Cup of Coffee: November 17, 2022

Cy Young, contract demands, potential collusion a trade, a signing, a surgery, a new title, a sketchy explanation, Trump, a train wreck, a billionaire's bogus image and -- jinkies! -- my glasses.

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

Today we have two very unsurprising Cy Young winners, one of whom is looking for big money next year, there was a notable trade, a signing, news of a surgery, a strange new title, and a not-very-satisfying explanation.

In Other Stuff I say about the only thing that need be said about Donald Trump running again, look in at the continuing train wreck — or should I say car wreck? — at Twitter, take a closer look at the material conditions, as opposed to the image, of a fallen billionaire, and ask you about your glasses.

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The Daily Briefing

Sandy Alcantara, Justin Verlander win Cy Young Awards

The NL Rookie of the Year Award and both Manager of the Year Awards were anyone’s guesses. The Cy Young Awards, however, were pretty safe bets. Those bets both paid off last night as Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins and Justin Verlander of the Astros took home the hardware. Both were unanimous selections, with Alancatara outpacing Max Fried of Atlanta and Julio Urías of the Dodgers and Verlander besting the White Sox’ Dylan Cease and Alex Manoah of the Blue Jays in the AL voting.

Alcantara, a first time winner, had a throwback season in 2022, tossing six complete games — no other team had as many as that and only one team had more than half that many among all pitchers combined — going eight or more innings in 14 of his 32 starts, and logging 228.2 innings in all. He didn’t just eat those innings, either. He posted a 2.28 ERA (178 ERA+) while winning 14 games. Alcantara took the ball, kept it a long time, and dominated while he had it.

This is Verlander’s third Cy Young Award, following wins with the Tigers in 2011 and the Astros in 2019. Verlander, at age 39 and seeing his first action after missing almost two full seasons due to Tommy John surgery, went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA in 28 starts and was the ace for the 106-win World Series champs. He led the American League in wins, ERA, WHIP (0.83), opponents’ OPS (.497), opponents’ batting average (.186) and hits per nine innings allowed (5.97). His 220 ERA+ was the best of his career. The Astros went 20-8 in games started by Verlander and, while he was not the throwback workhorse like Alcantara was, he was an old school stopper. Indeed, in 12 starts after an Astros loss he was 9-0 with a 1.11 ERA. That’s what you want.

This award was an easy call. Tonight we’ll see if the final award, the MVP, was as easy.

Justin Verlander is reportedly looking for Max Scherzer money and Jim Crane is probably breaking the rules in telling us so.

The newest American League Cy Young winner is a free agent right now and, per the suggestion of Astros owner Jim Crane, he’s looking for Max Scherzer money. Here’s Crane, speaking to MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart:

“I know him well, so we’ve been pretty candid. He’s looking at the comp, which I think there’s only one or two . . . J.V.’s probably got a few years left, and he wants to make the most of it. I think he’s going to test the market on that.”

“The comp” quite clearly appears to be Scherzer’s three-year, $130 million deal with the Mets.

Before getting into the specifics of that, it’s worth noting that an owner talking about conversations he had with a free agent and then communicating that free agent’s financial goals in the market is the stuff of collusion. And it’s something that, per Ken Rosenthal at the Athletic, has not gone unnoticed, with the MLBPA bringing it to Major League Baseball’s attention and asking them to investigate it. The same goes for some reporting about the Mets’ lack of intention to bid on Aaron Judge as stated in a story a couple of weeks ago. Both the Verlander piece cited here and the Judge piece were published, it should be noted, by team-friendly reporters at team-owned and/or controlled outlets. To be continued, I’m sure.

As for Verlander . . .

Scherzer signed that deal before his age-37 season. Next year will be Verlander’s age-40 season. Verlander successfully came back from Tommy John surgery but he still had Tommy John surgery. Scherzer had no similar health history but he definitely ran out of gas late last year and may be providing us all a reminder that everyone falls off eventually. Sometimes those falloffs can come fast.

