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 last decade in MLB?
Man. Those Phillies have been a good franchise for a while, they’re competent each season. The free agency acquisitions of Wheeler, Harper, Schwarber, Turner, Realmuto, Adolis Garcia (lol) have made them a great regular season team. That last World Series ring is definitely because they’re able to go out and spend and get star players….
Oh… right. They haven’t won since 2008, when their core was Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Cole Hamels. Hey, wait. Those were all home grown players in their prime. Well, but then they had Roy Oswalt, Roy Hollday, Cole Hamels. Surely that team won, right? Oh.
I get the idea that it’s easier for some teams to stay at a high level and compete year to year than others. But we sit here on August 2nd and the Brewers & Rays are in first place of their divisions. There are 6 teams across Baseball who are more than 5.5 games out of a wild card spot and essentially dead. Those six teams are:
- The Rockies, a team known for being as poorly run as you can be, a team who refuses to spend on their own players but turns around and pays Kris Bryant to sit on the bench and do nothing.
- The Giants, a team with a ton of money and a ton of history, yet they cannot actually attract any players to want to come to their team in free agency (remember Judge?). So, how exactly is that an economics problem? They have as much money as anyone else.
- The Mets…. Oh, just the highest payroll in MLB this year. For like, the 20th straight time. When were they good? That’s right, when they had Harvey, Synergaard, deGrom, Wright, Duda, Murphy, Cespedes… Some free agents there, but also that SP core of their own.
- The Angels … who we have beaten to death
- The Athletics … who don’t even have a home stadium right now
and The Royals … My Royals. Who are basically the new Angels in some ways. They have the star player, they have him signed up long term. They have young core players with talent that they simply cannot develop consistently. But KC went out and spent more money the last two seasons than they have ever in their franchise history. Lugo, Wacha, Lane Thomas and Matt Strahm. Yeah, the guy who threw a 0-2 meatball to serve up a grand slam the other day. They’re 17th in payroll among 30 teams this year. And they fucking suck ass. The last Royals home grown STAR player that they HAD to get rid of was Zack Greinke. They traded him for Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar and Jake Eggs Odorizzi who they parlayed into James Shields and Wade Davis. They combined that with building through their farm system of Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alex Gordon, Salvador Perez, Yordano Ventura into a team that in 2014 and 2015 went to back to back World Series, where they went a combined 7-4 in those and have as many Championships as the Yankees, Phillies, Mets, Orioles, Angels, White Sox, Red Sox and Padres combined in the last 15 years.
Someone please remind me. Was there uproar when the Royals landed James Shields and Wade Davis? I don’t seem to recall it. Yet they contributed as much to their success as Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have for the Dodgers at much higher $ and different public perception.
My point here is that Baseball offers the ability to build your team through various structures. But at the end of the day, in some ways like the NFL, you win through your own core players when they are in their prime. Not the players getting those second and third bad deals who are bigger “names” but not necessarily better just because they have 8-10 years of service time under their belts.
If you want to bitch about Baseball going into a Lockout because of the Tarik Skubal deal, bitch about the fact that every year the MLB Media slap-dicks keep pushing certain teams as having top end farm systems with claims like “oh, they’re rated the highest among MLB executives”, without any proof of which executives claim they are the highest and any actual scout or talent evaluation into these prospects.
If the Dodgers farm system was so damn good, then why have they decided to add Mookie, Freddie, Shohei, Tucker, Glasnow, Snell, Yamamoto, Roki, Teoscar, etc…? It’s overblown hype and honestly most prospects who are traded are overblown hype.
The issue with MLB’s financial system is not a salary cap or even a salary floor. It’s that the Dodgers filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and have been exempt from having to follow the same structure that the rest of the league has in place. Thus they can offer contracts to players that no other team can and they can compound it over and over again to mask and hide their mistakes and they can just write the luxury tax check because of this loophole. But simply throwing a cap and floor out there is not going to fix stupid. And stupid is why most of the league isn’t competitive….
I’m done ranting, lets play some DFS.
WEATHER
Arizona at Cleveland – Heavy rain here that would spawn a delay if it does pop.
Welcome to the Sunday Sleepers Slate. The slate is headlined with Zack Wheeler, Chase Burns and Gerrit Cole. I do not want anything to do with pitchers in the Pirates/Reds game and I am not touching Wheeler for 11k and probably not the rest of the season. He had his huge run before the all-star break and is just now going to be in don’t get hurt before the playoffs mode. He’s a 9k pitcher at best in my projection, so that’s a pass.
Gerrit Cole (DK: $9400)
Cole has to deal with the Cubs at home, but heavy winds are blowing IN today & this should be another low scoring game.
Matthew Liberatore (DK: $6800)
Definitely my top ‘Sunday Sleeper’ play. Since the all-star break the Cardinals have come crashing down to earth, but their bullpen is where it gets really hairy. I see them winning today and winning with a dominant Liberatore start.
ALSO DONT MIND
- Griffin Jax (DK: $8000)
- Peter Lambert (DK: $8700)
MARLINS / METS
Old as dirt in Baseball terms Robert Stock will get the start for the Mets today. He’s awful with a xERA near 16 and a barrel rate in the double digits in limited time this year, not to mention he really hasn’t been in the majors since 2021. That said, I think you do get an okay inning out of him before he implodes eventually. He’s essentially a shittier version of Brad Keller, which is not a compliment at all. The heavy winds out to left field as well should just push this one into an over by mid game.
Sandy is slated to start for the Marlins as he is going to be staying put. I was tempted to throw his name into the hat on SP options – but we just don’t really need to go against the Citi Field Sunday overs club & the Mets should have a somewhat competent lineup in today who knows him…. Except Jorge Polanco, he is not competent at all.
- MIA: Lopez, Stowers, Edwards, Conine
- NYM: Lindor, Benge, Robert
PIRATES / REDS
The Pirates are my heavy lean, but losing Ryan O’Hearn for 6 weeks is a MASSIVE blow for them. I have runs in this game, lots of homers, and Sal Stewart looks like he is going to be a thorn in the Buccos side for a long time. Ride him with Bryan Reynolds from PIT.
- CIN: Sal Stewart, JJ Bleday
- PIT: Brandon Lowe, Bryan Reynolds
GUARDIANS
Weather could kill this by simply knocking Merrill Kelly out.
- Jose Ramirez
- Chase DeLauter
- Travis Bazzana
CATCHER
- Liam Hicks
- Endy Rodriguez
- Austin Wells
FIRST BASE
- Sal Stewart
- Alec Burleson
- Kyle Manzardo
- Harper, Bryce
SECOND BASE
The force is strong with these three today
- JJ Wetherholt
- Brandon Lowe
- Travis Bazzana
THIRD BASE
- Junior Caminero
- Bo Bichette
- Javier Sanoja
SHORTSTOP
- Elly De La Cruz
- Otto Lopez
- Jeremy Pena
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- JJ Bleday
- Bryan Reynolds
- James Wood
- Luis Robert Jr.
OUTFIELD – Tier II
- Lars Nootbar
- Griffin Conine
- Carson Benge
- Max Kepler
- JJ Wetherholt – 2B – St .Louis Cardinals – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Luis Robert Jr – OF – Mets
- Bryan Reynolds – OF – Pirates
- Junior Caminero – 3B – Rays
- Liam Hicks – C – Marlins
- Max Kepler – OF – Diamondbacks
- Jeremy Pena – SS – Astros
- Sal Stewart – 1B – Reds
- BONUS … Harper, Bryce – 1B – Phillies
BETTING CARD
- Cardinals ML
- Marlins / Mets OVER 8.5
- Nationals ML