The Official 2014 MLB Off-Season Thread

People that complain about who wins the Manager of the Year need to find something else to do with their time.

And yeah I think Farrell would rather win a WS championship than a MoY award.

Personally I would have liked to see Farrell win simply because I watched over 90% of Red Sox games this year and thought Farrell did a very good job for the most part in game managing, especially in the toughest division in baseball and it was obvious he did a great job cleaning up the huge mess from the last 2 years. With that being said, I'm happy for Francona and glad he won as I felt he should have won at least 1 with the Sox but unfortunately the MoY award almost always goes to the manager of a smaller market team that wasn't expected to do anything this year.

 

Not a bright one either. Byrd had a good year but hes 36 going on 37 next year. Just last year he was in Mets camp on a minor league deal. Great deal for Byrd but Im not so sure his stats wont regress. I can also tell you that the reason he choose Philly was because the Mets were valuing him as a 4th OF.

Mets are meeting with Boras this week regarding Granderson. Dont expect Ellsbury or Choo unless they come in at a reasonable pricetag (doubtful with Boras as their agent)
5-6 teams are interested in Ike Davis (O's - Hardy would be a match, Cubs - As would castro, A's, Astros, among others). Even more are interested in Duda.
Nelson Cruz is in play for NYM.
Mets and Angels have spoken numerous times regarding the mets pitching and angels bats (Trumbo, Kendrick, Aybar etc). The Mets should look in to Hamilton since they badly need a bopper and Hamilton didnt seem like a match with LAA. Might be able to buy lower then expected.

 

Not sure why the Cubs would be a match when they have RIZZZZZZZZZO at 1st base and just signed him to a long term extension.

You really think Josh Hamilton would be a good match in NY? I wouldn't touch him or that contract.

 

From what I'm hearing the Sox are more than happy with an OF of Nava/Gomes/Carp in LF, JBJ in CF and Victorino in RF for 2014 and aren't really interested in any of the FA OFers except Ellsbury or possibly Beltran depending on costs. But they really don't want to move Victorino out of RF where he was outstanding.

 

Ike also played LF in college as well as pitched? Don't know just saying what i've seen. Milwaukee also linked.
I think Hamilton can fit anywhere. Just gotta keep him focused on baseball.and if you're the Mets desperate for a splash would you rather give Choo or Ellsbury Jayson Werth money or take a chance on Hamilton with 4/80 and maybe it costs you Jon Niese or Gee.

 

God bless Nick Punto. He was after all THE key to the "Punto Deal".

Brian Wilson is definitely a 1st ballot on the Blowhard Hall of Famer.

 

Not killing the messenger by any means but think it's a bit of a stretch for a team trying to acquire Ike to play a position he hasn't played in at least 6 years and it wasn't even in pro ball.

I'd honestly rather have Ellsbury at Jayson Werth money than Josh Hamilton. I simply don't trust him staying focused and think he's way too much of a risk, especially in New York. With Ellsbury you're getting someone younger at a premium position. Plus I'm not so sure Hamilton is going to bounce back.

 

See I think thats the other thing. The folly with taht line of thinking is Ellsbury is 30 or 31 and speed based players tend to decline differently then power hitters. Ellsbury wont be a home run hitter in Citi Field. hamilton will be. Ellsbury will essentially be the player he was the first few years of his career except with a stolen base rate that is extremely likely to decline. Hamilton may have issues, but Id rather be paying him 4/80 then Ellsbury 7/126. Thats not even a serious discussion for me. Id rather have Choo over Ellsbury at that price.

Plus could you imagine the Mets signing Ellsbury for that kind of dough when Sandy let a more valuable player walk (Reyes) who plays a more premium position? Say backlash.

 

Why would a rebuilding team full of young talent want a *former* drug addict drama queen with a bad contract?

At this point it would make more sense for the Mets to sign Granderson then Trade talent away for Hamilton.

 

But you're not paying Ellsbury to hit home runs, you're paying him to play premium defense, get on base and to steal bases. Ellsbury is a completely different player than Hamilton is. Hamilton is not only 2 years older but comes with huge question marks in not only his make up but his poor year last year. At least with Ellsbury you know he's a guy that can handle the pressures of a big market and perform well. Plus you talk about Ellsbury when he declines what if Hamilton is on the decline himself now? Who knows that effects the abuse he did to his body has done to him and without the DH and his decline in defense, he might make the Jason Bay signing seem good.

I wouldn't touch Hamilton in the New York market or any market because the risks involved are too great. This is a guy after all that has to have someone around him 24/7 basically babysitting him, especially on the road, because of his drug past. This isn't a knock on the guy, I'm glad he got his life back together, but if I'm running a baseball team I don't want that risk.

Regarding Choo, you'd rather spend over 100 million for a platoon player?

As far the backlash from the fans who cares? You don't make baseball moves to please the fans, you do it to win baseball games. If I were the Mets I wouldn't sign/trade for Ellsbury, Choo or Hamilton. But if I had to pick one player it would be Ellsbury.

