reds owner was the other one. It's not the raise, the A's and the Pirates or the Orioles. You know, it's not the guys you would. It's not the teams with the worst record. Right.

And even the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks are also not one of the, totally bottom spending teams. As I talk about in my article, Ken Kendrick's spending is actually pretty close relative to his revenue to what everyone else in the league is spending. So even the Diamondbacks being in there is not necessarily what you would expect. They're not one of the two or three, you know, most unwilling teams to spend money.

Well, we'll see if anything exciting comes from this week. it still feels like something is is happening i have we might we might be in new york in about a month der we might jesse and i might have to travel to new york to open the season and that would definitely not be the worst thing no offense to the fine people of milwaukee but probably it's a bit of a travel upgrade a bit of a bit of a bit of a travel upgrade so we thank you guys so much for checking out the show you can follow us on twitter i'm at cap underscore caveman with a Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show, which is the

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