TBayXXXVII

Oh the irony.

Clearly you missed the trial in NY recently.

FIFY

This too.

Just another reason why ESPN is a bunch of morons who just need to be ignored.

That's funny you think that... or sad.

That's awesome! So, how long do you think he'll rule... like 20 years? That would be great. What laws do you think he'll enact without Congress approval?

You mean like liberals and Biden are doing to Trump in NY?

Yup... and who knows, the Lakers may see this as an opportunity to get rid of LeBron and not have to worry about any PR issues dealing with an extension. So your line of thinking on that front isn't that outlandish. I guess the only issue would be the cap. Those I don't really know much of, but I do know that when it comes to sports, teams always manage to make the money work if it's something they really want.

Now, I watch NCAA basketball, but not the NBA. From an investment standpoint, taking Bronny at #54 would seem like a good investment. If LeDouche really wanted to play with his kid, he'd get the Lakers to trade their #2 next year for him. Odds are, that'll be 10 to 20 picks better than this year's. Seeing who the Celtics picked at #54 (Watson from Gonzaga), I'm 99.9999999999% sure, he goes undrafted and the Celtics... if they really wanted him, can pick him up as an undrafted free agent. A deal like that for Bronny is a lot more realistic than trading for LeBron, is my guess. Worst case scenario for the Celtics is that they pay a couple extra dollars to ensure they get Watson and the Lakers don't do the deal. Doesn't sound that bad of a risk.

Rank Team Record Avg Age Team Total Payroll Allocations Active 26-Man Injured Retained Buried Cost per win 1 BAL 53-31 28.5 101,749,929.00 66,627,231.00 $10,098,600 9,056,924.00 330,174.00 $1,919,810 2 CLE 52-30 27 100,591,881.00 58,779,798.00 $18,444,900 15,650,000.00 7,717,183.00 $1,934,459 3 OAK 30-56 27.5 62,846,809.00 28,005,062.00 $27,514,106 3,530,650.00 3,522,509.00 $2,094,894 4 PIT 40-43 28.2 84,356,555.00 69,608,703.00 $13,315,736 288,189.00 1,143,927.00 $2,108,914 5 MIL 50-34 28.2 108,093,066.00 77,672,660.00 $24,639,984 2,029,968.00 3,750,454.00 $2,161,861 6 TB 42-42 28.1 98,339,191.00 73,713,027.00 $11,900,191 16,820,970.00 3,275,458.00 $2,341,409 7 KC 47-39 28.5 116,493,379.00 88,087,621.00 $7,757,270 10,314,812.00 1,833,676.00 $2,478,583 8 CIN 39-45 29.2 103,362,232.00 76,636,339.00 $13,325,000 9,253,871.00 1,622,022.00 $2,650,314 9 MIN 47-37 28.7 128,145,965.00 112,107,558.00 $11,519,550 181,309.00 4,337,548.00 $2,726,510 10 WSH 39-44 28.1 109,175,751.00 65,063,820.00 $38,561,229 2,980,665.00 2,570,037.00 $2,799,378 11 DET 38-46 28.1 106,496,008.00 71,059,131.00 $26,504,600 8,969,135.00 896,475.00 $2,802,527 12 SEA 47-39 28.5 141,990,595.00 117,549,623.00 $4,541,657 19,627,296.00 6,272,019.00 $3,021,076 13 MIA 30-54 27.8 100,167,197.00 47,907,673.00 $20,058,600 32,747,894.00 2,453,030.00 $3,338,907 14 SD 46-42 28.7 163,742,593.00 72,827,111.00 $75,213,620 16,515,099.00 1,243,337.00 $3,559,622 15 STL 43-40 29.7 175,613,902.00 144,217,318.00 $27,486,800 3,000,000.00 909,784.00 $4,084,044 16 BOS 44-39 28.8 181,296,205.00 102,134,710.00 $48,985,500 25,470,553.00 4,705,442.00 $4,120,368 17 ARI 41-43 28.7 171,733,277.00 114,867,088.00 $31,041,806 21,798,380.00 4,026,003.00 $4,188,617 18 LAD 52-33 30.2 231,013,221.00 135,534,594.00 $86,648,500 7,354,072.00 736,055.00 $4,442,562 19 PHI 55-29 28.6 246,272,274.00 150,277,932.00 $93,758,962 1,127,974.00 1,107,406.00 $4,477,678 20 LAA 36-47 28.7 172,962,438.00 65,423,374.00 $97,281,948 2,958,352.00 7,298,764.00 $4,804,512 21 SF 41-44 28.2 202,767,396.00 98,521,986.00 $91,165,208 11,576,096.00 1,504,106.00 $4,945,546 22 ATL 46-36 30.4 233,171,932.00 169,574,098.00 $34,773,958 26,695,902.00 6,727,974.00 $5,068,955 23 COL 28-55 28.5 146,841,281.00 76,406,669.00 $62,799,170 5,003,978.00 2,631,464.00 $5,244,331 24 CHW 24-62 28.6 136,016,644.00 86,937,716.00 $32,961,248 13,301,864.00 2,815,816.00 $5,667,360 25 NYY 54-32 29.2 307,257,101.00 226,604,108.00 $64,085,922 15,034,482.00 1,532,589.00 $5,689,946 26 CHC 39-46 28.6 227,191,971.00 190,023,948.00 $12,025,711 25,636,981.00 2,171,998.00 $5,825,435 27 TOR 38-45 29.2 223,518,300.00 197,741,044.00 $14,532,500 4,338,854.00 6,496,168.00 $5,882,061 28 HOU 42-41 28.7 251,111,178.00 147,816,339.00 $81,918,408 20,708,953.00 667,478.00 $5,978,838 29 TEX 38-46 30.4 231,548,506.00 178,434,390.00 $50,523,620 452,963.00 2,137,533.00 $6,093,382 30 NYM 40-41 30.6 309,573,084.00 165,472,765.00 $49,341,250 78,127,555.00 3,081,514.00 $7,739,327 Source: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/_/year/2024/sort/cap_total2 Last column... Excel (based on "Total Payroll Allocations")

