Baseball Prospectus – Craig Goldstein ($): Baseball executives love to talk about financial flexibility. They peddle that term as if it means they are positioning themselves to spend big money when it counts. As these past two offseasons have shown that isn’t the case. Financial flexibility simply means saving as much money as a team can over and over again so they can continue to maximize profits while the on the field product isn’t boosted through spending. The Atlanta club is guilty of this, but so is every team, and it’s not going away anytime soon.
Yahoo! Sports – Tim Brown: The worst thing in the world for management or ownership is a labor force that knows its value and worth. Dallas Keuchel is an example of a laborer who knows exactly how much value he has and isn’t willing to settle for less. Ownerships across Major League Baseball are not willing to pay him what he is worth and thus he is not currently playing. That’s not ideal, but sometimes knowing your worth as a laborer means you have to stay strong and not cave in to lowball offers that will then negatively affect the rest of the labor force.
All Heels on Deck – Sheryl Ring: I don’t claim to know Sheryl Ring or to be a fan of her work. I do know that she is a respected journalist and like so many of us, as a lawyer, also works full time in another field. She writes about what she sees, reads, and is told. For her to face threats of death, rape, violence, etc. simply because she relayed information given to her about how the Chicago Cubs are handling the Addison Russell situation is wrong. The fans who have gone after her are deserving of all the scorn in the world. The Cubs leadership, from the Ricketts to Julian Green are worthy of much more than scorn and the fact that Green used his bully pulpit to send ravenous Cubs fans after Ring is sickening. Nothing has changed and nothing will because the Cubs, and Green, don’t have to worry about accountability. Still, I stand with Sheryl Ring because no human being deserves what the Cubs brought down on her.
Lead photo courtesy of Ted Cox – DNAinfo
