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MLB OFFSEASON (P&C Report 2/14/23)


RIPPA

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12 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Why the Padres wanted to sign Nelson Cruz is beyond me but they did 

You get a chance to sign a 42yr old who hit .234 last year, you gotta take it! 

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Japan has kind of sort of put together their roster for this year's WBC. Their team will include Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Seiya Suzuki, new Red Sock Masataka Yoshida and possibly Lars Nootbaar of the Cardinals. Roki Sasaki, who pitched a perfect game in 2022, is also on the roster.

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So the Reds let team president Phil Castellini near a microphone again and it went as well as it did the last time

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Reds president Phil Castellini, less than a year shy of making his infamous Opening Day comments, spoke to a Reds supporters club on Saturday saying the Reds operate like a “nonprofit,” calling baseball an “industry in crisis,” and bemoaning the state of a sport that has an increased number of teams out of contention on Opening Day.

Castellini and his father, team CEO Bob Castellini, have been the subject of many fans’ ire online since they started dismantling the team that made it to the playoffs in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season.

Last Opening Day, Castellini alienated Reds fans by asking “where you gonna go?” in response to the team trading off some of its biggest names before the season started. On the team’s flagship radio station before the home opener, Castellini said the way to make the team more profitable and compete, “would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else, so be careful what you wish for.” Castellini doubled down on his comments in a pregame TV interview, but released a statement apologizing for his words after the game.

Saturday, Castellini was the speaker at the Rosie Reds luncheon. The Rosie Reds is a philanthropic and social organization formed in 1964 amid rumors that owner Bill DeWitt wanted to move the team to San Diego. The group was founded as a “women’s only group” (but hasn’t been only women since 1967) and the name Rosie was an acronym for “Rooters Organized to Stimulate Interest and Enthusiasm” in the Reds.

Castellini started his remarks by stating that he’d only learned recently that “Rosie” was an acronym and asked if others knew that. The members groaned and said they did.

It didn’t seem to get better from there.

Reached Sunday, Karen Forgus, Reds senior vice president of business operations, declined comment. Major League Baseball also declined comment.
Although it was a members-only event, Castellini’s remarks were tweeted by several people in attendance.

Among his remarks was that the ownership group ran the team like a “nonprofit.” Rosie Reds president Sara Mathews said that was just part of the statement, noting that she believed the overall message was that Castellini meant the team put any profits back into the team. Others did not take that away from the comment.

“He did open up that talk asserting that the Reds were a nonprofit organization,” said Tracey Johnson, a season ticket holder and Rosie Reds member. “I’ve worked for 501(c)(3)s and I was appalled, to say the least. It went down from there. He was very much trying to really back up, ‘hey, we’re trying and the system is fixed against us.’”

Castellini bemoaned guaranteed contracts in the game, asking the group, “is anyone here paid to not do their job?”

Suzana Davis, a Rosie Reds board member who was in attendance on Saturday, said she believed Castellini’s remark about guaranteed contracts to be “tongue-in-cheek” and that overall his comments were misconstrued by those on social media.

Castellini also called Major League Baseball a business “in crisis,” noting the economic discrepancy between franchises due to individual television deals among other factors. Castellini brought a slide show, including a slide that declared there had been a 75 percent increase since 2019 in teams that are out of contention on Opening Day. He used FanGraphs’ playoff probability for that definition: his criteria included teams listed as having a 25 percent chance or less of reaching the playoffs when the season begins.

The Reds were one of those teams in 2022 and the expectation is they will be once again in 2023.

For now, Castellini said the team’s goal was “progress” from 2022.

According to Johnson, Castellini celebrated the team’s farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds — and then joked then they’d be ex-Reds, saying, Johnson recalled, “of course we’re going to lose them.”

Johnson said Castellini also bemoaned the economics of the game and what he saw as its inequities, including new rules that will allow teams to sell advertising rights on uniforms. While that is, in theory, a revenue generator, it’s uneven in his mind, as he explained the Reds received $5 million for their advertising space while the Red Sox received $17 million.

