This could be useful knowledge for the Fish, seems the compensation picks wont go poof.

 

MLB set to announce new labor deal

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Ken Rosenthal / FOXSports.com

Posted: 12 hours ago

 

Any fear that Major League Baseball could go through another embarrassing labor dispute will be extinguished very soon.

 

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Rosenthal on MLB labor deal

Senior baseball writer Ken Rosenthal reports that MLB and the players' union are on the verge of a new labor agreement.

FOXSports.com has learned that a new labor deal that will be for five years is expected to be completed before the end of the World Series, according to a source with knowledge of the talks.

 

The new labor deal, which will be the longest labor agreement the sport has ever had, will give Major League Baseball 16 consecutive years of labor peace. The last time the sport went through a labor dispute was 1995, when a strike wiped out the conclusion of the 1994 season ? including the World Series ? and wasn't settled until the eve of an opening day that would have featured replacement players.

 

The New York Times was first to report on Friday that the deal was close to being announced.

 

The deal will not eliminate draft-pick compensation for departed free agents, but the current plan will be modified, the source told FOXSports.com.

 

The current contract runs out Dec. 19, and reaching agreement before the expiration would be a landmark for baseball, which had eight work stoppages from 1972-95.

 

In August 2002, the sides agreed to a deal hours before players were set to strike. It was the first time since 1970 that players and owners reached a labor contract without a work stoppage.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6085348

I thought the most interesting thing here is that free agent compensation (altered but not eliminated) is still part of the package, contrary to stories earlier this year.

Good news ! BUT What can be altered about the compensation picks, really?

The sooner they can get the labor agreement done, the sooner MLB can devote its attention to helping South Florida get the stadium deal done.

Good news ! BUT What can be altered about the compensation picks, really?

 

I'm just taking a wild guess, but one thing that may be altered is compensation for "rent-a-player" soon to be free agent types, guys who are traded in the waning months of a season (vs. a legitimate free agent, a guy who spent five or six years with a particular team and now wants to freely test the open market).

 

I could be wrong, in fact it could be the other way around, we'll see.

 

The other question for me is whether trading draft picks and first year drafted players will finally happen? There is a school of thought that making draft picks and first year players available may make more teams more competitive more quickly.

Players, owners agree to tentative 5-year labor dealESPN.com news services

 

 

DETROIT -- Baseball players and owners have reached a tentative agreement on a five-year labor contract, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press.

 

The sides worked out the deal during bargaining in New York on Friday night and Saturday, but it is subject to the sides putting the contract in writing, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not official.

 

In the often bitter history of baseball labor relations, reaching agreement before a contract's expiration has to be considered a milestone. The current deal, set to expire Dec. 19, was agreed to in August 2002, just hours before players were set to strike.

 

Lawyers were working on drafting language for the new deal Sunday, and hoped to put the finishing touches on it Monday or Tuesday. If they are able to meet that goal, commissioner Bud Selig would announce it in St. Louis at the World Series.

 

"Baseball is at an all-time high point right now," Detroit's Craig Monroe said before Game 2 of the World Series. "You've got low-market teams doing well and different teams winning every year. Getting this done couldn't have come at a better time."

 

"I think both sides know there's no point in dragging it out or putting it in the minds of the fans that this is a money issue," Curtis Granderson, Detroit's alternate player representative, told ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. "As soon as you lock it up, it's a baseball issue, and people can look forward to coming back and watching baseball.

 

"You look at the record attendance and the record amount of money being spent on the game, and there's no point to mess with it. If you have a chance to keep it going smoothly, the best way to do that is to lock it up quick, get both sides happy and move on."

 

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, declined comment. Union head Donald Fehr did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

 

 

Most of the key provisions of the current contract will be continued with minor modifications, such as revenue sharing and the luxury tax. With the luxury tax set to expire on Dec. 19, there was pressure on management to make a deal to ensure that the 2007 season would be played with the tax in place.

 

 

"I think we're all for certainty and not going through a winter of wondering what's going to be going on," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "I applaud the powers with the union and the MLB. Helps us go about our business."

 

 

Record economic success helped produce an agreement with no public rancor. Commissioner Bud Selig said last week that he estimated the sport will produce $5.2 billion in revenue this year. It was about $3.6 billion in 2001.

 

 

Selig credited the changes in the 2002 agreement with making more teams competitive.

 

 

"I had dreams of things getting better but, no, in many ways this has exceeded my fondest expectations," he said Tuesday night in St. Louis. "This sport has more parity than ever. We have more parity than any other sport. It's remarkable."

 

 

An agreement had been anticipated by officials on both sides in recent days.

