A C huh. That’s probably fair at this point. I don’t really like how they have gotten to it with some of the decisions but I can see that. If they move Barlow, I’m willing to give them a C+. Moving Taylor and Mondesi were not exactly hard decisions. The right moves, and that they did that is something I guess, but they were not hard decisions as they should have been done. Trading Barlow will give me the most hope that this front office is finally catching up with other teams. Ideally, before the season starts and we find out he’s has lost another mph on his fastball. But at worst by the trade deadline. Maybe you have written about this already and I missed it. But do you think Barlow by himself can get back a league average starter? I thought of Windsor with the Twins who the Royals were asking for Taylor. Understand why the Twins wouldn’t do that….but does Barlow bring back a league average starter to throw behind Singer and Lyle potentially?
I understand the year of seeing what they have. Do I agree with it….eh probably not. Do I think they should already know what they have in these guys…yes, with everyone who has been up more than half a year. I understand the majority of offensive players not being 100% sure yet at the major league level. But the pitching…..you get one year. It HAS to only be one year with these guys. I think it will be based on the depth they have started to accumulate. But Lynch, Bubic…this is a big year for you guys. They don’t need to be studs…just show progress. Keller…IDK why he is continuing to get tries, but it has to be it. It’s time to buy pitching if it doesn’t work out this year. Talk it into fruition David!
You're probably right that they're looking toward 2024, but losing 100+ games this coming season won't help build support for a new stadium. I'm just guessing because I no longer live in KC and don't have a good feel for what taxpayers are thinking about a new stadium.
I'm feeling better with their recent moves, lets hope they work out. C is a good grade for them now. I am looking forward to seeing what the young ones can do.
As for the TV broadcasts, I guess us cord cutters won't be the only ones who can't watch local games at least sometime this year. Last year I tried everything I could to watch games as a cord cutter. Nothing worked. The Bally App was only for people who were already cable subscribers. This year I am going to bite the bullet and get a VPN and the MLB package. It was interesting not being able to watch baseball for a whole season, and I missed it. I hope they figure this out long term, it was extremely frustrating last year. The only thing I missed from not having cable was baseball.
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it would redeem him (because Manfred sucks), but if he actually manages to end blackouts, the Commish's stock will skyrocket with me, because Bally (and Sinclair) suck even more.
A few pointers on a possible Sinclair/Bally's RSN bankruptcy. Under BK law, filing BK creates an automatic stay (meaning that the other party to a contract with the RSN such as the Royals can't either terminate the contract or sue the RSN for damages without the BK court's permission). However, in reasonably short order after the case commences, the RSN is either going to have restart making the required rights fee payments to the Royals or the BK court will eventually let the Royals and the other sports franchises terminate their rights grants to the RSN. The lenders to the RSNs are going to have the most incentive to fund paying the rights fees, as without the rights contracts the RSNs and the lenders basically have nothing. I'd expect the RSNs to eventually be taken over by the lenders and then sold to someone else. In a perfect world, that would be MLB.TV and then MLB.TV would be able to lift the blackout for MLB.TV subsribers who would pay a local team surcharge that looks a lot like the $15-20 /month that Bally's was trying to charge but no one trusted them enough to pay it.
I agree with David, that this could be a short-term financial hit for the Royals (which might be another reason they are not expanding payroll this year) but potentially far better for the Royals and baseball more broadly in the future.
I don't know if I'll be able to root for Chapman or not. When he's on the mound I'll do my best to root for the uniform instead but I may not be able to get there.
JJ pretty much had to confess that the team will be non-competitive this year. He's merely saying what everybody already knows and his credibility would have been in the toilet if he had claimed otherwise.
That also gives Q a free pass for the first year of his managerial tenure. I feel a little ambivalent about that but it was probably the best thing to do, all things considered.
