Draft Discussion, Cont’d

» 21 July 2009 » In international baseball, mlb »

The post I wrote yesterday on the discarding the MLB draft certainly generated some lively debate. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to comment. I’m also happy to see that this topic spawned interesting conversation on other sites, particularly Orioles Hangout.

To summarize what I wrote yesterday, the problems that I observed and would like to see addressed were:

  • the inequity between players born in the US and outside the US
  • the fact that the draft system can still be gamed by teams, players, and agents
  • the potential for domestic leagues in other countries (Japan in particular) to get into bickering matches with MLB over territorial rights to players

I realize that this is in some ways an oversimplification, but my biggest point is that the current MLB draft is an outdated system that fails to account for the diversity we have in baseball today. My proposal was to eliminate the draft entirely, and replace it with a regulated free agent market, in which teams would have specific parameters on spending and number of players acquired. Some readers seemed to like the idea, others had different suggestions. Here are a few:

  • force all players wishing to enter MLB through a draft
  • move to a free agent system with strict bonus slots (nod to Crawdad @ Orioles Hangout)
  • change the ages at which players are allowed to sign with MLB organizations
  • keep the draft, but enforce caps on bonuses
  • leave it alone

I’ll end this one with a question: what would you do to improve the MLB player entry system?

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  1. Patrick
    Ron
    22/07/2009 at 4:08 am Permalink

    From an article I wrote:

    4. The draft will be extended to foreign countries:

    Players from traditional baseball playing countries will now be included in the draft. The countries affected will be Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba (that means the defectors, but why should they get special privileges), Panama, Columbia, and Venezuela. Any player from that country, at the age of 16 (or graduation from high school) or college players who want to play MLB will have to register for the draft and go through the process. Simple, no argument, problem solved, it’s fixed.

    The only exception will be players who choose not to do this and sign with a league in a different country, or an independent league in the states. They must re-enter the draft each year, until 5 years have passed, then they are free to sign as free agents. This includes American players also. We’ll call this the J.D. Drew rule.

    10. No more posting system with Japanese players:

    The Japanese leagues want to keep their league going and viable. I understand that, but by limiting each club to a certain number of foreigners a season, they are effectively practicing discrimination. That would never work in the states. At least not anymore. If the Japanese Leagues don’t want to play by our rules, why should we play by theirs?

    Japan is the only country in the world that charges major league teams for the rights to negotiate with one of their players. When they are a free agent!!! And that’s millions of dollars just to negotiate. It doesn’t include the actual contract agreed upon. So we’re doing away with the posting system. Any Japanese player who wants to play will have to do two things. One is to register for the amateur draft, as discussed in the first part of this article. He will then be drafted and developed by a major league team. If he doesn’t want to do that, or isn’t drafted at the time, then he has to wait the requisite 5 years. After that, he is an unrestricted free agent and can sign with any team anywhere. However, the player can not be under contract to any team in any league at that time. Contracts will be honored, but free agents will be free agents, regardless of the country.

    12. A cap on salaries and bonuses for draft choices:

    No team should have to pay any kid $10 million just to play baseball, on top of the contracts they are signing. And any kid, getting a million dollar contract out of high school or college is ridiculous. It just shouldn’t be happening.

    I not against anyone earning as much money as they can. That’s not the issue. The issue is teams being held hostage by agents at the risk of losing a draft choice. Let the kids prove themselves first. They don’t have to play baseball. They can dig ditches, if they think that’s what they want to do with their lives.

    But draft choices contracts and bonuses need to be regulated. It’s getting out of hand. I’m not the smartest guy in the world to figure out the numbers, but it can be done. It can be tied to the major league club payroll, revenue, etc. There are lots of ways it can be done. It just needs to be done.

  2. Patrick
    Patrick
    22/07/2009 at 8:19 am Permalink

    10. No more posting system with Japanese players:

    The Japanese leagues want to keep their league going and viable. I understand that, but by limiting each club to a certain number of foreigners a season, they are effectively practicing discrimination. That would never work in the states.

