Why the Braves had a Good Offseason

   With the success of the Royals and Astros, multiple teams have decided to utilize their methods to win (intentionally being bad, getting good prospects and an amazing chef team). One such team was the Atlanta Braves. The Braves will be terrible, but they have used the method perhaps the most successfully. Why else would ESPN give the Braves a #3 best offseason ranking for being terrible for the next five years. What the Braves did was accumulate every prospect in the universe (figuratively). One such trade involved sending Shelby Miller to the Diamondbacks in exchange for Ender Enciarte and Dansby Swanson. While the move was previously featured on worst deals of 2015, that was from Arizona's perspective. For Atlanta, receiving a cheap role-playing veteran and an overall 2015 first pick was amazing. While this will be the method in which most teams become championship caliber, baseball will have to do something about it, because having five or six teams want to lose is bad for business (also recently covered on a previous post).

What Happened to Small Ball?

   Small ball is - was - an integral part of baseball for a long time. From its official creation until about 1980, small ball was a way to score runs by strategically putting your team in the best place possible by bunting, stealing bases, and sacrificing. Unfortunately, during the Steroid Era, home runs became more and more common (not the unfortunate part, those dinger-hitting steroid users saved baseball) and it became less practical to utilize small ball. Why bunt? That's wasting what could potentially be an extra run if someone hits a big fly. But now that men aren't more drug than man, small ball should come back, but it doesn't. That is bad, because it means that only have of the guys on a team can produce runs. Look at Dexter Fowler. In the olden days, he would have been a valuable commodity, stealing bases and bunting, with a good average and ten home runs. Nobody has signed him yet, because his individual stats aren't good enough. That's why no one can win right now, because nobody is willing to acknowledge the team player. Bunts and one run at a time (wins) just don't draw fans any more.

The Offseason Does not Work

    The baseball offseason, the winter, is designed so that teams that did well can improve, teams that just missed the mark can finally reach the playoffs, and teams that sucked can try to not finish in last. But there is also a flaw. Baseball is still a business, and the way it is covered in TV, the team with the flashiest signings "wins" the winter, which has unfortunately become the goal of many teams. The last time a team the "won" the winter and won the World Series was in 2009, when the Yankees spent hundreds of millions of dollars on five people, only one of whom is still on the Yankees, and he is doing very poorly. In order to "win" the winter, you need to destroy your future, like those poor Padres (soon to be those poor DiamondBacks). They "won" the winter by trading away all of their prospects and giving tons of money to people that should have been going into prospects. Instead of having a future, the Padres have Matt Kemp.
     Teams have to be able to resist the urge that the media provides to trade the future for approval. Look at the last five World Series winners. The Cardinals, Giants, and Red Sox all found roll players, who they didn't pay too much and won the winter by fitting into what their organization wanted. The Royals I have already made a post on, but they also didn't spend gobs of money and talent (once you trade talent, it's gone forever). They made smart decisions, and that is how you really win the winter.

The State of Major League Baseball as a Business

    When I say "Major League Baseball as a business," I don't mean how good the individual teams are. I refer to the state of the employees, and how the MLB as a company needs to change if they want to make money in the future.
     First of all, some positives:
1. Their is a surplus of young talent in the minors and majors. Baseball will have some incredible players in the next five years.
2. Many teams who were once previously small market (poor) arena signing TV contracts, which will give teams more money and draw more fans.
3. The game is becoming more balanced. Smaller market teams are able to compete through the draft, thus making teams closer to the same level. One of these teams actually won the World Series in 2015. If the teams are more balanced, more teams can win. More wins will result in more fans who did;
4. Fan bases are growing. This is a combination of the first three reasons, but it still reflects on the state of corporate MLB. More fans means more people spending money at games, buying merchandise, and overall more money into the system.
      Here are some negatives. While corporate MLB is still trending upward, there are some things that need to be fixed:
1. Baseball is "boring" to young people. Younger audiences are finding baseball less appealing, so baseball made some changes. The older generation didn't appreciate that, so baseball won't be able to go anywhere, or, more accurately, won't have a secure fan base of the game itself in future years to come.
2. Ticket prices are higher, which makes it harder for families, who make up more of a proud than you think, to attend baseball games. While the fan bases still grow because games are more accessible on TV, this is a problem for the teams themselves. Players are wanting more money.
3. Three teams want to lose. This is a problem. Three potential employers don't want to win, so fan bases will plummet, and free agents will need a job. This is due to an over reliance on the draft. Teams want to be bad so they get a better pick, and might be better in the future.
4. Free agents are no longer signed consistently, because teams want to lose. If these players don't get signed, then nobody will play after the age of thirty, which cause more reliance on the draft, and the circle will continue forever.