Frayed Knot

Maybe he'll later claim it isn't his voice; a move that certainly wouldn't make him the first sports star to throw out the idea that he was misquoted in his own autobiography.

I don't know that they NEVER carry Blue Jays games and they're certainly allowed to. It's just that when one of the two home areas doesn't count in your ratings (and therefore the advertising dollars they generate) the incentive to put a game from Canada into the rotation is removed.

Be interesting to see to what degree Davey switches around his closers down in Washington this year as he's essentially got three who have done the work. - Newly signed Rafael Soriano is getting the big bucks and closed very well w/the Yanx last year - High draft pick Drew Storen closed almost exclusively in 2011 and again in 2012 after he came back from injury, but then blew the clincher in the playoffs - Tyler Clippard closed quite well in the first half of 2012 while Storen was on the shelf and even for a time after he came back, but then seemed to wear down in August/September So if anywhere is baseball 2013 is going to be a laboratory for NOT having a designated closer it's the Nats under a retiring Davey as he's already said this is his last season managing. It's not like he needs to suck up to the owner or GM (like he would regardless); what are they going to do if they don't like his choices, fire him?

vtmet wrote: Is there a rule against Fox televising Blue Jays games? You mean aside from having one of the teams outside of FOX's viewing area?

So here's a hypothetical question that we'll all likely forget about before some semblance of an answer starts to emerge from up in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: Which player/contract signed this winter by the 94-loss Indians looks better to Cleveland mgmt/fans say three or four years from now? - Nick Swisher: 4 years/$56mil [plus some MVP vote bonuses] with a vesting option for 2017 based on 550 PAs in 2016 season plus a passed physical he starts this year at age 32; is coming off OPSs of 870, 822, 837 in 2010-2012; switch-hits, is a mediocre-at-best corner OF and can play a decent 1B - Michael Bourn: 4 years/$48mil with a vesting option for 2017 based on the exact same conditions as Swisher's although he doesn't get the MVP bonus clauses Bourn is a full two years younger with considerably lower OPSs of 766, 674, 739, but is a well above average CF with speed who hits strictly LH

(acc to Heyman) 4 years with a vesting option for a 5th Looks like Boras found his partner once again. Hope the 11th draft pick works out well. Now all we need is a real center fielder

btw, David Wright is currently 35th* in career WAR among active players (including pitchers) and, of those ahead of him on the list, only Miguel Cabrera is younger (by 4 months) Of the top 50 active WAR-lords, only: Cabrera 44.4 Total WAR -- will turn 30 in April Wright 39.1 -- turned 30 in Dec Joe Mauer 37.0 -- 30 in April Robinson Cano 34.8 -- turned 30 in October and Justin Verlander 33.6 -- turns 30 next week have yet to play a game as a 30 year old, and all will do so by the opening month of the season. That will leave the under-30 WAR leader as ... Ryan Braun (assuming he can dodge the suspension fairy again this year). * and really he's higher on the list than that as BB-Ref's 'Active' list includes several players who were active in some capacity in 2012 but aren't really active now: Not = Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones; Vlad Guerrero; Jamie Moyer; Omar Vizquel -- and they might be joined by several others: Rolen, Thome, Damon, Andruw, Oswalt, Giambi who may have already played their last MLB game, only they don't necessarily know it yet.

metirish wrote: Sheeet, what's goin' on here? In Toronto we only had like seven journalists total and six of them were covering the Maple Leafs!

This is a good idea actually, they should have dueling contests before the openers!! I can hear the PA announcer now: In this corner, a switch-hitter from Spain ... Inigo Montoya Then, to a chorus of boos, enters Prince "Six-Fingers" Humperdink

I may get around to checking this out at some point and maybe some of those comments sound a bit better in context. Although, in general, athlete autobiographies set a pretty low bar.

