Mr. Jeff Pearlman - You missed the mark as completely as possible on this one

Reading through Cleveland Indians stuff on the internet today I came across this article:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/29/opinions/dropping-cleveland-indians-logo-doesnt-solve-this-pearlman/index.html

Now the URL has "opinion" in it so realize this is just someone's personal thoughts on an issue and, as I was told since I was a kid, opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one.   Keep this analogy in mind as we go forward with this blog post.

So the Cleveland Indians are removing Chief Wahoo as their logo.   My thoughts on this are simple:

I can see the points made.  If this logo is offensive to American Indians then it should be replaced with another logo.   Just like the Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Florida State Seminoles or the other 2000+ (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-2128-native-american-mascots-people-arent-talking-about/) school sports teams with American Indian-linked nicknames/logos should be done away with.

So, if these are offensive to American Indians then all of them should be changed, right?  Trump likes to tout how many laws he has passed so why not get the Republicans to pass a law outlawing team nicknames that are offensive to ethic minorities.  I am sure that Notre Dame should change their nickname to another one that doesn't portray men of Irish descent as being violent individuals who brawl rather than settle their disputes in a reasonable, civil manner.  Oh, and it is probably that they were drunk when they were fighting, as everyone knows that Irish men drink to excess (sorry, I will take my tongue out of my cheek now).

We could go on for days discussing which nicknames should go.  Heck, I grew up in a predominantly Catholic, Italian community whose high school's nickname was the Blue Devils!   Blasphemy!  Last I heard, there was no movement to remove this nickname that clearly elevates the devil to a high position and convinces young, impressionable teens that being a devil is a good thing to be!

So, while I support Mr. Pearlman's opposition to the use of Indians as a nickname and logo, that is all I support in his article.  Excerpts from his "opinion" include:

• He rips on Paul Dolan for financially supporting the political campaigns of John Kasich.  While I don't like Kasich and would never support him, I don't hold it against any person about who they want to support politically.   Life and politics is not a one-issue existence.  As someone who grew up as a Catholic, I have seen and heard firsthand how the church will tell you things that will lead to vote for some idiot just because they are against abortion.  While I am against abortion I will NEVER vote an unqualified or unprincipled candidate just because they support one issue. BTW, the Catholic church doesn't like same sex marriage, if you want something else to write about, Jeff.  
• Pearlman rips on the Indians for not transitioning until 2019.  Well, this is a business, Jeff.  You don't just throw away inventory.  Bleeding money is a nice, altruistic position...in a vacuum.   However, if you told Indians fans that the team could not sign Edwin Encarnacion because they didn't have the resources because the team had to take a financial loss on millions of dollars of inventory they had to trash to make a political statement,  I am pretty sure you would have been run out of town on a rail.  Also, I suppose that you would support a law making it illegal to wear already purchased gear that bears such logos, right?   Because you know, Jeff, that at baseball games next year and in the future there will be fans of the Indians wearing gear purchased pre-2019.  Or should those fans trash all that gear and buy new gear without the logo?   But wait, that would give Dolan more money to support Kasich and such candidates in the future!  It literally makes the head explode thinking about it!
• In reading his "opinion" it appears to me that Pearlman rips on every person who wants to make a buck in a democratic society.   He tries to use the most base arguments about how the rich are bad and how poor people are subjugated by the rich, all to support an argument about a freaking team logo.  Hey Jeff, I am not rich, I am middle class and grew up very low middle class in the 60s and 70s and so I am all about civil rights for all but I don't get your arguments here. Unfortunately, we have seen these arguments before.   I think Hitler used the same tactics to dehumanize the Jews who were depicted as rich, unfeeling individuals, responsible for all the things wrong in Germany at that time.   Interestingly, the Holocaust organizations feel it is important to keep those issues in the forefront to make sure they don't happen again instead of sweeping them under the rug with trashed logos.  Removing the logos, Jeff, doesn't remove the problem.  In fact, it helps hide that those problems every existed.   However, if the American Indians feel it helps them, then I support in principle, not using such logos.

I will end by saying this.   IF it is offensive to American Indians, don't use the name or the logo.   However, simply removing these nicknames does not remove the injustices that American Indians faced in the settling of the US.  In fact, a case could be made to LEAVE the nicknames alone.  They represent American Indians as proud and fierce and a group not to be messed with, which is a compliment to the spirit of the American Indian heritage.   Leaving them alone also keeps American Indians in mind and reminds us of the injustices that can occur if one group is subjugated by another.  These nicknames don't represent Indians as suffering from a high incidence of alcoholism and low self worth and also don't represent them as the oppressed, less-worthy-than-the-rest-of-us group that they became after being put on reservations.  However, HAVING these logos/nicknames does remind us that these things did occur and are still occurring.   Maybe reminding us of that isn't such a bad thing. Maybe Jeff should write an article about how we can continue to highlight that.  There is a new movie coming out that addresses that situation, Jeff.   Maybe it's time to fire up the computer for something important.

 

How much should international stats count towards a MLB career?

As any of you who read this blog regularly may know, I think Julio Franco should be considered for the Hall of Fame.

If you count his 3 years of international ball he has over 3000 hits and, for a number of years, did that as a SS.   But somewhere in his career he decided to go for the money and played overseas, presumably because he couldn't get a MLB contract or, at least, one that he thought was reasonable.   I don't actually know as I don't know the man but, for whatever reason, he spent 3 years playing in the Far East.

While he had only 2586 MLB hits, if you add the 442 he had in Korea and Japan he totals out to 3028 hits in individual country's idea of what major league baseball is.

