Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Guess who's back...

So I took a week-and-a-half vacation, from both work and baseball. I mean, I followed the scores, but not closely enough to say much about them. Anyway, I like these two articles, both by Alan Schwarz at the NYT:
  • We all know HR's were up last month, which was maybe surprising given the steroid crackdown. And we had all sorts of explanations - pitchers being off roids, new superdrugs, etc. But as it turns out, last month was the hottest April on record. May was cooler, and HR's went way down - the lowest in 12 years. Small sample size of course, but it's the best explanation so far. Good to know that global warming will be good for something.
  • Just in case Selig isn't loathesome enough, he does this. Amazing.

16 comments:

  1. Wow. That is pretty nasty about baseball stats. Isn't that a little like a company charging Etrade to post finacial data? Seems a bit of a stretch.

    By the way, I now totally understand why W didn't sign the Kyoto treaty.

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  2. Well, Dino, it is a little different because when ETrade posts financial data those companies have others buy into them directly. Yahoo!, for instance, minus the licensing fee makes money from those who pay for the "advanced leagues" (unless us cheapos who choose the "free" league.

    And I think that is the key "nasty" point in the article. MLB already charges a fee, and now it just looks like they are seeing gigantic profits others are making and want more. Well, raise the rates next year (unless there is already a longer term contract in place)...or start a BETTER fantasy league.

    Unfortunately, what MLB is missing is that people who could generally give a crap about baseball are DRAWN to baseball through fantasy leagues. Therefore, even if MLB had a better league people probably wouldn't know about it unless they were invited or visited the site. There would probably be a dropoff in sales on hats, etc...

    Stupid move to pressure this issue...but it is all about the $$$.

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  3. By the way...good to have you back, Earl...That's unfortunate about your shows ratings, though...Started off so strong...Must be the Thursday night time slot.

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  4. Yeah, I know. Plus there's a Dixie Chicks song called "Goodby Earl", about killing me.

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  5. I think a couple of things have been overlooked in the GYS analysis. And GR is correct, in the long run it all comes down to $$.

    So basically, I think that the ire here has been entirely misdirected. It is neither Bud Selig nor the entity known as MLB that is forcing this issue, which I agree could alienate some element of the fan base.

    MLB advanced media is collectively owned by all 29-1/2 teams, but is run independently. They operate all internet activities, including each teams and mlb's web sites.

    This statistic data case is relevant to player info that they bought from the union nad had nothing to do with mlb itself. And if mlb were to step in now and say "don't pick on the little guy..." you can only imagine how fast the players would snap back saying that by mlb restraining the trade of a (supposedly) independent group that the future value of their names, etc has been greatly diminished.

    I'm not sure what the pricing structure is, it sounds like it is a flat $2MM per web site fee, so perhaps they can solve that by having it be user/team based. Yahoo or cbs can absorb the $2 MM even if everyone like us was cheap since they are a web portal and want us coming to their site everyday even if we do not upgrade to a premium league - hell we even read the crappy articles written by Jeff Passan because our league is on Yahoo. And eventually that web traffic results in click throughs to advertisers.

    So lets not be so quick to blame Bud and MLB. And I know this is a topic for another day, but aside from his complete goofiness, Selig has actually done a pretty good job as commissioner ever since that fiasco known as 1994.

    And did I miss something about "my name is earl?"

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  6. Okay, fair enough, I was wrong to blame Bud. And I actually was a big Selig defender - until his about-face on the steroids issue. I find his treatment of it rather disgusting, dumping the whole things on the players.

    Anyway, no matter who is behind this decision by "Major League Baseball Advanced Media" (and I think it's fair to assume than Selig and the owners are at least okay with it), if baseball wins, the implications are pretty huge. For example, if we put ads on our site, getting a little revenue, could they come after us the second we name a specific player or stat?

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  7. And don't forget the players union in the culpable parties here.

    You would think that they could work something out where they got something like $0.50 per fantasy team. Or some kind of royalty program. Those half bucks would add up pretty quickly and the owners of the sites would be forced to be creative in terms of getting that money back.

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  8. Yeah, a more flexible pay structure would make a lot of sense; $2MM makes it impossible to start a small fantasy site.

    Still, Volokh's quote is a good one - does this mean they can't ask baseball questions on Jeopardy!?

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  9. On a different note...Chacon is getting rocked tonight. 6-0 in the second.

    And the sun is finally out here!!!

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  10. Oops...let me correct that...Chacon lasts 1 1/3 innings. Aaron Small comes in and gives up a bomb to Blalock...9-0...

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  11. Mike Lowell with his 20th double of the season. Yeah, he's done - just dead weight in the trade for Beckett.

    The Yanks (with their own JV lineup) have somehow managed to score 3 off Koronka.

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  12. "Koronka" is a great word. Like the noise your car makes when it's about to die. Or the sound that the cartoon wolf's eyes make as they bug out when the hot lady wolf walks by.

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  13. And is this another case of Terry trying to steal a win (and probably failing) for Schilling. seems like he is out of gas, but heaven forbid you take him out with a lead in the 5th. Every ball hit hard yet he stays in. Ugh.

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  14. ...and the Yanks come back. 10-8 Rangers...

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  15. and the Yanks take the lead...Rangers don't deserve to be in first place if they can't hold a 9-run lead...

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  16. And scratch that...home run Wilkerson! 12-11 Rangers...

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