Frayed Knot

Small market AL teams dishing out long-term deals these days; first Melvin in Oakland and now Showalter (along with GM Duquette) in Bal'mer get inked through 2018. TEAMMANAGERSTATUSUPDATESBRAVESFredi GonzalezSigned thru 2013 + 2014 optionMARLINSOzzie GuillenSigned thru 2015 - Fired 10/23Mike Redmond hired on a 3-year contract METSTerry CollinsSigned thru 2012 + 2013 optionOption picked up for 2013PHILLIESCharlie ManuelSigned thru 2013NATIONALSDavey JohnsonSigned thru 2013Returns for the 2013 seasonCUBSDale SveumSigned thru 2014REDSDusty BakerSigned thru 2012Extended thru 2014BREWERSRon RoenickeSigned thru 2014 + 2015 optionPIRATESClint HurdleSigned thru 2013CARDINALSMike MathenySigned thru 2013 + 2014 optionDIAMONDBACKSKirk GibsonSigned thru 2014 + �15 & �16 optionsROCKIESJim TracySigned thru 2013 - Resigned 10/7Hired Walt Weiss for 2013 seasonDODGERSDon MattinglySigned thru 2013PADRESBud BlackSigned thru 2013 + options for �14 + �152014 + '15 Options picked upGIANTSBruce BochySigned thru 2013 + option for �14ORIOLESBuck ShowalterSigned thru 2013=#FF0000]Extended through 2018RED SOXBobby ValentineSigned thru 2013 - Fired Oct 2012Hired John Farrell away from Toronto - signed thru 2016YANKEESJoe GirardiSigned thru 2013RAYSJoe MaddonSigned thru 2015BLUE JAYSJohn FarrellSigned thru 2013 - Had his rights traded to BostonRe-Hired John GibbonsWHITE SOXRobin VenturaSigned thru 2014INDIANSManny Acta=#FF0000]Fired Sept 2012Hired Terry Francona - signed thru 2016TIGERSJim LeylandSigned thru 2012Extended thru 2013ROYALSNed YostClub option for 2013TWINSRon GardernhireSigned thru 2013ANGELSMike SciosciaSigned thru 2018ATHLETICSBob MelvinSigned thru 2014=#FF0000]Extended through 2016MARINERSEric WedgeSigned thru 2013RANGERSRon WashingtonSigned thru 2014ASTROSBrad Mills=#FF0000]Fired in AugustBo Porter hired for 2013 - ??

The best thing I can say here is that at least the tattoo wasn't placed in a way that makes his nipple look like it might be hers peaking out.

Frayed Knot wrote: This might also load the Nats up for one last blockbuster this winter, packaging Morse & one of Storen/Clippard to someone for something - most likely to help re-stock their farm system drained in the trades for Gio Gonzalez & Denard Span Well, no relievers involved, but Morse does get sent away in a three-way deal with Oakland & Seattle - Morse winds up with the Mariners as they continue to try and improve their weak offense in the year they bring in the fences (Kendry Morales, Jason Bay, Raul Ibanez) - catcher John Jaso goes to the A's - and Oakland, who has now made three significant trades with the Nats in the last 13 months, sends prospect pitcher AJ Cole & Blake Treinen, plus a PtbNL to Washington. Cole was originally Nats property (4th round pick 2010) but was sent away in the Gonzalez deal last December. He pitched in A-ball last year. Treinen is a 24 y/o RHP who was also in A-ball in 2010 Morse winds up back in Seattle which is where the Nats got him in the first place.

Hope it wasn't the stress from that fake paternity suit that did him in.

Yeah, not quite sure what kind of "real" outfielder you're waiting on. And if by chance some better-than-Hairston w/RH bat happens to fall into Sandy's lap in the near future (I'm always in favor of that happening) then nothing says that Nieuwenhuis and/or Duda can't sit or bide their time in Las Vegas. There's nothing to indicate that, if Hairston signed here, he would play every bit as much as he played last season.

