Friday, May 03, 2013
Corcoran: Harper, Buchholz are early headliners as Awards Watch returns
(sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
You know it’s early in the awards season when…
Read More...Most Valuable Player: National League
3. Carlos Gomez, CF, Brewers: Season Stats: .367/.418/.644, 5 HR, 10 RBI, 4 SB
Prior to 2012, Gomez’s career-high in home runs was eight, and his .250/.305/.463 line last year represented career-highs in all three categories, so he is set up for a larger fall than most here. Still, one has to recognize how valuable he has been so far this season. After all, the reason Gomez didn’t wash out of the majors ...
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1 2 3 >Well, not exactly. Otherwise ABC would be chumps to pay for the Oscars, and news network anchormen would be of no commercial worth. Even so, what is Chass going on about? The BBWAA helps MLB Network, MLB Network helps the BBWAA, the equation's not that hard. And it's not a quo that Chass hasn't quidded. Should the baseball players have charged Chass $20 apiece for the initial publishing rights to their after-game quotes?
What exactly does the BBWAA have to sell other than Jack O'Connell speaking at a podium for a minute? All that other stuff MLB Network gets for free anyway.
Yeah, but the BBWAA hasn't established that announcement itself as an event that's worth much in the way of paying. The BBWAA announcement itself is a lot closer to me standing at an intersection an announcing Things Dan Likes than it is to the Oscars or the news.
I'm saying that the creation of an hourlong awards "show" with a 10-second payoff and the subsidiary buffing of the BBWAA's role is ample payment for the exclusive rights to the announcement. Especially considering those rights diminish with incredible speed as soon as they emerge from Jack O'Connell's mouth.
That doesn't mean MLB Network gets nothing because the news is nearly worthless; they get a kind of imprimatur and a few hours of programming that aren't about the top 9 foul poles in the game. But if the MVP announcement is intrinsically valuable, ESPN will make a play to "steal" it away from MLB Network soon enough.
They could offer access to the voters for money. How many statsy types wouldn't pay twenty bucks to throw a pie at one MVP voter?
If BBWAA gives ESPN the names of the winners first then MLB loses a ton of value in packaging and presenting the awards. If BBWAA simply doesn't play ball and says that they'll announce the winners at some point between X and Y to all outlets that destroys the value to MLB. If BBWAA simply says that they themselves will announce the winners via twitter, facebook, and the internet that will destroy the value to MLB. If BBWAA creates their own presentation that destroys the value to MLB. MLB is better off simply coming to an agreement with BBWAA in which BBWAA keeps on announcing the winners in a standardized format and at a time favorable to presentations and BBWAA would be foolish to simply give it away.
If multiple sports channels start bidding to get the announcement, it will have monetary value. If not, follow the no money.
Who is going to cover its news announcement if the BBWAA starts jerking around with the timing? The BBWAA, individually and collectively, gets a major image boost from the Awards and HoF voting, but they are dependent on MLB, more now than ever, for that status. They aren't gong to be making any demands.
Other than having Jack O'Connell in the studio, definitely not the highlight of the show, the MLB Network presentation wasn't any different than what ESPN could have done if they chose to schedule a BBTN awards show at the same time.
Um, you do know what BBWAA stands for and who the members of that organization do for a living, right?
MLB is trying to monetize the awards, are you guys seriously suggesting that MLB play hardball with BBWAA over this? What does MLB gain by saying "bugger off" to BBWAA? What does it cost them to give BBWAA something in return? It costs them nothing since all of this is additional revenue that did not exist previously.
But baseball writers aren't employees of the BBWAA. Nobody's going to risk their livelihoods for the BBWAA. Writing is big, but the BBWAA is not - the BBWAA can't even afford $100 to get a logo that doesn't look like they ripped it off from a 1980s PC game.
MLB can create those awards now, but it won't be THE MVP, and thus won't have the same cachet.
The MVP belongs to the BBWAA. It's their award. The others were created by MVP with voting turned over to the BBWAA. I don't know if the league could simply reclaim those awards (other than the MVP) and turn over the voting to another body if the BBWAA decided to play hardball on this or other matters.
The BBWAA has a product of some value, though MLB is in a much better position to monetize it than the BBWAA (or pretty much anyone else, including ESPN). I'd say if MLB wanted to throw a small portion of the proceeds toward some BBWAA-directed charity or foundation for the rights to broadcast the awards, it would make a reasonable solution. But if they don't, I doubt the BBWAA would put up a fight.
