The New Labor Agreement in Baseball
The news of this agreement passing happened in an almost surreal way. With the NBA shutting itself down and the NFL barely coming to agreement to play this year, baseball has skipped along and formed a labor agreement that avoids a work stoppage through at least 2016. This was a refreshing outcome for fans. And when you read the details of the agreement, you almost wonder if the players read the actually agreement that they agreed to.
The highlights:
1) testing for human growth hormone, no more smokeless tobacco usage on camera or in view of the fans and players who get DUI’s have to undergo a mandatory evaluation with the league. There are loopholes in all of this, especially the HGH testing, but it is amazing to me that the players would agree to this type of invasion on their personal lives. I mean, they’ve never agreed to any of this before. Why now?
2) limits of bonuses for players drafted out of high school and college as well as limits on bonuses for foreign players. Whhhhhhaaaat? How the Hell did this get slipped in so easily? I would think that if Scott Boras, who pretty much designed and defined this side of the baseball world, would have given two huge thumbs down to anything with the words “limit” and “bonus” in the same sentence. Obviously he doesn’t vote, but he represents so many players I have to believe he was screaming at them to kick this provision out of the deal. And yet there it is, plain as day. I wasn’t able to find what the limits are and maybe they haven’t been identified yet. Either way, this will be great for baseball. It should encourage all teams to develop their scouting departments, especially internationally, and allow more teams to compete for the best and the brightest young foreign players. Huge, HUGE win for Yoenis Cespedes, who is going to get a gynormous bonus that future players will only dream of getting. Excellent provision in the new deal…..
3) realignment–Houston is going to the AL. This was a known condition and it’s fine with me, I could care less about the Astros. It will lead to another wild card team, something I think is super cool. A 1 game playoff-sudden death-for all the marbles game to kick off the playoffs? Hell yeah, that will be awesome. And as many teams have proven over the last 10 years or so, getting into the playoffs is all you need to do to have a realistic chance of winning the world series. Every fan should appreciate this provision……..
4) maple bats will be prohibited for any player entering the league starting in 2013. I’m assuming this will be the beginning of the end of the use of maple bats. Since this is just affected new players it will be a long road towards total extinction, but at least it’s a start. Maple bats are deadly weapons and it’s a miracle that more players in the infield aren’t injured or even killed by them……
5) increased replay. This is just something that needs to happen in baseball. The ball gets hit so hard and the human eye can only catch so much. I’m 100% for replay in everything but calling balls and strikes. The new provision adds replay for fair/foul calls as well as balls that are trapped or not–huge, positive addition to the game.
There are other details, the minimum player salary gets bumped a little, etc, but these 5 major changes are what stood out for me. And now, on to a RGOTD search…….
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Today we take a look at August 25th. The Giants had just come back from a long 13 game east coast road trip. They managed to win the last 3 to nab 6 wins on the trip and they came home to a friday night diddy against the Expos. 15,368 showed up to welcome them home but it wasn’t enough as the Montreal banged out 16 hits and beat us 8-5.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Bravo for MLB! Labor peace is attainable.
Sounds good. Look, these guys should be happy to get whatever they get. Even the league minimum guys are compensated extremely well for playing a game they enjoy. 450k to work 7 months a year? Sweet gig.
Another sad reminder of Ed’s comment from the other day…Expos with 4 black players in the starting LU, including all 3 of their stellar OF. Baseball continues to be a tough sell, and with more players opting out of college earlier to play pro football as well as b-ball, I don’t see that trend turning around.
For SanDawg: Last night sports channel here had a “Kings Retro” game on, from I think Nov. 1987, with Barkley and Mo Cheeks Sixers vs. the Kings of Reggie Theus and Otis Thorpe (cool player) at Arco. Barkley (slimmer version in the shorter shorts) got 37 in a losing effort as Kings prevailed in OT.
What struck me was the ball and player movement. O sets started with at least one and often two down screens, followed by cross screen or single double action. If nothing happened right away, the ball would be reversed from top to other side of the floor, sometimes twice in one series. Players cut to the hoop, screened for each other and generally got more touches…so different from pro style of today, and more exciting imo.
