The Dodgers' New TV Deal Is Insane And Other MLBullets

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and subsequent weekend. Back to reality ...

• Remember when the Dodgers' new owners paid over $2 billion for the team, and started throwing money around like it was water? Remember when the explanation was a somewhat vague "well, they're going to be getting a huge new TV deal, so they can afford it"? Well ... they're going to be getting a huge new TV deal, so they can afford. A ridiculously huge new TV deal, according to the L.A. Times: "The Dodgers' deal, proposed for 25 years, would average $240 million per year at $6 billion, or $280 million per year at $7 billion." The deal, annually, is worth almost 10 times the average annual value of their current deal. In other words: holy crap. Imagine how much a team with more than $400 million annually in revenue could spend on, for example, payroll. Yankees West, indeed.
• This week in Marlins ridiculous miscellany: (1) Mark Buehrle, who was unceremoniously dumped on the Blue Jays after just one year with the Marlins, says his former team lied to him on multiple occasions: "Throughout the recruiting process, the Marlins made repeated assurances about their long-term commitment to Mark and his family and their long-term commitment to building a winning tradition of Marlins baseball in the new stadium," Buehrle said through a statement by his agent, Jeff Berry; (2) 87% of Marlins fans feel "furious and betrayed" by ownership (to which my reaction is a surprised, "they still have enough fans for 87% to be a plausible percentage?"); (3) Just 6% of South Florida residents who were polled on a variety of subjects had a "favorable" opinion of Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.
• Jerry Crasnick offers a thoughtful take on MLBPA Director Michael Weiner, who is fighting brain cancer.
• Free agent Brandon McCarthy is expected to start throwing for teams at some point in December, which is when his market could pick up. You wonder if other pitchers in the middle tier of the starting pitcher market are waiting on McCarthy - or, more accurately, if teams in on McCarthy are waiting on him to make a decision before moving on to other options.
• The Miami Herald contemplates the implications of the "fiscal cliff" and state tax rates on the free agent market.
• The Kansas City Royals have been one of the most active teams already this offseason, and are poised to be even more active, indicating that they're willing to move a top prospect or two to pick up another arm. But is it all worth it? Can the Royals actually be competitive in 2013?
• Beyond the Boxscore argues that we should stop using K/BB ratio as one of our primary pitching statistics. Instead, BTB finds K% and BB% to be more effective stats, and they're probably right.

Brett Taylor is the Lead Writer at Bleacher Nation, and a Contributor here at Bleed Cubbie Blue.