Photo courtesy of Andrew Lang for TalkNats
Baseball free agency allows players to choose their future employers much like the private sector. While the grass may not be greener on the other side, sometimes it is, and also the avenue to higher income. Corporations that covet top talent have used creative methods to retain their superstars by offering vesting stock options, upward mobility, trips, homes, and other perks. Loyalties do go both ways. The Lerners wanted to make Ian Desmond a “Nat for life” like they did with Ryan Zimmerman, and have now done with the oft-injured World Series MVP, Stephen Strasburg. But there is a history of the Nats not being proactive early in pre-arbitration to sign players.
As Mike Rizzo has said numerous times, “It takes two to tango.” Yes, both sides have to agree to dance. Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper both departed after they received reported contract offers of $210 million and $300 million respectively from the Nats. What have we learned about the players who have stayed and the players who have left? Continue reading
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.