    Actually, it does work in the States — the MLS soccer league had a limit on how many foreign players are allowable on each team, and I believe they even classified players by age. The point was to get American soccer to improve by letting local players play. The same goes for Japan. If you want to call it discrimination, then you have to say that governments discriminate by limiting employment-based visas for certain types of workers.

    At least not anymore. If the Japanese Leagues don’t want to play by our rules, why should we play by theirs?

    Why should one country/organization/group of people ever get to impose their set of rules on another, in any situation?

    Japan is the only country in the world that charges major league teams for the rights to negotiate with one of their players. When they are a free agent!!! And that’s millions of dollars just to negotiate. It doesn’t include the actual contract agreed upon.

    This isn’t true. Korea has a posting system that is similar to Japan’s. I’m not sure what system Taiwan has. MLB clubs routinely sell the contractual rights to players to Japanese teams — a good example is Darrell Rasner, whom the Yankees sold to Rakuten last year for $1m. The figures are really disclosed and it is never discussed until after a deal with the player is done, but this is a common transaction.

    Also, the players that are posted are by definition NOT free agents. Daisuke Matsuzaka had not yet attained free agency status when the Lions posted him. Hiroki Kuroda had, and was free to sign with the team of his choice with out Hiroshima being awarded any compensation.

    So we’re doing away with the posting system. Any Japanese player who wants to play will have to do two things. One is to register for the amateur draft, as discussed in the first part of this article. He will then be drafted and developed by a major league team. If he doesn’t want to do that, or isn’t drafted at the time, then he has to wait the requisite 5 years. After that, he is an unrestricted free agent and can sign with any team anywhere. However, the player can not be under contract to any team in any league at that time. Contracts will be honored, but free agents will be free agents, regardless of the country.

    Making an undrafted player wait five years before signing with a team because he is from Japan is discrimination. As it stands now, undrafted players can sign with MLB organizations the next week after the draft. What is the point of punishing undrafted players anyway?

  3. Patrick
    John Brooks
    22/07/2009 at 3:31 pm Permalink

    Players from traditional baseball playing countries will now be included in the draft. The countries affected will be Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba (that means the defectors, but why should they get special privileges), Panama, Columbia, and Venezuela. Any player from that country, at the age of 16 (or graduation from high school) or college players who want to play MLB will have to register for the draft and go through the process. Simple, no argument, problem solved, it’s fixed.

    They might as well keep the free agent system in place. Why should teams who win have less chance to acquire top talent? I mean baseball players despite the dollars they made are not slaves. If lower salary MLB teams dont sign big name foriegn or domestic talent then there going to lose, but if they don’t put the $$ into making a good team, then why do they deserve the first pick in the Draft? I don’t want to hear the money excuse, a baseball team has to be built usually through a farm system, good international scouting, et cetera. Otherwise the Yankees would be World Champs every year if all you needed was cash to win the Series?

    The only exception will be players who choose not to do this and sign with a league in a different country, or an independent league in the states. They must re-enter the draft each year, until 5 years have passed, then they are free to sign as free agents. This includes American players also. We’ll call this the J.D. Drew rule.

    Then wouldn’t that make them a free agent as a result of bypassing the draft. A foreign player returning from NPB, KBO, CPBL is free to sign with anyone and independent teams sell the contract of the players to MLB teams. This will only punish teams that win numerous years while benefiting teams like the Pirates who have made no effort whatsoever to be a better team.

    The issue is teams being held hostage by agents at the risk of losing a draft choice. Let the kids prove themselves first. They don’t have to play baseball. They can dig ditches, if they think that’s what they want to do with their lives.

    Teams have a compensation pick for the fact of that happening as we saw with the Nationals failure to sign Aaron Crow which they used to get 2 of the top 10 picks.