With camps starting to open this week, a number of "name" players are still unattached to any team. Michael Bourn and Kyle Lohse, as FAs who will net compensation as a result of them turning down $13 million offers from their previous team, are the ones most often in the news. But also still unemployed are a number of veterans who conceivably have already played their last MLB game Jim Thome Carlos Lee Daisuke Matsuzaka Scott Rolen Miguel Cairo Bobby Abreu Adam Kennedy Matt Treanor Carlos Zambrano Francisco Rodriguez Chris Young Jose Contreras Guillermo Mota Brad Penny Freddie Sanchez Brian Wilson CM Wang along with, I'm sure, a number of smaller names. Jason Giambi has at least temporarily off this list by inking a minor league deal with the Indians over the weekend

Bourn dollars being thrown around in the press (various sources including Cerrone at 'Mets Blog' - Mets are thought to be thinking about ~ 3yrs @ $40 - Bourn/Boras are said to want more like 4/$60 but the Mets don't want to bid against themselves and aren't convinced that there'll be a better offer out there so, for now at least, are willing to play the waiting game. Then on the compensation front, the issue is likely to be decided by an arbitrator AFTER a signing would take place (IF it takes place of course) and "there are reports that negotiations with the MLBPA would result in New York's first-round pick being protected." (MLB Daily Dish)

New York Mets 1B Ike Davis (ankle) confessed that his bout with valley fever last year left him very fatigued. So much for the "no symptoms" talk we kept hearing.

How the WAR list compares to the CPF Rankings list among NYM position players WAR list 1. David Wright 2. Darryl Strawberry 3. Carlos Beltran 4. Edgardo Alfonzo 5. Jose Reyes 6. Keith Hernandez 7. Mike Piazza 8. Howard Johnson 9. Mookie Wilson 10. John Stearns CPF List: 1. Darryl Strawberry 2. David Wright 3. Mike Piazza 4. Edgardo Alfonzo 5. Cleon Jones 6. Howard Johnson 7. Jose Reyes 8. Ed Kranepool 9. Carlos Beltran 10. Keith Hernandez CPF is furthest off on the high side with Cleon (5th vs 13th) and Kranepool (8th vs ??) lowest on Beltran (9th vs 3rd) and Stearns (20th vs 10th)

I have a tough time whipping up much sympathy for (adult) autograph hounds because their ten hour wait for a 35th autograph by the same guy proves fruitless. And speaking of disappointed Yanqui fans, Felix Hernandez is on the verge of signing a seven-year contract extension. So many of those poor YLDBs simply assumed he would be theirs by now either via trade (lop-sided in their favor of course - just a coupla prospects) or upon first blush of free-agency. Competition really sucks sometimes.

Grote

Cleon

SteveJRogers wrote: Ichiro counted as a prospect? Ichiro was unique to BA's prospect list and they weren't quite sure how to treat him but ultimately chose to do so as a prospect on account of him having never before played in MLB. To be consistent they've done the same with subsequent Japanese players who have come over since (Matusi x 2 for example) although not all raters do the same.

Here we go: Baseball America's Top 20 in 2001 Check out some of these names. Lots of hits, but also some complete whiffs and in-betweens too. 1. Josh Hamilton, of, Devil Rays 2. Corey Patterson, of, Cubs 3. Josh Beckett, rhp, Marlins 4. Jon Rauch, rhp, White Sox 5. Ben Sheets, rhp, Brewers 6. Sean Burroughs, 3b, Padres 7. C.C. Sabathia, lhp, Indians 8. Ryan Anderson, lhp, Mariners 9. Ichiro Suzuki, of, Mariners 10. Nick Johnson, 1b, Yankees 11. Carlos Pena, 1b, Rangers 12. Vernon Wells, of, Blue Jays 13. Roy Oswalt, rhp, Astros 14. Drew Henson, 3b, Reds 15. Chin-Hui Tsao, rhp, Rockies 16. Antonio Perez, ss, Mariners 17. Juan Cruz, rhp, Cubs 18. Alex Escobar, of, Mets 19. Jerome Williams, rhp, Giants 20. Bobby Bradley, rhp, Pirates

Edgy MD wrote: He and Hamilton were in the same class of uber-outfielders that you had better get the autographs of NOW!!! . Yeah, BA had those two as prospects 1 & 1A in one of their annual lists. I believe they ultimately put Hamilton ahead of Patterson so as to not have a dead-tie, but they thought it was essentially even (even though the two did have different strengths and were hardly the same player). Then, for the longest time, it seemed like neither one of them was going to make it in MLB.

