quote:

ORIGINAL: SoMnFan

$43 mil apparently doesn't buy happiness.

SAN DIEGO -- Former All-Star pitcher Esteban Loaiza has been arrested on suspicion of trafficking drugs after packages containing a white powder believed to be cocaine were found at a home he rented in Southern California, officials said Monday.

Loaiza, 46, was booked Friday on charges involving the possession, transport and sale of 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of suspected cocaine worth an estimated $500,000, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

Loaiza played for numerous teams between 1995 and 2008, starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates and concluding with his second stint with the Chicago White Sox. He had a 21-9 record with the White Sox in 2003 and started in the All-Star Game that year.

It was not immediately known if Loaiza had hired a lawyer, and the former player could not be reached to comment. He was being held Monday in San Diego's South Bay Detention facility for lack of $200,000 bail pending a court appearance on Wednesday.

Loaiza's agent, John Boggs, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had no information about the arrest and that he has not spoken to Loaiza recently. He said that Loaiza had called his office early last week but Boggs was unavailable at the time.

"I am shocked and saddened by the news and had no indication he would ever be in this type of situation," Boggs said in a text to the newspaper. "I don't know how he would get himself involved in this, so it's difficult to even comment on it."

Officers stopped Loaiza for a minor traffic infraction Friday after he left the home he started renting recently in the Pacific Coast community of Imperial Beach, along the U.S.-Mexico border. Authorities had the vehicle under surveillance on suspicion it was used for smuggling drugs.

When they searched the vehicle, they found a sophisticated compartment used to conceal contraband, authorities said. That led them to obtain a search warrant for Loaiza's rental home, where they found the packages of drugs, according to investigators.

The packages containing a white powder are still being tested but are believed to be cocaine, said San Diego Sheriff's Lt. Jason Vickery.

Loaiza was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and was married for two years to the late Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera. She filed for divorce shortly before she died in a plane crash in 2012.

The 43-year-old Rivera was known as the "Diva de la Banda" and died as her career was peaking. She was perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated Mexico regional style, sold more than 15 million records, and moved into acting and reality television.

Loaiza sued the aircraft's owners in 2014 for wrongful death but Rivera's relatives accused him of trying to profit from her death. He denied the accusations and later retracted his lawsuit. He made just over $43.7 million in his major league career.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Hosmer goes to San Diego. "the system is broken" per SI.com

It is undoubtedly good news for Eric Hosmer and his family and associates that he landed with the San Diego Padres late Saturday night for a price of $144 million over eight years. Whether it is good news for anyone else in the game remains a puzzle.
Hosmer, the longtime Royals first baseman and onetime No. 3 overall draft pick, hit the market this offseason with all signs seemingly in his favor: He posted his best season ever in 2017 (an .882 OPS, a Gold Glove, and not a single missed game); he turned just 28 in October; he was repped by Scott Boras and figured to stand out in a weak free-agent class.
First-baseman-needy contenders like the Red Sox and Mariners, though, let his pitch whiz on by. With Hosmer lacking the franchise-resurrecting upside of past top-tier free agents like Robinson Cano or Max Scherzer, and first basemen in general lacking the cachet they enjoyed half a decade ago, most teams sat out the bidding entirely. Hosmer’s market consisted, essentially, of the Royals and Padres. Kansas City wanted to keep a franchise cornerstone even though the team will likely wait years for another playoff run; San Diego went 71-91 in 2017 but expects to contend circa 2020. Neither team stood to lose all that much if he passed.
With such soft demand for Hosmer’s services, the Padres’ $144 million guarantee ($105 million of it reportedly in the first five seasons of the deal before a 2022 opt-out clause) stands out as an old-school Boras swindling. Never mind that Hosmer just isn’t a complete player: Advanced metrics hate his defense; he hits too many ground balls; and he has a pattern of alternating good seasons with dreadful ones. (His OPS+ numbers in 2015 and 2017: 122 and 132. His OPS+ numbers in 2014 and 2016: 99 and 102.) Hosmer debuted in 2011; he ranks 101st among position players in wins above replacement in the seven seasons since.

And yet in spite of all that, the deal was hailed by a number of smart baseball thinkers as a welcome development. They were relieved to see the free-agent gridlock start to break. They were relieved that an owner who receives revenue sharing was spending with the goal of making his team a few wins better— even though those wins weren’t likely to be the difference between a playoff berth and an October spent on the golf course. They were relieved to see money from TV contracts and the league’s digital success end up somewhere other than in owners’ wallets.
Those are all indeed developments worth celebrating, particularly if you possess the pro-labor politics common to most new-school baseball writers. Still, it’s hard to imagine any clearer distillation of, oh, the last 15 to 20 years of advances in baseball analysis than “Don’t pay Eric Hosmer $144 million, and definitely don’t pay Eric Hosmer $144 million if you won’t be a contender in the first or second years of his megadeal, and absolutely definitely don’t pay Eric Hosmer $144 million if you won’t be a contender til’ 2020 and it makes you move Wil Myers to the outfield.” It’s not much of an overstatement to say that sabermetrics exists precisely to dismiss this contract. But here we are.
In the last four months, it has become clearer than ever before that the game’s economics and incentive structures are broken, as Jeff Passan has covered. The Astros tanked their way to a title. Miami gave away the reigning NL MVP. Some of the game’s top free agents are stuck at a Potemkin spring training camp in Bradenton. Teams have too little financial incentive to win, which means they have too little incentive to sign veteran players, which in turn dynamites the players’ association’s longstanding approach to compensation (in which the union signs off on the stiffing of young players so that free agents earn big deals). The results look a lot like collusion, and no owner or general manager has to break any rules to achieve them.

