Hot Stove League 2014-15

Let's not waste any time:

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/11786485/joe-maddon-expected-become-chicago-cubs-manager

red sox supposedly hot for recent world series winner 'the panda'

Sandoval is gonna get paid a shitload - either by the Giants or someone else.

yankees.

Toronto claimed Justin Smoak

a spurious claim

Dan Johnson left a pretty big hole when he left.

I'm not really sure why the sox want panda tbqh

...maybe acquire him with free cap space, then trade him and some prospects for LE STANTON??!!

(obligatory Red Sox foolish hope for a Stanton trade)

aussie legend liam hendriks sent back to toronto by the royals -- kinda wonder if that was agreed upon back in july

nats pick up $9m option on spenard dan, decline options on adam laroche and rafael soriano

As free agency nears, Amaro unveils rebuilding plan done 'The Phillies Way'

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20141031_GM_Amaro_unveils__quot_Phillies_Way_quot__handbook.html

at least he's not talking about 'phillies nation'

"way" is 1,000x worse than "nation" imo

amaro and hinkie are clearly in the same room, using the same cocaine

I'm not really sure why the sox want panda tbqh

...maybe acquire him with free cap space, then trade him and some prospects for LE STANTON??!!

(obligatory Red Sox foolish hope for a Stanton trade)

― and also pointsman, octopi don't bark (slothroprhymes), Thursday, October 30, 2014 8:22 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

because they don't have a viable third baseman

i mean it certainly isnt will middLOLbrooks. cecchini looked pretty good during september tho, on both ends

^^^thought that was gonna be a morbs line

sox re-signed uehara for two years

I was thinking about making an A2A joke, not going to lie.

damnit me, classic PHRASING fuckup

So no chance of Panda staying? The Giants have pretty deep pockets.

From the philly.com article about the Amaro way:

Amaro identified Cody Asche, Maikel Franco, Darin Ruf, Ben Revere, and Domonic Brown as players to build around.

2014 domonic brown had negative the WAR 2013 domonic brown accrued

one good month is all you need apparently

defensive awards flyin' already, i can't believe Mr Awards thread hasn't leapt on em

i thought the phillies were already trying to get rid of domonic

hey morbs can you please leave the awards talk out of the hot stove thread thanks

i love darin ruf but lol he accrued 0.3 war in his 12-game debut in 2012, is dead even in 125 games since, and will be 29 next july

hey Revere got a 3.0 WAR season!

2 seasons ago.

with the Twins.

Ranking the free agents

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/10/30/7088233/2014-2015-mlb-free-agent-power-ranking

So no chance of Panda staying? The Giants have pretty deep pockets.

They're already on the hook for $127 million next year with 5 FAs and unlikely to go into luxury tax territory.

gabe kapler just publicly tweeted something meant to be a direct message (and instantly deleted, but not fast enough) -- apparently he's joining the dodgers front office

also the yankees hired eric chavez as a scout

DON KELLY OUTRIGHTED

was hoping kapler would catch on as an analyst somewhere but i guess FO jobs are more coveted

renteria officially canned

yankees will reportedly extend a qualifying offer to david robertson on monday

thus a (quite good!) reliever who posted 1.2 war in 2014 will make at least $15.3m next year

following that logic, russell martin should get $50m

I got a question about WAR towards team win performance. Looking at Pirates according to Baseball Reference they have a total of 30.1 WAR, should this number be considered that the club would end up 30 over .500 (or about 96 wins)?

no, because a team full of pure replacement level players would not be a .500 level team. i forget what the baseline figure is.

no, the basis for replacement level is somewhere around 42-47 wins for fWAR at least, not sure where it is for rWAR but their replacement level is different i think

according to wikipedia:

a team of replacement-level players is expected to have a .320 winning percentage, or 52 wins in a 162 game season.

i know every year FG does their WAR predictions everyone always tries to add up the totals and add it onto a set figure and every year podhorzer or whoever does it yells at them cause that's not how it works

rockies pick up option for latroy hawkins' age-42 season

The Rockies Way

nick markakis and billy butler both got club options declined, FAs

Adam Lind (Jays) for Estrada (Brewers).

http://www.tsn.ca/blue-jays-trade-1b-dh-lind-to-brewers-for-rhp-estrada-1.122276

always disappointed that adam lind isn't jose's son

not sure what to think of the deal.

lind is a good addition for any team that can properly use him in a platoon (164 wRC+ vs righties in 2014, -36 vs lefties, and a 150 wRC+ against righties in 2013). he probably sucks as a fielder though.

Estrada was almost useless tho.

always disappointed that marco estrada isn't erik's son

Paul Molitor, new Twins manager

!

lind gets hurt all the time also

The Jays' biggest problems last year were pitching depth and too many guys getting hurt, so the Lind deal helps them on both counts.

Toronto's offering $15 million to Cabrera. That's the kind of case where I'm completely detached from the "realities of the marketplace." Melky Cabrera seems eminently replaceable to me, but maybe $15 million isn't especially noteworthy anymore, I don't know.

A friend writes:

Would prefer to see MLB consider something like reorganizing each league’s post-season carnival into a three-level playoff where the team with the best regular-season record gets a double bye. (Three division winners and two WC teams seeded as in the current system: Team 5 plays Team 2 and Team 4 plays Team 3 in best-of-three series; winners play each other in a best-of-five; winner plays Team 1 in a best-of-seven LCS.) This would produce the same number of games (i.e. filthy lucre) as the current set-up and WC teams could still get hot and run the table. But the best team in each league would get a substantially bigger advantage for prevailing in the April-September marathon. No doubt some of them would end up on the wrong side of the rest vs. rust dilemma. But that’s okay. And the post-season reorganization could be made even more elegant by – but not depend on -- returning to a balanced regular-season schedule and reducing/eliminating interleague games. So the Lords of Baseball wouldn’t have to repudiate Seligism wholesale in order to re-distinguish the structure of their postseason from the NBA’s.

What do you guys think?

Team 5 plays Team 2 and Team 4 plays Team 3 in best-of-three series

getting the second best record in the league (team 2, right?) and getting rewarded with a 3-game series (a little less of a coinflip than a single-game wildcard, but still essentially a coinflip) doesn't seem right

Hmm yes

- dislike team 1 getting two weeks off. 'this aint football; we do this every day'
- raises the stakes for earning best record but vastly diminishes the worth of winning yr division, so you get one extra interesting race at the expense of losing two
- i think a better way of rewarding team 1 would be to let it play all of its series vs the wild card-winner at home (but i don't really like that either)

Be better if there were two divisions again. Two division winners, four wild cards. Winners get bye, wild cards play best of three. But it reduces # of games and anything more than a three game series means long layoff for division winner...

If we are talking about how to do major changes, this is my idea: i'd expand in two cities (Montreal! and another one, like Portland?) and go back to 4 divisions of 8, scrap the WC.

2 leagues, 15 teams each, winners go to the world series

I don't know, having no playoffs can also favor rich dynasties, not to say that it hasn't happened in the recent past (I'd argue the Giants are just a playoff dynasty, regular season results suggest so) but what I want to make sure we steer clear from the English Premier League's culture in which only the 5 richest club end up with a shot at the title and in the end Manchester United always win, same for Spain and France in the coming years. Upsets are cool, real cool, and they usually happen in the DLS and CLS.

Also I'm not sure, and this is a good debate to have, that the Angels were better than the Royals and Orioles.

i wasn't being serious or anything

just important to remember that baseball now isn't what baseball used to be before the LCS, and i think every suggestion made here is hearkening back to that environment, back when teams could win a hundred games and miss out on the playoffs etc. giving the teams with the best record in the league that much of an advantage is definitely a throwback to that. much as i hate selig i do think the playoff structure now is about as good as it can be given the modern american sports environment. it's still harder to get into the MLB playoffs than in NFL/NBA/NHL.

but it's attractive thinking about those old days when winning the pennant meant getting the most wins in your league and that really meant something, and the world series meant those teams sort of carried their respective leagues on their backs. i envy my dad for still being in his mindset where he'll always root for the AL because he's an AL fan, and the playoff structure probably had more to do with that than the lack of free agency.

please forgive the complete incomprehensibility of that post, DST has made me dizzy

I totally understand and agree making the playoff in the NHL is waaay too easy, I don't follow the NFL and NBA so I can't compare (the NBA seem to have a very similar structure to the NHL).

Be better if there were two divisions again. Two division winners, four wild cards. Winners get bye, wild cards play best of three.

I like this idea! If there are no off-days during the wild card series then the division winners would have only a five day layoff.

I'd also propose that the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cardinals be declared ineligible every few years, on a rotating basis--the Yankees and Red Sox for being too rich, the Cardinals for being too smart. Every five or six years, say. You don't want to be unfair.

this is not Hot Stove material; also none of your hoary schemes will be enacted.

i don't think 16 nhl teams (out of 30) is too many -- it used to be 16 out of many fewer -- because the playoffs are ~awesome~. the regular season should be shorter, tho, since it matters so much less

baseball is different from these other sports because of the importance of pitchers and their inability to play every game. and yeah there are too many 'old firms' in european football, but relegation and qualifying for champions leagues add some interest

I like this idea! If there are no off-days during the wild card series then the division winners would have only a five day layoff.

Would you dictate no days off for travel?

what if offseason transactions had to be made in a giant frying pan getting hotter and hotter, but the best free agents aren't available until it gets so hot that at least half of the participants have leapt out of the frying pan, and if you're the last participant alive in the frying pan you can poach any player of your choice from any team in exchange for a $50 million penalty to the team losing the player?

i like the cut of yr jib

instead of a giant frying pan – how about a room full of bees?

http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/slideshow_large/slideshow/2014/01/3025467-slide-oprah-bees.gif

DON: Well, yeah.