    I’ve always been a proponent of the draft system till now, though as a believer of the free market it has changed my opinion, I don’t believe in putting limitations on teams or for salaries. Why should teams who win be punished by not allowed to sign top talent? In the real world, the best companies hire the best of the best. So if teams are so bad then they need to spend the money needed to make themselves a winning team and it always doesn’t take a ton of money to win as I proved with my Yankees example.

    The point was to get American soccer to improve by letting local players play. The same goes for Japan. If you want to call it discrimination, then you have to say that governments discriminate by limiting employment-based visas for certain types of workers.

    I’m not saying that either league discriminates or that any government does, but if you want to higher the level of play would it be benefitical for challenges from no foreign player limits? It would approve the level of play which is already one of the best in the World. At least the NPB could add a few more foriegn player slots or even create 1 open spot for a player from S.Korea, Taiwan, or China.

    I’m not sure what system Taiwan has.

    If I remember right, I think Taiwan has a posting system similar to Japan and Taiwan, though I’m not 100% certain. The Detroit Tigers acquired a kid from the CPBL earlier this year I seem to remember, though might have been from one of teams that went under too.

    Hiroki Kuroda had, and was free to sign with the team of his choice with out Hiroshima being awarded any compensation.

    Why true, didn’t Hiroshima insert a clause into his contract which allowed him to opt out if he wanted to sign with a MLB team?

  4. Patrick
    John Brooks
    22/07/2009 at 3:36 pm Permalink

    They don’t have to play baseball. They can dig ditches, if they think that’s what they want to do with their lives.

    That’s a poor example, nobody has do anything in life if that’s what they choose. I mean just because the kid gets millions doesn’t mean he should be digging ditches, it just the free market at work which gave him the talent to play baseball. As in life, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but without spending the money to find out whose going to know?

  5. Patrick
    Patrick
    22/07/2009 at 3:49 pm Permalink

    It’s been a while John Brooks. Good to have you back as a commenter.

    Why true, didn’t Hiroshima insert a clause into his contract which allowed him to opt out if he wanted to sign with a MLB team?

    That was part of a contract that Kuroda signed with Hiroshima after qualifying for free agency. Kuroda chose to stay in Japan to be near his ailing father, so he signed a four-year deal with an opt-out clause after each season. His father died during the first year of the deal and he opted out and signed with the Dodgers.

    Prior to attaining free agency he did not have this contractual provision.

  6. Patrick
    Deanna
    22/07/2009 at 6:17 pm Permalink

    Brooks, I think you’re missing the point — teams that LOSE are given high draft picks as a way to hopefully get talent to make them more competitive in the future. Not teams who WIN are being denied talent.

    And if you’ve ever been to Pittsburgh, you’d know that yes, Pirates management has been kind of idiotic in the past, but at the same time, they don’t have the revenue to spend a ton of money on players even when they have a front office that isn’t retarded. It’s a football town and a small wtf-we’re-not-industrial-anymore town to boot. Maybe everyone would be better off if a few teams were contracted… but nobody likes to talk about that sort of thing.

    Things are definitely broken when it comes to international player acquisitions, that’s for sure. The draft would help that, but it would cause other problems. Signing bonuses ARE ridiculous, although perhaps no more ridiculous than the salaries MLB players get in general…

  7. Patrick
    John Brooks
    23/07/2009 at 12:21 am Permalink

    Brooks, I think you’re missing the point — teams that LOSE are given high draft picks as a way to hopefully get talent to make them more competitive in the future. Not teams who WIN are being denied talent.

    Lets take a look at this year’s draft and the prime draft pick, Stephen Strasburg. Why should a team like the Nationals be able to lose every year and be able to acquire top talent, while discriminating against teams who win and lose out on top talent because the draft favors team who lose at will. I mean, baseball players, like you and I, are not or shouldn’t be a slave to a draft system against their will. The analogy of well he should be happy that so and so baseball team signs him and is giving him an opportunity to play in professional baseball doesn’t hold up. Forcing draft picks on to teams who they don’t want to play on is like forcing someone to work for a company they don’t want to. Why would it be any different in baseball? Or is it because they make millions of dollars and don’t deserve a right to complain and should be happy that someone signed them or they can just go play indy ball.

