Call it a Salary Dump All You Want, Here's the Real Reason the Red Sox Traded Mookie Betts

Baseball’s offseason just keeps getting crazier.

Just weeks after the Los Angeles Dodgers learned that the two now ex-managers that have beat them in recent World Series, AJ Hinch and Alex Cora, are both a couple of dirty cheaters, they have completed a trade that should make any future sign stealing irrelevant.

In what was initially a three-team deal that included the Minnesota Twins, the Boston Red Sox have traded Mookie Betts and David Price to la-la-land for a bag of peanuts.

Okay, okay. It’s not quite that bad.

But it’s pretty bad. You’d think in any sport where one of the best five players in the world gets shipped off with a full year left on his deal, there would have to be a pretty impressive package headed back the other way.

That is very much not the case here.

The initial version of the trade had the Red Sox receiving prospect Alex Verdugo from the Dodgers, along with a young rocket arm pitching prospect named Brusdar Graterol from the Twins (with Kenta Maeda heading from LA to Minny). However, after concerns rose over Graterol’s physical, Boston tried to get Minnesota to sweeten the pot with another top-10 prospect from their pool, a request that was laughed out of existence. The deal was cancelled as a result, and the Twins and Dodgers made a separate deal to get Maeda to Minnesota.

Just a quick side note here… does anyone else think that Boston asked the wrong team for another player in the three-way version of this trade? Boston asked Minny to hand over another player despite Los Angeles getting Betts… seriously just how good is the guy negotiating for those Dodgers?

Moving on.

The new trade that is officially official has the Red Sox gaining Verdugo, a solid outfield prospect that has handled himself nicely in his limited MLB experience, but is still a guy that wasn’t even the best prospect the Dodgers had. With the new additions to the deal being Connor Wong, a young catcher with the athleticism to play in the field, but hasn’t played higher than Double A ball, and infielder Jeter Downs, another young prospect that blah blah blah…

Listen. I could try to talk about these guys based on what I’ve read. But I’ve got no idea who they are or what they can do. Baseball prospects are a total crapshoot, and “Jeter Downs” sounds more like a chant the Miami Marlins fan base is working on for next season than a guy that should be traded for Mookie Betts.

I know. I’m hilarious.

And now we arrive back at the point of this article. This is Mookie freaking Betts!

The move appears as a blatant salary dump by the Red Sox. Certainly there are arguments that can be made that getting rid of Betts and Price now is appropriate. Most importantly, Boston and Betts have never been close on contract extension talks. In fact, it’s been reported that Boston’s last attempt at re-signing the MVP winning outfielder failed with the two sides over $100 million apart in their offers… just a minor discrepancy there.

With Boston not willing to get close to Betts’ asking price, they appear to have done what all teams do in these situations, make sure you get at least something in return.

But given what that something ended up being, the first impression I was left with when I  heard the news is that the Red Sox hate David Price so much that they were willing to give up Betts for next to nothing, so long as Price went with him. They are actually now paying Price to play against them, as the Red Sox will pay roughly half of the $96 million Price is owed over the next three years.

No, that can’t be it. Strike one.

My next thought was this is Boston’s way of apologizing to the Dodgers for employing Alex Cora. “Hey, Dodgers, sorry our manager that led us to a title over you is now a proven cheater… here’s our best player and a past-his-prime starter… but don’t worry! We’ll throw in a ton of cash too as long as you give us some middling prospects.”

Strike two.

Alright, let’s try the salary dump idea. This is what the baseball world has settled on as the reasoning behind the deal. Baseball has no salary cap, but it does have the luxury tax threshold as a measure of keeping the league somewhat balanced. If a team eclipses the threshold they pay a penalty. But while those penalties are monumental sounding to you and me, they are relatively meaningless to the clubs that are willing to surpass the threshold… clubs like the Boston Red Sox.

Baseball analysts mostly agree that the deal was nowhere close to what it should have been for Boston, but many feel that they were wise at least to get all that money off the books so that they can start somewhat fresh.

But here’s the thing. Guys like Mookie Betts don’t come around very often. He is a Hall of Fame caliber player in his prime, and money is no object to this club. The Red Sox are no strangers to exceeding the luxury tax threshold. They could have easily opened their pocketbook more for Betts, and given the $330 million that Bryce Harper got they knew damn well that the $300 million over ten years they were offering Betts was never going to fly.  

And I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the Red Sox are filthy rich. Some seem to be okay with the team moving on from a guy that they couldn’t agree on a price with, citing a trade as the only course of action that made sense. But I’m pretty sure the people of Boston would agree that their ridiculously wealthy club should have just paid the man.

So why didn’t they?

Baseball fans know the market price for all-world talents. Remember, the Angels just gave Mike Trout half a billion to man center in Anaheim for the rest of his career. And furthermore, Boston always pays. After all, these are the guys that gave David Price $217 million in the first place despite the fact that he had done nothing but choke come playoff time. They have a top-5 payroll every year. They won the World Series two years ago, and they don’t take years off. They had a golden goose in Betts, and the resources to keep building their dominant organization around him, and all of a sudden they’re sellers? All of a sudden they are content with spending less and letting world-class players walk out the door?

The Red Sox can talk all they want about wanting to be below the luxury tax threshold. But this team makes so much damn money no matter what they do, and they have demonstrated a proclivity for spending as much as they want on whomever they want for decades. They have won four titles in fifteen years, and suddenly they want to be economical and give away the best player they’ve had in ages for pennies on the dollar?

To me, that’s a crock of you know what.

And therefore, to the idea of a salary dump, that would be strike three, and you’re out.

Teams like Boston don’t move away from guys like Betts to save money. If Betts was in Tampa, Miami, or Oakland this would be an entirely different conversation.

But he wasn’t. He was in Boston. With a team that according to Forbes is worth about $3.2 billion, good for the 12th richest sports franchise on the planet.

So you can call it a salary dump all you want, but it just doesn’t add up. I have searched my soul, along with the internet, for an answer that makes sense, but was unable to uncover one. Fortunately for you readers, I have the real answer, as there is only one possible explanation I can think of that even makes the slightest bit of sense for Boston’s reasoning behind this trade. Mookie Betts is now a Dodger for one reason and one reason only:

The Red Sox are terrified of the Yankees.

This argument coincides nicely with the tanking epidemic that has plagued Major League Baseball in recent years. Teams profit no matter what they do. So more and more we are witnessing teams choose to lose now in hopes of a brighter tomorrow.

But the Boston Red Sox are the first of the disgustingly wealthy franchises that seem to be following that model. With all the money they have at their disposal and the absence of a salary cap, there is no real excuse for Boston not to give Betts everything he’s asking for, or for them not to try to contend for a World Series every single year. The only reasoning I can use to make sense of this new direction the Red Sox are taking is the one I just mentioned…

They are so scared about how good the Yankees look that they’d rather just not even try right now. And just because they hate their rivals so much, they gave away their primo asset to the team that most threatens the Yankees’ chance at winning a championship next season in exchange for nothing but a smaller payroll next season.

The worst part is, if that is in fact their rationale, they aren’t entirely wrong. The Yankees organization is currently an embarrassment of riches. Their two outfield studs Judge and Stanton, though both looking pretty injury prone, are both set to return and are healthy for now. Then their infield is downright terrifying, boasting DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, Luke Voit, and Gary Sanchez. Their bullpen is second to none with the likes of Chapman, Britton, Kahnle, Ottavino, and Green patrolling the later innings. Then there’s the starting pitching, the one question mark on this club that isn’t injury related. While Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton, and Luis Severino are nothing to sneeze at, the club has been missing that bona fide ace that championship teams possess. But no worry, because the Yanks decided to go full-blown Yanks and signed Gerrit Cole for over $300 million.

The Bronx Bombers were elite last year while being the most injured team in baseball. With the addition of Cole, and if they can stay somewhat healthy, by the end of the year we could be talking about this Yankees team as one of the best teams the sport has ever seen.

With the Betts trade, it appears as though the Red Sox have been thinking the same damn thing. So instead of re-tooling around their MVP, they shipped him off for nothing, waiting for the Yankees to start to come back down to Earth so they can strike when the iron gets hot.

This trade wasn’t a monetary decision, it was a strategic transaction by a bunch of cowards. There will never be an excuse for a team that rich to get rid of a guy that talented that makes sense. New York is miles ahead of Boston on paper, so the Sox have decided to run to the hills where they can hide behind the long-game argument, instead of diving into the trenches where they’re supposed to be out of fear of getting destroyed.

Now on the flip side of the trade, if the pressure to win for the Dodgers wasn’t big enough over the last few years, it’s monumental now. The weight of winning a championship lies heavier on the Dodgers this season than it has on any team prior to any season that I can think of, and that’s all in spite of what I’ve just said about the Yankees.

Los Angeles now boasts AJ Pollock, Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Joc Pederson, and Betts… and I’m still in the outfield here… The infield is equally as scary, with the likes of Justin Turner, Corey Seager, Gavin Lux, and Max Muncy. Then you add David Price to a rotation that already includes Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler and you have to wonder how the hell this team is going to lose any games in 2020.

Buehler, Muncy, and Bellinger are all getting paid pennies compared to their worth, and Mookie only has one year left on his deal. The Dodgers have everything they need to win the title this year, but everyone knows how hard that is when the entire world expects it. They would likely have been the favourites to come out of the NL prior to the Betts trade, and now add one of the best players in the world to an already World Series caliber lineup. I don’t care if every team the Dodgers face this year steal signs, if they can’t get it done with this team they will have no one to blame but themselves.

So call it a salary dump if you want to. But it just can’t be. Not when it’s the Red Sox. The Yanks look like they could dominate the American League for the next while, especially now that Gerrit Cole is on the mound, so the Red Sox have stuck their tail between their legs so they can hide in the shadow of their arch rivals until the Yanks begin to fade. But as scary as those Yankees are, it’s the Dodgers that have all the pressure going into this season. LA feels like they’ve been robbed out of a pair of championships in the last three years. Well, the cheaters have been caught and you just added Mookie Betts to your all-star team, so shut your mouths and win a damn title, because after this trade no one will feel sorry for you if you don’t.

The Astros Are Cheaters, Their Championship is Tarnished, But the Dramatic Overreaction is Comical... We Are Talking About Sign Stealing, Right?

This article isn’t so much a reaction to the recent revelation that the Houston Astros cheated during their 2017 World Series winning campaign. It’s more of a reaction to the reactions from around the sports world to the scandal.

For those of you that are unaware, Houston has been busted for illegally stealing the pitch signs from opposing catchers electronically during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and then relaying that information to hitters by banging on trashcans to indicate whether the pitch was a fastball or something off-speed. They had their own camera out in center, which is a no-no, that fed into a monitor near the dugout where someone would interpret the signs. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has responded by throwing the book at the Astros, fining the club the maximum 5 Million dollars allowed under the MLB Constitution, stripping them of their first and second round picks in each of the next two drafts, and suspending both manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow for a year apiece.

The investigation began in response to the words of a whistleblower back in November. Mike Fiers has had himself a solid major league career. The 34 year old has played almost a decade in the league, accumulating a career ERA just north of four, with a pair of no-hitters and an immaculate inning. Unfortunately for Mike, he will most likely never be remembered for any of these accomplishments.

As a result of the scandal, Astros owner Jim Crane said forget the suspension and fired both Luhnow and Hinch. Alex Cora, who served as the bench coach in Houston during their title run, has been relieved of his managerial duties in Boston, and his 2018 World Series winning Red Sox are now under similar investigation. Then there’s Alex Beltran, a veteran on that Astros team that was specifically named in the investigation’s report, who after being removed from the Mets as manager now receives the dubious distinction of being named a Major League manager that never manages a single game.

The baseball world is on fire about this scandal. The media is crashing down hard on Houston, with many going so far as to demand the vacating of their 2017 World Series title. The Los Angeles City Council has passed a resolution urging Major League Baseball to name their Dodgers the champions of the 2017 and 2018 World Series, which they lost to Houston and Boston, respectively. 

Alright. Now you’ve got the meat and potatoes of the scandal. And now it’s my turn.

Now the key word with regards to the cheating itself is “electronically.” After all, sign stealing and baseball go together like peas and carrots. The traditional version of it, simply watching the catcher make his signals to the pitcher and decoding their meaning, is the oldest and most accepted form of “cheating” in sports. I did it in little league. But instead of banging trashcans, we would just see the finger go down and shout fastball in unison.

Sign Stealing is pure gamesmanship when done legally. There’s no rule against using your own two eyes to get a competitive edge on your opponent, thus putting the onus on the battery, the pitcher catcher duo, to avoid such disclosure, both by masking the true pitch signal within a series of decoys, and then mixing up that system as the game progresses.

That traditional version has advanced into the grey, and even the black a great deal through the generations.

The Athletics just prior to the First World War had one of their players stand by a weathervane with a pair of binoculars. He would spin that weathervane north for a curveball and south for a fastball.

The 1951 New York Giants had a guy with a telescope reading signs, with a backup catcher holding a baseball in the bullpen while his club was on offense. If he held the ball it was fastball, off-speed if he tossed it.

1959 was the first time television cameras were used to steal signs.

1959.

The argument here is that if Major League Baseball, the fans, the media, and every last person that is looking up to the heavens after hearing about this scandal and screaming “Why God Why” were this worried about this particular cheating performed by the Astros… something substantial probably should have been done about it at any point between the invention of the television and two years ago. The monitor was directly outside the dugout… this cheating has been going on forever… if MLB was so worried about it why didn’t they have someone monitoring the monitors?

Yes the technology has advanced a lot since the early years of television, and yes they were using their own camera, but in reality the Astros basically did an enhanced version of this, a mechanism of cheating first used 58 years before the 2017 World Series in question.

Sure it’s always been “illegal.” But until Manfred’s threat to all 30 clubs made in 2017 following the Apple Watch incident in Boston no significant moves had been made to protect pitchers from this form of cheating absolutely. In September 2017 Manfred vowed to take a stand against electronic sign stealing in the name of the integrity of the game, and I’ll make arguments as to why that in itself is hilarious in mere moments. The problem is, all he did was ban something that is as old as the very electronics they used, and somehow people are shocked that the Astros didn’t stop in the month-and-a-half between that ban and their hoisting the World Series trophy?

Oh, and by the way, if you think the Astros are the only ones still doing this just because they got caught, well I just don’t buy it… Seeing as I try to do it on every single pitch from my couch.

Do you know how often a pinky finger means outside fastball to a righty? Because I sure do.

Everyone is incensed about the camera they had in center field?… You know what other camera is out there? The one that broadcasts these games to the entire freaking world. AJ Hinch could’ve just had me on speed dial and it would’ve been the same damn thing, albeit much less accurate I’m sure…

In addition, every pitcher in the league worries about their signs being stolen, and yet somehow when a team gets caught doing it the Stephen A. Smiths of the world act like this is the most egregious thing the Astros could have done. Hell, Max Scherzer used about 5 different signing systems in last year’s World Series worried about this very thing.

I feel the need to say at this juncture that I am not taking Houston’s side in all of this. They are, after all, a bunch of dirty cheaters that deserved to be punished, especially if their cheating directly screwed other teams out of the 2017 World Series. I’m simply saying, what the hell did you think was going to happen?

What Houston did is despicable. But baseball has only itself to blame. And the members of the sports community that are tearing their hair out about it (almost all of them) are either stupid, ignorant, or both.

Sign stealing should obviously no longer be part of baseball with where technology is today, but it’s ridiculous for the entire baseball world to feel this strongly about this incident given the well over 100 years of documented cases of this type of cheating. You all waited way too long to be this offended by sign stealing.

Now there is another layer to this that may be playing a role in the reaction to the scandal. The Astros are both a very easy and very fun team to hate. Jeff Luhnow ran the team like the true McKinsey consultant that he was, ruthless with no sense of morality. This was highlighted by Luhnow’s overruling of other staffers in acquiring Roberto Osuna while he served his 75-game suspension for domestic violence. The dark nature of this management group was then reinforced when one of Luhnow’s right hand men, assistant GM Brandon Taubman, was seen screaming at a group of female reporters “thank God we got Osuna” immediately after the club won the 2017 pennant. They run a shrewd organization down there in Houston, one that will take any measures necessary to win baseball games.

Hell, it would be more surprising to me if these guys weren’t cheating.

But again, this particular cheating has been around forever. They found a new way of doing it that makes me sick as a fan, but the year 2020 is way too late for the baseball community at large to be set on fire by this type of scandal.

Fact is, it’s really easy to cheat in baseball today, so short of having a representative from the league watchdogging every team at every game, teams will always find way to gain this edge. It’s brutal that it has come to this. But if you want cheating out of baseball it’s the only way.

MIKE FIERS

Then there’s Mike Fiers, our whistleblower. There have been plenty of different responses to the actions of Fiers, none of which make a whole lot of sense. Some people think he’s a hero. I’m not willing to go that far. Some like Pedro Martinez think he’s a villain for breaking the clubhouse code. Personally I don’t think Fiers is a hero or a villain in all of this. I don’t think he broke an unwritten code, or that whistleblowing doesn’t just tarnish his team, but the league as a whole. You want to know what I think?

He’s a pitcher!

