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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/22/20

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Ben Clemens

3:17

But if some MLB team did this I'd be just a harrrrrd no

3:18

The Heroes doing it? I'm skeptical but I have a lot less history of chicanery to let me know that boy these teams really don't care about anything but extracting surplus value

Jamie

3:18

Not sure who’s be the best to ask this to, maybe you know, but why can’t these billionaire owners figure out a way to make additional money with no fans? Like sell VR seating for $50 a game or something? Everyone gets a front row seat! Is it against the tv deals they’ve signed?

Ben Clemens

3:19

Oh, there's every chance that they could. I don't know if your exact idea would work -- aside from potential issues with TV deals, TV exists, you know?

But the owners are going to do SOMETHING to extract whatever money they can

3:20

Try to get partial capacity opened as soon as possible, or something; I'm not sure what the exact details will be but they will flood the zone with monetization ideas

3:21

They just can't talk about any of them until they've locked the players into a deal

If you mention a monetization idea now, that's extra revenue to bargain with.

I am certain that teams are discussing this stuff internally

Janus

3:21

The A's had to be convinced to pay minor league stipends after May and now they might drop $85 million to buy the other half of the Coliseum. Does that look as bad as it looks?

Ben Clemens

3:21

I mean, it's not great!

3:22

I don't really have much more than that to say

It's bad, it looks and is bad

3:23

No one is surprised that the A's are quick to declare poverty and also quick to have whatever money they need if they think they're profiting off of a deal

Trent Hauser

3:23

What are the chances teams are selling the biometric data they collect from players?

Ben Clemens

3:23

I would imagine that the odds are quite low

Teams think they're getting a ton of value out of proprietary access to that information

The yield on selling it would need to be extremely high, I think.

3:24

I guess I don't know that for certain, but it seems like a combination of ethically dubious, a PR nightmare if it gets out, questionably useful even if it succeeds, and low-yield

3:25

Now maybe I just massively underestimate the going rate for biometric data and it makes sense

But I'm skeptical

Isolated Thinker

3:25

Way for MLB to generate future revenue when safe: During the offseason, have a short Old-Timers season with retired players in either FL or AZ.

Ben Clemens

3:25

I mean, I'd watch that... gonna be a while before we talk about getting a bunch of old people together for a party again, though

Michael

3:25

But that cost has been paid regardless of whether there are 2020 games or not. Economic impact would be ignore, no?

Ben Clemens

3:25

I assume this is about Mookie

3:26

In response to my last answer.

And I mean, not really

If you have a player with surplus value

Heck, what about a year at minimum salary for a star

Jack Flaherty, say, but also Mookie

Advancing the service time clock by a year without getting any value out of them stings

Bart

3:27

Players vote has been pushed back to 5 PM. Looks like a last ditch effort to avoid he Commish setting a 50 game season.

Ben Clemens

3:28

I'll be really curious to see the outcome. I'm slightly more optimistic about baseball happening this year now that the two sides are so close

Like I actually think the players might just vote yes?

I tihnk they probably shouldn't, but I could see it happening

It's kinda close honestly

But the league had a clever little week of negotiating to make it look less obvious that they were negotiating in bad faith

3:29

Now all the previous nonsense they said about last and best offer

When they subsequently improved by hundreds of millions of dollars

Sure does look preposterous and bad-faith-y

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