    If you force teams that refuse to answer and identify why they lose, then maybe they would be in a better position to win, otherwise there going to continue to lose. Why don’t teams that lose be forced to actually make an effort to try to win?

  8. Patrick
    John Brooks
    23/07/2009 at 12:41 am Permalink

    And if you’ve ever been to Pittsburgh, you’d know that yes, Pirates management has been kind of idiotic in the past, but at the same time, they don’t have the revenue to spend a ton of money on players even when they have a front office that isn’t retarded. It’s a football town and a small wtf-we’re-not-industrial-anymore town to boot. Maybe everyone would be better off if a few teams were contracted… but nobody likes to talk about that sort of thing.

    Neither did the Marlins, but through good trades that paid off they made it to the Series and Loria is a penny pincher. The fact I used Pittsburgh as an example is because the Pirates always get high draft picks, but aren’t judges of talent well, aren’t willing to spend money on the elite players, to put money into international players, player development, etc.

    As for contraction, it be a big mess. The problem is where do you find the teams to contract? One team you can think of is the Washington Nationals, who are a hopeless team, but after all the work to get baseball back in DC there not going to contract them. And that leaves another AL team to contract which is hard since so many of them have a strong history and connection with the communities there in. MLB itself also with teams being contracted would lose revenue dollars that there not willing to lose.

    MLB will add more teams before they contract them which will only make the disparity gap between teams who win and lose even more, though the Arizona Diamondbacks became a World Series team quick after expansion. Though there’s problems with all possible new MLB franchises in cities like Montreal, Monterey, San Juan, Las Vegas, Portland. It be a long time before we get another expansion team. Lets see we got the D-Backs and Rays in 1998 and before that we got the Mariners and Blue Jays in 1977.

  9. Patrick
    yakamashii
    23/07/2009 at 12:43 am Permalink

    I’ve always been a proponent of the draft system till now, though as a believer of the free market it has changed my opinion, I don’t believe in putting limitations on teams or for salaries. Why should teams who win be punished by not allowed to sign top talent? In the real world, the best companies hire the best of the best. So if teams are so bad then they need to spend the money needed to make themselves a winning team and it always doesn’t take a ton of money to win as I proved with my Yankees example.

    This part doesn’t work. In the real world, companies in the same industry are competing for your dollar and happily try to put each other out of business.

    In baseball, the Dodgers are not trying to put the Padres out of business. If the Padres close their doors, the Dodgers are out nine home dates and ten road games. They need each other to continue to make money.

    As you do, I think the money argument is overblown, but the talent must be distributed evenly somehow.

  10. Patrick
    John Brooks
    23/07/2009 at 12:44 am Permalink

    That was part of a contract that Kuroda signed with Hiroshima after qualifying for free agency. Kuroda chose to stay in Japan to be near his ailing father, so he signed a four-year deal with an opt-out clause after each season. His father died during the first year of the deal and he opted out and signed with the Dodgers.

    Yeah, that’s what I thought happened. Keep up the good work with the site, I still read it daily, just lately I’ve been so busy with stuff that I haven’t been able to comment.

  11. Patrick
    John Brooks
    23/07/2009 at 12:55 am Permalink

    In baseball, the Dodgers are not trying to put the Padres out of business. If the Padres close their doors, the Dodgers are out nine home dates and ten road games. They need each other to continue to make money.