As the Heat learned, there is really only one ball for all five on the floor…it’s just more fun and effective style to play (and watch) if you can share it unselfishly, and cut, move and screen to get open.
I don’t miss NBA one bit, they can shut down forever for all I care. The on the floor product is atrocious, compared to any prior decade of ball you want to compare, back to the ’60s. There’s very little ball movement any more. Back it down, either dunk it or kick out for a trey attempt. Defense? Yeah, if you call mauling and fouling defense. Handful of teams have a chance at the title. TV is geared to showcase half a dozen stars. The reffing is laughingly home-biased, atrocious, glaringly favors star players and teams, and is possibly rigged (Donaghy). I could go on. It’s horrible. I predict they’ll start playing in January. They’re realizing now that fewer and fewer give a fig whether Kobe hits a 15 footer on Christmas or May 1. And the players’ bling and Gold Club weekly budgets are shrinking…
NBA sucks…it’s the biggest farce in all of pro sports.
Dawson, Perez, Valentine, and Carter. The Elbows had a pretty tough lineup. Parrish was no slouch either.
Schatzeder? Didn’t he pitch for the Giants?
Chuck at Thanksgiving……”When’s the BLEEPING Turkey going to be ready?” “I’m hungry!” Someone in another room retorts…….Chuck replies……”Yes Dear!”
When are you going to open your turkey-in-a-can in your van down by the river, Nippy?
Kevin, I’m working on your request. Short take: I wouldn’t look for any the 40-man additions to have any impact this year. Culberson was thought to have turned the corner after finishing strong in 2010, but as with so many, AA ball threw a roadblock at his progress. This a second baseman with decent pop (10 HRs in Richmond) but 129 strike outs is way ugly. He’ll be 23 in April so he’s young enough but he needs to make major progress. I’d imagine he’ll start at Richmond again and he’ll either show he’s ready for a serious look in SF for 2013 or start to look like just another roster filler. More on the others later.
Oh, probably the most exciting prospect isn’t on the 40-reliever Heath Hembree. Depending on how it goes this year, Wilson may not be offered arb for 2013- he’s at 8.5M now. If Hembree has another good year, he could be our 2013 closer, or if Wilson has a monster 2012, Heath could be be setting him up in 2013. His FB is 97-99, they definitely think he’s the future closer.
Yeah, excited about Hembree. Reportedly among Sabean’s “untouchables”.
Kevin.. Angel next. I covered it the other day. He was already turning into a one tool prospect before his arrest. Generally, a couple years in the joint doesn’t have a guy ready to rejoin any top prospect list. He’s at the stage where he has to show he’s prospect at all anymore. But he’s only 21 so if both he and the team are commited, who knows? We should start to get a pretty good idea this spring.
Otero: another reliever who looks to be either a mop up guy in the bigs or AAA fixture. Low 90’s fastball, throws strikes. He’ll be 27 in February. Looks like he might be the 14th guy on a 12 man staff…
The need for a DH is apparent.
Hector Correa: the kid we got we got for catcher Paulino, former string bean reliever ( minor league pitching coordinator Bert Bradley had said “I’ve seen bigger arms on a snake)”…he’s beefed up some and added about 5 MPH on his heater and has become top relief prospect. Most likely ETA: 2013
Gone: Ford. Well, I guess his MLB highlight will be his first game… I was one who wanted him kept instead of Nate last year. I had plenty of company but I’m willing to take the hit for the rest: I was wrongo bongo.
Well, after he got hurt scoring the winning run in that A’s game, he wasn’t really heard from again.
That, and he can’t hit.
Looks like Grady is off the board…
Told you guys there was not a Ford in the Future. He’s fast? Yeah, and old for a minor league outfielder.
They never let him hit — big hint to what they thought of him…
Chevy is better!
Yeah, I just said I was wrong. If only I’d listened to you. I also do recall a few of your misses, however. Do you?
Snarkk never misses!
Best memory of Larry Herndon: he ran in from the outfield to cover a rundown or dropped ball in the INF, maybe at 3B. Crazy! I think I mentioned it to him in lockerroom in Pittsburgh. He was like, yeah, sure, whatever.
