2012-2013 Hot Stove

@dbacks
Team acquires INF Cliff Pennington and INF Yordy Cabrera from @Athletics for OF Chris Young @CY24_7 and cash considerations

@dbacks
Team acquires RHP Heath Bell and cash considerations from @Marlins for Yordy Cabrera

wowowow, the Marlins better be paying a lot of Bell's salary

Jack Magruder ‏@JackMagruder
#Dbacks to pay $13M on final two years of , Bell deal, per Miami Herald's Clark Spencer.

o_O

waht

the d backs have made some real boneheaded moves lately

d backs should've charged the marlins an $8 million posting fee just for discussing heath bell

wow - i knew Bell was having a rough time outside of Petco, but didn't realize how bad until i looked up his numbers just now!

has a team ever done what the Marlins did this year? go on a huge spending bonanza and then switch right back into fire-sale mode before the season was even over?

yes, i believe they were called the Marlins

at what point are GMs going to finally learn to stop giving relievers big contracts

xpost Bosox 2011-2 never forget

true - the Marls and BoSox kind of pulled the same thing this year (except that Boston's '11/'12 offseason was nothing out of the ordinary for them, whereas the Marlins was)

Sean McAdam ‏@Sean_McAdam
Breaking: Red Sox have hired John Farrell as manager, signing him to multi-year deal. Official announcement coming soon.

Marlins should probably end every press conference where they introduce a new free agent signing with a quick turnaround trade for prospects

ha!

the John Farrell trade... I didn't think the J's would actually do it! wouldn't letting a division rival have your manager and all his knowledge of your team be very very bad?!

and why the the Sox want him so bad anyways? i had no qualms with him - but his record certainly wasn't all that great.

They don't want him for his managerial record, they want him because he's one of "their" guys, and when they tried hiring someone outside upper management's inner circle (Valentine), it failed miserably.

But I hoped we'd get more for him than Mike Aviles, WTF? Gotta say that in general I love the idea of trades involving managers though.

did any traded managers win a WS besides Gil Hodges?

Wait the A's got Chris Young?!?! Where are they going to play him?

I mean assuming Crisp or Reddick gets flipped now I like this deal. Green/Weeks/Sizemore or whatever combo seems like a better 2B choice long-term and I'm fine with picking up Drew's option (which I assume is the plan.)

I like that we go 15 posts before anyone discusses that aspect of the deal. Poor forgotten A's.

billy beane is out here sharking GMs again. chris young is a really good CF.

i still don't get what the d backs did... they shipped out a 16 war career player for the opportunity to acquire cliff pennington PLUS heath bell and $13 million of his salary

seriously wtf

Plus I think they sent some money to Oakland to boot!

Beane says they're keeping Crisp, so 4-man OF + DH if everyone's healthy maybe

If you combine this trade with the Stephen Drew trade, then the D'Backs traded shortstops with the A's (giving up their own All-Star caliber shortstop for the A's awful shortstop), and gave up Chris Young for a guy hitting like .230 in A-ball (from the Drew trade) and the ashes of Heath Bell. And that's even before you consider the salaries of the players involved!

yeah it's complete insanity

Very curious about the A's do about their SS and 3B situation given their glut of OF and 1B/DH types.

Mitch Williams thinks the A's are gonna flip Young.

Considering they just got him for Cliff Pennington basically I'm not clear what exactly they could expect to get back for him.

Why does anyone agree to trades with Beane?

i mean the Natinals broke even, both sides won but still.

He doesn't always win his trades. Hudson to the Braves was a total bust to give the most obvious example.

It is incredible that no matter who the A's have lineup wise they always have a very solid pitching. Some of that is ballpark and fielding, but a lot of it seems to be organizational...

Considering they just got him for Cliff Pennington basically I'm not clear what exactly they could expect to get back for him.

Justin Upton and cash.

HA ha!

did any traded managers win a WS besides Gil Hodges?

chuck tanner

guys this is the same dback team that traded a young reliever with upside for Matt Albers and Scott fucking Podsednik. it's Chinatown.