Verlander declined a one-year option worth $25 million after the season ended. He should get more money than that, but it’ll be interesting to see if anyone is willing to give that much more money over that many years to a guy who turns 40 a week after pitchers and catchers report.

Blue Jays trade Teoscar Hernández to the Mariners

The Seattle Mariners obtained outfielder Teoscar Hernández from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for right-hander Erik Swanson and lefty pitching prospect Adam Macko.

While that’s not a big return for a bat like Hernández, who hit .267/.316/.491 (127 OPS+) with 25 home runs last year, the fact that he’s entering his walk year has something to do with it. Still, the Jays get a really useful bullpen piece in Swanson and can shop on the free agent market for corner outfield help to replace Hernández. Indeed, they were rumored to be knocking on Brandon Nimmo’s door yesterday. The Mariners, of course, get the sort of middle-of-the-order bat they could’ve used late in the season.

It’s more or less a good old fashioned baseball trade. At least as long as the Jays add offense in the market, which they seem likely to do.

Padres re-sign Nick Martinez

The San Diego Padres signed free agent reliever Nick Martinez to a three-year, $26 million deal. Martinez had previously opted out of a pact with the Padres that would have seen him earn $18 million over that same amount of time so pencil him in for a $2.6 million raise each year. Viva leverage.

Martinez, who joined the Padres last season after four years in Japan, appeared in 47 games last year, starting ten, posting a 3.47 ERA and striking out 95 batters and walking 41 in 106.1 innings. It’s still not 100% clear if the Padres plan to use him as a reliever or a starter going forward, but he’s shown that he can do both and it’s nice to have a multi-tool laying around.

Bryce Harper to have UCL surgery

Phillies president Dave Dombrowski said yesterday that Bryce Harper will undergo surgery next week to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Harper tore his UCL back in May and was forced to DH for the rest of the year. It’s not clear if he’ll have Tommy John surgery or something less-invasive. That probably won’t be known until the doctors actually get a look at everything while Harper is on the table.

Even if if it is Tommy John, however, Harper will not miss the sort of time pitchers do when such surgery happens. Shohei Ohtani, for example, had Tommy John in October of 2018 and was back DHing by May of 2019. Harper will likely DH regardless next year, giving his elbow a chance to fully heal before he starts throwing again, so the question is just how much of the beginning of the 2023 campaign he’ll miss. Again, not clear.

Harper hit .286/.364/.514 with 18 home runs in 2022 with most of his diminishment coming by virtue of a broken thumb, not his elbow. By the time the postseason came around, however, he was an offensive force, hitting .349/.414/.746 with six home runs and leading the Phillies to the World Series.

“Associate Manager?”

The Texas Rangers have hired Red Sox bench coach Will Venable to serve as Bruce Bochy’s “associate manager.”

That’s only the second time I can recall someone having that title, with Skip Schumaker being Jayce Tingler’s associate manager in San Diego. What the difference is between a bench coach and an associate manager is above my pay grade, but I’m sure someone knows.

Yasiel Puig’s agent tries to explain why Puig lied to the feds

The day after the DOJ announced that Yasiel Puig had agreed to plead guilty to making false statements to federal agents, Puig’s agent — not his lawyer, but his agent — went public in an effort to explain it away. Here’s Lisette Carnet of Leona Sports Agency:

“The government's indictment arises out of a single interview he gave back in January via Zoom. He came to the interview feeling rushed, unprepared, without criminal counsel with him, and also lacked his own interpreter. Given his history growing up in authoritarian Cuba, government interviews are triggering and only worsen his ADHD symptoms and other mental health struggles, for which he is in treatment. He would have benefited from this care at the time of the interview.”

It’s possible to explain something that in no way excuses it and I suppose this is that sort of thing. The explanation, of course, doesn’t really help matters.

