This has been expected for a few years The hope is that ESPN will re-up at a lower rate, but also get some regional broadcasts for their new streaming product
I wish the Angels would just sign every former Dodger with the hopes of enticing people to come down the 5 to see people like Jansen and Justin Turner for a cheaper ticket
have a bunch of friends who played with him at rice. dude legitimately hates playing baseball. not sure if he's ever watched a game on tv as an adult. i doubt it.
I also have a bunch of friends who played with him at Rice and Lamar HS and he has always been described to me as just different; a natural and incredible talent but doesn't seem to care all that much in the grand scheme of things. But he does keep in touch well with some of his old coaches and teammates at least And hate that his last meaningful contributions had to be against the Stros in the WS damnit :(
he definitely has a lot of time for people who knew him before he went pro. i know a lot of the rice guys stay in touch. i haven't seen him in like 5 years probably.
not breaking news that the Angels are poorly run, but how do you give $250M guaranteed to a guy that hates playing baseball? did he hide it well? these teams have to do some level of due diligence on these guys behind the scenes before giving out that kind of money, don't they?
He has always been a pretty quiet guy and to himself from what I've been told, while friends from Rice also said he always took things seriously and had a very professional demeanor in school. I'm sure that made it easy to hide any distaste for playing professionally until getting that one massive deal in free agency.
I just hope that Rendon didn't have a Bichette-esque childhood and his supposed dislike for the game isn't rooted in something more sinister/serious
If I recall correctly there were some articles about how he never watches games and isn’t really a fan of baseball when he was on the nationals. It was definitely in the ether. Its funny they got tricked by his best season in his contract year Edit: here’s one I found from 2014: https://syndication.bleacherreport....ball-because-its-too-long-and-boring.amp.html
it was his best year but it was also his third straight 5.5+ WAR year. He also produced at the same level in the first year of the deal (the Covid year) it was a bad deal but I don’t think it was a bad deal because he hates baseball and scammed the angels into a deal by outperforming in 2019
Curse of the 2019 Nats World Series (I had fun though)! Strasburg’s contract is up there too: He signed a $245 million, seven-year contract in December 2019 but threw only 528 pitches over 31 1/3 innings in the majors after that, going 1-4 with a 6.89 ERA Almost $500k per pitch / ~$8 million per inning (pre settlement but it’s still close)
I don't know what to make of that. On some level, good for Boston for piling on the AAV to go short term. More teams should do that. At the same time, if I'm guaranteeing you $40M per for 3 years and taking that risk for someone who hasn't been elite at the plate for a while now, I'm not giving you those opt outs. At least not both of them.
I'm counting myself as a winner tonight because Bregman Watch ending means I can now unfollow Heyman again.
I don't think he ever wanted to come here, which is fine, and I'm glad we didn't get to a point where we couldn't let him say no.