"Ken Rosenthal, of FOXSports.com, reports the Arizona Diamondbacks view SP Max Scherzer as a relief pitcher instead of a starter. This is one of the reasons the team is willing to part with Scherzer and RP Daniel Schlereth in order to obtain two starting pitchers."

If Jason Giambi is named the manager of the Rockies, which apparently is a possibility, could he be a player manager? If you're a player manager and the GM waives you as a player, can another team pick you up? Did that stuff retire with Pete Rose?

A player-manager in the 21st century? I would love to see it. McGwire still looks like he'd be available to pinch hit for the Cards (player-coach, why not)?

i wouldn't want a manager who'd waste a roster spot on mark mcgwire (or giambi)

Until this year, Giambi was still a valuable hitter, if he'd hit in '12 like he did in '11 then he'd be worth a roster spot for sure.

some retrospective lolz... prospects who were untouchable when Cabrera went on the trading block:

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/10/26/3559302/miguel-cabrera-detroit-tigers-trade-world-series

Problems with his argument is that it ignores $$$ (also kinda ignores positional value too). I can't remember if the Tigers knew they would be able to sign him to an extension immediately either. If another team couldn't sign that extension then you are basically getting Cabrera for two years at below market value (and getting Willis' awful contract to boot maybe) for many cost controlled years of Matt Kemp (or Jacoby Ellsbury or unfortunately Adam Miller--which is why prospect valuation is hard to do.)

It's also easy to say that you're trading for 10+ years of HOF-caliber play after the fact, but that's never a sure thing at the time. Hanley Ramirez looked like a sure HOF'er at age 24 too, and even until two years ago you could have argued that the Beckett + Lowell for Sanchez + Ramirez trade was a loss for the Red Sox even though they got another WS win out of the deal.

(i.e. they could have won the WS anyway by not making the trade and keeping two players who could have contributed immediately, been better in the long term, and spent a lot less money)

I'm dubious that Sanchez + Ramirez would have been better in 2007 and good enough to take the Red Sox to the World Series. And there really is no argument to winning the World Series.

and or even

Definitely not better, but maybe good enough. They would have been a few wins worse in '07, but better in '08 and '09 when they needed a couple of extra pieces to get over the hump (especially '08, when they lost the ALCS in seven). But you're right, flags fly forever, Ramirez crashed and burned, and Loria ruined the Marlins again, so this isn't really an argument anymore.

There's a good chance that your favorite team's prospects aren't very good. You think they're good, and that's adorable.

my favorite team's prospects are very good at running obstacle courses in the middle of the night

just read houston's payroll is 15m this year..

jed lowrie is really good

chris carter vs brett wallace cage match

One year after trading him, the Giants are bringing Ramon Ramirez back.

The right-hander pitched for San Francisco from 2010-11, but was traded to the Mets with Andres Torres in the trade that brought Angel Pagan to San Francisco last offseason. One winter later, all three players signed with the Giants as free agents.

Felix Hernandez is about to sign the most lucrative contract any pitcher has ever obtained. The Mariners have agreed to sign the 26-year-old right-hander to a seven-year, $175MM contract. The extension is a five-year, $135.5MM deal that covers the 2015-2019 seasons, ESPN's Buster Olney reports. The last two years of Hernandez's current contract ($39.5MM) remain intact, so Hernandez will still make $175MM overall over the next seven years.

King Felix could purchase many small islands and establish an kingdom of island allies

im happy for him. gotta respect a dude who says "fuck it, I want to stay in Seattle"

http://proxy.storify.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FBCm185zCUAIYqia.jpg

nate silver?

he looks good.

dice-k *and* giambi to the indians!

bourn to the indians 4y/$48m

in any 31 pairs of eyes, boras will blink last

@AnthonyDiComo

That means your Opening Day #Mets outfield will be Duda in left, Kirk/Cowgill platoon in center, Baxter in right, Byrd/Brown on bench.

Bourn's tweeting teammates aren't very good at spelling "Bourn."

