What’s your take with all the ‘onshoring’ that is occurring this year?
I’m not an economist by any means but it seems the trend we are seeing is going to cause an eventual downfall in the quality of the game, all in the name of greed.
Micro-multinationalism, I suppose.
Instead of pouring a ton of money into baseball camps and development in the US over the last five years, we have seen teams like the Pirates branch out to places like South Korea where they really had no business being. Then, as if done on a side-note, MLB popped a few token dollars into what my friend calls "Negro baseball interest camps" in the US.
My son is three-years old and I am starting to look at the greed surrounding the game today thinking to myself that by the time the kid is sixteen, instead of needing to be in the top 5% of US players to get a realistic opportunity to play the game, he’ll have to be in the top 0.01% of the world.
A few of my friends are in the game and they are concerned about a different outcome – dilution of the strength of the players association. I mean, are we watching the Act I of the collapse of the union?
I suppose if we look at GM, Chrysler, and Ford’s path we could run MLB right down the same line.. outsourcing, building plants overseas, buying out overseas competitors, merging, then finding no cash left to operate the humongous enterprise they own because it is so top heavy with greed and too large to control.
Have you called Dell’s support line the last two years? Then you know what I am talking about here.
I have to believe there was a directive from the Commissioner’s Office this year that said every team will add one multinational player to their roster by "X" date. The Pirates signing of Kuwata can’t be anything but a "thunderball" PR move because my friends in Japan say he is beyond washed up as a pitcher. Perhaps he will find the strength to muster one good season in the US.. perhaps. I mean, even a 50-year old like me can muster 100 pushups when there is a large enough audience or enough bet on it.
And then guys like Ryan Vogelsong head to Japan to flourish because he looks like King Kong on the mound to them and can throw a 96 mph heater past 96% of the Japanese players – when he finds the plate, of course.
Cheap multi-national imports are only going to allow an organization like the Pirates to have more excuses to not field a competitive team and continue to pocket obscene amounts of cash like they are right now.
The Pirates have $126m available for player payroll (by my own accounts) in the bank from the start of 2005 thru 2006.. monies they received from MLBAM, the Nats sale, etc.. But they won’t even talk about spending close to the Commissioner’s wish of $65m in 2007.
None of this is about worthy international players, of course. There will always be a better player down the street.. that is expected. But the Pirates just took up 5% of their 40-man with two players who haven’t seen one decent competitive effort the last two years. What does that say about the Pirates poor 2002 and 2003 drafts?
Let’s face it, there are only 30 teams with 40-man rosters and there are only so many farm system slots. I realize MLB wants to grow the game.. but it seems like they are more intent on growing the revenues of MLBAM and the owners than they are the quality of the game.
If I’m the union, I put my foot down asap. I’m surprised they didn’t this year, albeit nobody wants to kill the golden goose.
I guess I better go learn how to speak Japanese, get a subscription to the Japan Times, and find an apartment in Tokyo since my son projects to be 6′ and 200 pounds. Maybe I can find a baseball camp over there where he will be noticed by US scouts in 12 years?
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