Hot Stove 13-14

http://sports.cbsimg.net/images/visual/whatshot/robinson-cano-42213.jpg

david price thinks he'll be traded

who has the motive and prospects to acquire (two years of) him?

Seattle may target Ellsbury! good luck?

that'll fix things!

rangers, yankees likely interested in someone to police parties

Helpful:

http://twitter.com/MLBRosterMoves

Kendrick (Birmingham)

If you're Frank Wren, what do you try to do with B.J. Upton and Uggla? Hold and hope or find a way to move at least one of them, even if you have to eat a lot of cash?
Klaw (1:55 PM)

I'd hold on to them and hope one reestablishes his value next year. By the way, why do we hear criticisms of Billy Beane for Oakland's early playoff exits, but none of Frank Wren? They haven't won a playoff series since 2001, and under his tenure, they have spent a lot of money for little or no return, including the two you cited, Nate McLouth, and Derek Lowe. If Wren had had a book written about him, would he face the same level of scrutiny that Beane does?

well he can run for governor now

http://espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/story/_/id/9839958/texas-rangers-ceo-nolan-ryan-steps-down

@Ken_Rosenthal
Sources: Leyland stepping down as #Tigers manager. Told team after end of ALCS. Team has called news conference for 11:30 AM ET.

No surprise.

Would have been great to get Francona.

Timely, given this Neyer column:

"No manager is perfect. But this team that lost to the Red Sox in a generally close series was exactly the team that general manager Dave Dombrowski designed: long on starters and hitters, short on just about everything else. I've got a hard time blaming Leyland for a team that played exactly like it was supposed to play."

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/10/20/4857258/alcs-2013-detroit-tigers-red-sox-season-review

His managerial record prior to taking the Detroit job was sub-.500. He was .540 with Detroit, which left him at .506.

Would have been great to get Francona.

it's cool -- just give cleveland a low-level prospect for him

Who's available?

Acta?

Detroit becomes the most attractive managerial opening, right?

DUSTY

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/danny-knobler/24116721/gibson-ausmus-could-be-candidates-to-replace-leyland-with-tigers

Leyland is likely to push for the job to go to either Gene Lamont or Lloyd McClendon

Noooooo

"During the playoffs, my wife and I were in church, and I told her that I let one of those silent fluffies of mine, what should I do, and she said, 'Get a new battery for your hearing aid.'" -- Leyland just now

@OzzieGuillen
great press confernce jim leyland very classic man was my first tird base coach in the big league

Jim Leyland, Classic or Tird?

Leyland is likely to push for the job to go to either Gene Lamont or Lloyd McClendon

the failed pirates manager cabal strikes again

dodgers sign 26yo cuban middle infielder alexander guerrero to a four-year, $28m deal, conceivably putting a crimp in robbie cano's bargaining power

Damn man, Leyland has a nice voice!

http://bcove.me/n2ftpy7e

That's great. (I wonder if anyone circumspectly pointed out to him that the Stylistics weren't on Motown...)

Or that Marvin Gaye is dead.

Or that I posted a link to that in the 2009 Tigers thread (huh).

It seems that Brandon Phillips will probably be on the way out of Cincy. I got to figure the Braves might be the obvious place for him to end up, being that BP is from Georgia, the Braves have Uggla to send packing and plenty of prospects to add to the deal. Braves and Reds have also done a couple of minor trades in the past 2 seasons, so those clubs GMs seem to deal.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/2013/10/16/john-fays-wednesday-wanderings/

he's an upgrade over uggla i guess, but i don't think four years of mid-30s BP is really that enticing -- pretty noticeable decline despite the 100 rbis this year

also he seems a poor fit for the party police

It would be the best 2b/SS defensive middle infield in the NL most likely, if it did.

that might be the case if i played 2B for the braves too

Bobby V to replace Leyland? Please God, it's me, Margaret.

oh fuck off that book title

tbf i have pretty good range, but with a sax/knoblauch arm xps

for the Reds, it's their pitching coach! (who I wd not have been able to name)

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9861173/reports-cincinnati-reds-promote-pitching-coach-bryan-price-manager

manager roundups! (makes me think of Red River)

Copy-cat business that it is, baseball seems to have strayed away from the recycle system that once guided the managerial merry-go-round and uncovered an era in which pretty much anything goes. It was a shock to some that the Cards followed a championship season and replaced the legendary Tony La Russa with the unproven Matheny, but they felt (correctly, it turns out) that he was the right man at the right time.

Indeed, experience is increasingly less a factor than the ability to integrate to the plans and personalities in place, and that's why some of the names being bandied about for these excellent assignments are not exactly household names.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/anthony-castrovince-open-managerial-positions-may-not-go-to-high-profile-candidates?ymd=20131021&content_id=63205526&vkey=news_mlb

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2013/10/22/4865588/mlb-manager-rumors-eric-wedge-tigers-cal-ripken

paul molitor joins twins coaching staff

pitching coach?

Coletti fired some of Mattingly's guys. I really don't understand what they're doing there.

Sounds like chaos. I dont think Ned is in charge anymore. Its Kasten.

John Harper @NYDNHarper
Person close to Kasten says Dodgers' issue with Mattingly is in-game decisions: "All he knows is what he learned from Joe (Torre).'' Ouch.

it is being suggested that the elevation of the reds' pitching coach may lead to aroldis starting

giants agree to two-year extension with timmy pending physical

Sabean trolling MLB?

http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2013/10/22/4870598/tim-lincecum-giants-contract-details-35-million

Trolling MLB with the exception of free-agent SPs, obv.

giants agree to two-year extension with timmy pending physical

what, he is not going to the Dodgers?

Lincecum gets $17 million next year and $18 million in 2015, along with a full no-trade provision.

they paid way too much for him, he is no way worth that type of money.

"it is being suggested that the elevation of the reds' pitching coach may lead to aroldis starting"

Bryan Price was pretty positive about it in spring training last year.

If Chapman starting happens, it will be interesting to see how Bryan Price and the Reds juggle the innings ceiling that both Chapman and Tony Cingrani will be facing next year.

I guess the Giants would know better than anyone else what exactly has been wrong with Lincecum and how to fix him. Still, that's a crazy amount of money for a guy who's been below replacement level for the past two years.

I don't get it!

pretty strange. a lot to pay for an innings eater.

looks like the giants GM lost some sort of bet at a bar

did they do it bcz of FIP?

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/10/22/4869432/tim-lincecum-giants-san-francisco-new-contract-deal

Shin-Soo Choo On Yankees Radar

While finding an outfielder is high on the club's list, they also need consider third base, shortstop, catcher, and their starting rotation.

lol

i'm pretty convinced that the Giant move had everything to do with the Dodgers. Timmy is no Brian Wilson so i don't think he would have went south anyways. the Dodgers could have thrown money at him just to see what would happen and the Giants didn't want that to happen. nothing would be better for the Dodgers than to tarnish the Giants brand. i think they aren't even close to finishing either, they can't be cheap after this deal. this deal should be just one of many to come as we need a number three starter as Timmy is more like a four or five. also need a RF and shore up our bullpen.

uh, Lincecum is pretty tarnished at this point

i agree it is a very bad deal. i was just trying to figure out why the Giants made the deal that they made.

Marketing

marketing + it's easier to overpay timmy than try to replace 60% of your rotation on the free market all at once

Matt Williams reportedly your Nationals skipper

Mattitude

Jonah Keri @jonahkeri
Now for something completely different -- an actual source-based rumor. Hearing talks escalating for Tim Wallach re: Tigers manager job.

http://blog.sfgate.com/giants/2013/10/25/tim-lincecums-35-million-deal-with-sf-giants-is-finalized/

"It wasn't necessarily the size of the deal," Lincecum said. "It's just that we got something worked out in a timely fashion, which is the way the Giants wanted to get it done. When they made the push, it kind of made it hard not to respond. The relationship kept pushing a little bit more, and we're sitting here at two years at 35. So I'm really, really happy about it."

https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/395219610770747392

I wonder if this means Konerko is retiring.

Scott Merkin @scottmerkin
Hahn: "This signing does not preclude us from bringing Paul back."

Buuuuut...

for a second i read that as bobby abreu and thought lol white sox

they need to sign a Cuban broadcaster to replace that thing in the booth

Hawk?! the man is a national treasure!

your nation is welcome to him.

seriously, i would take him in a Toronto minute. it seems like the less he knows about what's going on in front of him, the more entertaining it is. him broadcasting Canadians games would be glorious.

rip buck martinez

‏@BNightengale
Ubaldo Jimenez declines #Indians option and now headed for huge bucks as free agent

@jonmorosi: Derek Jeter re-signs with Yankees on one-year, $12 million deal, team announces.

it's like the "you have to let me go" gravity scene

spoilers goddammit

George Clooney dies.

sorry morbs. jeets doesn't make it back to kalamazoo :`(

they survive and land back on earth only to discover the statue of liberty all blown up and shit.

George Clooney dies. There's a part where they try to trick you into thinking he's still alive but just know he is really dead.

