Newsletter Excerpt, February 5, 2020 -- "The Mookie Betts Trade"

This is a preview of 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 nearly 25 years.

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 "Just for 2020, this trade doesn’t make the Red Sox a lot worse. It makes them a little worse, albeit in a range where the marginal wins they’re giving up affect their wild-card chances. It caps their ceiling while saving them perhaps $60 million in salary and tax payments, as well as resetting their penalty structure in future years. The Red Sox only traded 2020 Mookie Betts; they didn’t have the 2021-2028 version. Evaluating this trade as if they did, as if employing that version was simply a matter of choice, is an error."

Newsletter Excerpt, February 4, 2020 -- "Hard LABR"

This is a preview of 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 nearly 25 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.

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"Tonight I’ll be returning to the draft table as part of LABR, specifically the 15-team mixed-league draft I took part in a year ago. That team started well but finished [redacted], despite picks as successful as Stephen Strasburg (4.7), Jeff McNeil (18.7) and Mike Soroka (21.9). I had injury issues, but not as bad as many other teams did. I did make a couple of costly in-season mistakes that tied my hands and led to a slow fade in the second half."

Newsletter Excerpt, January 31, 2020 -- "Kris Bryant"

This is a preview of 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 nearly 25 years.

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"The larger conversation, though, has shifted to give equal treatment, even primacy, to the player's best interests. What’s missing from the above is whether the Cubs’ decision is fair to Bryant, in part because it’s obvious that it isn’t. It’s good now that there are voices that are more vocal in pointing out just how unfair it is. I don’t think those voices are representative of most baseball fans -- fans root for teams, and then players, and at that only if the players are productive and not overly expensive and don’t act in their own self-interest -- but they’re certainly a larger minority than they were five years ago."

Newsletter Excerpt, January 28, 2020 -- "Starling Marte and the Diamondbacks"

This is a preview of 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 nearly 25 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.

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"The Diamondbacks have bled as much talent as any team in baseball of late, yet they still put competitive, watchable teams on the field. In a different context, one without a minor dynasty in their way, we’d be talking about them as a sleeper for 2020. As is, they’re going to be one of the most interesting teams in baseball, and if they can improve the bullpen -- a concern throughout this run of theirs -- they can even give the Dodgers a small scare."

Newsletter Excerpt, January 24, 2020 -- "Marcell Ozuna and the Braves"

This is a preview of 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 nearly 25 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.

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"This is what you can do when you have a homegrown core that makes almost nothing. Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuña, Jr., Mike Soroka, Ozzie Albies, and Dansby Swanson combined for 21 bWAR and less than $24 million in salary last year. The latter number will jump to about $28 million this year. Throw in Max Fried and, come 2021, the outfielders, and the Braves are going to have a young, inexpensive core for some time to come. If signing Gerrit Cole or Anthony Rendon is a bridge too far for Liberty, picking off good players on one-year deals is a pretty good backup plan."

Newsletter Excerpt, January 22, 2020 -- "The Leftovers"

This is a preview of 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 nearly 25 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 $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"If we get through next December, though, all that waits a year after that is...Alex Rodriguez, whose 'anonymous' positive drug test led to a witch hunt by one commissioner, and David Ortiz, whose 'anonymous' positive drug test was handwaved away by the next commissioner. We’re headed for a 2022 voting cycle that features Omar Vizquel and the Four Horsemen of the PEDocalypse. The meteor has 23 months to get here."