While I’m sympathetic to the particular vulnerabilities people who are not native English speakers and people who have mental health problems might have in the situation in which Puig found himself, it’s not as if he was under arrest. And it’s not as if he were alone. He had an attorney with him, just not “criminal counsel.” But it doesn’t take criminal counsel to know that an interview with FBI agents can create legal jeopardy and I suspect that the attorney who was there did, in fact, tell Puig what he was dealing with. Either way, Puig has settled lawsuits and has navigated past criminal situations in the U.S. quite ably and he could’ve done so here. If he was suffering from mental incapacity or even unpreparedness, I am pretty confident that his attorney could’ve said “hey, let’s do this tomorrow” and gotten acquiescence. If he preferred to do the interview in Spanish, I’m guessing that would’ve been accommodated as well.

Whatever the case, this is the sort of stuff that Puig can offer at his sentencing, where, honestly, he’s most likely to get probation and nothing more. Here, I suspect, it’s being offered as a means of salvaging his career.

Erroneous Quote of the Day

Here’s Paul Goldberger, architect critic and author of the book Ballpark: Baseball in the American City, speaking at a luncheon of the Kansas City, Missouri Downtown Council, in favor of the Royals’ just-announced desire to build a new downtown ballpark:

“The key trend is helping to pay for ballparks, not by taking excessive advantage of municipal funding but instead by allowing the team to support the project in part by allowing it to develop adjacent real estate.”

In addition to being erroneous with respect to the stadiums themselves — vanishingly few stadium projects lack massive direct subsidies and/or tax breaks — it’s also the case that the real estate projects themselves are often built with such gifts and incentives. Either way, the idea that “hey, if we give the sports team owner his mixed use project, the stadium will just be magicked into being, free of charge” is utter fantasy.

I’ll add that it’s utter fantasy to think that the Kansas City Downtown Council did not plan, with purpose, and in consultation with Royals owner John Sherman, to broadcast Goldberger’s argument when it did. I mean, do you think it’s a coincidence that Goldberger’s little keynote on the wonder and the glory of downtown ballparks came just one day after Sherman’s open letter dropped?

This is a coordinated sales pitch by the city’s business interests. Make no mistake about it and don’t read it any other way.

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Other Stuff

Trump’s running again

Donald Trump, a twice-impeached president and once-defeated candidate who, after failing to accept the results of a democratic election, attempted to overturn them via various means up to and including encouraging a deadly riot at the United States Capitol in a desperate and futile attempt to keep himself in power, has filed to run for president again in 2024. His motivation for running is some combination of ego and a desire to obtain immunity from the plethora of criminal and civil legal actions of which he is either a direct target or a significant subject.

Not much else of consequence need be said. Indeed, the foregoing says it all and, in a sane would, would ensure the failure of his presidential bid. Our world is not a sane one, however. If Trump does not obtain the GOP nomination it will be because Republicans don’t think he’s a winner, not because they care about any of the stuff in the foregoing paragraph.

Fasten your tweetbelts

Shot:

Chaser:

Eleven people were killed in U.S. crashes involving vehicles that were using automated driving systems during a four-month period earlier this year, according to newly released government data, part of an alarming pattern of incidents linked to the technology.

Ten of those eleven were in Teslas.

Second shot, Wednesday morning:

Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to Twitter employees Wednesday morning: commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter or leave the company with severance pay . . . Anyone who did not sign the pledge by 5 p.m. Eastern time Thursday would receive three months of severance pay, the message said.

Second chaser, Wednesday afternoon:

Elon Musk said in court on Wednesday that he does not want to be the CEO of any company . . . Musk also confirmed that the arrangement at Twitter is temporary. “I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time,” he said. 

I’ve never experienced a public mental breakdown, but I imagine one would go sorta like this.

Physician, heal thyself

Speaking of meltdowns, the New York Times ran a story yesterday about the one at FTX. This was a smaller, weirder, and kinda interesting story that only existed because a psychiatrist named Dr. George K. Lerner called the reporter in response to what appears to have been a general email for comment on FTX and its disgraced CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. What the reporter got, though, was telling in a couple of ways.

