Sunday Dongers Club – 8/2

Alrighty.  Time to vent.  I have to just state my opinion on the whole Skubal to the Dodgers scenario and it’s a repeat of a theme that has been going on for what feels like decades now. Baseball is not the NFL and it’s certainly not the NBA.  But we are so adjusted into the thinking that Free Agency and Trades are the mechanism to a team being relevant and able to compete in terms of Championships.  In the NBA, you have to have a star player, and you really just need a core of 3 top players or so that was the case for the longest time.  It is the one league without question where there is the haves and the have-nots for an EXTREMELY long time.  In the NFL, the common theme is that there is parity, but that’s also because you have so few games and the mere thought of seeing your team with that playoff game is enough to mask the reality that no, your average QB isn’t going to lead you to the Super Bowl on his own.  But it offers hope, so the NFL gets by with it and everyone points to their salary cap as the structure for that success.  But at the end of the day, you need the stars at the right time in NFL to win and most of the time (actually, ALL of the time) that comes with YOUNG stars who are under contract early on.  Not through free agency.  I promise you, the Rams are not winning the Super Bowl this year. Baseball is different though.  You aren’t forced into needing that one star player to build around and win a Championship.  So the thought that one player matters and that small market teams cannot compete to keep their stars is just not true and we have decades proof of it. When was the last time the Mets won a World Series?  They spend more than anyone every season. When was the last time the Angels won a World Series?   They signed the top Asian player since Ichiro in Ohtani.  They landed the best mid round draft pick in … well, ever, in Mike Trout.  They spent insane amounts of money on All-Star corner infielders Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon.  They’re in the same market as the Dodgers.  But holy fuck is there a worse franchise over the…...