Ross Stripling is keeping busy

This morning’s links are very heavy on Ross Stripling and finances, and not just because he got $1.5 million of his $2.1 million salary for 2020 as a signing bonus.

That turned out much more advantageous than expected, with only $600,000 subject to whatever cuts the owners and players eventually agree to. The original benefits included the time value of money (getting more of it up front is always better), and that his signing bonus is taxable where Stripling lives in Texas, where there is no state income tax.

Stripling talked to Ronald Blum of the Associated Press about his financial background, which included getting a stockbroker’s license while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery in 2014. Stripling works during the offseason for B. Riley Wealth Management. Blum asked about Stripling’s job interview:

“He didn’t know if his arm was going to recover or not, so he started to look at backup plans in case he wasn’t able to pitch,” Matthew Houston recalled. “When he came in for the interview, he had a folder about an inch thick of handwritten stock reports and we sat down with him with no intention of hiring anybody. And before we knew it, we were: `We’ve got to have this kid. He knows what he’s talking about.’”

Stripling this week was also a guest on the Inside the Green Room podcast, hosted by Lakers guard Danny Green. They touched on a variety of topics, including when baseball might come back and the various scenarios of a potential MLB season.

Green also asked for financial advice, which Stripling obliged in a general sense.

“We’re at zero-percent interest rates, which historically means the bond markets will struggle and stocks will thrive,” Stripling told Green. “I think that’s the place to be right now. If anything this quarantine has shown how reliant we are on e-commerce, streaming services, and things in the cloud.”

Links

• MLB.com identified the most hyped right-handed pitching prospects of the last 20 years, and their Dodgers’ choice was Edwin Jackson, their sixth-round pick in 2001. Jackson, still active, has played for a record 14 major league teams.
• Craig Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus critiqued the owners’ financial proposal to players: “It’s an interesting tactic from the league, to promote the idea that the wealthiest should sacrifice to take care of the less wealthy, it’s just a wonder they haven’t applied it themselves.”
• Among the classic Dodgers games available to watch today: Fernando Valenzuela’s no-hitter on MLB.com and Dodgers.com at 9 a.m. PT, and Game 1 of the 1988 World Series on MLB Network at both 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. PT on MLB Network, on Kirk Gibson’s 63rd birthday.
• MLB committed league-wide to pay minor league players $400 per week through May 31, a date that is fast approaching. After that, it’s up to teams to make their choice. After the A’s choice Tuesday to stop paying their minor leaguers, Advocates for Minor Leaguers issued a statement on Wednesday: “As we watch MLB organizations slowly roll out their decisions on whether or not they will continue MiLB player stipends, we are reminded why minor leaguers so badly need a seat at the bargaining table. We will continue to fight for representation until they are no longer treated as second-class citizens. To the remaining teams: Support your minor leaguers. Extend the stipends.”