The State of the Game

The Biz of Baseball had an article on voices on the state of the game, and perhaps it was the inner economist in me speaking, but I thought Rodney Fort's was the most interesting and best observation:

Arguments over revenue sharing, the luxury tax, and the possibility of a salary cap take this monopoly power as given and only account for the interests of fans of existing teams. The more in-depth look at MLB’s unfettered control over team location includes the interests of all fans, including those currently without teams.

Which brings me back to an old point I like to keep drumming home: there needs to be a third NY metropolitan area team. Put it in Brooklyn, put it in North Jersey - anywhere it's placed probably would address a lot of balance issues. I wouldn't necessarily go as far as Fort in suggesting splitting the leagues to compete with one another, but the ability of owners to block new entrants into their markets (as Peter Angelos seemed to want to do with the Nationals) is pretty much anti-market, and not very good for competitive balance.

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Merry Ecksmas


Or, absent awful puns, check out my Christmas video of the day. Christmas Eve and the Sox have Matsuzaka, Lugo, and, um, Runelvys Hernandez. Life is good.

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Konnichiwa, Matsuzaka-san

Daisuke has signed. The best part was reading this official State Department transcript, which starts off as you might expect, talking about the Six-Party Talks on North Korea, before going into a Matsuzaka sidetrack:

QUESTION: After the nuclear test blast, there were said to be indications of possible preparations for an additional nuclear test. Can it now be said, as you're entering the talks, that those preparations, or indications thereof, to be more accurate, have ceased? Has their tempo changed? Can you say --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You know, again, you're asking me about test preparations that our analysis of which is done by the intelligence community evaluating various national technical means, and I just can't get into any discussion of that. What I can tell you obviously is that any testing of any, you know, launching of missiles or anything like that would, of course, do some very severe damage to this diplomatic process.

Yes.

QUESTION: Chris, on the Matsuzaka issue, not confirmed but it does appear that a deal has been struck; Matsuzaka stepped in and made the deal happen.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: He stepped in.

QUESTION: It appears.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: And was John Henry there as well?

QUESTION: Larry Luchino [sic] and Epstein and Boras and Matsuzaka.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: This is a terrific Christmas present. Thank you very much.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Not confirmed.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don't mind going to Beijing for Christmas now. This is great. Okay.

I guess you could call Henry, Lucchino, Theo, Boras, and Matsuzaka the Five-Party Talks. And I guess Lucky Lucchino got his name spelt wrong in one of his only chances at being in a State transcript.

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Hey Big Spender

The John W. Henry purse strings keep loosening - looks like the Sox have signed both J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo, and kept Manny. Add Matsuzaka and this is one hell of an offseason for acquisitions.

But screw all that - the best news by far is that Jon Lester has been pronounced cancer-free.

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The Posting of Daisuke Matsuzaka

I know, I know, I've been missing in action. Work took me to Nairobi and Vienna, which means all the Dice-K news has come and gone.

Except that Gene Orza was quoted in the Globe as saying how unfair the posting system is, since the club gets all the money.

Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the Major League Players Association, said yesterday the posting process has "such potential for abuse and fraud. Why should the [Japanese] club receive $51.1 million and the player is only getting, if the numbers in the papers are to believed, $7 or $8 million? That's like saying the Cleveland Plain Dealer wants a Boston Globe writer and the Globe will let him go for $7 million, but $6 million of it goes to the Globe and the writer gets $1 million? What sense does that make? (Link)

The way I see it, posting is essentially a cousin to transfer fees in soccer. And the economics presumably would work out the same way: at the end of your contract, you're a free agent, but if a team wants you early, it has to buy out your contract. Doesn't seem to stop players in soccer from getting well-paid, I have to say - so from the player's association point of view, I'm not sure Orza's barking up the right tree.

After all, while the Marlins can't post Dontrelle Willis, they can essentially get economic value for him before he hits free agency through trades, so there's a sort of barter economy going on. Posting is just substituting cash for players.

This economics paper on the impact of the Bosman ruling on the economics of soccer might prove illuminating on the economics of a posting system. In brief - since Bosman created something akin to free agency in soccer, there were fears of massive transfers from clubs to players causing economic collapse, but the system adapted. Since the posting system is similar, I presume that, sure, the club gets the money in posting , but the system I presume adapts so that the players get a significant chunk of that money.

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