That'll teach Storen to blow a save in October. This might also load the Nats up for one last blockbuster this winter, packaging Morse & one of Storen/Clippard to someone for something - most likely to help re-stock their farm system drained in the trades for Gio Gonzalez & Denard Span

The Second Spitter wrote: ... i would venture to say (without access to meteorological data) that Toronto, being landlocked, is considerably less muggy than NY. Have you never been to the American midwest? ... point being that muggy can happen a long ways from an ocean.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Like I said earlier, the first one was more than a bit too sloppy to be tabbed as "excellent" even if the back and forth nature of it made it interesting at times (particularly early on). Yeah, the high-scoring, lead changes, numerous comebacks and momentum switches caught my attention a little. Briefly. Sort of. I love our game, too, but if you deny that Baltimore-Denver wasn't wildly entertaining and a fantastic matchup... well, if perfect execution is your thing*, you could always watch bowling. Sure it was fun to watch*, I was just trying to make a distinction between a game being exciting automatically making it one that was well-played. Besides, my purpose here (or of this thread) isn't to knock the sport of football itself. Sure, the game and the NFL's presentation of it drives me nuts at times, but I am trying to keep this to just a comparison between the media treatment of it as compared to baseball. As an example, only one of this year's final four teams (Atlanta) wasn't also in last year's N/AFC championship games. Nothing wrong with that but if this were to happen in baseball it would be dismissed by most mediots as not just a coincidence or a sign of strong teams bouncing back but of a fundamental flaw in the sport and a reason for for not paying attention. Here not only are we not going to hear that but it'll be viewed as a good thing (REMATCHES!!!!) while the salary cap they all love and claim is a guard against exactly that sort of thing will go ignored. * And, again, it was exciting when it wasn't being delayed for one reason or another. That match was up over 3-1/2 hours before they even got into OT and, when that happens in a timed game, every added minute is, by definition, a minute when something is NOT happening.

Well I think the implication here is that Wilson, coming off surgery and off a season where he hardly pitched at all (2.0 IP), isn't going to be a high-priced anything, whether he winds up as a closer or not. And even his last full season in 2011 was a significant step below the previous one where he anchored the Giants to their first World Series and set his fame and fortune tour into motion 2010: 1.81 ERA; 1.18 WHiP; 48 Saves; 75 IPs - 7th in CY 2011: 3.11 ERA; 1.47 WHiP; 36 Saves; 55 IPs He'll turn 31 during ST

Vic Sage wrote: i guess i haven't been paying attention, because i don't know what Wilson does that is so irritating. Maybe the fact that both Lady Gaga & Madonna think he's a publicity whore.

Like I said earlier, the first one was more than a bit too sloppy to be tabbed as "excellent" even if the back and forth nature of it made it interesting at times (particularly early on). By the time I turned on the second game it was just as SF was pulling away early in the 4th Q so I suspect I missed most of the good parts.

Yeah, I haven't been a big fan of recent time-shifting movies that I've seen in recent years (Source Code, plus others whose titles I can't think of at the moment) but I did like this one. As RC implied, they seemed to put some thought into the plot and consequences of this one above and beyond just the fact that they were time traveling.

RANKPLAYER30R.A. DICKEY29DAVID WRIGHT28JONATHON NIESE27IKE DAVIS26DANIEL MURPHY25SCOTT HAIRSTON24RUBEN TEJADA23JOHAN SANTANA22BOBBY PARNELL21LUCAS DUDA20MATT HARVEY19DILLON GEE18CHRIS YOUNG17JON RAUCH16KIRK NIEUWENHUIS15MIKE BAXTER14ANDRES TORRES13JORDANY VALDESPIN12RONNY CEDENO11JOSH THOLE10TIM BYRDAK9JUSTIN TURNER8RAMON RAMIREZ7JEREMY HEFNER6FRANK FRANCISCO5JOSH EDGIN4MANNY ACOSTA3MIKE PELFREY2OMAR QUINTANILLA1JASON BAY

Yup, I think they kicked it off about a minute after I posted. I think they actually have a specific time (20 minutes?) that they will delay a game in order to try and avoid the dreaded TV overlap, but if the early game is still dragging on past that point then they'll go ahead regardless. First game was long as hell even before they reached OT (and then a 2nd OT) and was sloppy all over the place to boot, but when it wasn't being delayed for penalties, replays, time-outs, and ref conferences, it had its moments.

