Owners proposed the international draft in the last CBA, but the players balked. The Dominican contingent believed the international draft would have impacted the existence of buscones, these guys in the DR who train amateur players and give them some financial assistance. The buscones take about a quarter of the players' signing bonus in exchange and represent the players in conversations with scouts.
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I'll say it. The teams in the biggest cities have an unfair advantage and MLB doesn't mind because they love the playoffs being in the biggest cities. It's collusion whether it's an outright agreement or just a wink and a nod. Either way, they're losing the rest of the country because the rest of the country stops caring when their teams don't really stand a chance.

If you love baseball, enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't.
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Damn. Santander signed with the Blue Jays. Was hoping we could get him. Merrifield reunion coming?
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No. That fucker burned many bridges on his way out, the front office better not even remotely entertain that idea. He's replacement level, so I'd rather give someone in Triple A the opportunity instead.
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Santander would have been nice but I wasn't sure about breaking the bank for him because he's 30 and this contract year was his biggest HR year. Signing him until 35-36 is a risk but he does have power.

Believe it or not his career OPS is not that far away from Hunter Renfroe. And you could argue Renfroe has been more consistent because he's been in that 25-30 HR range a bunch of times but never anything close to the 44 Santander just had. But he is a couple years older.
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Dodgers signed two of the three guys I wanted in FA. Blake Treinen and Teoscar Hernandez. Let's see if they get the hat trick or another team in all of baseball gets a shot at one of the good ones. Come on Tanner Scott! Go to one of the other 29 teams!!!
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Um, guessing you didn’t follow much baseball news yesterday?
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Just this morning, the Dodgers added Kirby Yates, who had 33 saves and a 1.17 ERA for the Rangers last year.
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Santander's power carries his profile since he doesn't walk or hit for average.

Blue Jays executives Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro are fighting to keep their jobs, so they're throwing money at a flawed team in a loaded division.
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Homegrown Royal Carlos Beltran is up to 81.2% on the Hall of Fame ballot tracker.

He's going to be on the borderline tonight when the official results are released.
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Fuck you Tanner Scott.
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The baseball writers must have micropenises with the envy they have when it comes to voting for the HOF.
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So Beltran almost got in and will surely get in next year.

Can someone explain the rationale for voting for a guy who cheated to win a World Series in comparison to Barry Bonds (arguably the greatest baseball player of all time who fell off the ballot because the same writers voting for Beltran deemed his character to be too poor to be a HOFer)?

Just a ridiculous system.
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:-)
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Your answer is that society views different types of cheating on separate scales. Drastically altering one's body composition through chemical means is high on or at the top of the list. There's a reason why WADA and track and field gives an automatic two-year ban for doping.

I do think the Astros went beyond just gamesmanship where they're using technology and AI to decode signs. It's much more flagrant than using a corked bat or throwing a screwball.
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