 

 

"This is a setting of success. It's a platform, a stage that's been built through very difficult times," agent Scott Boras said Sunday. "To do anything to alter that success would be something that wouldn't be in the best interests of the game."

 

 

The huge influx of money smoothed negotiations. The average player salary was $1.1 million in 1995, the first season after the 7?-month strike that wiped out the 1994 World Series. It rose to just under $2.3 million in 2002 and will be about $2.7 million this year. The average likely will top $3 million next year or in 2008.

 

 

Still, the very top of the salary scale has stayed the same since Alex Rodriguez signed his record $252 million, 10-year contract with Texas before the 2001 season. And in a sign that spending doesn't translate into postseason success, the New York Yankees failed to advance past the opening round of the playoffs in 2005 and 2006 despite a $200 million annual payroll.

 

 

"The business of baseball is being operated much more efficiently," said Boras, who negotiated Rodriguez's deal. "Owners are becoming better owners. League officials are becoming more aware of the opportunity for content both nationally and internationally. The force of the revenue streams basically put the collective bargaining process into a different framework than it's been in the past."

 

 

An AP-AOL Sports poll released Thursday shows that only one-third of Americans call themselves fans of professional baseball -- about the level of support for the last decade, but lower than 1990 and among all Americans. Skyrocketing salaries were identified as the biggest problem in baseball by more poll respondents -- 28 percent -- than any other, including steroids.

 

Information from The Associated Pres was used in this report.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2635232

 

 

looks like it is done pretty much so hopefully right after the world series they can go back to working on our stadium

 

I would love for 1st year players and draft picks to be tradable.

I thought the most interesting thing here is that free agent compensation (altered but not eliminated) is still part of the package, contrary to stories earlier this year.

 

Makes you wondering how much the leaker knew. Compensation is staying in one form or another to allow the players to have a say in any changes to the draft. Without MLB players' compensation tied to it, they'd have no grievance over a worldwide draft, bonus slotting or anything else.

Good news ! BUT What can be altered about the compensation picks, really?

 

I'm just taking a wild guess, but one thing that may be altered is compensation for "rent-a-player" soon to be free agent types, guys who are traded in the waning months of a season (vs. a legitimate free agent, a guy who spent five or six years with a particular team and now wants to freely test the open market).

 

I could be wrong, in fact it could be the other way around, we'll see.

 

The other question for me is whether trading draft picks and first year drafted players will finally happen? There is a school of thought that making draft picks and first year players available may make more teams more competitive more quickly.

 

So you mean we won't really get much back for rent a players opposed to players that have spent their whole lives being the face of a particular franchise? If so, that'd be kind of genious, although bad for the Marlins.

Another possibility is that compensation may be restricted to players that offers of arbitration are a foregone conclusion, i.e. the very best free agents (Type A's, and maybe change in formula to restrict Type A's to the top 10 or 20% rather than the current 33% in Elias' rankings), thus keeping compensation for the purpose of giving the union a voice in draft policies, but making compensation essentially a non-factor in personnel decisions.

Additionally, Fehr demanded some type of guarantee that revenue-sharing funds transferred to small-market teams be used to improve the team on the field, not the franchise's bottom line, the executives told USA TODAY. Fehr has said many times this has been one of the union's major concerns with revenue sharing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...abor-deal_x.htm

Additionally, Fehr demanded some type of guarantee that revenue-sharing funds transferred to small-market teams be used to improve the team on the field, not the franchise's bottom line, the executives told USA TODAY. Fehr has said many times this has been one of the union's major concerns with revenue sharing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...abor-deal_x.htm

great news for Marlins fans

Additionally, Fehr demanded some type of guarantee that revenue-sharing funds transferred to small-market teams be used to improve the team on the field, not the franchise's bottom line, the executives told USA TODAY. Fehr has said many times this has been one of the union's major concerns with revenue sharing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...abor-deal_x.htm

great news for Marlins fans

Well, atleast the Pirates.

Additionally, Fehr demanded some type of guarantee that revenue-sharing funds transferred to small-market teams be used to improve the team on the field, not the franchise's bottom line, the executives told USA TODAY. Fehr has said many times this has been one of the union's major concerns with revenue sharing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...abor-deal_x.htm

You can officially call this the Loria Rule

Additionally, Fehr demanded some type of guarantee that revenue-sharing funds transferred to small-market teams be used to improve the team on the field, not the franchise's bottom line, the executives told USA TODAY. Fehr has said many times this has been one of the union's major concerns with revenue sharing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...abor-deal_x.htm

 

did they listen to his demand?