I'd also propose that the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cardinals be declared ineligible every few years, on a rotating basis--the Yankees and Red Sox for being too rich, the Cardinals for being too smart. Every five or six years, say. You don't want to be unfair.

well if we're just going by money and ingenuity, you'd also have to cut the cubs, giants, dodgers, tigers and phillies (you said money, w/ no caveats about postseason success droughts!) and prob also the oakland As and (if we disregard the 2014 decline and examine the rest of the maddon years) the tampa bay rays for the ingenuity reason

sidebar: is there a thread set up for MLB/BBWAA award discussions?

i dont see one.

alan trammell named "special assistant" to dombrowski by the tigers

is there a "special assistant" wing of the HOF

aramis ramirez is accepting his option from the brewers

i think that's sweet. they make a cute couple.

wow all of the qualifying offers done been extended: cuddyer, russell martin, cruz, david robertson, pablo, shields

doubt a single one of those dudes takes it tbh

the only one that seems plausible is cuddyer. i saw a buster olney tweet earlier today saying that even just the qualifying offer would be 50% higher than the best salary he's ever had. he's going to be 36 next year and he might just think about taking the sure money now rather than risking being a stephen drew for the first few months of next season.

...probably not to all of that, but it's the only one that seems like it has a chance

I'm not exactly sure how QO works but accepting it would make a trade easier? there's a few teams that could do with someone with his skill set and experience, I feel it could also be in his best interest. ( I really don't see a point in staying in Denver these days).

why's that? he put up some crazy numbers in that park!

for cuddyer, I'm sure the Rockies haven't done much for him or anybody lately, but also, in terms of comfort, he might see the upsides of spending his twilight years in a hitter-friendly park as drunk Denverites watch him mash altitude-air-assisted taters

...but tbh he'll more likely just take a 2-year somewhere else.

he might see the upsides of spending his twilight years in a hitter-friendly park as drunk Denverites watch him mash altitude-air-assisted taters

this sounds like a great way to finish off a career.

that aspect of it is prob pretty great! but the rockies organization is so thoroughly screwed that i honestly can't make a call here.

Well, OK.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1m70A5IMAE1wl1.jpg

This trend of hiring players as managers who have no managerial experience is odd. Their grasp of in-game strategy is terrible, if this year's NL playoffs are any indication.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-yankees-found-another-way-to-outspend-every-other-team

who was the last HOFer who got hired as a manager before Sandberg? The pressure is even greater. xp

Francona extended for 2 years.

I'll be rooting for the Twins next year. I don't disagree with what NoTime says, but Molitor used to strike me as an extremely smart guy, so I'm hoping that translates into a managerial context.

god wtf is cuddyer gonna do with a QO hanging over him, no way he doesn't accept

i'm sure he wants a longer deal, but . . . fangraphs crowdsourcing had him at 2yrs/$16m, so why not take 15.3 and see what you can get next fall

that crowdsourced number wasn't even considering the possibility he'd get a QO. not sure he could even get > $5m a year now

Cuddyer made $10M each of the past four years? Wow. The raise to $15M for one year only might be less important to him than playing for a lousy team. Why couldn't he get $20M over two years to play somewhere else?

he'll be 36, he only played 49 games in 2014, he hasn't topped 2 rWAR since 2009, his colorado/non-colorado splits are imposing, and he'd cost a draft pick

He's been durable for most of his career though. I don't think his situation is so different from Nelson Cruz's last year, and a lot of teams are kicking themselves for not signing him. Teams have been overvaluing their draft picks and prospects for a few years, things might be swinging back the other way, especially since every AL division will be totally wide open next year.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/11825652/alex-rodriguez-new-york-yankees-admitted-dea-used-peds

Reinstated New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez admitted to use of performance-enhancing drugs during a meeting with the Drug Enforcement Administration in January, according to a report from the Miami Herald.

Two sources confirmed details of the Herald's report to ESPN.

The Herald, citing a written "report of investigation," says Rodriguez told the DEA that he paid Biogenesis doctor Anthony Bosch for testosterone cream, testosterone gummies and HGH injections. According to the report, one such injection took place in the men's room of a Miami nightclub.

"Rodriguez injected the HGH into his stomach," the DEA report stated, according to the newspaper. "Rodriguez said Bosch told him the HGH would help with sleep, weight, hair growth, eyesight and muscle recovery."

According to the report, Rodriguez was also trained in tricks to beat a urine test.

"Bosch advised him to only use mid-stream urine for MLB drug testing," the DEA report stated, according to the newspaper. "Bosch told Rodriguez not to use the beginning or the end urine stream."

"Rodriguez injected the HGH into his stomach,"

uhh, ouch

i'm kind of excited in a weird way to see him back in action, despite the years i've spent despising him (long before the PED stuff) - shit's gonna be like the end of scarface more or less

third act features a spiraling downward a-rod sitting at his desk going facedown into a pile of freshly popped corn.

A-Rod is gonna call Rob Manfred a wor'less piece o' chit?

Hair growth? ARod would be more interested in leg growth, amirite?

a-rod is hypercompetitive; it's possible that he wanted to extend the 'hair growing in places where you have never hair before' concept to new levels

yeah I'm real excited to see him back in action for 2015, no lie

is a-rod on the yanks gonna be like how kobe's behaving on the lakers? not as good comparatively as kobe but otherwise the same in terms of old dude with a shitload of pride blacking out with sociopathic rage as his team is bad (by yankees standards)

xxxxpost god i hope he calls manfred that

testosterone gummies

angels trade C hank conger to the astros for prospects RHP nick tropeano and C carlos perez

conger's supposed to be an ace framer

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1yPoNkIIAA5pcr.jpg

raul ibanez?

just threw in every 40+ guy they could think of

http://www.theonion.com/articles/turns-out-craig-counsell-was-actually-best-basebal,6581/

So what do you think the split is between San Francisco vs. the rest of MLB on who is going to drop a ton of cash on the Panda?

I can't see the Giants letting the guy leave. They probably don't need to get as nuts with the extensions as Detroit, but I think Sandoval will get signed.

just think he will take the best deal, which will be from SF. they can keep making money off him but the rest of the league sees Mo Vaughn

Gabe Kapler is new Dodger farm director

SF's management was crazy enough keep Lincecum for 18 millions, they are signing the Panda back.

if they do, will panda still be viable and not too fat when SF needs to make a title run again in 2016?

They should just sign him to a series of 2-year contracts.

Contract drive coinciding with even year bollocks.

ambidextrous reliever pat venditte is a minor league free agent

someone make it happen

https://sports.vice.com/article/yasmani-tomas-the-next-cuban-mlb-star-is-already-a-legend

Related: that 30 for 30 on Orlando and Livan Hernandez was pretty great.

ken rosenthal sez the dodgers lookin to make deals for matt kemp, carl crawford and andre ethier in addition to previously announced hanley ramirez

russell martin wants $75m

rays looking to trade hellickson to the national league

barves looking to trade el oso blanco, presumably to the american league

barves are in a tough spot at catcher

same

lol mets sign cuddyer to a two-year deal, no terms announced

costs a draft pick + whatever ridiculous salary they offered

i mean wut

oh dear lord

mets

15th overall pick

why

wwwuutttttttttt

Win-now mode, duh.

lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2G4NzEIEAEdhCC.jpg

@JeffPassan
Mets aren't done. They've talked with the Rockies about Troy Tulowitzki, sources tell Y! Sports. Fear they can't afford, but talking still.

I saw John Stewart said this morning that the Mets were going to fuck up the offseason and all these internet shouty types were jumping all over him for it... and then then do this! lol

i mean, cuddyer's bat is pretty fucking solid, even accounting for the altitude-air boost. his bone structure is much more uncertain

omg if they get tulo mets immediately switch from my B team to my A team i dont even care thatd be fuckin bananas

...provided his bones didn't also prove weak

I guess I should be grateful it's a 2-year deal?

There are two possibly good outcomes...
he plays 120 games and hits .315/.380/.500
he plays 30 games and tear that one up

in either outcome the mets no longer have a first round draft pick

that'll probably turn into a missing 2nd or 3rd round pick but the mets need their picks jfc

yeah its not like this is the one piece needed to put you over the top. this is fucking stupid.

or he reverts to his career line of .279/.347/.466.

xposts

BP's Mets prospects report this morning was very bright, so we needed something to send us crashing down immediately.

Meh, I think the Mets could contend next year since we have two bullshit wild cards.

cuddyer's road wOBA as a rockie: .344. 42 players had a better mark last year, which is about jhonny peralta-level

so yeah that's not too bad, but he doesn't play short, is gonna be 36, only played 49 games last year, draft pick, money, etc.

what a weird way to express 'we believe we have a great talent pool and have a 3-4 years window beware NL'.

from SNY MetsBlog last week after Colorado gave him a qual offer:

The one-year, $15.3 million offer all but eliminates the Mets interest in him, according to several sources and reports (Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Nov. 4).

...Cuddyer was a nice fit, not great, but he helped in a few places for what would have been a reasonable contract. The good news is that this is out of the way. Sandy Alderson can now operate knowing Cuddyer is not an option. Move on…

could he be part of a larger plan?

robertson has rejected the yankees' QO

i guess liriano could still accept, but i doubt it

barves just signed, ah, zoilo almonte to a one-year, details unclear

i guess that means something to somebody? his stats don't really encompass enough games played to be that meaningful, though all permutations of his WAR are negative

cool name tho

they also signed chien-ming wang and donnie veal. all just triple-a fodder unless things go horribly wrong

re: Mets/Cuddyer

Matthew Cerrone ‏@matthewcerrone

You know how you trade a 1st Round Pick in MLB? Sign that team's guy who got a Qualifying Offer. Hmm…

heyman says cuddyer gets $21m for two years, which isn't as bad as feared

could he really not do better than $5.7m as a free agent for 2016?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2HC9uAIIAA1ATK.png

players like their job security

mets have a much better chance of competing than the rockies anyway, maybe he knew they were the only maybe-half-decent team dumb enough to sign him

or he reverts to his career line of .279/.347/.466.

