Frayed Knot

Tonight's game (7:00) in Montreal free on both MLB.TV and MLBN

I can't see how either current or projected attendance has anything to do with this; Cabrera was going to be there this year and next with or without a contract extension. Essentially what the Tiggers are doing here is saying that the thought of possibly losing Cabrera after his age-32 season was so scary that they were willing to take a bet on him (two years before being forced to) still being worth top-flight hitter money for a good chunk of his age 34-40 seasons. I don't think many would bet that way but, like they say, it only takes one.

Yes, but if you look at Pujols' last year with St.L, you can see his decline already starting. He hit under .300, and with less than 100rbi, both for the first time in his career. It was still an excellent season for a mortal, with an OPS+ of 148, but that was also the lowest OPS+ he'd ever put up. At age 31, it was not hard to think the arrow may have begun to point down; certainly St.L was smart enough to realize it and they were unwilling to give him stupid long-term money even though he may have been their best player since Stan Musial, and could've been a similarly iconic lifer for the franchise. But that is why they are a consistently successful franchise; they looked at that and said no, Al, if you want a 10-year deal, go to Anaheim. And now he's the Angels' AL-batross. All true. My only point was that Pujols didn't merely continue his shallow decline of the previous few seasons upon hitting Anaheim, he fell off a fucking table relatively speaking. And StL did offer him a big deal (I believe it was for eight years) so it's not like saw what was happening and knew it was time to get out of the Albert business entirely, they were just smart enough not to overboard in some kind of vain attempt to top what someone else was willing to do. Same could be said for the Yanx & Cano. In Detroit's case though it's even worse as there was neither an outside bidder nor a time table that required them to do anything for at least 18 more months. Weird.

I was rushed for time and didn't want to type out: 'Totally Fucking Worse to the point where they barely represent the same species'. Pujols pre (5 years) FA deal = .324/.423/.602 // 1025 -- 620 ABs/Yr Pujols post (2 years) FA deal = .275/.338/.485 // 823 -- 499 ABs/Yr ARod pre (5 years) FA deal = .302/.401/.578 // 979 -- 594 ABs/Yr ARod post (6 Years) FA deal = .279/.369/.448 // 817 -- 411 ABs/Yr

... I mean, nobody is SHOCKED by the Pujols situation, are they? Certainly the Cards aren't. The only thing shocking about Pujols (and 'shocking' probably isn't the right word here -- surprising maybe) is how quickly he fell. It certainly could have been reasonable for the Angles to figure on a couple of similar seasons to what he gave StL for a decade prior to start losing it in chunks. That it came quicker than expected (and maybe some was injury related and there'll be a partial bounce-back for, say, 2014-15) is what's making look so bad, so early, but even there you would have expected that to be a bigger red flag for the Tiggers not a signal to go and top it for a similar hitter with worse secondary skills only one year younger at the time of the contract.

So the list of ten-year deals for players age 30+ currently looks like this: * ARod [signed at age 32] - Deal is a disaster and continues to get worse * Pujols [signed one month prior to turning 32] - Deal started looking bad the very first season it was signed and still has 8 years to go * Cano [signed just after turning 31] - Just signed so obviously no track record yet, but is there anyone out there who thinks this was a smart move? And now it looks like we can add Miguel Cabrera to that pile as Detroit is on the verge of replacing the final two years of his existing deal (let me repeat that: he was already signed through his age 32 season) with a deal reportedly for ten-years and $292 million ... plus incentives (what, the deal itself isn't incentive enough?!?) Miggy turns 31 in mid April - but at least he's in tip-top shape ... oh wait. Well at least he brings secondary skills to the table in case his hitting slips ... oh wait. OK, but it's not like he has a history of off-field drug or alcohol problems or anything ... ummmm.

Chris Young (the tall, white pitcher, not the black OFer) got cut by the Nationals earlier in the week but lands on his feet in Seattle where a rash of pitching injuries not only landed Young a major league deal but probably, at least for the time being anyway, a slot in the rotation.

metirish wrote: Fran constantly talking about Rusty is one memory I have of baseball in Montreal. Fran constantly talking is one memory I have of Fran.