Apparently Ausmus will be managing the Tigers.

a former All Star catcher in Major League Baseball, and is currently[when?] the manager of the Detroit Tigers[1]

i'm seeing Gravity on the 17th, then i'll know about the FP

there really are shitty ppl on the board tho

lloyd mcclendon is your new seattle mariners skipper

poor mariners fans

http://cdn2.sbnation.com/assets/3517371/lloyd.gif

Mets called Rafael Furcal, not sure if he accepted the charges

the mets are a prison

I got some love for the Sugar Bear as a player, as Lloyd McClendon was a fan favorite in his days with the Indianapolis Indians. He also played for the Reds and Cubs, so I knew his career from following those teams when I was a kid.

the Marlins are maximum security, ol' pal

Ausmus new best-looking mgr obv

who will invite Zito to camp? or does he get a 1-year deal for... $4 M?

‏@DSzymborski
It kind of adds insult to injury the way @CBSSports not only laid off Knobler and Miller, but instantly wiped all traces of their existence.

Assuming "traces of existence" means "writings on the CBS website," and not incineration of their bodies, but man...

BP predicts Choo to Mets, McCann to Nats

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22165

beltran received an offer, mlbrumors has it the yankees

if u listen, u can hear Keith Hernandez ask "what're we playing, PATTYCAKE??"

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2013/11/7/5078118/mlb-rule-change-collisions-home

Ken Rosenthal, the terrible GM:

Here is my suggestion: Tulo to the Cardinals.

Tulo to the Cardinals for – deep breath now – first baseman Allen Craig, right-handers Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal and a fourth, lesser prospect, with the Rockies paying a chunk of Tulowitzki’s remaining $130 million.

ugh, no no no

all we need to do is get someone who isn't a black hole of offense at SS.

in rosenthal's defense, i guess he just wants something really exciting to happen.

Rosenthal also tweets horseshit like this...

@Ken_Rosenthal
Why Granderson won’t accept the #Yankees’ qualifying offer. Column: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/curtis-granderson-new-york-yankees-could-reject-qualifying-offer-turn-free-agent-110713 …

...which is worded like a REPORT -- rather than a speculative opinion piece -- you know? He couldn't type "Why I think Granderson won't accept..." instead?

Why Ken Rosenthal will be charged with misdemeanor battery. Column:

I like Carlos Beltran as a player, but I think it's kind of nuts to want a 3 or 4 year contract at age 37 for about anyone. I suppose it is really hoping for a 2 or 3 year deal in the end. That said the Yankees seem like the kind of fools to lay that kind of deal out.

is it a foregone conclusion he won't resign with the Cards?

if beltran can transition to DH i don't see why he couldn't be a really productive hitter for three more years

"is it a foregone conclusion he won't resign with the Cards?"

Based on recent past, I'm thinking they might go sign someone but they would go for a younger player.

mauer will play 1b next year

i guess they're trying to preserve his knees?

knees + concussions, i think

Hi Andy,
You have a new follower on Spotify!
desirelaford
Followers: 0 Following: 12
I've been listening to: Tony! Toni! Toné!, Paul Davis, Bobby Caldwell, Ambrosia, Groove Theory, Zhané.

Is it...?

‏

@RelafordDesi 29 Oct
@djquik are you fucking serious???

Pretty conclusive evidence here.

"is it a foregone conclusion he won't resign with the Cards?"

Based on recent past, I'm thinking they might go sign someone but they would go for a younger player.

i don't think they're going to sign someone. if/when beltran leaves, craig will move to RF (with Matt Adams taking over 1B full time), Jon Jay stays at CF, and Oscar Taveras will gradually get more playing time in the OF as the season goes on. there's no reason to sign an OF when they have Taveras coming up soon anyway. if they decide to pursue ellsbury (don't think they will), the situation would be the same with Craig in RF and Adams at 1B, and Taveras coming up some point and gaining more playing time.

reds to hire pirates hitting coach jay bell as bench coach #treason #whatever #whocares

marlon byrd to the phillies

so is he the oldest free agent they possibly could have gotten, or will they be signing anyone else?

haha actually i've heard that if they can't keep ruiz they would be interested in pierzynski, so

their stats temp will be ignored again

ruiz to red sox; mark derosa retiring

who's confirming that?

hmm, apparently the ruiz thing is not true (yet)

was that fake joel sherman?

Joel Shmerman?

Jean Haymen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies#Indoors

Tweeting Fake MLB Transactions

punto.co coliseum

@susanslusser 1m
If you'd like to follow new #Athletics utility infielder Nick Punto on Twitter, he's @Shredderpunto.

yeah he likes to shred dudes shirts when they get a walk-off win. don't judge.

you can rule out the Yankees signing Brian Wilson after his agent told the team he won't shave his beard.

smart guy

<3

im so sick of Brian Wilson

brian wilson is p. annoying, tru

but not as annoying as complaints from fans of two of the last four world series champs

also fuck the yankees, who will happily employ juicers/whomever just so long as their whiskers don't threaten the public

i really try to not be annoying. i get carried way as a fan.

aw <3

@JesseSanchezMLB
Several outlets in Venezuela are reporting Omar Vizquel hired as the first base coach for the Tigers. Stay tuned. http://Mlb.com

YES

tim hudson to the giants, $23m/two years

is Mark Mulder next?

really we got him? didn't think that was going to happen. he replaces Zito.

fangraphs likes it

tbh i'd have liked to see the pirates go after him, but the pirates are apparently resolute in their crying poor + scrap heap + ray searage strategy

Tigers hire Matt Martin as a defensive coordinator:

http://www.blessyouboys.com/2013/11/18/5119006/matt-martin-joins-brad-ausmus-detroit-tigers-staff-as-defensive-coordinator

Josh Johnson to Padres for one year, $8M

LaTroy Hawkins will close for Rockies, $2.5M for a year

Hawkins is the closer now and not Brothers?!

deadline for adding minor leaguers to the 40-man roster and therefore protecting them from next month's rule 5 draft is tonight, so a lot of ppl being added/dropped

astros picked up ss ryan jackson off waivers from the cards. kinda meh, but probably isn't any worse than pete kozma

rangers got shawn tolleson off the dodgers; decent pickup imo

Indians signing David Murphy, yes?

Kinsler for Fielder. Huh!

wau

One thing that's kinda annoying with these rush-to-publish reports is the lack of copy-editing. #bloickbuster #Haymen

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24250972/fielder-for-kinsler-bloickbuster-is-on-the-table

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/11/20/fielder-for-kinsler-trade-a-possibility/

i think i like this for the tigers?

Dombrowski must have made this deal while Ilitch was napping. "I tried calling...we had to make a quick decision."

Kinslers numbers outside of Arlington are replacement level. This seems like a glorified salary dump.

Didn't notice Kinsler is signed through 2017..challenge trade?

i think i like this for both? jurickson + elvis up the middle, prince should enjoy arlington. in detroit, miggy to first, castellanos back to third

Kinslers numbers outside of Arlington are replacement level. This seems like a glorified salary dump.

Yeah -- I'd prefer Infante (comparable bat, better glove, maybe not as much range?), but that Cabrera-Fielder corner combo was comically bad.

October 22

http://www.blessyouboys.com/2013/10/22/4860150/prince-fielder-trade

Maybe Jim Leyland needs to have a reassuring conversation with Fielder about his role and his importance to the team. Leyland may not be with the Tigers for many more seasons, but Fielder will be. Seven more seasons. For better or worse.

Detroit will be sending $30 million to Texas in the Prince Fielder deal.

@jazayerli
Even eating $30M, the Tigers save $81M in the trade. That's more valuable than 3 years of Prince at ages 34-36.

that's true. it's also half the a's/pirates current payroll

Probably a significant difference between Prince in Comerica and Prince in Arlington, too.

The Tigers' acquisition of him never seemed practical -- much more an Ilitch move than a Dombrowski move.

yeah prince probably just won himself a couple bounceback years in arlington

Ballparks: Comerica Park · Attendance: 3,083,397 (3rd of 15)
Park Factors Over 100 favors batters, under 100 favors pitchers.
multi-year: Batting - 106, Pitching - 105 · one-year: Batting - 108, Pitching - 106

Ballparks: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington · Attendance: 3,178,273 (2nd of 15)
Park Factors Over 100 favors batters, under 100 favors pitchers.
multi-year: Batting - 104, Pitching - 103 · one-year: Batting - 102, Pitching - 101

so they both favor everyone?

Over 100 favors batters, under 100 favors pitchers.

PFs for immobile left-handed power hitters?

i assume comerica's park factors are due to ginormous power alleys, where arlington is much more homer-friendly.

This just showed up on my FB wall:

"I'm already prepared for a shit season. Sorry. Leyland out, I'm not convinced."

comerica's park factors are due to it being a homer-friendly hitter's park

not that it means much but prince slugged a lot better at comerica than away

Over 100 favors batters, under 100 favors pitchers.

all the numbers are over 100

i know you love to sound like you know what you're talking about but recent evidence suggests that comerica is slightly below-average for homers

all the numbers are over 100

― mookieproof, Wednesday, November 20, 2013 10:01 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, both numbers favor hitters

or maybe average, but it's no arlington

cad -- using what?

why aren't they equal?

http://www.seamheads.com/ballparks/ballpark.php?parkID=DET05&tab=pf3

http://www.parkfactors.com/DET

well this is interesting to say the least.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/11/giants-fully-engaged-with-javier-lopez.html

the Giants are spending like no tomorrow, i love it!

lol ok then i guess i stand corrected, still don't think it'll have any effect on prince tho

i think he could certainly get back into the mid 30s in home runs for a few years

Not getting divorced again might help, too.

prince's slugging splits have been flattening out, but in his last year in milwaukee he slugged .659 in miller park. dude could totally slug over .600 in arlington imo.

