FANTASY BASEBALL

BLAME THE OWNERS

By Muntradamus

BEAST DOME NATION.

Like all of you, I was outraged when players like Blake Snell complained that making $5 Million as opposed to $25 Million to play Baseball was not enough for him. How can a person complain about making $5 Million to pitch once every five games. There are people working at grocery stores, and post office’s who are making minimum wage and breaking their backs while dealing with any possible risk of Coronavirus. Those professions are interacting with so many strangers on a daily basis, how can MLB players complain at all especially when you consider the fact every player would have been tested and no fans would be in the stadium.

BOOO BLAKE SNELL

Was my first reaction.

Then I thought about it and wanted to see it from his perspective. He did not touch on it during the interview, but here is the real possible scenario that if I were a professional athlete I can see their side of the story.

Let us say I am a superstar athlete who is due to make $20 million this season. I take the paycut and now I am making only $5 Million. I get injured during the season, and it is an injury that either ends my career or it is an injury that makes my market appeal go down in the future.

I would have much rather waited to play Baseball in 2021, make that $20 Million, get the bag secured and no matter what. My future’s future would be secured. Not to say the injury risk changes at all, but the possibility of playing for under the max amount of money I would be receiving like the owners are suggesting, you could get injured and that could be your last big contract.

SCENARIO 2019

Can you imagine if Giancarlo Stanton was forced into that situation in 2019?

A player that could not stay healthy, as soon as he returned from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for multiple months from the first week of the season. Stanton gets injured again and has to miss more months. Stanton only plays 18 games, and hits 3 Home Runs in 2019. Then Giancarlo gets injured during Spring Training this season, Stanton instead of making $25 Million last year, only makes $5 Million in 2019. You can guarantee no team will shell out that $25 Million in 2020 had he been a Free Agent heading into this season. Not to say Stanton won’t return to the BEAST HR hitter he is. Just a scenario where a player sacrificed his value in these circumstances.

THE TRUTH

The owners are taking zero risk here. The Atlanta Braves will be worth the same amount if not more when the world is back to packing stadiums. Yet alone TV viewership will be through the roof. The MLB teams are not losing any long-term value during this corona season. If anything it is reminding us Americans how much we need the sport and should increase the value. The distraction from everyday life and really be emotionally involved in something that gives us joy, and something we are so heavily invested in.

The owners should be generous here, if anything it is to the MLB owner’s benefit to get the games going as soon as possible so everyone can fall back in love with the game, instead of trying to turn players like Blake Snell into a bad guy.

With MLB ratings going in the wrong direction every season since the steroid days, MLB needs to save America. The Owners have to do what is right, they can take a season off from making Millions upon Millions. Especially when it means Long-Term the owners will be making more Millions upon Millions.

The owners are the evil ones turning us against the players.