From Baseball America:

One other change to the amateur draft is a uniform signing date of Aug. 15 for all players (other than college seniors), replacing the longtime and clumsy deadline of the moment a player literally attends his first four-year college class. In addition to creating some order for all involved--from teams to players to college coaches wanting an earlier idea of their incoming class-- this also eliminates the junior-college, draft-and-follow rule in which players who attended two-year schools could sign with their drafting club until one week before the following draft.

 

The number of players deemed Type A and B has been tweaked as well. Type A free agents, whose former team continue to receive a first- or second-round pick from the signing club as well as an extra pick between the first and second rounds, will be reduced from the 30 percent of players (as determined by a statistical formula) to 20; the Type B band is reduced from 31-50 percent to 21-40.

These changes will take effect next offseason, allowing clubs which lose free agents this winter the same compensation they had always expected.

 

The new system should decrease the growth of bonus payments to amateurs, as teams can walk away from negotiations with the reassurance of having a similar pick the next year. (Although that compensation pick, if unsigned, is not subject to compensation, which keeps clubs from using it over and over.) Clubs have for years wanted a system of prescribed, slotted bonuses for every high pick but learned early in the negotiations that the union would not accept it, so instead focused on stronger compensation rules.

"The concern with clubs was to get that club that was drafting as much leverage that they can have, so they can select the best player they possibly can," said former Cubs president Andy MacPhail, a member of ownership?s negotiation team. To the extent that bonus offers will probably either decrease or not grow as quickly because teams can walk away more comfortably, union executive director Donald Fehr said, "It will clearly have an effect. It will clearly not put (players) in the position that they would have been in had slotting been accepted. You have to find compromises."

 

 

 

Another possibility is that compensation may be restricted to players that offers of arbitration are a foregone conclusion, i.e. the very best free agents (Type A's, and maybe change in formula to restrict Type A's to the top 10 or 20% rather than the current 33% in Elias' rankings), thus keeping compensation for the purpose of giving the union a voice in draft policies, but making compensation essentially a non-factor in personnel decisions.

 

Where's my insider badge?

Additionally, Fehr demanded some type of guarantee that revenue-sharing funds transferred to small-market teams be used to improve the team on the field, not the franchise's bottom line, the executives told USA TODAY. Fehr has said many times this has been one of the union's major concerns with revenue sharing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...abor-deal_x.htm

You can officially call this the Loria Rule

Actually no.

 

My understanding is teams are allowed "mulligans", for example the Marlins in 2006. The new rule is regarding the teams that have a track record of doing this and the Marlins, having spent $120 million+ over 2004-2005 don't fit the profile. As long as payroll continues to move higher you won't see this applied against the Fish.

There is also a change in the Rule V draft...

 

One of the changes to the new CBA is that players will no longer be allowed to demand a trade if dealt in the middle of a multiyear deal.

More notes: The minimum salary will rise from $329,000 to $380,000 in 2007. ... Rule 5 draft eligibility goes from three years for college players and four years for high school players to four years and five years, respectively. ... Salary arbitration offer and acceptance dates move to December 1 and December 7. ... Teams can continue to negotiate with and sign free agents who reject arbitration. ... A signing deadline of August 15 for draft picks other than college seniors (which eliminates the draft-and-follow practice). ... Teams that fail to sign first- and second-round draftees will get the same pick next year (if the Rays fail to sign the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft, they'll get pick 1a in the 2008 draft).

Additionally, Fehr demanded some type of guarantee that revenue-sharing funds transferred to small-market teams be used to improve the team on the field, not the franchise's bottom line, the executives told USA TODAY. Fehr has said many times this has been one of the union's major concerns with revenue sharing.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...abor-deal_x.htm

You can officially call this the Loria Rule

Actually no.

 

My understanding is teams are allowed "mulligans", for example the Marlins in 2006. The new rule is regarding the teams that have a track record of doing this and the Marlins, having spent $120 million+ over 2004-2005 don't fit the profile. As long as payroll continues to move higher you won't see this applied against the Fish.

 

 

Is there a specific amount of money the team must spend on payroll?

Leave it to Jim Leyland to cut through the spin and explain why baseball owners and players were able to unveil a new labor agreement last week at the World Series.

 

"I think you always have a better relationship when both sides are making money," the Detroit Tigers manager said. "That kind of always seems to work out in the end, doesn't it . . . when the owner's happy and putting a little in his pocket and the player is happy and putting a little in his pocket? I guess in our game, a lot in both pockets."

 

With total baseball revenues surging past $5 billion this year and the average salary of a major-league ballplayer racing toward $3 million, life is good for both sides.

 

Good enough, apparently, to close some of the loopholes from the last agreement that actually impeded competitive balance.