So how long is the league prepared to hold up the start of the 2nd game while the first one heads into its 4th hour? At least it's only San Francisco where it's not going to be ice cold for the fans, but that's merely a fortunate happenstance. It could just as easily be a cold weather site and they're already 20+ minutes past the scheduled kick-off time.

...

Ashie62 wrote: Upton...high risk/high reward. and throw in ... high price. A bushel full of prospects just for the privilege of then paying him $38 million over the next three seasons. On the other hand, you'll be getting a very talented player who was once a #1 overall draft pick (and who David Wright used to beat up) for his age 25 through 27 seasons.

Yeah, that package the Mariners were offering sounded pretty hefty. Several prospects who were not just highly-rated but also already at AA or higher. Maybe the Ms are lucky Upton turned it down (he has partial N-T protection). Upton's OPS+ numbers have done an off-year/on-year thing. 107 OPS+ in his first full season jumped to 129 in 2009, but that was followed by 110, then 141, and then 107 last year. His XBHs, for instance, fell from 75 in 2011 to just 45 in 2012. And then there are the H/R splits: His overall .278/.357/.475 line breaks out to .307/.389/.548 while in the desert, but just .250/.325/.406 away from it

Even NATIONAL LAMPOON chimed in with a warning around that same era so it's tough to claim we weren't aware.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I liked the dual/triple/quadruple time-travel thing they had going on ... The movie title works in a double/triple/quadruple way too.

That's been the problem with this whole process of fans/media/whoever trying to separate who did with who didn't; folks tend to pick guys who (either way) reinforce their own predetermined views. A large chunk of the reason the Yanx re-signed ARod to the size and the length of the contract they did was that everyone knew he was clean and therefore was the perfect person to re-take the career HR record from that cad Bonds and rightfully return it to one of the good guys (and, for Yanqui fans, bring the record back to the land of pinstripes where it belongs). But, of course, that fantasy lasted about a year before Centaur-boy's name got leaked and so parts of America then turned their lonely eyes to Pujols to play the part of the next white knight, as if we know anymore about him than we know about anyone else in MLB. We have no proof that Jeter did anything but we have no proof otherwise either. Those writers and fans who claim to KNOW Jeter to be clean are that way because they WANT Jeter to be clean.

The NY Post's Kevin Kernan chips in with the first of the seemingly obligatory '4P' articles of the year: the Positive Prospect Player Profile This one naturally is on catcher Travis D'arnaud. And get this, both his dad and his HS coach say great things about him! Bonus points to whichever of you web-searching hounds comes up first with photos of his HS-age volleyball playing sister.

Just thought of an example that's similar to the Bagwell/McGwire one (and maybe to the Piazza/Carter). Nolan Ryan was, and may still be, second only to Seaver in pct of HoF votes. And, while I certainly don't have a problem with Ryan in Cooperstown, he was hardly the 2nd best pitcher of his or any other era. But those spectacular high-lights which punctuated his career at various moments clearly resonated with enough voters to where his vote pct outdid that of many superior hurlers. Then, in the fan-oriented vote for all-century team, Ryan again found himself ahead of better pitchers and arguably shouldn't have been a member of that "team" at all.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Nobody elected to the Hall of Fame. He was a rightfielder, I believe. Well, a lot of the writers obviously voted for 'I don't give a darn'. He, of course, was the short-stop.

metsmarathon wrote: well, you'd take bagwell because he was far better a player than mcgwire. Right, but I think (absent the whole elephant in the room/steroid issue) the initial reaction from a lot of folks--casual fans fer sure but some full-time ones as well--would be to think of McGwire as an HoFer well before the lower-profile Bagwell. When the overall game is taken into account (what WAR and such attempt to do) Bagwell starts to look better and THAT, rather than "magic" numbers/thresholds or peak-season records, should be the better judge of HoF-ness.