Sports in LA gets more challenging for Arte Moreno by the minute. He lost his window to take over LA County the instant that the Guggenheim partners bought out Frank McCourt and stabilized ownership. TV sports networks have been popping up on every side of him but the West (where there is nothing but the Pacific Ocean). And now the NFL is coming back to town, with a new stadium no less. And the dudes bringing their sports franchises into Arte's neighborhood are some seriously well-funded guys. Arte is flummoxed by the thought of going over the luxury tax by a few million bucks. And now he finds himself up gainst the Guggenheim partners AND a Wal-Mart fortune. Plus the Spanos family fortune. All in a town owned by the Buss family Lakers, with the Paul Allen Clippers nipping at their heels. Arte is absolutely overmatched. Maybe he can focus on keeping an edge over the MLS Galaxy or something.
But, hey, if the Chargers come north to join the Rams in a new joint-tenant stadium, Dodge Motor Company will be especially pleased.
Have some cross-marketing Links:
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Everywhere In Baseball
Rocky Roads: The scuttlebutt is for the Rockies to now trade Charlie Blackmon because, after signing Gerardo Parra, they have one too many starting outfielders. And, of course, the Angels rank as the most desperate for an outfielder, and equally desperate to avoid that Free Agent signing which pushes the franchise over the luxury tax threshold. But what if the next big move by the Rockies is not Charlie Blackmon, but Carlos Gonzalez? And what if that trade is with the Angels? And what if what goes back is not Nick Tropeano? What if it's Tyler Skaggs?...........
Blue Skies: You have to admit, the LA Dodgers' front office brain trust gets smarter and smarter every year. Andrew Friedman (ex-GM of the Rays), Josh Byrnes (ex-GM of the Padres) and Farhan Zaidi (Assistant GM of the A's, behind Billy Bean) went over in 2014. Now they add Alex Anthopoulos, recent GM of the Blue Jays. And they still have Ned Colletti, who was GM of the Dodgers. That is some serious experience and brain trust, right there..........
Arby's: Josh Donaldson is up for arbitration. So are Dallas Keuchel, Lorenzo Cain, Manny Machado, Matt Harvey Stephen Strasburg...and...Garrett Richards. We might see some pretty impressive arbitration awards over the next few weeks. Most interesting to me is Donaldson. The Blue Jays trumped him last year, his first arb year. That was supposed to be used as his baseline for arbitration bumps going forward, but then Donaldson went out and won the AL MVP award and all that. MLB Trade Rumors is projecting him out for something like $10-$12million. But, you know, the Blue Jays are in excellent shape overall. Thanks to that Anthopoulos dude that just went to the Dodgers. Certainly must better shape than Arte Moreno.........By the way, here is a refresher on the Arbitration system...........
Hola!: It's no longer an option. MLB has imposed a new rule on all teams requiring a Spanish language translator full-time. Players from Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Australia are on their own...........
Back to Earth: The home run ball that Kyle Schwarber launched int he NLDS against the Cards, which originally landed atop a video board and was encased there, has been brought back down, unceremoniously.............
World Series Whiner: Fangraphs team projections end up parking the Royals at coming in at under .500 for 2016. So this should make for good motivational bulletin board material in the KC clubhouse. Well, KC, the line forms over there............
Commish Rehash: Ex-Commissioner Fay Vincent had a few things to say yesterday. I Love his clarification of PEDs use/abuse and the ban. "It’s a common misunderstanding that steroids were not banned in baseball until much later. They were banned by Congress. What I did was say, ‘Because they’re banned by Congress, we are gonna be bound by those restrictions, and steroids are gonna be a problem." The reason I love that is because of how so many times some folks like to bark about how steroids were not illegal until such-and-such a time. But there is more juice there, especially on the hands of the Player's Union..............
R.I.P. Monte Irvin: Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, the guy Branch Rickey originally tried to sign to break the MLB color barrier, died yesterday at the age of 96.
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