 

All teams will now be taxed 31 cents on every dollar of revenue they produce as opposed to the old system that hit large-revenue clubs with a 40-percent tax and small-revenue clubs at 48 percent. That disincentive for teams such as the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays to produce more revenue has been removed, much to the pleasure of the big boys.

"Under the old agreement, a team like the Marlins would have to give up 48 cents of every new dollar that they earn," said Mike Weiner, general counsel for the Major League Baseball Players Association. "Which, when you think about capital-gains rate and things like that, would discourage investment. There's a limited amount of risk you're prepared to take if even if you win, you only get to keep 52 percent of your gains."

 

And now?

 

"When I project out that if I increase my payroll by $10 million I might be able to increase my revenues by $15 million, now I get to keep a lot higher percentage of that $15 million, and I'm more likely to do it. That's the theory behind this. We view players as an investment decision by clubs."

 

The hope is the adjustment will offset the failure of this deal to install a payroll floor, either annually or over a rolling three-year span. Other teams could still attempt to do what the Marlins did last year but, the union thinks, they will be less likely to do so.

 

The new agreement also fails to give the union greater input in how teams use revenue-sharing money. If a rival club objects to the Marlins' low payroll and wonders what they are doing with their $30 million annual welfare check, it goes before a management-appointed panel, and the union is merely informed after the matter is resolved.

 

From the Marlins' perspective, one negative is the increase in minimum salary for next season. It will go from $327,000 (plus cost of living) in 2006 to $380,000 in 2007, a 16.2-percent increase that figures to add about $700,000 to the Marlins' projected expenses.

That's because they could have as many as 20 players earning the minimum again next year, including two pitchers (Logan Kensing and Carlos Martinez) who will open the year on the disabled list.

 

So instead of costing a projected $28.01 million, including deferred salary, to keep this year's team together, it should be more like $28.7 million. Not a huge issue but one that impacts the low-end Marlins far more than other clubs.

 

Can you hear me now?

 

Former Marlins manager Joe Girardi, at the World Series as a Fox television analyst, refused to elaborate on the post-firing phone conversation he had with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.

 

"There's no reason really to go into that," Girardi said. "That chapter's over in my life. It's not a chapter that I wanted to end, but it's over. I'm not going to go into detail."

 

As for his previous assertion that Loria was somewhere in Dolphin Stadium during that call, Girardi backed off.

 

"I don't know where he was," Girardi said. "I know it was an extension, and I don't know if he was transferred to me or not."

 

The Oakland A's lead all teams with 11 potential arbitration cases this winter. Three other teams have as many as nine. Oakland's list includes right fielder Milton Bradley, who with five-plus years of service time might double the $3 million he made this year.

 

Others with a boatload of arbies include the Arizona Diamondbacks with 10 (including a five-plus Eric Byrnes) and the Houston Astros (Brad Lidge, Morgan Ensberg) and Pittsburgh Pirates (Freddy Sanchez, Mike Gonzalez) with nine apiece.

 

Around the Horn

 

Former UM standout Gaby Sanchez, the Florida Marlins' top position prospect, has been impressive at the Arizona Fall League. Sanchez has played third and caught in the minors, but he's concentrating on first base now. "You can't compare anybody to Albert Pujols, but the body type is pretty similar," an American League scout said. "Pujols is more defined, and at first glance, you might not think a lot of bat speed is there [with Sanchez], but his approach is so good, and he uses the whole field. Don't just dismiss this guy. He could come fast, just like Pujols."

 

Veteran infielder Craig Counsell, a players-association representative during the final stages of bargaining on a new labor agreement, said he hopes to keep playing. A free agent, he still views himself as an everyday player at 36. His versatility and winner's reputation could make him a fit for a team such as the Boston Red Sox, who need help at both middle infield spots.

 

The Washington Nationals' manager search might drag on for much of November after Joe Girardi and Atlanta Braves hitting coach Terry Pendleton removed their names from consideration.

 

Former Detroit Tigers great Willie Horton, now a special assistant in the team's front office, marvels at the increased contributions and rapid integration of today's rookies in major-league clubhouses. "I like what they're doing," Horton said. "When I came up, I don't think I felt free to talk until after my fifth year. I was scared to go in the trainer's room."

 

When the all-stars head to Japan next month, there will be a South Florida presence. Los Angeles Angels right-handed reliever Scot Shields, a Fort Lauderdale High product, will be on the team. Also, Dan Kanell will be the team physician.

 

A Final Thought: The splotch is not on Kenny Rogers' hand, it's on the league for doing nothing about it.

 

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/loca...ports-headlines

 

Didn't see this posted. Sorry if it already has.

good article and ready

 

I wonder will that end up being good news or bad news in the end?