Congrats to our Red Sox fans on the World Series title. I know that we have a few of you around. I figured with free agency starting tomorrow, this was a good time to start a new thread. Baseball moves really quickly from one season to the next. Does anyone have any predictions of what will happen in free agency? Be it with your own club or otherwise? Anything you're on the lookout for?
The Cubs picked up Cole Hamels 20m option for the 2019 season, along with Jose Quintana's 10m option. That gives them a very veteran, and heavily left handed starting rotation for next season. Its also one that is short term, and many of the parts won't be around much beyond 2019. LHP John Lester RHP Kyle Hendricks LHP Jose Quintana LHP Cole Hamels RHP Yu Darvish Now, if everyone is healthy, that's a ton of proven experience. But time will tell.
Interested to see what Brodie Van Wagenen brings to the Mets. The good news is he’s been te only one to get the Coupons (err I mean Wilpons) to spend money for his guys like Cespedes, Frazier, Bruce, etc. The other good news is Omar Minaya is staying on as a personnel man which has always been his strength. The bad news is these moves haven’t exactly worked out and the Coupons still run the team.
I was so excited for him as a prospect when my Cubs took him in the first round back in 07. Then they traded him for the weak and fragile Rich Harden.
I'm a Mets fan, and I'm hopeful that we can turn it around. The addition of Cano might pay dividends. However I have been saying this for the last 20 years.....
I had been hoping that the Cubs would trade Addison Russell to someone else, even for pennies on the dollar as far as his talent goes. Now, I just want them to totally release him. Trash.
The Nationals recently signed Anibal Sanchez. They've been making a run at Braves FAs from last season with Suzuki and now Sanchez. Now I'm just waiting to hear they've picked up Markakis... LOL I think though that the Donaldson signing does increase the odds of Atlanta circling back to Markakis. You obviously don't want him playing 162 games again, but he is a quality defender and a good bat if you're using him lower in the order. You can do a lot worse at 7 or 8. The Realmuto to Atlanta talk won't die but i'm not seeing it happening myself. The fish supposedly wanted Ozzie Albies in the trade package. Last year they wanted Acuna. Atlanta has a lot to offer but Miami is really shooting for the stars....
The Mets could bounce back quickly if they make the right moves. Big if... I know... LOL They still have the pitching though so it gives them at least a puncher's chance. The East should be a lot of fun this season. You have four teams being aggressive about contending and they all mostly have the talent to do it.
I wish they would zero in on Machado but he's made up his mind. Yeah, the NL East will be a lot of fun this season when the Mets start out hot and then fade away in June. Great times man, I seriously am excited for another season of mediocrity!
Machado or Harper would be gold. But we have the Coupons for owners. If theres a silver lining, well at least BVW has a track record of getting these cheap dweebs to spend at least a little bit.
To be fair. He wasn’t a very good hitter in the minors and overall until he completely revamped his mechanics. Not many could have predicted the after effect...
The Coupons and Ross are essentially the same people. Come to think of it....The Coupons are Dolphins fans. My teams are cursed.
No way....that explains so much I happen to like Ross. Not many owners would put 450m of their own money to renovate the stadium like he did. He is the polar opposite of the Coupons.
For all of Rosses ups and downs taking 450 mil of his own loot to renovate the stadium. In my mind was a great idea. The Wilpons would never do anything like that. I mean it doesn't matter since I happen to love Citi Field.
Eh i hate it. I liked Shea better. It felt like a hometeam advantave when the stadium would start shaking.
I gotta say, even going into the offseason expecting that teams would be looking to keep payrolls lower, I'm shocked that there have been so few free agent signings. I'm thinking at this point that Harper does a two year deal and tries again later.
I know hes a colassal douche but if the Mets were smart theyd trade Todd Frazier and Juan Lagares for a bag of balls who collectively are making 18m and each only have 1 year left on their deals and sign Harper. Thats how you win a pennant. I can appreciatte getting Diaz and Cano (though giving up Kalenic annoyed me), signing Lowrie which was a sneaky good move (more fWAR then Kris Bryant the last 2 years...who woulda guessed?), and signing Familia and Justin Wilson...but go get Harper or Machado. Come on Brodie, go big!
