Payroll-roster 2013

[gp956]

Thank you for that reminder, and the COTS reference. The key point was made by Marco, who said that for calculation of the luxury tax, bonuses should be amortized over the length of the contract. Not that we are near the threshhold. You, tzill, and Marco all are correct in thinking this way.

However, for purposes of management strategery and hot stove discussion, as long as we are not near the lux tax limit, I would argue that we look at salary issues as management does, and likely that is on a cash basis (surely there is a set of tax books, but that is not how management decisions are made, that is merely how taxes are filed). The owners are not paying 1/4 of AP's bonus in 2016 - they've already stroked him a check, paid in large part I'm sure from revenue collected because of our WS run. Same with Scoot's bonus, and Cain's, and Affeldt's, and everyone's. Just saying.

I'd say the key point in our previous discussion is that you're free to account for capital costs any way you want to, so long as you consistently apply whatever method you choose. So choosing a cash basis is fine, and is consistent with how the Giants do it, though I'm not sure what mirroring the Giants method buys you as far as hot stove discussions go.

 

[Mays-Fan]

I'd say the key point in our previous discussion is that you're free to account for capital costs any way you want to, so long as you consistently apply whatever method you choose. So choosing a cash basis is fine, and is consistent with how the Giants do it, though I'm not sure what mirroring the Giants method buys you as far as hot stove discussions go.

Here you are applying a legal filter. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm trying to look at it as Sabes and Neukom would. As far as hot stove discussions, for example, if you look at tzill's 2013 budget, his is significantly higher than mine because of the amortized bonuses included. I would posit that since that money is already paid in prior years, we have more money to spend on another player now, and that might make a big difference.

Of course, trumping all of the this is the fact that none of us knows what the real budget is, so this all becomes moot.

But that is what the offseason is all about. 8^)

 

[gp956]

Here you are applying a legal filter. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm trying to look at it as Sabes and Neukom would. As far as hot stove discussions, for example, if you look at tzill's 2013 budget, his is significantly higher than mine because of the amortized bonuses included. I would posit that since that money is already paid in prior years, we have more money to spend on another player now, and that might make a big difference.

Of course, trumping all of the this is the fact that none of us knows what the real budget is, so this all becomes moot.

But that is what the offseason is all about. 8^)

I'm not sure what "applying a legal filter" means, although, for some reason, I feel vaguely insulted.

Nevertheless, the bottom line for me, with our current lack of visibility into the Giants operations, trying to get within 10% of the actual budget is pure guesswork. But give it another 5 years or so, when the new TV revenue becomes fully realized in player salaries, and I think we can do a better job of projecting budgets.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Thank you for that reminder, and the COTS reference. The key point was made by Marco, who said that for calculation of the luxury tax, bonuses should be amortized over the length of the contract. Not that we are near the threshhold. You, tzill, and Marco all are correct in thinking this way.

However, for purposes of management strategery and hot stove discussion, as long as we are not near the lux tax limit, I would argue that we look at salary issues as management does, and likely that is on a cash basis (surely there is a set of tax books, but that is not how management decisions are made, that is merely how taxes are filed). The owners are not paying 1/4 of AP's bonus in 2016 - they've already stroked him a check, paid in large part I'm sure from revenue collected because of our WS run. Same with Scoot's bonus, and Cain's, and Affeldt's, and everyone's. Just saying.

I hope I didn't give the impression in that post that bonuses should be calculated any given way - I just wanted to impart the fact that bonuses are spread out across all guaranteed years when MLB calculates the luxury tax (oops, I mean "the competitive balance" tax).

 

[tzill]

Pence projects to $13.8MM if he goes to arb:

Arbitration Breakdown: Hunter Pence: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com