Red Sox/MLB 2023 Spring Training Begins- Forbes says Boston Red Sox are worth $4.5 billion

[Therick67]

I just realized I missed 'Truck Day'...how could this happen?

 

[Johnnyduke]

I think it's time for a breakaway MLB Super League for the owners who want to spend/invest. It will obviously never happen but I totally understand what the European soccer clubs are trying to do. If owners like Cohen come to a conclusion that they can make more money by breaking away from the likes of the Pirates, Reds, Marlins, A's etc...

 

[McGarnagle]

I think it's time for a breakaway MLB Super League for the owners who want to spend/invest. It will obviously never happen but I totally understand what the European soccer clubs are trying to do. If owners like Cohen come to a conclusion that they can make more money by breaking away from the likes of the Pirates, Reds, Marlins, A's etc...

I have mixed feelings on it.

Let's be honest, as fair and noble as revenue sharing and the luxury tax are, baseball was just way better and way more intense when the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, etc. were just in an arms race trying to outspend each other as salaries skyrocketed. I think what the Mets and Padres are doing this offseason is pretty awesome and will make for a more entertaining product on the field. But we don't want the competitive balance to be so tilted that teams like the A's collapse outright and teams like Tampa become feeders to the big clubs like the old Kansas City Athletics of the late 1950s.

In the current system, with good management and a little luck in drafting, any team in the league is 3 to 4 years away (or less) from being a contender. Draft a superstar, or make a big trade for one, take a splash in the free agent market, and you can make a run (especially with the expanded playoffs). That path is open to everyone except Oakland, who are kind of just a grift at this point. If you loosen the rules and regulations, the haves will swallow the have nots whole. The Yankees, Sox, Cubs, Cards, Mets, Braves, Dodgers, Padres, and Giants will go out of control with spending and leave the middle-of-the-pack teams like Minnesota, Milwaukee, Colorado, Cleveland, etc. behind.

The superleague would be very fun and make high-level baseball amazing. But it'll cripple competition and such. It's like the EPL, how unrestrained capitalism has just let it be 4 to 6 teams who run the whole league and the rest are kind of just there and I'm not entirely sure how they maintain fanbases. Like if you're a low team fighting for promotion/relegation that can be exciting, and if you're a top team competing for one of the slots in the European tournaments, cool. But if you're in that 8-14 range in the table like Aston Villa or Crystal Palace, like what's even the point of getting excited enough to watch, you're kind of sitting there trying to be good enough to attract an Arab trillionaire to buy you out as his new plaything and bump you to the next echelon.

 

[N o o d l e s]

The older challenge Manfred referred to is indeed a long-running topic in the sport: owners who are unhappy about the difference in the amount of money teams make. (For as long as those complaints have existed, so too have rebuttals that the clubs are doing well financially.)

“When you start thinking about the opportunities in terms of a more national (broadcasting) product, it did lead into a conversation about our disparity issues on the revenue side,” Manfred said. “We have businesses that are literally not similar in terms of the overall revenue that they’re generating. And to the extent that you could find a new distribution model that actually helped on that disparity side, that would be the daily double. So people are having conversations that haven’t been had in baseball, and it’s really been owners talking to owners, which is a good thing.”

Rob Manfred is gonna turn me into the Joker.

These selfish owners aren't content with guaranteed earnings. No, they want guaranteed earnings plus the guarantee no other owner will actually spend money and make them look bad.

They're not happy with the fact they can operate their team like it's a thrift shop while taking in hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to revenue sharing. No they also need everyone else to do it so their fans don't notice.

MLB's owners are the biggest threat to Major League Baseball's viability going forward.

Yet they get unearned income because teams who are trying to win spend money

 

[Mione134]

Come game time. There will be people in the seats. And that's all that matters to them imo.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Come game time. There will be people in the seats. And that's all that matters to them imo.

Yeah but if they're in last/4th there's going to be a lot of empty seats come late July and August

 

[Mione134]

Yeah but if they're in last/4th there's going to be a lot of empty seats come late July and August

You'd think. But even at their worst lady year. People were still in seats. Not sure how anyone can afford Fenway anymore. But they show up.