Well, Kris Bryant did unfortunately spend large parts of the last two years playing through injury. It sapped him of almost all of his power last season, which of course sucked.
Hes supposedly healthy now, but time will tell. Given that the Cubs made no real additions with position players, they're banking on it.
I started buying NFL preview magazines at the newstand/store in 1991, before my freshman year of high school. A couple of years later, I started buying college football and MLB ones as well. I have my standard ones that I always get, and will flip through a few others too. But this year, for the first time since then, I won't be buying any standard ones for baseball. There are so many players left unsigned that it makes it almost pointless. There will likely be massive shifts in which teams are better than others, due to free agency and trades, between now and opening day that any predictions, or ideas about who is the best teams, are moot. I've also started to sour on fantasy magazines, because instead of it being someone's expert, educated opinion like it used to be, they all just go with the same ultra conservative computer simulations now. Its virtually worthless for people who already know who the best players are.
I feel really bad for Oakland. They spent the 9th overall pick on a guy only to have him tell them to shove it less than a year later. Drafting guys who aren't commited to the sport is dangerous, but the baseball draft is funny in how it works. As I understand it, he wasn't going to sign unless they agreed to let him play football for one year. And that came back to really bite them when they trusted him to live up to his word.
Eh we will see what Kyler is 3 years from now. His baseball career isnt over yet. The fact that he is very awkward socially (almost Ricky Williams levels of anxiety) is a red flag to me. He reminds me of Greinke with the way he speaks in public, and thats not a good trait to have as a NFL qb.
What would his road back to MLB be? Low contract free agent with Oakland? It'll be interesting to see if he tries that should he wash out of the NFL.
Hard for me to gauge how the Mets will do this year. I think our pitching can be lethal if they can stay healthy. The offense seems to be feast or famine but I do think Michael Conforto will have a monster year. In the end I think we'll be competing for a wild card spot. Of course, it would be nice to sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado, but ya know.
I really see the NL East as a wide-open, four team race. I don't think that Atlanta is as good as their record showed last year, and Washington is likely to fall off some of course.
Please don't discuss the N.Y. Mets in a Major League Baseball thread. It might confuse the children. Thank you
Of course. Enjoy putting up monster home run numbers this season and then getting eliminated in the playoffs by any team with good pitching...just like every other year.
I agree with you about Washington but I think Atlanta and Philadelphia are going to be good not only this year but for many years ahead, unfortunately.
We'll see. I'm a believer in small ball, but that's almost dead since the analytics guys took over the game. Every team is the same now. They all swing for the fences. No one knows how to bunt anymore when the shift is on. It's a weird time in baseball history. Hell we have enough bullpen talent our starters only have to pitch four or five innings. This ain't the sport I grew up on
Conforto imo will be better then the pre injury version we saw in 2017 which had him heading for 30+ hr/100rbi and a very strong OPS. I also think Syndergaard and Matz could see breakouts. Matz finally made 30 starts and is now a year removed from the same elbow surgery Jake had in 2016. Noah needs to use that deadly curve more. If Wheeler has a year like the 2nd half of last year, we will have the best rotation in baseball no matter how much Vargas sucks. Im most excited about Brandon "Finding" Nimmo and seeing if he can be even better then last hear and Rosario hopefully being even better. Nimmo could be a massive impact guy if he can develop more consistency with his bat. His OBS is off the charts but theres a 200 points swing when facing rhp (975) vs lefties (734). Nimmo also gave us 4.4 WAR in 140 games which was top 10 among NL OF. And not having a trash bullpen will help. Id love to get Machado or Harper but its the coupons...they still shop in the discount aisle. i think washington and atl are legit, even if washington loses Harper. ATL is going to keep spitting out prospects (8 in the top 100 in baseball america), Acuna and Albies will better and guys like Newcomb could take the next step. Thats a well run organization.
Man every time I see Derek Jeter I just think about how damn ugly he is lol Will my team ever be good *sigh*
Do any of you guys use MLB tv to watch games? This will be my first year with broadband since its existed, and I'm considering it. Is the framerate and picture quality good? I've had really negative experiences trying to watch nfl games online via DirecTV, and dont want to pay for the baseball service if its similar.