Mark80

Hum...yet only 1/3 of NBA teams are selling out those extremely small venues and only 5 MLB teams have lower avg than the highest NBA team. Weird. Lebron makes more per year today than Trout will average on his deal. If an NBA team could, today, sign a 26 year old LeBron James to a 12 year contract with no salary cap restrictions or player max restrictions that the NBA enforces and the MLB does not, it would be way more than $425M in my opinion. Comparing his landscape when he was 26 with the NBA CBA rules compared to what athletes are paid today in a non-restriction salary cap is apples to oranges. I agree his recognition blows Trouts away. But someone like Jeter? Maybe not. This was fun. But I'm done for now. Peace.

Just because it may not be the FAVORITE sport to watch, doesn't mean they aren't watching other sports as well. My favorite sport to watch is football too. But I also enjoy watching hockey, baseball, soccer, and playoff basketball. NBA Finals ratings are very similar to baseball WS ratings and have followed a very similar trajectory peaking in the late 80s/early 90s. No one ever says anything about basketball not being watched or cared about. Its just funny to me that baseball gets such a bad rap for no reason. We all know football is king. But NBA and MLB are very similar ratings and baseball kills them in attendance per game as well as total attendance (which isn't really fair with 2x more games, but still very true).

Not angry at all. It's just a dumb narrative to suggest there no one cares or watches baseball when it continues to grow and gain revenues year after year. I'm curious why people feel so energized and angry over an athlete getting a contract like this. As if it impacts their lives whatsoever. Dude is the best in the world at something that millions upon millions of people are interested in. It's not his fault people are willing to spend crazy amounts of money on tix and merchandise. It's better he gets the money than the owners, IMO.

So, cable companies / networks are in the habit of giving away multi-billion dollar deals for games that no one will watch. And since no one is watching, advertisers won't pay any money to run commercials or sponsor part of the broadcast? That's typically the MO of these enormous corporations, waste billions of dollars....right... Ask the Royals and the Astros about how their stacked minor league systems worked out for them. The answer, World Series rings. Took the Royals a little longer so they didn't have the staying power, but the Astros are set for years to come. You spend the money on a single guy because you aren't spending nearly as much at other positions while the rest of your team is young and you can afford it. Comparing Mike Trout to Bobby Bonilla? Really? Come on man. You're better than that. Yankees / Red Sox / Cubs have fans all over the world paying for MLB TV streaming of games. Not just about local ratings. LA doesn't watch any sports except college football. How many times has the NFL abandoned that city? It was left off my list intentionally. Again, $10B in revenues for something that no one cares about or watches and is the laughing stock of professional sports in North America...right... Is it football, no. But it's nothing to just dismiss either, still more than the NBA.

Yeah, they have over $10B in revenues which grows every year because no one is watching....right....The most popular teams in 3 of our biggest cities are baseball teams...New York, Chicago, and Boston (they'll prove they are really a baseball town again once Brady is gone). And your lack of knowledge here is glaring, i'm sorry to say. The Padres will be one of the best teams in the league 2 or 3 years from now with their absolutely stacked minor league system. Club controlled contracts for first 3 years, then another 3 years of arbitration which is significantly lower salaries than Free Agency. The Phillies are going to be battling for supremacy this season with the addition of Harper, Realmuto, and Segura on offense, and bullpen additions. The Angels, well, you got me there. They are not going to be good any time soon really, their farm stinks, Pujols is grossly overpaid, and Ohtani won't pitch at all this year. But he proved last year that he is 100% legit and a future superstar offensively and as a pitcher. The league is filled with young superstars with charisma. The old ways of showing no emotion or you get beaned are dying down. People are bat flipping, celebrating, having fun. It's improved a lot the last few years. Now, if they can just figure out a way to cut the game time down to 2.5-3 hours at most, they will really make strides. They are working on it, but still a few years off.

FYI in 2011 the Angels signed a 20 year tv deal for $3B. That basically runs until the end of Trouts deal. Plenty more to go around even counting Pujols horrendous deal and that doesn't count tickets, concessions, parking, merchandise, sponsors, etc.

