Tuesday Morning Astros, etc. Round Up

but im going to the game…well first batting practice then the game…

looking forward to it tonite!

go stros!

An interesting fanpost from TalkingChop

The Astros absolutely do not need to buy a rental player at the break. Just stand pat and promote done youth to see what they can do. Buying needs to stop unless we’re just sitting on top of the division. Buying Aubrey Huff for half a season cost us one of the best players in the league this year in Ben Zobrist.

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9111

The relative popularity of Fehr and his NFL counterpart, the late Gene Upshaw, ran in inverse proportion to how good each man was at his job of representing the athletes in their charge. Since 1983, when Fehr took over following the brief, unlamented stint of Ken Moffatt, the MLBPA has established itself as the most powerful players’ association in sports, and one of the few successful unions in American labor. They won three grievances over collusion at a time when free agency was still in relative infancy. They beat management in the courts when necessary. Under Fehr’s watch, we’re into the longest stretch of labor peace since the players were serfs.

For this, Fehr became a reviled figure, first for not caving in to MLB’s demands in 1994 and leading the players into a strike that lasted through the World Series, then for defending the principle of privacy, the right to refuse unwarranted searches, and the sanctity of collective bargaining, all as the public, management, and a grandstanding Congressional committee looked to trample all three.

Personally, I think Fehr did a great job for exactly the reasons Sheehan gives. While the Players’ Unions in all the other major sports leagues lost significant ground (the NBAPA and NHLPA in owners’ lockouts; the NFLPA to gutless leadership), the MLBPA did surprisingly well. The Players’ Association is probably in a worse position today than it was twenty years ago, but the losses it did sustain (after the ’94 strike; steroid testing) were less costly than the alternatives.

Fehr’s basic problem was his inability to get the public on his side. I don’t know if that was really his fault, given the way that the nation’s sports media sucks up to owners and fans have the (frankly weird) tendency to side with billionaire owners over millionaire players. Sheehan points out that Fehr didn’t do a good job of defining the argument, and that’s showcased pretty well in the Justice quote given above.

The issue should not be about whether or not individual players should be willing to give up their privacy for some fans’ peace-of-mind. It should be about whether or not owners have the right to invade players’ privacy.

Ultimately, Fehr and the union agreed to testing (it was probably inevitable, though), but putting up the fight they did made sure that the invasion was not extensive.

a braves fan mentions Carlos Lee…

Maybe something like Javy and Francouer for Lee is possible…

i dont think ATL wants that big contract tho

But when you repeatedly buy buy buy… some “throw-in” that may not be much now will eventually become a stud. It happens all the time.

Lee would NTC anything other than Texas.