Mets LF last year: .219/.306/.309 with six home runs

@Ken_Rosenthal
Wondering why Cuddyer would take 2/21 from #Mets as opposed to 1/15.3 from #Rockies? Maybe he just wants to be a Met. Close with Wright.

wants to be a Met
wants to be a Met
wants to be a Met
wants to be a Met

living in NYC seems pretty cool, i know i would (really) want to

trade u

btw glad barves has caught on w/ilxors who weren't around for that seminal ILB moment

the name is pefrect cos they make me want to barve up my lunch

the pefrect barves

i heard barves on twitter from a disgruntled barves fan, then it made its way into jonah keri's grantland baseball dictionary

liriano declines

they might be good, this could be the year they sneak in another crown, fête barves in '15 imo

the lousy incorrect sports pun only works if you mispronounce fête of course

omg i had no idea barves was an old thing created by two assholes i thought ilx invented it

this is worse than the time i thought the message board i posted in during middle school invented "pwn"

damn yo

we totally invented 'all your base are belong to us' tho

'we believe we have a great talent pool and have a 3-4 years window beware NL'.

You know what? Mets fans aren't gonna wait that long; attendance is gonnna go through the fucking floor if they "wait" til 2017. Looks like win 86-88 next year is the goal.

https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ/status/531938688310452224

alright – as soon as i saw Barves in the logo script i started laughing.

gordon edes sez a "well placed source" say dat Red Sox willing to bring Lester back for 6 and working to secure that

I really don't think my heart can take this as an awful boston homer

pretty much what i figured would happen.

I guess I'm just surprised that they would even try that idiotic 4/70 mil offer back in the 13-14 offseason when they prob knew 120 and 6 would be necessary to get it done

Stanks resigned Chris Young for a year

wish both chris youngs would both play for a team i don't care about just so i don't forget which one is on which team so often

mets signed alex castellanos to the minors

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--pDHcOs8B--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/jpw2arzwwgzppoll9nfd.png

luh u dodgers never change

tigers reportedly close to signing victor martinez to a four-year deal

Dan Szymborski @DSzymborski
Overpay, but realistically, from the Tigers standpoint, they're going to be a horrid, expensive team in 2017 or 2018 or so no matter what.

Dan Szymborski @DSzymborski
At this point, with such a poor long-term trajectory, the Tigers best position is to just keep the party going as long as they can.

Dan Szymborski @DSzymborski
From Tigers standpoint, they're essentially a terminally ill franchise, so it doesn't matter if they overspend on their upcoming vacation

Age of Mike Ilitch update: 85

Victor Martinez not far behind that

too bad he can't afford to build the red wings an arena on his own xp

@Brandon_Warne
When Victor Martinez's new deal ends, the Angels will still owe Albert Pujols $87 million

the mets will still be paying bobby bonilla in 17 years

lol @ robertson demanding "papelbon money"

Yeah dodgers payroll is gonna be swole for another 3-4 years. The owe like 8 players 150m next year.. Gonzo, CC, Ethier, Kemp, Greinke, Kershaw, Haren and Wilson.

tigers could use some bullpen help iirc; might as well give robertson 4/$50m

http://deadspin.com/curt-schilling-has-disproved-evolution-1658184048

HOW many days until pitchers, catchers report?

Dumber To

@gehrig38
@rlbradley To bad it's been disproved about a thousand times. Every experiment to prove it has failed.

what's darren daulton up to these days?

OK...what?

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2014/11/13/tigers-acquire-speedy-gose-jays-travis/18954669/

Dave Dombrowski's offseason shopping cart, already stuffed with Victor Martinez's new four-year contract, bulged a bit more Wednesday night when the Tigers landed a new center fielder, Anthony Gose, in a deal that sent hot prospect Devon Travis to the Blue Jays.

"It's something that's pretty cool to see," Travis said Wednesday afternoon. "But at the same time, it's something that means absolutely nothing."

All we are is dust in the wind...

what would it take for the tigers to sign scherzer to a two-year deal? $70m? after watching verlander's deterioration up close i'm not sure that's enough

it'd probably take $100m more

and 5 more years

@MarcCarig
"Boras has been shopping near the meat section. That's where he gets his bullshit." - Sandy Alderson

orioles 'close' to a four-year deal with mick narkakis

pirates likely to non-tender ike davis, who is 'working in the outfield' lol

Jeff Passan
Orioles also have offered SP A.J. Burnett a deal, though nothing is close there. Baltimore definitely in market for starting pitching.

why

can't believe mook didn't leap on this blockbuster

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/12/pirates-acquire-catcher-francisco-cervelli-from-yankees/

xpost because they don't have great starting pitching? aside from tillman and (arguably) chen

burnett is a great starting pitcher?

the orioles have a potential ace and 4 guys who are equally mediocre but all secure starters. and ubaldo, who still exists and is owed money. two of them need to be cleared and they are all probably better than aj burnett

i'm going to be jealous of whoever picks up brandon mccarthy, definitely the best value this hot stove

i don't think AJB is great at all. but ubaldo and bud norris are problems. the team bailed them out during quite a few games tho due to offensive firepower, so it didn't always matter

agreed on mccarthy he is v. solid and arguably the best tweeter currently living

bud norris is reliably not a problem, definitely less of a blowup candidate than the other three. made real improvements last year.

ubaldo is owed a lot of money and that means he needs to be a starter because baseball is stupid.

i'm assuming the Yanks are going to resign McCarthy

hm i did not notice norris's stats had improved that much between 2013 and 2014. "a problem" might have been a stretch. but my ultimate point was i can see why O's might want another starter. and i AM surprised that it'd be AJ burnett.

ugh hate cervelli

phillies sign jeff francoeur to minor league deal with spring training invite!

lol, wow, I could reread that sentence all day for the laughs

Keys to perpetual MLB employment:

*A functioning left arm for pitching OR
*Jeff Francoeur's winning smile

pretty sure this is a prank on jeffy

http://imgick.cleveland.com/home/cleve-media/width620/img/tribe_impact/photo/14709220-mmmain.png

andygamer (Boston): What is your take on the Cuddyer deal: A true puzzler, or the harbinger of a new take on market efficiency?

Sam Miller: Not that puzzling. I think Cuddyer at 2/$22 or 2/$24 is just about right. Giving up the pick is interesting, but maybe a) the Mets intend to sign at least one more guy, so it's really a second-rounder, in which case [wanking motion]; or maybe they see the draft class as thin, and that the math we were all using last year to value these picks is outdated.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/baseball-joe/blog/jon-lester-sweepstakes-red-sox-cubs-room-for-braves-theo-epstein-larry-lucchino-john-hart-111214

if the barves get lester, we riot

(ok maybe i just riot)

http://i.imgur.com/CvhAtCo.gif

frenchy's hidden value

Lester at Braves is not happening.

i refuse

THREE HUNDRED MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS AND 10 YEARS on the table for Giancarlo from the marlins.

you could buy a house with that

you know what's cooler than three hundred million dollars? three hundred fucking billion dollars. hold out giancarlo, don't give in

heyman thinks it could be 12 years

let's get some long-ass hockey contracts going

xpost yeah fig has been adjusted to 12 and 320 mil. jeeeeesus.

if this gets settled dear god i hope the marlins become a dynasty b/c my heart would hate it if they sucked except for him and jose fernandez (and, apparently, casey mcghee)

and he was just stuck in that limbo (albeit a very, very rich fucking limbo)

Giancarlo's 24...Because of his size, I keep thinking he's a first baseman rather than a right fielder; I guess he's in the Winfield mode instead. Otherwise, I was wondering if the Marlins looked into the history of big sluggers once they hit 30. Maybe none of that applies here.

dear god i hope the marlins become a dynasty

calm down and walk this back

idk man i feel like i could live with it if giancarlo is shining AND not stuck on a dead team...the rage alone from fans of the big market teams in the NL would be legendary. the thinkpieces, man. my gawd.

BUT, i hope at the very least his agent lobbies for him to have some sort of opt-out

There is room for something between "a dead team" and a dynasty.

dynasty was a poor word choice on my part, that's fair - "WC contender in a year or two" is probably a reasonable middle ground w/o wishing for the dipshit marlins ownership to experience too much success.

mostly just excited to see jose back in action as soon as possible, arguably even more so than giancarlo

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/article/media_slots/photos/001/027/220/Tulowitzki_original.gif?1377531229

love that.

anyways - they're talking about signing Stanton until he's 38! i wonder how hard they're fighting that no trade clause I'm sure he's asking for...

not saying this is def a bad move in concept but keep in mind this is an org that is still paying ozzie guillen thru next season

and at the end of stanton's contract THE METS WILL STILL BE PAYING BOBBY BONILLA

what a disaster if they don't sign him, that being said. all the little remaining credibility is gone.

but yeah 300$ millions is just indecent. I heard that if you combine the top 100 athletes in the world they are paid a total 2,6 billion $ per year. this has to stop.

Does it? Demand's there, it's either going to the players or the owners. I mean I'd be down with imposing higher benefit requirements for grounds crew and the like (Cubs shame), but athletes are probably the millionaires I have the least problem with.

If yr just thinking "Full Socialism, No Millionaires" I'm in, don't get me wrong, but Giancarlol should be p much last against the wall imo.

ppl going apeshit over cuba's yoan moncada, but because he's only 19, he is subject to bonus pools and stuff, meaning when the yanks/cubs/dodgers sign him, they will have to pay a huge tax and be prevented from international signings over $300K for the next two years:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/yoan-moncada-the-most-fascinating-piece-of-the-offseason

aj burnett to the bucs!

310m is a lot to try to buy back the goodwill of "marlin fans" - all 10 of them who are left

@JeffPassan
This says a lot: A.J. Burnett essentially paid $4.25M not to be a Phillie.

for chuckles, since Ryan Howard and BJ Upton are both on the block this winter, are either going to be palmed off for less than 85% of their remaining cost?

is there any team inept enough to trade for ryan howard besides the phillies

giancarlo looking at 13/$325m with opt-out and no-trade clause

i.e., the mlb minimum annual salary every two weeks for 13 years

sidebar should i apply for this mlbtraderumors job that pays literally $100 a month for "10-15 minutes" of work a day

i have no income coming in right now and could use it but i'm suspicious of that time commitment and not looking forward to having to be awake before 11 on weekends

i need money tho :(

chase that paper any way you can

maybe giancarlo can afford to build miami its next stadium

13 years playing in a park that i imagine smells like an indoor pool

i'd have to take a few weeks to deliberate

he needs to tell them to destroy that fucking home run marlin sculpture, every time he hits a dinger that whacks it im like PLEASE BLOW UP OR SOMETHING

when he retires, he gets the Red Grooms HR whatzit as a lawn ornament

xp

Stanton's worth $30 million a year, for as long as 10 or more years. That's the unsurprising part. The Marlins, then, would have to be thinking about acting like the rest of the major leagues. That's the surprising part.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/giancarlo-stanton-300-million-contract-not-as-crazy-as-it-sounds-111414

13 years playing in a park that i imagine smells like an indoor pool

i will be money that half way into this contract they'll be asking him to waive the no-trade.

this, tho: http://gfycat.com/TerrificCrispAtlasmoth

still not as impressive as http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/229/files/2014/06/giancarlo-stanton-is-ridiculous.gif

Nice drag bunt.

