The Baseball Thread

Owners approve expanded replay

Baseball's replay age has finally dawned, thanks to Thursday's unanimous approval by owners
of what commissioner Bud Selig called a "historic" expansion of replay to correct missed calls.

The new system, which will go into effect this season, will give managers most of the power to
trigger reviews, by providing them with one challenge per game, along with a second potential
challenge if their first is upheld.

Only after a manager has used up all of his challenges, and only from the seventh inning on,
would umpires be authorized to initiate a review on their own.

Dodgers' $235M payroll tops MLB

NEW YORK -- Zack Greinke and the Los Angeles Dodgers have knocked Alex Rodriguez
and the New York Yankees off baseball's payroll perch, part of an offseason spending
spree that has the average salary approaching $4 million for the first time.

The Dodgers are ending the Yankees' 15-year streak as baseball's biggest spenders and
as of Tuesday had a projected payroll of $235 million, according to study of all major
league contracts by The Associated Press.

New York, which last failed to top the payroll rankings in 1998, was a distant second
at $204 million. After that, it was another huge gap to Philadelphia at $180 million,
followed by Boston at $163 million and Detroit at $162 million.

Houston is last at $45 million, up from $27 million at the start of last year, and Miami
at $48 million remains 29th.

Some large-market teams are among the smaller spenders, with the New York Mets and
Chicago Cubs projected at $89 million, ranked 22nd and 23rd.

Tigers, Miguel Cabrera reach (Mega-$chmega) deal

Two-time American League MVP Miguel Cabrera has agreed to terms with the Detroit Tigers
on a new 10-year contract that will pay him $292 million, a baseball source said.

The new contract, which covers the two years remaining on Cabrera's current deal and eight
additional years, is expected to become official later this week, the source said.

According to CBSSports, which earlier reported Detroit and Cabrera were closing in on an
agreement, the new deal also includes two additional vesting options worth $30 million
apiece for years 11 and 12 that could bring the total of the deal to $352 million.

MLB ups length of drug-use bans

Baseball players suspended during the season for a performance-enhancing drug violation
will not be eligible for that year's postseason under changes to the sport's drug agreement
announced Friday.

In the most significant toughening to the drug rules in eight years, Major League Baseball
and the Major League Baseball Players Association said the penalty will increase from
50 games to 80 for a first testing violation and from 100 games to a season-long 162 for
a second. A third violation remains a lifetime ban.

Baseball started testing with penalties in 2004, established a 10-day suspension for a first
testing violation in 2005 and increased the discipline to 50 games in 2006.

While there were two-to-four major league suspensions annually from 2008 to '11, the
number increased to 12 in 2012, and 14 players were penalized following last year's
investigation of the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic. Among them were All-Stars Jhonny
Peralta and Nelson Cruz, former NL MVP Ryan Braun and three-time AL MVP Alex
Rodriguez, who is suspended for the entire 2014 season.

"Our hope here is that the adjustments that we've made do inevitably get that number to
zero," said new union head Tony Clark, a former All-Star himself. "In the event that that
doesn't happen, for whatever reason, we'll re-evaluate and move forward from there. But
as I sit here, I am hopeful that players make the right decisions that are best for them, for
their careers and for the integrity of the game."

Peralta and Cruz returned from their suspensions in time to participate in the playoffs,
which angered some of their colleagues. Clark said the union membership wanted to make
sure "a player is not coming back and affecting a change in the postseason as a result of the
decision that particular player made earlier in the year."

In addition to the postseason ban, players who serve PED suspensions will not be eligible for
automatic postseason money shares but may be given cash awards at the discretion of their
teammates.

A player serving a season-long suspension will lose all his pay. Under the previous rules,
Rodriguez gets 21-183rds of his salary this year, or $2,868,852.

Chicago Cubs wear two different uniforms in same game

Oh Cubs, please never change.

Baseball's perennial punching bag was at it again Thursday, coming up with yet another folly
that is very much amusing to the rest of us.

In their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, players were spotted wearing different uniforms.

Perhaps they got mixed up because both uniforms are gray. Maybe they made a mistake due
to playing a 16-inning game the night before that lasted a ridiculous 5:55.

Whatever the reason, we're just glad it happened.