Not only that, he’s in Oakland now, a division rival. He’s not being brave or a villain, he just doesn’t want to get lit up every time his club steps into Minute Maid Park. He’s expected to maintain the code of the clubhouse while in Oakland even if it means having to look up the standings at the group of crooks that traded him there?

If the Astros believed there was any chance that this cheating wouldn’t have been discovered, they would have had to manufacture a system that somehow left their entire pitching staff in the dark. What’s Mike Fiers supposed to do in this situation? Just be okay with getting his ass kicked by his former team?

Maybe the Astros were thinking let’s just get that title and let the chips fall where they may. If so, they got their wish.

We can’t villainize Fiers for blowing the whistle when his new team plays the Astros 20 times a year and competes with them for the AL West. But we can’t call him a hero either, because if it was really all about the integrity of the game and if he really was a hero, he would’ve done something about it while it was happening.

I imagine it’s a lot easier to be brave when you’ve already got that ring on your finger.

And where was Justin Verlander in all of this? This guy is a vocal leader in Major League Baseball. Never shy to criticize all the wrongs he witnesses in the league. Hell, he’s even spoken of sign stealing in the past. In fact, earlier in that very same year of 2017, while he was still in Detroit, Verlander was quoted saying “Hey, if you can get my signs, good for you. In the past, if a guy on second was able to decipher it on a few pitches, I guess that was kind of part of the game. I think it’s a different level now. It’s not good.”

Didn’t seem to bother him too much when he arrived in Houston now did it?

Tigers lefty Matthew Boyd spoke up in response to the scandal, saying that it’s his job to worry about sign stealing, legal or otherwise. As I mentioned, The Nationals had all kinds of sign combinations in last year’s World Series against Houston because they were worried about something fishy going on as well.

Everybody knows it’s out there… because it’s basically watching television and making notes. Remember… 1959…

ROB MANFRED

Last but certainly not least I’d like to discuss the man in charge of it all. The Commish. The Big Cheese. Rob Manfred.

This discussion can be summed up in one word. Hypocrisy. And there’s hypocrisy to found in a variety of places here.

First and foremost is the punishment. Yes Manfred took Houston’s top two picks in each of the next two drafts. Yes they fined the club the maximum 5 million dollars allowed by Major League Baseball’s constitution. And yes they suspended the coach and GM for a year apiece and they were subsequently let go. The hypocrisy here is that there has not and will not be any punishment for any of the players involved.

When Rob Manfred warned teams about the penalties they would face for electronic sign stealing back in 2017, he made the decision then that only those in charge would be held accountable. But just because he kept his word on that front, doesn’t make it right. Not even close.

By only suspending Luhnow and Hinch, Manfred is basically saying that Major League Baseball only wants to punish the cheaters that while having a great importance on the success of the ball club in the long-term, are the two most forefront figures on the team that have zero day-to-day impact on the fans that attend these games, and those that watch from home.

The players sell the tickets, the players bring the ratings.

Witnesses from the investigation consistently described the Astros’ sign stealing as a “player driven” scheme. Yet all of the involved players that benefitted from the cheating will be in the lineup on opening day, while three coaches on three different teams get the boot. As if Luhnow, Hinch, Cora, and Beltran, who was a player at the time, were the only four grown men in the organization.

“Oh, but Mr. Manfred, coach told me to.”

Okay Jose, okay George, okay Yuli, you all get to keep your millions and keep playing ball. While your naughty managers suffer the consequences.

And while on that subject, don’t better numbers equal bigger contracts? And doesn’t knowing what pitch is coming directly lead to better numbers? Twenty years from now no one will remember that AJ Hinch and Jeff Luhnow were running this club (well, they might now…). But people will definitely remember the stars, Altuve, Springer, Bregman, Correa, and Gurriel lighting up the stats sheet.

Manfred says that he is taking a stand in the name of the integrity of baseball. But he won’t punish the people that had the most to gain from the cheating?

What’s he going to do if and when we find out that more teams are doing things like this? Are the players always going to be forgiven?

What’s to stop disgruntled players that want their coach fired from calling up a buddy and saying, “Yo, Jim, come to the ballpark today with a pair of binoculars and an earpiece, and tell them you’re with me when they catch you. I can finally get this damn coach off my back, and maybe hit a couple extra dingers in the process.”

Nolan Arenado is upset with his GM for not spending to put more pieces around him in Colorado. Maybe he should just cheat. Problem solved.

What if we find out somewhere down the road that Jose Altuve was wearing a wire when he hit that walkoff homerun off Aroldis Chapman to send the Astros to the World Series? Is Manfred really going to be able to say with a straight face that it’s all Hinch and Luhnow’s fault?

To be perfectly honest I think that Manfred is loving this scandal. The world is talking about baseball while its not even being played. He gets to look like a leader in the cleaning up of baseball. And more importantly, the scandal is deflecting attention from other major issues in the game. Don’t get me wrong, sign stealing is a real issue, but get real people it’s 150 years old!!!

What about tanking? And the fact that there are only ten teams in baseball in a given season that even worry about their signs being stolen, because they are the only teams that actually care about winning baseball games?

You want a reason to penalize a team in the name of the integrity of baseball? Penalize the half of the league that seemingly has no interest in putting a competitive ball club on the field. With all the sources of generating revenue now and a system of sharing that revenue among all 30 clubs, baseball teams make money no matter what. Owners and fans don’t suffer and triumph together anymore. When teams go into the tank with dreams of a better tomorrow, whether it works or not, only the fans suffer through the trying times. And for the record, tanking now for success later doesn’t work way more often than it does, with this very Houston Astros team being a rare exception after their historic tank job from 2011-2013 where they lost over 105 games in three consecutive seasons.