Japan tour lol

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/101525294/takahiro-norimoto-leads-japans-combined-no-hitter-vs-mlb

"812.5 years: How long the President of United States would have to be in office to make that amount of money ($325 million) from the job."

Giancarlo: "I had a better year."

http://baseballcontinuum.com/2014/11/15/giancarlo-stantons-325-million-dollars-in-perspective/

Cubs get Tommy LaStella from Braves for RHP Arodys Vizcaino and approx $830K in international bonus pool money.

the cubs have like five shortstops, not sure why they'd want la stella

perhaps they're looking to have people available to deal in a separate trade? idk.

thin FA SS market = profit

barves trade jason heyward and jordan walden for shelby miller and tyrell jenkins of the cards

wow really

WHOA

there's been some talk of heyward in the last few weeks (just among fans, dreaming) but i didn't think it was remotely a possibility.

also russell martin to the vicious blue birds - 5 years, 82 Ms.

shit, though, heyward's only under contract through 2015? jenkins is a few years away but he could end up being really good. hmm

O_O

Yeah, Heyward was one of the few who didn't get an extension last year.

shelby miller has been weird. he could be outstanding in 2015 or completely flame out, and i wouldn't be surprised at either. he seemed to regain his edge late in 2014 but was absolutely terrible before that.

grabbing walden as part of the deal is great news, i think, not just because of walden, but also because it might finally open up a chance for carlos martinez (another hardthrowing righty) to make the rotation rather than floundering in 7th inning setup duty for another several years under matheny.

@castrovince
So the #BlueJays trade of Yan Gomes costs them a reported $82M in the long run.

ha! haaa.... huh.

‏@DOBrienAJC
#Braves Heyward: "As far as me being here long term or not, I feel like the fans had more discussions with me than the front office."

oh, burn

This might not have been the worst trade to make in a rebuilding effort, but John Hart is wiping his butt with the fans' good will at this point. For a while I was saying that the Cobb county people didn't want to see any black people at the new stadium other than the beer vendors and the outfielders, but never mind the outfielders part.

This goes on, but the beginning of this "Hey Bill" strikes me as unintentionally hilarious:

Shelby Miller (gotten by the Braves in the trade for Jason Heyward) had a precipitous drop in his strikeout rate this year (from 8.8 per 9 innings to 6.2), from way above league average to way below. How much of a red flag would you see this as? (Seems pretty red to me.)
Asked by: MarisFan61

Answered: 11/17/2014
It is less instructive than I would have guessed. I certainly wouldn't suggest that Braves fans shouldn't worry at all, but Pete Alexander had a large drop in strikeouts in 1916; it didn't presage anything.

Rest easy, Braves fans.

http://www.marlins.mlb.com/news/article/101680990/giancarlo-stanton-marlins-have-325-million-deal-in-place

He should have turned it down, said he wanted to explore his options, and then come back a day or two later ready to sign: "I found out the other option was not making $325 million."

It's so weird I keep misreading that 5 year 8.2 million dollar deal Russell Martin got as 5 years 82 million. Time to check my contact lens prescription!

Bill James bringing serious lols with that Pete Alexander response.

Don't know if I'd call this a reality check, but it may look extremely prescient five years from now. I'm sure others have noticed the proximity too.

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/heyward-and-stanton/#more-2440

totally fair to value stanton over heyward -- power grows and decreases steady, speed(+range) dwindles quick. and def figures in general are harder to trust than stanton hitting 900-foot homers.

that said if stl lets heyward go (fingers x'd) he'll probably be a pretty great value.

There's got to be a matched pair or two that might be instructive--preferably one a little more recent than Pete Alexander.

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/534737398245359617

cc: zachlyon

omar, have you seen Russell Martin's pitch-framing numbers?

Stankees may run at Scherzer? Ya don't say!

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24817866/might-yanks-revisit-their-low-key-winter-plan-and-shoot-for-scherzer

really, the team more built around hagiography and marquee value going after the biggest marquee name on the free agent market? never happen

*more than any other

I liked the Cuddyer move, though not quite its price. Do we know for sure what position he'll play? I next favor(ed) Ramirez (A not H), perhaps, though didn't know about the range issues, which makes (him a natural fit for the Yankees! I mean) me more amenable to a holding pattern with the nice SS class coming on line next year and the possibility of Wilmer growing into the role. Castro and Tulo fall into the people-who-do-not-appeal-to-me-for-petty-aesthetic-reasons-lol category and seem unlikely anyway. Is Russell Martin out of the question? Jose Reyes? Ollie Perez?! :D

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/534737398245359617

cc: zachlyon

― give kawhi his damn eyedrops (slothroprhymes), Tuesday, November 18, 2014 4:07 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe my dream of mccarthy will really come true

hagiography!

http://www.thedeadballera.com/GravePhotos/GravePhotos_M/Martin.Billy.Grave4.jpg

white sox give 3/$15m to . . . zach duke

The extreme backloading of the Stanton contract is interesting. $30M in the first 3 years, $77M in the next 3 years, then the opt-out clause and $218M in the last 7 years.

it's so weird that it's hard to imagine there isn't some evil loria plan we're not seeing

He built an asset with a new stadium and a star player locked in. It would be a pretty good time to sell the team considering what other teams recently sold for.

Missing an evil part -- perhaps he's been recorded racially inflammatory remarks.

Butler to Oakland 3/30

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11900658/billy-butler-agrees-three-year-30-million-deal-oakland-athletics

weird

Assuming last year was an aberration and not a decline then it looks like a good deal.

seems like a pretty fitting substitute for the big fella adam dunn

The extreme backloading of the Stanton contract is interesting. $30M in the first 3 years, $77M in the next 3 years, then the opt-out clause and $218M in the last 7 years.

― Pict in a blanket (WilliamC), Tuesday, November 18, 2014 2:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Isn't it a bet that a team likelier to pay the bigger later numbers will pick him up down the road?

Fresh in my mind was this Schoenfeld chat remark from yesterday: "Butler doesn't seem like an Oakland kind of player -- in decline, can't really play the field. They like a little more versatility..."

The cw is that there's no way GS finishes this contract in Miami.

But today he wrote a column defending it -- he's durable, the A's had poor production from DH last year, and they still have plenty of versatility at other positions.

yeah As outfield depth is not really a problem, like at all, based on their current chart

was surprised how shitty a year gomes had.. even in his limited role. guess its easier to put up shitty numbers being part of a platoon.

gomes sucks.

i say that knowing full well he helped give my red sox another flag, but not many people really liked him here as a player for very long after 2013, except hardcore bros who felt they had to support one of their own. his LF was terrible and the bat wasn't consistent enough to be valuable

*that valuable

‏

@BMcCarthy32
Jonny Gomes is literally one of the funniest people I've ever met. Plus he hits the ball far and that's fun. Very excited by his signing.
2:35 PM - 20 Jan 2012

@BenLindbergh
Brandon McCarthy on clubhouse chemistry: Take Jonny Gomes and Brandon Inge away from the 2012 A's, and they might've been a 70-win team.
8:05 PM - 7 Mar 2013

@BMcCarthy32
I could explode the heads of a lot of people I respect and enjoy talking to by making the argument that Gomes is just as important as Lester
3:09 PM - 31 Jul 2014

there is certainly value in being a good clubhouse guy, but mccarthy might be overstating the case here

i think that was mccarthy being mccarthy to be quite honest

he is after all the lord of all athlete twitter, he could've been liiiightly trolling

or hell, he roots for LSU, he could just be a wee bit of a bro (bros fucking love gomes, as i said - like you REALLY cannot tell bros in this city that gomes is bad)

https://vine.co/v/OJ55itnPAOd

oakland athletics spent 25% of their payroll on producing that tweet

Ike Davis DFA'd!

LaRoche to the W Sox. 2yr, 25MM.

btw espn suspended keith law from twitter because he defended evolution from curt schilling

which is pretty remarkable

law seems like the kind of guy who'd quit over such a thing, but i guess it's an otherwise perfect gig for him

http://cantstopthebleeding.com/wordpress/img/2014/11/curtgrenade.jpg

"OMG I THINK I LEFT MY FAKE GRENADE IN MY BAG"

That is a heck of a line.

curt & the whole schilling family fuckin up - as a sox fan it's a huge bummer to see curt's hyperreligious crap and all that

as someone who feels he belongs in the hall – he's making it very hard for me to continue preaching on his behalf.

He passes my HOF eyetest, but that doesn't inform his rank idiocy.

it's a daily struggle out here

back to hot stove - sox signing (back! yay!) hanley ramirez from the dodgers for 5 and 90, per rosenthal

hope he plays 20 games a year.

Five years, 90 games.

xpost he'll prob play more than cuddyer!

per year that is, just sayin

They're signing Panda too? 5Y/100M

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24836724/sandoval-agrees-to-red-sox-deal-as-boston-looks-for-free-agent-sweep

panda's agent sez it's not official yet but i'd be surprised if it didn't go through.

we cut now to ben cherington:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74BzSTQCl_c

more like http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/291/650/ba6.gif

oops:
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/291/650/ba6.gif

sweet dreams, everyone!

meanwhile kyle seager about to get paid sandoval money ..

he's got a younger brother in the dodger's system who is probably even better.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=seager001cor

he'll probably see some time at ss this next season imo.. depending on what kind of stopgap the new brain trust picks up

as cameron says:

@DCameronFG
7/100 for Seager is more than I thought he'd get, but baseball is rolling in money. Eventually we will have to stop being surprised.

andrew mccutchen's current deal (6 yrs, $51.5m through 2017 with a 2018 club option for $14.75m) looking ever more ridiculous

he'll get his big payday when old and declining

From the Yankees or Dodgers is the question.

omg ya those pesky dirty big market teams them and their money such a shame

(that assessment is fairly accurate tho & the answer is prob the yankees)

wishing all the best to Panda, hope the Boston people will be nice to him wrt his weight.