Yup, and that's why the BBWAA didn't get money for this - there's no reason to pay the BBWAA any more than a next-to-nothing courtesy fee at this time. Jack O'Connell didn't give away hundreds of thousands of the BBWAA's money, he just didn't get it. It's not O'Connell's fault that Chass is unaware how currency works.
(Sorry to flip my handle back and forth, but I'm not used to having a second one and I sometimes forget and log in with old one)
I'm not sure what this has to do with what I said or what Yankee Clapper said. YC is acting like if MLB doesn't do an awards show or if BBWAA doesn't have some rigid timed announcement this information won't get out. Which is of course silly. BBWAA is full of people who are in the business of relaying information to the masses and furthermore since BBWAA currently makes no money off of the announcement they have no incentive to release the information in a manner that is convenient to anyone but themselves.
The MLB Network could get the same rating without Jack O'Connell in their studio. The BBWAA isn't producing any TV content - this isn't the Oscars or Emmys
BBWAA creates the content by voting and releasing that information. That they do it now in a manner agreeable to MLB does not mean it will always be that way. Why be Scrooge on this when a small fee or service will probably guarantee that this product is available to MLB in a way conducive to their own needs? Why be so shortsighted? It gains MLB nothing to be so.
Hell, even Price-Waterhouse-Cooper get something for tabulating all the Oscar ballots.
Spoken like Donald Trump. Screw'em till they have the power to screw me!
Or Jack O'Connell could swallow the sealed envelope live on-air, put a cork in his butt, and refuse to take it out until MLB Network executives pony up.
They don't need to create a new one, though. They can simply announce BBWAA's winner, with or without the BBWAA's approval, and there's absolutely nothing the BBWAA can do about it.
The MVP belongs to the BBWAA. It's their award. The others were created by MVP with voting turned over to the BBWAA. I don't know if the league could simply reclaim those awards (other than the MVP) and turn over the voting to another body if the BBWAA decided to play hardball on this or other matters.
It's their award to give out. But that's where the BBWAA power over their own award starts and ends. If the BBWAA wants to organize an awards show that actually generates revenues that they have control over, they'd have to invest millions and millions of dollars in putting one on. They don't have that kind of revenue to do that.
The BBWAA has a product of some value, though MLB is in a much better position to monetize it than the BBWAA (or pretty much anyone else, including ESPN). I'd say if MLB wanted to throw a small portion of the proceeds toward some BBWAA-directed charity or foundation for the rights to broadcast the awards, it would make a reasonable solution. But if they don't, I doubt the BBWAA would put up a fight.
Chass calculated what he believes to be 100% of their revenue from commercials. Which is a lot more than a token payment for the 5% or so of the award show consisted of BBWAA.
But a show at 1 in the afternoon isn't worth nearly as much as a show at 8 in the evening.
Millions? Try next to no money. What BBWAA would need is the players. If they could get 10 or so leading contenders to come to an awards show or take part in the production somehow then BBWAA would get sponsors and television coverage.
Even without players it wouldn't cost millions and BBWAA probably could still sell the television rights to the award show. Tons of organizations throw award ceremonies and parties. They do not cost millions of dollars to produce. If BBWAA wanted to host an awards dinner it would probably cost them less than 50,000 dollars to do it but that is just a guess because I have no idea how many people they would plan for.
True, but MLB has more leverage to make things more unpleasant for the BBWAA than the other way around. Writers as a *group* have leverage, but not in the context of working together in the guise of the BBWAA. This isn't the AARP or the NRA, the BBWAA has very little clout - and they've made it even worse by strictly guarding membership to the degree that a coordinated strike by the BBWAA would probably be less successful than the Hostess strike.
Yes, they could. So let's see them do it.
There is something the BBWAA can do. Announce the awards at a time that isn't convenient to MLB (in terms of monetizing the award). It wouldn't generate money for the BBWAA, but it could cost MLB money. So yes, they do have some power there Dan.
I wish I had pointed out that MLB was in a much better position to monetize the award announcement than anyone else, including the BBWAA. Oh, that's right, I did.
One doesn't have to agree with Murray Chass to disagree with you. (-:
Why did CBS pay for the right to televise it? Why did ABC and NBC eventually pay for it as well and why does ESPN currently own the rights to televise it?
If BBWAA awards have no monetary value for them and can be used with or without BBWAA's consent then why did broadcast companies feel the need the need to buy the rights to televising the Heisman Trophy presentation?