Guy has the highest rating in the history of the game for someone age 26. Guy is perfect example to follow in the community and a real sports role model. He is lost a bit in LAs second team, but don't think for a second that he isn't worth what he gets. TV contract alone with him there pays for his salary, easy. I'd much rather it go to the players than go to the owners who just sit back and do nothing really.

Baseball doesn't have a salary cap, they just have a luxury tax above a certain payroll. Owners can spend however much they want.

Yeah, but just the fed alone is taking 37% on every dollar over 500k per year.

Feds and Cali gonna take away right around 50% of that. Brutal.

Yeah, great input. That's what everyone here is pushing for. Way to take it to a laughable extreme. Really helps your argument. No one says punish them more, we just say punish them the same. It's really not that hard to understand. You are clearly uneducated on the subject so I will just ignore you going forward. No problem.

Exactly. They would have to pay a fine. He was caught on tape doing the crime. The average person would have to pay a fine. If they couldn't afford to pay the fine they could be subject to a bench warrant or wage garnishments which exasperates the situation even further. Imagine Joe Schmo struggling to make ends meet found in this situation, can't afford the fine and gets put in jail for not paying it, then loses job for missing time because of it as well, then wont get hired by anyone because they ran a background check and he was found guilty of soliciting prostitution on his record. Conversely, Kraft has nothing on his record, was embarrassed for a minute, and gets to move on as if nothing ever happened. Lets not even start talking about the leeway given to "white collar" crimes compared to their counterparts. Steal millions of dollars and get less punishment than someone who has stolen a tv on 3 separate occasions. Awesome.

...and this is what is wrong with our country. Laws applied unequally for the rich and famous (for the most part, always exceptions).

Tim Graham sucks too.

F No.

I tell you what, I watch a lot of college football. They were always talking him up. While watching him I kind of thought the same thing. Why is this guy getting so much love? He seems slow for some reason to me. Now, everyone is praising him, he has great measureables, etc., and I'm thinking, wow I guess I was wrong. Glad I'm not the only one who sees this. Or maybe you are just poking at the OP for misuse of the word I guess. But that was my impression of him anyway for some reason.

IDK, I kinda think Allen raised his "low floor" up quite a bit with his performance last season, especially in the last quarter of the season.

The Redskins are a dumpster fire in so many ways. The new Browns.

Honestly, short of drafting a QB in round 1, nothing would really surprise me. If they feel we would be better served with White in MLB and Edmunds at OLB and that is the best player on their board, then I don't think they would hesitate at all to make the pick just because they had him running the defense last year.

facepalm.

No love for Gore?

While I'm confident we made a lot of really good moves, I still think we are one year away from having a really quality roster top to bottom. I agree with most of the OPs assessment and I think that is just too many holes to fill with significant impact players / quality depth. Notably, DT, Edge Rusher, decent LB depth. Unless we are able to fill a couple more with the remaining FAs, but I don't see that as likely, at least not impact guys. I won't depend on more than 2 or 3 rookies at most having a significant impact and getting an impact pass rushing / penetrating DT and an edge rusher worth of salt in the same draft seems unlikely to me. Not to say we aren't going to be much improved this year and potentially a playoff caliber team, I just think we are at risk of some key injuries having a big time impact because the depth is just not quite there yet. Slowly but surely building it and doing it the right way for long term success though.

The Browns rebuild took AT LEAST 5 years. They had been acquiring picks for a long, long time before they put them to good use the last 2 seasons. They were in last place in their division every year except 1 (3rd place in 2010) since 2008 before another time last season. Exactly.

Would love to read you expert analysis on all his deficiencies. It sure as hell isn't his arm strength, mobility, leadership, or heart. I bet here come the bad accuracy diagnosis...well, it's kind of hard to have high completion % when your WRs and TEs drop balls left and right and you have such tight windows to throw in since they cannot create any separation that the margin for error is so small. Ok, he misses an open guy once in a while, but guess what? So does Brady, so does Breeze, so does Mahomes (or did you miss that wide open guy he missed in the endzone in the playoffs?). Don't be afraid to embrace this kid. Jump on in, the water is warm. Enjoy the ride and don't be a miserable SOB Debbie Downer.

Correct. My bad. Funny because I corrected someone else on that same thing a while back. No, now they get extra draft capital out of it.