Around the MLB

[BigLeagueChew]

Read on Twitter

Shoulder problems.

[Myth11111]

Chris Davis just got his first hit of the year and ends the record hit less streak.

[Fenris-77]

Betances will be out another 6 or 7 weeks apparently. Something to do with a a spur on his shoulder.

[So_Fresh]

Chris Davis just got his first hit of the year and ends the record hit less streak.

Man what happened to this guy?? Isn't he making a ton of money and locked in for long term? Glad I'm not a Baltimore Orioles fan

Sent from my LM-Q710.FGN using RealGM mobile app

[The_Hater]

Chris Davis just got his first hit of the year and ends the record hit less streak.

Man what happened to this guy?? Isn't he making a ton of money and locked in for long term? Glad I'm not a Baltimore Orioles fan

He's making huge money. Signed back in 2016 for $160/7 years and still has $92 million left on the deal. If he was on a one year deal, they probably would have released him by now.

Even then, he was a power hitter who always had trouble making contact and never hit for a high average. Plus prior to signing, he had 2 big years with a lot of mediocrity sandwiched around it. So while I don't think most figured he would be this bad but he did look like a probable regression candidate.

[Skin Blues]

He's giving minimal effort just to collect a paycheque. The Orioles are gonna be terrible either way, and he doesn't seem to care. Jim Palmer called him out last season for lying in interviews about putting in a lot of extra work with the hitting coach, who himself denied they had worked on anything at all. I'm sure he has enough pride that he wanted to get the focus off of him and the streak, but now that it's over I doubt if the extra effort will be long-lasting. They need to just cut him.

[The_Hater]

He's giving minimal effort just to collect a paycheque. The Orioles are gonna be terrible either way, and he doesn't seem to care. Jim Palmer called him out last season for lying in interviews about putting in a lot of extra work with the hitting coach, who himself denied they had worked on anything at all. I'm sure he has enough pride that he wanted to get the focus off of him and the streak, but now that it's over I doubt if the extra effort will be long-lasting. They need to just cut him.

Way too much money and time left on the contract for that move. You hope he bounces back to near peak levels and then trade him at your earliest opportunity Vernon Wells style.

[Schad]

Fun thing: Davis has a bunch of deferred money. Now, unlike Bobby Bonilla, it isn't at a crazy 1980s interest rate (it's actually interest-free, so it's a financial net benefit for Baltimore), but the O's will be paying him through 2037.

[BigLeagueChew]

Had .539 ops last season. That's worse than a utility player with a good glove or like Josh Thole.

[Schad]

Had .539 ops last season. That's worse than a utility player with a good glove or like Josh Thole.

I ran the numbers a week or so ago, and his xwOBA (a measure of quality of contact, taking into account Ks/BBs etc) over his hitless streak was a shade worse than Stephen Strasburg's career numbers. Strasburg isn't even one of the better hitting pitchers, so it's not like Davis was getting terribly unlucky...he's just done.

[BigLeagueChew]

Had .539 ops last season. That's worse than a utility player with a good glove or like Josh Thole.

I ran the numbers a week or so ago, and his xwOBA (a measure of quality of contact, taking into account Ks/BBs etc) over his hitless streak was a shade worse than Stephen Strasburg's career numbers. Strasburg isn't even one of the better hitting pitchers, so it's not like Davis was getting terribly unlucky...he's just done.

What makes his deal now similar to Bonillas though instead of ending in 2022?

[Schad]

What makes his deal now similar to Bonillas though instead of ending in 2022?

Some of the money is deferred: ie., he's making $23m a year, but only $17m of that is being paid out now, with the rest paid out on an annual basis for 15 years after the contract ends. $3.5m each year from 2023 through 2032, $1.4m from 2033 to 2037.

The difference is the lack of interest; Bonilla's was calculated at a rather high interest rate of 8%, which meant that instead of cutting him a cheque for the $5.9m owed, they're ultimately paying him almost $30m total. Whereas with Davis, the money's deferred interest-free, so the net present value of the money paid on his contract is quite a bit less than if he was getting the full $23m during the seasom...it just means that a notoriously cheap team is going to have an annual reminder of what an awful deal that was from now through 2037.

[BigLeagueChew]

Some of the money is deferred: ie., he's making $23m a year, but only $17m of that is being paid out now, with the rest paid out on an annual basis for 15 years after the contract ends. $3.5m each year from 2023 through 2032, $1.4m from 2033 to 2037.

The difference is the lack of interest; Bonilla's was calculated at a rather high interest rate of 8%, which meant that instead of cutting him a cheque for the $5.9m owed, they're ultimately paying him almost $30m total. Whereas with Davis, the money's deferred interest-free, so the net present value of the money paid on his contract is quite a bit less than if he was getting the full $23m during the seasom...it just means that a notoriously cheap team is going to have an annual reminder of what an awful deal that was from now through 2037.

Alright last question! Was this deferred when he originally signed the deal or something that happened recently, a new agreement?