It’s tempting to think of the Hosmer contract as a sign that the player-acquisition climate may yet return to equilibrium. The value of the guarantee looks a lot like something he would have received five or six years ago, when the market appeared to work. But it seems more likely that this development will instead drive baseball’s player-acquisition-and-compensation system a little further toward collapse. An overpaid and declining Hosmer will hamstring the Padres as their prospects mature (he’ll also cost them their third-highest 2018 draft pick), and every team will have yet another data point to deter them from paying veterans top dollar for past performance. Teams and players alike will steer further away from free agency.

In a sensible world, the league and the union would recognize the calamity facing them and work together on a new approach, one that does more to discourage tanking and ties player compensation more closely to performance. Both sides would appreciate reform, and it might bring long-term labor peace. But this is not the world we inhabit. In the world we inhabit, Corey Seager will make about $600,000 in 2018, and Eric Hosmer will make 35 times that, and J.D. Martinez will remain unsigned, and almost half of the league will not be trying to win. And everyone responsible will do their best to pretend that nothing is wrong.

quote:

ORIGINAL: CPAMAN

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Hosmer goes to San Diego. "the system is broken" per SI.com

It is undoubtedly good news for Eric Hosmer and his family and associates that he landed with the San Diego Padres late Saturday night for a price of $144 million over eight years. Whether it is good news for anyone else in the game remains a puzzle.
Hosmer, the longtime Royals first baseman and onetime No. 3 overall draft pick, hit the market this offseason with all signs seemingly in his favor: He posted his best season ever in 2017 (an .882 OPS, a Gold Glove, and not a single missed game); he turned just 28 in October; he was repped by Scott Boras and figured to stand out in a weak free-agent class.
First-baseman-needy contenders like the Red Sox and Mariners, though, let his pitch whiz on by. With Hosmer lacking the franchise-resurrecting upside of past top-tier free agents like Robinson Cano or Max Scherzer, and first basemen in general lacking the cachet they enjoyed half a decade ago, most teams sat out the bidding entirely. Hosmer’s market consisted, essentially, of the Royals and Padres. Kansas City wanted to keep a franchise cornerstone even though the team will likely wait years for another playoff run; San Diego went 71-91 in 2017 but expects to contend circa 2020. Neither team stood to lose all that much if he passed.
With such soft demand for Hosmer’s services, the Padres’ $144 million guarantee ($105 million of it reportedly in the first five seasons of the deal before a 2022 opt-out clause) stands out as an old-school Boras swindling. Never mind that Hosmer just isn’t a complete player: Advanced metrics hate his defense; he hits too many ground balls; and he has a pattern of alternating good seasons with dreadful ones. (His OPS+ numbers in 2015 and 2017: 122 and 132. His OPS+ numbers in 2014 and 2016: 99 and 102.) Hosmer debuted in 2011; he ranks 101st among position players in wins above replacement in the seven seasons since.

And yet in spite of all that, the deal was hailed by a number of smart baseball thinkers as a welcome development. They were relieved to see the free-agent gridlock start to break. They were relieved that an owner who receives revenue sharing was spending with the goal of making his team a few wins better— even though those wins weren’t likely to be the difference between a playoff berth and an October spent on the golf course. They were relieved to see money from TV contracts and the league’s digital success end up somewhere other than in owners’ wallets.
Those are all indeed developments worth celebrating, particularly if you possess the pro-labor politics common to most new-school baseball writers. Still, it’s hard to imagine any clearer distillation of, oh, the last 15 to 20 years of advances in baseball analysis than “Don’t pay Eric Hosmer $144 million, and definitely don’t pay Eric Hosmer $144 million if you won’t be a contender in the first or second years of his megadeal, and absolutely definitely don’t pay Eric Hosmer $144 million if you won’t be a contender til’ 2020 and it makes you move Wil Myers to the outfield.” It’s not much of an overstatement to say that sabermetrics exists precisely to dismiss this contract. But here we are.
In the last four months, it has become clearer than ever before that the game’s economics and incentive structures are broken, as Jeff Passan has covered. The Astros tanked their way to a title. Miami gave away the reigning NL MVP. Some of the game’s top free agents are stuck at a Potemkin spring training camp in Bradenton. Teams have too little financial incentive to win, which means they have too little incentive to sign veteran players, which in turn dynamites the players’ association’s longstanding approach to compensation (in which the union signs off on the stiffing of young players so that free agents earn big deals). The results look a lot like collusion, and no owner or general manager has to break any rules to achieve them.

