A story and a thread on a major failing of the modern stadium construction boom: It's pushed MLB fans further away from the game. We see less, and hear less. It's changed fan behavior. Explored through the lens of moving from old Comiskey Park to new🧵: thescore.com/mlb/news/28134… Unless sitting in premium lower-level seating today, fans have been pushed dramatically further from the playing field compared to the original experience of watching a game. Many from younger generations mostly only know the in-person game at a distance. Some seat-location analytics...

My HoF ballot. cc: @NotMrTibbs @ShutTheDore I explain my vote, and process in full, in the piece linked below. In the end, I had 11 worthy players for 10 spots. .... I was strategic with final selections: I chose to error toward favoring those running out of time that are worthy in my view (Wagner, Sheffield). I left Beltrán off, whom I voted for last year, but who isn't in danger of falling off, and I also don't believe he's going to clear 75% this year. thescore.com/mlb/news/28006…

Ohtani's decision will have continental-wide fallout: risk and reward for the Dodgers, setting off flurry of Plan Bs (Toronto & SF, in particular, could have benefitted more on the field from Ohtani), underscoring the financial divide between clubs, and more: Though we'll have to see the deferral amount that will reduce the contract's real-dollar value, it's still remarkable that Ohtani was guaranteed ($700m) more than Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole combined ($684) who held the top open-market deals for a hitter and pitcher. I'm bullish on Ohtani the pitcher to some degree, I think he'll return and be good, but he's probably one more severe elbow injury away from being a position-player only. (and maybe he could go full Tatis Jr. in the outfield - if he can still throw)

Some things I learned and observed while spending three days with the GOAT coach @tomhouse, and his self-described 'misfits' in December. A thread built around what I believe are some of the best quotes/pearls of wisdom. It is a story about wisdom: 🧵
thescore.com/mlb/news/25555… "See how I got people to help me out with what I could do? Not trying to make me something I couldn't be?" House said. "See how lucky I got?"
House often repeated "how lucky" he was, including benefiting from individualized training.Rod Dedeaux & Clyde King worked w/his strengths

Now in the eighth season of Rob Manfred's tenure as MLB commish, there have been a lot of communication errors and unpopular decisions. What about the actual direction of game? Its business and growth trends? How might his bosses evaluate him? We explore:
thescore.com/mlb/news/23874… One big down arrow: attendance. It's down *20%* since 2007 peak, or a pace for the loss of 16 million ticket buyers. It's down 14% since Manfred took office and it's down 7.5% this year compared to 2019.

ASG ratings cratering another -9% yoy (this chart ends with last year) is pretty staggering. It's on a trajectory toward extinction. One thing that might help? Differentiating the product as MLB had done for the first 96 years of AL & NL play: thescore.com/mlb/news/23872… Baseball has never had less mystery. Everything that can be measured is, and while that's generally a good thing, when it comes to two its two largest TV events (World Series and ASG) it could use some unknown. So let's end interleague play but with a twist ...

MLB's two showcase events, the All-Star Game and World Series, have had their ratings decline for years. Perhaps going back to a differentiated product among major N. American sports, bringing back some element of mystery (Intra-league play), would help. thescore.com/news/2387296 Now that we have a 12-team postseason format as championed by the @theScore last year ... thescore.com/mlb/news/21953…

With the MLB draft becoming more and more college heavy, and now only 20 rounds, and college baseball generally only offering partial scholarships ... that seems less than ideal in working toward talent meritocracy
thescore.com/mlb/news/23854…
First 10 rounds over last 30 years: Initial scan of first 10 rounds shows 83% college picks, which would be the highest rate (81% in 2019) since at least 1992

Free agency requirements haven't changed since 1976. Arbitration eligibility hasn't changed much since '91. Player career length has changed *a lot.* Service time declined 23% from 2003 to '19. Manfred wrote that MLB players have the best deal. They don't. thescore.com/mlb/news/22411… There's been this pivot over a period of years where owners/MLB seems to be OK with the 1%ers, the Boras clients, getting their paydays. But the other 99%? That's the battleground.

If you thought the last week of MLB signings were crazy wait until what's on the other side of a lockout (if the freeze extends into Feb/March). We went back in time to 1995 to see what the spring of 2022 could look like: thescore.com/mlb/news/22384… The 1994-95 strike ended on April 2. Dennis Eckersley became the first MLB FA to sign on April 3. ST camps opened on April 7. 139 other FAs followed him in signing deals leading into Opening Day on April 26. And that's before even getting into that whole matter of arbitration ...

Reducing FA years to five years/or 29.5 years of age would help some players, but not many. Avg. service time fell from 4.8 years in 2003 to 3.7 years in 2019. Median service time much lower (under 2 years). Pre-arb issues should be at top of list. thescore.com/mlb/news/22265… Getting arb to 2 years would have a much wider impact. Is it plausible to extract? Who knows. But it also might just mean even more pre-arb players on rosters. And there's already a lot of that. ...

There's been a lot of focus on free agency, arbitration, & incentivizing winning, and rightfully so, but the one thing that would impact the most players is overhauling the minimum salary system in MLB. thescore.com/mlb/news/22265… No major sport N. American pro sport leans more upon minimum salaried players and no sport pays them less. 0-to-2+ service time MLB players accounted for 53.6% of days of service accumulated in 2019, the most recent full year of data we have, but just 9.8% of player pay. ...