Bryce Harper in Pinstripes: What Could've Been

It always seemed destined to happen, until it fuckin' didn't. Bryce Harper came out as a young phenom, in Sports Illustrated, stating loud and clear that he dreamed of donning pinstripes. It so happens that the Yankees rake in the most money of any MLB team, by FAR, and just so conveniently in a sport without a salary cap.

Well looky here that seems to be a match made in heaven, how bout it?

Player, who is much worse than Bryce Harper,
frustrated after yet another strikeout...or maybe
he just strained his hamstring for the third time this season.

Hal Steinbrenner, cheapskate fuck Yankees Owner, is much too concerned with his bottom line than winning and putting out a compelling product for this to make sense. Fans gobble that shit up too, "huh huh well he traded for Giancarlo's money so you can't expect him to pay Bryce Harper too!" 

Are you fucking kidding me? 

THE YANKEES MADE 683 MILLION DOLLARS LAST YEAR. I mean seriously, Bryce Harper's annual salary for his 13 Year/330 Million contract is ~25.4M....THE YANKEES ARE PAYING BRETT GARDNER AND AARON HICKS ~21M THIS YEAR AND NEXT. When you can squeeze that extra 4.4M out, for far worse players...you've just gotta do it!

SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THREE MILLION DOLLARS. 

Hicks is signed through 2025 and has played a grand total of 59 games since he signed his contract...but he'll be back strong this year, right? Nahh, he had Tommy John this offseason and isn't gonna be back until 2021! Damnit Hal, you've done it again! You're simply a genius.

Bryce Harper is an MVP, the most recognizable name in baseball...the most marketable player in baseball...and wanted to be a Yankee, all things being equal. God damn that luxary tax though Hal! You'll only make 200 instead of 300 million and won't be able to afford that 3rd Yacht! 


Are they going to pay Aaron Judge? You know, that guy gets injured! 

I say this all to point to the fact that, whatever spin ownership puts on saving money, the Village Idiots just eat that shit up. It's why the cycle of mediocrity continues and the Yankees haven't won shit in the last decade. Stop falling for owners crying poor, all whilst buying Rembrandt paintings and Beach Clubs down in the Bahamas.

The MLB is Coming Back June 10th and I Can't be Convinced Otherwise

After listening to this and attempting to read between the lines of what's going on, Baseball is back on in a month. I'm willing to be wrong here, the amount of sourcing that Trevor seems to have confirming this is damning.

To recap my last blog, Trevor Plouffe is an Ex-MLB Player still very well interconnected throughout the MLB. He's come out and stood on the fact that barring unforseen circumstances, Baseball will be back with a Spring Training 2.0 on June 10th and the beginning of the 2020 MLB Season on July 1st. I'm ready to run through a fuckin' wall.....Let's. GO. 

Want some good baseball news??

I just heard from multiple sources that on June 10th, Spring Training 2 will start. July 1st will be Opening Day and all teams will be playing at their home ballparks.

We’ll be discussing it in full on the next @TalkinBaseball_

— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) May 4, 2020

In the podcast, linked above, they discuss all the details available at the time and I highly suggest listenin' because i'm about to spoil.

1. INTERSQUAD SPRING TRAINING AT THE HOME BALLPARK

Yeah. I said that right. Teams are just gonna be playing themselves in their own damn parks for 3 weeks. That could sound boring to some, for reasons i'll never truly understand but as a Yankees fan, when else am I going to see James Paxton against Aaron Judge? Or if you're a Mets fan, when else are you gonna see Pete Alonso try and drop dick on a DeGrom slider? 

There's still going to be p-lenty of irrelevant minor leaguers in these games, of course...but the 5-6 unique at bat's you'll never see again? Here for it.

The one downside which is discussed in the podcast, pitchers aren't gonna go up and in on their own guys....so some of the sluggers with that hole in their swing won't be able to work on that until the regular season gets going. Sucks, but there are much bigger fish to fry right now folks.

2. NO DIVISION OR MAJOR SCHEDULE ALTERATIONS

This doesn't personally make me feel one way or another, honestly. Might have been kinda cool to have wild, bat shit divisions for a year. Baseball purists would have freaked the fuck out though and MLB cares way too much about "sanctity of game", thus why their sport never fucking grows!

Back to the point though, it would seem from the podcast that the season will be 81-100 games as I theorized yesterday, and the schedule will pickup where it would have been in a standard season. This makes sense, if only for logistical reasons with travel, hotels and other events at certain stadiums. It'll fuck over teams that had a schedule frontloaded with cupcakes and it'll benefit teams that had a schedule backloaded with easier competition. You take what you can get at this point.

3. NO FANS

This doesn't really need to be said at this point. Who the hell knows when fans will be back in stadiums? 2021....? Maybe?? Anyone who says they know is lying. It's going to be up to networks to create an atmosphere that doesn't make everything seem bleak as hell while watching. However, it does give them the opportunity to mess around with new camera angles they wouldn't of previously tried out.

4. UNKOWNS

Between roster size and amount of doubleheaders, there are still some things we've yet to learn. Those two will prooobbably be coinciding with one another, just a wild guess. If the MLB wants to get to 100+ games, they'll have to expand rosters....if they're cool saying let's play 81-90 games....then give each team 26 and let's play some ball!!!

My biggest question is if the season will be extended into Late November to try and fit in as many games as possible. No one wants to play baseball in the snow or 40º weather, so it'll be interesting to see how that's handled. 

You can't lie though, that looks fuckin' sick....like a scene straight out of Game of Thrones.

Lastly though, if I could just make my pitch to baseball....CAPITOLIZE ON THIS, EXPAND THE GAME AND IT'S AUDIENCE. It's very likely that the MLB will be THE ONLY LIVE SPORTING EVENT that America has...So draw them in and keep them watching by...

- Mic'ing willing players up...let the viewer actually get to connect with these guys on a personal basis and get a look into their personality.

- Actually let the players display their personality. Be it through their shoes, accessories, bat flips, stare-downs, pimping a homer, whatever the fuck it is. Baseball has gotten a reputation as a boring sport because it's incentivized to not have fun. This is the absolute biggest chance you'll ever have to change that narrative.

Let's fuckin' goooooooo.