How about the integrity of your Hall of Fame Rob? The most “prestigious” Hall of Fame in all of sports, that your writers almost managed to keep Larry Walker out of because a third of his at-bats were in the mile high city. That would be like keeping David Ortiz out because it’s only 302 to Peske’s foul pole in right field at Fenway, with a fence that is waist high at best.

Or how about this one? If you want to restore integrity in baseball, stop using balls that 160-pound men can hit 450 feet. That’s right. I’m 100% in the camp that believes there’s something different about these baseballs. Or maybe Manfred wants to blame sign stealing for the 7 million home runs that were hit last season too.

Major League Baseball bought Rawlings, the company that makes the balls, and all of a sudden everyone is hitting 20 dingers. Major League Baseball got a committee of scientists together to figure out what was happening and they came up with “inconsistent baseball seams and changes in player behaviour.”

Really, that’s what we’re going with hey Robbie?

So after 150 years we forgot how to make baseballs. That’s the line.

Integrity in baseball, he said with a scoff.

They just started using MLB baseballs in Triple-A for the very first time last year too by the way. And guess what? They destroyed the previous homerun record down there as well.

Records and stats are more important in baseball than any other sport, and it’s not even close. And yet the league itself is quite blatantly doing something that is pumping up power numbers throughout the entirety of the league, and throughout the entirety of the lineup, and blaming it on factors like “natural variation in the manufacturing process.” And all of this comes after Manfred specifically said when he took the job as commissioner that he wanted to get more offense into the game.

There’s some integrity in baseball for you.

Oh yeah he’s really worried about the record books. It’s okay if number nine guys are hitting 20, just as long as no one hits 70.

Now he’s gone ahead and enforced a three-batter minimum rule for all pitchers that come in from the bullpen in an effort to speed up the games. Bullpen management is one of the single most important managerial duties in baseball, especially in the playoffs, and this rule completely changes MLB managers’ ability to do that effectively.

Playoff games, hell the World Series could easily end up being decided by a brand new rule that totally changes an essential element of baseball strategy, and Manfred’s going to sit on his throne and say he’s all about the integrity of the game?

Manfred’s been told the Astros sign stealing is player driven but he won’t punish players. He wants more offense in baseball, buys the manufacturing company, and all of a sudden the entire league is hitting dingers in record numbers. He wants to protect the game of baseball but puts in a new rule that completely alters the way it’s played. And he has the audacity to say he’s coming down hard on the Astros for disrupting the integrity of the game, by going too far with a form of cheating that has been around for about as long as the game of baseball itself.

So settle down baseball world. The Houston Astros are cheaters, and they absolutely deserved to be punished. But the fact that baseball fans and the media are losing their minds that Houston found a new way to steal signs need to grow up. You all waited about 100 years too long to be outraged by this.

And if you believe that Rob Manfred came crashing down on the Astros in the name of integrity in baseball, realize that you’re talking about a man that is manipulating the oldest professional league in sports in an effort to increase the size of his audience.

A Farewell to Ichiro, an Indictment on the Game He Entered, and on the Game He's Leaving Behind

At first, I felt a bit guilty for not pumping out this article in a more timely fashion. One of my idols, one of the greatest baseball players to ever lace ‘em up, has finally called it a career. That guilt has since subsided, however, as watching the first two months of the MLB season unfold has provided me an angle of attack for this piece that I doubt I would’ve thought of earlier.

Not an endorsement for putting things off, just a happy accident.

My first thought was to simply attempt to chronicle the career of a true hero of mine with a little Curtis Dixon twist on it. It would’ve been more or less a puff piece, but I promise it would’ve been beautiful. Instead, what I’ve realized through two months of the season, not to mention the past few years of Major League Baseball, is that the league is heading in a direction that couldn’t be less Ichiro… and I don’t like it.

This article will look at the career of the great Ichiro Suzuki. An ode to the Japanese pioneer’s brilliance, his approach, his cannon for a right arm, and his accolades. But more than that, you can consider this article an indictment on the state of baseball. The league Ichiro is leaving behind looks an awful lot like an even worse edition of the steroid-laced league he entered… minus the steroids. A league today where it’s okay to strikeout ten times in a row as long as you belt a dinger on the eleventh attempt.

Do I sound like a crusty grandfather, crying for the good ol’ days of small ball?

Maybe a little.

I imagine a common counterargument to this work is going to be that sports evolve, which obviously I understand. However, while I can get behind football’s evolution to a pass-first league, and basketball’s phasing out of the non-shooting big man and the consistent stretching of the definition of a “good shot,” this homerun or bust state of baseball is ridiculous.

I will first discuss the man that is the centerpiece of this article, Ichiro, and how his arrival was especially welcome in the era of Major League Baseball in which he entered. From there I will provide my arguments for why baseball is in a very bad spot, and why a player like Ichiro will be sorrowly missed in today’s game.

The late 90’s in baseball were all about power. The Yankees were in the midst of yet another dynasty, and baseball fans and average sports fans alike were obsessed, above all else, with the homerun title races. Roger Maris’ seemingly untouchable record of 61 dingers back in 1961 was suddenly under threat every season thanks to two unnaturally powerful men… Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.

After hitting 36 homeruns in the 1997 season, Sosa would break Maris’ mark three of the following four years. With steroids in his veins and cork in his bat, Sosa would hit 66 bombs in 1998, followed by totals of 63, 50, and 64 in the subsequent three seasons. McGwire and his Schwarzenegger-esque arms would belt out 70 during that ’98 race, and then would bash another 65 the next year.

