Yordan scores the first run of the All-Star game, maybe the winning run. Surely that makes him the MVP.
Now get him out of there before he gets hurt.
Like Camineiro.
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I didn’t watch the game after the third. But the NL ALL-STARS managed only THREE hits!!!
Senior circuit?
More like senior short circuit, amirite?
I’ll show myself out.
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But the AL is so bad this year, how is that possible?
Fun article, couple of Astros mentions:
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He tried to stay in the game!
“The rookie do-everything man underwent emergency surgery to repair a ruptured testicle Monday night, hours after fouling a ball off the region.”
Fun on the basepaths with JT Realmuto & Co. This is with 1 out and trailing by 1 in the 9th:
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Dropping this in from The Athletic, since it’s in their public-domain e-mail:
The division conundrum
Last night, the Rangers beat the White Sox 10-0, the Mariners lost 4-2 to the Reds and the Astros beat the Marlins 5-3. That means, after a one-day flip-flop, Texas is back in first place in the AL, with the Mariners a half-game back and Houston down three games. Oh and by the way, the Rangers are just one game over .500, at 51-50.
The A’s (eight games back) and Angels (10.5) are, barring a miracle, finished. But the top three — the Rangers, Mariners and Astros — make up this deadline’s most perplexing riddle. One has to win the division. Is it worth trading prospects to marginally improve a .500 team with long October odds?
The answer may lie less in the teams’ records come Aug. 3, and more on what they can even afford. Combining the organizational rankings of our own Keith Law, FanGraphs, MLB, Bleacher Report, Baseball Prospectus ($), Baseball America ($) and ESPN, here’s where their farm systems rank, on average, out of 30 teams:
Astros: 28.57
Rangers: 23.85
Mariners: 7.42
Both the Rangers and Astros appear headed toward a wholesale rebuild soon. Is it time to get started bulking up those farm systems? Or do you make one final push before diving into the depths? The MLB playoffs are, notoriously, a place where upsets thrive, after all.
The Mariners’ calculus is different. With good prospects available, is this year’s squad one in which they want to invest? If not, they do have a different option available: They could deal from their surplus of starting pitching in a pitching-for-hitting swap.
It’s possible that this situation becomes a lot less confusing in the next 10 days or so. The Mariners travel to Texas for a four-game series against the Rangers starting Friday. Until then … sheesh.
The farm system macro-analysis ranking is interesting is as much as they use it to suggest it should be the catalyst for a rebuild.
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Imo rebuild talk is pointless because there is zero chance the Astros go that route. Best we can hope for is they don’t go all in and give up the few real prospects they have.
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I’ve heard the same from multiple sources. But… one thing the last couple of years have proven is that it is hard to build and sustain a consistent winner without periodic rebuilds unless you have Dodgers $$ to throw at the sustainment of both the big league club and the underlying minor league infrastructure/ecosystem.
For example, the Astros minor league ecosystem is estimated to cost between $10-$15M per year with $9.58M of that being salaries. The league average is between $15-$30M. The Dodgers and Yankees are both at the $30+M end. While base minor league salaries and roster sizes (capped at 165 total players per organization) are standardized across the league, total spending varies by tens of millions of dollars between clubs with the delta comprised of systems that lean heavily into international free agency, expensive scouting departments, high-tech player development facilities, and top-tier nutrition programs. Under the current construct, the Astros are choking off the MiLB intake pipeline so not sure how they maintain consistent competitiveness without a rebuild. All of their semi-recent success can be directly tied to the rebuild from last decade.
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Where are you getting the minor league system cost estimates?
It’s something the Astros have to pour more resources into. It seems stupid not to.
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If those numbers are true, that’s damning
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I used Gemini. It pulled the info from official financial trackers, legal agreements, and industry reporting across the baseball community. Here are some of the discreet sources:
- Base Salaries and Cost-of-Living Adjustments
The exact tiered pay structure and seasonal base totals are sourced directly from Baseball America’s Tracker on Minor League Pay. Their comprehensive breakdown outlines the structural wage changes mandated by the historic Minor League Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). This includes the modern mandate requiring clubs to pay players year-round (including during spring training and offseason camps) and the consumer price index (CPI) adjustments built into the pay scales. [1, 2, 3]
- Operational Costs and Institutional Rules
The breakdown of logistical responsibilities—specifically that major league parent clubs pay for player/coaching staff salaries and travel while local affiliate owners handle the venue—comes from the rules established under the Professional Development Leagues (PDL) system. Financial cross-checks on how clubs handle these “Selling, General, and Administrative” player development costs are tracked through public club financial disclosures, such as those analyzed via the Atlanta Braves Financial Reports. [1, 2, 3]
- Signing Bonuses and Total System Estimates
Data regarding how teams allocate money for newly drafted players and international pools is tracked through official draft guidelines. Estimates regarding how much variance exists between high-spending organizations (like the Dodgers) versus budget-restricted clubs are informed by payroll and transaction trackers like Spotrac’s MLB Payroll Database and FanGraphs’ RosterResource Breakdown. [1, 2]
To look into any specific team’s financial trends, I looked closer at how draft pools limit a team’s amateur spending at MLB Trade Rumors Payroll Tracker to see how active rosters affect total budget calculations. Which would you prefer? [1]
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At least for PD staff (coaching, analytics, conditioning, FO admin, etc) this is 100% GIGO.
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You’re a good man, and thorough
I hope you pronounce it ‘jemahnee’
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I don’t know how broadly known this is, but AI hallucinates kind of all the time. My last experience with it, which is the last experience with it I will ever have in any kind of substantive way, was to ask Chat what the record of George Springer’s teams was in games which he led off with a homer. Chat crunched a lot of numbers and reported back the astonishing fact that his teams had never lost, not in 64 instances. He provided box scores of all the games, plenty of references, tons of proof. It was of course almost entirely bullshit.
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That tracks with some chatter I’ve seen on Twitter that the Dodgers are well known for paying their scouting and developments far more than most organizations (mostly because the money from their media rights let them commit that kind of budget to their minor league system).
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