MLBits: Fighting About Finances Already, Rough Free Agent Class, Rotation Rankings, More

Some of the latest from around Major League Baseball …

• Just one year into the new CBA, some owners are already complaining about financial imbalances, and the Players Association believes it’s already about to be confronted by another request for a salary cap:

• I know it’s still more than three years away that these financial conversations will once again take center stage in the run-up to the CBA’s expiration, but the fact that they’re ALREADY getting into it through the media … woof:

• At least Clark said that there has been positive progress on a minor league CBA, and even if it isn’t complete by Opening Day, it doesn’t seem like there will any kind of interruption in play. The biggest sticking point at the moment sounds like MLB wanting to retain the ability to further reduce the minor league size (either teams or players).

• With Manny Machado now off the free agent market for after this season, the early look at the possibly available bats is rougghhhhh, even though the pitchers are better:

• Max Scherzer talks about how the pitchers have the gamesmanship power when it comes to the pitch clock, because the hitter has just one timeout per plate appearance. So if Scherzer wants to vary his timing wildly, including standing ready to pitch at EXACTLY eight seconds remaining when the batter has to be at attention, he wants to play around with that stuff.

• The Blue Jays land James Click, the bizarrely-ousted World Championship-winning former GM of the Astros:

• Matt Snyder power-ranked the league’s rotations, going with the Mets on top, which is fair, and the Yankees at number two, which is at least arguable. For me the Astros would have to be top three (they’re five), and the Brewers (who are three) would also be top five. The Padres at four seems like a stretch to me, given that their FOURTH starter (Michael Wacha) is a guy in whom the market seemed to have very little confidence as a sure-fire option. It’s a good rotation, with Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and Blake Snell at the front. But top four? I’m not even sure it’s THAT much better than the Cubs’ rotation overall, and the Cubs don’t even show up in the 16 named teams. And that ain’t me being all that high on the Cubs’ rotation, whose depth I think could have them around average. I guess I’m just way down on the Padres’ rotation. Lovvvve that lineup, though.

• Do you remember Ben Joyce, the former Tennessee Volunteer who once touched 105.5 mph with his fastball? He is now a pitching prospect in the Angels’ system, and could reach the big leagues as soon as this year. Anyway, this was his first pitch yesterday in a spring training game, and I absolutely would’ve crapped my pants:

• Otherwise, Joyce, a third round pick who dominated at Double-A right out of the draft, had the look of a big league reliever:

• Good gravy. This kind of leap is not just offseason velocity work, it’s someone(s) figuring out that there was a mechanical issue that was impeding velocity:

• Ah. Ok. Mmhmm:

• Joey Votto is the best: