Friday, November 30, 2018

Newsletter Excerpt, November 30, 2018: "Hidden Revenue Sharing"

This is an excerpt from the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for more than 20 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $39.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"That money, that baseline guaranteed cash that is more about the media and advertising landscape than anything baseball has done itself, is the single biggest driver of competitive imbalance today. Too many teams take that money and lock in a guaranteed profit. For almost all of baseball history, a team’s bottom line was connected to its performance on the field. Slowly, and now more rapidly, that is not the case. Just having a franchise is enough to be in the black. No, $60 million alone doesn’t do that, but that $60 million, which is created unequally and shared equally, is enough that you can do the bare minimum locally and carry no financial risk."

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Newsletter Excerpt, November 20, 2018: Mariners/Yankees Trade

This is an excerpt from the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for more than 20 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $39.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"So trading Paxton was the right decision, and it will presumably be followed by more trades. Edwin Diaz is a perfect trade candidate, a reliever who has been worked hard and who is coming off a strong season. The 2019-20 Mariners don’t need a brand-name closer, and I’m pretty sure we’ve seen more than half of Diaz’s career WAR already. If he’s still here on Opening Day, it’s a mistake.

"I’d shop Jean Segura (29 next year, signed through 2022) as well. There’s a limit to how low the payroll can go, with Cano, Hernandez, and Seager all probably immovable, but this is now an exercise in acquiring value for 2021 and beyond. Jerry Dipoto took the first, hardest step; let’s see if he keeps walking."