@HighHeatStats

Worst fielding runs ALL-TIME among 1B:
PRINCE FIELDER -92
Jason Giambi -83
Willie McCovey -78
Jim Bottomley -73
Bob Watson -68

Prince Fielder is 29.

jim bottomley is an amazing name for a bad-fielding 1B

for anyone, really

hah true

I bet you don't even know that Bottomley has the record for RBI in a game, 12 (tied by Mark Whiten).

AND he was known as "Sunny" Jim Bottomley.

mark whiten did some remarkable shit

first-ballot youtube hall-of-famer imo

Kind of a brilliant move for both teams just for the way it clears up their positional logjams.

Tigers certainly paid a lot for 2 years of Prince

(xpost) That's literally the only thing I know about Bottomley, the 12-RBI game--that, and that he always seems to be one of the first guys mentioned when discussing questionable Hall of Famers from the offense-happy '30s (parallel from the '90s might be Tino Martinez).

i'm into this for both sides... the tigers had to get cabrera off third

One of the BP guys this morning suggested Tex could still trade Profar cuz they have Rougned Odor as their top prospect!

arlington more of a hitters park if you look at more than 1 year of park factors, its usually up around 108-109

the rangers are just making up names for these guys aren't they

I think they took them from Hunger Games

With the cash coming back in the deal, the Rangers are essentially giving up Kinsler to sign Fielder to what's going to be something like a seven year, $76 million deal. That's an oversimplification, and it's guessing at the money going back to Texas (edit: confirmed at $30 million). But if you're wondering why the Rangers would take on Fielder's poison contract, that puts it into perspective. Maybe this will look stupid in 10 months, but I'd rather have Fielder for seven years and $70 million than Jose Dariel Abreu for similar money.

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/11/20/5128186/prince-fielder-ian-kinsler-trade-tigers-rangers-wut

Neyer:

Dave Dombrowski said Fielder was his first baseman and Cabrera his third baseman, and by gosh that's exactly what they've been. Defensive efficiency be damned. So when Daniels says Fielder's going to play a lot of first base even though he was born to DH, I believe him. Which might cost the Rangers two or three wins.

Apparently Braun for Ike Davis is a rumor, don't think there's much chance of it happening BUT I love the idea of Braun to 1B

if braun and fielder get traded we might need to retire the idea of an untradeable contract

(ryan howard exception)

This is done: Lopez for three years and $13 million.

http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/giants-lopez-deal-done-pending-physical

royals give jason vargas a four-year deal (for $32m), no one understands why

$8m not bad but 4 years is wacky

the royals are idiots, that's why

Meche'd up

Is Braun to 1B a feasible thing? It's not being seriously discussed, but it does seem like it would solve a lot of the team's problems if they don't resign Hart.

well, Brewer fans are discussing it, but I'd be shocked if they actually did it

Chris Young to Mets for one year, $7.25 million, app the going rate for lifetime .235 hitters w/ medium power. Now they have two Young outfielders who are not young.

Players who are named Black are white, and players who are named White are black, and the Rangers just got a Fielder who's not a fielder.

Don't even get me started on Neil Walker!

lol i think my fav dice line is 'what are your names, neil and bob? or is that just like what you do OHHH'

it was enough trying the other retread pitcher chris young imo

Freese/Salas for OuroBourjos/Grichuk

give edge to Cards here. TLR broke Salas like 3 years ago.

another good one for both teams position-wise

freese was not good last year, the angels are a horribly run franchise

they do seem to like our declining players

also the cards got the angels 2009 pick (who isn't mike trout) who hit 22 homers in AA last year

the angels are insane

i think you're forgetting something

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/assets/3334583/freese.gif

this kid's got dirt on his uniform

i always liked bourjos though his numbers aren't as good as they were in my imagination. only 23 tho.

http://tinyurl.com/ks8omjb nothing to see here >_>

the cardinals have a lot of good players

jesus xp

Bourjos is one sweet outfielder

grichuk also had a .306 obp while hitting 22 homers in double-a, but no doubt the cardinals can fix that

man the angels have *nothing* in their system. unless zach borenstein can overcome the curse of the cal league, anyway

so Peralta is apparently asking for one squllion dollars.

canadian or american

Investigative journalism!

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131122/SPORTS0104/311220115

Apparently, there was a post on Twitter early Friday that Cano — the New York Yankees second baseman who is universally considered the best free agent on the market — might have been spotted at under-the-radar Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti.

And just that little, unconfirmed nugget sent the Tigers fan base into a tizzy, wondering if Dombrowski, the Tigers president and general manager, would seriously consider ponying up $200 million or more just days after shedding most of the remaining $168 million on Prince Fielder’s contract in a stunning trade with the Rangers. That deal also happened to net the Tigers another All-Star second baseman, in Ian Kinsler.

Now, this might be just coincidence. There’s a good chance that it is.

But ...

There was, indeed, a charter plane that took off from Teterboro, N.J., about a half-hour outside New York City, at 6:59 a.m. Friday and landed at Willow Run 90 minutes later. The plane then sat at Willow Run until 2:04 p.m., when it headed back to Teterboro. The plane in question is a Kelso Air-owned business jet, a Bombardier Challenger 600, which seats between 14 and 18 passengers. This plane could cost as much as $4,100 per hour to charter, or more than $32,000 for this particular trip — impressive, to be sure, but not much of a dent for someone who made, say, $15 million in salary in 2013.

This jet also has made no other recent trips to Michigan. Its recent getaways include such locales as Augusta, Ga. (home of swanky Augusta National Golf Club); Bermuda; Sacramento, Calif.; San Diego; and Chicago.

There was no word from either airport on whether Cano had been on board. An employee in the administration office at Teterboro said even if he had that information, he couldn’t disclose it. There was no answer at Willow Run on Friday evening.

c word alert!
‏@BillShaikin Dipoto on Freese: "He knows how to drive in the important run."

avoid the unimportant run

lol

DiPoto is smarter than that. I think a part of the GM job is giving usable quotes.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/10026267/brian-mccann-agrees-five-year-85-million-deal-new-york-yankees

NEW YORK -- After wooing Brian McCann during a visit to the Bronx this week, the New York Yankees have signed McCann to a five-year, $85 million contract with a vesting option for a sixth season that could push the total to $100 million, a source has told ESPNNewYork.com.

Freese has been hurt, right? He's a pretty good player when healthy

jhonny to the cards any moment now

Apparently he's going to play SS? Yikes

Maybe his defense at SS is better than I thought

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/article_a9b51076-3237-54d7-99b0-809d29aaf796.html

Haren gets one year, $10M from Dodgers

peralta 4yrs/52 million?

O_O

not a good deal but through the scope of we keep our stockpile of pitching and don't even lose a draft pick, its not too bad. why didn't the tigers at least make him an offer? free first round pick seems like a no brainer.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/article_a9b51076-3237-54d7-99b0-809d29aaf796.html

― polyphonic, Sunday, November 24, 2013 6:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

thought this was pretty good piece

also idk dude's been worth 11 WAR over the last three years he's pretty good!

also since it's the cardinals i'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt

it's probably worth that much to lose kozma but man what a deal for JP.

yeah since he's going to the cards he'll probably hit 30 HR per year with 90 BB on avg. cubs meanwhile will sign ellsbury to a 200 million dollar deal and he'll turn into juan pierre.

it's a good deal for peralta for sure but the salaries in baseball are just skyrocketing like crazy, this kinda thing is gonna happen multiple times a year

How much is Cano gonna get

Lindbergh at BP:

Peralta projects to be roughly a league-average hitter next season, which—as a decent defensive shortstop, a below-average baserunner, and a durable player who’s never been on the DL—would make him worth about 2.5 wins. Subtracting the standard 0.5 win per season aging penalty thereafter would yield a total of seven wins over the life of the contract, at a rate of $7.4 million per win. That doesn’t sound like great bang for the Cardinals’ buck, but after factoring in inflation, it might not be so bad. Even if it ends up over the market rate, it might make sense for St. Louis, given the magnitude of the upgrade over Kozma, the team’s lack of empty costs elsewhere, and their position on the win curve.

Plus, Peralta might not follow the typical decline curve. He certainly hasn’t so far.

Plus, Peralta might not follow the typical decline curve. He certainly hasn’t so far.

I wonder how this was made possible

peralta also had a babip last year of .374, which is 60 pts over his career avg. but i mean he's also a SS, good glove, some pop, so i guess the cards shouldn't sweat it.

If not for Castellanos, Tigers MIGHT have paid that. He was a good pick-up (albeit for a fraction of the cost [and his '12 kinda sucked]).

that's another element -- Cards don't believe his vitamins did anything. xxp

padres and pirates swap 23yo left-handed-hitting outfielders, one of whom is named jaff

yeah since he's going to the cards he'll probably hit 30 HR per year with 90 BB on avg. cubs meanwhile will sign ellsbury to a 200 million dollar deal and he'll turn into juan pierre.

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Monday, November 25, 2013 1:40 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

lol

Prince Fielder will be wearing number 84.

