Case Study: Major League Baseball Teams

The rumor mill has brought Jay Bruce to the forefront in recent days in regards to a potential deal with the Baltimore Orioles. Ken Rosenthal originally reported that the Orioles may not have the prospect talent pool to acquire Bruce, but the Reds have since refuted that argument saying that the Orioles do have that necessary talent.

A few years ago, the Phillies began a rebuild so a new core of young players could carry the torch. The rebuild started in December of 2014 when Philadelphia traded longtime shortstop Jimmy Rollins to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Less than a year later, the Phillies followed the Rollins trade by moving veteran pitcher Cole Hamels at the deadline last season, and second baseman chase Utley less than a month after that. The trades, along with a few others, brought in an impressive haul of prospects poised

Outside of rostering Judge, Harper, Trout, and Cano, there are plenty of cheaper, under the radar options that have been maintaining consistency. Here are a few standouts.

The Boston Red Sox traded Victorino to the Los Angeles Angels on Monday, and when it came

According to statistics about twenty percent of the players in the MLB are from the Dominican Republic, even though thousands of young players stride to play for professional teams ( Pelotero, Finkel, Paley and Martin). The MLB believes they can find cheap players in the Dominican Republic and still create

This could be an interesting year for these divisions as past studs from the Borough Cup are now standouts at the next level. Jason Pineda from the inaugural U14 champions Bronx Bombers from 2014 has recently been drafted in the 17th round by the San Diego Padres but

The same night, another trade was struck between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Atlanta Braves. The Braves sent the young stud Shelby Miller, who recorded a 3.02 ERA in 2015, to Arizona in exchange for top D-Backs prospect, Dansby Swanson and two other prospects. This move proved that the Dbacks want to go all in for 2016. There are still many players on the market who have yet to be signed, primarily outfielders. Outfielders such as Jason Heyward, Yoenis Cespedes, Alex Gordon and Justin Upton have yet to reach deals with teams. The Giants, after losing out on the major free agents and trade candidates that they wanted are the frontrunners to sign the 2015 World Champion Alex Gordon of the Kansas City Royals. The meetings conclude on December 10th, but the offseason won’t stop. Many deals will continue to be made all the way up until January before spring training. The current rumor now is that Jason Heyward will choose between the Cubs, Angels and Cardinals. An outfield consisting of Heyward and Mike Trout would be one of the best defensive outfields in all of baseball because they are both spectacular

It may not be how Boston visioned it playing out, but the Red Sox are in the World Series. Former Red Sox players were all over ALCS and NLCS playoff rosters in the run-up to the big game. Various front office staff, managers, and players have graced the grass at Fenway. Hello there Theo Epstein, David Roberts, and Terry Francona, I’m talking about you. Meanwhile, former players are all over a number of diamonds. David Ross, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Coco Crisp, and even the oft-forgotten Anthony Rizzo are just a few players whom were under contract with Boston at some point in the last five years (Rizzo was traded to San Diego for Adrian Gonzalez in 2010…and yup you guessed it, he’s on the post season roster too for Los Angeles) How painful? How did this happen?

Imagine being in the 1960s watching your 2 most favorite baseball teams play against each other in the world series. The score is 9-9, the game is tied,the bases are loaded and your favorite player is up to bat. You're sitting in the crowd on the edge of your seat wondering what is he gonna do. Will he hit a home run and win the world series, or will he strike out and disappoint His whole team? Baseball can be very complicated sometimes, but when you know more about a baseball team, famous player, and the equipment ,baseball won’t be complicated anymore .The New York Yankees were well-known in baseball during the 1960s, because of their popularity, the type of equipment they used, and their baseball players.

Jayson Stark, ESPN columnist, presents an interesting argument of the downfall of baseball after free agency. He uses sarcasm and slight humor to introduce the reader to the topic of free agency and uses the argument style of comparison and contrast to predict what today might have held had there been no free agency. But within his column, player agent Tom Reich states, “The people who criticize free agency to easily today don’t realize how bad baseball was twenty-five years ago” (Stark). It is Stark who realizes that the talent of the game has improved, but the overall passion in each player may have decreased.

The Yankees have many great players. We have Aaron Judge, who last year was the rookie of the year and second in the AL MVP voting. Right now he leads the team with a whopping .432 on base percentage which is the third best in the league. His on base percentage is so high is because he’s so good he gets intentionally walked or gets thrown pitches to try and make him chase and get out.

Many of these players have been present during some of the greatest rivalries in baseball history.

The biggest move the Astros have made is acquiring the young closer of the Philadelphia Phillies, Ken Giles.

Free agents demand for very high compensation and this takes away major chunk of available salary. Every team has to come up with good balance of rookies and veterans to meet salary cap.

Competitive imbalance is caused mostly by high-revenue teams in large markets having the ability to outbid low-revenue small-market teams in free agency when acquiring talented players at high asking prices and putting the best team on the field that poorer teams could never afford. The largest problem MLB is faced with is transparency between owners and players. Presently, there is a comprehensive distrust between the two. In order for improvement, there needs to be a balanced partnership with communication and the