It’s tempting to think of the Hosmer contract as a sign that the player-acquisition climate may yet return to equilibrium. The value of the guarantee looks a lot like something he would have received five or six years ago, when the market appeared to work. But it seems more likely that this development will instead drive baseball’s player-acquisition-and-compensation system a little further toward collapse. An overpaid and declining Hosmer will hamstring the Padres as their prospects mature (he’ll also cost them their third-highest 2018 draft pick), and every team will have yet another data point to deter them from paying veterans top dollar for past performance. Teams and players alike will steer further away from free agency.

In a sensible world, the league and the union would recognize the calamity facing them and work together on a new approach, one that does more to discourage tanking and ties player compensation more closely to performance. Both sides would appreciate reform, and it might bring long-term labor peace. But this is not the world we inhabit. In the world we inhabit, Corey Seager will make about $600,000 in 2018, and Eric Hosmer will make 35 times that, and J.D. Martinez will remain unsigned, and almost half of the league will not be trying to win. And everyone responsible will do their best to pretend that nothing is wrong.

What a ridiculous contract! Just plain stupid of the Padres. Eric frickin' Hosmer? Are you kidding me?

quote:

ORIGINAL: twinsfan

But I kind of just feel bad for the Rays' fan base.

Longoria feels bad for 9 people.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Players union files grievance against #Rays, #Athletics, #Marlins, #Pirates over spending of revenue sharing money

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Players union files grievance against #Rays, #Athletics, #Marlins, #Pirates over spending of revenue sharing money

Good Luck players.....no floor or ceiling in cap. Can't enforce a floor if you don't have one.

quote:

ORIGINAL: twinsfan

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Players union files grievance against #Rays, #Athletics, #Marlins, #Pirates over spending of revenue sharing money

Good Luck players.....no floor or ceiling in cap. Can't enforce a floor if you don't have one.

I believe there is a clause about not being able to hurt the game of baseball through unethical practices.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: twinsfan

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Players union files grievance against #Rays, #Athletics, #Marlins, #Pirates over spending of revenue sharing money

Good Luck players.....no floor or ceiling in cap. Can't enforce a floor if you don't have one.

I believe there is a clause about not being able to hurt the game of baseball through unethical practices.

No one said too much when the A's, Astros, Cubs, etc. were doing the same thing a couple years ago. The big difference this year is that the Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, and Red Sox are trying to stay below the salary tax of 197 million this year.

2017 there were 5 teams over the salary tax (LAD, BoSox, NYY, Detroit, Toronto)....this year 1 so far.


126 million is the average payroll this year, 152 million was the average payroll last year. Still 50 some free agents out there to sign....

quote:

ORIGINAL: ewen21

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: twinsfan

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Players union files grievance against #Rays, #Athletics, #Marlins, #Pirates over spending of revenue sharing money

Good Luck players.....no floor or ceiling in cap. Can't enforce a floor if you don't have one.

I believe there is a clause about not being able to hurt the game of baseball through unethical practices.

No one said too much when the A's, Astros, Cubs, etc. were doing the same thing a couple years ago. The big difference this year is that the Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, and Red Sox are trying to stay below the salary tax of 197 million this year.

2017 there were 5 teams over the salary tax (LAD, BoSox, NYY, Detroit, Toronto)....this year 1 so far.


126 million is the average payroll this year, 152 million was the average payroll last year. Still 50 some free agents out there to sign....

I sure hope Moustakas is keeping fit

quote:

ORIGINAL: CPAMAN

quote:

ORIGINAL: ewen21

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: twinsfan

quote:

ORIGINAL: Phil Riewer

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Players union files grievance against #Rays, #Athletics, #Marlins, #Pirates over spending of revenue sharing money

Good Luck players.....no floor or ceiling in cap. Can't enforce a floor if you don't have one.

I believe there is a clause about not being able to hurt the game of baseball through unethical practices.

No one said too much when the A's, Astros, Cubs, etc. were doing the same thing a couple years ago. The big difference this year is that the Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, and Red Sox are trying to stay below the salary tax of 197 million this year.

2017 there were 5 teams over the salary tax (LAD, BoSox, NYY, Detroit, Toronto)....this year 1 so far.


126 million is the average payroll this year, 152 million was the average payroll last year. Still 50 some free agents out there to sign....

I sure hope Moustakas is keeping fit

Is Trevor Plouffe still available? Too bad the Twins didn't "lock him up" for the $50 million that a few said was the market price for third basemen.

quote:

ORIGINAL: SoMnFan

Im just waiting for him to settle on a number before buying the jersey. And pajamas.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed

Royals outfielder Jorge Bonifacio has been suspended 80 games for testing postitive for a performance-enhancing drug.
Per FanRag Sports' Jon Heyman, Bonifacio had boldenone in his system, which is a banned substance.
Bonifacio, 24, hit .255 with 17 homers and 40 RBIs in 115 games in 2017, his rookie season.