"I played with Omar, and he taught me a lot defensively, just from watching," Kinsler said. "I’m looking forward to him verbalizing some things. He’s kind of a quiet guy, and you had to learn from him through your eyes.

"Him as a coach, I think he’s going to be able to verbalize some things and teach that way, which I’m excited about."

APRENDER ESPAÑOL

going forward, verbalizing is a win-win

Nolasco to Twins, 4/$49M

I'd figure the Cards dropping 53 million on Peralta might make the market value on Brandon Phillips contract perhaps a bit more manageable for trading.

I really don't like the current Yankees management, but it would be good to see them get smart and not sign Cano at all and let him walk. I'm wondering how far Cano's price would drop in that case. I bet he would end up taking a 1 year deal at max he could get some place else. Most of the time the agent comes away making the Yanks look stupid and taking candy from a baby, but I think this time with the insane 11 years 300+ million it might backfire on Cano and his people.

Then again, this is the Yanks that gave that stupid contract to A. Rod.

i think the yanks are a little different post-boss. also however much cano wants to party with jay-z, jettisoning boras for the most important contract negotiations of your life is silly

they seem to be wildly overplaying their hand

A source close to Phil Hughes laughs at the notion that the Yankee would take a two-year deal . . . He now owns a career 4.54 ERA in 780.2 innings, including the 5.19 ERA over 145.2 innings he posted in 2013.

a source close to me laughs as well

twitter is saying phil phranchise got 3/$24m from the twins tho

they do love 'pitching to contact'

?!

kazmir gets 2/$22m from the a's wau

Kazmir had a 4.04 ERA with a 1.32 WHIP in his bounce back season last year. I don't get it.

Tommy Milone was the A's worst starter last year and he had a similar ERA and a much better WHIP.

kazmir's peripherals were very good

i'll let dave cameron explain http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/as-add-scott-kazmir-keep-doing-as-things/

Pretty good but if this means no Bartolo next year... *sobs*

fister to nats?

smyly to rotation

Fister leaves a gaping hole in Tigers rotation; Smyly faces a challenge to plug the void

@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*

rip dreams of trading for porcello ;_;

Athletics Acquire Jim Johnson From Orioles For Jemile Weeks

oh shit i thought that was a joke

extra RIP to my jim johnson for rick porcello dreams lol

rip brian roberts

smart move tho. i thought there'd still be a dumb and rich gm who'd give too much for the inflated save total, but this was still a necessary salary dump and i'm excited to see how they allocate the money saved

lol jk "money" what is that

Jon Heyman ‏@JonHeymanCBS
aj pierzynski, red sox agree to a deal

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

needed to get even more hateable

Fister's 13.3 Wins Above Replacement over the last three seasons rank him ninth among Major League pitchers, though fourth on the Tigers.

Colon w Kazmir and Balfour w Johnson seem like perfectly fine As-like moves to me.

um... why did the Tigers trade Fister?

$$$

sucks for them tho, he's an extremely valuable dude

And apparently they're about to sign Joe Nathan.

that is....not a great idea

He's been really good the last couple years.

There was a sleep-deprived moment on the train where i wondered why the Bawsawx would sign AJP when they have McCann... that's right, the two evil empires merged in my mind into one big shitstinking Death Star.

yikes
Andrew Baggarly ‏@CSNBaggs 25m
Confirming AP report: Van full of 11 #SFGiants prospects struck in Scottsdale this morning. Five transported to hospital.

jesus

@Buster_ESPN
There are players in the Orioles' organization not happy with recent events; they are hoping to see progress in weeks ahead.

hahaha or they'll do what?

Recent events... has anything happened other than the Johnson trade? I don't see anything in their transactions. They're that upset about losing their closer? In early December?

Or is it that they haven't signed an expensive free agent, hmm, that's probably it.

what the fuck is going on today?!

What the fuck is going on this off-season?

Rangers just got a better haul for Gentry than what the Tigers got for Fister and the Rays just did a three-team deal in order to land *Ryan Hanigan* and give him am uncalled for extension!

@Ken_Rosenthal
Source: Nathan deal with #Tigers is in $20M range for two years.

This (isolated from all other action) seems reasonable.

I can't remember an offseason with this many weird trades, but without many decent free agents on the market I guess it's not too surprising.

Cubs name Eric Hinske as 1st base coach

The Major League Baseball Players Association announced that former big league first baseman Tony Clark has been appointed as executive director. Clark takes over for the late Michael Weiner, who passed away after a 15-month long battle with brain cancer in November.

I always liked Tony Clark. A fellow San Diegan!

Josh (Michigan)
Dave Dombrowski has been on tear lately..sense of urgency?

David Schoenfield (1:12 PM)
I wouldn't be shocked to see Cano playing for the Tigers in 2014.

@Ken_Rosenthal 40s

Source: #Padres acquire OF Seth Smith from #Athletics.

For Gregerson, ugh. I'm gonna miss that guy.

will he pull a Bell outside of SD?

athletics are really active eh

that's a good move for the padres imo, smith's lefty power will play there

‏@Buster_ESPN 42s
Other teams becoming convinced that Carlos Beltran is going to land with the Royals, on a deal of 3/$48 million.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ImCpNqbJw

Would not have predicted a Beltran/royals reunion!

smith's lefty power will play there

I dunno man. He put up .721 and .754 OPS for the A's. Last year he did .748 against righties. He seems pretty marginal, and doesn't have much outfield range. He can't DH anymore. Greggy's a pretty great arm to give up for a lefty pinch hitter.

@BNightengale Astros acquire OF Dexter Fowler and PTBNL from #Rockies for OF Brandon Barnes and RHP Jordan Lyles.

Beltran to the Royals: I'm probably looking at this wrong way, I don't understand the realities of the marketplace, but to me that looks like, "We'll draft you and develop you and get a few good, unpolished years out of you, go and have your HOF career someplace else, after which we'll catch you for three final seasons of overvalued decline."

Can't wait for the inevitable Joe Posnanski article ripping this move apart

for reference:

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/vargas-baby/

@Ken_Rosenthal
Source: Nathan deal with #Tigers is in $20M range for two years.
This (isolated from all other action) seems reasonable.

― Andy K, Tuesday, December 3, 2013

He's 39 though! Have there been any closers who were dominant past age-40 other than Rivera?

John Franco, lol

Hoyt Wilhelm. Little while ago.

He doesn't have to be dominant. He just has to be Joe.

Loving this Cano to Mariners rumor-mongering

re gegerson, he's a good pitcher but honestly most bullpen guys are expendable (except for teams that enter a season with like 75% playoff expectancy) especially when they pitch in san diego. remember the lessons of mike adams and heath bell!

heyman reporting ellsbury to the yankees noooooooooooooooooo

haha wow

niiiice

The source confirmed a CBSSports.com report that Ellsbury's deal exceeds Carl Crawford's seven-year, $142 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in December 2010.

https://twitter.com/FeinsandNYDN/statuses/408048140218933248

Stanks are still cutting payroll, right?

shoot me in the head

"re gegerson, he's a good pitcher but honestly most bullpen guys are expendable (except for teams that enter a season with like 75% playoff expectancy) especially when they pitch in san diego. remember the lessons of mike adams and heath bell!"

His splits are good though and it's not like Oakland isn't a pitcher's park too. Seth Smith is also kinda expendable...

you guys won't feel this bad when ells has a season where he plays 30 games or one where he hits 8 home runs.

he's a good player but sox fans aren't sweating this

seth smith is abt equally incredibly expendable so that deal makes sense for both sides imo

@Rosenberg_Mike
Jacoby Ellsbury has averaged 114 games. Prince Fielder: 160. Ellsbury is 1 year older. Tell me which contract is crazier.

well i still might take the non-fat guy but point taken

kinda weird of the yanks to supposedly stay firm @ 7/160 for cano then turn around and drop 7/153 on ellsbury, who has many more question marks.

fun day huh?

pretty amazing stat i just saw on twitter - only 2 players have played 500 games for the red sox and yankees. can someone guess without looking?

babe ruth is one

....or not! i thought for sure he was!

nope

ha yeah i think that's everyone's first guess (including mine)

kind of weird only 2 players have done this, it's only 3 full seasons and a little change

damon and clemens?

wade boggs? not sure he got in enough time on the yankees

clemens would if he was an every day player, but i doubt he got that many pitching appearances in as a starter

man damon was a durable mf

i did not think he was one

between 1996 and 2011, the most games damon missed in a season was 21

yep it's boggs and damon

Tonight, the Yankees agreed to sign Jacoby Ellsbury to a seven-year, $153MM deal with an eighth-year option that could boost the total value of the pact to $169MM.

if he makes it 500 games, he'll be a new addition to k3vin's trivia question

what's with teams signing contracts to pay old guys 20 million dollars to suck in their late 30s?

Ellsbury's contract is batshit crazy.

Morneau to Rockies for 2 years

@Buster_ESPN
Jarrod Saltalamacchia signed for a life-changing amount of money with the Marlins -- 3 years, $21 million. Good guy; good for him.

Don't unpack when you get there?

seriously. why would anyone sign a contract with these guys?! (ya, money, i know)

what's with teams signing contracts to pay old guys 20 million dollars to suck in their late 30s?