Is all this baseball money a bubble? Everyone says MLB is rolling in $$$$$$ from TV deals yet everyone complains that baseballs ratings are pitiful. The Dodgers just went an entire season with 85% of their tv viewer base unable to watch the goddamn games. How are they supposed to make billions from that?

Always be suspect of people who say 'THIS SHIT'S GONNA GO UP AND UP FOREVER'

Based on our report just days ago, there was an average of 148 games aired during the regular season on regional sports networks. Not only has supply dramatically increased over the years, but over 90 percent of regular season games are aired on regional sports networks. This has turned baseball into a regional phenomenon. Baseball dominates prime time television at the cable and broadcast levels on these RSNs. Of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, eleven—more than one-third of the league—had the highest-rated, most-watched local programming in prime time on both broadcast and cable. And overall, 17 MLB teams—over half the league—rank in the top 3 in local prime time (7p-11p) TV ratings on their respective RSNs. So, the question is, is baseball interest lowering nationally, or growing vastly at the regional level? As The AP story notes:

All of those numbers have made the regional sports networks more valuable to cable and satellite providers. And because each channel makes much of its revenue from fees those providers pay to carry it, the audience demographics don’t affect profits in the way they do for the traditional broadcast networks, which rely more on advertisers who want to reach younger viewers. In other words, baseball’s older viewership is less of a problem for regional sports networks.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2014/10/08/baseball-is-dying-dont-be-stupid/

Ah I guess I'm only exposed to the Dodgers local ratings, which SUCK for some strange reason. The again theyre more of an attendance team who regularly pushes 4m annually.

This doesnt include the dodgers because of the TWC debacle but the numbers are similar to the Angels.

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/maurybrown/files/2014/10/mlbtvratingsprimetimeexpand1.jpg

(The Giants will) need to spend. They're planning on spending. It might be on Yasmany Tomas or Jon Lester or some combination of lesser free agents, but the Giants are in Walgreens a half-hour before their anniversary dinner. They need to come up with something and fast. They can't pick and choose the best fits.

The Red Sox could, though. If you could have designed a free agent for them this offseason, it would have looked something like Sandoval -- a young, contact-hitting third baseman with the potential to charm the Fenway faithful for years. If you could have designed a free agent for them just to prove they were gluttonous and grabby, it would have looked something like Ramirez -- a player they don't really have a position for, but they'll figure that out later.

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/11/24/7276173/red-sox-pablo-sandoval-hanley-ramirez

Ah I guess I'm only exposed to the Dodgers local ratings, which SUCK for some strange reason. The again theyre more of an attendance team who regularly pushes 4m annually.

I guess they count attendance after the fourth inning. #obligatory

with netflix/hulu/internet/1000 cable channels/etc. live sports is one of the few remaining things that can legit draw viewers with any consistency. and cable companies are basically at the mercy of the rights holders, which is why everyone with cable is paying $6/month for espn alone whether they watch it or not.

there is presumably some limit (i dropped cable a few years ago) but it might be a while before we reach it

is mookie betts out of a job now

reckon they'll try to deal cespedes (and maybe napoli?) for some pitching

cespedes is 100% gone they better fuckin leave mookie alone tho

many xposts to van horn: no one has beef with fat people on the teams here! look at ortiz.

you mean fully bodied.

what would meghan trainor say sloth

ugh dont bring her into ilb come on now

welp i guess i'm a red sox fan now too, oh well, SB/FP away, folks. hanley + panda + cespedes(maybe) + pedroia + xander + castillo + hopefully a few more clutch (*ducks tomatoes*) home runs from ortiz, should be fun, imo.

so glad papelbon isn't there anymore

i wish the phillies would make papelbon a starter

what do they need a closer for anyway

i would probably end up throwing the tv through a window if i had to look at his face for more than one inning

while i'm judging players based on their face/body language, did morse and uggla ever play a game together last season, that would have sent the "dumb face" metric through the roof.

I think Boston getting Sandoval and Hanley also has the benefit that Napoli is only signed through 2015, so after he leaves you could move Panda to first then Hanley to third in 2016.

Red Sox is turning into the Latin A-Team. They should go out and get Johnny Cueto's Tiante like twisting pitching motion to add to the club.

The Reds are like a guy with a good hand in eucure. You could all in and win it all, but more likely you will lay out your cards wrong and get run. Too much money tied up in injuries and four one year starting pitcher deals. Reds are going to have to make a deal but it's not going to be easy, the rest of the NL Central seems to have already improved in the interim.

pablo is a very good 3rd baseman, imo

for the next 1.5-2 years at least

man, this is hard, sorry but even though pablo isn't even approaching elite status at his age, he's my favorite baseball player and i am let don but overall i wish him the best, it's a business man

hope beeOK is somewhere safe

oh ya...
maybe someone should check in on the guy

feelin like han ram and panda is proof that this isn't theo's team anymore and the training is now complete re: the rest of the fair weather red sox nation becoming late 90's yankees fans

^^^^i understand why you'd say that but at the same time a lot of people went to or watched a lot of losing ass Red Sox baseball games during 2014 (fairly high attendance per usual) and have even the recent past. so even the younger fans know winning isn't a given. fair weather fans will always be that way, but who gives a shit about them?

now if cherington ditches our dope prospects during this hot stove season, then they'll be on the yankees front office train & I will be mad as well.

treating all free agent signings as if they happen in a vacuum that hasn't changed for 15 years is so dumb, honest to god. if there is one free agent who feels a huge roster gap in terms of position and handedness, and another free agent that is literally calling you and asking if he can come back, maybe those are good players to sign.

in a world where kyle seager is getting locked up for $100 million outside help is going to be harder and harder to find. i can completely understand why they're taking a chance on these players.

The Reds are like a guy with a good hand in eucure. You could all in and win it all, but more likely you will lay out your cards wrong and get run.

not too convinced that you know how to play euchre

otm

we can't all be from ontario

wha?

Yeah, and what does Bob Euchre have to do with Ontario?

lotsa filthy (l)euchre bein' thrown around

Juan Nicasio to Dodgers

Ike Davis to A's

i should probably explain that haha.

almost everyone i know who lived in ontario for a long while knows how to play euchre... and everyone who didn't live in ontario doesn't know what euchre is. i associate the card game with the province.

it is probably 100% wrong but in my life it is 120% right

i fucking hate euchre.

i would rather spend the rest of eternity learning how to play magic: the gathering than suffer through one more game of fucking euchre.
one of my oldest friends would sometimes try to get me to play, and after enough nagging i would cave – but i was so terrible, it would slowly devolve into a game of "let's abuse the idiot".
a tree recently fell on his house and he had it coming.

(everyone was fine)

fair -- bridge is much better

personally i prefer thumb war

cubs offered lester 6 and 145, apparently sox may be willing to push their offer up to match it

Chris Capuano said during an interview with MLB Network Radio on Tuesday that he is considering signing a Japanese team.

I kinda love that Capuano still really wants to pitch no matter where..

ughhhh capuano *has red sox early 2014 acid flashbacks, twitches and speaks in tongues*

however his dodgers 2012 was oddly decent. the production they got out of harang and capuano was pretty legit. #Nedslegacylol

Breaking: Cuban outfielder Yasmany Tomas & D-backs have agreed to a 6-year deal worth $68.5M, according to sources

hmm

that is interesting...now that they've gotten rid of the dude who ordered beanings it wouldn't be bad necessarily to see them return to relevance (altho I don't really want them to)

honestly don't think I've watched the dbacks since I was in high school and big unit was pitching

i dunno -- from the towers/gibson gritfest to tlr isn't much of a leap

awesome now tomas can be a player on a terrible team

better or worse than being on the lol phillies?

better, but

enough with this whole 'dbacks' thing -- i'm sorry your team name isn't concise enough to fit nicely on twitter, but that's no excuse to turn into a fuckin nba team

DBags is the obvious alternative.

xpost ok no slandering the NBA especially w/r/t nickname shit aight

ok bring it dude in the SLPMS jersey

i mean sure sooner or later baseball teams will be wearing ads amidst their pinstripes and have made-up nicknames on the back, but that doesn't mean we have to celebrate the fuckin nba for having shit its pants first

think you're talking about the XFL

HE HATE SLOTHROP

you are def talking about the xfl nice try redass

unless you're trolling, which is actually more pathetic than genuinely having those OMG RUINING THEE SANCTITY OF THEE GAME views

glad to know ILB has its own raccoon tanuki

finally i figured it was obvious why I was saying "ok let the nickname critique go" given a lot of v loaded shit surrounding how NBA stuff is perceived but I guess not; it wasn't meant as a shill-for-the-league-as-a-business statement

shit's going down

not exactly sure what i (or mlb) am being accused of but

sports is a fiction. sometimes players deviate from the bull durham script of just helping the team, taking it one game at a time, but it is totally a fiction. in the minors, they are competing against their own teammates to advance; in the majors, they are competing against their own teammates for money. for all that bee ok would like pablo to stay with the giants or i would like mccutchen to stay with the pirates in a few years, team loyalty means far less to players than fans.

what is left is attempting to preserve a sense of dignity in a business that has none. should we put the players' salaries, in millions, on their backs in lieu of their names? it's reasonable enough, but for business reasons i think probably better to avoid.

baseball, even more than the other sports, constantly trades on its history as 'america's game'. i think, at least at the major league level, it's worth preserving that sense of exclusivity, even if unwarranted.

and dbacks is fucking goofy. much like an organization that midseason decided to extend its first round so it could get an extra laker playoff game or two. or an organization that screwed the sacramento kings as badly and as obviously as it did in whatever year that was

ok. I'm not looking to start a longass internet feud & can be conciliatory. all sports are a fiction, obviously, including baseball. it doesn't get a pass, I'm sorry. that doesn't mean we can't love it. believe me I do. in various ways more than basketball.

but the MLB is just as corrupt & compromised aside from differences in the TV deals. I think in the selig & post-selig eras it's abundantly clear. it's also not a big deal unless we make it one.

finally, yes obvs dbacks is goofy as fuck, that's not what I thought you were ragging on per se when I got mad, forgetaboutit. but this salaries instead of names thing - are you saying corporate sponsors are gonna put their logos on jerseys? bc that's...not gonna happen in MLB or NBA. not anytime soon so I found that confusing bc this ain't like premier league or some shit.