See this is one of the moves, if I were the Mets, I would make. You can get Granderson cheaper and you know he'll be able to give you the 20+ home run power in a big ballpark and can handle the NY market, because he's played there before.

 

I disagree about Choo being a platoon player. 340ish OBP against lefties is more then acceptable he would be a good #3 for the Mets.

 

He has a sub .300 SLG % against them for the past two years and hasn't slugged over 400 against them since 2009. He's a career .243/.340/.341/.680 against LHPers. He had a grand total of 8 extra base hits off of them last year with no HRs, in 2012 he had 12 extra base hits and 2 home runs. They should just throw fastballs over the plate and hope for the best.

He's a platoon player, that's not a player you pay over 100 million for.

 

I think the Yankees are going to sign both Beltran and McCann, just a gut feeling.

 

In case you're interested in reading about one of the two writers that left John Farrell off of the MoY voting here is her explaination:

http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/bo...ar-ballot-my-heart-says-my-votes-are-correct/

She also happened to leave Terry Francona off but instead voted for Buck Showalter. In the link is another link to the audio of her interview with WEEI and it's pretty funny as she comes off as completely clueless. But hey I do give her credit for defending her picks. There is another link that has the other writer's explaination of why Farrell wasn't on her ballot and she says it was mainly because of the Sox higher payroll.

 

The only thing surprising is that Kershaw didn't win the award hands down. Any guesses that the writer that voted for Wainwright over Kershaw was from either St. Louis or a writer for another team in the NL West?

EDIT: The writer was actually from Cinny. Either way I'd love to see that reasoning.

 

The guy should lose his vote.

 

Each writer only gets 1 award vote per year.

Seriously if you have 10 minutes to kill listen to the interview, Mutt and Lou were speechless with some of the answers being given.

I mean seriously, not voting for Tito or Farrell but voting for Buck? The Orioles were a 4th place team.

I agree but I think there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and a lot of people trying to make decisions. Basically there doesn't seem to be much unity between the GM, front office and ownership.

Some people want quick fixes while others want to get under the payroll tax. I still think it's weird that they kept all of the same minor league people in place when that's clearly not working.

I do think that voters need to defend themselves and give good solid logic behind their vote. If they fail to do that then they should get their voting rights taken away. If it seems like they voted a certain way to make a statement or to be different or because they have an axe to grind with a player their vote should be taken too. I mean a few years back 2 or 3 voters voted for Edison Volquez for RotY when he wasn't a rookie, a mistake like that should be an automatic withdrawal of voting rights. Or like back in 1999 when two writers left Pedro off the ballot for MVP saying that they don't believe a pitcher should win the award, yet it was shown they had voted for pitchers both before and after that.

 

All i can say is ugh.

 

Seriously no posts about Miguel Cabrera over Mike Trout? Or that some writers actually gave Trout a 4th, 5th and 7th place vote? You nerds are slacking.

Forget Cabrera winning for a minute but 2 writers thought that there were 4 or 6 better players in the AL than Trout this year?

EDIT: Those writers are from Baltimore, Boston and Oakland. The one from Boston, I can honestly say I've never heard of before.

 

I think Trout should have won the award both years personally as he was the all around overall better player but I think we can all agree just how awesome a hitter Miggy is.

 

Last year was stupid IMO. I agree with the Yank, I can get it this year more. But Trout should have won.

 

I mean let's be real here if you look at both Trout's and Cabrera's numbers in 2012 and 2013 they were both insanely good. You could make the case that both of them had even better years this year. Both guys are simply great players. It's scary that Trout is only 21 years old. Imagine if he continues this production how much he'll get when he's a free agent. He could easily get 10/300.

 

Trout should have 2 MVPs by the age of 21. That's just insane.

 

Check out Arod's age 20 season:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rodrial01.shtml

Arod was also robbed of the MVP that year because Juan Gonzalez had more HRs and RBIs.

It's unfortunate that people forget just how good Arod was. Really a shame that PEDs have ruined his legacy, ditto for Bonds too.

 

We all know the voters are biased. They would probably say something along the lines of "Trout hasnt proved himself" or something equally as stupid.

 

I don't know if it's just that, it's more so that they're still caught up in HR, RBI and BA and dismiss defense, base running and players playing on crappy teams, although some writers absolutely have their own agendas and want to make the story about them. The MVP is the only award that isn't clear as to what it is. Cy Young is "best pitcher", RoY is "best rookie" but MVP isn't "best player" its "most valuable" what does that mean?

And of course if you disagree with those writers it's because you're a "stat nerd".

 

Its not Most valuable though if they dont count defense and base running. Might as well just call it the glorified DH award if you dont look at a players entire game.

 

Right. Because when the writers are voting when they hear most valuable they automatically discredit guys on bad teams because he can't be valuable if he team doesn't win.