Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 3/6/19

MLB Trade Rumors | Jeff Todd: MLB and the MLBPA are about to agree to a host of new rule changes and a possible extension to the CBA, which is unprecedented in baseball labor history. The league is about to approve three-batter minimums, an expanded roster, small September rosters, and mound visit changes, while also tabling larger economic changes and the pitch clock until later.

FanGraphs | Craig Edwards: On to another issue with the sport: tanking. Well, not necessarily tanking per se, but the general incentive right now is to avoid building a middling team. One way to address this is by adjusting revenue sharing based on wins, so teams are penalized if they don’t actually improve their team with the sharing dollars, something the union has recently alleged in a grievance. While the league could force them to spend the money (I agree with this one), a team like the Athletics, Brewers, or Rays would get more money for their wins in the smaller market than the Orioles, who would get just 1% of the payout.

The Ringer | Zach Kram: The Yankees may have described themselves as a “fully operational death star,” but they aren’t spending like it. They are spending the lowest percentage of their revenue on payroll than any other team besides the White Sox, and they spent more nominally on payroll in 2005 than 2018. They are a very good club, of course, but not Evil Empire-level good.