I think that, as a fan, I can put my own value on whatever it is that the team I'm rooting for does and does not. As such, it doesn't matter to me whether the player I loved chose to sign with another team because he got more money. I mean, it matters, but I move on.

Following a team's play during a season is not a fiction; it's real life that happens on the field and is something that, as a fan, matters to me.

i think nba's been tossing around jersey ads for a while slothro

also "diamondbacks" in general is just a really weird name for a baseball team. could work in ncaa but that's it

and arizona's a weird place for a baseball team

i generally just don't understand the arizona diamondbacks' existence

Arizona is a great baseball place because everyone lives there to avoid income taxes.

i generally just don't understand

What I want to know is why the short for Astros is the "'stros". Why can't they be the "As's"?

did you guys know that the diamondbacks exist, i'm reading all about them on wikipedia

they somehow won the division in 2007 with a team led by brandon webb and................................eric byrnes

they also won a, um, ah, World Series

with a pitcher whose first name starts with an r and ends with a y

kinda wish the astros would trade for marcus stroman and then marcus stroman changed his name to marcus astroman

"tossing around" isn't the same as doing, & if they were gonna at all it prob would've happened by now, but whatever I give up I forgot it's still 1950 and everything is pure and good in mudville/baseballville but terrible everywhere else

XP!

i'm going to further derail this whole thing with my flabbergastment

the dbacks are the one team who i think just end up solely in my blind spot. the padres are sort of the same thing bc they're so quiet and usually unremarkable and tucked away. their team colors are literally camouflage. when i think of the history of the padres i think of tony gwynn and their 84 jerseys and uh heath bell. and luke gregorson. they had a really good bullpen for a while.

but the diamondbacks generally don't even exist in my head even when i'm looking right at them. just total cognitive dissonance. i've probably seen footage from chase field a million times but i have no recollection of it and i only just found out it has a retractable roof. i have no idea who plays for them at any given time. i probably know every starter on their roster but i can't actually make the mental connection to the team. if you asked me out of the blue to name someone i wouldn't be able to conjure up paul goldschmidt; if i ever think about paul goldschmidt out of the blue, it'd probably take a few minutes to actually remember the team he's on. as soon as i post this i will probably lose the connection between goldschmidt and the diamondbacks. i literally cannot think of a single other player from 2014 right now. as soon as justin upton went to the braves i completely lost the memory of justin upton as a diamondback, and it still seems weird to think about. whenever i'm reminded of 2001 it's really, really jarring -- both the win and schilling/johnson being on the team at all. how the hell did that happen? ok i just looked up RJ's career and i thought he only spent 1 or 2 years with them, not the entire best stretch of his career. i knew those seasons happened but in my memory they happened in a void. just randy johnson pitching like the best pitcher alive wearing an all-white uniform in the middle of endless space. i can remember the shot of a fan in 2001 with a "yankees = past/dback = future!" sign (lol) but i can't imagine anyone in arizona actually wearing diamondback merchandise. it wouldn't even make a difference if they were good. i'm pretty sure i didn't notice them in 2011 either.

anyway should i see a doctor about this

lol I'm done w/ my argument I took it too far & got too heated

I agree it is p hilarious to think diamondbacks went from being new kids on the block who had one of the greatest pitchers ever (RJ) & another bonafide ace (schilling) to being completely irrelevant due to a boatload of suckitude & the redassed gritty/play the right way bullshit cosigned by tower and Gibson

do you want to build aStromaaaaan

^^^ name of my fantasy baseball team next year if you don't want it (and if yahoo allows that many characters)

Plenty of other sports put advertisements on uniforms and are doing just fine (auto racing, cycling, soccer). I personally would prefer not to see it in baseball, however, baseball has always walked a fine line between being honouring and preserving its history, and being anal and annoying about it (Hall of Fame season, I've missed you).

I mean, if we talk about preserving the "exclusivity" of baseball with a straight face then aren't we saying "you need to be a conservative old fart to like this stuff"?

i was actually planning on using "Man or M. Stroman?" hahaha

Maybe I'll use that in my money league and use "Yasmanyan Devil" in the ILX league

Socks and birds people.

We are talking about socks and birds.

about the Diamondbacks, I guess Tomas and Goldschmidt warrants enough attention for them to be in collective consciousness again? Nevermind the death stares from the dugout by Stewart.

one of the reason I've started ignoring soccer and turned to baseball is the over the top advertising and corruption and all of those things mookieproof is warning us about, as far as i am concerned soccer died in the hands of heineken and blatter and petro-oligarchs. baseball fans, as far as i'm concerned are the ones that take the less bullshit from the owners and the commisionner (can you imagine?) of all sports I have followed. if protecting the sports means being anal about it from time to time, I'm all for it. so yeah mookieproof otm.

like the fact that the baseball world actually had a debate about PED when most other professional sports are ignoring the issue all together (I mean have you seen Cristiano Ronaldo dash a 100m in 16 seconds in the dying minutes of a game?) showed me that yeah, baseball fans care about the sanctity of the game in a very healthy way.

I think you guys are forgetting how absolutely terrible it would've been if the Yankees had won the '01 WS. Giuliani might be president.

I think you guys are forgetting how absolutely terrible it would've been if the Yankees had won the '01 WS. Giuliani might be president.
--things lose meaning over time (Dr Morbius)

YUP x 1,000,000 we would never hear the fucking end of it

@Ken_Rosenthal
Sources: Donaldson going to #BlueJays. Lawrie, RHP Kendall Graveman among those going to #Athletics.

@Ken_Rosenthal
Class A SS Franklin Barreto also in Donaldson deal, going from #BlueJays to #Athletics.

???

wow uh

Well that was unexpected.

oh man.

i just peeled myself off the ceiling. what a crazy trade.

beane just has to remind the fans they're not allowed to have great individual players

so what the A's got back isn't as bad as you might think on first glance. i've been pretty high on Barreto for a bit now – he's young but has looked solid so far and seems to do everything fairly well... i'm more certain he'll be an allstar someday than any of the other prospects, which i saying a lot because I always though Nolin was really underrated. he's pitched fairly well at every level and never got the respect i thought he deserved. the other pitcher, Graveman, i heard best described earlier as "accidentally became a prospect" when he learned how to throw a slider and shot from A to the majors in one year, so he's as much a wild card as Barreto. and ya. the A's got Lawrie in the deal too. start stalking up on Red Bull now, Oakland.

Crazy trade, although as a Jays fan of course I'm excited. The top of our lineup is looking scary good, although the bottom is still a bit of a disaster.

If Lawrie can find a way to stay healthy and/or Barreto becomes a star then this trade could end up looking bad for the Jays in a few years. It doesn't look so bad for the A's in the short term either. Donaldson to Lawrie is a 3-4 win downgrade, but their rotation is still very good and will get better with this trade and when Griffin and Parker come back.

I'm happy, but wary, too. Donaldson will be 29 this year, and he came out of nowhere two years ago. He hit five more home runs in 2014 than 2013, but almost every other offensive category was down. Maybe 2013 was a fluke year.

Which is not to say that Lawrie wasn't exasperating.

of the two joshes the A's could lose I mean I guess it's good it wasn't Reddick they obvs need goofy walkup music and enjoyable demeanor (and brave underwear choices) more than an excellent 3rd baseman and solid albeit inconsistent power bat right? right?

yeah I don't understand this one at all

I may have just read bbref wrong bc it's annoying to read on mobile but I think I said he had 20 defensive runs saved in 2014? 20??? despite a league average dinosaur stat fielding percentage?

*it said.

batting slash line is meh compared to last year but overall 7.4 is still a pretty goddam reasonable bWAR, with an oWAR of 6.6....bummer for the As man

Using WAR as a rough estimate, there's no doubt he's been one of the half-dozen best position players in baseball the past two years. I'm just not completely sold on him because of a) his late start (and current age), b) the fact that his value is based on two seasons' worth of data, and c) the drop-off in 2014. Is he an upgrade from Lawrie? No question.

In other words, he could be Terry Pendleton, who snuck in two MVP-caliber seasons midway in what was otherwise an ordinary career (two years older than Donaldson at the time, and his two seasons weren't quite as strong as Donaldson's).

hm. the batting drop off is certainly notable by dinosaur stats, less so by oWAR. for plain old WAR to go down period is never optimal, but when it's from 8 to 7.4, that's still 7.4. a certain player whose last name rhymes with "bout" was the only better war in 2014.

overall it's p dope for the blue birds and not great but not bad either for the A's, because they have good defenders and tbqh I think their offensive drop-off last half season was probably a weird aberration rather than a sign of furthe decline to come...I think.

You must be looking at Fangraphs; on Baseball Reference, the drop is more precipitous, from 6.6 to 5.0, which matches my eye test more closely. In 29 more AB, he hit six fewer doubles, one fewer triple, had the same number of walks (so a slightly lower walk rate), struck out 20 more times (which probably doesn't figure into any WAR calculations), and had a drop-off in his slash stats of .046/.042/.043. He did hit five more HR. Isn't WAR essentially calculated using "dinosaur stats," with adjustments for park and league-wide offensive levels?

For the next year or two, I'm all for this trade. The Jays want to win now, and this will help a lot. Past that, I don't know.

you're correct. (im not anti old stats, btw, I call them that more for lols then to be like "yeah how stupid!" both have plenty of value.)