Definitely so for the younger people. I wouldn't know for the older folks.

Quite possibly.

The problem wasn't the deal, the problem was with who the deal was with. Back when the deal was made in 1999, there were going to be dividends paid back to the Mets. Bonilla was going to make just under $30M ($29.8M I believe), but it wasn't going to cost the Mets $5.9M. The Mets took that money and invested it with Bernie Madoff (the problem), where over the next 10 years, they'd get dividends back to where the Mets would've spent almost nothing in the end. They were expecting to get about 10% per year back, over that time frame. At that point was when Bonilla was going to start getting paid. Of course, that went to crap after Madoff was found out to be crooked. Like I said, at the time the deal was made, it was a good deal. It wasn't going to cost them anything really and the value of the money then was a lot better than the value of the money now.

Steve Phillips (on MLBRadio these days), contends that he likes when people call this out because it reminds the Mets of how great of a deal this was... and he's right. The value of money today (even before Covid), is way lower than it was when Bonilla signed that deal. This deal was a huge win for the Mets organization. It's really not that much different that the Ohtani deal with the Dodgers. Ohtani will start getting $68M a year in 2034. There's no way that in 2034 that the value of $68M will be the same as the value of $70M today. In 20 years, the value of $68M won't be the same as it is in 10, either.

I'm seeing more and more yuppy-type names like Cole, Aiden, Hayden, Connor, etc.

Nope

LOL, why? I'm probably wrong on almost all of them. I'll let those idiots steal my picks and then change mine before the deadline and win. (actually, I'll lose because I make my updated picks will be worse. )

I'm in.

Agreed, not everything Trump wants to do is good. Disagree... everything and anything the Democrats want to do is bad.

Yeah, let's do it.

It's better than the path we're on now.

Obviously things changed, for the worse, because of the leadership. We put the right guy back in place and the ship will right.

And? Why do you think that policies and practices that were winning from 2017 to 2019 wouldn't work when put back in place in 2025?

From 2017 to 2019, America did a TON of winning.