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Indians News
It's nice to talk about actual baseball news for a change. And we have videos!
Bauer's offseason work paying early dividends | indians.com
Trevor Bauer didn't just build a drone in the offseason - he learned some pitches as well. He talks about using technology (high-speed video, looping videos and GIFs) to see how other pitchers are throwing:
Mickey Callaway met with Bauer this winter to see how he was doing, and checked in with Trevor several other times. It's hard to know whether this work will translate into results this spring and summer, but it sounds like both pitcher and pitching coach has done all that they could do.
Bourn builds strength, speed with spring legend Burrell | indians.com
Another player who work especially hard this off-season to improve his performance was Michael Bourn. Dogged by hamstring problems a year ago, he trained with track coach Leroy Burrell to strengthen his legs for the grind that it is the regular season.
Kluber to keep to regular Spring Training routine | indians.com
No inning restrictions will be placed on Corey Kluber, but he will pitch in a couple lower-pressure situations. Terry Francona gives his rationale for this:
Yesterday several pitchers threw their first bullpen sessions, including the aforementioned Kluber.
MLB News
Diamondbacks Billion Dollar TV Deal and the Bubble that Refuses to Pop | FanGraphs Baseball
A nice summation of the reason why teams are getting massive local TV deals. It has to do with the teams providing live sports, which is one of the few programs that people actually watch live, cable and satellite companies that have to provide the live sports (otherwise people will pull the plug) and companies who flock to advertise on live sports, knowing that people will actually watch their ads. That has resulted in teams getting bigger and bigger TV deals, the TV networks charging the cable/satellite companies more, and the cable/satellite companies then charging consumers more. As Craig Edwards notes, some providers have balked at the prices, leaving customers unable to watch their local team.
At some point the bubble will burst, whether because cable/satellite provides refuse to pay more, whether consumers who don't watch sports start to pull the plug, or whether a new platform disrupts the status quo. And because sports teams now have so much of their revenue coming from these TV deals, any kind of disruption would have major financial effects on professional sports as a whole.