Actually I had no idea that Washington was considered 8th. I figured they were somewhere in the middle of the pack, 12 to 15 range, with my post being somewhat sarcastic due to people during the playoffs happy that 'small market' teams like the Rangers and Giants made it to the WS. Interesting.... Still though although the contract is insane and in 4 years is probably going to hurt the franchise I'm glad they're spending money.
Don't forget different economic structure too. You didn't have teams 1 single team spending over 100 million dollars in contracts. The Yankees were the highest with 73 million (which is Arod, Sabathia and Jeter made in 2010 not counting any bonuses etc). The Pirates were the lowest only spending $12,879,889 (which is Victor Martinez and a random 2nd or 3rd year player will make in 2011). Wow times changed huh?
The deal is now official, pending physical exams. Baltimore will send relievers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio to Arizona for Mark Reynolds. Baltimore tries but always seems to make the WRONG move when faced with what if options. I like ARI side of this far, far, far more.
Eh, can this be a lose/lose for both teams? Arizona is trading Reynolds when he's at his lowest value coming off of a bad 2010 season and while Hernandez is a pretty good arm and should only do better in the NL but I don't think he's anything too special and Mickolio is well I don't know I don't remember him ever pitching well with Baltimore. Whatever. I'd probably take my shot with Reynolds since he does have a lot of power and hits LHP well but realize he's not going to make a lot of contact and play so/so defense, although he does have something like 12 million left on his deal so that would bug me a bit too. As far as Baltimore making the wrong move? I'm not sure wrong move is the right word but I doubt they'll ever regret trading Hernandez and Mickolio.
Well, my "far, far, far better" comment/logic is you remove the K's and low BA and failure to drive in players from the heart of your lineup anyway, and add a reasonable arm to NL as you stated, the extra arm is toss in. Its addition by subtraction for the offense, and addition by addition for another NL arm for ARI side of ledger. O's take a hit on both sides. That equals far, far, far better in my book.
Add this to the ledger, now I am convinced ARI makes out on the deal... Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that Melvin Mora will get a one-year, $2 million contract from the Diamondbacks.
Eh, Mora hasn't been good in what 5 years now? Thankfully Arizona only signed him to a 1 year deal. Not really impressed here especially if he's going to be their full time 3B.
That's not the point. at the end of the day, Mora and two arms "for" Reynolds.....still an upgrade for ARI as organization compared to BAL.
Word is Andy Pettitte told a friend 3 weeks ago he was 'definitely retiring'. Who really knows though until we hear it from Pettitte's mouth. It could just be used for leverage on his contract if the Yankees really think he's retiring.
Yeah, need more to go on then just this FRIEND said....unless Yanks FO confirm (and they have every method available to contact him directly) I am not losing sleep. Heck, if he does retire so be it. Was a great run, but as I have stated, feel like C. Lee acquisition is tied to AP's decision. Would love to have him back as #5 guy (if he wants less innings on his arm for the last rodeo). UPDATE: source close to Pettitte believes he’s coming back
What are you talking about they resigned Erik Bedard and traded Jose Lopez!!! Seriously though they need to sign a hitter or 4, that line up was pretty bad last year. I'm sure they will sign a few FAs soon enough, the offseason has just gotten going.
This wont make SD fans happy.....an actual ready for primetime player vs. all HOPEFULS and it didnt get accepted. The biggest "gripe" over the SD decision to ship AG to BeanTown is that with all the RICHNESS of the SOX organization, not one player is ready to impact SD in 2011. That doesnt diminish the 4 players (3 ML and PTNL) as to ever working out, but the label of "hopefully" impacting the ML club in a few years has many experts on edge. Beckham would have been immediate ROI. Agree, need to know the other prospects WSOX would have tossed in.....and from AL EAST standpoint and Yanks standpoint, I wish AG was in the WINDY CITY vs BEANTOWN for sure.
No I don't think so. Between getting Gonzalez and that crazy Werth deal, it probably priced Crawford out of the mix. I just can't see the Sox paying Crawford 8 years over 160 million for him. He's a very good player but he's not worth that much money. My best guess is LAA, Yankees or Rangers in that order.
I'm going to call BS on that until I hear otherwise. From all accounts the White Sox LOVE Beckham. Granted Kenny Williams is unpredictable so you can't rule it out but I don't know how valid that is. Of course like you said we don't know who the other players were in the deal (as Jed Hoyer has said in deals he was offered a MLB player, the talent of the prospects weren't high quality).
The Diamondbacks have signed J.J. Putz to a two-year deal with a club option for 2013, according to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal. Cashman: Pettitte leaning toward retirement: "He told me personally he was leaning toward retirement," Cashman said. "He's not officially retired. I talked to his agent [Randy Hendricks] about maybe a week to 10 days ago, and that position hadn't changed. That's where it's at as of right now." UPDATE: Loney/Broxton for Fielder trade debunked
Yep that is slowly coming to light the chisox were offering Beckham the BoSox employee spurned their offer and the chisox added Adam Dunn the night before the AG trade was announced..that'll fool'em..and now Hoyer is taking the arrows for his actions. Hoyer really believes that it is better to have "control of players" even though 100% control of nothing is..nothing.. Anywho, rumor is Derrick Lee or Adam Laroche may be signed to fill the hole at first base http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...beckham-in-runner-up-bid-for-adrian-gonzalez/
According to Tracy Ringolsby of FOXSports.com, Ty Wiggnton's new contract with the Rockies will be worth $7.5 million over two years. Hmmm, related news: Rockies Manager Jim Tracy collapsed near the elevator at his hotal at baseball’s winter meetings late Monday night, but he was conscious and responsive when emergency personnel arrived, reports MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. Tracy was standing with Rockies coaches when he collapsed just after 1:30 a.m. All kidding aside, hope he is ok. According to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com, the Pirates have signed Kevin Correia to a two-year, $8 million contract, pending a physical.
