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You can find all of last night’s scores here (in case you can’t watch the games on TV). Also: Mike Trout might be an angel for life after all and we take a look at some of the best players. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!
Trouble in Network TV Land: Comcast/Xfinity Drops Bally Sports
After Diamond/Bally Sports’ last-minute dodge this offseason, we always knew the other shoe would drop; we just didn’t know when. Would Bally – the television home of 12 MLB teams and 26 NBA/NHL teams – avoid bankruptcy, or would the world of RSNs descend into chaos?
What we didn’t expect: such a massive development on May 1st.
Comcast, one of the three major cable companies hosting Bally, removed the channel from its services due to a dispute between the two companies. Comcast wanted to put Bally at a higher tier (“premium”) and released a statement blaming Bally and insisting that they had made reasonable efforts to negotiate with Comcast at numbers similar to their deals with Charter and DirecTV .
For seven teams – including the Twins – there is no option for a direct-to-consumer streaming service from Bally, meaning a large percentage of the team’s regional fan base has no way to watch the matches legally.
Evan Drellich has all the details here, plus another story on the impact of the debates over the league’s plan for an outage-free streaming service. We asked Evan a few questions for our Windup readers, which we’ll have right after Ken’s notebook…
Ken’s notebook: Mike Trout, forever angel?
From my last column:
No player is untradeable, not even an aging, broken Mike Trout signed through 2030. But with Trout’s latest injury, the horrible idea of him spending the rest of his career with the Los Angeles Angels is about to become reality.
Trout, who turns 33 on Aug. 7, is expected to be out for at least 8 to 12 weeks while he recovers from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. He is guaranteed $35.45 million this season and in each of the next six.
Even if he returned on say August 1 and finished on a roll, what team would trust him enough this offseason to take on most or all of his remaining $212.7 million? From 2021 to 2023, Trout missed more games than he played. And given that it’s historically been slow to heal, it’s not exactly on track to reverse that trend in 2024.
Of course, the trout trade was far from happening. Much to the dismay of many opposing fans, the three-time MVP and 11-time All-Star steadfastly refused requests to leave Anaheim, saying he wanted to spend his entire career with one team, like his childhood idol, Derek Jeter, and win with the Angels.
At the start of spring training, Trout said he was “pushing, pushing, pushing” upper management to add free agents, perhaps an indication of his growing impatience. Well, his fuse had to be shorter. He waited too long.
For a business scenario to become realistic, it was necessary:
The angels stink again, which was almost a given.
Trout a) returns to near MVP form, which at least had a chance of happening before he injured his knee; and b) request a trade, which even Angels fans would have understood given he’s never won a playoff game and hasn’t even made the playoffs since 2014.
Angels owner Arte Moreno must demonstrate a willingness to not only grant Trout’s wish, but also include significant cash in a trade, which…never happened.
Q&A with Evan Drellich
Evan Drellich has known about the RSN fiasco since the beginning (if you need information, here are some links to read). He graciously agreed to answer a few questions for us.
We read quotes from both sides on the question of who is to blame. Do you have an opinion?
For now, it’s the fault of the almighty dollar. Transportation disputes are not uncommon. Disney and Charter were at it for a while last year. Of course, the fans, viewers, and your grandmother who just want to watch the game end up being the real losers.
But it’s an interesting look at these things. Comcast surely knows that Diamond must close its deal if Diamond is to emerge from bankruptcy. Diamond surely knows he can try to make Comcast look like an outlier, because Diamond already has deals in place with two other distributors: one with DirecTV, the other with Charter. Leverage plays everywhere.
How will this impact Bally’s plans to avoid bankruptcy?
It’s not great. Typically, when a case this big comes to this stage – a month and a half away from a confirmation hearing on a bankruptcy exit plan – the company is in a pretty good position to emerge. That doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee. Diamond’s plan includes lofty projections for the company’s post-bankruptcy growth, and MLB has been highly skeptical in court about Diamond’s ability to actually do what it says.