A C huh. That’s probably fair at this point. I don’t really like how they have gotten to it with some of the decisions but I can see that. If they move Barlow, I’m willing to give them a C+. Moving Taylor and Mondesi were not exactly hard decisions. The right moves, and that they did that is something I guess, but they were not hard decisions as they should have been done. Trading Barlow will give me the most hope that this front office is finally catching up with other teams. Ideally, before the season starts and we find out he’s has lost another mph on his fastball. But at worst by the trade deadline. Maybe you have written about this already and I missed it. But do you think Barlow by himself can get back a league average starter? I thought of Windsor with the Twins who the Royals were asking for Taylor. Understand why the Twins wouldn’t do that….but does Barlow bring back a league average starter to throw behind Singer and Lyle potentially?
I understand the year of seeing what they have. Do I agree with it….eh probably not. Do I think they should already know what they have in these guys…yes, with everyone who has been up more than half a year. I understand the majority of offensive players not being 100% sure yet at the major league level. But the pitching…..you get one year. It HAS to only be one year with these guys. I think it will be based on the depth they have started to accumulate. But Lynch, Bubic…this is a big year for you guys. They don’t need to be studs…just show progress. Keller…IDK why he is continuing to get tries, but it has to be it. It’s time to buy pitching if it doesn’t work out this year. Talk it into fruition David!
You're probably right that they're looking toward 2024, but losing 100+ games this coming season won't help build support for a new stadium. I'm just guessing because I no longer live in KC and don't have a good feel for what taxpayers are thinking about a new stadium.
I'm feeling better with their recent moves, lets hope they work out. C is a good grade for them now. I am looking forward to seeing what the young ones can do.
As for the TV broadcasts, I guess us cord cutters won't be the only ones who can't watch local games at least sometime this year. Last year I tried everything I could to watch games as a cord cutter. Nothing worked. The Bally App was only for people who were already cable subscribers. This year I am going to bite the bullet and get a VPN and the MLB package. It was interesting not being able to watch baseball for a whole season, and I missed it. I hope they figure this out long term, it was extremely frustrating last year. The only thing I missed from not having cable was baseball.
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it would redeem him (because Manfred sucks), but if he actually manages to end blackouts, the Commish's stock will skyrocket with me, because Bally (and Sinclair) suck even more.
A few pointers on a possible Sinclair/Bally's RSN bankruptcy. Under BK law, filing BK creates an automatic stay (meaning that the other party to a contract with the RSN such as the Royals can't either terminate the contract or sue the RSN for damages without the BK court's permission). However, in reasonably short order after the case commences, the RSN is either going to have restart making the required rights fee payments to the Royals or the BK court will eventually let the Royals and the other sports franchises terminate their rights grants to the RSN. The lenders to the RSNs are going to have the most incentive to fund paying the rights fees, as without the rights contracts the RSNs and the lenders basically have nothing. I'd expect the RSNs to eventually be taken over by the lenders and then sold to someone else. In a perfect world, that would be MLB.TV and then MLB.TV would be able to lift the blackout for MLB.TV subsribers who would pay a local team surcharge that looks a lot like the $15-20 /month that Bally's was trying to charge but no one trusted them enough to pay it.
I agree with David, that this could be a short-term financial hit for the Royals (which might be another reason they are not expanding payroll this year) but potentially far better for the Royals and baseball more broadly in the future.
I don't know if I'll be able to root for Chapman or not. When he's on the mound I'll do my best to root for the uniform instead but I may not be able to get there.
JJ pretty much had to confess that the team will be non-competitive this year. He's merely saying what everybody already knows and his credibility would have been in the toilet if he had claimed otherwise.
That also gives Q a free pass for the first year of his managerial tenure. I feel a little ambivalent about that but it was probably the best thing to do, all things considered.
"They may go out and sign someone like Josh Harrison or Matt Duffy"
Yer a wizard, David.
There is an excellent piece on Baseball Prospectus on the whole Bally mess by Daniel Epstein:
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/80012/in-the-dirt-sinclair-prioritizing-buybacks-over-baseball-hurts-fans-the-most/
If you don't have a BP subscription, I REALLY recommend it.