“It was awful. The biggest part of his presentation was his analysis of where the game’s going, which is basically the regional sports networks are going to fold and it’s not sustainable,” Johnson said. “He was kind of acting like that was new information. And he said in the next two years there’s going to be the opportunity for the league to take back those rights.”

Mathews said she was surprised when she saw video, photos and tweets of Castellini’s comments.

“Overall, the feeling I got in the room was positive,” Mathews said. “I had quite a few people come up to me and say they actually appreciated the presentation. And even based on the Q&A (it was positive).”

Mathews said she felt the comments online were limited to a small group of attendees. Several people who tweeted from the event declined to comment or did not respond to interview requests.

Johnson said most at her table were unhappy with the comments and some of her members decided not to attend when Castellini was announced as the keynote speaker.

“It was a hot mess of a talk,” Johnson said. “I don’t know how they could portray it any other way.”

Castellini declined to comment when reached regarding the event.

https://theathletic.com/4094180/2023/01/16/reds-president-phil-castellini-luncheon/

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So... the teams around here are having a normal one

A) The Nationals look less and less likely to sell because the Lerners want like a trillion dollars for the team but all potential buyers are like "ummm... your TV rights are fucked no chance" (For those that don't know (and this is the really dumbed down version) - MLB gave the Orioles the Nationals TV revenue money to appease Peter Angelos when they wanted to move the Expos to DC)

B) Meanwhile (speaking of Angelos) - his son John does a good impression of his Dad by being a huge dick to the media

(Since it is an Athletic story most won't be able to read it - long story short after the Os promised the media that Angelos would do a Q&A, Angelos lost his shit and basically started yelling he didn't have to answer questions because it was MLK Day)

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Local attorney Peter G. Angelos, who purchased the team out of bankruptcy court in 1993, could not continue as the point man for the club after 25 years due to a debilitating health situation.

Introducing Elias in 2018 were Angelos’ two adult sons, John and Louis. John did most of the talking. Louis sat there on the stage, looking uncomfortable, and listened.

One of the things John Angelos declared that day was the Orioles’ partnership group would be more transparent in its dealings with the local media and, subsequently, the team’s fans. His father had shrunk from the public eye in the previous decade or so, and John felt he and Louis would be more visible in the community and more accessible to reporters.

It sounded great. But based on what has happened since, and what happened Monday — John Angelos not only refused to clearly answer a question about his family’s future with the team but also berated me because I asked about it on Martin Luther King Jr. Day — his “transparency” declaration fell hollow.

 Oh, reminder, Louis is currently suing John

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I watched that thinking it can't be as bad as all that.  Yikes was I wrong. 

Angelos asks the reporter a direct question and then says "no I'm not done talking, how dare you try to interrupt."  Also, the whole you shouldn't be asking questions in this Q&A is just amazing. I guarantee you that 'follow-up' q&a is never, ever happening.  

It's funny, you can replace the "WWE" in CM Punk's pipebomb promo and replace it with the "Baltimore Orioles" and it'd still be 100% accurate. 

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It's a decent risk for KC since it's just a 1 year deal. Either he busts out and they lose a few million or he reverts back to form and they trade him to a contender at the deadline. We all know he's gonna sink like the titanic but I get taking the risk.

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The Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins executed a long-rumored trade Friday, with American League batting champion Luis Arraez heading to Miami for right-hander Pablo Lopez and a pair of prospects, it was announced.

The deal, variations of which the teams have discussed for months, brings a much-needed bat to the Marlins, adding to their winter signing of Jean Segura, who's expected to play third base.

The cost was significant, though. In addition to Lopez, a talented starter who slots in toward the top of Minnesota's rotation, the Marlins will send shortstop Jose Salas and outfielder Byron Chourio, two well-regarded teenagers, to the Twins.

 

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Marlins are trying to work a deal with Yuli Gurriel which, I have to say confuses me a little. They already have a right handed hitting 1B (Garrett Cooper) and a right handed hitting DH (Jorge Soler).

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The Royals traded Michael A. Taylor to the Twins for two minor league relievers (Evan Sisk and Steven Cruz). Taylor will probably play CF regularly in Minnesota once Buxton gets hurt again and the trade opens up CF in KC while also opening the door wide to the Twins trading one of their outfielders (Kepler)

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