In a statement that could be written just about every winter only with interchangeable players and team names, Joel Sherman writes today that; "The Mets and Scott Boras are engaged in a game of chicken. The powerful agent is saying he has attractive offers elsewhere for Michael Bourn. The Mets are essentially challenging him to prove those offers exist by remaining relatively inflexible in what they are willing to spend on the fleet center fielder." He goes on to mention the times when the Mets played and lost this game in earlier years, like when Boras really did have a four-year deal for Derek Lowe (Braves) when the Mets were holding for three, or when St Louis was revealed to be the "mystery team" who really would give Matt Holliday a six-year deal. Boras is again claiming he has better offers than the three the Mets are willing to go. The first difference here is that it's already February. The other is that Sandy is looking to Bourn as the only option; in those other two examples the Mets missing out on targets Lowe (a good thing as it turned out) and Holliday (not so good) meant even worse Plan B's of Ollie Perez & Jason Bay. This looks to be a case of Bourn or the kiddie korps.

What I find interesting is that within Lunchbucket's perfectly reasonable full-season guess for the guy was 66 games and 74 innings. While much of his guesses proved otherwise close to the money, we sort of got the inverse ratio of games and innings: 73 games and 57 2/3 innings pitched. We were hoping for a setup guy and got a ROOGy specialist instead. Terry had to pick his spots carefully to keep him effective. And that sort of late-game engineering always catches up with a fella. Of all the complaints about Terry misusing the pen* the one I thought most apt was his use of Rauch in the 2nd half last season. If not the best reliever out there he seemed to be the most reliable and consistent during the later months and yet often wasn't trusted with a 2nd or 3rd batter after he retired the one(s) he was brought in to face much less get rewarded with a 2nd inning. Maybe there was a "tightness" or some similar injury-ish issue that we never heard about which put them in the situation where they felt they had to take it easy on the 6'11"/280-lb guy (which might also explain the reluctance to apparently even consider re-signing him) but it just smelled more like a lack of trust than anything else and I'm not sure why the leash was shorter on him compared to the rest of the crew. * although let's face it folks, ask any fan of any team what he doesn't like about his manager and the 1st or 2nd answer in each case is going to be that the guy doesn't know how to manage the pen

btw, NYM 2nd round pick in June scheduled to be pick #48 overall, not #60 so that negates the downside slightly -- and even if Bourn & Lohse (the only two remaining guys who merit compensation) sign elsewhere that stays in the same spot since one pick will disappear for each one that is added so the later picks do not get pushed back any further from their current spot. ex: team with 20th pick overall signs Bourn -- that 20th pick goes away so each later pick moves UP one slot .... but then Atlanta picks up a compensatory pick after the 1st round (low 30s somewhere) so all the slots after that move right back to where they were. The teams with picks after #20 but before wherever the Bourn pick is added will benefit slightly in this example and will again if and when Lohse signs under similar circumstances.

That's some bad #11s there. Lately they've been better [Andrew McCutcheon 2005; Max Scherzer in 2006]* but still hardly a sure thing even if surer than #60s The problem here is that this could be the worst of possible worlds: a season which should have resulted in the 10th pick becomes the 11th through no fault of their own just as the number of protected picks drops from 15 to 10, meaning this would be the highest possible pick that has ever been lost through this process** and ever could be lost, all for a player that may cost a lot and may be no better than the difference between a 75 and 80 win season. So, sure, it's a gamble to bank on Mr. 11/2013 being a valuable player down the road but so is banking on Bourn being worth whatever contract he'll eventually get (here or elsewhere) and the downside to this could be enormous. * I wonder if better information these days means that draft picks as a rule are getting better? And by better I mean more predictable in that a higher pct of the future gems are being seen as such ahead of time and are less randomly distributed even though there'll always be a larger degree of randomness in the baseball draft as compared to others. ** One of the highest picks transfered in recent years under the recent rules (15 protected) was the #18 pick that the Braves ceded to the Mets for the final swan song season of Tom Glavine [13 starts, 2 wins, and a 5.54 ERA for a 4th place team] that resulted in Ike Davis being selected by the Mets.

Swan Swan H wrote: Pitchers shag fly balls all the time. Like Mariano ... heh, heh, heh.