These two men substantially aided in the growth of baseball… no pun intended. Casual fans were tuning in every night, ratings were through the roof, and baseball had gotten itself back on track after the strike of 1994 that scorned many a baseball lover. But much like the men that caused the bounce back, these numbers were artificial. Many of those people weren’t watching because of a love for baseball, they just wanted to see guys tear the cover off the ball.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, a superstar was emerging. He was the antithesis of powerful. He had a meek frame, and a quiet personality. He had a passion for baseball from a very young age, and a father who pushed him in a manner that bordered on abuse. He was Ichiro Suzuki, and he was destroying the Pacific League of Japan. His swing defied baseball logic as he positioned his weight forward, eliminating the potential for a lot of pop of the barrel. But that didn’t matter one bit once the world realized that this guy was nearly impossible to get out. His lack of stature and unconventional batting style was no longer a concern for Major League clubs as Ichiro entered his late 20s. It was time to get Ichiro to America so he could display his brilliance to the world, and to give baseball fans more to cheer about than juiced up behemoths demolishing 500 foot blasts.

If the transition to Seattle was difficult for Ichiro in the 2001 MLB season, no one noticed. He had 242 hits that year, the most the league had seen since the Great Depression. Couple that with a rocket right arm in right field, and you’ve got yourself the most instantaneous superstar the sport has ever known. He had barely been in the league for a week when he performed one of the greatest outfield assists I’ve ever witnessed, an absolute bullet from his home in right field to gun down Terrence Long of the Oakland Athletics at third. It was a tremendous feat that was dubbed aptly, though uncreatively, “The Throw.”

His approach at the plate was the personification of elegance. The way he would stand up at the plate, at the back of the batter’s box with his feet within shoulder width apart, it was more reminiscent of Henry Rowengartner from “Rookie of the Year” than a force to be reckoned with. Someone with no knowledge of the man might think he was actually scared to be up there, but I can guarantee that the only individual that was intimidated during Ichiro’s plate appearances was whomever was hurling the ball his direction.

His pre-pitch routine was immaculately consistent. A subtle lean backwards as he stretched his right arm towards the mound, holding the bat vertically as he adjusted his jersey at the right shoulder. His knees nearly touching and slightly bent, all giving the impression that even the slightest gust of wind could topple him to the turf. What was most noticeable for me was his eyes. Always calm, always confident. It was not an intimidating look or posture, but intimidated his opponents were. And the way he held the bat, it appeared as though he was hardly gripping the instrument at all.

Then there was his swing.

It was more of a slash than anything else, but the barrel always found a way onto the baseball. I can’t imagine there has ever been a player that kept the infield as alert as Ichiro did. The reason being that the man was seemingly halfway to first base by the time the ball was jolted into play. I often wonder how many less hits Ichiro might have accumulated had he hit from the right side of the plate. His approach and magnificent speed led to a lot of base hits on balls that failed to exit the infield. He was truly one of a kind. A style of hitting that had never been witnessed before, and one that I have issues believing can or will ever be replicated.

The biggest disappointment from Ichiro’s career has to be his lack playoff success, or appearances for that matter. Not really anyone else to blame for that other than the management of the Mariners. This isn’t basketball, one superstar will never be enough in baseball. But Seattle had the best hitter that ever lived at the top of their order for 11 full seasons and couldn’t make any noise after his debut season. Even more disappointing is the fact that for whatever reason the AL West only had four teams during Ichiro’s entire tenure. It’s a shame that Ichiro never got a chance to experience baseball in late October, but in no way should that take away from the career of this great man.

The lack of playoff appearances is surprising when one considers the fact that Ichiro’s rookie MLB season in 2001 was not only the best season in franchise history for the Mariners, but one of the greatest seasons any team has had in the history of the sport. That year Ichiro became just the second player ever to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. He hit .350, stole 56 bases, and won a Gold Glove for his work in right field. Managed by the brilliant yet volatile Lou Piniella, the Mariners would go on to tie the major league record with 116 wins that year. Bret Boone, Mike Cameron, John Olerud, and legendary DH Edgar Martinez all had monster seasons at the plate, and Ichiro’s countryman Kazuhiro Sasaki had a strong year closing from the bullpen. After winning a tight series against Cleveland to open the playoffs, the Mariners would get manhandled by the Yankees who were seeking their fourth consecutive title (incidentally the Yanks would lose to Arizona in arguably the best World Series I’ve ever seen), and would never return to the postseason with Ichiro on their roster.

Ichiro’s 2004 season was his most impressive individual accomplishment. With a WAR of 9.2 it’s ridiculous that he somehow finished seventh in AL MVP voting. All the man did was belt 262 hits, breaking the all-time hits record held since 1920 by George Sisler, and a record that I have a very difficult time imagining being reached again. He won his fourth of ten consecutive gold gloves in right field, and finished the campaign with a .372 batting average.

Ichiro would notch 200 hits for ten straight years in Seattle, another untouchable record. He became only the 30th man to reach the prestigious 3000 hit club in Major League Baseball, which is simply amazing when considering he didn’t join the league until he was 28. Between Japan and the Majors, Ichiro totaled 4367 hits in his professional baseball career, 111 more than the great “Charlie Hustle,” Pete Rose. He would play late in his career with the Yankees and the Marlins, including a bit of postseason ball in the Bronx, but it was his years on the west coast that Ichiro will be remembered for.

Baseball changed a lot during Ichiro’s tenure. As I mentioned, Ichiro joined the league in the peak of the steroid era, when Sammy, Mark, and Barry were stealing the show with their beastly upper deck blasts. Then, in walks this quiet and slender phenom from a foreign land that was so different that he was impossible to dislike. Ichiro’s presence certainly aided the reputation of a sport that was rocked in a league wide scandal. He helped return the importance of getting on base and manufacturing runs, you know, the way baseball is meant to be played. Ichiro did everything right. He played hard, he was loved by his teammates and opponents alike, and he restored the beauty of the base hit.

Single after single. All career long.

Fast-forward to today, and what you will find is a sport that couldn’t be less Ichiro. While baseball probably needed big Mark McGwire and Slammin’ Sammy to regain the popularity lost from the strike, it was at its best after the real heavyweight roid monkeys had departed from the sport.

As a baseball fan, I’m clearly not against the homerun. In fact, it’s the most entertaining aspect of the game.