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, December 4, 2013 12:49 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

good read on this subject imo http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/accepting-dead-money-in-free-agent-contracts/

the Ellisbury deal is something that makes sense for the Yankees and no other team

basically

as a percentage of their payroll it's not that outrageous

sox fans mostly seem mad that it wasn't more of an overpay

Paul Sullivan ‏@PWSullivan 44m
In a down year, Konerko ($2.5 mil) had 12 home runs and 54 RBIs in 2013. Ellsbury ($153 mil) had nine home runs and 53 RBIs.

...

so good

sooooo good

($2.5 mil) ($153 mil)

hey Paul Sullivan, Ellsbury is a lead off man. He's not paid for homers and rbis you idiot.

also holy shit what a terrible year for konerko. surprised he's sticking around cws when they have Dunn and Abreu.

Sounds like he'll get limited playing time. Also I think his 2011 and 2012 seasons were among his best so maybe they're hoping he'll bounce back.

Pretty awesome that a 99-loss team has (re-)signed someone to DH against left-handers.

He's not paid for homers and rbis you idiot.

yeah i'm sure the yankees didn't have that 30-homer season ells had a couple years ago in mind.

But the Yankees are a different category. The Yankees in that too-big-to-fail category — they have money on top of money, and they are constantly aware that if they put a losing and uninteresting team on the field, everything crashes. Nobody buys their absurdly high-priced tickets. Fewer people watch their cash cow Yes Network. The back page of the Post and Daily News looks elsewhere. The Yankees brand — the most lucrative in America — starts to devalue a little bit and then a little bit more and … they just can’t let that happen. Money, they have. Wins, they need.

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/the-ellsbury-deal/

can anyone parse this? I can't tell if its quite as stupid as it sounds.

@Ken_Rosenthal
Exec asks, “How can you pay Ellsbury 153 if you offer Cano 170? You have to be willing to separate them, no?” Way to do it: 200 for Cano.

Granderson talks with Mets "intensifying"

I am afraid

btw, with Ellsbury out & AJ in, Boston now officially ugliest team ever

http://i.imgur.com/yhyHNG5.jpg
y'all wanna see this hole in my tooth

oops, that was supposed to be the caption for this one:

http://i.imgur.com/6r7qZMI.jpg

the caption for the first one was "hai can i babysit your children"

interesting tidbit:

peter bourjos has been worth 0.0079 WAR per plate appearance in his career
jacoby ellsbury has been worth 0.0073 WAR per plate appearance in his career

That Ellsbury deal is nuts for a few reasons.

1. Yanks got a player already that's pretty much Ellsbury in Brett Gardner. Heck they could have probably got a 2 year extension with a last year free agency raise for less than a year of that deal with Ellsbury.
2. Ellsbury has missed a huge part of 2 of the last 3 seasons.
3. Three seasons for Carlos Beltran is too many, but then you sign Ellsbury for 7?

Some Reds prognosticators had been thinking Gardner might end up becoming trade bait to the Reds for Brandon Phillips, especially if Cano didn't come back to NY. I'd think in light of the Ellsbury deal to me, this seems a bit more possible perhaps.

Criminy...how much money is Choo going to get? I'd bet on him in a 7 year deal before Ellsbury any day, although I think giving 7 year contracts is pretty much foolhardy except for Barry Bonds. That's the only real long contract like that I can remember that ended up being a great deal.

i gotta chime in w/the manram and miggy contracts

i think it's a good point that j0rdan and the fangraphs article were making: it's not such a terrible deal, for the yankees situation.

the royals offer of 3 years/$48 million for beltran (for his age 37-39 seasons) is a bad move though. so bad that i feel sorry for them just for considering it. he was absolutely awful in right field the last two years, so i'm assuming he's going straight to the DH. his discipline at the plate seems to be on a steady decline as well. his walk rate was once around 12-13% but over the last several years it's gone down and down, taking a huge drop to 6.3% last year. also, totally from memory, but iirc his power numbers took a significant hit in the second halves of both of his seasons with the cards - something that might be due to his age. i'd guess best case scenario would be maybe 2.5 WAR (from hitting alone), ~20 HR toward the beginning of the contract, and one of those broken down old man years at the end. and of course the median or worst case scenarios could be really, really bad. not a good move for a team that has to use its money extremely intelligently in order to compete.

It's a bad deal money wise, but most of these contracts now seem pretty bad to me, but it would be a good story for Beltran to come back to KC to end his career if it works out. It's probably going to end up a double bummer for Royals fans as they let Beltran go when he was young and great then will have him when he was expensive and not so hot.

On that note, has anyone seen any writing on how much cash is a playoff appearance worth to a club, even say a 3 game series?

It's somewhere out there. Basically real money is getting to games 5-7 in divisional series or farther.

yes, on Baseball Prospectus, and i'm too tired to look now

how does Beltran as DH work with defensively declined Country Breakfast unfit for 1B?

oh hum, it's official:

Ryan Vogelsong gets a $5MM guarantee, which means the Giants saved about $1.5MM by declining his option.

there was a accident and pointed out in this thread. all the minor leaguers are OK:

http://www.csnbayarea.com/sites/csnbayarea/files/giants-car-crash.jpg

http://www.csnbayarea.com/sites/csnbayarea/files/giants-car-crash2.jpg

there's nothing wrong with playing gardner and ellsbury at the same time. elite OF defense is a good thing.

i think ellsbury is a decent bet.

choo is much more likely to be a fluke imo

I dunno man, Choo is pretty good

ellsbury produces as long as he's healthy. choo has just had some legit mediocre seasons and he's not exactly got prime health either.

Choo only had one mediocre season as a full time player (2011), his platoon splits and his defense (if you play him in center, less so at the corners) are his biggest problems.

They're basically neck and neck in WAR over the last few years. Ellsbury a point or two ahead. I like a good reliable 20/20 guy over a 10/50 guy like Ellsbury but they're both valuable. But I don't see Choo as a variable guy. He is a steady producer. I also don't think Ellsbury's HRs were real but if there's anywhere he can hit em, it's Yankee Stadium.

Secondly I just think Choo is cooler.

Neil deMause on bang for the buck, ie Marginal Payroll per Marginal Win

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/64332632/

Secondly I just think Choo is cooler.

"I call him Mr. Choo." -- Dusty Baker

Brewers traded Aoki for a LHP named Will Smith. My Twitter timeline will never be the same.

Never heard of Will Smith, but I kinda like the trade - the Brewers had too many outfielders as it is, you can't NOT play Khris Davis after the way he played the second half, Nori just kinda the odd man out. Sucks because I really liked watching him play. Was really really hoping Braun would move to 1B.

Either way I love how the Royals and Brewers seem to keep swapping players (and a coach!) year after year.

Nori was such a fan favorite and such an insane value, it's hard to see him go. I love Khris Davis more than anybody loves Khris Davis, but I think the team is gambling too much on him. Also I get that they needed a LHP, but I'd be more comfortable with this if they addressed the 1B situation first. Now our best bargaining chip is gone.

Yeah its hard for me to really say this was good or bad b/c I dont know how Nori's contract situation works. I'm not worried about 1B because it's (theoretically) the easiest position to fill and they need starting pitching baaaadly. Mat Gamel is still in the mix isn't he?

Cubs name Eric Hinske as 1st base coach

i thought this was a joke, but i guess not!

xp nah, the Cubs picked Gamel up and dropped him; now he's a free agent. I don't think anybody is touching him with that injury history.

yeah I don't know if anyone's come back from back-to-back same ACL tears like that. I feel bad for the guy.

still, there's no way they can be as bad as last year at 1B, if nothing else they'll get some 35-year old vet on a 1-year or something

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/12/mariners-willing-to-pay-cano-230-240mm.html

what the fuck

i mean the mariners would def have to pay cano like $100 extra million to convince him to throw his career away

i dont get why they even want him, have they given up on ackley?

whow. dude owns a career .355 obp. just sayin!

i mean obv cano is really good and an improvement over anyone but i feel like the mariners could improve their hitting much cheaper, they dont really have anyone decent at 1B or corner outfield even unless they still believe in smoak

that's bonkers. the ellsbury sort of makes sense, or at least is defensible from a certain perspective, because of the yankees. but the mariners team salary was $84 million last year. they're going to tie up over a quarter of that each year in one player? maybe they have tv money coming in?

everyone has tv money coming in.

right, which is driving the stupidity of this offseason i guess.

the blue Jays do not because they are owned by the TV fucksticks.

xpost

that's bonkers. the ellsbury sort of makes sense, or at least is defensible from a certain perspective, because of the yankees. but the mariners team salary was $84 million last year. they're going to tie up over a quarter of that each year in one player? maybe they have tv money coming in?

― Karl Malone, Thursday, December 5, 2013 5:01 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark

no it's still stupid as shit and would sink their franchise

They have a ton of revenue and a very young core and very few salary commitments. If you're going to break the bank Cano is a pretty good choice.

except if it turns out you're still a 70 win team with a 6 win second baseman and instead of missing out on the playoffs by 20 games it's only 14 games but you have no more money to spend on your team cuz you have $50 million committed to two players

^ otm mariners are p dumb in general but i didnt think this dumb

also it's true that they have young players but they either mostly suck (ackley, smoak, monetro etc) or are entirely unproven over a full major league season (miller, franklin, walker, paxton, zunino etc)

i guess i just don't see how one player can help a team that is obviously bad. even mike trout would *barely* make the mariners a playoff contender in their current state.