Larry never did much here- then he got traded to Detroit for Schatzeder and Mike Chris. Had a couple great years in Detroit. “Shatsie” and Chris were both godfriggingawful…I called it, of course. Darn it, I seem to misplaced the affidavit from my Mom.. the Retro game was on her Birthay, I was in Scottsdale visting so I missed the game. I remember I made one of my favorite party dishes- sort of a western style Peking Duck.
What about that meatloaf?
You’ve been craving meatloaf since we found out Ferret can’t make a good one, Nipper. Don’t you have anyone to make you some ? Poor guy.
Interesting that the players are allowing HGH testing. Also interesting that I heard today on the radio that there is rumored to be very effective masking agents now to hide HGH from testing discovery. Coincidence?…
Yeah but did you read the details of the HGH testing? A little weird. Only off season and during spring training, not during the regular season unless for “probable cause”.
No, Ted, didn’t know the details, sounds fishy. I dunno the specifics of how long HGH levels take to get back to “normal” after using the stuff, but I’m sure the MLBPA guys know — precisely. Nor do I know what “probable cause” means in that case, if not defined in the CBA. Maybe probably cause means in-season testing is required only if the team beat reporter posts to his blog that he saw a syringe sticking out of the player’s ass…
A likely scenario
Snarkk—the masking drugs are out there but they’re only available to the more well-off users, I think. I don’t know what they cost, but I know some monster-dudes at the gym who compete only in contests without testing because the masking drugs cost so much.
I was surprised to see that Schatzeder played for the Giants, even for just a year. He’s got such a unique name I’m surprised I don’t have at least a hazy memory of him………
Well, the minimum salary is now going to be just south of $500K. That’s probably enough, especially if that investment means you could make 10X that minimum if the HGH helps you crank doubles and jacks like Babe Ruth’s doppelganger…
The reason they are doing it in the off season (and that decision is not final yet), is because both the Players Union and Management are concerned about performance, i.e., anyone who has given blood or gone to have lab work done, knows that you might have symptoms of feeling queasy/weak afterwards. In short, they are asking whether players will be able to play a game the same day they give blood for HGH testing.
To which a doctor already replied the blood test would have zero effect. It’s a smokescreen
One doctor? LMAO.
Bullshit Ted . . . First, per the ESPN radio report I listened to, BOTH management and the players are concerned. Second, minimally, someone is asked specific questions about their medical history to make sure that taking blood from them is not hazardous to their health. The donor’s hematocrit or hemoglobin level is tested to make sure that the loss of blood will not make them anemic, and this check is the most common reason that a donor is ineligible. Pulse, blood pressure, and body temperature are also evaluated.
One other thing – have you ever had blood taken from you? Nurses frequently have difficulty finding a vein (especially true with females) and occasionally have to make numerous attempts when this happens. Not only is it traumatic, but it also bruises the arm . . . sometimes severely.
How do I know all this? I oversaw our employee medical surveillance/physical exam/drug testing program before I retired six years ago.
All together now: “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha”…..
Blade, I’ve had blood drawn lotsa times. My veins aren’t the easiest to find, I’ve had bruising. Big deal. Draw from the non-throwing arm, and do it AFTER a game so your poor arm has a day to recover if the phlebotomist was cross eyed. Everything in life has a risk — apparently unless for the next 5 years you’re a MLB player and you’re using HGH during the season…
Just reporting what I heard and I understand the concern both sides have, especially the players. Definitely not saying it can’t be done, but hypersensitive individuals will probably have to have a day or two to recover, for the reasons I cited.
Think of it this way – you’ve all probably heard of the “bell graph” affect, it applies to everything we do in life, i.e., 80% of the population falls into “normal;” 10% falls into extremely normal (or no effect); and, 10% of people are hypersensitive . . . Take ergonomics for example – put Lebron James in a 1960s era VW bug and he is going to be extremely uncomfortable, right? Conversely, put him in an SUV or large Mercedes and he will be at home (for more reasons than ergonomics I might add . . . grin). Same thing goes for just about anything in life that we are exposed to or buy, that’s why our homes, cars, air, water, and Safety/Health regulations are set to the 80 percent, not the extremes.
