The Brewers:

If I were a fan of the Brewers or Rays, I would not give a single F what the ratings for the World Series wind up being. They should not care. But outside of that, this is a surface-level take. MLB is trying to convince us that a salary cap is needed. It’s also been counting the seconds until it can renegotiate its media rights. The better ratings it gets for its premier events, the more money they can get when that renegotiation happens. The league thinks it’s going to get a massive revenue increase when they renegotiate those media deals. But if MLB creates a system where small markets have a better chance of making the World Series than they currently do, it could create an environment where the World Series ratings continually underperform. This World Series is basically a test run of what that environment might look like. If the ratings come in low, it could spook some owners away from a cap system that prevents big brands from playing on the game’s biggest stages with regularity. MLB has been counting on that media rights deal to transform the financial landscape of owning a baseball team and operating the league. Anything that puts that at risk needs to be navigated very carefully.

Turns out Twitter bots can’t vote

Felt like this was just a matter of time with how many teams were constantly popping up in and around the GTA

This city is so fucked

I think Brewers-Rays is going to be an incredible series. Two teams with some really good pitching, though they come about it in different ways, and lots of activity on offense. That neither team has ever won just adds an extra layer of intrigue to it.

Anyone who thinks this World Series is in defiance of analytics is someone who will never be convinced of the value of evidence. These are two of the most data-driven teams in any sport in the world. There is a better arugment that this is the ultimate MoneyBowl.

It’s amazing how many people are just completely showing they know nothing about the sport this postseason

In the last few months: The Orioles owner said he bought the team because all of his friends who had sports teams made more than he ever could in private equity The Padres sold for $3.9B, 63% more than the previous record The Angels then sold for $4.0B, beating the Padres record So why then are billionaires lighting money on fire by bailing out other billionaires from the apparent financial ruin of owning a baseball team? It's because they're all making billions in appreciation and teams like the Yankees can sell just 16% for $2.6 BILLION (MLB of course waived the 15% cap lol) with an additional $1B in tax-exempt revenue bonds to refinance debt in their other business ventures Seriously, who would pass up on an infinite money glitch like that? I'm begging you all to realize owners just want a cap to make accounting easier. They're lying about competitive balance to create a narrative that is only in place to win them cost certainty

MLB owners recently put together $2B in a "war chest" to prepare for the lockout That's about $75M per team, which is more than the Guardians spent in payroll Read that again, owners set aside more in rainy day funds for the Guardians than the Guardians spent on payroll

Rockies fans are the purest because they simply love being in the ballpark. Sure, Coors is the best bar in town, but if you dropped Coors Field in any other struggling market, do you think people would show? They love it. They don’t need to feel like winners to have a good time.

No comment on the rest of this, as I have no idea about most of these. But the Rockies fans need a tier of their own. They show up so regularly with absolutely nothing to root for

The Hanshin Tigers have accepted Teruaki Sato's posting request The Tigers will likely post him as early as possible to give him a chance to sign before the lockout

This seems like something that he could have considered when he was Commissioner on the TTC Board for four years

Honestly a great point. So maybe it’s not as amusing as I thought