So, in the days when recent players (Alan Trammell) who failed to get enough votes anytime in their eligibility to elected to the HOF are actually still getting in, I think it is time to consider Franco.

In thinking about Franco the case of Ichiro Suzuki comes up.  Hey, the guy is a HOFer for sure as he got to 3000 hits even though he spent some of his productive 20s years in Japan.   So, the question with him is not whether he makes the HOF, it is  (a) is he a first time HOFer and (b)whether he holds the record for most hits in a career.

Right now Suzuki has 4514 hits between his time in the US and Japanese major leagues with 3080 of those coming in US major league.   By contrast, Pete Rose had 4256 hits, all in the US major leagues.  even if you discount the quality of play in Japan to some degree, it is very possible that if Suzuki had played his entire career in the US that he could have and probably would have eclipsed 4256.

The question is, is there any multiplier we can incorporate into OUS stats to determine what that player would have had based on his age, ability, history of MLB  performance and state of baseball at the time when he played abroad?  In this age of advanced statistics I think this has to be possible.  Also, maybe all of our stats records should have a series of records for career stats for guys who have combined US and international careers.

Why is this important to me?

(a) I think Julio Franco deserves to be in the HOF

and

(b) Ichiro Suzuki deserves to be a first ballot HOFer.

Five Questions About The New Tax Law and Baseball Revenue

Let's begin by saying I am not a tax expert and don't have all the answers about the new tax law.   In fact, I have no answers but I do have a lot of questions about how baseball will be impacted by it.  Here are just some of them:

1. Will the cut in corporate tax rate help or hurt in terms of companies buying luxury boxes or blocks of seats this coming season?  I could see this going either way.  If the tax rate does give them more profit, why would they cut back on something like corporate seat purchases?  At the same time, maybe they gained some tax advantage by writing these seats off as a business expense that they don't really need anymore given the lower tax rate.

2. Will individual tax rate cuts give people more disposable income that they can use to go to Indians' games more than they do now?  I think this has to do with the product and the audience.   I feel that the people who will get the biggest tax cuts may already go to games but it is possible that even lower income families might go to a game.   Again, where people spend their disposable income is based mainly on what they like and can afford.   If they can afford more they will go to where they like more.  So, in Cleveland, I don't see this changing the Indians' attendance very much, if at all.

3.  Will the lower corporate tax rate help the Indians by giving them more money to operate their business?   Well, let's hope so and let's hope they put that money toward signing free agents and uber-talented foreign players, with heavy emphasis on the latter.

4. Will the cut in personal tax rate help salaries come down a bit?  I don't think so but you never know.   If your accountant says that $2 million will actually be worth $2.2 million in 2018 dollars maybe teams may get a small discount on free agents still unsigned around the start of spring training....but don't count on it...ever.

5.  Does this mean that beer will cost less at a game now since the beer companies are generally large corporations?  Yeah, big corporations always funnel their windfalls back to consumers (ROFLMAO).

Dos and Dont's of this offseason

Don't trade Danny Salazar.  When discussions about a guy include the phrase "...if he can only reach his potential" it means that his trade value is not spectacular.   Plus, even if he never reaches his potential he provides a great 5th starter.   If you trade him you are in the same boat as with him underperforming, your 5th starter has to slide up to #4.  When you consider that Ryan Merritt would slot in as the 5th starter and compare him to Salazar knowing Josh Tomlin would be that new #4, you don't trade Salazar.

Do sign relievers.   Look, we are at January 4th.   Borderline guys like Dillon Gee are running for Japan for $1 or $2 million deals.   Looking at the list of free agent relievers, if all these guys are truly still available, you have the following:

Addison Reed, Chad Qualls, Glenn Perkins, Seung-hwan Oh, Dustin McGowen, Greg Holland, Sergio Romo, Matt Albers, Matt Belisle, Trevor Cahill, Tyler Clippard, Jason Grilli, Drew Storen, Huston Street, Tony Watson, Koji Uehara, Travis Wood, Neftali Feliz, Bruen Duensing, Kevin Siegrist, Bruce Rondon, Blaine Boyer, Craig Breslow, Eric O'Flaherty, Oliver Perez, Zach Putnam, Bud Norris, Jason Motte, Francisco Liriano, David Hernandez, Ian Krol, Al Alburquerque, Josh Collmentor, Jorge De La Rosa, Jeanmar Gomez, Francisco Rodriguez, Fernando Salas and a few others.

If Dillon Gee is going to another country we should be able to sign 3 of these guys, at least, without breaking the budget.  Instead we bring in guys I have never heard of including Robert Zarate, who hasn't even pitched in two years.    Guys, you have a great team, don't blow it by leaving the end of the bullpen to Louis Head, Josh Martin and Cameron Hill.   While I would LOVE for those guys to get a chance this year, I don't want them as our first option...with no one backing them up if they fail.  

The relievers are out there and at this point they should be attainable at bargain basement prices.   Time to go get some!

Don't sign or trade for hitters - We have enough hitting, enough guys who can play various positions, etc.  If you add more hitters through free agency you stand the chance to lose guys like Gonzalez and Urshela on waivers.   Plus, you trade for a hitter and you lose tradeable assets you may need in July.  

We have enough hitters.   Leave this area alone.

Don't panic -  There is enough that can be done cheaply that we should not panic.   I love the way this team is constructed.   You need to plan for next year and the year after that while winning this year.  If you do the three things above and don't panic you will be fine.