Juan Soto - 15 years 765 million

[WhiteWonder 2,738]

On 12/10/2024 at 5:47 PM, Baker Boy said:

https://babylonbee.com/news/juan-soto-retires-from-professional-baseball-in-order-to-play-for-the-new-york-mets
 

Juan Soto Retires From Professional Baseball To Play For The New York Mets

 

you didn't need to re type the link

[WhiteWonder 2,738]

On 12/9/2024 at 4:50 PM, TBayXXXVII said:

The fans are the ones that get the shaft the most, even in those cities.  Philly, LA, both NY teams, and others, spend out the azz.  Yeah, there's more money coming into the cities via luxury boxes, advertisement, and alike, but ticket prices are still going to go up like crazy.  These teams are going to end up pricing out the average fan from the ballpark.  It's going to make it harder to get younger fans.  This has been happening league-wide, but they seem to try gimmicks to get people interested, instead of fixing the obvious problem.

It's more than just that.  In the past, teams like New York, Atlanta, LA, etc could spend more because they were in bigger markets , or had their own TV networks, etc.   I think the bigger issue now is that owners are allowed to dip into their own money and these franchises are worth so much that the only people who can afford to buy them are guys like Steve Cohen. 

Look at San Diego. Their owner basically knew he was dying and went all in spending his own $$. Now that team is left with a bunch of contracts it could never afford in that market. Tatis, Boegarts, Machado, Darvish, ... formerly Soto, etc. etc. 

Hal Steinbrenner is really only worth what the Yankees are worth. Steve Cohen is worth 20+ Billion without the Mets. 

You get a salary cap and you not only help bridge the competitive gap between the big and small market teams but you eliminate the hedge fund guys and their play money.

[WhiteWonder 2,738]

On 12/9/2024 at 1:45 PM, MLCKAA said:

I’m not a baseball guy.  Does this make them a perennial front runner?  It’s still just one guy.  Is he considered the GOAT or something?  I honestly don’t know.  Still gotta have a team around him, right?

The team around him went to the NLCS last year, which was a year before they were even looking to compete. They were more competitive against the Dodgers than the Yankees were in the World Series.

Pete Alonso will be gone but the rest of that team remains (aside from some shuffling of the starting rotation), including MVP runner up Francisco Lindor. They also likely expect little Acuna in the majors this year as well as a full season of Mark Vientos who was not initially expected to contribute last year but was one of their stars. 

[edjr 6,592]

18 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

I remember when the Mets and the Yankees were both going after Bonilla. Worked out great for both teams. 

or when the Red Sox and Yankees both went after ARod.

[Hardcore troubadour 15,438]

The yanks losing out has happened before. I think it was 1991 or so when they had the highest bids on Bonds , Maddux and Mark Davis. They got none of them. 

[WhiteWonder 2,738]

17 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

The yanks losing out has happened before. I think it was 1991 or so when they had the highest bids on Bonds , Maddux and Mark Davis. They got none of them. 

But the late 80's early 90's Yankees were a bit of a dumpster fire. New managers left and right, a last place finish in there. Feels like that was the start of George really pushing to spend and become what would be the evil empire, at the time. I think they signed a big TV deal with MSG around then. 

[Hardcore troubadour 15,438]

7 minutes ago, WhiteWonder said:

But the late 80's early 90's Yankees were a bit of a dumpster fire. New managers left and right, a last place finish in there. Feels like that was the start of George really pushing to spend and become what would be the evil empire, at the time. I think they signed a big TV deal with MSG around then. 

Yup. I think MSG was 89 or so. 50 mill a year which was bonkers at that time.  The team was a complete dumpster fire. If you get a chance watch Bronx Zoo ‘90.  I probably went to 30 games that year and I forgot half of the shitt that was going on.  Also reminded me of the bad side of Steinbrenner. I hated him. Real good watch, it will have you shaking your head. 

[WhiteWonder 2,738]

1 hour ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

I remember when the Mets and the Yankees were both going after Bonilla. Worked out great for both teams. 

in 1991?  

Because of the Wilpons creating Bobby Bonilla day, people seem to forget that his initial stint with the Mets wasn't all that bad. Went to a pair of all-star games and had a fantastic season in 1993. Played pretty well in 95 before being traded.   

Initial Mets Bonilla was not the 1999 version that has become the running joke.

[Hardcore troubadour 15,438]

3 minutes ago, WhiteWonder said:

in 1991?  

Because of the Wilpons creating Bobby Bonilla day, people seem to forget that his initial stint with the Mets wasn't all that bad. Went to a pair of all-star games and had a fantastic season in 1993. Played pretty well in 95 before being traded.   

Initial Mets Bonilla was not the 1999 version that has become the running joke.

Yeah. He picked a fight with the NY media which was much more confrontational when it was newspapers competing.  Now they kiss everyone’s ass

[TBayXXXVII 2,546]

3 hours ago, WhiteWonder said:

It's more than just that.  In the past, teams like New York, Atlanta, LA, etc could spend more because they were in bigger markets , or had their own TV networks, etc.   I think the bigger issue now is that owners are allowed to dip into their own money and these franchises are worth so much that the only people who can afford to buy them are guys like Steve Cohen. 

Look at San Diego. Their owner basically knew he was dying and went all in spending his own $$. Now that team is left with a bunch of contracts it could never afford in that market. Tatis, Boegarts, Machado, Darvish, ... formerly Soto, etc. etc. 