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4225/boourns.png

Keri thinks Bourn is something of a bargain at that price

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/50584/patience-pays-off-for-tribe-in-the-form-of-michael-bourn

why the D-bags dumped Trevor Bauer

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2013/2/12/3981562/trevor-bauer-trade-diamondbacks-indians-attitude-reasons

boo fucking hoo, the poor Wankees

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2013/2/13/3983448/new-york-yankees-2013-attendance-projection-budget

(surely we need to be starting some team threads, eh?)

brandon inge to the pirates on a minor league deal lol

(surely we need to be starting some team threads, eh?)

I've been trying for weeks to come up with a Braves thread title that didn't involve stupid UpWard puns...nuthin'.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-atlanta-braves-logo-features-gruesome-depictio,31284/

hahahaha, ok yeah maybe

Mets Won't Rule Out Jose Valverde

diamondbacks have added tony campana to their collection of scrappy scrapsters

rosenthal's piece on how dayton moore convinced himself to trade for two years of james shields is pretty sad

so one of the racing sausages has gone missing

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2013/2/27/4034016/10-worst-moves-of-the-offseason

Baseball's most unheralded mouthbreather

cardinals extend allen craig through 2016, with an option for 2018. looks like a great deal, too:

2013 $1.75M - Servitude
2014 $2.75M - Arbitration
2015 $5.5M - Arbitration
2016 $9M - Arbitration
2017 $11M - Free Agency
(2018) ($13M/$1M) - Free Agency

sorry - extend through 2017, option for 2018

now if only we coud take all surplus value and acquire a real middle infield

Brewers just bought 3 years of Carlos Gomez at $24 million

given how much I wanted this guy off the team in 2011 I actually think this is a good move now

Boesch liberated by Detroit

how is lohse still not signed

Dude is gonna get signed after the draft

where's Lohse goin?

http://www.mlbdailydish.com/2013/3/21/4132756/kyle-lohse-rumors-reds-angels-brewers-royals

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/03/21/kyle-lohse-free-agency-scott-boras/2007473/

The Cubs agreed to a seven-year, $41 million contract extension with Rizzo, WLS 890 AM reports. The deal includes two additional years of club options that could make the deal a nine-year, $73 million deal.

hell of a deal for the cubs imo

would say this was pretty dumb by rizzo but i could understand a how a cancer survivor might have a more fragile view of his carer than an objective observer

no way is this dumb, i'm sure he's going to be a good player who could have maybe received more but at the same time he probably has a practical view and wants the security. plus he'll be a free agent at 32, the angels will be ready for their new first baseman around that time.

he probably left like $50 or $60 million on the table

assuming the cubs pick up the team options on years 8 and 9, that is.

for a pitcher it's one thing. position players are so much more secure in their health. this makes sense is a. if he has an absolutely freak injury that wipes out his career b. he turns into jeff francouer

i really don't think there's a single young player not named trout or harper or a couple others who shouldn't at least seriously consider signing such a deal. so many dudes with incredible potential flame out and leave mlb having made comparatively little and this is basically a lotto win. not everyone needs or even wants mike hampton money.

i don't think it's dumb to turn a deal like this down, i think it's a risk but an ok choice. it all depends on what someone really wants.

I think a big part of it is a deal that kind of secures their families monatary well being. If you don't have $40-50 million dollars in the bank, getting a guaranteed deal like that is a pretty big thing. It was one of the reasons I know Jay Bruce signed a similar deal with the Reds a couple seasons back. That said, Jay Bruce already had 2 full and 1 over half seasons with the Reds where Rizzo has only been in the bigs about a season.

It does go both ways, Edinson Volquez turned down a 4 year deal a few years ago from the Reds that he won't be able to realize going into free agency.

this was a good deal for both sides, no doubt. and he's a slugging first baseman, he's still probably going to become a terrible albatross on some other team ten years down the line. the american dream!

the american leaguedream!

lol. pretty much in agreement with Zachlyon. i don't exactly see "superstar" stamped all over the guy, but the deal isn't a terrible one by any means.

He hasn't accrued all that much service time, IIRC, so he probably had another year of Chicago setting his salary and three years of arbitration that weren't going to be off the charts. He guaranteed his future and even with skill decline he can be a samurai professional hitter for decent money throughout his 30s.