EMERGENCY BLOG: Baseball Is About To Hit An Iceberg

(Photo by Wikipedia)

So, here I am minding my own business, working on something for a deadline, which I set myself and watching the 80s cult classic Valley Girl. It's the scene where Elizabeth Daily is doing the head shake...

Yes, this one, and I received a notification. I read it and shook my head. It happened swiftly and painless as you can probably imagine....

After that, I could feel a disturbance in the force. Every cliche you think of like, the floodgates are opening, a stampede is a-coming, here comes the rain again, the waves are about to crash....you get the idea. What everyone feared could be in the distance.

A lockout could be in the cards possibly after the season that could threaten 2027. This could bring back memories of 1994, a work stoppage that still lingers to this day. MLB owners are probably destroying furniture as we speak. Some will cry out how unfair this is and will plead about a salary cap. Well......

If you get my opinion on this, here it is...

-Once again, the Dodgers did nothing wrong. They traded for a player who hinted at signing there. If they want to keep pumping money into the luxury tax, then so be it. No one is stopping them from this. This franchise is paying Kyle Tucker $60 million a year to tread water.

-A salary cap would be great, if everyone agrees to it. Owners, players, fans, announcers, the popcorn guy....EVERYONE has to be on board with this. You can't have a few owners say no and go back to the drawing board, full throttle.

-This should have been done a long time ago. You can agree on a draft lottery, ABS and a pitch clock, but apparently, a salary cap just slipped though people's minds. MLB is trying to modernize themselves and joining the other four major North American sports leagues to have a salary cap could help with that. Yes, MLS has one.

(SIDEBAR: Remember when everyone was jazzed up about soccer about a month ago and once the World Cup ended, a majority of people stopped watching soccer? (Don't lie, you did) Well, better jump back on that bandwagon since baseball could be locked out.)

-Steve Cohen is literally doing the same thing with his franchise, yet the Mets decided to blow chunks this year. I see no eyelashes batted on that one.

-And if you are the owners that continue to whine about a salary cap yet cheap out on bringing in some talent for your club, then SELL YOUR TEAM! Give it to someone who cares about the fans and is willing to spend the dough to make them better. Remember, the goal is to win a World Series, not keep recycling into mediocrity every season. Looking at you, Bob Nutting, Dick Monfort, Bruce Sherman, John Sherman...anyone named Sherman that owns a MLB team, Arte Moreno.....well, Arte and Monfort do spend money, they just suck at owning a baseball club.

(Photo by Wikipedia)

The man above is Christopher Illitch, the president and CEO of the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings. He took over at the position when his father, Mike, passed away in 2017. It's safe to say that Christopher is not like his father. Mike was willing to take risks and spend for talent while Christopher kind of tows the bottom line. The arbitration meetings with Tarik Skubal tells you that. Tarik wanted $32 million while the club filed for $19 million. C'mon, he's a two-time Cy Young award winner. Tarik won the case but the divide between him and the club was there. Christopher did sign Framber Valdez to a hefty contract, a contract you could have used for Tarik Skubal. A trade was definitely coming, which brings me to....

WHAT THE (BLEEP) IS THIS?!!?

(Photo by Google)

If you put this into NBA terms, this is the Pau Gasol/Kwame Brown trade. This is for a two-time Cy Young award winner. The Tigers did get an elite prospect in Zyhir Hope, but other than that, not much. If I owned the team or was the GM, here's what I would do....

LAD- TARIK SKUBAL, TWO MONTHS WORTH OF LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA

DET- TWO PLAYERS, THREE PROSPECTS, A DRAFT PICK, A TRUCKLOAD OF 805 BEER, VIN SCULLY BOBBLEHEADS, 20 CASES OF DODGER DOGS, AN UNLIMITED CARD TO ANY 76 GAS STATION AND A PARTY MANSION FOR THE TIGERS WHENEVER THEY VISIT LA.

No, that's why I'm not a GM.

So, for the next two and a half months, wear your favorite baseball jersey and watch all of the games you can. It could be a raucous off-season ahead.

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