I'd love if they suck, nobody show up but I don't think John Henry cares much.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

You'd think. But even at their worst lady year. People were still in seats. Not sure how anyone can afford Fenway anymore. But they show up.

I'd love if they suck, nobody show up but I don't think John Henry cares much.

It'll be different this year coming off a last place season, fans stuck it out last year because of the ALCS run in '21

 

[Mione134]

It'll be different this year coming off a last place season, fans stuck it out last year because of the ALCS run in '21

We'll see. But I don't see it happening. Even when the team sucked people still showed up.

 

[Johnnyduke]

Yeah but if they're in last/4th there's going to be a lot of empty seats come late July and August

People are not gonna be beating down the door to see this team in April and May either.

Attendance last year was at like a 20 year low

 

[RoccoF14]

.....baseball was just way better and way more intense when the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, etc. were just in an arms race trying to outspend each other as salaries skyrocketed.......

Well yeah, if you were a Yankee/Met/Red Sox fan, I guess it was pretty great. Screw the other 25-28 markets, right?

Personally, I think its a good thing that 8 different teams have won a World Series over the past 10 years......and oh by the way, Boston's won 2 (along with Houston). But you'd never f***ing know it by the amount of whining going on on this thread about how ownership sucks and is ruining the franchise.

The sense of entitlement that Red Sox Nation has developed over the past 15 years is truly astounding.....God forbid that the team might suck for more than a year or two, and the pitchforks come out.

I liked you better when you went on incessantly about the Curse of the Bambino and how you hadn't won anything since 1918......Now you just sound like early 90s Yankee fans.

 

[KrejciMVP]

Xander Bogaerts is the 'most irreplaceable' MLB free-agent departure, according to The Athletic

According to a poll from The Athletic,, Xander Bogaerts is the free agent departure who is expected to be the hardest to replace.

www.boston.com

 

[Donnie Shulzhoffer]

We'll see. But I don't see it happening. Even when the team sucked people still showed up.

Attendance was at a 20 year low last year. Ratings in the toilet as well.

Opening day and Patriots day will be packed. Other than that....

 

[Johnnyduke]

The sense of entitlement that Red Sox Nation has developed over the past 15 years is truly astounding.....God forbid that the team might suck for more than a year or two, and the pitchforks come out.

Um as they should. That should be the case for any big market team that has the audacity to raise ticket prices while the team blows. And by the way I would have been OK with an initial two year bridge. But they were ahead of schedule in year two and have completely botched things since then. It's ok to be upset about that. Stop telling Red Sox fans to act like Pittsburgh Pirate fans.

 

[CDJ]

Thank god he’s ours for a decade

 

[FrankerC]

Wow, Yoshida is very small. He looks so little next to Raffy. MLB has him at 5'8

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

If he finished the season as the team’s elite BP option, I wouldn’t be shocked.

 

[BTO]

Tim McCarver at his best - hysterical

“It was drier on Noah’s 33rd day.”

 

[GatorMike]

Hello, Miguel Bleis...

 

[FrankerC]

Wow - Baseball America has Bleis at 88. Excited to see how he does in '23.

 

[CDJ]

fangraphs is bullish on him, Longenhagen has him as his #2 choice to emerge as the games best prospect this year (after James Wood, acquired by the Nats in the Soto deal)

 

[Chevalier du Clavier]

 

[cheg1349]

What in the actual f***

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

What in the actual f***

This is kind of fun and I really hope he ends up back with the organization; There are a few scenarios correct? All lead to him being waived and back to Boston, where he doesn’t need to be added to the 40 man.

 

[Chevalier du Clavier]

This is kind of fun and I really hope he ends up back with the organization; There are a few scenarios correct? All lead to him being waived and back to Boston, where he doesn’t need to be added to the 40 man.

If I'm not mistaken, Song can be returned to the Sox if he isn't placed on the 25-man roster. I'm not sure what would have happened to his rights if the Navy didn't discharge him.