Well, at least it used to be…

At the tail end of the steroid era we were gifted with a stretch of baseball the way it should be played. An era where runs weren’t slaughtered, but manufactured (especially in the National League). Sure the four and five spots in the batting order were reserved for your bombers. In the American League, that typically always meant a DH and a powerful first baseman with questionable defense. The three hole was a team’s best hitter, and the two leadoff spots were speedy guys that could get on base for the big boys to drive them home.

Homeruns were the cherry on top of a game that was about contact and getting on base. In today’s game, they mean nothing at all.

While baseball started trending towards this bomb or bust state we find ourselves in several years ago, it was in 2017 that the transition really started to expose itself. Suddenly, baseball was no longer about contact at the plate and manufacturing runs. It wasn’t just a couple guys on the roster that we could look forward to potentially driving one out of the park. Out of seemingly nowhere every hitter, one through nine, was trying to annihilate the baseball.

The 2017 season broke the record for total homeruns in a season set back in 2000, right in the heart of the steroid era. There are two things in particular that are very interesting about the manner in which this record was accomplished. First of all, it was set with a couple weeks still remaining in the 2017 season… aka it wasn’t even close. And second, only five players in all of baseball hit more than 40 dingers in 2017, compared to sixteen 40-homerun guys in 2000. What this suggests is that not only are more balls sailing out of ballparks, but that the power is extending further down the lineup than it ever did in the juiced up MLB at the turn of the century.

At this point you may be asking, “Why does he care? Isn’t more offense good for television viewers? For fans at the games?”

Well, there are three major factors behind my bitter attitude towards the state of baseball today:

1)    There are now so many homeruns hit every day that they have lost all their luster and appeal. I’m almost surprised when solid contact is made and the ball doesn’t leave the yard. Like I said… runs are no longer manufactured, they’re slaughtered.

2)    There isn’t actually more offense in baseball these days in terms of runs scored. The explosion in homers hasn’t led to more scoring, just a different means of scoring. Despite the 2017 season demolishing the homerun record, seven of the nine seasons from 2000-2008 actually produced more total runs.

3)    With more power comes less contact.

Let’s focus in on that third point for a moment. By “less contact” I am referring to the insane amount of strikeouts that baseball’s evolution has forced us to watch. While that 2017 season was groundbreaking with the tremendous amount of blasts that were hit, that’s not the only record that was shattered that year. 2017 was also the first time in the approximately 150 years of the MLB where there were over 40,000 strikeouts. More strikeouts means longer at-bats and fewer balls put in play. But the weirdest part about it is that teams don’t care.

Striking out no longer means you’re a bad hitter, it just means you didn’t hit a homerun this time. It’s ludicrous, and more than that, it’s not baseball.

Before you start thinking that I’m focusing too heavily on the 2017 season from two years ago, remember that I also mentioned that 2017 was just the beginning. The 2018 season actually set a new record with over 41,000 K’s, and things have not slowed even a little bit here in 2019. There were 11,000 more strikeouts last year than there were in 2005.

In terms of homeruns, we’ve learned through the opening two months of this season that 2017 was no anomaly, but an evil omen. This April (including late March) saw 1,144 homeruns. Think about it this way, prior to 2015 baseball went ten full seasons without a single 1,000 homerun month. This is in freaking April! It’s basically still winter in April in several MLB cities. The air is colder and thicker, and science dictates that the baseball just won’t fly as far in cooler conditions. Nevertheless, 2019 saw the opening month record for homeruns completely decimated, proving that the boom or bust evolution of baseball is clearly going to get worse before it gets any better.

Oh, and by the way, this past month of May took things a step further by having the most homeruns hit in any month, in any season, ever.

They say that the launch conditions aren’t changing. They say that the baseballs aren’t different. And yet here we are in early June and 2019 has already set numerous homerun records. The Minnesota Twins had been out homered by their opponents in 26 of the past 27 seasons. This year they became the second team ever to hit 100 dingers in their first 50 games. By May 23 they had six games where they hit at least five bombs, a record for the least amount of games for a team to do so, accomplished 16 games faster than any team before. And just last night, the Phillies and Diamondbacks combined for a preposterous 13 homeruns… you guessed it, another MLB record. Furthermore, to reinforce my point about how far down the lineup the power surge goes, the only bona fide slugging superstar on either team, Mr. Bryce Harper, didn’t hit any of them.

We are about a third of the way into the season and seven players are on pace for 50 dingers. Only 17 players had ever hit 50 prior to 1990. Everyone is trying to go deep, everyone is striking out, the game is moving at a snails pace, and base-hit specialists are becoming fewer and farther between.

This is the real reason for this article. Ichiro will be missed now more than ever for fans like myself because there isn’t a place in the league anymore for Ichiro-style players. The base-hit factory that was Ichiro Suzuki would be completely overshadowed if he was in the prime of his career today. No one wants to hit singles anymore, and apparently no one wants to watch them anymore either.

This modern era of baseball has shredded some of the most beautiful elements of the game. Homeruns and strikeouts are good, while contact and getting on base are an afterthought. Manufacturing runs is now a concept of the past. While it’s truly fascinating that after all these years every sport is still finding ways to evolve, baseball is doing so in a manner that is making the sport unrecognizable from its former and better self. The bomb or bust mentality may be enjoyable for some, but not this fan. It would be one thing if all these homeruns were putting more runs on the scoreboard, but as I’ve revealed in this article that just isn’t so. It’s simply a different way of manifesting runs, a way that makes watching the games more of a chore than an enjoyable activity. The homerun is no longer the most exciting part of the game. It can’t be when every guy in the lineup is attempting to launch every time they step into the box.

