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2023 AL Central Division Thread

caulfield12

By caulfield12
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Gio just wants to come back home. I hope we offer him extra money for every homer he gives up in a Guardians uniform.

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chw42 Grand Master

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2 hours ago, flavum said:

Guardians win. They play again in Cleveland next weekend. Nice scheduling. A lot of this balanced schedule will be not who you play, but when you play them. Sorry to sound like Hawk, but it’s true.

The Sox play Houston in May, so I think we would avoid Altuve for the entire year until possibly the postseason. 

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fathom Grand Master

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3 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Three homers already ... Twins off to decent start, granted sub prime competition.

Poor Kim Ng.

I actually loved what the Twins did. Really improved their defense and have more pitching depth.

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caulfield12 Grand Master

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1 hour ago, fathom said:

I actually loved what the Twins did. Really improved their defense and have more pitching depth.

The big change was Christian Vasquez vs. Sanchez/hit-first catchers like Sanchez.

Then Gallo at 1B/RF vs. Miguel Sano.

Obviously Arraez (at his highest selling point) for Pablo Lopez to solidify their rotation was the headliner.

Having Taylor in CF will preserve Buxton's health and Gordon is a very solid 2B as a former SS.

The only big question is whether Miranda can play 3B or not.    Obviously getting rid of Donaldson was a huge move forward towards a younger/cheaper line-up outside of Buxton and Correa.

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caulfield12 Grand Master

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9 minutes ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

 

Pathetic that JR's only chance to compete is overwhelming the AL Central with built-in financial advantages and still coming up short more often than not...

 

The fallout from Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy has now hit Cleveland, where a regional sports network could miss a payment on rights fees.

Bally Sports Great Lakes was scheduled to make its first rights payment for the 2023 season to MLB’s Cleveland Guardians on Saturday, but it’s “unlikely” the payment was delivered, according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

Still, Bally will have a 10-day grace period to make good on its obligations. Bally pays the Guardians between $47 million and $52 million per year. The contract runs through 2027, and unlike other team deals, Bally pays the Guardian in installments rather than one annual fee.

If Bally stiffs the Guardians, MLB is prepared to step in and show games with no lost coverage.

“No matter what, we’re confident our games will be on TV in some manner,” said Curtis Danburg, Guardians vice president of communications. “We don’t expect any disruption to our fans being able to watch the games on TV.”

The dustup between Bally and the Guardians follows a similar situation in San Diego. 

The San Diego Padres dodged a bullet when the local Bally RSN dropped its rights fee to the club before a midnight deadline.

 

https://www.yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/diamond_sports_in_danger_of_missing_guardians_payment/s1_17145_38655439

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caulfield12 Grand Master

caulfield12

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What would those bankruptcies mean for the Twins?

Not much, initially. Twins President Dave St. Peter, who negotiates the team’s rights deals, told a Twinsfest audience that he was comfortable that DSG’s plight “is not a risk to short-term production and distribution of Bally’s broadcasts,” meaning the 2023 season. But Diamond’s troubles are happening at an intriguing time for the Twins, because its deal with DSG expires this year. The Twins are the only MLB team currently negotiating with Bally on a renewal and the industry is looking to those negotiations for a sense of what MLB’s intentions are.

Historically, MLB teams negotiated their own local broadcast rights, which represented the bulk of broadcast revenue its teams received. National broadcast contracts represented a small percentage of games and revenue relative to the NBA and NFL. That means teams receive wildly divergent RSN rights fees based on cable penetration rates, market size, and leverage. This is a component of why large-market MLB teams operate at such a revenue disparity to smaller-market teams. Some are suggesting that MLB would like to use the Diamond collapse as a pretext to take greater control of local broadcast rights and mitigate those disparities.

An unpackaged bankruptcy could allow all 14 MLB teams to abrogate deals with Diamond, though the Twins won’t need a court’s help, because their deal is up.

Unmentioned in all this is the fate of Diamond’s NBA/NHL broadcasts, with those seasons ongoing at the likely point of bankruptcy. There exists the possibility that those leagues could team up with MLB on a new broadcast platform or broadcast partner. Whatever happens, deals are now far more likely to be cut nationally because leagues realize they have a lot more leverage when negotiating for dozens of clubs instead of letting a local team negotiate for one. MLB recently hired ex-DSG executive Billy Chambers to a new role, specifically to manage local broadcast, telegraphing its intentions.

 

The Twins could simply bolt to one of the other existing RSNs, owned by Comcast or AT&T. But that’s less likely given the broad sense that the RSN model is broken. It’s well-known that younger viewers are less likely to invest in three-hour baseball telecasts, which is part of why baseball is so focused on speeding up its games. Research is also telling MLB that younger fans are less interested in teams than specific players (perhaps due to the rise of fantasy leagues and sports betting), which is causing the league to rethink how it packages its content.

The Twins have been known to have one of the less lucrative RSN deals in MLB because of the historically poor cable penetration in the region and the thinly populated catchment area in which the team’s fanbase resides. If for some reason MLB rights payments are impaired or tied up in court for months or years, the revenue impact on the Twins will be lessened relative to other clubs. Also, its ownership has the financial staying power to ride out a disruption, as it did during the abbreviated 2020 season.

 

https://tcbmag.com/the-bally-sports-mess-explained/

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Autumn Dreamin Veteran

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4 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Plesac not long for CLE rotation.

Got knocked around by A's of all teams.

Curry building a case for himself.

Bottom of the lineup carrying top half so far.  Still could be 4-1 after tonight.

6ER in 1+ IP, someone better tell them a bad SP performance in game 5 ends the season.

Not sure they can take Plesac out of the rotation until McKenzie is back. They already have Gaddis trying to fill in a spot.

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caulfield12 Grand Master

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50 minutes ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

6ER in 1+ IP, someone better tell them a bad SP performance in game 5 ends the season.

Not sure they can take Plesac out of the rotation until McKenzie is back. They already have Gaddis trying to fill in a spot.

Obviously he'll get until mid-May before they burn rookies in their Top 5 system (Xavion Curry likely next up)...but he's on short notice right now.

Just manufactured yet another run to tie it up at 8-8.

Battle of pens is unlikely to go to the A's.

 

And now it's 10-8 Guardians...pretty much inevitable.

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caulfield12 Grand Master

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OAK is always surprisingly scrappy at home...

Top of the 10th and CLE is busy yet again manufacturing more runs.

 

Wonder if the Guardians are going to have to trade Rosario if they don't get their $47-52 million media rights payment?

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caulfield12 Grand Master

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Twins vs. Marlins might as well be played at a mausoleum.

Alcantara and Maeda (591 days away from the majors) have both been great...almost zero offense in this one.

Would honestly rather see a game in the Metrodome...such a stark contrast with the lively atmosphere of the WBC.

Twins batting top of 9th down 1-0.  Can't imagine they will let Alcantara try to finish it out this early in the season.

But there he is...

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chw42 Grand Master

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5 minutes ago, BigHurt3515 said:

Detroit beats Houston again, this time against Valdez. Maybe Houston just isn't good right now? 

That and I think Hinch just has the Astros' number.

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