There are a lot of parallels (assuming it happens) to the Rangers coming out of nowhere to sign A-Rod in '01, right down to the Mariners bidding against themselves to give Cano about $70M more than anyone else is offering.

or the angels

or the mets

or the marlins

mariners just signed willie bloomquist to a two year deal so watch out, they're making more moves than just the possible cano deal

i know that baseball players just play for money and baseball's a business (duh), but i wonder how players like cano/pujols feel, knowing that because they're making so much money, their team is at a severe disadvantage because they can't afford to field a decent squad around the moneybag players?

I can't imagine that Cano will actually go there though?

realized dave cameron is kinda becoming my dennis perrin here but

For $200+ million, Cano might make the Mariners better by five or six wins next year. But they could also buy five or six wins for a whole hell of a lot less than $200 million by pursuing players who don’t require crazy overpays to leave the Yankees. I’m not arguing that the Mariners shouldn’t sign Cano because I don’t want the M’s to spend money; I just want them to spend their money well enough so that it’s not Robinson Cano, Felix Hernandez, and 23 piles of crap.

but i wonder how players like cano/pujols feel, knowing that because they're making so much money, their team is at a severe disadvantage because they can't afford to field a decent squad around the moneybag players?

Are you serious

i know that baseball players just play for money and baseball's a business (duh), but i wonder how players like cano/pujols feel, knowing that because they're making so much money, their team is at a severe disadvantage because they can't afford to field a decent squad around the moneybag players?

― Karl Malone, Thursday, December 5, 2013 6:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

well i'm sure all of these guys are sold the opposite of "hey if you sign here we're totally capped out so this better work." it's more like "hey if you sign here we're gonna make the playoffs and roll up insane revenue and spend more money and have the best team in baseball." most probably sell themselves on that. a few probably realize the real transcation.

with pujols they did keep spending crazy amounts of money

Are you serious

yeah! i prefaced that question with the acknowledgement that obv they don't feel too bad because they are incredibly rich. and obv they have agents and family and friends who will tell them that they're worth it, whatever it is. but i wonder if some morsel of inner child remains and they actually want to win games and stuff, and maybe they've read a few things and realize that for most teams paying a ton of money for 1-2 players means that they have to make sacrifices in quality elsewhere on the field, and...

yeah you're right it's ridiculous

with pujols they did keep spending crazy amounts of money

Exactly.

And if Cano re-signs with the Yankees the same will be true.

well w/ the mariners it would almost certainly be different

gonna be tough for cano to turn down both the money and the prospect of having kyle seager batting behind him as protection.

well w/ the mariners it would almost certainly be different

Yeah but I doubt he's stressing out too much about the weight of a contract he has yet to agree to. And I doubt Pujols was stressing out about the huge contract he signed with the Cardinals when they were winning the World Series.

As a buddy texted to me which made me think about the old days around here, how much would Rickey Henderson get paid if Ellsbury gets 153 million?

PAY RICKEY!

If Mike Trout doesn't get hurt, what the heck kind of deal is it going to take to sign that dude. 500M?

The NBA brought some ABA teams into the league so they could get Dr. J, the NHL did the same with the WHA for Gretzky. Trout will unsignable by one team, so two franchises will merge so they afford him.

(Add verbs where necessary: "be," "can," etc.)

either that, or by that time salary inflation will reach the point to where we'll see things like

@Buster_ESPN
Pete Kozma signed for a life-changing amount of money with the Rangers -- 4 years, $112 million. What a great guy, he's known for quietly sucking ass.

lol @ mariners doubling down on their shitty strategy from last offseason

doubling, tripling, quadrupling

it's late and i'm looking at free agents that will cost a draft pick and i can honestly say i don't get what the point of draft pick compensation is, especially with the current system. who is supposed to benefit from it? is it an attempt to add parity? cause it doesn't really feel like shitty teams ever benefit from it, doesn't feel like the poor teams ever benefit from it, and now they have to risk $14 million for the chance to win out? and it's only the shitty and/or poor teams that have to worry about losing a pick in the first place, even if it's a second or third round pick, which can be a pretty huge deal if the draft is your only hope annually. guys like cano -- w/e, it's the mid-level question marks that could really help the crappy teams, jimenez and santana and cruz etc, that they never end up signing cause the draft pick pushes it too far. or they DO sign them, and they end up getting hurt AND they lose a valuable draft pick. meanwhile only 2 of the 13 qualifying free agents this year came from a team that wasn't in the playoffs/wasn't the yankees, and only one (kendrys morales lol) came from a losing team. and if a team's willing to extend that much money to you, you're probably gonna wanna gamble and see how much more you can get. feel like the only time a FA would actually accept a QO without really wanting to stay in town is when a team makes a really bad decision. i just dgi.

not to be all ;_; orioles itt but as a fan of a team that sucked for a really long time i can't remember a single offseason in which 1. we got compensated with a good draft pick and 2. "oh no don't wanna lose a draft pick" was not an enormous concern regarding every potential free agent that was worth a damn. bad teams don't produce good free agents, bad teams to try to extend any player that could become a good free agent while they're still cheap, and bad teams need their draft picks.

what's the darn point of it, i know not everything is about parity but what's the point anyway, why not just abolish the darn thing

You could argue that Cleveland's turnaround last year is proof that the system works because of the Bourn and Swisher signings. The real point of it from the owners' side is that it keeps salaries down by limiting the market for players that would otherwise be in demand by more teams.

but as a fan of a team that sucked for a really long time i can't remember a single offseason in which 1. we got compensated with a good draft pick

But that's the front office's fault for not drafting better (e.g. Cards with Wacha/Pujols).

well yeah i'm not gonna deny that the orioles have been terrible at that. but of the FAs this year, i think the only one who's actually getting a draft pick for the team that drafted them is robinson cano. it's not just about drafting -- good teams have better players, bc they have the capital and depth to trade for them or sign them in FA and they don't need to worry so much about letting these guys go rather than giving them dumb extensions for slightly cheaper prices, cause fixing those holes is easier for them. also crappy teams tend to trade them six months before they'd go and earn a draft pick, which is an understandable tradeoff but still results in a system that only ends up benefiting the good teams

but yeah if it's not about parity and it really is just about keeping salaries down forget i complained, or just reread my complaint as "ugh draft pick compensation sucks and i haaaaate it" whining

According to the New York Daily News team, Cano and his representatives from CAA and Roc Nation Sports arrived in Seattle with an eight-year, $200MM offer in hand from the Mariners and eventually received assurances that the Mariners would go to nine years and $225MM. However, a late change by agent Jay-Z in which he once again demanded $252MM over 10 years caused Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln to "explode," prompting the meeting to end.

http://i.imgur.com/v56tvbk.png

Cano -> Mariners 10 years $240 million

looool good luck robbie

somehow I assumed that was never gonna happen. anyway, g'luck Stankees

elsewhere:

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2013/12/5/5178562/edward-mujica-red-sox

lol mariners

I missed this, NYY already have their 2b

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2013/12/4/5176854/kelly-johnson-contract-yankees

whoa. have fun robbie.

man this always had a pujols to the marlins feel to me

rip robbie, you are very rich now

gj mariners, final piece to the puzzle.

Congratulation to robansln ceno and ur upcomng visit 2 sub arctic humitee

also mujica can't rly be 29

draft pick compensation is totally about suppression of salaries btw

enjoy

Joel Sherman ‏@Joelsherman1 2m

#Mets have a 4-yr agreement with Curtis Granderson, the Post has learned

4 fuckin years, my god

@robneyer
According to @mccoveychron, this becomes Worst Contract in Baseball about four years in

@MrBrianKenny
Normal projection model for Cano for 10 yrs: 10 yrs: $285. No, really.

i am thanking the deities that the red sox have been super cold-blooded this offseason, these contracts all blow

@jonmorosi
Source: Mariners still pursuing free agents Shin-Soo Choo, Carlos Beltran and Nelson Cruz, among others. @FOXSportsLive

SIGN THEM ALL
FUCK IT

people who have seen granderson play every day:

is he a decent fielder (UZR of 15.3 in 2007, 7.3 in 2010) or terrible (-18.1 in 2012)?

its happening, huh

btw props to jay-z for bailing on the nets at the exact right time and immediately turning around and having his agency pull off this contract

SIGN THEM ALL
FUCK IT

WE'RE GONNA WIN THE GODDAMN WORLD SERIOUS

KM -- still good speed makes up for bad routes. Not a high 2nd or 3rd gear anymore but still useful in a large OF.

Granderson may not have arms actually

good speed makes up for bad routes

so, Mookie Wilson w/ power

Yeah kinda! Idk how his power translates to Shea tho. Totally pull.

Citi's behind-the-plate net goes up to the roof, right?

granderson has good speed?

It's still p good

He has multiple hand/wrist injuries of course so

All/mostly HBPs, right? Wish he and Victorino could swap luck.

I wonder if the Mariners would be doing this shit if the Seahawks were still mediocre.

Hbp yes. I feel like the money might be a little high but 4 years seems... Reasonable?

yankees are so dumb, why let cano walk its just money

getting hit by pitches is just bad luck, i agree, and shouldn't mean that he gets flagged as injury-prone. but the injuries he's already suffered seem like they make him risky. after he came back last year it seemed like he'd lost some power - an ISO of .178 compared to .260 in 2012 and .290 in 2011; 275 ft avg. distance on flyballs/HRs in 2013, compared to 285 ft in both 2012 and 2011. obv i don't follow him closely enough to know for sure, but it seems kinda risky to offer him 4 years when he hasn't shown that's he's fully recovered from the wave of injuries on his forearm and his hands.