Replay command center at the Chelsea Market Building http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/major-league-baseball-unveils-state-of-the-art-replay-center?ymd=20140326&content_id=70188846&vkey=news_mlb

A clear case of someone pitching his way out of a job in ST. Coming in I would have said he was pretty much inked in. 9.1 IP; 13 Hits; 7 Runs (6 ER); 13 Hits; 9 Ks/10 BBs

Valverde added to the 40-man making him a sure bet to make the OD roster. Black, as noted elsewhere, was sent down making things likely for Gonzalez Germen.

Yu Darvish ((stiff neck - seeing specialist - return unknown) out for the Rangers so the Phils will see Tanner Schleppers on opening day instead.

As with many of these decisions at this time of year, we tend to act like they all need to be made prior to opening day but of course they don't. In this case Lagares did enough last season, IMO, to deserve at shot at starting in this season whereas the likes of Nieuwenhuis & Flores don't get that benefit of the doubt. But I also agree that the leash can't be all that long and how he plays on both halves of the inning will determine a course of action - maybe as soon as late April/early May.

Pretty much agree with what seems to be the consensus here: entertaining without being too deep. I didn't even mind the length so much because it at least kept moving right along even if it was not always moving towards something all that new. The problem was I kept comparing it to GOODFELLOWS [DiCaprio in Liotta's role, etc. - especially during the narration/talking to the camera parts] and unlike that one you just don't care as much about the characters even though, for all the sleaziness of these guys, at least they weren't killing people on a regular basis.

1. Reach base safely - Juan Lagares 2. Get a hit - Curtis Granderson 3. Draw a walk - David Wright 4. Hit a double - Curtis Granderson 5. Hit a triple - Chris Young 6. Hit a home run - Ike Davis 7. Steal second base - Eric Young 8. Reach by error - Juan Lagares 9. Hit a grounds-rule double - David Wright 10. Score a run - Chris Young 11. Drive in a run - David Wright 12. Get hit by a pitch - Curtis Granderson 13. Drive in more than one run in a single plate appearance - Ike Davis 14. Hit into a double play - Travis d'Arnaud 15. Get caught stealing OR picked off base - Chris Young 16. Strike out - Ike Davis 17. Bunt for a base hit - Eric Young 18. Get tagged out at home - Daniel Murphy 19. Pinch hit - Josh Satin 20. Be pinch-hit for - Dillon Gee 21. Commit an error - Ruben Tejada 22. Play a batted ball by an opponent in fair territory - David Wright 23. Be called on to relieve - John Lannan 24. Strike out 6 or more batters in the same game - Zack Wheeler 25. Hit an opposing batter with a pitch - Bartolo Colon Bonus: score the first double play the Mets turn -- 1 - 6 - 3

Freddie Garcia two-hit the Mets over six innings the other day - which apparently was proof enough to the Braves that he deserved his immediate release despite all the rotation trouble that team has been having this spring.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Everyone on the Internet says this battle was decided this afternoon when Dice -K shut out the Cardinals. 1 earned over 6 IPs on 5 Ks, 3 walks, 3 hits

Mejia has 1 yr + 140 days of ML service time as of right now, so another 40 gets him ~2 full seasons (for accounting purposes an ML season is 182 days long) and maybe another 60 on top of that kicks him into 'Super-2' status for 2015 So, if you're working on the theory that's this is about that then they'd have to keep him down for more than half the year in order to keep him below S-2 status. The 'Dick-K' thing was actually just a typo, although I might use it later on for real if he has a bad game or reverts to taking 45 seconds between pitches.

The current plan for Niese is that he'll start the year on the DL but that's only an accounting move until they need him for Game 4. So until then we'll see an extra reliever but he won't miss a start. I suspect Mejia will start the year in Vegas while Dick-K shows us what he's got. Matsuzaka is easily droppable (maybe even trade-able) partway into the season if/when youngsters start knocking on the door. But, until then, you don't want to go throwing away perfectly mediocre starters because, as Louis said to Rick about women, 'some day they may be scarce'.

Nieuwenhuis Flores den Dekker Lutz

Just as well as far as I'm concerned. I try not to expend too much energy 'hating' players elsewhere in MLB - but, even within the subset of Neanderthal relievers, Farnsworth always struck me as one of the bigger meatheads out there.