TuesdoLinks: Murray Re-Writes The Rules

We need to book mark this whole Kyler Murray episode. For a long time, I think it is going to serve as a valuable touchstone into how MLB and MLB owners act aggressively to write rules that control payroll costs at the youth end. And that their willingness to re-write those rules when it serves their own needs shows just how weak are the fundamentals are that justify those rules. More below.

Still fighting a head cold. NyQuil —> DayQuil —> NyQuil = that’s the end up of Big Thinking to open the Links today. You guys go to it, though,

with these Rainy-Day--HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Zack Cozart. Don’t forget about Cozart...........

Bourjos/Grichuk for Freese/Salas? Yeah, a fair trade among middle-of-the-road players. Because of their being middle-of-the-road............

Sheryl Ring of FanGraphs reviews the extension between the Angels and the City of Anaheim, wondering why the extension is so short? The theory is that this is plenty of time, now that there is a more friendly city government. But Anaheim is not going to give anything away, nor are they going to pay for any new stadium. And, as the article points out, over the past few years Arte has been surrounded more and more by other ventures eating into his potential upside. I find it interesting that Ring closes with the same thought experiment I had: all this just in time for Arte to exploit the Portland opening?............

Everywhere In Baseball

Kyler Murray did the obvious thing, filing to enter the NFL draft. This means nothing to his MLB options other than continuing to hold Oakland’s feet to the fire. It has more to do his being a redshirt Junior at University of Oklahoma. He is officially foregoing his senior year of college, is all that Monday meant. And that was of zero surprise.....What I did NOT realize yesterday, was that the MLB Front Office sent a contingent right along that of the A’s to chat with Murray and talk him into sticking with his baseball future. Now THAT is very interesting. First, it shows how much leverage a prospect really can have once you strip away all the controls that ownership has created over their inventory of 27-year old and younger employees. We have talked a lot on these pages about the recent tide of moving money away from players with seniority (mostly 30-something Free Agents looking to get paid for what they no longer are, or won’t be for much longer) over to that large groups of 20-somethings that are locked up in underpaying contract structures. Kyler Murray is exhibit B as to what the true value of a 20-something should be (Exhibit A was Rick Reichardt, whose auction caused the whole draft system in the first place.)..........

Quick factoid: Kyler Murray’s uncle was the batter at the plate when Randy Johnson destroyed a bird..........

So, yes, we do need to brainstorm our way to a better acquisition, development, and compensation system for Major League Baseball......Too bad the players are far, far from being prepared with any ideas about this right now.....I’ll get right on that............

Up until a couple of weeks ago, the idea that Russell Martin is HoF worthy would have made me chuckle. But then Harold Baines happened...............

MLB is still working on diversity in hiring. I keep writing that line. I wonder what year it will be when I get to stop writing that line?.........

Broadcaster Rod Allen takes down broadcaster Mario Impemba over the use of a particular chair, and it’s nothing more than “a baseball brawl”............

Yeah. This is the way an information services becomes “legitimate”: shutting down comments from the readership, as Barstool is doing. “Legitimate”, my ass. From my POV, writing without feedback merely allows the writer to live in a world without challenge, convincing that writer that they are immutably correct. That’s the MSM ego and arrogance that has felled the newspaper industry. You guys keep doing you...........

Rest In Peace, Mel Stottlemyre...........

Hot Stove

As I led with yesterday, the Manny Machado and Bryce Harper signing processes are nearing a conclusion, and things are getting hot and heavy. The information being bandied about can be conflicting and rumors are not to be trusted. But we can get a general sense. The notion that the Nationals went to Vegas and upped their offer for Harper has been refuted. The Nats are sticking to their original offer, considering it fair.......The same can be said of the White Sox and Machado, with the ChiSox sticking to the offer they made to Manny two weeks ago.....That offer could be for 8 years. Or maybe it was just for 7 years. But note how details are now starting to get out into the public airwaves. That is a sign of crunch time..........

Avisail Garcia is getting signed by the Rays.....About $6 million, all in.......

And the Giants are hanging on to Derek Holland.....And Derek Holland might be decent again..........

Deadspin wants to remind everybody that The Man is evil, leading off with a pretty mind-numbing stat that “league-wide revenues hit a staggering $10.3 billion last year, nearly quintupling since 1992 even after accounting for inflation”. Yeah, let’s go back nearly 40 years to figure out a large net growth. And, to be frank, the company I work for, all by it’s lonesome, generates 8 times what MLB does. So $10 billion does not impress me. But don’t give up. Keep reading! Because the author actually goes on to point out that there are rational factors behind the players’ payroll challenges today. Sure, we have to think about them and figure them out, but they don’t need to add up to “collusion”...........Unless you are a player agent. Then everything is collusion............

The Duffle Bag

reddit gives us the alert that a new high quality video of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig was posted on YouTube. It IS brilliant..............Job postings! Sports Info Solutions needs a video intern. Isn’t that code for “watch TV”?...........The Tampa Bay Rays are looking to hire an R&D slave intern...........If you have ever been to a Phillie’s Best sub shop and spent time reading the decor, you know that this list of Philadelphia-themed stuff is severely lacking............If Kyler Murray can play NFL and MLB, why can’t Baker Mayfield?...........