Hal Steinbrenner is really only worth what the Yankees are worth. Steve Cohen is worth 20+ Billion without the Mets. 

You get a salary cap and you not only help bridge the competitive gap between the big and small market teams but you eliminate the hedge fund guys and their play money.

I don't think they need to dip in their own money as much as you think. 

• The Dodgers average ticket costs $52.76 and with a seating capacity of 56,000... that's $239M if they sell out every game.  Now, that's if they sell out every game, meaning 4,536,000 tickets sold.  No, they didn't sell out every game, but they did get about 87% at 3,941,251 people.  That comes to about $208M. 
• They get $334M from their local TV contract deal with Charter Communications
• On top of the local deal, they're getting $60M from the national tv contract.

Now, portions of the ticket sales is shared, right?  But even though they're paying out... they're getting as well.  What is shared among the 30 teams equally is ticket sales, merchandise, parking, & concessions, local tv money is NOT.  So, let's assume that the Dodgers only get $140M from ticket sales, that still gets them to over $530M.  Their payroll last year was $240M.

I'm willing to bet that if you look at teams like the Yankees, Phillies, Cubs, Mets, etc, you're likely to find similar trends.  Maybe not the same numbers exactly, but that when you total 60% of ticket sales, their local tv contract, and the cut of the national tv contract, they're operating at a profit compared to their payroll... and that's before you include their cut of the revenue that is shared equally.  The larger markets all have this advantage.  Does it work for every team?  No, because they spend foolishly, but it's not a mystery why there's the same 7 or 8 teams that always seem to be in the mix every year, and those teams happen to be in large markets.

[Gepetto 1,368]

https://x.com/timbhealey/status/1867337190788759783?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Steve Cohen on Pete Alonso: "We think he's a great Met and we're still engaged. We hope he stays as a Met. ... He's entitled to go out, test his market and see what it is. Hopefully we'll get there."

[WhiteWonder 2,738]

12 minutes ago, TBayXXXVII said:

I don't think they need to dip in their own money as much as you think. 

• The Dodgers average ticket costs $52.76 and with a seating capacity of 56,000... that's $239M if they sell out every game.  Now, that's if they sell out every game, meaning 4,536,000 tickets sold.  No, they didn't sell out every game, but they did get about 87% at 3,941,251 people.  That comes to about $208M. 
• They get $334M from their local TV contract deal with Charter Communications
• On top of the local deal, they're getting $60M from the national tv contract.

Now, portions of the ticket sales is shared, right?  But even though they're paying out... they're getting as well.  What is shared among the 30 teams equally is ticket sales, merchandise, parking, & concessions, local tv money is NOT.  So, let's assume that the Dodgers only get $140M from ticket sales, that still gets them to over $530M.  Their payroll last year was $240M.

I'm willing to bet that if you look at teams like the Yankees, Phillies, Cubs, Mets, etc, you're likely to find similar trends.  Maybe not the same numbers exactly, but that when you total 60% of ticket sales, their local tv contract, and the cut of the national tv contract, they're operating at a profit compared to their payroll... and that's before you include their cut of the revenue that is shared equally.  The larger markets all have this advantage.  Does it work for every team?  No, because they spend foolishly, but it's not a mystery why there's the same 7 or 8 teams that always seem to be in the mix every year, and those teams happen to be in large markets.

If you also discount all other employee salaries, cost of operating the stadium, etc etc etc. 

I'm not saying you're entirely wrong. Big market teams are still going to be able to spend more than small market teams (We all know this without googling ticket costs and tv contracts) even if we pretend the owners are not dipping into their own funds. But it does happen, it's allowed and it's not good for the sport.   Like I mentioned in another post, Hal Steinbrenner is only worth a few billion if he sells the Yankees. Steve Cohen is worth many billions regardless of the value of the Mets franchise. 

I also mentioned the Padres owner, Peter Seidler, who knew he was dying of cancer and spent big on a plethora of players. San Diego is not really a "big market team", but when you're dying and want to see your team win a world series... spend what you want. I think we are kind of seeing, now that he has passed, that team is not sustainable in that market. 

 

bottom line, there needs to be a cap and billionaire owners need to not be allowed to use play money (even if we want to say it's not happening all that much). The idea that it's allowed to happen is stupid enough. Franchises that are handed down from generation to generation will eventually not be able to hang with franchises purchased by billionaires or big money ownership groups. 

[WhiteWonder 2,738]

26 minutes ago, Gepetto said:

https://x.com/timbhealey/status/1867337190788759783?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Steve Cohen on Pete Alonso: "We think he's a great Met and we're still engaged. We hope he stays as a Met. ... He's entitled to go out, test his market and see what it is. Hopefully we'll get there."

Depending on the contract, he could be a bad signing, at 30 years old with already declining numbers almost across the board. However, he feels like the closest thing the Mets have to a captain, carrying the torch from David Wright. So for sentimental reasons, team chemistry, etc... I could see it.   But Christian Walker would be a very similar player for what I would expect would be decently less money.... maybe close in AAV but you probably get Walker on a 3-4 year deal as opposed to Alonso on a 6-7 year deal. 

 

Still.... lets say they bring Alonso back.  Mets fans would have to be giddy about a lineup of 

Lindor  (ss)
Soto   (rf)
Nimmo  (lf)
Alonso   (1b)
Vientos   (3b)
Marte   (dh)
Alvarez   (c)
McNeil / eventually Acuna  (2b)
Tyrone Taylor  (cf)