Thursday Bantering

I spent most of yesterday getting a new fish tank and putting it and the stand together. The illustrations for assembling the stand were lacking, so it took much longer than it should have. But, of the 7 fish that survived the bad happenings of Wednesday night, 5 of them are still alive. So I’m calling it a success.

There isn’t much for Jays stuff out there. But there are a couple of interesting stories...

I didn’t follow baseball news yesterday, so I missed that Robinson Cano’ suspension. His second suspension for PEDs.Cano is 38. He was due to get $24 million in 2021, and now he won’t. One, I can’t imagine making $24 million. Two, I can’t imagine having a piece a paper saying I was going to get $24 million and watch it get ripped up in my face. I’d imagine I’d be depressed. He’s still due to get $24 million in both 2022 and 2023, which might cheer him up, but still.

And he’ll be 39 in 2022. The Mets may release him before then (he’ll still have the money, but he wouldn’t get the stats he needs to push him over the top in the minds of the Hall of Fame voters. Cano has 2624 hits now. Three more decent seasons, and he would get to 3000 easily. 3000 hits would guarantee him the Hall.

Or would have guaranteed him the Hall, but the Writers aren’t likely to vote in a guy with two suspensions on his record. I’m not sure, but erasing my chances to get to the Hall might hurt me as much as losing $24 million if I was Cano. Having your plaque up on that wall would be.....well, I can’t imagine what it would be.On the flip side, the Mets suddenly have $24 million more to spend on players, which is good for them, lousy for the Jays, who may be bidding on some of those players.

I think it is unfair that the team benefits from having a player suspended. At 38, Cano was unlikely to give the time value for that money. I can imagine that their front office isn’t all that sad they won’t be paying him this year and will be enjoying thinking about what they can do with that money.I know that won’t to change that, but if I owned a team that had a player with a contract that was taking up a large portion of my budget and I wasn’t likely to get value back from that player, I’d be jumping for joy if he was suspended for the season. I’d consider dosing him myself.

What are the odds that the Mets release Cano after his suspension is over?

The Dodgers are claiming they lost “north of $100 million” this season. Baseball teams define loss differently than you and I do. The Dodgers have an $8 billion TV contract. They could light their cigars with $100,000 bills for the rest of their lives and they won’t lose money. Of course, maybe north means less than.

Anyway, what they really mean is they didn’t get the revenue they expected. And I will cry for them later.

Tomorrow at 6 is the deadline for changes to the 40-man before the Rule-5 draft is tomorrow at 6 eastern. Make sure you’ve read all Matt’s posts on the draft before then.