I was using bbref but I could've misread bc I'm on my phone (laptop probs) and their mobile site sucks & is east to misread when looking quickly.

the blue birds puzzle me bc I feel like in many ways they've been ready to WIN NOW for a bit, right? but they've now upgraded what I figured most of their holes were. the rotation is mad weird tho, even with stroman and RA dickey. they need to do something about happ.

WAR takes park factors into consideration right? because his dinosaur stats should really jump moving from the Coliseum to the Dome.

per buster olney, giants meeting with jon lester today *nervous gulp*

re: all the talk upthread about Donaldson, good discussion about his trade on the effectively wild BP podcast today

anything to keep sox pitching crappy

this fucking division istg :(

meanwhile the orioles are talking to... right fielder torii hunter

good luck with that, also the mariners just bought nelson cruz

4 years and 57, pending a physical, rosenthal won't say its official yet but it sounds legit

good

you didn't like him on the orioles?

4 years for a 35 year old after his 2nd full season ever in which everything that has ever gone right in his career went right who provides virtually no defensive value naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

yeah but home runs and RBI

steamer projects a 1.5 WAR 2015 season for him

lol wow
steamer projects a steamer from him

A Cleveland steamer?

http://www.outsports.com/2014/12/2/7295993/major-league-baseball-umpire-dale-scott-gay-coming-out

Scott was profiled in the October issue of Referee magazine, a subscription-only publication with a circulation of about 45,000. The article by Peter Jackel was a look at Scott's 29 years as a Major League umpire, and how he became one of the game's best despite nearly being fired early in his career. It also delved into his past career as a disc jockey with his "distinctive, radio-rich voice of a Vin Scully and the comedic timing of a George Carlin."

Jackel talked to friends of Scott's who grew up with him in Eugene, Ore., but nothing was written about his private life since he became an umpire. Prior to publication, the magazine's editor, Jeff Stern, wanted some non-game photos and that's when Scott made a decision to reveal a part of himself previously hidden from the public.

After consulting with his partner, Michael Rausch, Scott decided to send the photo below of the two of them, and it ran with this caption: "He and his longtime companion, Michael Rausch, traveled to Australia for the 2014 season opener between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers."

Miami has extended an offer to Jose Fernandez reportedly worth $40 million over 6 years

kinda low?

def low considering his talent. one of the articles i read on it suggested that fernandez's still-in-progress tommy john surgery could be a factor that works in miami's favor...

...but his agent is boras, soooo idk

There's no way Boras lets him accept that.

makes me think he isn't recovering as well as he should be or smth

miami just trying to capitalize on the rare instance of positive PR with more quasi sincere good vibes

ya - think it's too early to call how his TJ is going. just a Marlin's low-ball offer.

Four arms to hold Torii

Keith Law does not approve!

Dodgers traded for Chris Heisey.. I had to look up what team he was on. Dodgers have 95 outfielders now.

Curious to see what happens to Van Slyke.

I can see him being part of a mega deal for a hamels or something like that

did the Barves just throw in the towel on Medlen and Beachy?!

did the Barves just throw in the towel on Medlen and Beachy until 2017?!

the short answer is yes bc they wanna try & win in that new-ass stadium

(not to mention a boatload of other more practical reasons i'm sure)

naming rights went to New-Ass, huh

yeah theyre a startup w/ big venture capital backing & want to start branding right off the bat

Matt Belisle to cardinals for a one year contract

giants lookin to take markakis, yankees allegedy made an offer to lester

@AaronGleeman
Torii Hunter just called Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press a "prick" when he asked about Hunter's past quotes on gay marriage.

yeeeesh.

a much better question would have been about playing with dale scott as an ump

JA Happ to mariners in exchange for Mike Saunders to blue birds

markakis to the barves 4/$44

did not read http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/what-are-we-missing-about-nick-markakis

blue jays no doubt felt that having dealt lawrie, they needed to pick up a canadian from somewhere

ooooh i'm sort of heartbroken :(

i didn't realize how much he declined, damn.

what, since... 2008?

i think i've said this elsewhere but he's been a steadily average player for years with the exception of 2013, which a lot of o's fans blame on his playing through injury

what, since... 2008?

― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Wednesday, December 3, 2014 8:42 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yes pretty much

"mystery team" offered chase headley 4 and 65, per mlb dot com

Giants is my ignorant guess, since they seem to have fallen out of the Lester sweepstakes but are determined to throw $100 million away.

chase is good! altho its p clear that at his age he only works well offensively in hitter-friendly parks (based on the difference in his stats between petco & yankee stadium in '14), and mccovey is, ah, not hitter-friendly.

Donaldson called Beane "Billy Boy"

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/12/03/billy-boy-the-josh-donaldson-trade-was-reportedly-sparked-by-an-argument-with-billy-beane/

Headley was pretty good in Petco in 2012 and 2013. Better or equal to what he did in Yankee Stadium last year. I'm not sure park effect is why he turned the corner last year. I think he was struggling early on and made some good adjustments, got healthy, etc.

oh yeah def in 2012 he was v god - his WAR was like 6, but then halved in 2013 and finalized at 3.8 for all of 2014, IIRC

*good, not god, I don't like chase headley THAT much

Still there's this persistent assumption wrt Padres hitters that the hitter's true production is largely seen in his road performance, whereas some Padres hitters don't really demonstrate that.

As a switch hitter he is pretty consistent but better batting lefty, so the Yankees short right porch probably didn't hurt. But I don't think of him as a guy who pulls the ball that much so I'm not sure that matters too much. A few extra cheap ones, maybe.

i would hope that beane can stand being called billy boy and didn't trade donaldson for that reason (if it even happened)

tbh i suspect that beane traded him because he simply can't help himself

You don't understand. Nobody - i say nobody - calls him Billy Boy.

http://site.rockbottomgolf.com/blog_images/CaddyShack-Billy-Baroo.jpg

lol. As petty as it is, though, calling the GM Billy Boy and then making snarky twitter comments about your own team is pretty much asking for a trade. If he wasn't traded he'd be upper decking the owner's toilet by June 2015

orioles might be looking to buy Matt Kemp, per rosenthal, padres also giving kemp some looks

xp now I'm imagining Donaldson going on a berserk prank-spree to fuck with beane, and the As basically turning into the film major league

no fucking clue what the reasoning is behind this - didi gregorius to the yankees, shane greene to the tigers and robbie ray (plus a minor league PTBNL) to the dbacks in a three team trade

help 4u: http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/12/5/7340663/yankees-trade-didi-gregorius-diamondbacks-tigers-WHY-TRADE-DOUG-FISTER-WHY

Kevin Cash, new Rays mgr

Also, the Tigers gave up one of their five best prospects to make the deal happen. Cool, cool.

Tigers, "prospects," haha.

every barves fan I know is done due to the Cobb County bs and the Heyward trade. the Markakis deal supports the idea that they have no idea what they're doing. they're getting older, whiter and less exciting, and thus perfect for Cobb County.

http://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-team-payroll-and-how-assembled-trackers/

among other details: the yanks have more home-grown talent than any other team

"talent"

they just got andrew miller for 4 and 36 so they gotta adjust that table tho

lol just woke up, saw the trade, immediately thought of doug fister

among other details: the yanks have more home-grown talent than any other team

I think you mean the Mets. Wonder if higher payrolls track with the number of homegrown talents.

A's have 5 homegrown players.

pirates with exactly one player acquired as a free agent

if brandon moss recovers finely from his hip surgery and doesn't end up in another cavern he could be such a better target than melky or gd fucking matt kemp and i hate cleveland for probably getting him :(

uh *:(

top 10 and middle 10 teams (by payroll) have roughly 50% HG talent, but when you get to the bottom 10 it's around like 37%
even if you cut out the astros and the a's from the equation (worst HG talent, 12.5% and 23.1% resp.) the other 8 are still around like 42%.
Out of the top 20 teams, 3 are more trade-based than HG. out of the bottom 10, half of them are more trade-based rosters.

i doesn't mean anything, but it is mildly interesting.

Ten days in jail for Jayson Werth (reckless driving, 105 mph)

Yankees just gave Andrew Miller $36MM/4yrs

lol just woke up, saw the trade, immediately thought of doug fister

@msimonespn
Doug Fister had 3rd-highest ground-ball rate among ERA title qualifiers in 2013 (55%); opp. hit .281 on those grounders/bunts (7th-highest)

Yeah well obviously he SUCKED at keeping batted balls away from the corners. BYE!

*sobs*

― Andy K, Monday, December 2, 2013 9:36 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

miller contract seems totally reasonable to me all things considered

miller contract seems totally reasonable to me all things considered
--call all destroyer

agreed overall & I'm glad for him to be gettin real paid, even on the yanks - him without a beard is hella weird tho, arguably weirdest sox transplant nonbeard ever

his career WAR is -0.2.

didn't miller have to like completely rebuild his career though? seems reasonable to pay him based on recent body of work.

ya - his WAR last year was just shy of 2. only time in career he was ever worth more than one win tho. the -0.2 number just surprised me (for a guy now making $36MM).

he did rebuild himself bc it became clear he was crap as a starter, and I believe once moved into the late relief/setup man/sometime closer role he changed up the mechanics of his throw

can your pitcher-WAR really be that high when you only pitch an inning or two a game? (unless you're koji in 2013 or mariano rivera in many seasons)

yeah, i always have difficulty using WAR to evaluate relievers. a guy can be brilliant over the course of the season but only come out with 2 WAR because he only pitched 60 innings. there's something to be said for having a lights-out type of guy that you can use in many different kinds of mid-to-late game situations that's not really reflected in WAR

it makes sense to me tho... if you're facing less than 1/3 of the hitters a typical starter does, then it makes sense you WAR will only get so high in that span.

don't mind me I'm just sitting back and marveling over koji in 2013 being worth 3.6 WAR in 74.1 IP as a closer and knowing that it'll never be that good again

Kevin Cash is younger than me and he's managing an MLB club. This feels like a rite of passage for me somehow. A few years ago I think it was Morbs who talked about being "sad" when Jesse Orosco retired because he was the last player who was older than him. So, it's like that, kind of.

it makes sense to me tho... if you're facing less than 1/3 of the hitters a typical starter does, then it makes sense you WAR will only get so high in that span.

oh no, i mean don't get me wrong, it makes sense, it's just that it gets harder to use as a means of quick evaluation for relievers.

