Tag: Winter Meetings

Derek Jeter, the King of Optics, Continues to be a Walking PR Disaster as Marlins Owner

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Derek Jeter, Mr. Yankee, the guy who did it “right” sure is piling up the PR blunders as he got bagged on TV at the Dolphins game last night after being a no show at the MLB Winter Meetings the day before. The perception of him as a newly minted CEO is somewhere between aloof and Jeffrey Loria 2.0. Not great. First he comes into Miami, after the MLB gifted him the team despite a better bid from Jeb Bush, and axes franchise icons left and right. This included firing a guy while he was in the hospital after undergoing colon cancer surgery. Not to mention Jeets wasn’t even doing the firing himself. He had a guy he had already fired deliver the bad news on his behalf.

Then it came out that he hadn’t even SPOKEN to Giancarlo Stanton. Ya know, the franchise’s all-time greatest player. May want to shoot him a text or something. Jeter then announces to the world his intention to gut the team’s payroll and likely trade off said Miami legend, Giancarlo Stanton.

Man, he must be fucking awesome at poker. Jeter then proceeds to work out finalized trades with the Cardinals AND Giants before actually asking Stanton if he’d accept a trade to either team. It was reported that the Marlins threatened Stanton to either accept one of the trades or he’d be a Marlin “for the rest of [his] life” surrounded by no talent on a losing franchise. Wow.

Naturally, once Stanton blocked those trades, Jeter was basically up shits creek with zero leverage and old friend Brian Cashman *knew* it. The goddamn Yankees snuck in under the cover of darkness and robbed Jeter blind by basically eating the contract, sending over Starlin Castro and a few bum ass prospects. For a guy who just hit 60 home runs. Unbelievable.

So after all that, you would think the CEO of the team, who had his dick sucked by the media for nearly two decades, would merely show up to the MLB Winter Meetings to answer a few questions and play some grab ass with the media. Nope, total no show. And the baseball nerds were PISSED. Even guys like Buster Olney are starting to turn on Jeter.

To top it all off, the very next day Jeter gets BAGGED on national TV sitting in the luxury box at the Dolphins game in Miami. A mere one hour flight from where the Winter Meetings are taking place in Orlando. And he knew it too.

In his first time speaking to the press as a member of the Yankees Giancarlo Stanton wasted no time in ripping the Marlins and how they go about their business. In a matter of a couple of months on the job Jeter has already blown through most of the goodwill he had earned over the years as a figurehead of the Yankees dynasty.

AND ITS NOT EVEN JANUARY YET.

Yea Jeets.

Bud “George Costanza” Selig Said He Did All He Could to Stop Steroids in Baseball

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Yahoo Sports – [Bud] Selig, who has long maintained the stance that he should not receive any blame for players’ rampant steroid use during his tenure (1998-2015), was quick to point out, again, that he feels he did all he could… “I honestly don’t know what else I could have done. That’s my answer.”

So a lot of people are pretty pissed off that Bud Selig is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame, mainly because he oversaw the league when everyone from the No. 3 hitter to the bat boy was popping steroids like tic tacs. I don’t know why people are shocked. Did some shady shit go down during the Steroid Era? Absolutely. Are the record books totally fucked now because bums like Sammy Sosa have 600+ Home Runs? Definitely. But was baseball the most popular it had been in a long long time due to the Steroid Era? 100%

Say what you will, I don’t give a shit either way, but you can’t vote in Selig and then develop this morally elitist attitude when it comes time to vote guys you think may have done steroids. Don’t work that way guys. But the guy was the commissioner of Major League Baseball for 20+ years. He was going in no matter what barring a Bill Clinton-esque sex scandal.

You HAVE to respect his absolute snake game though. Pulling the old Costanza card when asked about steroids: “I honestly don’t know what else I could have done.” Idk, like fucking anything. Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?

Either way, DON’T CARE. Love steroids in baseball. Christ I’m a proponent of giving players aluminum bats so they can hit 1,200 foot dingers. I need to see Mookie Betts hit a Home Run to the fucking Boston Common and I need it now.

 

With New MLB CBA All-Star Game Will No Longer Decide Home Field for the World Series

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ESPN – The league that wins Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game no longer will get home-field advantage in the World Series, which instead will go to the pennant winner with the better regular-season record.

Lot of big changes to the Major League Baseball Collective Bargaining Agreement that the players and owners essentially agreed to at the 11th hour. Which is a shame because I was full on rooting for a Winter Meetings that was exclusively focused on Minor League Baseball because those guys were going regardless. Would have loved to see GMs wheeling and dealing players that make 28K a year over cocktails in the hotel bar. Catch the fever.

But anyways, of all the changes to the CBA the biggest has to be the ALl-Star game will no longer decide which league gets home field advantage in the World Series. And thats good because it never made any sense other than it was just a way for the league to drum up interest in a boring exhibition game. But to penalize a team and take away home field advantage in the World Series because fucking Dan Uggla let a ball go through his legs in July is asinine.

All the owners can cut the shit though about how this is a great change like its some great burden lifted off their shoulders. These assholes voted 30-0 on this when it was introduced in 2003. THIRTY TO ZERO! So they all thought it was a good idea, every single one of them. Ironically enough, the Cubs may not have even won the World Series if not for this bullshit parlor trick of a rule. If the Cubs have home field advantage its one less game without the DH spot, so one less game they can play Kyle Schwarber, who only had ya know massively clutch hits in Game 7 in Cleveland. Yet, NL baseball fans still will never admit the DH is necessary and awesome. We do not need to see pitchers take 3 strikes and walk back to the bench. Get out of my face with that nonsense. Cubs fans know it now, but maybe next year its different?

Careful what you wish for guys!