The steroid era is not over and never will be. If you think of MLB as Norton AntiVirus and the beady eyed guys in the labs as virus writers, that would be close. Almost everyone has a program or programs to detect the nasties- but there are new ones almost hourly. I’d think of the present period as a hiatus, perhaps…like it or not, PEDs are a technology of sorts- and that never goes backwards…
IMO.
Why do these beady-eyed fucks create and spew viruses out into the ether?
What personal jollies do they get from fucking up for a few days the computers and more generally, the lives, of people they don’t even know? I’m not talking about hackers with a political agenda, just your everyday “beady-eyed” fuck that creates a trojan or worm intended to do nothing but fuck with everybody’s computer…
Well, a lot is just money. The most common deal is getting a phony virus program pop up and tell you your computer is infected. It’s not yet but will be soon if you don’t stop what you’re doing and run a program like Malwarebytes, almost no AntiVirus programs catch these rogue programs. If one falls for the bogus program, it will run a bogus scan showing scads of viruses. But then you have to pay (typically 50-70 bucks) to have these phony viruses removed. But it’s all phony-nothing will be removed except the money from your card. I’ve read that a couple guys in a garage or Mommie’s spare room can pull in 10 grand a day. There also many phony sites that attempt to emulate Malwarebyes by aping their look. Here’ s a link to the real one. There’s a free version and a paid one. Unlike the ascams, the free one will detect AND remove malware. The differernce with the paid version is that it actively protects your PC. The free version will get rid of them but doesn’t prevent entry..
Here’s a example of bad this shit is- I just went to get the link for malwarebytes and the site itself seems to compromised. “Microsoft Security Essentials”, free from Microsoft a pretty good, you’d need uninstall any other AV program , It does have malware protection also. Here’s that link:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
One of the more powerful tools for a badly infected computer ( if you don’t do something about these rogue AV programs right away, system files will be corrupted and a PC can become non-functional in a day or two) is “Combofix”.Here’s a good site that has the download and a guide.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix
I should have known money was at the root of it. Creating viruses for shits and grins, however fucked up, seemed a bit more “adventuresome”, somehow…
Mike, you mentioned Malwarebytes . . . that sucker is a lifesaver – it probably comes up 1-2 times a day (right side lower corner), indicating that someone is trying to corrupt (not certain on the verbiage) my pc. This isn’t me going to the porn sites either . . . just normal browsing on what you would assume were legit sites.
I also let my Norton Anti-Virus expire this last October and went with your advice to load Avast antivirus. Works just as well, if not better and is less intrusive. Both Malwarebytes and Avast work in the background and are free. Couple that with a few utilities like CC Cleaner and Advanced System Care (both free) that I use weekly and the pc runs perfect.
Snarkk is against “beady-eyed” bleeps!
I appreciate that you let me know how your PC is doing, Steve. Craig has mentioned his often and we had a false alarm about a possible hard drive failure, turns out it was just a cable. Stix had probems, and I had his sent back here. There was nothing wrong with it but I replaced it anyway. Shipped that back and now he says this one won’t boot. I’m going to just get him something else after I get this back but I have to send him the money to send it back. Other than that I don’t hear anything, hope the others are enjoying them. I’m not looking for thank you’s, already got those. I just like to hear so if there are problems I can try to help. I don’t even remember who got them anymore.
Yogi periodically posts on the Splash, warning people that I did this to get E-Mail addresses. Geez, a few hundred bucks for an E-Mail address. I don’t think my scam is going to be overtaking the Nigerian 419 anytime soon.
Well, one of the cool side effects of HGH is to have nice fat veins popping out of your arms, so finding a vein to draw blood from is a piece of cake.
The loss of blood is minimal. They aren’t taking a pint (as in a donation that they would test for anemia) , merely a few cc’s to run the tests on.
I bet Chuck will have a “nice fat” turkey tomorrow. And if there is “a piece of cake” for dessert Chuck will down that too!
Garchik had a good one in today’s Chron; “Bob Sarlatte says the only downside to this month’s rescue of Washington Nationals catcher Wison Ramos is that it’ll be impossible to suggest trading the captured catcher for Barry Zito.”
SF declines to offer arb to Cody…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/11/23/sports/s211126S71.DTL&tsp=1
Off to brine a bird overnight.
Happy Thanksgiving Flappers….
Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving. Go Niners!