    Yeah, I understand that you need the other pieces of the league to compete to make money. Though, I find it hard to punish team that wins by not giving the same opportunity to acquire Strasburg as the Nationals, because the Nationals lost 100+ games and well Philly was World Champs and should have the same chance to sign him as Washington. As I said earlier, baseball players, aren’t slaves, if I don’t have a good impression after a job audition with the company, then should I be forced to work for that company? Then why is it that MLB and NPB players are basically slaves to a system that rewards losing and discourages winning. I mean they shouldn’t be forced beyond their will to sign with some team and then if they are blackmailed by the team, they shouldn’t be barred into independent or industrial league baseball.

  12. Patrick
    jimmy1138
    23/07/2009 at 3:07 am Permalink

    Maybe MLB should install a system like the Japanese one: pick whoever you want in the first round and let a draw decide if multiple teams pick the same guy. That way teams like the Nationals wouldn’t be rewarded too much for delivering one embarassing season after another.

    And there’s simply no excuse for Pittsburgh. Football and baseball are basically complementary sports: the football season starts to heat up when the baseball season is over and vice versa. Chicago and Boston are fervent baseball towns and teams from over there have won as many World Series titles as the Pirates in the past 50 years. They have a nice ballpark and there’s revenue sharing. Nobody to blame but themselves.

  13. Patrick
    Patrick
    23/07/2009 at 7:08 am Permalink

    Maybe MLB should install a system like the Japanese one: pick whoever you want in the first round and let a draw decide if multiple teams pick the same guy. That way teams like the Nationals wouldn’t be rewarded too much for delivering one embarassing season after another.

    I like (one of) the old NPB system(s) where teams could sign up to two college or industrial league players as free agents, but would then in turn lose their first three draft picks.

  14. Patrick
    John Brooks
    23/07/2009 at 9:50 am Permalink

    I like (one of) the old NPB system(s) where teams could sign up to two college or industrial league players as free agents, but would then in turn lose their first three draft picks

    Which I why think many teams would be unwilling to do this, esp the teams that already lose at will. Then again, like I said with the Pirates they don’t spend the money wisely to build a winning team. Second, people be crying when Yomiuri/Hanshin or Yankees/Red Sox were getting all the top talent. I believe they should let them all fight it out under a free agent system for all with no salary cap. The teams that lose will have to field a competitive team or the league would have less teams, forcing cheapskate teams to spend money to sign top talent you could hopefully force them into leveling the playing field. Then again in NPB, the Central League doormats basically leech off Hanshin and Yomiuri games for revenue to put back in the business instead of the team.

  15. Patrick
    Deanna
    24/07/2009 at 4:42 am Permalink

    I don’t think teams are necessarily cheapskates — I think they simply don’t HAVE the money to spend like other teams. You can charge $300 per ticket in the lower level infield at Yankee Stadium — but you CAN’T charge that much in other cities. Can you imagine those prices in Kansas City?

    (And salaries in the MLB are already so ridiculous I can’t believe you’re advocating people getting even MORE money, but that’s beside the point.)

    So basically, what you are saying is, a team that doesn’t have the money to spend on top free agents, and can’t buy the talent to win, also shouldn’t be able to get cheaper top talent through the draft, and should basically be doomed to always get the leftovers that nobody else wants. And the super-rich teams that win a lot of games should also always get the top talent, and continue winning. The revenue from winning that allows them to sign free agents and pad their pockets isn’t enough reward, right?

    I barely think a guy who is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (or millions) to play baseball is a slave. Seriously.

  16. Patrick
    John Brooks
    24/07/2009 at 6:27 am Permalink

    So basically, what you are saying is, a team that doesn’t have the money to spend on top free agents, and can’t buy the talent to win, also shouldn’t be able to get cheaper top talent through the draft, and should basically be doomed to always get the leftovers that nobody else wants. And the super-rich teams that win a lot of games should also always get the top talent, and continue winning. The revenue from winning that allows them to sign free agents and pad their pockets isn’t enough reward, right?

    I barely think a guy who is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (or millions) to play baseball is a slave. Seriously.