(incidentally, i must mention that i noticed that pete fucking kozma ranked second-to-last in avg fly ball distance in 2013, at 253 ft. only craig gentry managed to hit flyballs closer to the infield on avg)

i'm sort of serious, i don't get the money side of baseball really but 240 million is like what a week of YES profits, cano is really good

it does seem like they were driving a hard bargain just to prove a point

10 years, geeez

oh man, i just did some advanced analysis of what robinson cano might look like during the final year of his new contract:

http://i.imgur.com/OmrsiI1.png

i figured the team that signed granderson would be doing so primarily because he runs into a decent amount of hrs, wonder what playing in citi is going to do to that skill.

according to fangraph's handedness park factors for 2013, it doesn't look good.

for lefties, the yankees had one of the most friendly park factors for home runs at 114. the mets have an almost league-average park for lefties/home runs, at 101.

at least he keeps the Mets from starting Matt Den Dekker

and yeah, as someone said, he's definitely a pull hitter:

http://i.imgur.com/UTgIGL6.png

Again, clueless about economic maneuvering, but it seems like insanity to me. 1) The Mariners aren't really close, are they? 2) Cano's one of the best 15 or so second basemen ever--probably headed to the HOF, but he's not historic like Morgan. He's a little better than Pedroia when Pedroia's healthy (and what, a couple of wins better than Aaron Hill?). And his best years are behind him.

so the yanks are gonna run out:

c: mccann
1b: teixeira
2b: ?
3b: a-rod? nunez?
ss: jeter
OF: ellsbury, soriano, gardner/suzuki?
DH: wells, suzuki?

gonna be interesting to see how some of these guys do

2b is Kelly Johnson (right now)

BP's Levine:

Cris E (St Paul, MN): Were the Yankees smart to avoid Cano at these prices or did they just not get a good chance to counter the Seattle offer? I don't expect they'd have matched, but they might have beaten the AAV for a shorter period or something.

Zachary Levine: I think they were smart to avoid it at this price. For one thing, because I don't think that would have been the price. If 10/240 was reportedly what the Mariners offered when the Yankees were willing to go 7/175 or something like that if what's reported is true, what would the Mariners have bid if there were legitimate matching from the Yankees? Then what would the Yankees have had to counter with?

They were fine not to get too involved at those prices.

well i mean if they had budgeted like $175 million for cano i'd assume they will divert that money elsewhere

they're almost certainly gonna sign choo it seems like

gotta sign choo

well they don't have to, i guess. but even if they decided to play with who they have and wait til next year, 2015 looks sparse beyond kershaw and hanley.

and scherzer

the yankees should sign uribe

they could just try to draft better players and make smart trades for younger players with good upside

ahahahahaha, sorry, sorry

rip michael pineda

Kershaw won't make it to free agency.

Is there anything left to discuss at the winter meetings?

full no trade clause for him to waive in 8 years when he's become nothing more then a financial liability.

Just catching up with the action today, some crazy shee-it goin on

I liked Ells a lot and I'm sad he's going but sheesh

Kinda psyched about AJ for the sox tbh

CANTU

Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com reports that Jorge Cantu is nearing a deal with the Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization.

critical hot stove news item!

Again, clueless about economic maneuvering, but it seems like insanity to me. 1) The Mariners aren't really close, are they? 2) Cano's one of the best 15 or so second basemen ever--probably headed to the HOF, but he's not historic like Morgan. He's a little better than Pedroia when Pedroia's healthy (and what, a couple of wins better than Aaron Hill?). And his best years are behind him.

― clemenza, Friday, December 6, 2013 7:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pedroia makes literally half as much money as well

totally forgot about the cantu, shame on me

1b/3b who could hit an occasional hr and that was it pretty much, iirc.

also ugliest dude ever

he led the NL is homers and rbis for like 2 months in 2007/2008 and everyone was confused

would also put forth that this man, ronald belisario is the ugliest dude ever. and this post is on topic as he signed a 3m deal with the white sox yesterday

http://metheone.com/images/talentos/4642/ronald-belisario_big.jpg

http://media.tumblr.com/f5cc7e06497eff986cd116844bbc1c93/tumblr_inline_mn4n6v3Io91qz4rgp.jpg

My god - he looks like a melting Jorge Posada

I think James wrote in the Historical Abstract that Don Mossi invented winning ugly.

http://www.complexmag.ca/sports/2012/07/the-100-ugliest-athletes-of-all-time/don-mossi

(Just nosed--and eared--out Willie McGee on that list.)

ha, yeah i almost posted willie mcgee's 1986 topps card a while ago, but i feel bad because i think i've highlighted his...interesting face..several times on ilx over the past few years

ah, whatever, yolo

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/388165/willie.jpg

Same one I almost posted! Even Diamond Kings couldn't save Willie:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LJvUULi51sI/S9ZilPxeo4I/AAAAAAAASss/oHkdJ7qcHXo/s400/86+Diamond+Kings+5.jpg

(Always liked him--had a little-kid aura that I always like in a professional athlete.)

(For the record, Don and Willie, Cary Grant I'm not.)

Wry look at the Cano signing through the prism of Joe Morgan:

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/what-can-cano-do-for-you/#more-1184

napoli resigns with the sox for 2/32, despite a bigger offer from texas. rad.

sounds like yanks signed beltran

http://cdn.sportsoverdose.com/thumbs/warner-madrigal-60-mlb.jpg

what in the holy fuck...

erm... anyways... 3 yrs/45MM for Beltran seems alright.

Damn, the Yankees are old

Why do they need six outfielders? Wells, Soriano, and Ichiro will be part timers I guess -- part timers making a combined $50M next year!

i assume they're going to try to move gardner

soriano can play 2b amirite

soriano and ichiro are not bad platoon options and/or depth if one gets hurt

i would assume they're smart enough to keep gardner but who knows

From the Posnanski piece:

I placed the value of 1 WAR at $5 million

Yeah, but ONE WIN IS WORTH FIVE MILLION DOLLARS?

wau he's being v conservative with that, that's a pretty old figure

this offseason is set to break records by a lot

one WAR, not one win

it's a dubious concept though given that there is no salary cap and each team has its own internal budgets (even the yankees these days, apparently), and as posnanski points out the number continually rises with salary inflation

actually maybe not, FG values trout's last season at 10.4 WAR/$52.1m xp

and yeah, paying too much attention to the $/WAR figure only makes sense for the most average-spending teams in the league

based on contracts signed this offseason, fangraphs has pegged it at around $6m

one WAR, not one win

Meaning that with a second baseman who plays above replacement level, it's not even one win, right?

paying too much attention to the $/WAR figure only makes sense for the most average-spending teams in the league

Does that include the Mariners?

it doesn't make sense for anyone because we have no idea what kind of money any team really has to spend tbh, especially now with the TV money. i never would've expected the mariners to even be able to conceive of the cano deal. i never thought the dodgers or angels to be able to afford what they do. oakland just took on a $10+ mil reliever. everything's wonky.

yeah i mean $/WAR is certainly an inexact calculation. but i imagine that most teams (except maybe the phillies and white sox or something) do their own internal calculations along that line. i would think that any team would want to do some sort of projection like that

i think for teams maybe it's more like "we can afford to pay from x-y for a win" and if a contract has a high risk of falling outside of that range then maybe it's something we shouldn't do

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/84943/why-robinson-canos-gigantic-deal-is-smart-for-the-mariners-and-what-it-means-for-the-yankees

keri

i'd forgotten about the TV revenue thing, teams get 26 million a year from that no questions asked, so they're basically back at square one, budget-wise, if you think about it that way

that's sorta true but throwing good money after bad still sucks even if it's money you're getting for free

tho i guess it's better than what some owners will do which is just pocket the money

I'm guessing we're going to start seeing even more lower income teams try to lock their young talent through their arb and early free agent years.

that kicked off like two or three years ago i think

$/WAR is certainly an inexact calculation. but i imagine that most teams (except maybe the phillies and white sox or something) do their own internal calculations along that line.

I wonder why a team should bother. If you look at total team WAR compared with total payroll it's probably all over the map for winning and losing teams.

Yeah, and the ones that low $/WAR are set up better for the future, generally speaking, than the ones with high $/WAR, I guess

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2012-payrolls-and-wins/

Dysfunction at the top: Eric Wedge, others point to trouble in Mariners’ front office

so many sad moments in that article.

“Jack [Zduriencik, GM] portrayed himself as a scouting/stats hybrid because that’s what he needed to get the job,” Blengino said. “But Jack never has understood one iota about statistical analysis. To this day, he evaluates hitters by homers, RBI and batting average and pitchers by wins and ERA. Statistical analysis was foreign to him. But he knew he needed it to get in the door.”

Wedge described how, starting in 2011, Armstrong would visit his office and gravely say things like: “Howard sent me down here and ... we’ve got to win.”