Arizona signed Ty Wigginton to a 2 year deal worth around 7.5 million. Not sure why they'd give him a 2 year deal or that kind of money but whatever.
The Mets are close to a deal for Ronny Paulino Red Sox target Magglio Ordonez in search of right-handed bat According to ESPN.com's Buster Olney, rival executives believe the Nationals might throw a "HUGE" number at free agent Cliff Lee. The Dodgers are close to agreement on a one-year, $2 million contract with right-hander Vicente Padilla, according to MLB.com.
False Alarm: the Nats aren’t in on Cliff Lee its still to early to know what will happen, but if the 7yrs high dollar would have held from NATs they would have overpaid and knocked all others - most likely - out of the bidding. If they are out, then realistic numbers hopefully can be acheived to sign C. Lee to a CC type deal, and not exceed it. On one hand, I wanted NATS to spend and acquire talent to improve their squad. And like Werth, they HAVE TO overpay to acquire better talent via FA and convince them to sign. Losing Strasburg for 2011 doesnt help. But on the other, I want C. Lee to sign with Yanks similar to CC #s.
Damn I was all ready to go out and buy myself a National hat and Cliff Lee t-shirt. I'm only half kidding, obviously I would love for Lee to sign with someone other than the Yankees. And him in the NL is even better. Someone in the Red Sox FO should put together a booklet of AL vs. NL pitching stats and send it to Lee's agent.
Perhaps the biggest news today is that Jamie McCourt won her court case and now officially owns half of the Dodgers. Word is she is going to look for investors to buy Frank's share but you'd have to think that the Dodgers won't be spending much money until everything is resolved. Too bad.
Adam Rubin of ESPN New York reports that the Red Sox have talked internally about acquiring outfielder Carlos Beltran from the Mets. This would be so delicious for this Forum....the Sox and Mets working a deal.....love it. According to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun, the Rays and Orioles are working toward a Jason Bartlett-for-Nolan Reimold swap. According to Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com, the Tigers, A's and Mariners have expressed trade interest in Josh Willingham. would think Sox/Yanks would be interested in RH bat of a extra OF like Willingham - probably not interested as much if trade vs FA sign
Best news yet. These two are so stubborn that once Frank's appeal is rejected, they will be forced to liquidate assets in order to split things up 50/50. Which means the Dodgers will be sold, hopefully to someone who is WAY more stable both financially and emotionally. It killed me to have a ****ing Red Sox fan owning my Dodgers. No offense to the Red Sox faithful here.
No offense taken by any means but that shouldn't really bother you as long as the team has a good owner who is willing to help the team win by using as many resources as possible (whether it's money, front office guys, scouts etc) and actually cares about winning. Obviously that not the McCourts but I think having a good GM is just as important if not more important than the owner and again obviously Ned Colletti isn't one, even before all of the financial problems the Dodgers had. The best thing for the franchise would be to completely gut it from the owner right down to the GM and other front office people and start over. I know it's not a popular belief here but in my opinion every sport needs its big market teams to be good (not saying that they should be the only ones who makes the playoffs or win every year and that the small markets should suffer and be bad) but it's healthy for the sport.
When the big market teams are doing well, typically the sport is doing well overall. As for Colletti, I am STILL on the fence with him. He typically does a good job of finding a scrap heap pitcher that does well for us for a year, and he was able to lead the Dodgers to the NLCS for two years straight, let alone win our first playoff series since 1988. So I think he has done some good things. But outside of the Manny Ramirez trade, he hasn't been doing a ton of great talent acquisitions. And I think he has had the opportunity to, but has been hesitant to pull the trigger based on some belief that the kids will develop into something greater than they are. Martin, for exaomple, is now heading to Boston for nothing when he could have been shopped for a prospect or two about a year ago. But the Dodgers have good pitching, which I have to give him credit for and if he can somehow grab a big bat this offseason, L.A. will be in conention in the west again. So again, I don't know if he is the problem. The McCourts, originally tried to buy the Red Sox a few years ago and were rejected. So instead, he bought the Dodgers and tried to turn them into Boston west. Ugh. Sell the team to a local guy who LOVES the Dodgers and wants them to be the power they should be.
Someone is going to give Cliff Lee seven years. Unreal. And Zach Greinke is going to be traded. Possibly to the Rangers if Lee goes elsewhere.
Greinke's situation is weird. He's said he doesn't want to pitch in New York because of anxiety reasons but what is going to happen when he has to pitch in a playoff game? He's a good pitcher and it will be interesting to see where he goes. My guess is also Texas once Lee leaves.
Mets have signed Ronny Paulino to a one-year contract worth $1.3 million. Mets have signed Carrasco to a two-year contract. Adam Rubin of ESPN New York hears that he’ll make $2.5 million in the deal Tony Gwynn Jr. will be staying in the NL West after being non-tendered by the Padres last week, as Tom Krasovic of AOL Fanhouse reports that he’s signed with the Dodgers.