But there’s no doubt that Diamond securing distribution deals with all major providers, such as Comcast, is essential. Another key: Diamond makes enough money from these deals to be profitable while still paying all teams their customs duties. So overall, the outcome of the Comcast deal will be significant, especially in the context of Diamond’s other deals with Charter and DirecTV. (Key details of these agreements are not public at this time.)
Taken together, are the numbers enough to convince the court to uphold Diamond’s plan to escape bankruptcy? We may know as early as June – that’s when the confirmation hearing is supposed to take place. (But it wouldn’t be the most surprising thing if it was delayed.)
How long does MLB wait before intervening for the health of the sport?
MLB could theoretically try to pressure either party, but it will try to remain neutral publicly. The league will likely exercise more caution given the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings with Diamond. Of the two groups, MLB has had a happier recent relationship with Comcast — its partner in broadcasts on Peacock for the past two years — than with Diamond.
The ranking finalists
We love our statistical leaders, but it’s always been interesting to me to see who is in second place. How far away are they? Is this a surprise, guy? Here are some statistical leaders and their closest competitors.
Batting average: Mookie Betts, Dodgers – .377
Right behind Betts is the Phillies’ Alec Bohm, who is hitting .362 with 12 doubles in 128 plate appearances (after hitting 31 in 611 PA last year).
OPS: Paris – 1,104
It’s not really a surprise: second place goes to Marcell Ozuna of the Braves, with 1.027. After a 40-homer, 100-RBI season last year, Ozuna hasn’t slowed down.
Home runs: Gunnar Henderson, Orioles / Mike Trout, Angels — 10
Ozuna is also tied for second, his nine homers matching those of the Red Sox’s Tyler O’Neill. Remember last year when O’Neill was benched in St. Louis for “unacceptable” baserunning? Regardless, the Cardinals’ 21 home runs this year rank last in baseball.
ERA: Shota Imanaga, Cubs – 0.78
Let’s not forget Imanaga, whose seven scoreless innings last night tied him with Fernando Valenzuela (1981) for lowest ERA after his first six career starts. By comparison, second-place Ranger Suárez seems almost pedestrian with his 1.32 rating, leading a strong Phillies rotation.
Strikeouts: Tyler Glasnow, Dodgers – 53
Second place: Zack Wheeler of the Phillies, at 52 years old. Did we mention their rotation is having a great year?
WAR*: Paris – 2.8
Henderson was the second most valuable player in baseball this year, with 2.2 fWAR to lead the Orioles to the top of the AL East.
(*We used the FanGraphs version of WAR, and the totals correspond to Tuesday night’s games.)
Update on the sequence without removal
Steven Kwan went 3 for 5 in last night’s 3-2 win over Houston, with no strikeouts! Its sequence is now 62 appearance of plaques. Kwan also gave the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning, then made this catch to start a game-ending double play:
Handshakes and High Fives
Amid injuries, trades and roster shuffling, the Red Sox have been at the center of a baseball hurricane this year. They have also won eight of their last 11 games.
Suspensions were issued for Tuesday’s Brewers/Rays brawl.
Good news for Minnesota: Their winning streak has reached 10 games. Bad news: Byron Buxton left Wednesday’s game with an apparent knee injury.
Grant Brisbee compares the odds of poker hands to the odds of special plays in baseball. The whole thing made my head hurt, but when he explained the odds of two shuffled decks being in the same order, I had to go for a walk. To agree, please don’t ever do this again.
Let’s talk about Sonny Gray’s fastball. No, the other one. No the other another. No… you know what – it also has multiple sliders.
After another loss to the Marlins, the Rockies trailed in all 29 games.
Walker Buehler is expected to return to the Dodgers after recovering from Tommy John on Monday.
The Arizona beekeeper has his own baseball card.
You can buy tickets for every MLB game here.
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(Top photo of Kyle Farmer interviewed by Bally Sports North: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)