    Deanna, your missing the point completely. Why should a team like the Washington Nationals be able to draft Strasburg when they suck year in and year out. As I’ve proven, money does buy you a championship otherwise the Yankees would have won a Series before 2001.

    Also, do you exactly call acquiring Stephen Strasburg cheap? Teams are looking at South America, Venezeula, the Dominican Republic, Europe, Japan, and South Korea for talent instead of going through the draft.

    I mean at look the 1966 Orioles who swept the mighty Dodgers, numerous of their players were acquired through amateur free agency, so it isn’t like the system cant work. It’s just that small market teams hide behind the draft as a excuse to lose.

    Second, there’s numerous middle-market teams to win the World Series in this decade, so money isn’t all you need. Some players of course will choose the Yankees and Red Sox, but if other teams shell out the cash then they can acquire the Miguel Sano’s of the world too. If you build a winning team or try they will come.

    Finally, in a fair world why should the Nationals have a better chance to acquire Strasburg than the Phillies? It’s slavery, the player himself has no realistic alternative unless go play in indy ball, go back to college and risk injury, or wait until NPB teams starting fighting for the same Aaron Crow type players who the Nationals couldnt sign. I mean you and I have a say what we what to do, where we would want to work, for whom, though you think that someone that make millions isn’t deserved the same rights.

    Ask me this one question, Deanna, do you think that musicians and actors who make millions off a single album or a single movie deserve anymore money than a baseball player or to negotiate with agents to move to the right record label, etc?

    I barely think a guy who is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (or millions) to play baseball is a slave. Seriously.

    Deanna, I’m sorry me and you are going to have disagree on this one. I’m not worried about making fans with the majority of fans who think baseball players are making too much. That is their given right to make that money.

    Also, forcing a player to sign with a team that he doesn’t want to play for regardless of the salary bonus involved is slavery. If me and you aren’t slaves to system then why should baseball players be slaves to an arachic system?

  17. Patrick
    Deanna
    24/07/2009 at 8:34 am Permalink

    Brooks, without Westbay editing your comments, it’s really hard to figure out what the heck you’re trying to say. “Money does buy you a championship”? Huh? (Plus, when it comes to the 2001 World Series, one could argue that the Diamondbacks bought a championship, you know.)

    It’s really truly not slavery. Slavery is when someone is forced to work for someone for no pay and has no choice in the matter. Baseball players are paid quite well and they do have a choice to go out and get another job if they seriously don’t want to play for a particular team — but honestly, why on earth should it matter to a player what team they start with? If you think about it, a talented is actually better off going to a poor team, because they’ve got a chance to break into the majors a lot earlier and start earning a bigger paycheck that much sooner. Going to a team already stacked with talent that’s just going to have them blocked in the minors for years seems rather silly.

    Either way, any player on ANY team will be a free agent in 6 years and able to do whatever they want anyway. Plenty of jobs have probationary periods and temporary-to-hire contracts — think of it that way if it really irks you so much.

    Looking at the 1966 Orioles is irrelevant when you’re comparing it to today — the methods of player acquisition then and today are completely different, especially with respect to international players (and remember, in 1966, there were still teams that only had one or two non-white players, and were still resisting integration). It was a totally different ballgame, really.

    And I think you are missing the point — the draft was started so that teams that sucked could pick up talent without having to outspend the rich teams who were stockpiling talent that the poorer teams simply couldn’t keep up with. That is NOT the broken part of the draft. The broken part of the draft is kids who can’t even be taken with the #1 pick because they demand too much money, a la Andrew Miller.

    Money ruined the MLB. It hasn’t ruined the NPB yet, but I’m sure with the MLB clawing into Japan it’ll happen soon enough here too.

