In the midst of the excitement over colllege football, I thought I'd start a topic on the goings on in MLB over the offseason. I'm intrigued by the Yankees' signing of Jacoby Ellsbury for $153mil over 7 years. I really like this kid. He's a winner who plays the game the right way. I hope he lives up the the Big Apple expectations. I'm neither a fan nor a hater of the Yankees, but I will cheer for this kid. In a quiet way, the As keep improving by signing Scott Kazmir fresh off a highly effective comeback season in Cleveland and trading an unknown (to me) to Baltimore for closer Jim Johnson, who laid an egg last year with 9 blown saves, but........ The Tigers are negotiating with Joe Nathan to be their closer. The Rockies signed Justin Morneau to replace the retired Tod Helton. The Twins signed Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes to their starting rotation. The Rays got Heath Bell and C Ryan Hanigan from the Reds in a 3-team trade, with the other two legs non-notable at this time. The Red Sox have signed A.J. Pierzynski to replace the departing Jarrod Saltalamacchia (yawn). In closing, who wants to be the GM who signs Robinson Cano for $300 mil or even close to that amount? Stay tuned.
Sidney...regarding the Sox: Yankees making the same mistake year after year with long term signings. Good luck to Jacoby ( he wont play hurt). Jackie Bradley jr will be an instant success in CF. Pierzynski is merely a Bridge to 2015..Sox have 2 or 3 highly rated catchers moving through the system. P&C in 99 days!
Joel, I agree with the catcher scenario you described. The article I read cited two young prospects waiting in the wings. AJP is 37 and considered an even trade ability-wise for JS, so he definitely is only a short-term solution. As for Jacoby, the kid is a gamer. I've watched him since he came up. I'd take him on my team any day. How many days til pitchers & catchers? :wink:
Dave Dombrowski of the Tigers has been a busy man this off season and he likely isn't finished. First he traded Prince Fielder and his very large waistline and contract to the Rangers for Ian Kinsler. Then earlier this week he traded popular Doug Fister to the Nationals for a switch hitting utility player Steve Sombardozzi a lefty starting prospect and a lefty reliever Ian Krol. The Fielder and Fister trades freed up millions from the Tiger's payroll and allowed them to seriously pursue Nathan. It's doubtful that the Tigers are finished dealing. Cabrara may be moved back to first base now that Fielder is gone. They still are in need of a solid left fielder. Drew Smyly who was the only reliable lefty in the bullpen last season will take over for Fister in the starting rotation while Krol will be projected as the lefty reliever. Nathan will be the closer and Benoit who is a free agent may be resigned and moved back to setup where he was much more successful than as a closer. Stay tuned!
Gip, thanks for mentioning the Tigers' moves. I was focusing only on what happened the past several days. Re: moving Cabrera to 1b, I think I read somewhere that they have a guy in mind at 3b, hence the move makes sense. I also read that they might be looking at Shin Soo Choo in CF. Certainly, the money freed up by the Fielder trade enables them to go shopping, which they've done and are continuing to do. I like the trade. I believe Kinsler is a solid player who will earn his keep.
Well on the Astros front the new owner is suing the old owner saying he was duped! Big time businessman like Jim Crane, duped by a rube like Drayton McLain? I don't believe it. It's all over a partnership with Comcast, NBCSportsNetwork and the Astros to show their games locally. It's a bust as nobody will give them the money that they want. So that's our offseason news....Oh yeah we did trade two guys who I don't know to the Rockies for another guy I don't know and an unknown player to be named later. I'm sure the new guy is a future All-Star. :roll:
Terry, that's what happens when you go to the American League. Seriously, it looks like a real mess. That's a darn shame. It was once a good franchise.
I thought I'd squeeze this into the football conversations because of its significance regarding the Mariners' organization, who signed Robinson Cano to the third highest contract in MLB history, $240 million over 10 years. As a side note, Eric Wedge played high school ball in Fort Wayne. He hit the most amazing HR I've ever seen on the HS level. I'm sure the ball still is orbiting the earth. http://mlb.si.com/2013/12/10/former...ont-office-in-seattle-times-story/?xid=si_mlb
Everybody around here yawned when Cano split. Great player but takes alot of time off durin games. Makes a lot of right turns on his way to first base. Yanks made their offer and never deviated from it. Cano is a big city night life guy. Not going to be happy in Seattle.
JO'Co....your boy Puig got busted again for speeding...110 mph in a 70mph zone. I predict the only thing between him and greatness...is between his ears!
:roll: re: Puig The old saying goes, "A million dollar arm and a ten cent head." This kid is worth $100 million and his brain isn't worth a nickel. The great danger to the team is that they will rely on this juvenile delinquent to perform and trade one of their other outfielders. Rumors here have them shopping Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier...two of the most reliable players in MLB. Puig has as much raw talent as any player I've ever seen, but we don't want another "Mannywood" situation here. If he doesn't grow up fast, the Dodgers need to trade him to the Ringling Brothers Circus...
I think the NL model of 3 front line OF and one utility OF is played out. We now have prolonged interleague schedules. We have injuries and charmin soft players. I think the Dodgers would be wise to hold onto 4 OLs and a utility OF. I think that's the way NL teams have to be prepared for post-season play. How often do we see those teams shuffling guys down the stretch and giving up too much of the farm ? How many guys like this wind up having great careers with the Yankees? If that happens, I won't be happy.
Listen to me and let my advice burn into your minds. This why you never leave the house without checking your wardrobe out.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q5LVc5yj9Q4#t=0
HOF voting announced today. Houston is hoping that Craig Biggio is on the list. Sure things are Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas are also likely to be elected. No Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds though.
There will be guys elected because of the vacuum created by the substance abusers. I always liked Craig Biggio but can you honestly say he was ever a dominant player at any point in his career?
Since I've lived in Detroit, the 1984 Tigers were the best team that the orginization has had. They had the pennant clinched by the second week in May and breezed through the playoffs to the championship. Not one player of that team is or probably will be in the Hall. Alan Trammel had nearly identical stats to ozzie Smith but didn't do backflips. Jack Morris who's in his last year didn't stroke the media guys. Maybe if guys like Whittaker and Gibson took PEDs they might be up for discussion.
Well Biggio fell 2 votes shy of election...maybe next year. A tidbit about Maddux..who I think is Corey's favorite pitcher. Maddux won four Cy Young awards in a row, which is pretty remarkable (although Randy Johnson did the same). Over a seven-year span, Maddux's ERA was 2.18, 2.36, 1.56, 1.63, 2.72, 2.20, and 2.22. These are ridiculous numbers in the lowered-mound era. On top of that, Maddux won 18 Gold Gloves.
And he did this through the steroid era of baseball. If they want to place an asterisk by Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire and anyone else who is tarnished during the scandal, they need to put a big ass gold star next to Greg Maddux who put up 1960s/high mound type numbers in an era of juiced players, juiced balls and tiny little strike zones. In this era, only Mariano Rivera is in the same building as Greg Maddux... in my humble opinion.