[Schad]

Part of the original agreement. It's something that's becoming more common...helps the teams, but having that sort of annuity probably isn't the worst thing just as a hedge against truly miserable financial decisions.

Bonilla's wasn't originally in his contract. Basically, he had one year left on his deal, and Wilpon didn't want to pay it out at once when they went to release him. The reason, for all intents and purposes, is that Wilpon was making a killing via Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme; if they took that money and invested it, as they had with much of the rest of their wealth, it'd easily exceed the interest rate they were offering Bonilla, so it was a net win even at a fairly high interest rate. Of course, a few years later it became clear that Madoff wasn't an investing genius, but they're still stuck paying out every July 1st.

[Skin Blues]

Part of the original agreement. It's something that's becoming more common...helps the teams, but having that sort of annuity probably isn't the worst thing just as a hedge against truly miserable financial decisions.

Bonilla's wasn't originally in his contract. Basically, he had one year left on his deal, and Wilpon didn't want to pay it out at once when they went to release him. The reason, for all intents and purposes, is that Wilpon was making a killing via Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme; if they took that money and invested it, as they had with much of the rest of their wealth, it'd easily exceed the interest rate they were offering Bonilla, so it was a net win even at a fairly high interest rate. Of course, a few years later it became clear that Madoff wasn't an investing genius, but they're still stuck paying out every July 1st.

Another benefit for players is you get to brag about making $23M per year even though the net present value equivalent would be $21M per year. 6/$149M doesn't have the same ring to it that 6/$161M does.

And what the Mets did with Bonilla was stupid, since they were involved with Madoff and all. But 8% was not a crazy return back then at the tail end of the Dot Com bubble. The Dow had averaged over 16% returns per year for the prior 15 year period. Obviously the timing was horrible since the bubble burst almost at the same time they agreed with Bonilla (and the whole ponzi scheme thing collapsed in 2008 as well). But taking on a fixed rate mortgage at that time was just about as crazy a decision as deferring Bonilla's salary at 8%.

[BigLeagueChew]

Blake Snell shares every detail of the bizarre injury that landed him on the DL

“I got off the plane, went home, took a shower, got out of the shower, and then there’s like this big, like, granite thing that I don’t like looking at. And I lifted it – it’s like a three-piece set, and like this pole that comes up two and a half, three feet. And then there’s a top. You, like, put something on it? I don’t know what you would put on it in the shower. Like, it’s right outside the shower.

So I’m like ‘ah I’m moving this, this is stupid.’ Dry it off, put my clothes on. I start to move it, I lift it and I go to move it where the tub is, just to set that down… but I lifted it up thinking ‘alright, I’m going to lift this whole thing up and put it over here and get it away from where I’m always at.’ And then I lifted it up and it wasn’t glued to the pole, and the pole came crashing down and then… yeah. That was the story. Really dumb.”

https://www.bardown.com/blake-snell-shares-every-detail-of-the-bizarre-injury-that-landed-him-on-the-dl-1.1291782?fbclid=IwAR0t3zOMpNGYLhs9j0Yfznc_9UYLd0l1_38BRsigNEfz3hF6G_cEYf0GWwQ

[BigLeagueChew]

Also Greg Bird out for awhile, complete tear of plantar fascia, probably got it from Tulowitzki.

[Schad]

Blake Snell shares every detail of the bizarre injury that landed him on the DL

“I got off the plane, went home, took a shower, got out of the shower, and then there’s like this big, like, granite thing that I don’t like looking at. And I lifted it – it’s like a three-piece set, and like this pole that comes up two and a half, three feet. And then there’s a top. You, like, put something on it? I don’t know what you would put on it in the shower. Like, it’s right outside the shower.

So I’m like ‘ah I’m moving this, this is stupid.’ Dry it off, put my clothes on. I start to move it, I lift it and I go to move it where the tub is, just to set that down… but I lifted it up thinking ‘alright, I’m going to lift this whole thing up and put it over here and get it away from where I’m always at.’ And then I lifted it up and it wasn’t glued to the pole, and the pole came crashing down and then… yeah. That was the story. Really dumb.”

https://www.bardown.com/blake-snell-shares-every-detail-of-the-bizarre-injury-that-landed-him-on-the-dl-1.1291782?fbclid=IwAR0t3zOMpNGYLhs9j0Yfznc_9UYLd0l1_38BRsigNEfz3hF6G_cEYf0GWwQ

Nothing bizarre about that. Sounds like approximately 90% of the ways I've injured myself over the years. Spontaneously decide to do thing. Do not consider parameters of doing thing. Thing hurts other thing.

Steven Matz surrendered 3 ER in his first three starts. Thus, when he surrendered 8 runs (6 earned) without recording an out today, his ERA's still a mere 4.96, so that's nice.

The whole of his start: E6, double, HBP, double, HR, walk, FC(+E6, no out), HR.

[dagger]

I hope that international allocation money the Jays got for Thomas was well spent

Read on Twitter

[Myth11111]

I was expecting much better numbers based on the tone of that post.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=thomas000lan