Wedge would shrug in agreement, telling him he wanted to win every night. “But he’s like, ‘No, we’ve really got to win. We’ve got to go 5-2 on this trip. We’ve got to win tonight.’ ”

can't believe karl malone killfiled me

yikes, is there something wrong with the link? it worked fine for me (and was linked to from the SBnation cardinals blog),and chrome didn't have any giant red screen 'you're gonna diiie' message.

i'd forgotten about the TV revenue thing, teams get 26 million a year from that no questions asked, so they're basically back at square one, budget-wise, if you think about it that way

― k3vin k., Saturday, December 7, 2013 1:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah despite the M's dysfunction I kind of have to commend them for spending this lol free TV revenue. its a band-aid on negative sentiment from the local fan base and no one really knows price per incremental win inflation 4-5 years from now.

i mean if one just randomly found a $50 bill in the couch you would spend it on a lap dance and a giant bag of white castles.

That article is crazy though. Team sounds positively Clippers-esque.

i'm retro-loling at all the dudes who thought jack z. was a genius who had discovered the secret of sick outfield defense back in '09.

i thought jack z had a good reputation among sabermetrically-inclined people before he even took that job - maybe that was for his amateur scouting though? which is something where stats don't really matter

iirc he did, but the seattle p-i article suggests he made it up!

he was the guy who drafted prince fielder and ryan braun for milwaukee? or am i mixing him up with someone else? either way that doesnt really have much to do with anything

#6 org never forget

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131209/SPORTS0104/312090035/Ex-Tiger-Magglio-Ordonez-elected-mayor-Venezuela

Caracas, Venezuela — A year after retiring from baseball, former Tiger Magglio Ordonez has been elected as the mayor of a city in his native Venezuela.

Ordonez’s victory in the city of Sotillo in eastern Venezuela was announced by President Nicolas Maduro at a rally Sunday for pro-government candidates who won the majority of 335 races nationwide.

The socialist president has turned to celebrity candidates such as the six-time All-Star to overcome rising anger with his handling of the economy. Maduro prevailed in his first electoral test since narrowly winning the presidency in April following the death of Hugo Chavez.

Ordonez retired in 2012 with a career .309 average over 15 seasons with the Tigers and the Chicago White Sox. The right fielder’s 294 homers are the second-most by a Venezuela-born player, trailing only Andres Galarraga’s 399.

um roy halladay is retiring

according to heyman

interesting

...Halladay will sign a one-day contract with the Blue Jays today so that he can announce his retirement from the game as a member of the Jays, adds Heyman

can't imagine why he wouldn't want to retire as a philly and enjoy their awesome fans

i think he saw an opportunity to be one of the very, very few players hated by philadelphia and perhaps needs batteries for his remotes at home

lol. brings a tear to my eye. he's one of my all time favs.
i was hoping he could bounce back a little and maybe have two more ok seasons... pad his HOF resume a little. kind of surprised how low his career WAr is.

xpost - huh?!

i dunno, joekz

‏@beckjason
Roy Halladay had two 10-inning wins over #Tigers in his career, four years apart. Fernando Rodney took the loss in both.

lol

halladay's a certain HOFer of course

"Didn't the Phillies give him like half a billion dollars?" -- Harold Reynolds

Didn't I steal like half a million bases?

It's sad that it had to end so abruptly, he seemed indestructible. Classy of him to retire as a Jay. One of my all time, if not my #1 all time favourite Jays.

even ahead of AJ Burnett?!

Phillies Actively Shopping Domonic Brown

That's great about Halladay--always wished they'd done the same with Alomar, Delgado, and McGriff. (But I guess that could turn into schtick real fast.) For me, he's absolutely a HOF'er. I just hope the rather sudden and steep end to his career won't hold him back. I don't think it will--didn't hold back Alomar.

i calculated halladay's WAR per 200 IP, and it's 4.77. a guy he'll be compared to, given the brevity of their careers, is koufax, who came in with 4.58

koufax comparison already happened: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/roy-halladay-deserving-hall-of-famer-to-retire/

of course when you do this you lose one of the benefits of using WAR as a measure of value, which is that it's cumulative and rewards sustained excellence. mariano rivera's for example, is 8.82, which i'd bet is the most ever by a large margin

xp

best signing of the off-season that affects my day to day baseball enjoyment - orel hersheiser's coming back to los angeles

The Mariners outbid themselves for Robinson Cano

that is amazing

well if what their self-bidding cost $15 million over 10 years they'll probably survive

There's an Onion headline in there somewhere.

Embarrassing--I'm only now cluing into the fact that Halladay's Jays signing is just a symbolic transaction existing only on paper. I think I initially thought they were going to trot him out there for the home opener so he could be pulled and get a huge ovation.

lol

‏@jonmorosi
Important takeaway for market at large: Tigers are less likely to land Shin-Soo Choo, with Rajai Davis' imminent arrival.

OH, ARE THEY?

d-backs apparently on the verge of making more stupid moves

sounds something along the lines of Skaggs and Eaton for Trumbo?!

had a dream shin soo-choo was in my house with a hat that said REDS 2013 $107,000,000 and i had to go on the internet and try to convince everyone like "sorry guys, i just know this, he's in my house he resigned with the reds"

someone was reading mlbtr before bed!

and possibly eating cheese!!

Dreams of the Babip Fiend

didnt arizona get skaggs from anaheim in the first place? angels still trying to recover from the damage of reagins.. then again dipoto has made some retarded moves too so maybe arte is the big dummy in that org.

white sox get adam eaton
angels get tyler skaggs and hector santiago
dbacks get mark trumbo + one player to be named from each of the other two

wau that is atrocious for arizona

this means nothing until the players are named but there was this update on mlbtraderumors a few hours ago:

11:38am: MLB.com's Steve Gilbert tweets that Arizona would receive a pair of good prospects in addition to Trumbo.

but yeah, sounds like someone in arizona is really impressed by 20+ home runs

and they're sticking Trumbo in right field, i'm to understand?!
why is every team in baseball not lining up to fleece this team RIGHT NOW?! (or are they out of prospects now?)

i'd think if it was "good prospects" we'd know the name by now and not - "we're going to google these guys and get back to you".

angels/white sox have two of the worst systems in baseball so i'm not sure how great the prospects will be

Dan Szymborski ‏@DSzymborski
Trumbo Arizona projection: 269/320/514, 35 HR, 112 RBI. -10 in LF for 2.0 WAR.

for a second i thought it was the angels getting eaton and i internally screamed about trout still not getting the CF job

and lol didn't see this

someone was reading mlbtr before bed!

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:31 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and possibly eating cheese!!

― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both true!

Adam Eaton @AdamSpankyEaton
Well, that escalated quickly...

someone's saying the 'prospect' from the angels is aj schugel lol

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10080878/mlb-trade-value-rankings-part-2

trade value column seems relevant for this thread

Rockies land Brett Anderson for Drew Pomegranate and some minor league guy.

pomegranate had 19 k's and 19 walks in 21.2 innings last year, wau

also his name is "Drew Pomegranate"

^^

the a's apparently hate brett anderson

pomegranate

@BNightengale
Rick Hahn on #Whitesox acquisition of Adam Eaton: Hes a dirtbag ball player."

Filthy savage.

kinda wanted him on the jays cos i feel like he and adam lind sorta look like weird brothers

xpost WTF does that mean?

He's just a really shitty person.

He's a garbage human being.

Wow, really? I had no idea.

^ i sounded sarcastic there, but i was 100% not sarcastic. i had decided that adam eaton was a nice guy based on his stats and how many of my fantasy teams he was on. which yes i realize is stupid.

...and if you were being sarcastic i feel like a real dipshit right now

I was just joking. That's what it sounds like Hahn is saying.

he meant "eaton's got the gritty grit pedroia grit always-covered-in-dirt factor"

the unoffical team name for the cal state long beach baseball team is the dirtbags.. its not derogative. hehe.

should have just called him a scrappy white hustler and avoid all the confusion

and wau wtf is arizona doing. supposedly they hard raging hard ons for choo and trumbo - very much not the same guy. but hey they got a white guy to play bad defense in the OF. mission accomplished.

this also flies in the face of their 'get rid of the strikeout kings with .300 obps who only hit home runs' business model of 2 years ago

the diamondbacks' GM is the 20th hijacker

that move by the A's isn't terrible i don't think... anderson can never stay healthy and is only controlled for two more years

pomeranz will prob pitch better in a park like oakland and he's still got 5 years of control left

if anderson could ever stay healthy he'd prob make $100 million

alas

Obviously Anderson should learn to be a scumbag like Adam Eaton.

i definitely read like 200 of eaton's tweets after that and was like "HE SEEMS LIKE A NICE ENOUGH GUY"

yr all jerks

hahaha

didnt arizona get skaggs from anaheim in the first place? angels still trying to recover from the damage of reagins.. then again dipoto has made some retarded moves too so maybe arte is the big dummy in that org.

It was also dipoto who made the original trade for skaggs when he was arizona's GM!

Drew Pomeranian seems like he might be one of those pitchers who is better under the As wing.

6'5 hard throwing lefty former #5 draft pick whose minor league #s look good and whose MLB stats are heavily Coors inflated for a dude who's costly and falling apart at the seams. What's not to like really?

yeah def

to me this is mostly a reminder of how blockbuster trades -- in this case the ubaldo trade -- can just totally end up being worthless for both sides

mccutchen just proposed to his gf on the ellen degeneres show

what kind of yrs/$ is she getting

wow, interested in becoming the Face of Baseball it sounds like