Ichiro, I think you got out just in time. You’re leaving a sport that is unapologetically saying “we don’t need you anymore.” I will miss this man more than ever as (if) I continue to watch this sport the way it’s being played today. He was a pioneer in every sense of the word. The first non-pitching superstar (looking at you Mr. Nomo) from Japan that defied every thing that was big in baseball at the time of his arrival, has now left a game that has done everything it can to move away from all the things he did so beautifully.

Congratulations on a truly phenomenal career Ichiro. And shame on the direction baseball is heading without him.

And the Winners of the Manny Machado Sweepstakes are... The San Diego Padres?

Where to begin…

I’m truly torn as I sit here. I just spent the last three days driving across Canada, so I suppose I could chalk a large portion of the writing confusion I’m currently experiencing to that. However, the more likely cause of the conundrum I face is the fact that the highest free agent contract in North American sports history (until Bryce Harper tops it soon) is going to this player, and its coming from this team.

$300 Million… 10 years… Manny Machado… San Diego Padres…

Like I said, where to begin.

I guess I could start with Machado. Manny, the 26 year old Floridian with Dominican roots who has just embodied the proverb of “timing is everything.” Don’t get me wrong here, Manny Machado is an elite talent to be sure, and over the past four seasons he has been the model of consistency. Over 30 home runs, around the 100 RBI mark, and stellar defense at both third base and short has been the standard he has set for himself, and Manny shows no signs of slowing down…

Except for when he literally slows down.

300 million bucks for anyone is still completely insane to me. I know I’ll have to get over that, but that’s not the point here. 300 million bucks for a guy that refuses to sprint to first base on soft ground balls, showboats his way to a 400 foot base-hit because in his mind he plastered a no-doubter, charges mounds, slides dirty, tries to trample the ankles of defenseless players in the playoffs, and is just generally regarded by many around the league as a dirty player? Well, that just ain’t right.

This is the man that broke the free agency record? That, at least for one sweet moment, quieted the cries of collusion in Major League Baseball? This is the guy that is expected to be the face of the long awaited rise of the San Diego Padres (the least interesting team in baseball since the turn of the century)?

I will hold all personal opinions of Machado in order to objectively and correctly answer these questions in concert…

Yes. A million times yes.

Like him or not, dirty player or not, the man is good. In addition, the Padres are frequently regarded as having the best farm in the majors. In what has felt like a perpetual rebuild since the 1990s, San Diego has now splashed in the free agency pool in consecutive years, as they reached desperately for the services of one Eric Hosmer just one offseason ago. With one Machado signature on the dotted line the Padres have transformed from one of many current joke teams in the MLB to a team we should all be keeping a close eye on for years to come.

I feel a bit nuts for not having made this next statement until this deep in the article. But again, there were just too many places to begin…

The San Diego freaking Padres got Manny Machado?

How is this even remotely possible in baseball? How does this irresistible free agent not land in the Bronx? Not land in Boston? In Chicago? The Cubbies say they have no more money to spend? Aren’t they the third most valuable franchise in the sport? Sounds more like a management team that cries itself to sleep at night over Yu Darvish and Jason Heyward. Can’t say I blame them. I guess if there is one negative of being a major market team in a league with no salary cap it’s that you can be made to look really, really, really stupid.

The fact is, despite my personal dislike for the player, I couldn’t be happier with the result. For one thing, The Padres are all San Diego has left. In taking the two-hour trip up the I-5 to Los Angeles, Philip Rivers and the Chargers left a void in what I know to be an excellent sports city.

More importantly, this is just a massive victory for the “little guys.” With Anthony Davis’ trade request in the NBA serving as a harsh reminder that small market teams can’t make poor supplementary deals and hope to keep their superstars, this deal goes straight to the win column for the “less than” teams. A franchise that has refused to really go for it for as long as I can remember breaking the North American free agent spending record can have nothing but a positive impact on the league going forwards. Now, would I spend $300 Million on a superstar with obvious character flaws apparent on the field of play? No. But someone had to, and I’m glad to see that the rich getting richer is no longer a foregone conclusion in baseball.

Finally, and most importantly, this can and should serve as the wake up call Major League Baseball so very much needs. Remember last year? When J.D. Martinez couldn’t get a job? And the Red Sox seemingly just said “alright fine we’ll take him,” and then he got serious MVP consideration despite not playing defense? Or, how about now? With Spring Training starting this week and Bryce Harper, along with an extremely appealing veteran pool that includes the likes of Adam Jones, currently rocking the unemployment line? The major teams in the sport passing on offering  big money deals to superstars is the greatest thing that could possibly happen to the smaller markets of baseball… is this simply a case of the Padres being the first to realize this?! The Yankees could’ve given Machado $600 Million if they wanted to, but they didn’t…

With Machado and Hosmer steadying the middle of the order, and a prospect pool highlighted by the likes of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Urias on the rise, the Padres are well on their way. Lets not get carried away though, this is still the NL West. The Dodgers are still miles ahead in pitching, spots 4 through 2 in the batting order, and have much deeper pockets. The Diamondbacks appear poised for a step backwards, but the Rockies aren’t going anywhere and the Giants will be back (just too much money and willingness to spend for them not to be). However, The Padres have a real opportunity here to show that their ability to build from within has been unparalled in recent years should this elite looking prospect pool pan out, and with Machado they now they have a true, elite, franchise player to build around and to be the face of the operation. My only hope is that he realizes how great the situation he just walked into is, grows up a bit, and becomes a true leader for a franchise that so desperately needs one.

For Machado, all he has to do is play. He has entered the ultimate low risk, high reward scenario. The Padres have been a laughing stock for decades. If Machado leads a resurgence, he’s a hero. If they toil in mediocrity during his tenure, it’s just the Padres being the Padres.

To all you small market teams ----The big boys are giving you all a gift. The Padres called their bluff, and landed a superstar. It doesn’t make sense, but its great for the league. I truly hope the big spenders continue to drag their heels on these massive signings. If it keeps leading to results like this one, baseball can only get better.