  18. Patrick
    John Brooks
    24/07/2009 at 4:48 pm Permalink

    It’s really truly not slavery. Slavery is when someone is forced to work for someone for no pay and has no choice in the matter. Baseball players are paid quite well and they do have a choice to go out and get another job if they seriously don’t want to play for a particular team — but honestly, why on earth should it matter to a player what team they start with? If you think about it, a talented is actually better off going to a poor team, because they’ve got a chance to break into the majors a lot earlier and start earning a bigger paycheck that much sooner. Going to a team already stacked with talent that’s just going to have them blocked in the minors for years seems rather silly.

    Deanna, it’s still slavery one way or the other. He gets a chance to play at baseball true, but he still is a slave in the fact he has no control where over he plays so the fact that he has another choice of a career doesn’t add up.

    And if getting high draft picks was successful in making a team win, then again the Pirates and Orioles be winners for years. Also, can you honestly tell me that Strasburg wouldn’t make the Phillies or any other MLB team in a longer time than he did if he was a small market team? Teams can never have enough pitching, the big market teams can always trade off top talent to make the team better(which benefits usually small-middle market teams).

    Money ruined the MLB. It hasn’t ruined the NPB yet, but I’m sure with the MLB clawing into Japan it’ll happen soon enough here too.

    So, I guess allowing the players to be slaves to an archaic system before free agency, was a better system? Money doesn’t always add up to a winning team, otherwise the Yankees be winning the World Series every year.

    Regarding the second part of that arguement, why are most Japanese players going to leave a familar culture, where they are popular, have friends, dont have to wait in the minors as long. Please, for a change stop playing this game that MLB spending money is going to destroy NPB.

    Also, Deanna, it would help you if weren’t so conterversial with your I know better than you attitude. Second, regarding the remark of my posts without Westbay’s editing is also of hand, its called your stuck in your opinion and I’m firmly entrenched in my opinion. It’s unlikely either of us are going to change our opinions so I say stop the bickering between the two of us. Also, finally for a person who contributed a lot over the years at Westbay-san’s site I do take your know it all attitude troubling.

  19. Patrick
    Patrick
    24/07/2009 at 5:04 pm Permalink

    Well, the “stop bickering” comment is one thing I can definitely agree with.

  20. Patrick
    Deanna
    24/07/2009 at 6:09 pm Permalink

    I’m in with this “stop bickering” thing since I can’t understand anything he’s trying to say anyway. Can you? I feel like I’m arguing with an ESL student from Jupiter or something.

  21. Patrick
    John Brooks
    24/07/2009 at 7:07 pm Permalink

    “Can you? I feel like I’m arguing with an ESL student from Jupiter or something.

    Also, one more thing and I promise I’m finished. Deanna, typos are going to happen on blogs without moderation. It’s a fact of life. Also, when typing like I did accidnetally with money does buy you a championship, you should know based on the free for all arguement that I have adovcated that I mean that money doesn
    t gurantee you a championship. I’m sorry Deanna, I’m not the most perfect typer but that’s an asinine thing to bicker over. And the arguement that I’m arguing with an ESL student from Juipter or something is exactly what I was pointing to when I said to stop the bickering between the both of us. I could say something ignorant in response to the hostile responses, but that’s not my style and won’t sink to the level of doing so either.

    Okay, I’m finished with this, I’ve enjoyed this discussion despite the disagreements with me and Deanna. It won’t be the last time I have or will be in a strong disagreement as people who’ve known me from Japanese Baseball that I’ve been in some heated arguements over there, but had nothing wrong with them as a person. I’ve just disagreed with them, were not all going to agree with everyone 100% of the time, otherwise this be a dull world.

  22. Patrick
    Patrick
    24/07/2009 at 10:35 pm Permalink

    Let’s consider this the end of the bickering. Done.

    I don’t think anything I’ve written has generate this much text. I’m surprised at how much emotion this stirred; you should see what’s been written about me on other sites. Everyone who commented on this site though is obviously passionate about baseball, and that’s a good thing.

    Debating is a good thing, but for the next one let’s try to stay on topic and keep the jibba jabba to a minimum.