No, it does not cost millions of dollars to produce an awards show, it costs millions of dollars to produce an awards show that anyone gives a #### about to the extent that someone will pony up cash for. Cable networks aren't paying significant cash amounts to televise the award ceremonies and parties of those organizations.
I think you're overestimating how big the BBWAA is. SABR has more than 10 times the members and higher dues.
Yeah, MLB is going to wage war on members of the media. Right.
Because there's an established pattern of people actually wanting to see the Heisman Trophy presentation? Do you think these award presentations all started off getting rights fees? Do you think the NFL not getting paid for draft coverage until the mid-80s was because they only started liking money then?
Where exactly is the BBWAA going to get the dough to put on something as produced as any of these?
How much money does the press get for the Heisman Trophy telecast?
No, they'd be waging war on an association of a small subset of the media, not the media itself. And a great many of that small subset require MLB cooperation in order to be employed. No beat writer's going to risk his livelihood on an issue which to them personally, is less important in their daily lives than the dress code, another issue that the BBWAA clearly had zero leverage over MLB on.
I didn't get a dime when I was a voter (nor should I have), but the Downtown Athletic Club must get something. It's their award.
And then, after MLB gets pissed off and pulls locker room access for every member of the BBWAA, what do they do?
Don't get into a kicking contest with a man with an iron leg.
I think you're overestimating how big the BBWAA is. SABR has more than 10 times the members and higher dues.
And yet companies have paid for the right to televise the Heisman Trophy presentation despite the fact that it doesn't cost millions of dollars to have that award ceremony.
Because there's an established pattern of people actually wanting to see the Heisman Trophy presentation? Do you think these award presentations all started off getting rights fees? Do you think the NFL not getting paid for draft coverage until the mid-80s was because they only started liking money then?
They started paying for the right to televise the show in 1977. Decades after the DAC had started the award and they've been getting money ever since. The MVP is not some new fangled award. Everybody knows it has value and that a production can be made around it that will generate revenue. Are you seriously suggesting that MLB should spend years building up media value in an award they have no control over and then when it actually has some real value pay for it? How can you not see that as being shortsighted? They can either spend a penny today or spend 10 dollars tomorrow. Why wouldn't you spend the penny today?
Exactly. If MLB makes the MVP voting an issue BBWAA can and will drop it. MLB gets egg on their face, destroys a brand that had monetary value for them, and forces them to rebuild that value if they wish to continue with the award. Good luck getting anyone to take MLB's awards seriously without the backing of the hundreds of writers they just pissed off.
And they would do this why? Why would MLB wage war with members of the media? What do they gain by it? They are going to wage war over the MVP? Why? The MVP award probably generates something less 1 million dollars directly for MLB and for that they are going to go nuclear? Geez guys, let's get a grip on things.
At no point was I arguing what BBWAA should do (and, in fact, speculated that they wouldn't be likely to get into a fight over this). The argument was whether the awards announcement had value, which it quite clearly does, and whether the BBWAA could do something, which quite clearly they can.
Whether the BBWAA can (or should try to) leverage that value into something is no doubt an interesting direction for the conversation to take, but its not the original point Dan made that I was refuting.
They demonstrate who the boss is in that particular relationship.
Of course, they'd never need to actually do it, because the MLBPA understands that MLB can hurt them a lot more than they can hurt MLB.
The MVP as an award event is is a new-fangled event. The DAC had done a fancy awards presentation for decades prior to 1977.
They could do a production around it that will generate revenue, but that would be done on the side of the network, it's not something that the BBWAA's participation would add much in the way of value to.
If the BBWAA could have gotten anything from MLB Network, don't you think they would have? I'm sure O'Connell would prefer not to have to scramble on a nothing budget.
LOL, just LOL.The MLB isn't going to cut off their nose to avoid some rinky dink payment for a rinky dink show.
To answer your question, the BBWAA will sit back as nearly every sportswriter boycotts MLB games, and writes horrible things about the MLB, for less than a week the MLB begs for forgiveness and fires the idiot who endangered millions of dollers in free daily press coverage of their events over a rinky dinky payment for a rinky dink show.
And why would that have positive value? Are you guys all going Donald Trump's School of Business?
It's not the media, it's a small subset of the media. And MLB has already gone to war with the BBWAA over issue, most recently over open-toed shoes - the wars don't ever last long because MLB has all the leverage. They're going to be even *more* protective of the programming of their big expensive startup network. The BBWAA's kind of shot themselves in the foot by not functioning as an association for baseball media professionals on a general level.
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