(xpost) I thought I might cross that line with the next president--Obama's a few months older than I am--but Hillary might buy me another four or eight more years.

it was Morbs who talked about being "sad" when Jesse Orosco retired because he was the last player who was older than him.

Pretty sure mine was Julio Franco tho.

Closers having a low WAR is just, tho, cuz the average save is EASY to get... and they are the most overrated players in the game.

with teemu selanne gone, i believe that jason giambi was my last

blue birds bout ta poach dan duquette

really awesome this happens the day before the winter meetings.

i don't think this is going to happen

moss to cleveland, supposedly

for infielder joe wendle, who hit .253/.311/.414 as a 24yo in double-a this year

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, Billy Boy. :\

beane go 0 to 100 real quick, real quick, real fuckin quick

don't quite get the handwringing this time...

As Moss received more playing time due to productivity, that productivity has declined, from a 162 OPS+ in 2012 to 136 in 2013 and 119 in 2014, though still well above average, and with the last bit of that coming while Moss dealt with a hip injury. Despite some success against left-handed pitching, Moss generally struggles against southpaws and should not be relied upon to produce against them regularly....

As for Oakland, they've already moved Josh Donaldson this offseason, and with Moss getting expensive via the arbitration process, it makes sense that they might look to move him for additional long-term assets.

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/12/8/7330209/brandon-moss-trade-indians-athletics

Maybe they're thinking of going with Vogt as their regular first baseman.

Mr. Neyer Man (JABO):

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/baseball-joe/blog/who-s-eric-wendle-anyway-120814

giants receiving "serious consideration" by jonny lester, per rosenthal

^^^got wendle's first name wrong but is unable to update the url xp

@keithlaw ·
Exec getting new glasses Monday “@jaysonst: Exec of team in hunt expects Lester talks will come into clearer focus by end of day Monday.”

White Sox on the march! Robertson, Samardzija

https://twitter.com/AdamSpankyEaton/status/542196735012261888

Shouldn't it be AdamDirtbagEaton?

let's see how the yankees can fuck up their pick

pirates catcher tony sanchez, the fourth pick in the 2009 draft, was cut by his dominican winter league team for hitting .100 and sucking behind the plate

lol

xp it's most likely gonna be buy offering scherzer 7 and 180 or some shit

*by

Madison Bumgarner once dated a girl named Madison Bumgarner

over/under on chances of them naming all of their children Madison, if the relationship would have worked out?

50 percent chance, taking the over

Mets talking Dillon Gee trade w/ Texas, KC

mets must be really down for omar infante huh

liriano returning to pirates, 3/$39

biggest free-agent contract in team history

lol, seriously?!
he's not going to look nearly as good without Martin around, methinks.

@BtBScore
James Shields’ projected fWAR/200IP in 2015: 3.0

------

Francisco Liriano’s projected fWAR/200IP in 2015: 2.9

whether he can pitch 200 innings is of course questionable, but tbh that contract seems pretty decent for a poor/cheap team in contention. i mean david robertson got an extra year at just $1m less per year ffs.

Cubs working on getting Montero from Dbacks; he almost went to Dodgers for Ethier but AZ higherups vetoed Stewart's deal.

jefferson mejia and zach godley to AZ for montero

does AZ have a hot-shot catcher waiting in the wings or something? even with his bat cooing of the last two years, i didn't think he was *too* expensive.

not ready i don't think ... payroll dump

Jesse (LA, CA)

Do you think the Kemp trade is a case of addition by subtraction? He isn't known to be the greatest clubhouse guy.
David Schoenfield (4:31 PM)

Well, Dodgers won 94 games with their bad clubhouse guy last year. By the way, Jon Heyman just says Orioles, Mariners and Rangers are now out on Kemp ... so Padres or bust.

montero, whom the cubs will likely platoon with welington castillo, will make $1m more than liriano over the next three seasons

apparently they're going to try to move Castillo.

maybe AZ will play stryker trahan at C because of how awesome his name is

altho on the catchers-with-great-names depth chart he may be blocked by tuffy gosewich

alas stryker trahan has panned out neither at the plate nor behind it

btw supposedly new athletic joey wendle's 'makeup' is 'off the charts'

the sixth tool

@TonyPaul1984
Dave Dombrowski flat-out denied Buster Olney's tweet that Tigers are prepared to give Max Scherzer the world. "Absolutely not true."

@anthonyfenech 21m21 minutes ago
About @Buster_ESPN’s tweet, Dombrowski said: “I hope that Mr. I didn’t see that."

@TonyPaul1984
DD classics: "Prince isn't a fit," -- circa 48 hours before signing Prince. "It'll be a quiet winter meetings." -- circa 2007, Miggy.

http://binaryapi.ap.org/e0ba7d06a99543d6932c0a52abd1bf4a/460x.jpg

lester's a cubbie

Can the Cubs compete next year? They're reminding me of the '12 Nats right now.

depends on if the prospects they showed off during the fall can maintain that dinger-hitting through the season

i think they'll be competitive.

and in 2016 will probably be a monster of a team

*gulp*

6/155, eh

sox final offer on Lester was 6 and 135, which isn't bad, but the well was poisoned since that shitty lowball in spring 2014.

If so, why did he very publicly say that he'd be interested in returning to Boston even after the Oakland trade?

This deal reminds me of Zito to SF. Lester's ERA+'s from 2011-2013 were 124, 87, and 110. For most of his career he's been very good and very durable, but not a true ace (like Zito in Oakland). He was better than that in 2014 but he also turned 30, so it's more likely a bit of a fluke than representative of how he's going to pitch going forward.

>If so, why did he very publicly say that he'd be interested in returning to Boston even after the Oakland trade?

because why not have another party bidding on you/driving up the price?!

6/155, eh

And Boras/Scherzer want 200.

i think i already hate the cubs

Imagine how you'll feel about that Windy World Series.

Astros spending on pen:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12008691/houston-astros-add-luke-gregerson-closer

If so, why did he very publicly say that he'd be interested in returning to Boston even after the Oakland trade?

agree in part with thinwall's assessment, also i feel like he maybe wasn't expecting the cubs to be a bidder? idk.

hotly rumored Mets quarry: John Mayberry Jr and Craig Breslow

@AndrewSimonMLB
Not saying this to criticize Lester deal, just to show how things change. From 11-13, he was 60th in MLB in ERA, 48th in FIP (min. 400 IP).

agree in part with thinwall's assessment, also i feel like he maybe wasn't expecting the cubs to be a bidder?

ya - i figured they were going for him or Shields. doesn't really matter who the winning team is tho – the more teams involved in bidding, the more likely you are to maximize your payday.

supposedly lester is *also* getting a $30m signing bonus?

$25m option with a $10m buyout!!

chris bassitt is giving away all his white sox gear on twitter

depends on if the prospects they showed off during the fall can maintain that dinger-hitting through the season

― just a couple of assholes having breakfast (slothroprhymes), Wednesday, December 10, 2014 1:10 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

some of the uber cubs prospects have huge red flags (like I think baez flames out hard in the majors because of his k rate) but theres so damn many other prospects it might not even matter

get those bets down

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/12008836/chicago-cubs-world-series-odd-12-1-jon-lester-agreement

i would be betting against. they've improved a bunch, but with so many young guys, they're going to look mean in 2017. next year, not as much.

world series seems very unlikely for for 2015. but i could see a variety of situations that could result in them sneaking it to the wild card. if the cardinals, for example, suffer a serious injury at 3B or 1B, they're kind of fucked because there's no depth there.

or catcher.

*second gulp*

what karl, no faith in AJ pierzynski?

*has acid flashback to first half of 2014 red sox season, loses mind*

He's old and hated -- why does he still have a job?

AJ's no longer with the cardinals, so it's back to good old Tony Cruz as the backup. it wouldn't be such a concern except that matheny has never figured out how to get yadi regular rest

rollins allegedly traded to LAD but details not out yet.. possibly a three team deal so maybe other players invovled..

apparently deal also almost done sending Dee Gordon to Miami for their young pitcher Heaney

not a bad sell high move.. dee's obp has always been really shitty

@astros
Note: the date of the Taylor Swift 1989 tour show at #MMP is subject to change if it conflicts with an #Astros postseason home game.

lollllllll

I'm looking at the stats and there are possibly five NL second basemen who had a better slash line than Gordon last year. The only ones where it's really significantly better are Scooter Gennett and Neil Walker (.467 SLG).

trading anything, let alone a pretty solid starting lhp prospect, for dee gordon is absurd

guess they really miss juan pierre

and lol if haren actually retires rather than leave socal

Gordon had a .648 OPS after the all-star break, fwiw. Also he's not much with the glove, despite his speed advantage.

He had about 73.2 runs created last year. Miami had a total production of about 48.5 from their second basemen.

steamer projections for dee gordon 2015: .256/.307/.331, 83 wrc+, 1.1 war

Right, is that because he hit like .230 in partial seasons the previous two years? Seems like a normal gamble for Miami to hope he could produce as much as he did last year. If there's a stat showing that he got lucky on balls in play or something this last year, I'd be interested in knowing it.

Babip doesn't really work for speedsters because they have to put the ball in play or they're screwed. Dee might be able to thrive in a bigger less symmetric OF so he can get even more triples. The range the low price and the steals make him decent but yeah not worth a big fuck off package of prospects that rivals what the as got for Donaldson

his 2014 babip was .346; league average was .300 and his career mark is .326. with his speed one can expect a higher mark, but maybe not quite that high.

but basically he's only really been good for the first half of last year. he's cheap and has worth, but yeah i'd much rather take my chances with heaney

Looks to me like some short slumps in August - a 6-33 slump and two shorter ones. He hit .300 in July and .303 in September.

Wade Miley to BOS

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/12/10/7375091/wade-miley-trade-red-sox-diamondbacks

Howie Kendrick to the Dodgers

For Heaney

lol

Wow.

and apparently now signing McCarthy to a *4* year deal!
what a fucking crazy day for LA.

(in addition to landing Jimmy Rollins, which i don't think had been mentioned here yet)