This Dr. Lerner, it seems, got to know many of FTX’s employees, becoming their “coach” which is a title you often see given to quasi-therapists in a corporate environment. He was, in particular, Sam Bankman-Fried’s coach, and he spent a lot of time with the CEO down at the corporate headquarters in the Bahamas. In that capacity Lerner formed some opinions about FTX’s top leadership. From the Times:

They struck him as impressively frugal, he said — even Mr. Bankman-Fried, who preferred buying groceries and cooking his own meals to eating expensive dinners out.

“You’ve seen how he dresses,” Dr. Lerner said, referring to Mr. Bankman-Fried’s shambolic wardrobe. “They really didn’t spend much money.”

That’s a hell of a thing to read literally one day after The Guardian published a story about Bankman-Fried’s living situation:

Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto trader entrepreneur at the center of the FTX scandal, reportedly put his luxury $40m Bahamas penthouse up for sale on Friday – the same day the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy . . . Bankman-Fried’s penthouse – “the Orchid”, located in Albany, an exclusive private community in Nassau – was listed by real estate agent Seaside Bahamas at $39,500,000.

This place It’s a 12,000-sq foot, five-bedroom luxury condo. The real estate listing, which has since been deleted, described it as, “the ultimate in luxury waterfront living in the Caribbean of which the penthouse in Orchid is the cornerstone . . . it hosts a sumptuous master bedroom suite with his and her bathrooms and walk-in closets plus a private balcony with lounge area and spa.” It has another four ensuite bedrooms, a dining area open to an outdoor pool, a private garage, and an elevator. It has a water purification system, a standby generator, and comes fully fenced and walled with 24-hour security. It likewise was, again, per the real estate listing, “meticulously designed with Venetian plaster walls matching Italian marble accents throughout, German engineered doors and windows, and wired throughout for sound.”

According to the Guardian article Bankman-Fried and senior FTX executives worked in the penthouse. Which means that is almost 100% certain that Dr. Lerner was there, often, providing his corporate coaching services to the gang. It certainly undercuts the notion that Bankman-Fried was some crypto nerd who slept on a beanbag under his desk at the office, as has been written about him.

The takeaways from this story are three as I see it.

The first takeaway: when the media gets an idea of someone it doesn’t let it go too easily. Bankman-Fried was sold as some sloppy genius who cared not for material things and, despite massive evidence to the contrary, the media, at least certain parts of it, continues to pass that along uncritically.

Second, both the media and society in general seem unwilling to accept that massive wealth, by definition, puts someone in a different class than regular people. In our society you can be worth billions but if you wear a sweatshirt instead of an Armani suit you’re just a regular Joe, apparently. I’d argue, however, that at some point it’s probably worth accepting that the image ultra-wealthy people create for themselves is irrelevant compared to their actual material conditions, even if their superficial characteristics make for some good copy.

Finally, corporate “coaches” -- which a lot of big firms, particularly Silicon Valley firms, make available to employees — may have their place, but they’re no substitute for actual therapists. Primarily because actual therapists’ loyalty is 100% to the client, not the company, and they, unlike coaches, are bound by confidentiality and won’t go flapping their gums to the New York Times about you after the shit hits the fan.

I’d say thank you for coming to my TedTalk but I cannot imagine ever giving a TedTalk.

My glasses!

Most Twitter prompts aren’t worth sharing but I feel like, given the somewhat more, um, mature demographics of this newsletter, this one will resonate a bit:

the hype (parody) @TheHyyyype

people who choose to continue wearing glasses instead of getting lasik or using contacts: tell me why (unless the issue is cost)

The answer for me is, for the most part, that I've worn glasses in all waking hours outside of showers and swimming pools since I was about 20 and I feel like I look totally weird without them. This is especially true since I went bald and even more especially true since my already nearly non-existent eyebrows lightened in color, making me look like I have none at all. When there is no hair, basically anywhere, you need something to make your face stick out. Which is to say that glasses, in addition to being necessary for my astigmatism-addled eyes, make me look like me.

Sub-answer: I’m deathly afraid of botched LASIK surgery. Given that I have never felt like my glasses have held me back from doing a single thing I want to do, it’s simply not worth the risk. And I can’t stand anything getting near my eyes, so contacts are right out.

You?

Have a great day, everyone.